[sassbox]

the 45 stuff is still a figure combining higher childhood death rate vs. a lot of people who made it into their 60s and 70s. Very true. The life expectancy figures of the past are greatly skewed by the high rate of infant and childhood mortality. From what I've read about the middle ages and pre-Industrial period, if a person survived until puberty, he or she had a fairly good chance of living til 65 or so. I imagine that the high death rate among children "weeded out" the weakest people, so those who survived childhood tended to be hardier to begin with. But even then, healthy adults in their 20s and 30s could drop dead of minor things like infected wounds or the flu. And of course childbirth was a very dangerous experience for many women. It is really something to reflect on just how fragile life used to be for everyone. It's hard to imagine what it would've been like to have been a mother hundreds of years ago and know that half of your children would die before 10 and you might very well perish yourself while bringing them into the world. It's unfathomable to most of us today, but it's what the majority of humans throughout history had to confront. It makes you realize just how much we take for granted today.

[truth_seeker]

"It's hard to imagine what it would've been like to have been a mother hundreds of years ago and know that half of your children would die before 10 and you might very well perish yourself while bringing them into the world. It's unfathomable to most of us today, but it's what the majority of humans throughout history had to confront. It makes you realize just how much we take for granted today."

My grandfather was born in 1881 in South Dakota (Dakota Territory then).

He was in the middle of seven children. Three died before age 14; two in one week. Of diptheria. They gargled kerosene to "treat" the disease.

The four that survived lived long lives, my grandfather making 87. In his teens he rode a train west to Wyoming, to work for Bill Cody's Show.

Lived out his days in Wyoming, not marrying until he was 40.