The Year is 1904 (100 years ago)
(Excerpts from Merle Childress, 570^th Ball Gunner)

* The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
* Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
* Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
* A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
* There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
* The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
*Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.
* The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour. The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
* More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.
* Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."
* Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
* Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
* The leading cause of death in the U.S. was pneumonia and influenza.
* The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30.
* Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.
* Two of 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated high school.
* Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
* Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic.
* There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.