My father-in-law turns 95 this April. He has a seen the world change quite a bit in his time. Major events and developments in his lifetime include the Great Depression, World War II, television, space travel, Vietnam, Watergate, and personal computers. When you think about, it’s pretty impressive.
While his short-term memory isn’t what it used to be, my father-in-law has astounding recall of details from his childhood. He was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. When I stumbled upon the video below, I thought he could be in one of the shots. He would have been and infant or toddler, but it’s possible.
The footage was filmed in Newark sometime in the 1920s and later colorized. We see scenes from everyday life, including people and cars milling about the city, worshipers leaving church, a day on the golf course, and what appears to be a group exercise class for children. There’s nothing terribly exciting about any of it and yet it’s fascinating to see how Americans lived a century ago.