subject: Pray That Moving Day Never Comes Again [print this page] Pray That Moving Day Never Comes Again Pray That Moving Day Never Comes Again
Moving can be a very stressful undertaking, requiring a lot of planning, money, timing, and effort - and all of this is doubly so in an urban environment where more physically cramped and crowded living spaces, traffic, and all of the other trappings of city living simply make the entire process even more complicated. However before the American involvement in World War Two, movers were not nearly as well versed in the exercise of moving.The regular practice dating back to colonial times was for landlords to inform their tenants on the first of February of rent hikes that would go into effect after the first quarter of the year. On May 1st of every year, every lease across the city expired simultaneously at 9 o'clock in the morning. People that couldn't afford the adjusted rent for the remainder of the year were then forced to seek out new residence.Granted that many thousands of folks were unable to pay for these rent hikes, this meant that thousands of New Yorkers were required to relocate residences all on the same day. Practically as part of the tradition, especially nice days during the springtime after February 1st were spent in search of new apartments for rent, with folks searching the entire city for the greatest deals or the easiest or most prosperous areas to relocate to.May 1st would have been a scene of utter chaos, defined by some as not unlike "A population flying from the plague, or of a town which had surrendered on condition of carrying away all their goods and chattels." Many people from the countryside, mainly farmers with spare carts and wagons, took advantage of Moving Day by renting out the usage of their equipment at obscene prices, typically well beyond the ideal rates decided by city ordinances.Moving Day climbed to its peak during the early 1900s, when it was estimated that nearly a million people would all exchange residences on a single day, or maybe more realistically, around the days immediately preceding or following May 1st (making for more of a Moving week). By this time, opposition to the frustrating tradition was getting stronger, however it wasn't until World War Two when it had been abolished as a whole - and this was only due to the massive shortage of able bodied men after the majority were called away to the war effort.
