Shorpy

Many times we wax nostalgic about what it would have been like to have been living long ago, say, around the turn of the 20th century. While it would be enjoyable to see the world as it was in those days, the fact is that there is much that would be difficult to watch.

For instance, nowadays you have to be sixteen years old before you can get a full-time hourly job. Once you work more than forty hours, you get overtime. And employers have to provide you with a safe, healthy working environment.

NONE of those requirements existed back then.

Today's FamilyFirst site is a poignant look back in time called Shorpy: the 100 Year Old Photo Blog. Here's their mission:

Shorpy.com is the 100-year-old photography blog that brings our ancestors back, at least to the desktop. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a boy who worked in an Alabama coal mine near the turn of the century.

Visit Shorpy's biography page to see photos of the 14 year old (probably much younger, boys lied about their age to get coal mine jobs) boy with a very old face. He has a grim look on his face, and so do his friends. They were working very long days in an extremely harsh environment, where death and serious injury were unfortunately common.

Shorpy was a greaser, which meant he carried two heavy pails of grease used to lubricate the digging machinery. He had to keep his eyes open for coal cars, which could run him over any minute. Plus, he was constantly breathing the debilitating coal dust.

The website is loaded with old photos, as recent as the 1940's. At presstime, these included Kodachrome slide shots of roadsides taken in 1942.

This is some moving stuff. Enjoy.

http://shorpy.com/

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