9 July 1955 “Some News, Some Music, Some Food, and is it Easier Now or Then?with a little Rant thrown in for good measure.”

Jack Lalanne of Oakland, California
swims two miles from a point off Alcatraz
Island Prison to the San Francisco shore,
with his wrists handcuffed together.
Lalanne started from a boat, because
Warden Paul Madigan refused him
permission to leave from the Island.
Madigan still maintains that Alcatraz is
virtually escape-proof for prisoners
because “the water is too cold and the
currents too swift.”

Last minute preparations to get the
nearly completed Disneyland ready for
dedication ceremonies will be shown on
a special this Sunday night at 8 on ABC. I know some people may get mad at me, but I have never been a Disney fan. Particularly now it sort of represents to me all that I find abhorrent in our American culture. The false overbuilt idea of ‘history’. The plastic overpriced trumped up representation of old classic fairy tales. Even the modern day affect on copyright law and all the ridiculousness that entails is mainly from the Disney’s forcing the copyright law to be extended 100 years. I find this particularly odd, since they want to protect the copyright on stories in which they were not the originator, the old fairy tales. I have to say, if I had a child, I would not even introduce them to any Disney except perhaps the old Snow White. I just see it as the beginning of the packaging and selling of youth and childhood for a fast buck.

Pop music this week in 1955 -

“Rock Around The Clock” - Bill Haley,

“Cherry
Pink And Apple Blossom” - Perez Prado,

“A Blossom Fell” - Nat King Cole,

“Something’s Gotta Give” - The McGuire Sisters,

“Learnin’ The Blues” - Frank
Sinatra,

“Sweet And Gentile” - Alan Dale,

“Experience Unnecessary” - Sarah
Vaughan,

“Honey-Babe” - Art Mooney.

At the movies this week : “Lady And The Tramp”

 

“The Seven
Little Foys” - Bob Hope and Milly Vitale.

“The Cobweb”
- Richard Widmark, Gloria Grahame, Lauren Bacall,
Charles Boyer.

We see Marilyn is on many magazine covers at the height of her career, including this “Liberty” magazine which is a Canadian Magazine of which I had never heard.

  

There is something telling about this July cover for the New Yorker. The old Brownstones of old New York, the pre-war buildings becoming shadowed by the increasing growth and building of the post WWII era. The skyscraper has arrived.

 

Last nights dinner included a new recipe for beets. I really like beets and this very classic recipe is easy and yummy. I really love the color, don’t you?

HARVARD BEETS
Serves 4-5
1 lb can diced beets, drained, 1/3 C liquid reserved
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp corn starch
¼ tsp salt
¼ C vinegar
2 Tbsp butter
In a saucepan, combine sugar, corn starch, and salt. Stir in reserved beet liquid, vinegar, and butter, and cook, stirring, until mixture thickens and bubbles. Add beets and heat through.

Along with this dinner was a rare pot roast with roasted potatoes fresh herbs from the garden. I realized, afterwards, that I did a vintage no-no and left the skins on. I am used to doing this in the modern world as we are told that is where much of the nutrient lies, but I think from now on I will peel my potatoes instead. Of course, being good middle class 1955 folk we love our martinis dry and our steak very rare.

I was thinking about some comments we had back and forth on my last post. And it does seem that there is still a considerable amount for a homemaker to do despite the modern conveniences. However, baking bread and canning and keeping a stove lit with coal or wood is no longer a necessity, yet the time at home is gone. It seems, however, that if we begin to return to the 'work at home' and embrace the modern conveniences at the level we feel comfortable we can work backwards as much as we like to simpler times. That is to say, if someone were “into it” enough, they could return to baking and canning all their own things, making all their own clothes, etc. Or, if someone wanted only to stop at mending but still buying clothes but more affordably and still buying bread but locally to support their community, that also seems a great place to go with our apron revolution.

What I do believe we all seem to WANT to do away with is the sort of DISCONNECT we seem to all share within our communities and our own families. We may all be home but separately on computers or eating at different times in different rooms or talking or texting while around our family. We are MORE connected electronically to strangers than we are to those closest to us. I feel, for example, a great connection to all of you and you are scattered all around, but I don't want to lose that and want to foster it more, yet I also WANT the connection within my community and family. Just think how much we could change our lives and community by embracing BOTH of these aspects and relegating time and energy to them, say the time and energy we spend on watching TV or being passively entertained. Then we could form communities digitally and locally and reinforce and share our homemaking ideals and concepts. I think we may truly be on the brink of a wonderful and great revolution here. WE have the power of the modern age, now to only reach to the past and grasp what they had and wonder, "what could THEY have done with what WE have" and go for it! Think on it, we are really now given the chance to ‘time-travel’ in our minds to our fore-mothers and see what they saw and learn what they knew and then in a flash be back into the modern world and use the technology and the modern world and STOP letting it USE US! No more passivity. We don’t have to hide from our modern world, we need to remake it in a new vein that celebrates the past and revives those sage skills of homemaking and combine it, frugally, with technology, so that we can make a better home and therefore happy selves and family and community. So, try it at levels, say no to the Gap shirt and buy locally or thrift or make your own. Use your computer, but don’t just use it as a means to replace the TV, research and find ways to mend and sew and cook and share your skills and then, here is the trick, turn it off for part of the day and DO. That seems to be the main element we need in our modern society: ACTION. What wouldn’t our predecessors given for our modern devices, but would they want it to free up time to sit and watch more tv? No. So, let us build up our new vintage world, raise the flags of our Apron Revolution and march into the future proud and accomplished women. We don’t NEED everything easier, we can use the ease when we do NEED to to further our own growth along, but not to be lazy. Onward, sisters, onward!

Well, that’s my rant for today, now I have to get up and away from the computer and get to Action, myself.

Happy Homemaking.