Showing off our great teeth in old-time Phoenix

Let's time-travel back to old-time Phoenix and show off a bit. We will smile at people, and eat stuff. And we're gonna do it as old folks. You know, old enough to get the senior discount, that sort of things. Oh sorry, I mean "seniors", we really don't use the term "old folks" anymore. For this adventure I'll be an old man, and you'll be an old woman. Yeah, seniors. Let's say in our sixties.

We really don't have to time-travel back all that far to impress the young people, but I've chosen 1915. Let's go hang out with the young folks in Tempe. Come on!

Contrary to popular belief, people did live a long life back in those days, although it was rare. While not as common as nowadays, elderly people (which for me when I was a young 'un, was anyone from 50 to 100) were around. Probably not too many centenarians, but there would have been people who lived to their fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties. But the people in their sixties sure as heck didn't look like us, coming from the 21st Century. And oddly enough, it had a lot to do with teeth.

Now calm down, I'm not shaming people for having teeth problems. Some people just do, even today. But the technology that's available now means that most people get their teeth fixed, and they have a nice mouthful of good working teeth way past their forties.

I'm going to flash a dazzling smile at the girls, and then I'm going to walk up to the boys and eat some beef jerky. They'll be stunned. Of course the girls are mostly staring at you, as you've reached an advanced age without having all of your teeth fall out. Women have always lived longer than men, of course, but their teeth would fade away. That's why you see so many images of old women with jutting chins, like Halloween witches. That's what happens when you don't have any teeth.


And since we have teeth, and can eat just about anything we want, chances are good that we're showing off something that elderly people really had difficulty doing back in the day - we're carrying some fat. Again, I point you to images of elderly women (witches) who were usually painfully thin (and carrying a broom of course). People with robust health, and the money to have dental work done, were pleasingly plump, and cheerful. Think of Santa Claus!

Hang on a minute, one of the young people has handed me some peanut brittle, with what looks like a sneer. Well thank you, young man, I just love peanut brittle! Crunch! Crunch!

Image at the top of this post: On the campus of the Tempe Normal School, now called Arizona State University. The building in the background is still there, next to Old Main. You're looking east.

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