What Hours Did People Keep in The Golden Era?

[TraditionalFrog]

Hello.

I am doing some research and would like some input on the following:

I am under the assumption that people generally went to bed earlier and woke up earlier in the Golden Era. Is this generally correct?

Of course, I realise that many people then like now had jobs at odd hours (milkman, emergency services, war workers, etc). I am more interested in your "typical" American. Also, I am curious as to how long "lunch hour" was?

What time did people generally wake up and go to bed (adults and children) during this era? Also, what were the typical working hours/days during this time? What were typical school hours for children as well?

I also assume as many people lived closer to their places of work that there was generally no eqivalent of today's lenghty rush-hour or commute.

 

[RetroPat]

My grandpa was a mill worker and had to get up around 5a.m. every day. He worked from 7a.m. to 4p.m. Monday-Friday. I think it was a 10 minute drive to work for him, but it usually took longer because he would drive guys to work that didn't have cars in order to earn some extra money. He would usually go to bed around 9p.m. All in all, I don't think his schedule was that different from currently employed individuals.

 

[scotrace]

Edit: Thread title changed so as to be better understood. Please avoid one word, vague thread titles.

 

[Shangas]

The time the bells rang your clock and the time you wound up the mechanism again varied widely, for reasons regarding jobs, location, etc etc.

Those who lived in the country, or on farms, woke up earlier. There are several tales of kids helping with chores before heading off to school. I know a lady at my grandmother's nursing-home who was a nun. She claimed to wake up at FOUR O'CLOCK in the MORNING...EVERY MORNING, to get things going in the nunnery/abbey each day. How the hell she ever did that, I've no idea, but I've no reason to doubt her.

My own grandparents were up at about 6-7:00am and off to work shortly after. My grandparents would not come back home from work until 8 or 9 o'clock at night. This was in the period from roughly 1930-1970. My grandfather worked in a photography studio and my grandmother was a seamtress in a clothing-shop.

Apart from that, I don't imagine many things changed. You woke up at about 7 or 8 o'clock, dressed, breakfasted and headed off to work or school and came back from school between 2-4pm, work might finish anywhere between 5:00pm and 8:00pm, depending on the job. You would get home, have dinner, then you might read, write, play the piano, chat with the family, then turn on the radio or the gramophone and listen to some programs or records, then head to bed anytime between 9:00pm-12:00midnight.

I have a book which was produced by my grandmother's nursing home. It was a series of interviews with the residents, compiled by a pair of visitors, asking them about life in the first half of the 20th century, covering the period from roughly 1910-1950. The book was called "To The Best of My Memory: Recollections of the 20th Century". It was a simple book, but a fascinating read. Covered everything from schooling, home-life, food, clothing, medicine, finding jobs, entertainment and of course, WWII.

 

[Cricket]

My grandmother would wake up first in the house, usually around 5 a.m. She had to have breakfast ready, get the kids ready and make sure everything was ready for my grandfather for his day at work...like his lunch and so forth. He would usually get up around 6:30 and head to the paper mill about 7:30.
My grandfather passed away over 10 years ago, but my grandmother still wakes up when the sun rises. She puts on a pot of coffee and gets ready for the day even though the nest is empty. I guess it is just habit, but she turns in around 8:30 and wakes with the roosters.

I pretty much follow the same routine only I get up at 6 a.m. and get breakfast, the kids ready. My husband is usually running along beside me helping me because we both work.
Only I don't turn in until about 10:30.

 

[LizzieMaine]

For most full-time employees, the 48-hour work week was standard until the late thirties. This usually worked out to a nine hour workday Monday thru Friday and three hours on Saturday, although there would be variations from employer to employer on how it broke down. The 40 hour week was introduced by Henry Ford in the late twenties, and there were efforts to implement it officially on a nationwide basis under the NRA in 1933-35, but it didn't become the American standard until after WW2. Usually you'd get half an hour for lunch unless you belonged to a strong union and could get an hour.

If you were in business for yourself, all bets were off. When my grandfather began working at his gas station in 1940, he worked a fourteen hour day, 7 am to 9 pm, seven days a week. He'd brown bag his lunch, eat a quick, late supper when he got home, and then be in bed by 10:30, to get up the next morning at 5:30. This went on for several years, until he could hire a helper, but he remained an early-to-bed/early-to-riser for the rest of his life.

 

[Shangas]

My grandfather's been dead a good...twenty six years now. But gran is still very much alive and kicking. In retirement, her hours were about 6:00am-8:30/9:00pm. She started each day with some simple morning exercises (this was about ten years ago, when she was in her 80s), and she would finish off the day by putting away her sewing-things and go to bed. Gran was an amazing seamstress. She held that job for 30 years and she could fix your clothes, no matter what was wrong with them. When I was a kid, gran used to fix all my clothes. Rips, tears, loose buttons...everything. And she was a professional at it. Even in her 80s, she could still make a full dress from scratch.

When my grandparents were still parents, my grandmother woke up first. She headed off to work. My grandfather would wake up later...but not much later...about seven o'clock. He'd cook breakfast (toast and eggs, usually), then wake up the kids...and there were lots of kids. I think half a dozen, all told. He got them fed, washed, changed and sent them packing to school. Then, grandpa headed off to work. At around noon, he came home to cook lunch, the kids came home for lunch, then headed back to school. Then grandpa would come home again about four or five o'clock to cook dinner. Gran would return about 8 or 9 o'clock. Sometimes they returned home together if they left work late. They were usually so tired they didn't have much time for the kids, or each other...about half an hour to an hour to spare...then bed.

 

[Viola]

My granddads were a self-employed, hard-working man, and I know my mom's dad seemed to subsist on periodic 15-minute catnaps and late or no actual down-for-the-night a lot of the time.

The phrase "I'm just resting my eyes!" was heard, protestingly, a lot, generally from where he was sitting straight upright in chairs.

Unfortunately one eye-resting was in his massive Checker cab and he sheared the whole car in half from where the windows start up.

No passengers at the time, and he survived unharmed but shaken. He ended up laying down next to the car to wait for help, and hearing a car coming jumped up... and broke his ankle, the only injury from the truly horrifying looking crash.

 

[Gutshot]

This thread got me curious so a quick check of Wikipedia shows that the Tonight Show as of it's start in '54 aired in a time slot starting at 11:15. So obviously, someone was still up.

 

[avedwards]

Were there any people who were late to bed and early to rise in those days? It's the unhealthy pattern I usually have, go to bed at about 12:00am and get up at 6:30. Other than people with bad hours like private detectives maybe, would anyone else have done things this way?

 

[Viola]

Truckers and teamsters were supporting the all-night diners, so signs point to YES. Or at least, signs point to EAT AT JOE'S.

 

[Lamplight]

My grandpa was a mill worker and had to get up around 5a.m. every day. He worked from 7a.m. to 4p.m. Monday-Friday.

I have those exact same hours. Except when we're busier at work, I stay until 5p.m., which I don't care for.