I can't help but wondering...what did elders do in the old days before television?

They all sat on the front porch and kept an eye on the neighborhood. If a child did something bad they shouted "I'm going to tell your mother!!" They tended small gardens and grew their own vegetables. Prior to the 1970's, mothers did not work outside the home and grandparents often lived with grandchildren. Grandma helped do the canning and clothing repairs: buttons, knees, socks needing attention were not thrown away, but patched up and handed down. The radio was ALWAYS on.

Marialake, I have a feeling dementia wasn't that well known.... back 100 years ago the average life span of a person was only to their late 50's or early 60's. Medical issues like heart attacks and cancers would take a person.

I remember back in the 1950's, I heard the term "seniel" being used for an adult who had memory problems. Back then the life span of a person was to their late 60's and early 70's.

Elders listened to the radio. Played box games like checkers. And it would take the housewife all day to do the laundry as the old machines didn't have a spin cycles, clothes had to hand cranked to get as much water out, then all the clothes were put on clothes lines. Thus clothes had to be washed on a sunny day. I remember my Mom would roll up Dad's work shirts and put them in the refrigerator to keep damp so that she could iron them the next day.... that was before steam irons became popular.

I remember my Mom walking to the grocery store and carrying back items, thus the reason to go every day or every other day as you couldn't carry home a weeks worth of groceries in one trip.

Oh, the list goes on and on.

Plus our elders actually talked to each other and their children.... now a days, they text :P

I remember my mom telling me how they would sit out on the porch on summer evenings and sing, and sometimes the neighbours would join in! Visiting was popular too, you always had to be prepared because family or neighbours might pop in at ant time. And of course nobody was sitting up until midnight or later, the went to bed by 9:00. Do you remember when TV used to go off the air for the night???

I meant- say 100 years ago.........when dementia reared it's head -what kept the elders occupied? Nothing holds my mother's interest for 2 seconds and I really try. She doesn't want anything to do with any of her old interests and adamantly refuses to engage in new ones. Radio is of no help as she is very hard of hearing but television distracts a bit and can be temporary "company." I don't ignore her all day but I need some form of privacy on occasion! She sticks to me like glue. Even in the bathroom. :(

100 years ago it was common to lock away anyone with a mental defect, heck, it was common back in the 1950's. You might keep grandpa locked in a upstairs room... isn't it in Jayne Eyre that he first wife is locked away upstairs? There were no really effective drugs or therapies, and superstition often dictated they were possessed by evil spirits (why else would a good man be cursing and throwing feces your way??).
And as FF says, people just didn't live as long or survive the kind of disease that could lead to dementia like strokes. Although I take issue with the common perception that life expectancy was only 50 or 60, you have to remember that is an average that is skewed by the huge rates of childhood and infant mortality.

I don't think very many people lived to as ripe an old age -- there just weren't as many people having to face age-related dimentia/delirium and the staring-at-the-wall years. I saw my great granny in the 1980s - she was 91 then and didn't move around much. She was confined to an upstairs bedroom and extended family and friends all took turns caring for and visiting with her. People used to live in closer-knit communities 100 years ago and they took visiting with the elderly much more seriously than people today. We're all so "busy." I also think Granny was able to knit and crochet until very close to the end, too. Knitting, sitting, watching out the window, rocking, visiting. That's what they did.

Pianos were fairly common way back when. Classrooms had them. Bars had them. Instead of downloading i-tunes, you bought sheet music. You sang along. You pushed back the furniture and you danced.

they didnt have birth control either . ill bet they could make " 50 shades of grey " look like 50 shades of amateurish ..

100 years ago, the very elderly were rare. Families lived closer and there was always someone to take care of them.....BUT the median age was 49 for males and 54 for females! I dare say most of us on this Board would be 6 foot under by now if we were in 1916.
According to my grandmother in her youth the family sat in the front porch in rocking chairs, single girls did the same with their appropriate chaperons. Families went for strolls and chatted with neighbors, or watched the neighbor children play. She met grandpa, as he strolled by with his horse and stopped to visit......kid you not, I remember her stories very well. This would have been 1925.