Before the telephone. Before the automobile. Before the airplane. Before paved roads. When most people rarely traveled more than 25 miles from their homes. It was a time of horses and buggies and the early days of US mail delivery. She was 98 years old and was telling me about her life and times back in 1979 when I filmed this interview in Lancaster Pennsylvania.
Please remember when you are watching this that you are watching 16mm work print outtakes from my 1979 prime time television special, The Information Society. Unfortunately, the material that I selected as possible to be used, has been lost in my fire of 2008. This wonderful video presents what I was going to use, including a lot of irrelevant questions. I wish I had more of this. I wish I had been smart enough as a young filmmaker when I did this back in 1979 to realize the incredible history that she was so able to articulate. The time before the radio. Certainly before television. The time when she traveled by train and trolley and horse. The time when the telephone was a device where everyone in town could hear everyone else speaking. I found this old 16mm workprint in my basement and digitized it not knowing it would be as wonderful as it is. I recorded this for a television special I was making in 1979 called “The Information Society.” You can see the entire 1 hour film on my YouTube channel by searching it although I did not use this clip in the film.
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Oh, if she only knew what was coming up next😢
Yeah, right, back in a day kids never looked for independence when they grew up 😂
She would be happy to see nowadays, lots of kids live with their parents for decades 😂
Miss my grandma ❤😢
yeah my white parents divorced when I was 1. My mom remarried a chinese man who hated white males. fun times…. I dream of a life where I have a mother and father who love me.
What a shock an elder having a wise and nuanced opinion.
He was 27 yrs old yesterday and he had. Depression his mom an dad was. Passed and he was the only person on the farm so he killed himself….he was the best young person iv came across in years 😢I'm heart broken
I wonder what she would say about kids today🤣🤣🤣🤣
She has no tattoos.
“In my day, you had no choice but to be friendly with terrible people, because you had nobody else to talk to. Now that you don’t have to fake being nice to bad people, the world is so much worse.” Sounds like grandma was a bad person.
“I don’t know whether it’s wrong or right” I appreciate that transparency so much. It shows that wisdom isn’t necessarily knowing everything
To be real i dont think its wrong to seek independence or seek dependence on a family however the person who seeks independence is gonna be more prepared for a modern world.
Much how it is nowadays, unfortunately… 😢
Quite honest though I must say .. She seems open minded but this was only a few seconds of conversation ..
This reminds me of my great grandmother Eufaula who was born in 1908. She died when I was in high school. I remember when I was a little kid we’d make the 30 minute drive out to her house in the country. It was just a little old country house with a swing on the front porch and an old claw foot bathtub in the front yard turned into a planter. I remember one year at Christmas I said “Granny Johnson, are you excited about Christmas?” and she said “honey, when you’re my age you’ve seen so many Christmases they’re all the same” me being a little kid I started bawling my eyes out. My grandmother – her daughter – came running in the living room and said “Mother, what did you say to him?”
Now I’ll be turning 40 this year and I feel like I know what she meant. 😂 I sure wish I could have spent more time with her.
Imagine what she'd think of 2024…
And here I thought it was culturally normal to be kicked out by the ages of 18-21 if you weren't already led into trying to be independent asap
Omg the new generation is different then the old,what a crazy concept.
WHAT A GEM OF A LADY!❤ THANK YOU DAVID!
Straight up honest observation of she doesn't know if it's wrong or if it's right . Very open-minded and blessed to have lived a family life
I'm 65 and this lady is beautiful.
People used to share ideas and opinions with such humility and eloquence.
14 or 98. women dont know what the fuck they are talking about.
Unless you were Black,Irish,Asian,Hispanic or a minority for that matter
She was already sounding the alarm about the alienating effect of tech fifty years ago. The curve is just steeper now.
A story as old as time
Yes my dear, people were not so jaded by the materialistic world.
I’m jealous
Ill say i must agree, and innocence is gone. Kids see so much more than they ever should before they are old enough to really understand what they are seeing and hearing. There is a ying and yang, good and bad, black and white to everything. The internet is full of wonderful useful information you can educate yourself with, and it is also full of garbage that will pollute your mind. If youre not mature or responsible enough to pick and choose then youre fucked.
Think of the changes from when this interview was conducted through today…or better yet, the changes just since Y2K. Nearly every application that we use today for communicating, facebook, X, etc, etc, didn't even exist yet today the vast majority of Americans would be lost without it…
Is that a young David Hoffman I hear asking the question?
It is so different today the people aren't in the family anymore because "they seek independence". It wasn't so great being under someone's thumb in 1900. It isn't better now. Everyone wants independence now. They seek out independence by nature, but there was a time when you were not allowed to come and go as you please.
I think that speaks volumes about multigenerational households. Kids going off at an early age and buying their own home was a relatively recent concept during the past 100 years.
Grandma Bubbles
What year is this interview from? I imagine this lady must’ve been born around 140 years ago or so…
Everybody was white thats why
Homogeneous populations allow high trust societies
The older generation will always complain about the younger generations ways BUT they fail to realize it's the world we gave them. They didn't create the world they live in, we did. Can't blame them for being of their time and place in history anymore than we can blame ourselves for bring of the time and place of our youth. We took the world as it was given to us.
What a poignant answer. She’s right too, the nuclear family has really taken a step back in society which is rather sad since it is the smallest community unit we have. The strongest bond too. What a great interview! Thank you for sharing, I’m always so happy when I see your videos.
You deserve millions more subscribers and viewers. You’ll get there soon enough, this channel is gold!
Like it still is in small unspoiled northern European villages