I have been rather busy in my yard. I have my chicken house to build, fences to erect, vegetables to plant. My grapes are beginning to bud out. The chicks are getting big FAST. So, no excuses, just sorry I have not done a proper post, but I shall, I promise.Some quick history from May 1956:
This is the month when Salk's polio vaccine is first really available to the public. It really begins to change the face of health care and how we look at preventing disease. Many were scared of it as well and I feel bad for those parents who opted out of it and their children suffered the disease.
This month Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb. We are moving towards the scary aspects of the modern world. I do wish we had put as much thought into education and healthcare as we did making more bombs. While our European neighbors were faced with rebuilding their world, health and education became an important factor in their new world, we, seculded in the USA, found it easier to make our shiny new world of shopping and plastics. I love the enthusiasm and the good intent of our country after the war, but in retrospect, I wish we could have had more overall planning. Yet, we can make changes now, I believe, that can really make us have a wonderful new world and not Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" which I am afraid we are now heading towards. Particularly the 'feelies' in that novel and the numb over entertained bored controlled masses. This is a great LINK to a breakdown of Huxley's novel, which has some eerily right on predictions, though it was a work of fiction, though it was written before WWII in 1931. Here, for example, is the breakdown of how 'sexual freedom' is seen:
Sex is a primary source of happiness. The brave new world makes promiscuity a virtue: you have sex with any partner you want, who wants you- and sooner or later every partner will want you. (As a child, you learn in your sleep that "everyone belongs to everyone else.") In this Utopia, what we think of as true love for one person would lead to neurotic passions and the establishment of family life, both of which would interfere with community and stability. Nobody is allowed to become pregnant because nobody is born, only decanted from a bottle. Many females are born sterile by design; those who are not are trained by "Malthusian drill" to use contraceptives properly.
Any way, I am off and busy again today. I just wanted to check in with all of you and let you know I have not forgot about you nor our wonderful community. If any of you are new, don't forget to go to the website and join the FORUM, we are always having such wonderful discussions there.
Wow! I just discovered your blog--as your 479th follower I'm a bit late--and intend to read all your previous posts. Fascinating! I was six in 1956 so it will be fun reading what my parents went through, although I definitely remember the polio and smallpox scares and vaccines mainly because I still have my smallpox vaccination scar. I'm a DES daughter, too, due to my mother being told to take DES after she'd miscarried prior to me. She felt guilty about it for years after we found out in the 70's that it was contributing to vaginal cancer in young women, which would have been ME about then. So far so good, though.
ReplyDeleteI have spent most of the day reading your posts! And feeling like I should be getting to my housewife duties. But you are so motivating. And even the comment section has such great tips. I did not know you had another site. I am off to check it out too!!!!!!
ReplyDeletePlease don't ever let this blog go away!!!! I so wish I had some likeminded friends in real life.
I have been listening to You Bet Your Life today on internet archive. http://www.archive.org/details/oldtimeradio
LOVE it. Have a great day!
Oh, wonderful, new followers. I am glad that you have found me and us. Our little community is really growing and though many of us do not live by like minded ladies, we are growing a little group of like minded 'virtual neighbors'. Enjoy the site, it is still very rough and I have not added much content since Spring, but as Autumn approaches and my outdoor projects wind down, I will be gearing myself towards trying to take the whole project to a new level digitally. To somehow use modern technology to help us all to better use and learn and share old skills.
ReplyDeleteyour chickens are sssooo cute!!! We have a red, white, &black chickens.... I am not too savvy with the breeds...
ReplyDeleteIt's Amy again.. I have a question about your grocery shopping. Do you go to the big modern markets? Farmers Markets?
ReplyDeleteFor price Walmart is the best here. We do also have Publix and WInn Dixie. I probably shop at Winn Dixie the most.
When I am dreading the thought of a big modern store I go to Piggly Wiggly. It is still largish and modernish LOL. But it definitely has a different vibe to it.
They play older music and they have handwritten sale signs.
That also brings me to another grocery related question. Do you by any chance have a list of the "typical" grocery list for a 50's housewife?
I am still reading back over the older posts so you may have answered these already.
I hope you are having a lovely day.
Brook-I love chickens. The reds are probably Rhode Island or New Hampshire reds.
ReplyDeleteAmy-after you read my blog for awhile you will see that walmart is a four letter word around here. One of the things I have come to realize about our modern world since living in the 1950's is the loss of our American produced product. Walmart is a major contributor to the death of the old fashioned down town we all covet as well as an american made products. Most of their goods are made in china (a communist country that our 1950's peers would have been appalled at that we were trading and dealing with) For me, it is not about the lowest price anymore, as I believe that is the modern lie that we DESERVE the lowest price and therefore can buy more. When really, we should buy less, consume less, be more aware of what we are spending and WHERE we are spending it. I no longer shop at chain or big shops. I only go to my chain grocery for things I cannot always find at our locally owned grocery and local veg/fruit markets. This year I will buy local and grow my own and can and come fall and winter, what is not in season in our country or area will not be on our plate. It is a big change that has happened slowly through realization.
Not sure if this helps. I can post a grocery list if you like.
Argh just lost my comment I typed. :) Anyway, I agree about Walmart. It is a hard habit to break sometimes when you are working on a limited budget but if I do more homecooking I can probably squeeze more out of that budget anyway. I am not aware of any local owned grocers here but I will do some research. We do have Farmers Markets though.
ReplyDeletePiggly Wiggly is a smaller regional chain and certainly has a nicer hometown feel to it.
I would love to see a grocery list. That would be great! Thank you.
If you can't do local, small regional chain is definitely better than big box. There aren't any Piggly Wigglys left here in Louisiana where I live, and Winn Dixie's gone too. Most of our grocery shopping is done at Super 1. Not totally local, but it is regional and they do stock local produce.
ReplyDeleteWe just got an organic vegetable market that should be a good place to go once more stuff is in season.
I really need to read Brave New World again. I read it in high school about 15 years ago and it seemed quite far fetched but thinking about what I remember of the story it seems to be getting truer by the moment. Clearly I need to make a trip to the used bookstore this afternoon to buy that and 1984 because I discovered yesterday that my hubby has never read that book. This situation must be rectified at once!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that I do have some like-minded friends in real life. I was making up a batch of laundry detergent last week and I mentioned on facebook that I was stinking of Fels-Naptha soap. We wound up discussing different recipes and methods, got a couple of new people interested in trying it. One of my friends wasn't sure if she could use it in her new HE washer so I bottled some up for her to try. Hopefully it'll work because she's a housewife with 3 kids so she's doing a lot of laundry with not much money to spare.
I forgot to put this link up here, as I did it on the forum and forgot. But here is Brave New World free online http://www.huxley.net/bnw/index.html
ReplyDeleteenjoy!
I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed your blog. I love things from the fifties. When sodas for the soda machine were ten cents, popsicles were a nickle and divorce was uncommon. Thank you for letting me visit, it was a pleasurable experience.
ReplyDeleteSusan
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http://joininandgogreen.blogspot.com
I just loved your blog and everything about the fifties, thank you for letting me visit. I thought I had one post posted but poof I guess it left for cyber space, so if another one shows up you'll know what happened.
ReplyDeleteSusan
http://amazingcouponanddiscountdeals.blogspot.com
http://joininandgogreen.blogspot.com
50sgal,
ReplyDeleteI, too, am just popping in to say "Howdy!" I think that most of us are like you--The Spring time comes, and along with the normal business oflife, blogging loses some priority.
Happy a lovely Friday.