Public Recreation

The good old days never were that good, except for a lucky few. To lift the veil of nostalgia from what actually existed reveals not only a harsh and uncertain life for most, but a public morality not much different from our own except in degree of permissiveness.

The penny presses of the American Victorian era filled their pages with scandal. The working class had cheap, bawdy entertainment in vaudeville houses and the even more raucous concert saloons.

The sinful pleasures of the wealthy sometimes revealed themselves as they do today, but otherwise the rich publicly showed their mettle by attending operas, plays, balls, and private dinners, again just as they do today.

The Industrial Revolution in nineteenth century America shifted population from villages and towns to cities, where paid work was to be found. Miserable as they often were, non-farm wages rose during the last quarter of the century while the cost of living actually declined. Average working hours dropped slightly. It was not unusual for workers to have Saturday afternoon off as well as all day Sunday. The idea of summer vacations was taking hold beyond the families of the rich.

The poverty of the teeming masses in slums and tenements has been well documented.

Less has been said about public recreation. For those crowded into the dwellings lining the mean streets of cities, going out anywhere made life endurable.

Early in this century, electric lamps lit all night on street corners and multi-colored lights illuminating stores and cafes brightened and helped make safe the streets that had been kept in shadow by dim gas lighting.

The pleasure of an evening stroll, no longer much in evidence in American middle and upper class neighborhoods, can still be seen in poorer sections of our cities and especially in Third World cities, where life lacks the amenities of the average American home, and where escape from the humdrum, overcrowding, or loneliness can be found only beyond the front door.

The lighting of the lights signaled that the workday was over and the time for play at hand...