Six things from history due for a comeback

Right now the worst of history is making a comeback. Here are some good things to revive instead.

Let’s meet for tea, discuss the news and gossip of the day, and then go home. No doomscrolling or ads involved.

These days it seems like we are bringing back the very worst of prior centuries. For example: the revolting wealth inequality of the Gilded Age, along with a lack of worker, consumer and environmental protections. We are losing the miracle of antibiotics through overuse, so we might go back to the days when a cut could kill you. We are throwing away the power of vaccines to keep us safe, so people can die of preventable illnesses. Efforts to address maternal and infant mortality are cast aside, leading to tragic and unnecessary deaths. People fought long and hard for an eight-hour work day and now thanks to email, we’re always at work.

The list could go on!

Olden times wasn’t always that great for most people. However, there are some good things from previous centuries that I think are due for a comeback and would go a long way toward fixing some modern problems.

Coffeehouses with paper newspapers and real conversations

In 17^th and 18^th century London, coffeehouses were all the rage. For the price of a cup of coffee, one could read all the newspapers of the day without needing to buy a subscription to all or any of them. It was an affordable way for everyone to have access to the same news. They also had access to the same stories—serialized novels were published in newspapers to make them affordable and accessible for wide audiences.

Not only that, but over a nice, relaxing cup of coffee, one could have a conversation about what they read with others—folks not necessarily their friends, family or neighbors. Ideas were exchanged and debated with real people. Face to face. In an era of fragmented, pay-walled news sources designed to be more incendiary than informative, I think we would all benefit from reading the same factual news and discussing it in a (mostly) civilized way among our ourselves.

(I’m sure some men got testerical and resorted to fisticuffs outside. But I’d rather a few fights outside than the rest of us constantly fighting off bots and trolls.)

Calling hours

In Regency romance novels, calling hours are were you sit in your drawing room and wait to see if any eligible suitors deign to show up, possibly with flowers. It’s like waiting by the phone for a crush to call—but publicly and agonizingly. Horrifying.

But calling hours weren’t just for crushes and they were for more than matchmaking. It was a way to connect with friends and acquaintances without making a big deal of it. I see the pleasure and efficiency of it: clean the house once, make some tea, tell everyone you’re at home for the afternoon and they are welcome to drop by. It’s not a party, there’s no occasion, just a nice way to see everyone face-to-face without making plans for a two hour playdate, a whole family gathering or trying to schedule a group of busy people. It’s especially perfect for people you need to see but don’t want to spend a whole evening with. Just drop by! Miss this one? Catch you at the next one!

Plus—and this is important—etiquette firmly dictated a short visit. I suppose it’s like Facebook, but in person and thus with less doomscrolling and ads and more laughs, snacks and hugs with humans.

19^th century electric car culture

Yes, electric cars are back! I want more of early 20^th century electric car culture to come back too. In the early 1900s, electric cars were made for and marketed to women because they were the safe, clean and efficient (in comparison to the early gas powered vehicles). Carmakers put flower vases in the dashboard and designed seats to accommodate women’s big skirts.

Charging stations were also located at shopping centers so women could run errands and dine with friends while their cars powered up. As someone who has spent 30+ minutes stuck in a car with kids as it charged in some gas station parking lot, I would love if charging stations were located near playgrounds, coffeeshops with bathrooms, bookstores, or anywhere I could make efficient and pleasant use of the time.

I would love to see car designed for women’s safety—women are more likely to be injured or die in crashes because crash test dummies use are based on male bodies, not female ones. And maybe space by the driver’s seat for my handbag.

Grow (some) of our own food and (sometimes) eat like olden times

I don’t want to bake my own bread, churn butter or make ice cream—I want to buy these things. And I love that we are able to do so. I am 100% here for farmers markets and grocery stores and things shipped from faraway (Coffee! Chocolate! Lemons!).

But I also love staying at my mom’s house in the summer, where my kids and I can wander into the garden and eat berries off the bush and apples from the tree. We pick fresh potatoes, kale and tomatoes for meals. On that note, cooking dinner used to be a lot simpler in yore times. Dinner was whatever meat and veg one had around, simmered in a pot over the hearth all day (like today’s crock pot!). Lunch was bread and butter. Mom wasn’t meal planning or prepping or catering to everyone’s dietary preferences. Everyone ate it or starved. (One day I will do a deep dive into childhood picky eating to discover how children survived before the invention of chicken nuggets and cheddar bunnies…or is that why childhood mortality used to be so high?)

Anyway, it feels really nice to eat simply from the garden. What with food prices, trade wars, tariffs, climate change, cutting food programs and other shenanigans, it’s never been a better time to start growing our own food in the backyard. This is an easy one to start right now—my mom’s Substack has some great, easy to do gardening content.

Apartment buildings for working women

In the late 19^th century and early 20^th century, as women entered the work force, they needed a place to live after college and before they got married. It had to be a place where they would not mingle with men—after all, think of their reputations! Apartment buildings sprung up, exclusively for working women to live. In these buildings, like the Barbizon or Webster Apartments, women had a safe, clean place to live with built in community. Most just rented a studio room, some shared bathrooms. Some buildings offered laundry and meal services, some had pianos for musicians to practice, most did not allow men even as visitors. The rooms were designed to be affordable. Talk about living the dream—an affordable room of one’s own, friends in the building and housekeeping?!?!

I think these would be great for young men at the post college, pre-marriage stage of life, too. Maybe it would help with the male loneliness epidemic that everyone is talking about.

On a related note: boarding houses. One way folks earned some extra income back in the day was renting out their spare rooms to single men and women. Folks got a room of their own, meals and built in community. The housekeeper had more work—but it was work she was already doing and at least she now she was getting paid for it.

As our country is in the midst of a housing crisis, I think it’s worth reconsidering these efforts communal living.

Gilded Age Department Stores

The Gilded Age department store was a sight to behold. Going was an event. Let yourself be drawn in by beautiful displays in the windows and let yourself be overwhelmed by the splendor when you first enter. Drop off the kids at the daycare, go shop for the household thing you need, try on a new dress, rest in the ladies-only reading room, browse in the art gallery between shopping for shoes and crystal vases (or whatever! These stores had everything!). Stop by the soda fountain. Doing errands doesn’t sound so bad when it’s done in a Gilded Age department store.

Even in these modern times, every time I go to one it feels like a relief and that online shopping is such a scam. A few years ago, I needed something to wear an evening event and I settled on a black jumpsuit. I went to my local department store, picked out a few and the sales associate set me up in a room and brought me a few more that I hadn’t seen. I was able to try on different brands in one dressing room—I only had to take my pants off one time!—and I got to leave with something that fit just right. I didn’t browse every website, guess at my size at different retailers, order different sizes of a few versions, wait for them to arrive and then go through the hassle of returning them. I was in an out in a hour with just the right thing. A dream!

***

I came up with the idea for this post while walking around and jotted down things as they occurred to me over the course of a few days. Now that I’ve written it all out, I realize that all these things have two common themes:. First: interacting with fellow humans in real life is a wonderful thing and we should do more of it and construct our world to make it easier to do. Second: a focus on ease and pleasure, which is not the same as cold, hard efficiency. Less “hacking” for results and more enjoying the process. Why not strive to have a nice time together?

PS: Some other nice activities to bring back: sending kids outside to play unsupervised, mending clothes in really fun ways, and reading aloud together after dinner.