Age-Old Questions

“Are we becoming obese today?” “Is it colder than usual this year?” These questions, so common today, are not new. This table is from a journal written by a New Jersey housewife in 1831, apparently to keep track of the weight of her family members.

Woman         43 years           216 pounds

Man               37 years           150 pounds

Child              20 years           154 pounds

Child              14 years           81   pounds

Child                5 years           40   pounds

Years later, in February 1856, the housewife noted that she got weighed “at the mill” and was 206 pounds. Then she went fishing through 14-inch-thick ice on a nearby pond. She wrote that the temperature had been 8 below zero in January.