03/25/2022
By Kate Stone Lombardi
I’m in possession of a 1926 guide to health, written by the then President of the Chicago Theological Seminar. It’s full of wisdom and guidance and right now I’m enjoying the chapters of adolescence.
The premise of this section is that there are two paths a teenager can take, each leading to drastically different outcomes. Let’s start with the girls.
The Good Path For the Girl:
At age 13, she will study and show obedience. At 20, she will demonstrate “”virtue and devotion. ” At 26, she shall be a loving mother. And at 60, she may enjoy being “an honored grandmother.”
But woe be it to the girl who takes the other direction.
The Bad Path For the Girl:
At age 13, she reads bad literature. At 20, she is flirting and engaging in coquettery (a word spell check no longer recognizes, by the way). By 26, she is involved in “the fast life and dissipation.” By age 40, the wayward girl is an outcast.
This all seemed pretty sexist, but I have to say the boys don’t have it much easier.
The Good Path for the Boy:
At 15, he will study and exhibit cleanliness. By 25, he shows “purity and economy.” At 30, he is an honorable success. At 60 (yup, 60) he enjoys “venerable old age.”
The Bad Path for the Boy:
At 15, he smokes cigarettes and shows other signs of self-abuse. By 25, he is marked by impurity and dissipation. At 36, we see vice and degeneracy (this phase illustrated by a hobo with a sack over his back). By 48, the bad boy has become a “moral and physical wreck.”
You didn’t have much time to get it right, given that life expectancy in 1926 for women was 58 and for men was 55. Thank goodness there was specific guidance on how to live the good life.
I really hope you can see the illustrations because they are the best part.