
George Wilson, The Man Who Walked His Life Away - howsilly
https://deadspin.com/the-man-who-walked-his-life-away-1835620495
======
b_tterc_p
The culture of the past feels so unrelatably foreign that it really feels like
a fictional world.

Can you imagine hearing that some dude is walking really far and going to see
an improvised carnival with an entourage of “bodyguards” with whips keeping
people away from some guy walking thousands of laps around a track?

~~~
mncharity
> The culture of the past feels so unrelatably foreign that it really feels
> like a fictional world.

One idea for teaching history is to emphasize that which you, as a time
traveler, would find startlingly strange ("wait, WAT?!?").

A 1700's British officer, traveling with American militia, is utterly
boggled... the American officer, he is _talking_ with his _men_ , asking
_them_ what they _think_!?! A WWII American officer, with not-unfamiliar
clothes, familiar language, many familiar ideas, and culture... and then he
shares his commonplace views on negroes. A familiar city in the 1950's, with
familiar still-there office buildings, in the summer... without any AC (so
people sit by open windows to catch a breeze). Making arrangements to meet at
highly specific locations and times (at noon under the clock at Grand
Central)... because without cell phones, mobile incremental rendezvous is
hard. The Sun goes down, so you stop working, because you can't see in the
dark - it's been suggested that the greatest US technological triumph of the
entire 20th Century was... rural electrification. Small-village farmers in
Egypt, part of the Ottoman empire, using strikes and slowdowns to discipline
local elites, who fear the attention of "what's wrong here and how do I fix
it" imperial officials. Sales guy, eventually to head IBM, is said to have
gone into stores with competitors' cash registers... and smashed them with a
baseball bat. Fights and drawn knives on the floor of the US Senate. The
opulence of Versailles... human excrement is cleaned off hallway floors not
once, but _twice_ a day! And so on, and on...

~~~
arethuza
One of my favourites: at the height of the British Empire, a private rises on
merit to become Chief of the Imperial General Staff - rising from the lowest
rank to the very highest.

The equivalent is impossible today.

Edit: Correction.

~~~
mrslave
I heard a recent McDonald's CEO started at the fryer. No idea as to the
accuracy.

~~~
ValentineC
I did a quick search, and that sounds like either Fred Turner [1], Michael
Quinlan [2], or Charlie Bell [3].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_L._Turner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_L._Turner)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Quinlan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Quinlan)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Bell_(businessman)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Bell_\(businessman\))

------
sandspar
You see people like this sometimes. I met a guy who practically lives on his
bike. Like the guy in the article, he's sort of an outcast. Yet when he's not
riding, he's walking around with his helmet on his head. It's like he's a tool
that can only do one job, but is fantastic at it. I wonder how many luminaries
throughout history have been similarly specialized. It seems like a type of
beneficial obsession.

~~~
growlist
We used to celebrate eccentricity in Britain, but these days sadly it's often
under attack.

~~~
sins
Is that really true?

~~~
skrebbel
Which of the two?

~~~
sins
Celebrating eccentricity.

~~~
skrebbel
Given how they treated eg Alan Turing, I think you have a point :-)

(preventive anti-outrage disclaimer: I'm not suggesting that homosexuality is
eccentric, I'm only suggesting that it might have been considered eccentric by
many in mid-20th century UK)

------
hirundo
This puts the challenge in Verne's Around the World in 80 Days into context.
The story mimicked and exaggerated contemporary popular entertainment.

------
moksly
That was an interesting read, but man oh man what a harsh life, and, what a
dreadful family. Can you even imagine going through even a tiny bit of that
without breaking?

~~~
gambiting
This is just an observation more than an opinion - you know how it's common
knowledge that women had no power not that long ago and were kept under the
boot of men?

His wife not only cheated on him, when he found out she arranged to have him
arrested and thrown in prison, and then was seeking to imprison him for life.
As far as the article says, absolutely nothing has happened to her as a
consequence of this.

~~~
JeremyBanks
How dare she have him arrested for domestic abuse..?

~~~
gambiting
She didn't have him arrested for domestic abuse - she fabricated a fake unpaid
debt charge through her brother.

------
ddoran
Anyone who wants to learn more about the history of pedestrianism, long-
distance walking and latterly ultrarunning should check out Davy Crockett's
Ultra Running History website and podcast [1]. He covers George Wilson in a
two-part episode about 1,000 mile attempts [2].

[1] - [http://ultrarunninghistory.com/](http://ultrarunninghistory.com/) [2] -
[http://ultrarunninghistory.com/1000-milers-1/](http://ultrarunninghistory.com/1000-milers-1/)

------
tedunangst
I suppose this is a nitpick, but what kind of timekeeping was available for
this?

> He kept walking, one step at a time, and hit 50 miles with four minutes and
> 43 seconds to spare.

My understanding of the time is that pocket watches very rarely had second
hands, or maybe not even minute hands. And certainly wouldn't be expected to
maintain such accuracy over a period of ten hours. What else would be
available in a prison yard?

~~~
scottlocklin
Watches were used for navigation. They also had both minute and second hands
in those days; you can verify the latter by looking at them on ebay.

~~~
wil421
Just to add watches were extremely important for sailing. Maybe as important
as a compass. You need an accurate clock to calculate longitude at sea. Here’s
a book I’ve been meaning to read about an eccentric guy who solved the
problem[1].

[1][https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_\(book\))

------
winter_blue
> He would need to escape from poverty and free himself and his children from
> strangling debt.

It seems like so many of the things we take for granted today couldn't be
taken for granted to the same degree in the past.

Things like being able to declare bankruptcy and erase all your debts, the
general liberty/protection provided by the state from having our
freedom/autonomy being violated by others, etc.

~~~
rjf72
One interesting distinction is that many of the modern protections that have
in many ways shaped modern society, are not protections against other people -
but protections against governments themselves. This is a recurring theme in
the constitution. For instance the constitution does not grant you the right
to free speech. It observes that you, by nature of being a human capable of
speaking already _inherently_ have the right to free speech. The constitution
simply stops the government from passing laws to take that right away from
people.

 _Most_ of the bad acts people can commit against other people have been
illegal for time immemorial. The revolution that started with the United
States was the founders of a nation passing legislation to protect the people
from the government itself. Things like debtor's prisons, as you mention, are
of course state-driven institutions. There are also things now illegal that we
can't even imagine. For instance the third amendment prevents the government
from forcing you house soldiers which is so far away as to feel unimaginable.
Other things we're constantly reminded of, but they have become so socially
ingrained that we take them for granted. For instance protections against
unreasonable search and seizure, protections against being forced to testify
against yourself.

------
swayvil
The fellow should be canonized. Walking is truly God's gift.

