The sad part is that most of the US was tough like that, even the city folks had a high level of toughness. Now? Too many have been kept too far from adversity in their lives to build toughness. Hard times make hard people. Easy times make snowflakes and sissies.
Agreed- even in the 60-70’s life was pretty tough compared to today (though we had it a bit better than previous generation)- growing up we kids didn’t have things like computers or cell phones- and were always outside, even in winter- running and playing and also doing chores like cutting splitting wood, feeding ht animals, caring for them- cleaning out stalls, etc- gathering hay in summer- working aroudn the land to improve it- always doing something- usually physical- helping out neighbors who had larger farms etc- We kept plenty fit, that was for sure=- and we grew up in the woods too- which was an adventure in itself-
life was just way better, and far more adventurous back then- My Father’s generation before me had it pretty rough- life was pretty tough back then- and it created lots of tough people like you said-
Look at most of the actors back i n the 30’s or before- you could tell that even they weren’t afraid of hard work- they were all really fit- and you could tel which ones had experience using an ax, riding a horse, or working on a ranch etc- Even boxers back then were super tough- they woudl go dozens of rounds sometimes- (and some of them fought bare knuckles lol)- today, you watch an MMA fight, and the contestants are winded by the third round and can’t go much further-