Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Which era in American history would you choose to live in?

Did so, and walked 100 yds to the outhouse till I was 12. You are correct.

Dad was born in 1930. But would have been quite happy 100 years earlier.

Now that is a good one.

Justice has always been available to those who could afford it. It was beneficial to not stand out from the crowd. And to not step out of place.

Depending on your circumstances, any time, period or place could be a good time for you. Being born an Untouchable in India in our era, for instance, may not be so good...very bad in fact.

Like some others here I prob’ly woulda been dead age 2,?and certainly at age 12, of appendicitis back then. Colonials days, life expectancy was about 35, but life expectancy was the average age at death and when 1/3 to 1/2 was dead by age 12 that drove the average way down.

Teenage survival rate was high back then, TB started kicking in among those susceptible in their 20’s.

IRRC childbirth was a leading cause of death for women such that male average life expectancy was higher, but if a women made it past age 50 she would probably outlive men, much as older women still do today. Testosterone shortens life, then and now.

People didn’t get old faster back then, they died before they GOT old. But pretty much if you made it past age 12 you had about half as much chance of living to an old age as we do today.

And the familiar age-related ailments still killed old folks back then same as they do now, there was just less of ‘em is all.

Yeah you noticed that too. Strong faith in Christ flowed down from my my Great grandma and grandpa Boyd, to my grandma and grandpa Henderson, then to my own mom and dad. The whole "Henderson clan" is church of Christ, over 300 aunts, uncles, cousins, children, grand children and great grand children. We all had great role models with our grandparents and parents. Essie and jack ended up with nine children (only one boy) My mom was the second born, but the first to go with breast cancer, age 46. We were truly blessed by the faith of our great grandparents and the hardships they endured, all the time giving thanks to God from whom all blessings flow. And the Democrats just can't figure that out.


Jack Henderson and Essie (Boyd) Henderson circa 1950s


Jack Henderson - U.S. Navy WW1


My mom and dad - Dick Robins and Madalyn (Henderson) Robins circa 1945


My mom and dad the day I was born 1952

Adventurers had a VERY short life expectancy. Indians, wolves, hypothermia, frostbite, claimjumpers, trap robbers, infection, smallpox, influenza, tainted food, etc, etc.

Man is a predator, often the easiest prey is other humans. It is only through education that we curb that innate tendency.

A sprained ankle, or broken leg, or sick/injured pack animal, was a lethal calamity.

Romantic is not synonymous with wise.

I could have continued living on the 20 acres, I bought from my folks in 1983, with no plumbing in the house and an outhouse. The garden would feed a family of ten. There were fruit trees and berry vines of every persuasion with enough pasture to feed beef for several families.

Possibly romantic, but it was a lot smarter to keep a job, put a pump in the well, and showers and toilets in the house.

Every era has it good and not so good points, but I see it not so much in terms of hardships but as a tradeoff between fewer conveniences and security offset by greater freedom

Folks are always happy to get conveniences - indoor plumbing, washing machines and dryers, faster trains, planes, air conditioning; but those who lived without also lived without income tax, without having your every move tracked by cameras everywhere, being able to order firearms and have them delivered to your door plus a thousand other freedoms we've lost that someone in 1850 or 1910 or 1950 took for granted, just as we take flush toilets for granted. Add a much lower population meaning much more land to hunt, smaller towns, way fewer "No Trespassing" signs, no urban sprawl unless you wanted to live in a big city. 12 year old kids riding their bikes to the edge of town to go hunting with their .22 with no one giving them a second look.

In the 50's as a 6-8 year old kid I had to have some cavities filled - no novocaine, the dentist's assistant tickled me while he drilled into the nerve. Didn't help much as I recall. But that was over in 15 minutes, then the rest of the time I didn't worry about school shootings and rode my bike all over town with the only injunction being to be home in time for dinner. In 1970 riding my motorcycle through the middle of Ft. Lauderdale with a shotgun strapped to the back to go duck hunting, no one sicced the police on me. Watching All in the Family, Blazing Saddles and a hundred other shows and movies that would never be made today.

Trade-offs. Pick what's most important - convenience and security or freedom. I'd give up a bit more of the former in favor of the latter.



Just don't ask me what era of the Dark or Middle Ages I'd like to live in, that answer would be none of them...

"None of my ancestors ever had Alzheimer's!"

"None of your ancestors ever saw 65 years of age!"

This is a fascinating thread. Always thought I should've been born in the expansion era of the United States.

Had a nightmare a while back and talked in my sleep which woke up the wife. She said I mumbled "Help" several times.

My bedside reading of late has been "That Dark and Bloody River" by Allen Eckert.

I was dreaming of a bloody Shawnee ambush along the Ohio. Tomahawks and scalps.

I cut back on the whiskey after that.

Yes I am a pirate, 200 years too late. The cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder, I'm an over-40 victim of fate.....

in a bad way

for myself, 1800-1840, or 1900 onward

when Granny was asked, she said "I don't care, but I don't want to go back before they got electric."

I think she got electric (REA generator) in the 30's

I came North to find some of the last wild places in the USA

It was everything I’d dreamed for.

When I grew up late 60’s to mid 70’s,

That’s living right my friend, well done!

All the posts about the old days being too tough, boring, or that 'some ear infection would have killed you at 6', are precisely the reason a lot of us wish we could go back. To get away from soft suburbanites.

humans are built to handle advertisy and hardwired to find ways to even thrive or enjoy life during it. Your great grandad didnt need a mistress, tattoos and gut hanging over his belt to prove he enjoyed life.

Any day he made it home, no wars with germany brewing, all the kids tucked in bed, was a good day.Sitting there on the porch holding just his wifes hand was all the heaven he needed.

We eat until our pants split, screw anything that moves and still need a doctor prescribing drugs to be happy.

Which 'Era' ???
- - - - - - - - - -

The Final One! And it's looks like I might be right.
Don't say I didn't warn you ...

Soft suburbanite? LOL

This soft suburbanite has hand stacked 1000 bales of hay in a day on many, many occasions.

From the seventh grade on I and my younger brother and sister were up at five each morning to feed and milk cows before school and repeated chores after school before bed.

Chores were done in a three walled barn, whether the temp was 110 degrees or 20 below zero. Critters get fed, milked, and watered, regardless of weather conditions.

About half of you guys pining for previous centuries would have never seen your third birthday had you been born then. No vaccines, no antibiotics, typhus, pneumonia, small pox, measles, scarlet fever, syphilis, gonorrhea, polio, tetanus, strep, rabies, staff, diptheria, mumps, pertussis, famines, lethal bacterial infections in any wound. Had you made it to adulthood, you could have watched children die in infancy, and wives die in childbirth. Yes, real romantic!

How about Ireland in 1847? Would that not be a fine time to be born, or better yet, a fine time to try and keep your children alive?

Or Russia, anytime between 1910 and 1970?

Why do you think it took 100,000 years for human population to reach the first billion, but only a few decades after the invention of vaccine, antibiotics, and mechanized farming to hit eight billion?

I have said it many times. Compared to our ancestors of 100 years ago, or 1000 years, or 5000 years, we have achieved heaven on this Earth.

Grins, I have a friend of Norwegian ancestry. You know where this is going!

Yes, he thinks he belongs at the oar of a Viking raider with a shield and battle ax at hand ready to rape and pillage.

Personally, I do not see the attraction of brutalizing the weak and helpless, let alone raping young women or girls and leaving bastards all over a foreign nation.