The Weird and Wacky of the 1910s
- Catherine Moscatt
- Oct 7
- 2 min read
Met with my psychiatrist today. Although most of my manic symptoms have abated I still have a thousand ideas, racing thoughts and elevated mood. So we aren’t out of the woods quite yet. But progress.
Today we are focused on the 1910s in the United States. Weird facts, wacky facts and facts that just prove how different we are now than we used to be.
In the 1910s almost 20% of the American population were illiterate. Only 6% ever graduated from high school. It reminds me of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn where Frances must give up her dream of finishing school to work to earn money for her family.
In 1912 the “unsinkable” Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg. I actually haven’t seen the movie (there’s a story behind that. Our best friend bet my boyfriend he couldn’t go without seeing the movie. He even got him a copy of the movie for his birthday. My boyfriend has absolutely no interest in seeing the movie and honestly I don’t really either. Doesn’t stop me from quoting “I’ll never let go Jack” whenever I can)
In 1912 the Oreo was invented. From the snacks we get, you would think my book club meetings were a tribute to the infamous cookie. I love the vanilla oreos, the chocolate oreos, the birthday cake oreos, and most of all the doublestuffed Oreos. It was sold in Hoboken for 25 cents a pound.
In Illinois, Mrs. Scott Durand thought her cows might produce better milk if they heard music while they were milked. She thought the milk tasted better and that it also made the drinkers more “happy” According to her, ragtime music made the animals restive but that they responded better to classical waltzes.
In 1911, there existed anti-kissing campaign spearheaded by Imogene Rechtin. This was mostly to stop the spread of tuberculosis. Followers even wore buttons that said “Kiss Not” This isn’t so different from the masks people used to wear (and some still wear) after the spread of the Co-vid virus.
Tailor Franz Reichelt designed a “coat parachute” which he intended to use on a test dummy by throwing him off the top of the Eiffel Tower. Even though he had been warned of the flaws in his design he chose to leap off the building himself and killed himself in front of a crowd of onlookers in a horrific fail.
Typhoid Mary actually has a name. She is Mary Mallon and when she was released from her isolation she caused several more outbreaks of typhoid.
Marijuana was legally sold in pharmacies while doctors could prescribe heroin to patients according to Business Insider.
The term “teenager” had not come into fashion yet, according to Business Insider.
The Spanish Flu pandemic was a global and deadly pandemic that hit in 1918 and lasted for several years. The United States lost 675, 000 people to the Spanish Flu. That is more than they lost in World War 1, World War 2, the Vietnam War and the Korean War altogether.
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