Children's lives

 

#1

1913 - An adult aunt and children 5 years, 6 years, 7 years, 9 years and 11 &12 picking cotton on H.M. Lane's farm, Bells, Tex. Lewis Hine Photo

#2

1908 children in Galveston TX in back of what I think is Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Galveston TX. These would have been my uncles Elmore and baby Alex, who weren't Catholics.

#3

A smile on the face of this young one, not dated, nor identified as to place. But besides the necessities of life that surround her, I notice the touch of the window curtains made by her mother and a pair of scissors - a scalloped edge to that newspaper.

#4

Though this young lady sat still, the kittens had other ideas.

#5

Wouldn't you like to give this portrait of a family a caption?

#6

There's nothing more freeing for a child than a set of tricycle wheels!

#7

#8

Photo by Solomon D. Butcher - in Nebraska

#9

Gypsy Camp 28th July 1951. Gypsy children play happily in overcrowded encampment at Corke's Meadow, Kent, UK. Photo by Bert Hardy.

#10

By famed photographer L.W. Hine while traveling through the South, 1909 TN or NC.  "Recently widowed family."

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Freedom Monument Sculpture Park.  @ 10 million Black people had been enslaved in the U.S by 1865. Close to six million of those people died as enslaved people—and @ half of all enslaved children died before their first birthday.

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My personal comments:
From what I've read in research, and known from friends, all the family had chores to do, whether picking cotton or dusting the house, or helping feed the younger children, or helping with animals or crops. The children of today don't know what the generations before them did.

Many children would die from diseases or accidents. For instance one of my uncles pictured above died as an adult from a disease, while his older brother accidentally drowned as a youth.

Family planning, where a woman could choose when she wanted to (or didn't want to) have another child, has only been available widely in the more affluent western societies since the 1960s. The rhythm method was taught to women for many years before that so they could possibly control their own pregnancies. An unwanted pregnancy could be legally aborted since the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe V Wade in the US. Recent revocation of the Roe v Wade by the new Supreme Court decision means those women who become pregnant no longer have access to safe abortions if they wish to terminate a pregnancy in a lot of the United States. The laws are currently made by states, and are so stringent in some that anyone who helps a woman travel to get an abortion is also liable for jail and fines.

Children's play was much more unrestricted prior to when? the 1970s? the 1990?  the 2000's?  At some point a litigious society in the US made it such that no children were left playing alone on playgrounds, nor were the playgrounds just cobbled together with spare lumber and pipes. Children had to be protected at all times. And unfortunately there were those who preyed upon the innocent, which made this protective attitude necessary. And accidentally broken bones, which always seemed part of childhood play, were suddenly to be avoided at all cost.

But parents are hardy souls and keep coming up with safe and enjoyable pursuits for their offspring. My old generation has somehow survived all the pitfalls of see-saws, ocean-swing-arounds, swings and slides, and plenty of chances to skin knees. What, climbing trees? You bet!

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Sharing with Sepia Saturday

My topic on children is not exactly on the topic of Two-somes. But Sepia Saturday seems willing to look aside when we post other topics. Thanks, Alan! PS, I couldn't separate these two weeks apart in the suggested themes. Perhaps I'll find some brides or dancers for next week...

Today's quote:

Beauty is the purgation of superfluities. 

-Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (1475-1564)  Only Michelangelo could say that, who chipped away at marble to find the figures he wanted.