My father put together a (vacuum tube) Heathkit tape recorder in the late 1950s and made recordings of my great grandparents (on both sides) in 1959 and 1960. They talked about their lives growing up, how they met, and some of the hardships they endured. They were probably 35-40 years younger than the gentleman in the video, but they also described a time before automobiles, electricity, radio, and telephones were commonplace.<p>I converted those recordings to MP3 about 15 years ago.<p>It's amazing how far we've come in such a short time.
"I would see anywhere from 10 to 20, hardly ever less than 10, sailing vessels down the (Hudson) river. Now I don't see more than one in three months.<p>Very few steamboats. Everyone went to New York then, if they wanted to go in the new style why, they take a steamboat. If they want to go cheap they go on one our river sloops."<p>One of the most incredible things to note here is that this was around the time planes were being invented, the first commercial airplane trip was just made few years earlier, and this a fairly rural interview of an elder so it's sane to think this person has never even seen an airplane.
Related, "107 Year Old Irish Farmer Reflects on Change, 1965"<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daIMIv8perM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daIMIv8perM</a>
A few years ago I sat down with my father to just talk for a few hours about his life. I videorecorded the whole conversation.<p>He’s got some years left but it feels good knowing I have it. It’s the sort of thing that’s value will become more and more clear as time goes on.<p>Highly recommend
Not directly related to the farmer, but I was reminded of this clip:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4CCFObSEAU" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4CCFObSEAU</a><p>The guest, as a child in 1865, witnessed Lincoln being shot in Ford's Theatre, and was on a TV show in 1956.
Not to extract too much from the sample size of 1, but at the time this was filmed this farmer was 87 years old.<p>He seems to be in really impressive health.
"Do you know what work is? You don't?<p>Why, work's doing something you <i>have</i> to do.<p>When you're doing something that you <i>want</i> to do, <i>like</i> to do, that's play."
I remember talking with my grandparents and they mentioned how when they were younger they remembered how it was a hot debate at the time as to whether or not toilets should go inside of a house.
Not that I am questioning it, but how do you prove the authenticity of these sorts of videos? Could just hire an actor with a good accent and do some post processing.
I was born in the 80s, but somehow my life didn't feel like much change happened, because the one constant of my life was to learn new things every few years.
I don’t know if it’s only me but while growing up I was pretty excited about the future and technology advances but life back then was simple. Small things used to give lot of happiness, even though we did not had so many luxuries but was very content with what we had and that hope that future will be bright was enough to motivate you . However now thinking about the future makes me sad and how most of us (or may be just me) forgot that we have one life and it’s so precious.
He says, "well it's great", but the subtititles say, "we're safe". That itself could be interpreted as an interesting window into the mindset of our own society at the moment. People are absorbed in thoughts about turmoil and danger, and preoccupied with safe spaces, bullying, offense, and disgust. Yada yada, special snowflakes, something something.
Is there a reference for this to verify that this isn't just some historical reenactment? I'm trying to be more careful after I was once pranked by a friend who showed me a black and white video, claiming it was real, of people playing ping pong with nunchucks. I believed him at the time, but it was an ad campaign that someone on youtube had reposted to make it seems legit.
the perfect life is his + a small smattering of modern conveniences and decent access to medicine<p>he seems physically robust for his age, probably eats food he grows without calling it "fair trade organic", get news once a month...