Source: Wikimedia Commons
The morning gathering happened because everybody was home and alone, which is the condition the whole practice answers.
A woman at home with small children spent most…
Source: Wikimedia
Coming out to the porch after supper told the whole street you were available.
That is what the porch actually was - a signalling device. An occupied chair facing…
Source: Wikimedia
Two turners and a line of jumpers was the standing arrangement, and that structure is the whole subject.
A long rope requires two people who are not jumping, which…
Source: Wikimedia
The pay came home in an envelope, in cash, and everything about household money followed from that one fact.
Wages arrived as notes and coins in a paper envelope…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Writing was the only way to reach anybody far away, and that is what made it ordinary rather than special.
Long distance calls were expensive and kept for…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The evening was long because there was nothing to fill it.
Dark by half past four, one television at most, nowhere to go and nothing scheduled - which…