11 September 1956 “What is a Vintage Life? Rosie the Riveter or June Cleaver?”

Recently, I received a comment from a follower that said:
I love your blog, but sometimes I think that what you are trying to express is a return to "civility", to the social norms of the first half of the 20th century, rather than to the specific decade of the 1950s. Your homesteading and self-sufficiency seems to be more pre-war than post. After the war we truly did want to forget our home front struggles, just as our men who served rarely spoke of their war front activities.
This got me thinking. Am I living a more pre-war life? Am I more Rosie the Riveter or June Cleaver? Does my desire to want to keep chickens, grow veg as well as pretty flowers, and can my own food and sew make me more 1940’s than 1950’s? And it isn’t as if I need to really just choose a decade, I just happen to like the positive feelings of the 1950s and how much ‘hope’ there was in the world. But, I also don’t want to fall prey to the easy plastic world which really was beginning in the late 1950’s.
I met a woman who would have been close to my age in the 1950’s. She lived on the Cape and still does. I met here volunteering at our local church run antique shop in town. I talked with her about this concept, my being more 1940’s than 1950’s because I chose to make more of my own, grow my food, keep chickens. She laughed and told me that the 1950’s must have been different everywhere. She, living in my old town (1600’s is pretty old for the United States) said the 1950’s in the movies was not the 1950’s here.
First of all, as I can plainly see, there were very few ‘new’ modern 1950’s homes in my town. There are some, but they are greatly outnumbered by Capes and Colonials that have seen 1650 as well as 1950. Living here in 1950 may have been the modern world, but plastic, wonder bread and gleaming but sterile green lawns were not the norm. In East Sandwich, a town outside of my own, new developments were started and one might find a row of typical 1950’s ranch, but by and large my town is house much older than the 1950’s.
“Maybe this lady is thinking of the newer parts of the country” she told me “When a town just sprang up out of an old farmer’s field. But here, on Cape, I was keeping chickens and canning in 1950’s.”
My town is, in some respects, a garden lover’s dream. Many people care greatly for their garden and their yards are full of lush roses and hydrangeas as well as pots of annuals and an equal smattering of vegetable. This, at least according to this fine lady, was true even then.
I think what I must remember( not as if I need to validate the ‘true living’ to myself, but I do want to express a true experience) is that much like today or 100 years ago, the decade in which you live is going to be lived differently depending on your area. The middle class homemaker of my age in 1956 here on Cape Cod certainly did not live like a homemaker in Wisconsin in a new suburb of cookie cutter houses. The families living outside of NYC in the growing suburbs also most likely lived a different life. And though many regional dialects and atitudes are all but gone thanks to shared media and tv, in 1956 a Cape Cod wife would have lived a very regional existence.
“Look,” she told me, “We live and breath history here on the Cape.  In 1956 I may have bought a new sofa, but my house was also filled with colonial antiques because they were my families. They were what was available around here. My vegetable garden was as much a pride to me as was my rose garden. I didn’t pack up the chickens because the war ended. They make the best soil for roses. We still canned and even traded recipes and shared jams and pickles amongst one another.”
In trying to recreate as well as study a time period as I am doing, I must remember that there is no one way to ‘be 1950’s.’ There is no one right or wrong way to live “A Vintage Life”. I find myself naturally falling into step with what local ladies in 1950’s would have done here because I AM here. My house is not a 1950’s ranch. I do have old furniture that people have sat in long before 1956. I have a nice little yard with room for veg and chickens and flowers and I naturally fill them with that.
I think, then, if any of us want to live a Vintage Life, no matter to what extreme, getting to know the traditions of our own area will make it all the more rich and real. We might only want to simply where some vintage clothes or perhaps just learn to cook and dress better, but to learn our regions history and social history, rather or not we implement it, is worth it.
As much as I have come to see how important it is for Women’s History to really study and understand the Homemaking arts and skills, so to is it important to understand where and how your community was built. The history of it’s buildings and economy is all worth the effort.
When I asked this lady if it was true,what my commenter said, that the men rarely spoke of their war activities, she laughed and then sort of went quite, thinking. “Well, I suppose we never really heard of the bad things the men must have gone through, but to say they didn’t talk about it is not true. The men, when they got together, loved to swap war stories. And though it must have been horrible what they went through, what they talked and laughed about were the good times. Roughing it and the comradery was always discussed with these men. In fact we women would often say such things as ‘oh, here comes another war story’.”
She told me they even often sang old war songs, such as this line that makes me laugh,

The biscuits in the Army, they say are mighty fine
one rolled off the table, and killed a friend of mine

And the refrain of that song almost brought a tear to my eye

I don’t want no more of Army life,
please mum I want to go, but they won’t let me go
please mum, I want to go home.

Maybe it is the New England spirit. The old curmudgeon who can get a nickel out of a penny if he squeezes hard enough. He remembers ancestors who had to literally fell forests to eek out existence. To them, hardship is merely the very stuff they are made of. Though the war was filled with unmentionable horror, they old New Englander still enjoyed a good gossip about the ‘war’ with the comradery of men around the old wood stove at the local general store.
Much like that song, with the raucous joke combined with the said refrain, ‘I want to go home’. And they did and when they returned they did not complain and go on about the horror of it. But they also recalled the good times, imbuing our communities with the very idea that, even in deadly hardships one can laugh and smile again. That is the never give up spirit I truly love about New England.
I felt better after learning this. I began to realize life, in any form, is really how we make it, but also colored by our town, our culture. We are lucky in this country in that if we do not like or feel any affiliation with our area, we can pick up and move and soon become a part of a different town a different history a different set of local values. That freedom is one thing our country prides itself on. And though we might be thought as an ‘outsider’ if we were to move to a new community, we know we would still be accepted because what is more flattering to a town than to know an outsider would like to be let inside. Just as the ladies at the old antique store are flattered that I have taken a part of my life to re-live and rekindle a time in their life that they not only loved but of which they were proud.
The civility and comradery of the past is like that. It is willing to take you on and, though you don’t really belong there, it welcomes you. Because you have bothered to blow the dust off and care and to realize that what has gone does not have to be forgot. And even though sometimes in the modern world I might fell much like that refrain from the old Army song to return to a time I did not belong: “Please mum I want to go home” I realize, the old adage is true: Home is where your heart is. Corny but sincere. And we can make our homes and our community and our lives the way we like it. That might be different for you than for me, but we can all agree on the love of the past won’t ever steer us wrong.
And after all, even June cleaver took off the pearls and got into the garden, didn’t she?

10 September 1956 “Kitchen Ideas and is Less More?”

I thought today it would be fun to see some of the great kitchen idea’s found here in the 1950’s. This is definitely a time of DIY and renovation. Post War America not only had the money and the increased production due to the war, but now had the burgeoning middle class. And they were building houses by the thousands and re-doing older homes to fit their new ‘modern’ lifestyle.
Since my 1955 project my esthetic has changed drastically and I know find myself drooling over linoleum flooring and laminate chrome trimmed counter tops. My own very old home needs not only a kitchen renovation but to be completely gutted. We have found that the sills/joist under the kitchen ell are rotting and it needs to be brought down to the very bare bones. This will have to wait until next year and I am going to try and do as much of the labor as I can to save on costs.
But, with the idea of a new kitchen in my future, I am always planning and thinking of new ways to do it. I had originally had plans for a large mudroom and a separate pantry, most likely hold over ideas from the 21st century. Now, the more I study the smaller homes and house plans of the era, the less I realize I need or Want! Less space means you must be more efficient which means running your home like a tight ship. It also means LESS TO CLEAN and less space to store things, therefore we are left to de-clutter our life even more. All of these seem good to me.
Now, onto the fun ideas in the magazines. Click on these photos to see them full size.
I LOVE this idea of the dual purpose counter. The increased counter space is not simply dead static storage, no, it opens to a griddle! I must tell you gals, I use my griddle every day. I have an old Jenn Air stove that has a griddle attachment for two burners. I just leave this on and only have two burners to use. I have not missed the other two burners that are stored away so that the griddle may be out all the time.
What a clever use for extra fabric from you curtains. I like the idea of the divider between the mess of the kitchen and the breakfast table being a continuation of your curtain fabric. It looks lovely above the cabinets on the soffit as well, don’t you think?
I really like this divider between the dining and kitchen. You can see how the wall opens up to serve as a pass through, thus no sideboard is needed, and also extra storage is available. Yet, a simple closing of those doors and the wall separates the mess of the kitchen for you to enjoy dining. Here is the kitchen side of that same set up. The pass through and the depth allotted by these cabinets are wonderful for storage, don’t you think? I like the ‘Early American’ look of the wallpaper.
  Again, we see a divider. Here they cleverly used frosted glass. The telephone and mail is a nice idea, and it also shows that little bits of the modern world starting to encroach on the beginning of the day. Though, this is a far cry from the multiple texting and internet surfing done at table or the kitchen computer of 2010.
I LOVE my marble and use it for all my pastry. It keeps it cold and helps to make a wonderful baked good. I love how here it is imbedded into the counter and I would like a vintage laminate counter (chrome edged) with such inlays of both the marble and the chopping block. And I assume they lift out for easy cleaning.
I have found, lately, that I think more and more of living with less and more simply. It might seem odd, a middle-class homemaker in the middle of 1950’s thinking thus, but I think there is an historical precedent. When I consider my age now, I would obviously have been a War bride. My early marriage would have involved my husband being in the military and my suddenly having to do with much less. It might have been a shock, but over the years one gets used to it.
Using less, having less clothing and things because of the war effort and the scarcity of items and their high cost, would have made it a  necessity to live frugal. So, in some sense, I feel the 1956 me, which is so many ways is really the only me at this point, is simply recalling a time when one needed less. It is lovely to have matching kitchen items and new floors. A home full of furniture and fine things can often seem the ultimate goal here in 1956, but a part of me would recall those war years.
Perhaps in the garden, I might be digging potatoes and stop and remember when all my flower beds and lush lawn were given over to vegetables. There may be moments when I am wrapping up leftovers for the icebox and see the full shelves in the freezer and recall the almost empty larder and smile. The camp coffee, or smoking  your cigarette until it was the smallest nib, adding water to old coffee grounds or using that tea in the pot just once more to make it stretch. And in all the careful planning and doing without, I might recall, standing there in the middle of my living room, art on the walls, shelves full of books and china, cupboards full of Holiday dishes and stacks of linen, that when I had less, when life was simple it some how had a truer almost brighter shine to it.
As if the cold on a winter’s day is more memorable for having bit you to the bone before you went coasting on the old wooden crate, because the metal from your old sled was given to the war effort. The hot chocolate afterwards was recalled more sweet as you huddled in front of the fire, the only source of heat, while the rest of the house was so cold to step on the floor in the frosty morning sent knives through your feet. Now, there standing in the centrally heated and cooled room with plates of thermal glass and thick carpet from wall to wall, it might seem more unreal or cold than that spartan past.
Of course, I haven’t any carpeting but old wood floors, and my windows are single pane deadlies constructed in the 19th century, but I was just considering my 1956 me in my modern sleek temperature controlled home. There must have been moments like that for my older 50’s counterparts who recalled the simpler times and wondered if maybe, just maybe, all the new things out there for sale may not be what we really need to be happy. To be hungry and scared is not good, but to become bloated and spoiled is equally as bad.
There must be a balance, surely. One does not want to live without and to only have the bare necessities is almost not human. Even in the Depression in a cold tar paper shack, I am sure there were family photos or dried flowers tacked to the wall. We need decor, we need to nest and make our living space a home. I just want to strike the balance and not be too far one way or the other. That is the trick of it and I will strive to meet it somehow.
What do you think, for you, is the best balance between less un-cluttered simplicity and homey acquisition of things? It must be different for each of us, but it must be at least considered. We should want our home to feel homey and not that we are possessed by our possessions. How do you strike the perfect balance?
Until tomorrow, Happy Homemaking.

9 September 1956 “Elvis on Ed Sullivan”

This evening, for the first time, Elvis will appear on Ed Sullivan. It is a milestone not only in the change in music, but also the new movement towards youth culture and tv marketing. This first showing of Elvis on Ed Sullivan resulted in 60 million viewers tuning in.
Ed Sullivan had initially said he did not want Elvis on his show. He did not approve of his overtly sexual stage moves and the music in general. And, what is interesting, is what turned his opinion is the beginning of that change to our now modern world: He wanted as many viewers as The Steve Allen Show, as they shared a time slot. Elvis had already been a guest on the Steve Allen show and when the numbers were in for the audience, Sullivan agreed.
It was decided that Elvis would make three appearances (one tonight, one on October 28, and finally, next year in 1957 in January) The fee for this was $50,000.00 Today, I am sure this seems a very small amount for a rock star, but you must realize the whole concept of this form of entertainment, mixed with media beamed into every home in America is a new idea. In today’s money that would be $350,000. Even that would be small for such a star these days. Money is beginning to talk. This is also an amazing amount when one considers two years earlier in 1954 Elvis was paid $10 to perform at the grand opening of the Lamar-Airways Shopping Center in Memphis Tennessee.

So, tonight at 8 pm EST, Elvis will appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. Ed will not even be hosting, as he had been in a serious car accident, so the actor Charles Laughton will host from the studio in New York City. Elvis, however, was in Los Angeles filming Love Me Tender.
After being introduced by Laughton, Elvis thanked him and then said, "This is probably the greatest honor that I've ever had in my life." Elvis then sang, "Don't Be Cruel" with his four back-up singers (the Jordanaires) followed by "Love Me Tender," which was the not-yet-released title track from his new movie.
This is the first song he performed, Don’t be cruel, though this is not from that performance but from the same year.

The second song was “Love Me Tender” and this video is from that actual first Ed Sullivan from this evening, 1956.

Love Me Tender the movie will be released this November 21st.

I really am beginning to feel this year, 1956, is beginning to mark many little changes that are leading to our modern 21st century world. With the increase in money to be made from ‘big music stars’ combined with the media of TV and movies and the Youth Movement, we begin to see the kernel of our new world.
I only wish we could have just veered things a little different direction. Even poor Elvis will ultimately succumb to the very machine that made him. It seems this is the point when people are not just being used, as they once were in the beginning of the Industrial Revolution as simple slaves, but as the product themselves. This, of course, has culminated into our being walking billboards who advertise and sell to ourselves to the point that we are literally working to buy. If only I had a real time machine, but alas, I can but try to live on that old cusp of the new materialism and try to make small changes in my own life. We can’t erase the past but we do have control over our present and futures.
Until tomorrow, Happy Homemaking.

8 September 1956 “September’s Challenge Dress and a Day Out With a Friend”

I do apologize for this late posting. A friend and I had planned today to vintage shop and lunch. I wanted to finish my latest dress, which is a lovely sheath dress from this pattern I know this vintage pattern is from 1960, but the style is still very 56, only shorter. I made the skirt longer, over the knee, but still shorter than I would have in 55. I am the type who would read Vogue and as I am making my own clothes, let my hemlines follow some of the newer shorter versions of the ever popular sheath dress.
Here it is with my cardigan and matching vintage pocketbook. I did not wear a hat today, as I wore my hair in a french twist and had a fabric brown flower pinned in to go with the flowers of the dress.  This is a close up of the fabric. I really love it and it is very vintage, though it is actually a new cotton/linen. It is a bit summery, but with the brown I felt it could wear into Autumn. And I wore it with brown shoes (my white shoes are away until next Memorial Day).
I really liked this pattern and am going to make the full skirted version next. What I did, and I will show more up close photos later, was cut out the four pieces of the dress (the front is one piece the little side front strap is another and two back pieces) in both this fabric and a nice white muslin. I cut the dress one size bigger than my own. Then I stitched the muslin and fabric together and flipped it out, ironing it flat. So now I had finished edges on the neckline, armholes, and hem. Then put the darts in (which went in lovely through the two layers of fabric) and put them together. I installed the zipper into the back two pieces BEFORE I sewed it to the front and this made an easier time of it as well. The whole thing went together rather quickly and easily this way and really gives a nice finished look. My friend gave me the nicest compliment in saying that it looked ‘store bought’.
We went to our local high end thrift store, Plush and Plunder, on Main street in Hyannis and my friend found a wonderful 1960 sheath dress in vintage sequins with the original metal zipper! I was envious of it, but she and her hubby of 10 years are going to be renewing their wedding vows in Las Vegas this fall and she wanted something “Rat Pack” and this was it. The bottom half is ice blue and meets the top cream in a very geometric triangular shape, much like the older signs in Vegas. I even helped her talk the ladies down from the original price. It is a very classic piece she can have in her wardrobe for ever.
We also hit Good Will where I found four lovely cardigans, all vintage, for only a few dollars each. When my friend said, “Hey, do you need a Connie Francis album?” half jokingly, I said, “Yes, I hope Stupid Cupid is on this one” and it was! So, I bought this album for 99 cents mostly for stupid cupid, but it has other good songs as well and I am listening to in on my old record player as I write this.
Here is a snippet of the song sung by Connie live. ( I know it doesn’t come out until 1959, but I really love the song. And don’t you love her dress!)

Here is the song in its entirety.

This song is also on the album:

I also purchaed a lovely Julie Andrews Christmas album (never too soon to think of Christmas, is it?)
Well, I have had a rather busy day and need to unwind now with hubby. I hope all had a find day and I will see you tomorrow.
Happy Homemaking.

7 September 1956 “Picnic, Peyton Place, and To-doing”

I hope all of you, here in the USA, enjoyed Labor Day.
Here is the song from the movie Picnic (starring Kim Novac and William Holden) played on a jukebox from 1954. This would be the way to enjoy music here at a bowling alley, bar, or possibly a soda shop that allowed dancing.

The movie Picnic came out last year 1955 and I believe I discussed it then. It occurs on Labor Day culminating in, of course, a Picnic.

Another 1950’s film that involves Labor Day is Peyton Place. This film will not come out until next year (1957) but this year the book was released. I am currently reading it and am really enjoying it. It is a good description of the New Englander of the small town. This book would become somewhat of a scandal and particularly in the lakes district of New Hampshire, where Metalious lived. My husbands great great grandparents owned a summer house/farm in this area back in the 1890’s.
This book would have a sequel, Return to Peyton Place, and it also had a daytime tv drama that ran from 1964-69.
I am sorry for the absence of a post yesterday, but I did take the day off. Today’s post is rather short, as well, as I am really going to be spending some time on the website this week, so I can finally just get that up. I want to be able to start focusing on my book. After my post about the book challenge ( I still don’t know who the winners are for that) and some of your lovely comments and emails, I really feel like I should write a book. I have much of it in my head already, many notes and so much in my blog that I have already covered, that I thought, "Why not just do it”. I am not sure how it will be available. I most likely will have it available as a self-published book or e-book when it is done. I don’t know that I want to mess about with agents and publishing companies. I think there is just to much of the ‘You can do it yourself’ atitude in me to go through normal channels. And I like our community we are growing and feel if we want to make and share a book, than we should. Maybe in the future, if others want to make their own books we can have a ‘book sale’ on the new site and give all our readers a chance to join in.
Well, I hope all are having a lovely day. Here on Cape our weather is perfect, 70’s, sunny, soft breeze, perfect biking and beach walking weather. And I shall still give myself that time to walk and be outside as well as my usual chores and now my book and site. I find when one get’s busier, we must still allow ourselves to LIVE in that day. To stop and ‘smell the roses’ as it were, for me it is having a cuppa while watching my chickens scratch in the garden. Taking a walk down to the canal and back home. Enjoying a cocktail or talk with hubby after dinner. When we remove modern media from our lives, other than for a few reasonable hours, it is amazing what one can accomplish in one’s day.
Until tomorrow then, Happy Homemaking.

5 September 1956 “Comments Continued…”

My latest comment to your comments on yesterday’s post was too long to be processed as a comment, so I am just making it into today’s post. Therefore, it is my continuing comment on those comments made on THIS post.
Missfifi-isn't it funny how often the 50's are shown as the time of 'keeping up with the Joneses' and certainly that was somewhat true then, but not like today. Today it is all about who is the coolest, hippest with the latest gadgets or most ironic tshirt saying or lowest rise most expensive track suit.
Dianne-That is very kind of you for thinking of me for the top ten list. I thank you again.
Sue G.-Vive la Revolution!
Jenny-Your husband sounds very right on. Funny that our phones should be a mobile office of organizing tools and blackberry's and stylus pens to keep our lives in order and yet it only adds to the chaos and includes one or more things to have to add to an already growing list of demands. How about a filing cabinet. A desk phone. A briefcase. A calendar. and a Weekly 'to do list' simple AND effective!
It is also so true about the branding of adults. Once this was a teenage or childish pursuit, but in a way it only cements what I have come to fear, all the old adults are dying off and we are left with the grown babies. Rather one is hip or cool or has the latest gadget is not a surprise for someone 13, but when one is a mother in her 50's it should not matter. Of course, this type of attitude only continues to teach the subsequent generations how important that is.
I was thinking how whenever someone drives by with their music blaring SO loud that you can literally FEEL the bass line, they are obviously doing that for OTHERS more than themselves. It says, 'Look at me, this is who I am by the definition of this song'. If they enjoyed that music, wouldn't' they listen to it at a comfortable level and who cares if others heard YOU listening to it. We live so much THROUGH the media of TV/computer/phones/text that we think we ALL OUR ON TV all the time and we have to live each day as if it is our reality show. "HEY LOOK AT ME" we all cry. And in some ways I almost feel as if we as a culture have so little to really say or think with and to ourselves that we are just grasping for anything for identity. It is truly sad that is out there to grasp is so empty shallow and pointless.
In some ways I worried that my own pursuit of 1955 was just that very same atitude: Look at me. And quite possbily in my early still modern mindset on 1 Janury 1955 that may have been my subconscious drive. However, what I have come to learn and feel of the depth and breadth of the homemakers of the past and truly that very War Generation has become more about the quality of my life. To me, when I dress vintage, it is about my own personal pride. There are days that I might not even be out in the public in any way, yet I am still dressed and living my life through vintage means. This is because it feels solid and real and tangible and honest to me. There is no one there to see me do it, yet I do it because it feels right and is for me and my family. That feeling of quality and purpose to life is often missing from the modern world. I am not sure why it vanished, but I have a strong feeling it went away when the importance of life switched to how cool you are and how many things you can own. Even now, many aspects of life are simply a drive to buy products that somehow represent the box in which you want to be put. If you like something you wear the advertising for it on your body, fill your shelves with the molded versions of it, yet all the while are not truly living it. Owning something does not give you the power of what it once represented.
That was the hardest lesson for me to learn as I ventured into 1955. That to simply buy up a decade in objects was not truly living or feeling what it was to be there. Now, most things I use and own ARE vintage, but their use is more tantamount to the production of my day than to how ‘cool’ or ‘retro’ I might look. My old mixer has the advantage of being lovely to look at, but that meat grinder attachment gets a good workout and all my foods are made in those bowls for my family to eat. My clothes are lovely, to me, but do not merely represent a new form of the t-shirt that says, ‘Hey I love 1950’, but both stand as a uniform to my day of pride of that time and also practicality. It is cheaper to make my own clothes and keep and maintain their sturdy construction by me than to simply plop down 20 dollars at Old Navy for an entire wardrobe.
I guess this is all really continuing the same thoughts I have been having of the actual tangible quality to a vintage life. What that can really mean. And I am all for filling our homes with vintage items because they DO make one feel a certain way, but then I want us to really take those items, look at what they did and perform tasks with them and see how the simpler aspect of your life, the preparation of food with less tools but well made beautiful ones actually DO MAKE A LIFE and is not a chore. Many of us have no problem setting aside 5 hours of a Sunday to sit online, but ask someone to take an hour to make, rise and bake bread and you might as well ask them to fly to the moon. I think this does a disservice to us. We people are much smarter than we have allowed ourselves to be in the ease of the modern world.
The real truth and the ‘secret to life’ is often just this:
Life is NOT better when it is cheaper and easier. Hard work often DOES=Better life
And when we begin to see that what we consider ‘hard work’ is actually the actions of living, we will realize it is not work at all, but life itself. They say God is in the details and surely Life is in the Doing not the Owning.
And as Jenny pointed out, try not to judge and to teach our children not to judge is the right and often the hardest thing to do. Perhaps because we are so judgmental ourselves we are so scared of BEING judged.
Many people write me and say they wish they could dress vintage or try to live a more vintage life, but they are afraid. It is hard, but we must let go of this fear. And we, as humans, are natural judges, but if we can learn to look kinder to others than perhaps we can, in turn, be kinder on ourselves and not worry of others judgment. Who cares, truly, if you are wearing a full on 1950’s outfit, hat gloves and all, and others stare at you. If you feel good and proud of this, do the opinions of others who ARE judgmental truly matter more than your own?
This is always a hard lesson, but it once was was the lesson of adulthood. There are countless episodes of 1950’s sitcom where the wiser mature parent teaches this lesson to the children: Do not judge others, be kind, and don’t worry about ‘going along with the crowd’. While today I am sure sitcoms have the parents merely older versions of the teens, worrying about how cool they or who has the best stuff.
We have lost that entire generation of mature parents. There is no Father from father knows best or Donna Reed to turn to us and say, “Now, darling, don’t let what those people are saying about how you are dressed bother you. They, themselves, must feel inadequate or hurt to hurt others. We must let each of us live the life we must, but truly people are good and are just misunderstood or misunderstanding”.
I hate to think of the modern mother role model of today in her SUV shouting at the other drivers while on the cell phone. Her kids mindlessly staring at the video screens in the seats in front of them, branded with their favorite character or store, while piled in the back is their daily booty of bags of frozen foods and soda and later that night, the mother borrowing her daughters cool top to go out and ‘party’. I want a grown up! I want someone to say, ‘it matters little what they say, but MORE what you do. You should live right and conscientiously and you will feel fulfilled and look inward and not care who is looking at you”.
PAT-I too, before my project, would say I was a number one consumer. I always looked for happiness at the end of a shopping line or in the bottom of my Home Goods bag. It wasn’t until I began to truly live and live simply, that my life began to feel real. I began to actually FEEL like a grown up. I always wondered when that magic moment of adulthood would come and I realize it never would had I not done this project because that transition from teen to adult almost does not exist any longer. So, in a way, it is up to we Vintage followers to make it apparent to others that the chores and lessons of Homemaking are not drudgery or ‘work’ or even demeaning, but in fact living and feeling alive in the moment of your life. You can play a video game, such as the sims, where you make up a world with a house and family, or you can simply live your own true life. And you know what? The Graphics are GREAT in real life. They are very lifelike and the experience is very 3-D.

4 September 1956 “Nostalgia: Ethereal or Tangible?”

Since starting my project I have really come to wonder at the nostalgia of things. The look of vintage appliances and canisters on a kitchen counter. The feel of either a vintage fabric or a vintage cut dress and the swish of the petticoat. The sounds: The heavy click and bang of the manual typewriter, the jet-engine roar of my vintage Kirby vacuum, the pure crescendo of the old telephone’s ring. Why is it that these elements of the past, these visual and audible, even tactile, messengers from the past touch us so deeply?
One could say the joy of one’s past, but many of us, myself included, were not there for the original use of these items. I never saw the real 1950’s or 60’s for that matter. Other’s might say we simply are donning our rose-colored glasses to view a time in a prettier nostalgic light. But, I am not sure.
The more I find others out in the world through this blog and the site who have a true affinity for all things vintage, I am beginning to wonder if there is some tangible quality to these items. And, if it is simply dreaming up a time that was or maybe even wasn’t but is imagined, that touches us, then there is a validity to it. That tells me, if one wants happiness, contentment, or simply a simpler truer life, then perhaps vintage and nostalgia are better than Prozac and psychiatry.
Take the telephone which we just recently discussed. Many recalled or expressed current joy in their sound, the weight of them and the permanency in their position in the house. There was also a certain freedom FROM the item, as you used it on your phone bench in the front hall or kitchen and when you were not at home or in the laundry room where  you couldn’t hear it, you were not bothered by it. One can always argue (Well what about emergency) but I have noticed that these past two decades, fear seems to be the driving force behind consumerism. What if? Well, what if? Do we really want to structure our life and home around future possible catastrophe? Is that a good quality of life? And, now that you have had cell phones, as an example, how many times has it served you in an emergency. And, had you not had it, how would you have addressed the emergency otherwise?
I think these past items and the aspect of taking on a past time is merely our psyche trying to get free of the oppression and fear driven cycle of life we current reside in. If I happen to even drive by the mall, with the parking lot jammed, I wonder, how much fear is driving these people? Fear of not looking cool or not wearing the latest or not buying the latest thing. The fear of not ‘having my coffee, I HAVE TO have my double soy latte in the morning or I am impossible” and so on.
We might look back at a time such as the 1950’s and think, “No computers, no cell phones, no cable, no malls, less cars, less options for careers, no cheap products available 24/7 at stores whenever we want them, how did they live?” And when we consider that, does there not seem to be, even a slight twinge,  of envy in that? How much fuller would our days be if we were NOT connected 24/7? If we only were able to talk to people if we happened to be home and near the phone when it rang. Or if we wrote or received a letter. Yet the slower easier pace of life made days more valued and enjoyed.
This is how we once taveled on planes. Compare that to today. Many people may say we have more fear and terror, but why is that? It wasn’t just born out of thin air, possibly it could be the way we or other countrys who now take on such a consumer driven life, that we actually have a rather poor diplomatic relations with other countries. How far have we hurt our world and our safety simply by being countries who want it now cheap and at any cost?
Also, the increased cheapness of things is always paraded out to us like it is the GOOD thing happening to us. It is so cheap to have cell phones now, food is so cheap, clothes are so cheap. Yet this driving force of wanting to pay next to nothing for something so we can have more things is a very new concept really. Of course a 1950’s homemaker would hunt for and want bargains, but they did not wake every day thinking, “Well I DESERVE that low price” they would not march into the grocery store and say, “I will give you 10 cents a pound for that instead of the 12 you have listed” and yet, in many ways, this is how we currently live.
There is little wonder then that today no small business can survive as it once did. And unfortunately with the disappearing small business, so to goes the middle class. And the happy content middle class is that last vestige of a truly happy and content vintage life. Those people who are willing to work hard but for that hard work have affordable houses to buy and realistic quality to the products they buy. When they bought a mixer it cost them hundreds in today's dollars, but they knew it would last. I know it would last, because the mixer in my kitchen now was from the 1950’s and it is still going strong. How long do you think that ‘bargain priced’ 25 dollar mixer at Wal-Mart will last?
And the small business I do see today are almost all catered to ‘things’. Gift or cutesy or items we honestly don’t need. The grocery, the butcher, the milkman, the farmer, the tailor, the doctor even, all of these items used to be supplied by individuals more so than large corporations. So, now if the ONLY type of small business that can survive is the gift or novelty store, no wonder when the economy falls (largely in part of the greed of the larger corporations mistakes) the first to get hit are these small business. Because, when you need to tighten your belt you will cut out that sort of item and then head to the big box store where you can buy your food really cheaply. So, the system really is set up to be self-protective at the expense of the small business and the middle class. The sad thing, really, is that WE are the reason it continues. WE are the people saying, “Sure, I’ll head on down to Wal-Mart and save and don’t care how cheaply the product it made or where it comes from” and yet wonder after our small downtowns and good friendly neighborly customer service with people we know.
Well, this rant was really meant for me to discern what tangible quality vintage items and nostalgia have. And I think when it comes right down to it we all now, collectively, that we are not living right. We feel the emptiness and shallow existence that we currently are a part of, but haven’t any idea how to free ourselves. So, that piece of the past that represents a world we wish we could have allows us to use as a touchstone. A small connection to a time we either consciously or subconsciously covet.
I want to find ways to make our desire to have this life, to try and get it back, more realistic. That it can be an actual process we could try and go through to achieve. I think if I do try and go ahead with a book that would be it’s main point. To celebrate what I have learned from 1955, but also really to be a primer for those of us that would like to take back the past and start building a new future. It seems so daunting in the face of the vastness of the corporation and so many people blindly following a life driven by fear, but maybe we really can live in a bubble inside that world. I know I do presently. And, much like in the bath, if enough small bubbles bounce and come into contact with one another, a larger bubble is often formed. I don’t know if there is a real way for all of us to get back a Vintage life, but I am surely willing to try. In fact, every day I try and most times succeed.
Well, I hope this post isn’t too much nonsensical rambling. I honestly feel that the memorable past can be a gateway to a better life. Does anyone want to come along with me?
Until tomorrow, Happy Homemaking.

3 September 1956 “Called on account of Hurricane”

As many of you may know, Hurricane Earl is charging its way into 1956. Odd, certainly, for a modern day storm to do so, but it has found its way into my time machine and therefore we are busy with oil lamps, bags of ice and preparation of possible power outages. So, if I suddenly disappear for a few days, it is because we are without power (and we have no generator) so don’t worry. I shall be back as soon as possible to daily posts.
Here is part of my post last year (1955) about Hurricane Diane that hit in 55. It was a doosie. I hope we are not in for such as bad as that!
1955 post: Hurricane Diane

Hurricane Diane was one of three hurricanes to hit North Carolina during the 1955 Atlantic hurricane season. Diane struck an area that had been hit by Hurricane Connie five days earlier. Diane was the costliest hurricane in United States history until it was surpassed by Hurricane Betsy in 1965, and was the sixth costliest U.S. hurricane of the 20th century
Here is a Connecticut street.
Here in McAdoo PA Hurricane Diane put the normally dry "Celebration Creek" riverbed well over its bounds and flooded out the business section of the town.
Here is actual 1955 news concerning it:

Hurricane Connie actually preceded Diane and was also quite damaging.

So, let us hope for the best. Good luck to any and all of you also in Earl’s path.

2 September 1956 “The Telephone”

First off, I am sorry to be posting so late today. But, Hurricane Earl is heading now towards the Cape and will maintain a 2 Status. This requires us to prepare for some very damaging winds and possible multiple days of power outages. I have been to the market and stocked up on a few extra canned goods. We have secured what we could in the yard and have tested all our oil lamps. Hubby has just cut and singed the new wick ends. We are as prepared as we can be.
The telephone has gone through major changes in the past 100 years. Let’s see how those changes are affecting our life here in the 1950’s with this film.

At one point phones did not even have dials. You simply lifted the lever, tapped for attention and then talked to someone to connect you. One day that changed and here is how we were taught to ‘Learn To Dial A Phone” new phone numbers and directories were suddenly issued. And the ‘dial tone’ was born:

By the early 1960’s many new features were being considered.

Now, here in 1956 this is what our lovely new house phones look like. Beautiful colors and much more modern sleek design than 10 years earlier. (These phone images thanks to vintage rotary phones.) This color is dreamy and I can picture it on the nightstand in a white and blue and gold bedroom or in the master bath perched on a white and gold ‘French Provencial’ stand. Something like these, maybe with a pair of these lovely equestrian lamps It would be dreamy.
Of course pink is also lovely.
The phone in 1940’s were more of what we think of when we think of vintage phones. They could be had in white/creams but many colors were not really available.
It was interesting to find out that even as late as now, in the mid 1950’s, some rural areas were still in a very antiquated phone system. I found this about the phone system in PA.

Those of you who grew up in cities may be surprised to be told that here in rural Tioga County PA we actually had wall phones with cranks well into the mid 1950s. We had party lines with several households on a line. Each household had its own ring - Ours was a short two longs and a short. People on the party line could call each other by ringing directly, using the crank and the right short - long code. Other calls came through the telephone operator. In Mainesburg, Gladys Smith was the operator and she lived in a house right next door to the store. She was tied to that switchboard 24-7-365, The store delivered her groceries. She had the switchboard in a room right by the kitchen with a cot in the same room. The following article reflects the sense of celebration these communities experienced when dial phones came into their world.

This image is from 1956 newspaper: FAITHFULL SWITCHBOARD—Mrs. Bessie Updyke sits by the Millerton central switchboard which she has operated in her home for 11 years. The North Penn Telephone Co. will change over to dial operation in Millerton, and late, in Bentley Creek area (Star-Gazette Photos by Peggy Gallagher)
Here the automated relays are being installed and will replace faithful Bessie Updyke.  RELAYS—Howard Selleck, switchman for the North Penn Telephone Co. tests the all-relay dial equipment being installed at Millerton.
Such a change must have really greatly affected peoples lives. To have a system where one is calling a local person, such as Mrs. Updyke, who literally is sitting in her home and knows all in town, to a system run by a machine must have seemed cold. Much like the past decades when our own phone systems became more and more automated. In 2010 it is rather hard to actually speak to a person and when you do they are often in India at call centers. (That really burns me, as well, as if we need even MORE loss of jobs in our country that we even sub out our service calls!) But, I digress. Back to the phone…
We even have a ‘Phone Princess’ here on Cape Cod. This fun image is from a great BLOG about vintage rotary phones.
  Of course we cannot forget the latest fad of the teen, far too much time on the phone. This seemed to mostly be a character trait of girls, though I am sure boys did their fair share. Many father’s here in 1956 are often concerned about these ‘long phone conversations’ because their may be a boy on the other end.
Of course, in true 50’s Madison Avenue style, if one phone is good, THREE is better!
I recall in the 1980’s when answering machines were coming out. That and ‘call waiting’ was seen rather rude by many people. That technology seems like a dinosaur now.
And, of course, we now know in 2010 that a phone is not a phone but a way of life. Text, camera, movie camera, tv, internet, computer, everything rolled into one. This is a common scene I am sure. No longer sitting in the front hall on the phone, you are Always on it.
 At least it seems some people are still interested in the past style enough to try and make a compromise.
We have come a long way, but have we gone too far? Is the need to always be online and in contact with everyone actually making what we have to say or how we say it or think it less interesting or intelligent? Letters are gone and now every daily activity is texted and shared. Is it better, I don’t know.
I think a nice phone in the home that rang and was either answered or ignored, may have actually been far enough. I suppose for emergencies it is nice, but didn’t people have emergencies before cell phones? What did they do? How quickly we become so used to our technology that to live without it would be like living without oxygen.  I wonder if there could be a happy medium of a ‘docking station’ in an old phone that your cell phone lives in at home and is treated like a land line. And when you go out, it can be turned off and used only for that emergency? It might be a nice vintage alternative.

1 September 1956 “Casual Clothes 1956 and Make Your Own Oil Cloth”

I had intended a longer post today, but I now have my new tenants moving in tomorrow (the 2nd) and therefore took an opportunity this morning to go to the house.
I decided to take most of my lovely hydrangea plants from there. It is silly my making it lovely for people only to have them trash the place nor not care a fig for the yard. I dug up and brought home five large (5-7’ tall) hydrangea bushes. Of course today it was almost 90 degrees, while last week we were in the 70’s, my sill luck. But, I have brought them home and they are in various tubs filled with water, getting their strength back. I shall wait for cooler days this weekend and post Hurricane Earl to dig up their new home. I am going to take them and some of my other bushes here and make a nice hedgerow.
Therefore, I thought some photo’s of people here in 1956 in their ‘casual clothes’ would be fun:
I really do just love candid shots such as this New Jersey family from this year .(Thanks to Shorpy for phot0.) Just that intimate moment. It is very enlightening to see what the generations are wearing. Grandmother looks rather fine in her homemade shawl. I wonder how odd this modern world seems to a woman who wore corsets and long skirts as a girl and was probably courted in a Surry with the ‘fringe on top’. The mother is comfortable in her dungarees, so we can assume this was a day ‘at home’. The other woman is most likely a sister I would imagine. I see many women, when relaxing at home or possibly cleaning, wear rolled ‘bobby socks’ and loafers or bucks or saddle shoes. The metal legged matching end tables are placed between their sectional sofa and I really love the fabric on the curtains.
I am not sure if this was staged, although I can’t imagine who would be taking the photo while the family is at prayer. I love it for all the kitchen items. I am a sucker for red in a kitchen. We notice, however, that though it is a warm summer and most likely NOT air conditioned ( I see the screen door in the back) this family is dressed comfortably and nice for dinner.
I think that pattern on their table cloth (which I am sure is oil cloth) is fun. You cannot buy actual oil cloth today, at least I have not found a source. They have a product now they call oil cloth which is actually cotton covered in PVC and it is similar in many ways and I have some of it for sale in the store HERE. It is easy to trim and make table cloths, aprons, and placemats.
I also really want to have the authentic cloth as it was actually very ‘green’:

Originally, oilcloth was made of sturdy, natural fiber fabrics such as cotton duck, linen or cotton canvas which had been treated with a linseed oil based coating. Often it was dyed, painted or printed prior to the oil treatment, or sometimes colored designs were added during the treatment process. Oilcloth was commonly used in years past for tablecloths and picnic cloths because it was durable and relatively waterproof.

I found this site that gives you directions to make your own. I really want to try this, especially as you can then make any design you like! If I do try this, I promise to photo the process and give a tutorial. I have some fun ideas. HERE are the instructions.
I also like to see photos like this, because it lets us see how one might be dressed on a casual day in 1956.  I see no stockings. Lovely low comfortable sandals. Nice comfy linen and cotton. Now I think this group looks quite cool and comfortable. What I notice is if this were today the man would most likely be either in jeans or those horrid long wide short pants or long shorts not sure which they are meant to be, some bright white and neon puffy sneaker/trainer, a shirt with something printed on it. And the ladies either too showy, or skinny jeans and printed tops. I am sure there would also be a plethora of baseball caps, also imprinted with insignia of some sort. That is the main thing I notice here in 1956, the LACK of emblems, images and imprints on clothing. We are walking billboards and a hodgepodge of images all over us. Simple easy to care for yet sturdy clothing seems as old fashioned in 2010 as a horse drawn carriage. If we did an inventory of our wardrobes, I wonder how many items would be imprinted with logos, brand names, sports teams, bands etc?
This casual group look comfortable. I am sure this is not how they would go out, but relaxing at home. Mother is even in slacks, though not dungarees. And her simple little button up sweater looks sweet with a little tie. I think another obvious difference here compared to today is look at Father. He is wearing trousers, belted and a nice button down shirt. Son is in a t-shirt (no images or band name) dungarees rolled and converse sneakers. Today, dad would be dressed like son. Jeans, Tshirt, maybe even ‘baggy too low’ jeans. And while then son would dress like father for going out or to church or school, today, father would copy son in his ‘cool’ attire for most anything. We can see it is not very hard to dress ‘vintage’ and be casual and comfortable, but we are loathe to let go of our jeans and our printed items! I wonder why that is? It certainly cannot be comfort, because how is it more comfortable to have images on clothing than not? I also think light cotton or linen loose fitting trousers are more comfortable and also cooler than jeans on a summer day. Do you find yourself emulating your child rather than they wanting to be ‘like mummy and daddy’ and dress up?
Now here is a cool couple (cool as comfortable not hep). The young lady is wearing quite short shorts but they are nice and high waisted. Her sleeveless top looks fresh and pretty. Her hair is done and she sports darling comfortable flats. The young man is wearing a nice jersey collard top with a t-shirt under it. (My hubby always wears an undershirt even under shirts such as this in the summer. I see so many people who just wear the one shirt.) They look nice and NO insignia/printing.
It goes on and on like that. No ads or images or sports teams or bands. Everything is so emblazoned with artwork today. Even children’s bedspreads, backpacks, anything is often covered with their favorite character or toy. There were occasional Howdy Doody items here in 1956, but not in the way they are today.
Now, I am not necessarily saying it is bad, but isn’t it rather odd? Are we so used to images and ads that wearing them is normal? I thought of the scene in Back to the Future when the main character’s mother as a young girl in the 1950’s thinks his name is ‘Calvin’ because his underpants say “Calvin Klein”. Everything is branded.
Do you know what else gets branded? Cattle. Something to think about.
Well, until tomorrow then, Happy Homemaking.