The Human Alarm Clock with No Snooze
There was no such thing as a snooze button in the 1930s, so you couldn’t drag your hand over it while you slept. Additionally, there was no alarm clock or phone chime to disturb your sleep. Instead, a ‘knocker-upper,’ who was paid sixpence a day to tap windows with long sticks or, as in this photo, a pea shooter, woke people up.
Large factories or mills in England even employed a pea shooter to wake up their employees at the time! Peashooter Mary Smith was a well-known “knocker-upper” in the East End of London, and she is pictured here. However, given her line of work, it begs the question, “How did she wake up?”