11 February 1955 "Colds, Commercials, & Cookies"

Hubby and I were feeling a bit under the weather yesterday. He, as usual, did not miss work. I don't know about any of your signifigant others, but it takes malaria mixed with the measels to get my husband to stay home from work. I, however, am always at work (the home) and so my day was definitely affected by my cold like symptoms.

Not sure what would have been available to me, I just took an aspirin and ate an orange for breakfast. So, I spent some of yesterday trying to see what was available and what one would do in 1955 if they had a cold. As usual, my research turned up some interesting bits of information.

This poster from war time definitely would make you think twice before staying home from work. To think you were in anyway jeopardizing the 'boys overseas' would have made you buck up and work through the cold.

I think even as a homemaker during wartime, everything you did would have seemed important and therefore you would try to avoid a cold as much as possible or either ignore it.

I believe this is a UK ad from the 1940's and have any of my UK readers heard of this? Does it still exist? At least they had somthing to take, even for the placebo affect, right?

I love this ad, which is actually from the 1930's, and it apparently banishes depression. This was an interesting find as I wondered when in our society the term "depression" really came about concerning our mental state? I wonder what this was made of, let's hope not alcohol!


When I found this ad, 1950's, I had a strange memory of this item. It must have existed in the 70s and 80s because I have odd memories of sticking a plastic tube up my nose and breathing in a vicks menthol smell to help with my stuffed nose. I don't recall if it worked or not. This would most likely have been in my 1955 medicine cabinet along wiht a jar of Vicks and Aspirin and possibly this following product. I found the commercial for it, but could find no information on the actual product. Is anyone old enough to remember this product and did it work?

Here it is from 1955?

Antihistimines were available since 1947:

"By 1950 antihistamines were mass-produced and prescribed extensively as the drug of choice for those suffering from allergies. Hailed as "wonder drugs," antihistamines were often mistakenly perceived by the public as a cure for thecommon cold. Although not a cure, antihistamines provided the first dependable relief for some of the cold's symptoms.

By 1955 the prevailing thought was that antihistamines may actually be harmful to asthmatics by drying their lung secretions and making the secretions more viscous (thick). After years of indecision by the medical establishment, medical students were taught after 1955 not to prescribe antihistamines to patients with asthma. The debate and research into the potential benefits of antihistamines for asthmatics continued."

Having to go to the doctors in the 1950's started to really change. The concept we currently have of a physician was basically born in post war times. Here is an excerpt from somthing I just read explaining the change in the docotors office:

"A typical doctor's office may not have looked much different to patients of the 1950s than it looked to their parents, but a new generation of physicians was inside providing care. Sick patients received the best treatment that had ever been available, and they complained as they never had before. Using newly available medicines and fresh knowledge based on recent research, doctors were, for the first time, able to cure a variety of maladies that they previously had treated only with kind words and tender care. The doctor had access to more knowledge about the nature of disease than ever before, and he (women doctors were rare in the 1950s) was likely to take a more professional, if less kindly, attitude toward his work than older patients were used to. But the patients missed the attentive personal care they had come to associate with doctors"

The article goes on to say that many patients actually missed and preferred the home-spun kindly words of the doctor who would show up at the house, maybe have had dinner with the family.

Again, I am faced with another modern concept really born in this decade. The idea of the cold aniseptic doctor (and for we Americans the ungodly cost of healthcare and the crippling economic effects that Insurance and their lobbyists have had on our country is mind boggling) really began in the 1950s. I am certainly glad of the strides we have made in medicine (Salk will cure Polio later in this year 1955 which must have been a sense of relief to all parents) . That people can be healthier and live longer is the goal of modern medicine, but why do we need to take out the human equation in medicine? A very good friend of mine is an E.R. Physician and he is always reagaling me with stories of the other doctors egos and also the stupidity and 'ME ME ME' atitude so many patients exhibit today.

The further I get into this experiment, the more I see how much that main question: that of humanity, seems to be changing during this decade (1950s). So many things that just seem normal to us today, even somthing you wouldn't consider like going to the doctors, has really been de-humanized. I don't think I am the only person who wants it back! We can have the advances AND the humanity. We are working, supposedly, to make life easier, and yet none of us have more time for anything. The subtle changes our world has made with the aid of tv and print ads as propaganda has let us throw away the chances we could have had for more time with our families and friends. We NEED to buy more and have the latest etc etc, so rather than live comfortably with less and focus more on going out our front doors and meeting our neighbors and getting to know the community and being a part of the community, we just feel alone and empty and wonder why. Maybe I am only speaking for myself here, but honestly I really feel that this hunt for more has become such a normal part of the last generations that we don't even question it anymore. I will step off my soapbox now...

Feeling ill has also made me want to do some of this things I like to do when feeling sick. This is to pop in a dvd put on my fleece socks and robe and veg. These things have not been invented, so I began to think of something Jitterbug asked in a previous comment, "What do you miss about the 21st. century" now I feel I can answer that better:
At first thought, I could think of little else save my dishwasher and microwave. I, of course, would miss my computer if it had to go away. But, I have since thought about it and here are a few things.

1.) Dishwasher (but this will not be so, as I see I would most likely have one, still deciding when to use it again.)
2.)The following dvds:
"Strangers with Candy" the series (I love Amy Sedaris)
"Kath & Kim" (the australian comedy. I heard they have made an american version which I can only guess is crap, if you will excuse my language.)
My period films, which is odd as they all take place before the 1950s (upstairs downstairs, Brideshead Revisited, Pride & Prejudice (the bbc version ) etc)
I think what I have found is that humor really evolves with your time. Although I am finding many things in 1955 that I actually like more than my present day, comedy is not one of them. With the exception of I love Lucy, the comedy of 1955 seems to not hit me on the same level as modern comedy. Now, I personally do not like american stand up comedy, but comedy seems to really be a mirror, maybe even more so than tactile art, of the times.

3.)Microwave. Though I mostly only used this for cooking bacon (my pan fried is much better now, though I did have a few black strips in the interium) and heating and defrosting. I find I don't drink as much 'leftover' coffee now. I try to make as much as I will drink or I drink more tea, as that is good cold and good reboiled. Reboiled coffee is not pleasant. Also, I have had to really learn planning my meals. No last minute frozen chicken from the freezer to the micro for quick defrost. Now, if I forget the night before, it's cold water in the sink. I did end up covering it with a 'gay' curtain after someones suggestion. I have all but forgot about it really. But every so often, I will reflexively reach for it.

4.)Diet Soda. Not until early 1960's will there be any Tab. The upside is I drink almost no soda (pop, coke, soda-pop, tonic whatever you call it in your area) and when I do drink regular soda it is an 8 oz bottle. I often think of ad that Jitterbug had posted of the housewife taking a break with her bottle of coke. That is EXACTLY what I do. I set aside some time, grab a magazine, open a coke and kick my feet up.


In that same vein I started to think of things that I use and are available now as well as 1955.
It really hit home when I found this ad.


I hadn't really thought about the fact that their are not sanitary pads. No light days thin little bits with their own adhesive. I know that there was a scare with Toxic Shock Syndrome after a few years of women using tampons. I also wonder, would I have hopped on board the 'Tampax train" so to speak, or would it have seem so alien to me that I would have stuck with my sanitary belt. Considering my age in 1955 I would have been using that horrendous belt for some years. Another thing we take for granted today.




Anyway here are some more items that I use that were in 1955. ( I just started using Pesopdent as i saw it was available then, also it is only .99 cents at my local shop! I often find myself humming the little jingle to myself and have now caught 'Gussie' doing it as well. Then or now, advertising does its job!







here is a commercial for ivory soap



Here is an ad for pepsodent toothpaste



here is an advert for Nabisco


here is tide


here is a great coke commercial





So, to give myself some comfort food yesterday, I made these cookies. The name intrigued me as it is a place I know well in Boston. Here is the recipe and here are a few of them on my plate. They tasted like a lovely blend of brownies, candy bar, and cookie. I used cashews instead of walnuts, as it was what I had in the house. I HIGHLY reccomend them.