city stress relievers

           Around the late 1800s, cities began growing immensely in population. More additions of innovative and extremely efficient technologies, such as George Eastman's camera and Jan Matzelinger's automatic shoe making machine, simplified people's daily tasks. Despite this, urban lifestyles were often stressful for many people. Families were being separated due to having to work long hours in their jobs; the difficulty of being to be with family due to individual differences in job shift hours led to divorces in many city families. 

          Cities realized that the larger they grew, they would more easily be able to support a larger amount of entertainment for their citizens who were often feeling overwhelmed from their hectic lifestyles and jobs. The more people that moved into the city, the demand for people who wanted to have leisurely opportunities increased. Soon, various entertainment businesses began popping up in cities.  Because more products had to be manufactured in order to keep up with the growing population of people in the cities, small stores began combining into large department stores, such as Marshalls and Macys, where they offered shoppers all their necessities in one place. For instance, Albert Spaulding's opening of sports stores showed the increasing interest of people wanting to participate in recreational activities as a way to relieve stress from their busy city lives. 

           Since cities were so large, this allowed them to be able to establish professional sports organizations such as the Major League Baseball association. In fact, baseball was becoming more popular that during the early 1900s, baseball became America's main pastime. Not only were people watching sports, but also more people saw sports as a recreational activity. The YMCA, for example, provided an outlet where everyone could come to learn how to play sports- the enjoyment that participants experienced from playing sports with others in their community positively influenced them; people began to realize the many benefits of exercising, including an increased sense of discipline that would play an important role in running businesses. Additionally, bachelor sports, which included boxing and pool, became a new way for young single men to meet others.

    From this, it can be seen that not only were these activities a source of entertainment for busy city individuals, but also they played an important role in growing their relationships, therefore adding more pleasure into their lives.