Little waists?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Beyond the Sidewalks : One Thread

Sorry folks but I'm on a roll. Must be the ca..ca..caffeine

Okay, let's see how much trouble I can get into with this question.

I was looking through my old high school album and some old photos taken back in the 20's and 30's and I noticed something that has me curious. My high school album isn't that old, incidentally.

I noticed that all the women had waists. Little waists. And very few of the men were overweight. Now, don't go telling me that they had the little waist because of corsets or some such because I had my arms around a few of those waists (womens) and I'm pretty sure I know what was there. Just a thin layer of material between my hand and my dream. Hey, they even looked good in bathing suits.

Now, I don't want to blame all the ills of society on fast food places but we didn't have all the fast food chains back then. We had the drive in but normally, only went there on Friday or Sat. night. The rest of the meals were eaten at home. Of course, our allowance at the time wasn't equal to a months salary either.

If you only lived a mile or two from the school, you walked. No bus and momma didn't drive you. One car family. Some of the kids that were suppose to ride the bus walked anyway.

I don't ever remember having a hamburger or pizza, milk shake or Coke for lunch at the school cafeteria. And there weren't any Coke machines on campus. In fact, I don't think soft drinks were even allowed on campus. Of course, the soft drink companies weren't paying the school for putting them in either.

Most of the kids didn't have cars either. It was a big deal if I got to drive the family car to school. Nor, were there any high priced sports cars parked in the school parking lot. Most of the cars belonged to the parents and not the students so when they got home, it was back to walking. Back then we weren't into little bitty sports cars. The guy that had his own, big Buick was king with the girls and the guy that had the little car was farther down on their list. Size really did matter.

Most people lived in the city so walking to the store or movie was just down the street but, walking or bicycling was the main mode of transportation.

However, having said all that, I think I've finally come up with the real reason that things have changed in the weight department. It's so simple, I'm surprised that no one has come up with it before. The girls were harder to catch back then. They ran faster and we had to run harder to catch them! Sometimes the simplest answer is the best.

Got to go reweb some lawn chairs so we'll have something to sit on tomorrow at the Chili cook off. My fat butts done fell through all of ours. Double webbing these!

Wildman, (problem solver)

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2003

Answers

Hey Wildman you been looking at my FAT butt!!!LOL I total agree we don't get enough exercise. I know I don't. The nearest store is about 5 miles down the road and that's a conv. store. And I ain't about to start walking to get beer for the hubby!!!Nearest mall is 15 miles away.

I think it was easier when everone mostly lived downtown and everything was easier to get to or if you lived out of the city it was manual labor like farming. Now everyone lives out side of town and you have to drive to the nearest anything!!!

Sandy

-- Anonymous, October 05, 2003


Sandy, I wasn't looking at your FAT butt. It might have looked that way because both of my eyes don't look in the same direction at the same time! One eye COULD have been on your waist and the other on your butt. That's my story anyway.

Even most of the young girls, those who aren't overweight, don't have a waist anymore. Most of the time you can't tell where the waist ends and the hips begin. It use to be, what are your measurements and they'd say 38-24-36. In my dreams. Now, they say 36-36-36. What happened? Did we have a gene experiment that went awry? I know Twiggy was a fad but didn't anyone tell the current generation that the fad was over?

Wildman, (Looking for waists)

-- Anonymous, October 06, 2003


LOL LOL LOL Wildman comparing my waist to my butt I have a much smaller waist!!!! LOL I really wished I could find a answer to getting skinnier in a fast kind of way but it looks like I gotta start excerizing more ans eating better!!!

Sandy

-- Anonymous, October 07, 2003


Wildman, I’m thinking that we can’t put all the blame for our errr… um… panoramic posterior views on fast food. I think you had a point about those girls running faster back then. The sad fact is, to most people nowadays, exercise is something you have to PAY to do! I keep telling Hubs that there is something just really strange with paying fees to go pump iron in the gym when you could be home stacking fire wood and getting a much better workout for free!! And producing something useful while you’re at it! Back in the days of women-with-waistlines; most folks did actual physical labor at their jobs - whether they worked inside or outside of the home - and that helped keep them in shape. Folks used to work hard, and they used to play hard too - I remember softball games with at least three generations represented - and if Great Uncle Ray got a hit, and you were dumb enough to be playing first base, you by gosh got out of the way and let him take the base ‘cause he’d run over you if you didn’t! Ice skating, berry picking, mushroom hunting, pitching horse shoes - heck, even going to a movie was exercise ‘cause we usually went to the drive in and you’d have to walk all the way to the concession stand to pee, or the playground at intermission….

I know that I was in pretty good physical condition when I worked at the printing plant - a very physical job with repetitive lifting of 40# bundles of books and squatting to put them on skids; moving skids in and out, bending and stretching to web up the press. Then, I weighed 112# and had enough energy to run up 4 sets of steps to the top of the press in 120* heat without getting short of breath. Compare that to now, where my job requires much less movement - 150# and walking up the 66 steps from the ground floor to 3 requires a rest stop half way up!

I was thinking about this a lot the other day as I was running laundry through the old wringer washer. How much exercise do you suppose I get from lifting those wet, heavy clothes up out of the washer and rinse tub to feed them through the wringer; and then bending and stretching to hang them on the line - and then stretching and bending to take them back down; followed by standing on my feet for an hour or so a week to do the ironing? Not much, perhaps; but it’s more than the person gets who lifts spin dried clothing from washer to dryer and dryer to basket! And way more than those who send the laundry out to be done.

Now, I’m not quite crazy enough to want to ride a bike the 27 miles to work; nor do I want to beat my laundry on rocks down at the creek, or cut firewood with an axe; but I do think that many of us would be in better shape if we’d get out and do a few things “the hard way”. What do you all think? What are some ways that you could get “physical” in your day to day routine? C'mon, let’s see how many different things we can come up with!

I offer up the wringer washer and hanging clothes on the line - Next?!

-- Anonymous, October 08, 2003


I had one heck of a workout yesterday grinding wheat with a hand grinder for about an hour. I finally decided to start using the Y2K stash and equipment. I told my husband I felt like the guys rowing along with Ben Hur towards the end. It has a long crank handle and I was standing sideways cranking/rowing with both hands if you can picture that! I got about 5 lbs. of flour out of it though. I was happy.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2003


That's a good one, Denise! Do you remember Joel from the old Countryside forum? He had somehow hooked at old exercise bike up to his grinder. Unc got one of those bikes in a pile of stuff at a sale here a while back - wonder if we could maybe hook it up to the corn sheller, when we use it to take the husks off black walnuts? I keep threatening Hubs that I'm going to hook a bike up to a battery/charger and that he'll have to pedal to watch TV! Hey, maybe that's a way we can get kids to exercise - "Sorry, you've got to run on this treadmill for 2 hours to power your nintendo and TV for 15 minutes"!

(I live in fear that someone is going to write in that they brush their teeth manually insead of using a battery powered toothbrush!)

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2003


Of course, this wasn't meant to be a serious post but evidently it turned out that way and that's okay. I was originally looking for a "hee, hee", or a groan! Either one would have been acceptable; just something to let me know someone read the post.

I mentioned to a friend who works at (gulp)Wal Mart, that they did such a bad job in the garden department that I needed to apply for a job. She said if I worked in the garden department that I'd work my ass off, much easier in some of the other departments. She's got no waist, by the way. That got me to thinking (here we go again, don't you just hate it?). Just where in time did we decide that we weren't suppose to work our ass off when we worked for someone? Now, we've got to have an hours lunch, 15 minute breaks every hour, every other Thursday off, limo to work, limo home, no lifting over 50 pounds, morning paper, coffee machine, motorized vehicles to get around on, air conditioned spaces, time out to watch the Cowboys, etc. If you did a time and motion study of most employees, you'd probably find that most of them don't work 4 hours a day yet they want fringe bennies, promotions, better pay, more time off. And they not only want it, they EXPECT it! Those of you who don't get those benefits in your job know people who do.

Polly, you're right about the wringer washer. When I lived on the farm with my grandparents, wash day meant all day! Build a fire under the pot in the yard, scrub clothes on the rub board, rinse, twist to ring out (that's got to be wrong) and hang up. It was better exercise than going to the gym. She had no modern, time saving appliances, no refrigeration. Then, they went from cooking breakfast, to clean up and then start lunch. Then clean up and start supper. She couldn't have eaten enough junk food, if they'd had it, to get overweight. Just taking care of the kitchen and the meals burnt off more calories that you could eat in a day! That didn't count the rest of the things that needed to be done. After moving to town, she got a wringer washer. Big change in wash day. Now, people are exhausted if they do four loads of clothes in a modern washer.

Denise, just think, you're a step up from grinding with a stone! Bet those ladies could have arm wrestled anyone and won!

Polly, "ironing"?

My brother in law has one of those little 4 wheel ATV's that I covet and will probably get someday. He told me not to get one because, on the farm, they would make you lazy. Much easier to jump on it and run to the barn than to walk. I'm so lazy now that if I get any lazier, I won't be able to use it.

Wildman, (getting lazier)

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2003


Wildman, Yup; ironing. I like cotton, and so does Pop, so there are shirts and dresses to iron most weeks. I’d like to find me one of those sprinkler tops that fits on a pop bottle to dampen the clothes down - but then I’d have to find a pop bottle to put it on! Maybe I’d better just stick with my little spray bottle.

Since Pop got his golf cart to enable him to get around the farm, I’ve caught myself using it when I don’t really need to - he always wants me to load the tubs of wet clothes on it to drive them to the other side of the yard to the clothesline. Sometimes I do - if I’ve got a heavy load; but mostly I remind myself I need the exercise and tote them around by hand. Since Pop can only walk a couple of hundred feet (on a good day), we use the cart when we go around the farm together. I wouldn’t mind to have a mule (the mechanical kind) but I don’t want the kind of ATV that I have to straddle - I worry about my dress tail getting caught in something. Now, if I had your hills and hollers to contend with, I’d undoubtedly have me some type of motorized vehicle to get around on! Mostly, I just use a little red cart on the back of the lawn mower, or the pickup or farm truck to haul stuff. For just getting around the farm, I walk if I’m not with Pop. To take straw bales out to the garden or the chicken house, I stand them on end on a hand truck and wheel them to where I want them. So I’m not a total Luddite - just a Neo-Luddite, I guess!

Although I suspect you’ve got your tongue firmly in cheek, I must agree with you about people not working hard these days. I’ve been known to greet low census days with a sigh of relief myself, but at least I’m willing to work hard when the job requires it. Lunch break? Oh sure, I get one. It says so right there in the Policy and Procedure manual. I get 2 - 15 minute breaks, and a 30 minute unpaid lunch break in every 12 ½ hour shift. Unless the work load doesn’t allow it. If a patient needs care, I don’t go to lunch until the care is done - I can lose my license for doing so. If you’re taking care of 12 patients, that’s 5 minutes per patient per hour for patient care. Patient care is rarely done. If I don’t get at least 20 uninterrupted minutes for my lunch, I can charge for it. I usually end up charging for it. I almost always eat my lunch at the nurse’s station, so that I can answer the phone if the other nurse is busy. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve had a patient or family be snarky about my sitting down and eating. I’ve gone the full 12 ½ hours without peeing before, because I simply didn’t have enough time to walk down to the staff bathroom to go. Of course, when you don’t have time to stop for a pee, you don’t have time to stop for a drink either, so then you don’t have to pee so much - so it all works out. Eyeball roll. I shouldn’t really complain - I do get to take those vacation days. Of course, I work most of the holidays, so some of my vacation days are considered compensation for working the holidays - straight time pay for holidays, you know.

I’m ranting, aren’t I?

It just gets to me sometimes.

So many of Jes’s friends who are going to college are majoring in “Business”. I ask them - “So, what do you do with a business degree?” “You manage” they reply. “Manage what?” sez I; to which they reply “Other people.” Hmmm. So, where do we find all these people to manage? My boss keeps pushing me to go on for my BSN - then I could be a Nursing House Officer (Supervisor) or Patient Care Leader (nurse-manager) or Department Manager. I tell him that I like to work with people, not paper. I think we’ve already got quite enough people out there who want to tell other people what to do instead of getting their hands dirty themselves.

My husband hates farm work - “I don’t want to be a dirt farmer” he says. If he’s going to farm, he says, he wants to sit in a big truck and drive around and tell other people what to do. Pardon me while I stop to roll my eyeballs around again. I just don’t understand that. Of course, he also wants Mother Nature to bend to his desires; rather than working with her to produce something - for instance, not wanting to bale hay because he wants to go to a race, when the hay needs cutting for highest protein value and the forcast for the next three days is sunny and dry. I guess some folks just don’t got it in them, ya think?

Okay, rant over. No really. It’s over. I’m going to go out on the porch steps now and shell out some dry beans. By hand. In the sunshine and nice breeze. Looking at the trees with all their pretty red, orange and gold leaves. With a little red dog at my feet, chickens scratching in the yard, walnuts landing in the side yard with a muffled thump, coffee cup close at hand. I think that would make for a lot nicer afternoon than dragging my butt to the car and driving to Wal-Mart to buy a bag of beans, don’t you?

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2003


Yes, Polly I do indeed. It was so beautiful again today, almost made my teary to look at all the gorgeous leaves on the ground. I had to take my camera out this morning and take some shots of the leaves sprinkled gently on the little spacey-lookin Honda Insight, with the morning sun streaking through the trees. Leaves were also arranged on the deck around and on top of our adorable green wrought iron table and chairs, just like someone had posed them there. I can see the pond clearly again; its nice to know its there, and listen to the watefowl all summer, but we can hardly see a thing with all the trees in leaf. Now the view is clear, and it is lovely.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2003

Pollllllllllyyyyyyy . . . . http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/prdSell.asp?ProdGroupID=77

You might want to sit down though before you read the price! And I don't think that includes shipping! Dang, I could find a bottle somewhere, why don't they just sell the little top? Some soft drinks still come in glass bottles (if you shop at places like Whole Foods), or you could use a beer bottle couldn't you?

Mom had one, and she had a pop bottle that she had painted cream, then painted a little design on it (looked rather Pennsylvanian Dutch). We would sprinkle the clothes and roll them up, put in the wash basket, then iron all the stuff. I must admit, although I thought the bottle was attractive, we LOVED the plastic spray bottle she got as soon as they came out with such a thing.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2003



Ouch!! That is a bit high; especially for a plastic sprinkler head. For a ceramic one, I might be willing to pay that much, but not for plastic. Yeah, I think I could probably find a bottle around here somewhere. Thanks for finding that for me - I didn't even think to look online - du-uh!!

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2003

I just had this minor altercation with my mom about ironing. She is so busy moaning about all the work she has to do taking care of my dad, but then she does silly things like ironing! I did a whole basket of her ironing one afternoon, but it was a total waste of time. She has a dryer for cryin out loud; there is rarely need for ironing any of those things if they are taken out of the dryer right away, and I explained to her how to throw in a wet washcloth and run them again for a few minutes if they aren't taken out in time. sheesh. Ironing? I hardly use my iron! Not that it's such a bad job, just unnecessary if one has a dryer. It was a weird nostalgic thing to do it though. When I was a teenager I did all the family's ironing; felt weird doing my parents clothes again!

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2003

Polly, we go to a lot of garage sales here in the foot hills of the Ozarks and it's amazing what we can fine. If we find a little sprinkler head, they'll probably be just about giving it away. We're totally floored at the low prices we pay for some of the things we pick up. Sandy has picked up brand new shoes for .25 or .50 cents. Did get burnt on a new pair from Brazil though. First time she wore them, the soles disintegrated! Threw that quarter away.

We also just got a storage shed at a small flea market. We're hoping to get rid of some of the stuff that's cluttering up my shop and our storage area before it gets ruined.

E.M. I've noticed that when we tell parents, or even folks older than we are something, that it just doesn't seem to stick. I don't know if they don't want to be shown a new way or just don't comprehend. Or maybe it confuses them? Use to tell my grandmother things and she'd just smile and say "O.K. Hon" and continue doing it the way she always did while you were still there watching. Can they be thinking they're doing what you suggested? Don't know, can't say, don't like it but things happen that way.

Wildman, (I hid Sandy's iron, skillet's bad enough)

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2003


Moderation questions? read the FAQ