Lorrie Morgan once did an excellent remake of an old George Jones song “A Picture of Me Without You”. The song asked the listener to imagine several things.
Imagine with me, Dear Reader, an America:

With only 48 states;
When gasoline cost anywhere from 13 to 25 cents per gallon;
When alcohol had been illegal for four years;
When the following products were available for the very first time—
Wheaties cereal;
Dum Dum “suckers” (lollipops);
Iodized table salt;
Kleenex facial tissues;
Locking pliers;
Marlboro cigarettes.

How many of you Dear Readers out there were around in 1924? I am going to bet the farm and say “none”.
Some older folks can remember what were called “five and dime” stores. By the time I was hatched in 1965, those had given way to dollar stores. I remember an early Dollar General Store commercial in which Jim Ed Brown sang a jingle, “Who says a dollar won’t buy much anymore?” I remember when I was in elementary school that people made fun of you if they knew your back-to-school jeans came from the Dollar General Store. Now, there seem to be more Dollar General Stores than churches. I have heard the company has a goal to build one Dollar General every five miles.
But I’m not sure Jim Ed Brown could truthfully sing his jingle anymore. How many items can you purchase at a Dollar General Store for one dollar? Even the Only a Dollar Store seems to have items for no less than a dollar and a quarter!
Believe it or not, there was a time in these United States that a dollar was worth nearly $18 dollars are worth today! That, Dear Reader, was one hundred years ago, in 1924.
I consulted the wonderful world of Google (https://www.kxnet.com/news/state-news/pop-culture-life-in-1924-compared… Retrieved July 3, 2024) to see just how different life has become in these United States in the 100 years since the 148th anniversary of the independence of our great nation.
Life expectancy was around 54 years old, compared to 80 at present. Great progress in the field of medicine has greatly attributed to an increased life span. Many medicines that are taken for granted today (such as Tylenol and Ibuprofen) were not even invented a hundred years ago. Many of the drugs prescribed by physicians a century ago would be considered illegal and dangerous today.
A century ago, women had just received the right to vote. In 1922, there was a higher percentage of women than men registered to vote in the United States. Imagine all the public offices that would be vacant in our country if all women currently elected were instantly removed!
The Google site listed above revealed that the average yearly income a century ago was $2,196. The average house cost $7,700. In 2024, we are quickly approaching monthly house payments that more closely resemble the annual income of our ancestors of a century ago. Can you imagine purchasing a new house for one month’s salary?
Cars were not common in our area of Appalachia. My mother was born in 1928 and remembered the first time she saw a car. She said it scared her to death, and she ran and hid by the side of the road until it passed. The average cost of a car a century ago was $265. Many people spend more than that driving back and forth to work during one month.
Imagine, Dear Reader, how much food you could buy if a dozen eggs still cost twelve cents, a pound of sugar four cents, and an entire bag of candy one penny!
Imagine a world without television! Only radios were available, and more families in rural Appalachia than one might think didn’t even own a radio.
I can think of several things that I have used yesterday and today that weren’t around (or at least were not common) in my neck of the woods in 1924: inside bathrooms, electric hot water heaters-coffee pots-refrigerators-air conditioners-vacuum cleaners-cooking stoves, computers, automatic transmission cars, internet, cell phones, DVDs, lawn mowers, paved highways.
And what will our descendants be saying about life in these United States in 2124? I won’t be here to see, but if the world changes as much in another century as it has in the one just passed, it will surely be amazing! What would Washington and Lincoln think if they could come back to America today? Lincoln, the only US president to have received a patent, would without doubt be mesmerized by all the new inventions, as he was very intrigued by the innovations during his lifetime.
One thing, Dear Reader—I don’t wonder what a dollar will buy in one hundred years. I just wonder if the dollar, and America, will still exist!

ANSWER TO QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 22
What famous professional wrote the book A Urologist’s Dream: Repairing Toilets? ANSWER: I. P. Boulders
QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 23
What’s the difference between a hippo and a Zippo? (See next week’s article in historicunioncounty.com for the answer.)