Dear Clint, In regards to your question about happiness.
First, my apologies for the delay in answering you.
Happiness varied quite a bit over the years in the U.S and Canada. (I cannot answer for other countries since I have not lived there.)
In the very early 1700s when I have my first recollections, happiness was basically freedom from work. We toiled then and that is the only word that I can use to describe it. I spent many years in the fur trade as a youth first trapping, then later in the later years trading between Lachine in what is now Quebec and Grand Portage on Lac Superior. Those days were not happy. We were literally pack animals. We paddled large canoes to a portage, then six of us carried either the canoe or packs of trade goods going to upper Canada or furs coming back.
The only happiness we had was with our families during the winter or when we arrived at a fort. Usually we had several days at a fort before returning where we were able to eat real bread and gain the weight we lost travelling. We would paddle from just before sunrise to near sunset, stopping only long enough to heat a kettle of soup-- usually pea soup-- in the morning and again in the evening. Sleeping was Hell as we were constantly pestered by mosquitos, black flies and tiny little biting flies that you could put a dozen on a pin head they were so small.
Happiness and drunkeness then went together. We were always hungry and that seemed to be the only relief we had was when we were drunk. Holidays at home were the only exception.
In the 1800s things began to change. I was working in a variety of occupations, farming, pewtering, broommaking, a hewer for a time, a blacksmith for many years, a printer for a while, a teamster and a soldier two or three times. When you have many years, you tend to try a variety of occupations. I also had the problem of not ageing as fast as others around me, so I had to leave. During these years happiness again was associated with holidays and get togethers. People entertained themselves and enjoyed doing it. I was a great story teller and could keep people spellbound for hours. But, people were much simpler then. They took enjoyment where they found it. But work overshadowed everything. Long days of the same thing six days a week. Sunday was the only day that we had to ourselves and it was the only time we really had anything to do with our families. We worked from six or seven in the morning until seven to nine at night six days a week. I can remember coming home so tired that I would have to take a nap to be awake enough to have my supper.
Things were happier on the farms, though. Especially when we were homesteading on the frontier-- this was in Michigan in the 1830s. Then we were always glad to see people, especially people with news. We would sit for hours exchanging stories and news-- quite often with some sort of home made brew. Apple jack was my favorite. It lulled me into many pleasant beds that would otherwise have been too cold.
People were friendly then, too. Not like it is today. You were glad to see a stranger who came by. People were more open. I can remember one night sleeping in a tavern in the 1700s in New York Colony. The Governor General came in that night and there was no real room as all the rooms were taken with two or three or four to a bed. The landlord asked if any of us would give up his bed for the mucky muck and nobody would, so he slept on the floor on a tick in the common room along with a couple of tinkers. Now that I recollect, I think the landlord threw the tinkers out. They slept in the barn. He was rather put out that the landlord didn't make a room available for him. We all thought it was pretty funny. That was one bit of entertainment that stands out in my mind. Come to think of it, if I remember right, I think his name was Clinton too. I'm sure if today's Clinton were to come into a hotel, everyone necessary would get kicked out of their rooms.
I'm digressing again. The real difference between people then and now is slight. The main difference is that now I don't think people are happy at all. No matter how much they have, they think that they need more to be happy. In the "good old days" (which weren't) a good apple could make you happy. Pleasures were much simpler. A good conversation was premier.
Values that make people happy have changed. Watching the sunset now makes some people happy. Then it meant that you got to go home and get some rest.
Things began to change in the middle of the 1800s. People had more money to spend on things other than necessaries. Music became common in homes that brought great happiness. Almost everone could play an instrument. Singing was cherished.
Today, if people had to entertain themselves, they would make poor company. They have to be enterained. I feel sorry for the people today. They have to be entertained, thrilled, have a better this or that, etc. to think that they are happy. And, once they get it, it doesn't make them happy because they believe that they should have something else.
Happiness then, as now, is really within. Find it in simple pleasures. The trash of this century isn't worth a really good apple.
The Sage |
