22 September 1956 “TV for Australia, the 1956 View of Tomorrow, and Fun Well Behaved Teens”

This month, on the 16th to be exact, Australia finally joined the ranks of TV viewers. It began on the 16th this year, 1956, broadcasting from TCN-9 Sydney. That is where the first TV tower was built in Australia.
Here is an example of some of the opening night sort of Australian Programming. ( I think this must have been from some modern Australian programming looking back to 1956. I thought it almost rude of the native gentleman at the end to laugh and make fun of the woman. I think for a white woman at that time, it is rather fine of her to care about the native culture and to want to study it. We may speak a language not our own with an accent, but it is hardly fitting to poke fun at it.)

While we are on the subject of tv, I thought I would share this little short. It was made by GM, but has some interesting fashions, home and cars. There is a fun part where she is in the ‘kitchen of tomorrow’ so space age. And her costumes for tennis, golf and swimming are adorable. Just a fun little piece to watch.

Here is also a darling film about auto safety. It is worth a watch to see the kitchen (wonderful red stove) great outfits and really well-behaved people, especially teens.

Until tomorrow, Happy Homemaking.

21 September 1956 “Small Kitchen and Early American”

I have mentioned before how my home, which is quite old, has a very small kitchen. It was most likely added around the turn of the 20th century. It’s cabinets show that it was updated sometime in the 1950’s but unfortunately it is in a sad state. At some point the whole thing must be redone.
I originally had thought of making it larger and every time I draw out plans I continue to scale it down. In fact doing the opposite of what happens in my favorite movie “Mr. Blandings Builds A Dream House”. Mr and Mrs. Blandings (played by Carey Grand and Myrna Loy)are in their architects office just to ‘look’ after having to give up on their antique home to the bulldozer. By the time they leave they have added extensively to the basic plans. At one point Mrs. Blandings exclaims, “I will not subject my daughters to live in a home with less than four bathrooms”. Though, they currently live in a one bath two bed apartment in NYC. It is a great movie and really shows the beginning of the American move towards the bigger home. Though, it won’t really come to fruition decades later for most of us.
So, to my point, in one of my vintage interior design books, I found this kitchen.It is so tiny yet so pretty. It has even made room for an eating area for two. Here is the blueprint of the room.Yes, you are reading that correctly. Roughly an 8 x 8 room. That would be a walk in closet in a modern home! Yet, my own kitchen is just about 10 x 10, quite small. I have no problem whipping up all kinds of lovely dinners and desserts in there. It has its quirks of a floor that slants to the right. I have to prop up my cakes in the oven with little rocks so it sets evenly, but I deal with it.
So, the more I think of any of the expense that will have to go into this room shall be in the basics such as tearing up the floor to have new joists installed and a new subfloor. While doing that I might move the door and simply rearrange the layout of the room to fit my needs based on various ideas from my vintage magazines and books. In other words, the smallness is really growing on me.
I also have really come around to the Early American look. I have talked of this little discussed decorating style of the mid-century. It was a modern/quirky take on colonial furniture. Copper jell-o molds, colonial inspired fabrics, knotty pine and anything ‘old’ made into lamps and tables such as spinning wheels and butter churns. There is a very tongue in cheek quality about it that I have come to appreciate.
Since my own home is from the actual New England colonial era, I think it a very fitting look for my new vintage kitchen when that time comes.
 I love the use of the bright red counters with the knotty pine. I think I would have my trimmed in either the 50’s aluminum or see if I could get a vintage aluminum dipped in ‘copper’. And though I am going to have a new subfloor, rather than put in heart of pine wide boards like the rest of the house, I want real linoleum (not vinyl). This is actually kind of expensive, but again, if I were to keep the room it’s original small size, than one could have nicer quality items as it would be used sparingly. Even a vintage roll of wallpaper can be as costly as 100 dollars a roll, but when one only needs one roll to do one wall and maybe the back of one open set of cupboards, a realistic expense. The same goes with vintage fabric, which is often hard to get in large amounts.
How many of you are unhappy with the size of your kitchen? Could you be actually happier with less space, but better laid out with your own choice of nicer appointments which would be less expensive due to the smaller space. And as always with small spaces, less clutter when one had less space to accumulate, right?
What are your thoughts on smaller vs. larger in the kitchen? How much space do you actually use in the kitchen? Are there cupboards or counters that actually just hold ‘junk or mail’ and don’t actually serve a practical purpose? It is a fun project to look at a room and think, ‘hmmm, what if it was smaller, what would I keep?”

20 September 1956 “A Day of Biking”

We had such lovely comments yesterday and I really appreciate our discussion. And from that I plan on making a new post open-ended to any who lived in the 1950’s to share with us.
Today, however, two of my gal pals and I are off for a bike ride. It is a lovely New England Fall day here, sunny and the air is crisp as a ripe apple. We will bike to the beach then into town. It shall be a glorious day for it.
 You can bet I shan’t look like this, I do wear a dress biking but stockings and heels are a bit much, ever for me. I shall look more like thisLoafers and socks and a dress or skirt are my usual biking attire. It is a quite comfortable way to ride, you can be sure.
Just for fun, here is Elvis on a bike signing autographs. (the photo links to the source for the picture) If only his popularity could have remained innocent enough to be allowed such freedom.
Also, enjoy this fun educational biking film from 1955. It is also interesting as it tells you, near the beginning, how to start a car then. Enjoy!

So, have a wonderful day and enjoy whatever it is you have to do today.
Happy Homemaking.

19 September 1956 “Comment Rebuttal”

I received this comment yesterday and I have thought about it quite a bit. I hope you will allow me to share my thoughts on the matter:

Anonymous said...

Your comment yesterday about not want to have a child who would be another employee at Walmart is down right condescending. One minute you talk about being thrifty and frugal, and the next minute you talk about your family buying new cars during the depression and not wanting to raise children of the working class. I used to think that your blog was authentic, but now it seems like you are one of those bloggers who makes it up as they go along, who post about imaginary lives they are not even living. It this just the blog of a bored vain person???

The story of my family buying cars during the Depression really made me think. That story was often told to me, with pride, by my mother. She now, and for some years, has had Alzheimer's Disease. So, when I recall things she used to tell me, they are often with a sad little realization, as for all intents and purposes, she is no longer here.
My off-hand comment was made during a discussion we were having about how times or decades often wear a certain look and we assume that it was that way for all. Someone was mentioning the conditions of their family during the Depression. So, of course, I thought of that story. It showed that everyone had a different situation during that time, much like I have continued to discover about the 1950’s.
I think what most surprised and hurt me was that my casual reference to a story my mother loved to tell me became a catalyst for someone ( who claims to have both liked my blog and me) to turn their anger and hatred towards me.  Why do we feel the need, particularly in this digital age, to run so hot and cold with emotion? The step from casual enjoyment to killing outrage seems a short step today. I have witnessed such jumps even in public on employees in stores, “yes, lovely day…WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T HAVE THAT IN STOCK!”
What I find so amusing in this particular situation is this: the complete stereo-type assumed by a few remarks. My having said that my mother’s pride in her father having bought a new car in the Depression suddenly lumps them into a category in which to hate. One commenter, who was quite kind about what was said, even added:
I *will* say that I find buying new cars in an economic crisis distasteful…
This I did find funny because supposedly we are currently in an economic crisis and yet I am sure there are many new things being purchased today. It also made me think of a TV family that a follower recently told me about: The Duggars. I have not watched the show, but I googled them after a follower mentioned them. They certainly have bought not only one new vehicle, but I saw an aerial shot of their property and they have many including a very large RV. Are they cruel or evil for purchasing new during economic hard times? Have they the right to do so, or if their show is using positive ‘spin’ to represent their good values, is that all right? I am not saying anything for or against this show, as I have not seen it, but just using it as a point.
Now, the actual story, which I had not told but didn’t think I had needed to, about my mother’s parents is as follows. It is true that my grandfather bought a new car each year during the Depression, or as I recall it being told to me. However, he was not a Rockefeller. He had built up his business over time. He and my grandmother had 13 children and my mother’s pride was in the fact that he was able to feed and cloth all these children AND help his community during the Depression.
My mother’s particular pride for the new car purchase wasn’t that she felt ‘better than others’ because of it, but due to what her father had told her. He pointed out that many people were struggling and no man likes a hand-out. To return a car and to purchase a new car gave a job and money to the local man who sold cars. He was able, to those who could afford it, resale the old car for a profit, as this was his job. Also, a new car each year was adding to the economy in that there would be one more man needed on the line to make the cars. Simply hoarding what you have when the chips are down was not considered good to my grandfather. He could easily have done so, but instead was always spreading what he had around, even during the uncertain times of the Depression when one didn’t know when they might suddenly be without anything.
During the Depression, and in fact in the ‘olden days’ in general, most people did not like nor would not take hand outs. The concept of welfare was really born out of the Depression and many families would rather starve than feel they were just taking money from somewhere.
This same grandfather, who I am now suppose to feel bad about somehow, or feel less genuine because of, did many such things. The car was really just a more abstract way of helping out. It may have benefited some people far away where the cars where made, but it was important to him none-the-less. It definitely helped the local man who sold the cars have something to make a higher profit on, a one year old car sold locally to anyone who could afford it, was a good source of income.
These grandparents did many such things during the Depression. They often bought fruit and ‘treats’ and handed them out to children. This, however, did not want to be seen as charity either, so my Grandfather would have the children invite over the other less fortunate children to dinner or to play where they could receive such gifts in a way that seemed natural and not offensive to their parents.
They also built a new house during this time. That statement, much like the car, could easily have been given a chance remark, “Oh, he thinks he is so great”. But, as mother liked to point out, it provided so many jobs locally for families to build and feel the pride of earning their money. This was even somewhat of a strain on them financially, but he felt it important for his community and his family.  He even added new ice houses where fish were stored (this was part of his business) so that more local men could be paid to cut ice for it. In those days, even though they had refrigeration, they still used ice houses where they would cut ice from local waters in the winter and store it in sawdust. This was good honest work, my grandfather knew it and had, himself, once done it. This was another way to provide locally for people without it seeming to be a handout.
My grandmother also bought and made new clothes for my mother and her siblings in order to have newer things to give away locally. This allowed one to casually say, “Oh, sally outgrew this, I bet it would fit your Betsy” and the mother receiving it would not feel she was receiving charity. Just as the dinners she would host when she would ask her children to bring their ‘friends home’.
My mother remembers a few smelly boys she did not consider her friends but her mother insisted on her inviting them over as friends. They would receive meals and be less mouths to feed at home without it seeming charity. Billy is at Sally’s house for dinner is much kinder to think of than a child in a soup line.
At the time, my mother didn’t quite understand, but as she grew older she did and that was when she felt the pride. This left an impression on her and I recall, when I was little, going with my mother when she did various charity things including working for hours at a local place that collected old glasses and worked with volunteer doctors for eye exams and free glasses for people who could not afford it. It was set up like a clinic or office, people could come in, greet my mother who acted, really like a nurse or receptionist at the office, and the people would feel as if they were just going to any old eye doctor. Though they never had to pay,  they were treated with dignity and respect and not just simply handed some money or glasses. They had choices and were actively a part of that choice.
There were many such stories my mother told me of her parents, just as there are stories of my own parents helping others. She was proud of her family and what they did. I am too. And, even if they were horrors or even if he was a Rockefeller, how would that make me a different person? Am I not allowed to grow or change as a person because a relative did something good or bad?
That is what  bothered me most about what the commenter had said, that somehow anything I did would be colored by what my grandfather did. When someone assumed the ‘type’ or ‘box’ into which they could lump my grandparents, they could not do so with me and this made them suddenly think I was not genuine. “If your grandparents bought new cars during the Depression and you are talking about Thrift now, where do I place you?”
It is harder to hate someone when you cannot place them. I don’t like to think I fit into a category, I don’t think any of us do, but yet we are always trying to do so to people. If we can pigeonhole someone it is easier to hate or like them. “Oh, they are that group, no thank you” or “Oh they are that group, I like them” I see this all the time in the blog community. Because I am now a part of the ‘vintage community’ that does not mean I automatically will like everyone who has a vintage blog and what they say or equally hate anyone who has a blog about modern things and technology. I want to always ask why and find out what is behind it all. So, my decisions are based on the merit of the thing or person and not because they fit into some pre-conceived ideal. This, however, is very hard to do. I, too, struggle with it all the time.
Maybe, in some way, because marketing and advertising groups are such a part of our modern world, we cannot help but think of people in that way. Almost like a product: Now where does this go on the shelf? “Empty headed rich person, or integrity-filled poor person.”
If my grandfather had been a Rockefeller and I grew up in the lap of luxury, would my own personal growth about thrift and realizing who I am and what the world is really like be less valid? Are we really to have a different set of rules of what is considered genuine based on someone’s bank account? Is there no growth or realization of change if someone has more money than another?
As it so happens, I myself have been a ‘working class’ girl. The very thing I am supposed to have not wanted for my phantom child that does not exist. Yet, during that time, did I love my work? Not always. Would I like to make a world for a future child where he is allowed more freedom than me? Of course. I think it should be a parents job to allow a child to have better chances then they had, and that does not mean more money.
In fact, I think I would still want my child to work for a bit, even if he didn’t have to as much, so he can understand what it is to work. So he can understand what it is to save and earn and have one’s pride of place based on their own hard effort and work as well as anything they are given.  And, if he chose to not go to university but to be a mechanic, would I love him less or discourage him? No, because he would be following his heart. But, I would want him to do so because he had the choice to do so. It that makes me a bad person, then so be it. Those are the choices Hubby and I made together as criteria for our future children.
As it happens, I am not rich. My hubby and I have worked very hard for anything that we have. I stay home now, not because I am a bored and vain housewife, but because I am learning and actively working at a frugal life-style so it can be so. It IS a job. I make almost all my own clothes, which I taught myself. I cook and preserve so that I can spend less at the market. We do without holidays, so that we can live the lifestyle we have chosen.  We have one car, so there is less expense AND less opportunity to go and spend willy-nilly by me. I have found, anyway, that I am always so busy at home, I haven’t time to go and be bored and shop aimlessly. Though, I have been that person too!
What also struck me in the commenter's tone was the quick assumption about a ‘stay at home wife’. That quick as a wink, ‘here we are again’, attitude that says  the ‘stay at home woman’ is lazy, vain and bored. As if I just lie about all day on pillows of satin, eating bon-bons watching ‘my stories’. In the PC world in which we live, why is that not considered discrimination?
The assumptions we make of others is often based on the material aspect of someone. We see what they are wearing or buying or driving and then conveniently place them in their box. We, modern people, have made it easy for such assumptions. And if we want to take on a groups’ view we simply need to dress and act like the accepted norms. It is almost warrior like, but rather than eating your kill to take on its powers we simply don the clothes or attitude of an accepted ‘group’. And suddenly we magically are a part of it or we take on all that group represents: Instant personality; instant lifestyle.
And isn't’ that what so much of the modern world is, instant? We want it now fast and easy! No thinking or struggle, just pop it on and go to the next thing. This is another reason I like to dress vintage. Many people don’t know what box to put me in. Or, if someone sees me dressed up, they might think I am all prissy and think I consider myself better than them. Yet, in reality I am also as comfortable going home and wielding power tools and doing construction. I can dig in the soil and raise chickens AND dress up and go to the opera. My life is a series of choices based on what I like and what I would like to achieve. Why should I ever limit myself to what I think I SHOULD be doing based on whatever group I WANT to belong to. I never think, “Oh, I can’t do that because this group to which I subscribe would not do it”
That was why the 1955 project also scared me, because I had preconceived ideas of what a middle class 50’s housewife was and did. I didn’t want to NOT do something, yet in my practiced attempts to NOT use certain conveniences, I then learned to do even more. And, as with my own life, I am finding that there was no one type of 1950’s person. The world was made up of many different people all experiencing the same thing in different ways.
I also discovered through the old magazines (as opposed to the modern uber-specialized magazines of today) that women at home not only got to wear nice clothes but also learned to fix the toilet, build a shelf for the kitchen, become a master chef, decorate and paint and the list goes on. More was expected of them and they did more because of it. Not because they were assumed to be a certain way and therefore could only be that person. Today we seem to expect so little from someone.
Well, if any of you are still with me at this point, I just wish to say that I hope this rant is not seen as too self-indulgent. I just wanted to point out that we might view or think we know someone based on some criteria we either have learned or been shown on TV, when often times each individual should be taken on their merit, despite their parents or ancestors.
I am proud of my own mother and what she accomplished even though she was ‘just a homemaker’. I am also proud of my grandparents for having the ability to see the world and community in which they lived and to have done their share. They could easily have walled themselves away and pretended it wasn't’ happening, but they thought about it and made MANY choices to help others to be empowered to work and feel they were still apart of their community and not just receiver's of hand outs. If that makes me disingenuous or living an imaginary life, than I am guilty.
Thank you for listening to my ramblings.

18 September 1956 “Mother’s At Home Continued”

Here is the second and final part of the article on Mother’s Needed at Home.
I want to make sure that it is said that I and I am sure no one else who comments on this blog, thinks any less of mother’s who do not choose to stay at home. Many times circumstances dictate that one is not able to be at home, or perhaps one does feel their following a career is also a boon to a child in the display of the import of one’s self fulfillment.
As I have no children myself I would never ever deign to give advice or to know what is best ‘for the child’. However, for any of you mother’s out there that have to work because you need to but not because you want to, I think we should open a dialogue about the possibilities for their being able to quit their job and stay home.
We have stay at home mother’s who read and follow this site/blog who most likely have good advice. So, it is there for the asking, I believe.
Enjoy this article for it’s advice and for it’s Vintage flavor. I think we all have different reasons or feelings for our having children and I shouldn’t like anyone to feel excluded or looked down upon. Our community, nay our Revolution, is one in which we can openly disagree, yet still have the same focus of family and home being of import to both ourselves and our country at large.

17 September 1956 “Mother’s Are Needed At Home!”

I would like to share this article with you from one of my Better Homes and Gardens Magazines. It deals with rather or not a Mother should stay home with her children. A discussion often happening in the 1950’s.
Many people today think that the 1950’s were simply a series of mindless woman, dressed in pearls and heels, waving goodbye to hubby in a sea of endless modern ranch homes. She would cook, clean and wait for hubby with pipe and slippers and children home from school. This was true (minus the mindless bit and possibly the pearls and heels) for some women.
Yet, we must remember that we are only a few years away from the war years. Women were, even more so than during WWI, in the work force that had once only been for men. Many women chose not to leave these jobs, though many felt it was right and their duty not to give these jobs back to the men. Not because they thought they should stay home and have children, but because it was right that the men, who had gone and fought for our freedoms, deserved the chance to return to the work force.
Yet, even as late as the mid 1950’s, there was still debate about the ‘stay at home mother’. This article sort of sheds light on the fact that some middle class women who did not necessarily have to work, might do so for more money or possessions.
I think this article is worth our reading and discussing. I will share it over the next two posts. (Simply click to read full size version)


I know I have shown this film again, but I thought it would be nice to go along with this article.

16 September 1956 “Fever and Rock N Roll’s Innocent Beginning”

Many may know the song Fever. It has been done again and again by various artists, even Madonna has had a go at it. The most memorable and often associated version of the song was Peggy Lee’s version. This, however, will not appear until 1958.
This year, ‘56, however Fever will belong to Little Willie John.

This  version is quite good. It has such a different sound and esthetic than the version we might be used to. That is due to Miss Lee’s wonderful rendition, which even included some additional lyrics. She gave the song it’s more ‘exotic chanteuse’ sound, I believe. Here is her version, two years from now:

Here is another Little Willie John song from this year.

This year and this decade has many changes in music. Genres are springing up left and right. And this year Elvis is becoming the Elvis we will begin to know. And a movie, “Rock Around The Clock” from this year will introduce teens to Bill Haley and his Comets and the popularization of what the young kids are beginning to call Rock and Roll.
This clip from that film features Bill Haley and two older men have to wonder, what is that music. “It isn’t boogie, it isn’t jive, and it isn’t swing. It’s sort of all three”. It is rather endearing to see the ‘new music’ of ‘crazy teens’ is really just some fun music and good dancing, the ‘sex drugs n rock n roll’ world is a good decade away. And, frankly, they can keep it.

15 September 1956 “Some Scandal Rags, Long Tall Sally, Peanut Butter Cookies, and My Middle Class Slip is Showing”

Here is a Movie Play cover from this month, 1956. I do wonder how Liz Taylor Flirts with trouble. The scandal rags are beginning to get up some steam already.
Here we see promise of ‘Secret Photos’ of Grace Kelly and her new Prince. Though the tabloids do not exist in any way as they do in 2010, we can see the little glimmer of it beginning. As we, as a nation, become more enamored of stars and as visual entertainment becomes more a part of our day, the importance of their private lives increases.

Many know Elvis, but not as many Pat Boone. He is often used today as an almost derogatory description of music of things, which is too bad. Here he is singing Love Letters.

I think the problem that may have arisen with Pat Boone was, as the Tv parade from this month is doing which is comparing Elvis and Pat Boone. This is an unfair comparison. For example, from this year here is Pat Boone singing “Long Tall Sally”

Personally, I think this song does a disservice to his voice and particular crooning styles. And then when you compare this renditon to Little Richard’s

You can see how the youth might prefer the higher kicking style of Richard over Boone. And of course Presley’s version also has so much more electricity and jive.

And, of course, in a decade or so this song, sung by the new group the Beatles, will obviously follow the more rhthmic blue patterns of Richard and Presley and Boone will seem eons away.

Pat Boone was much better suited to crooning, which he did so well.

Now onto the kitchen. I tried this peanut butter cookie recipe that worked quite well. Many Peanut Butter cookies require a few hours in the fridge, but I found these drop cookies to be easy and to taste just as good as an ice box version.
50’s Gal’s PEANUT BUTTER DROP COOKIES
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
1/2 c. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
cream the butter and sugars for 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs while still mixing. Simply add the flour (with soda and salt mixed in) after that and then the peanut butter. And that is it.
Now simply drop teaspoon full dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and make the traditional Criss-Cross pattern with a floured knife.
Bake for 10 minutes at 350 F. I always watch my cookies and when they still look a little raw in the center but their edges are just browning, take them out. Food continues to cook when it is removed from the oven. This is how you stop from having dried out cookies.
My hubby told me he used to hate peanut butter cookies until he had mine. Why, I asked, because they were always too dry, he said. We homemakers do like compliments. And we should strive for moist cookies and cakes, don’t you think?
Yesterday, I felt my middle class homemaker status definitely trumped any 1940’s homesteader in me. I know we recently had a discussion about the comparison and when and if the 40’s homesteading disappeared in the 1950’s. As many of you know, I have hatched and am raising my own chickens. We had five roosters, which we do not need. One, Roostie ( A fine proud fellow who watches his ladies with strength of purpose) is destined to go with two hens to my MIL’s for her to keep. One is for us and the other three were meant for the roasting pan.
Hubby and I talked about it quite a bit and planned on his killing the birds, which I do think he could have eventually done, and my cleaning them. When it came right down to it, with all that I have to do, I decided instead to give them to a local Farm. They have Jamaicans that work there and they were so excited to have fresh young chickens that were free ranged to kill and eat. I knew they would get a just end and be made into lovely food by them ( I am even promised some chicken foot stew, as they use all the bird).
What a hypocrite I am. I have the opportunity to have and raise fresh meat that I know is well treated and well fed and I opt out for the ease of the grocery store. I did feel, at that moment, as if I was feeling what many at that time must have felt: the ease to just let go and leave the ‘farm and the war’ behind and enjoy the convenience of the local super market.
I think all things do just need a good balance. I do make my own in other areas and I do still have my veg garden. And, perhaps in the future, hubby and I will be ready to go down that road, even just for the war time experience of it. But, for now, I have left it to the ‘working class’ and happily popped the pre cut sliced chicken into my cart. The ease of the middle class, cleaned prepared food with no discernable similarity to it’s source.  I can happily flour and fry up chicken for dinner and feed my hens outside the kitchen door and pretend, on the surface at least, as if the two haven’t anything to do with one another.
Yet, I know in the future that might change and that is okay with me. I know, as is true for any of we Vintage loving ladies, we must take steps that are comfortable for us. To some I might seem an extremist in my vintage clothing, using old appliances and reading outdated magazines, yet I know I could still do more. And any of you, who want a vintage life, don’t feel bad if you merely start out with one dress. Or perhaps you secretly wear a garter and hose under your modern dress, just to put your toe into the water. We have to go at our own pace and by taking it one step at a time, it becomes easier; more normal.
So the lesson from this: I always have further to go, another place to push myself or to work toward. Yet, to also look back and be proud of what I have already accomplished and now take in stride as a matter of course for my day. That lets me know and realize, too, that all of us CAN make a better future with our eyes to the past. Simple things at first, but always with the hope and goal for the next thing. And before you know it we may find ourselves in a vintage community of well dressed, well behaved people how are proud to do for themselves and to let others in their community do for them. We can’t do it all ourselves, now can we.
Until tomorrow, Happy Homemaking.

14 September 1956 “Shoes, Shoes, and more Shoes”

We had a quick discussion on the Forum about comfortable vintage shoes. So, I thought a fun post about shoes was in order.
To start us off, here is Gerry Mulligan with “Walking Shoes”. It is a interest to point out here that often in the 1950’s , the music one heard may only be instrumental. It was not all singing as we seem to have in 2010.

This is a 1956 artwork by Andy Warhol. Some very interesting shoe aspects.
(These three images thanks to EspiaCollection.)These two photos from Vogue 1956 show the variety of shoes this year. We see the beginning of the more stiletto heel that will continue on even into as late as 1965. Yet there is more rounded toes still prevalent from the early decade and 1940’s. The teal satin shoe on the top right of the first pick could also be an Edwardian shoe or a 1920’s shoe, yet is availabe in 1956 as well. The vintage look is not ‘one thing’ as we might oven think today. The variety of shoe styles were greatly varied, more so than we might think today.I think these images show a good range of vintage and comfortable shoes. The upper left slip on loafer is darling and shown worn with hose and a dress. Very Vintage and comfortable. I think a modern equivalent could be found. The wedge in the lower right is also easy to wear. A wedge shoe, even a high one, is very comfortable and I have some rather tall ones that almost feel like a bedroom slipper, they are so soft to walk in.
And though we do see the trend toward the very pointed top and heel being introduced, this style of shoe would be more prevalent over all. Where one might choose the more pointed look for an evening where one is not on their feet too much, except for dancing, the black and white add show some very practical and comfortable pumps. I would easily wear the low pumps with the bows on the bottom right all day.
We can’t mention shoes without Elvis’ Blue Suede Variety, as seen here on the Milton Berle show May of this year (1956)

Here we Cyd Charisse dance with the Four Aces singing “The Gal with the Yaller Shoes” from the 1956 movie Meet Me In Las Vegas released this year.

What is interesting, of course, is that she is in fact wearing black shoes in this number with Yellow Spats, but a great number none the less.
Until tomorrow, Happy Homemaking.

13 September 1956 “The Hard Disk Drive is Invented, and More Doughnuts!”

Today International Business Machines, or IBM, have invented the Hard Disk Drive. A hard disk drive is a storage space for digital data. It features one or more rotating rigid platters on a motor-drivenspindle within a metal case. Data is encoded magnetically by read/write heads that float on a cushion of air above the platters. Go HERE to read more about it.
Isn’t it amazing to think how far we have come with this technology? I am certain at this point there was never any though more than for business for these machines. This, as we well know, will change in a few decades.
This film tells the story of the early computer storage drive. It may seem a bit dry, but it is worth it to even see the ladies 1956 business wear. Very interesting stuff and very pertinent to all of us, as we sit sipping our tea/coffee and enjoying the ease and pleasure of our home computers.

Computers are beginning to become a part of offices in a small, or should I say BIG way, at this point. Most offices, of course, won’t have one, but the larger firms in CA and NYC may begin to implement the large business machines for efficiency and accounting.
The movie the ‘Desk Set’ starring Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, which comes out next year (1957), deals with this very topic. Though it’s release date of May 1957 has yet to come, I am sure I would see the trailer for this around fall or Christmas time this year. Here it is.

This is a great movie and you can get it in the corner store HERE. I think there are copies as inexpensive as $6.
Here is a lovely song from this year sung by David Whitfield. After all, it is September.

And, as it is September, Fall is just around the corner here in New England. Yesterday it was such a lovely cool but sunny day, Hubby, Gussie and I decided to have a fire in the outdoor fireplace on our little terrace.
With the smell of ripe leaves and to see the ripening grapes on the vine, we couldn’t help but think of lovely autumn traditions. One of those being cinnamon doughnuts and cider. Though, we hadn’t any cider, I thought it would be fun to use my little stovetop percolator on the fire.
This little pot was used and loved on our sailboat. I recall the cool mornings when hubby and I were playing vagabond for a year and living mainly on the boat. I had forgot he had even grown a thick captain’s beard. The cool late summer mornings on Martha’s Vineyard with the mist rising above the water. You would awake to the sound of the water lapping the sides of the V-berth where we slept and the seagulls mournful cry. The puppies would stir and I would slide out of bed and get the coffee going in that little pot.
Ah, the smell. The brine, the fresh cooling air and that hot burnt rich dark smell of the percolating coffee, if I could bottle that it would be a favorite scent.
But, yesterday we were not on a boat, but in our little yard on our tiny terrace and a fire seemed right. Hubby lit his pipe as I hopped into make the doughnuts. Here is the color version of our little treat. You can see how the flames lapped  up the side of my little coffee pot, turning it ashen brown (it will scrub off easy enough) and the doughnuts. I gave a doughnut recipe to you previously, but yesterday I had a thought. In my 50s Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, it has a ‘quick doughnut’ recipe. This simply has you buy the pre-made biscuits (newly available) and simply cut the hole out and fry those. Now, I have a wonderful biscuit recipe, so I figured I would simply make the biscuit dough, knead it a bit more and try that for a very easy quick doughnut recipe. We were not disappointed!
Oh my they were lovely. They rose even higher and lighter than my other doughnut recipe and were so fresh and good, I hate to admit it, but the three of us gobbled up the whole plate! So, I can’t report how good they are the next day, which I had wanted to find out, but the cool air, the crackle of the fire, the hot coffee and the melt of the sugared doughnuts were too much for us. So, they were gone in a flash.
The biscuit recipe I used is from my 4 May 1956 Post. If you don’t want to revisit that post, here is the recipe anyway:
Yummy Biscuits.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/3 cup cold butter
• 1 cup cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in thebutter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in cream until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.

Of course, don’t heat the oven, but rather heat oil in a skillet. (lard or vegetable oil is what I use. I don’t use shortening, but it certainly would work fine) and then I just kneaded it a bit more and squished it out about an half an inch thick. Then I cut the doughnuts out and as they oil was heating this allowed the doughnuts to rise a bit. Very easy. I don’t use a thermometer for my oil, though I should, I just go by sight. I usually take one of the doughnut holes as a tester. You want it to brown not too quickly on one side and then flip it so that it is not overcooked outside and raw inside. I usually find no longer than a minute or two per side is perfect otherwise it might get too greasy.
This is also one of the times that I use paper towel. Removing them from the hot grease and transferring them to a paper towel to drain and then while still hot, into the cinnamon and sugar mix. Mmmmm, so delicious and perfect for a crisp fall day. Serve these with warm cider or pumpkin ale for an outdoor fall gathering and you will be sure to get praise for very little work.
And, just for fun, Burl Ives’ “The Donut Song”

And let’s take the advice of this song:

When you walk the streets you'll have no cares
If you walk the lines and not the squares
As you go through life make this your goal
Watch the donut, not the hole.

Until tomorrow, then, Happy Homemaking.