Since they had typewriters, I could exist happily. Elsewhere Rodin was piddling with “The Thinker”!
And if you were definitely not happy with your lot in life and just wanted to disappear in a drug-induced haze, you could get laudanum, morphine, opium, and cocaine. And drugs like that were legal. Within four years heroine would be perfected by Bayer and would be a major over-the-counter pain killer. They would follow up on the success of heroin by introducing aspirin to the world.
If you had money… isn’t that always the way? If you had money you could definitely soften the blow.
Houses and hotels were being built with indoor bathrooms. Within seventeen years Thomas Crapper would patent his flush toilet. If you couldn’t wait, many homes were being blessed with water-closets. If you could afford one, no problem. In fact, toilet paper on a roll was the new “in thing” so all was not lost! For women, well, let’s just say within a few years Dr. Johnson would invent a pad based on traditional designs (if you get my drift) only his would be disposable. He would become quite wealthy. If you were lucky enough to invest in stock options with Dr. Johnson, well, I think you can guess the rest.
While we are discussing hygiene, Mumm would be the first commercial deodorant, but would not be on the market for another seven years. You could bathe with Ivory soap. For those who were concerned about it, and didn’t want to splash perfume all over their body, you could use alum to prevent underarm odor. You could bathe anytime you wanted with Roger Et Gallet soap. There was Vaseline and Colgate toothpaste. The first condoms would reach the market in two years.
Let’s just say the people the Earps and even John Behan associated with were not the unwashed masses. Granted if they were out in a posse for weeks at a time, they would absolutely reek, but would head for a bath the moment they were in a position to get one. Okay, if you were at a dinner party or at a function with them, they wouldn’t smell like B.O.
In other words, you would not be dumped into a completely alien civilization. If you discounted the radio, movies, phonograph, and a few other inventions it would be much the same world your parents and grandparents grew up in.
If you are a baby boomer like I am, you would find kindred souls there in Tombstone. You also would find very few senior citizens. Generations are cyclical in mindset. The generation that gave us Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, John Behan, and Bat Masterson was called the Missionary Generation. They are of the same mindset as us baby boomers. To put it bluntly, they were the first generation to be blessed or cursed with parents who were able to say, “I want my kids to have it easier when they grow up.” And they did. They were not pinned down by basic survival or war. For the most part they had the luxury of choosing their own fates, of writing their own ticket, of doing their own thing. And they did.
Article comments
1 - Che
You had me sold at "tequila"
2 - diana hartman
I am pleased to tell you this article is being featured in the Culture Focus today, October 10th.
Diana Hartman
Culture Editor
3 - -E
Congrats! This article has been selected as one of this week’s Editors’ Picks.
4 - RJ Elliott
Very informative! Thanks for the post! :-)