I saw this on the show '60 Minutes' last Sunday and was absolutely mesmerized! It's an old 35mm film shot during a slow cable car trip down San Francisco's Market Street, supposedly just 4 days before the Big Quake of 1906.
If you look at the cars that are driving around the cable car, you'll see that they were obviously used as puff pieces for show because the same couple of license plate numbers show up over and over. One even belonged to the filmmaker. Cars were still a novelty back then, so there weren't that many around and only the wealthy could afford them.
http://www.flixxy.com/san-francisco-190 ... ootage.htm
Now here's a side by side comparison with another documentary film made just after the quake.
If you were to take the same trip today down Market Street, the only original building left standing is the Ferry Street Building at the end of Market Street. Most everything else burned or fell down in the quake.
Snippet of the Past
People of the 1930's-1970's
No matter what our kids and the new generation think
about us, we are awesome!!!
OUR Lives are LIVING PROOF !!!
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank
while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't
get tested for diabetes.
Then, after that trauma, we were
put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or
cabinets, and, when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets, on our heads.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no
booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no
brakes..
Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special
treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one
actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid
made with real white sugar. And we weren't overweight.
WHY?
Because we were always outside playing....that's why!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were
back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day.
And, we were OKAY..
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Play Stations, Nintendo and X-boxes. There were
no video games, no 150 channels on cable,
no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from those accidents. We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, and no one would call child services to report abuse.
We ate worms, and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks
and tennis balls, and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or
rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers,
problem solvers, and inventors ever.
The past 50 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new
ideas..
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how
to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of those born
between 1925-1970, CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up
as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our
lives for our own good.
While you are at it, share it with your kids, so they will know how brave
and lucky their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?
The quote of the month by Jay Leno:
\"With hurricanes, tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding,
severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and
with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a
good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?\"
about us, we are awesome!!!
OUR Lives are LIVING PROOF !!!
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank
while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't
get tested for diabetes.
Then, after that trauma, we were
put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or
cabinets, and, when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets, on our heads.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no
booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no
brakes..
Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special
treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one
actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid
made with real white sugar. And we weren't overweight.
WHY?
Because we were always outside playing....that's why!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were
back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day.
And, we were OKAY..
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Play Stations, Nintendo and X-boxes. There were
no video games, no 150 channels on cable,
no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from those accidents. We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, and no one would call child services to report abuse.
We ate worms, and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks
and tennis balls, and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or
rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers,
problem solvers, and inventors ever.
The past 50 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new
ideas..
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how
to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of those born
between 1925-1970, CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up
as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our
lives for our own good.
While you are at it, share it with your kids, so they will know how brave
and lucky their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?
The quote of the month by Jay Leno:
\"With hurricanes, tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding,
severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and
with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a
good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?\"
It's never good to wake up in the shrubs naked, you either got way too drunk, or your azz is a werewolf.
It's not exactly surprising that these sorts of people came out of that period okay... after all, if they didn't, they wouldn't be around to write about it. 
But, more generally, injuries and deaths from such causes were uncommon, but they did occasionally happen, hence why the rules and regulations turned up... seatbelts weren't invented to solve a problem that didn't exist, after all.
I'll let them have their fun though. After all, surviving all those trials must make them at least a little special!
But, more generally, injuries and deaths from such causes were uncommon, but they did occasionally happen, hence why the rules and regulations turned up... seatbelts weren't invented to solve a problem that didn't exist, after all.
I'll let them have their fun though. After all, surviving all those trials must make them at least a little special!
