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sidereal

@autolycos @RickiTarr Isn't this partly because of high historical infant mortality tho? Pre-agricultural people who made it past 5 had a decent chance of living to their 60's or 80's. But a looot of people didn't make it past five, thus bringing the average age down to into the 30's.

8 Dec 2023 at 17:52 | Wall-to-wall | Open on kolektiva.social
8 comments
Darth Osler

@sidereal @RickiTarr partly

But they also didn't have antibiotics, sanitary sewers, or building codes

8 Dec 2023 at 18:02 | Open on med-mastodon.com
Patty Kimura

@sidereal @autolycos @RickiTarr Life was physical and hard. My grandmother lived to 105. She survived childhood famine in the 1880s. She survived 11 or 12 pregnancies with 7 live births while working as a washerwoman. A simple cut could kill you by infection. She lived to 105 by seeing a doctor, getting the polio & small pox vax, taking antibiotics, eating simply, never drinking or smoking, and going to bed tired at night. Everyone who yearns for life in the past never imagines starvation, gangrene, or being a washerwoman.

@sidereal @autolycos @RickiTarr Life was physical and hard. My grandmother lived to 105. She survived childhood famine in the 1880s. She survived 11 or 12 pregnancies with 7 live births while working as a washerwoman. A simple cut could kill you by infection. She lived to 105 by seeing a doctor, getting the polio & small pox vax, taking antibiotics, eating simply, never drinking or smoking, and going to bed tired at night. Everyone who yearns for life in the past never imagines starvation, gangrene,...

8 Dec 2023 at 18:41 | Open on beige.party
Darth Osler

@pattykimura @sidereal @RickiTarr my great great aunt who lived to 102 swore by poker, 3 camel unfiltereds, and 2 shots of whiskey a day

🤷

8 Dec 2023 at 19:01 | Open on med-mastodon.com
Maria Liv ✏️

@pattykimura @RickiTarr My grandmother was a washerwoman as well. She took her bike to work every day (30 miles one way), ate some cucumber and a tomato for lunch, and raised two children on her own (my dad and aunt), because my dads father died in jail after trying to murder the whole family. I am not kidding.

She could retire early though with a good pension efter her husbands death, and started trading stocks. She became a millionaire before she died at 98, but never really bought anything.

8 Dec 2023 at 19:15 | Open on toot.io
Patty Kimura

@MariaLiv @RickiTarr I think of her collecting firewood to boil clothes, scrub and wring by hand, and lift and hang pounds and pounds of other peoples' wet clothes on a line. She was a tiny woman. She ate slowly and ate every crumb. She had seen others die by starvation and never took any food for granted. She never romanticized the past.

8 Dec 2023 at 19:42 | Open on beige.party
Maria Liv ✏️

@pattykimura @RickiTarr Yeah, exactly. Poor woman. 💔

So many women and men had it like that, or worse. Working in coal mines, living in terrible conditions, and all the people who were forced to be slaves, etc etc.

I can't imagine going back, even in my own life! I've had so many dog year's, and I am finally getting on my feet. And although the future might not look to bright in some areas, I wouldn't want to go back. (Except for changing the climate politics).

8 Dec 2023 at 20:03 | Open on toot.io
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