7 & 8 April 1955 “Spring Fashion, a Rant, and a Confession”

I thought I would butter you up with pretty fashion pages, skip history and go straight into a rant.

I was thinking today how this journey to 1955 started very immaturely, in a way. I approached it, as most people from 25-45 today probably do, with an almost immature approach. I don’t mean that in an insulting way, but I have come to see our modern group of ‘adults’ as a sort of giant collection of grown children when compared with our 1950s counterparts. Most of us, I know there are many exceptions out there, have never really had to grow up. We wander form our over protected youths to mindless high school to over specialized university. We hold onto our cartoons and toys of youth, or we replace them with new ones. We look around, trying to find meaning and purpose and only knowing, really, that consuming is the only constant. It has always been there. It fills a need. We think, “Oh, I am ‘this sort of person’” and then go out and buy the accoutrement to fulfill that need. Oh, I love comics, or video games, or I love the old toys and things of yesteryear” and we think, in owning these, in somehow having them in our possession we have some holy grail. Like talismans we clutch our items to our bosom and wait for that feeling of worth, of belonging of hope. Only, it never comes. It is just a thing. It might represent something: lost youth, hope for a better childhood than you had, a sense of belonging, feeling that you are part of ‘this or that’ crowd. Really, what is behind any of the trends we need to fill ourselves with is just worth and a sense of self. In the bombardment of consumerism in which we are faced daily, how could we ever feel uniquely ourselves? We try to ‘make’ ourselves through a series of purchases. “I have this or collect this so I am ‘this sort of person’.” But, honestly, we are all just people who are so disconnected.
It is funny to me to realize how many things are at are fingertips. It is so easy to communicate with those we know, email, text, cell, right there at our fingertips. But, now we have all this technology and we find we have nothing to say to one another, we shorten our phrases from their already banal meaning to a few letters or a colon and half a parenthesis. But, are we smiling? Are we winking? ;) Are those two key strokes really expressing what it took poets pages and pain to express? Or, is it our little ‘SOS’ to anyone out there. “help me. I want to feel better. I bought more things and I still don’t feel whole. I am communicating but no one is really hearing me.”I may be alone in this feeling, I know. But, it is still an honest feeling.
So, the point of this rant is that when I first approached this project I thought, “Oh, I really like vintage things. I had always been more ‘into’ the 19th century. Their novels and art and even their clothing, but I am really inspired by the 1950’s so I will try that” When my project began, I promised myself it would not just be about the fashion, rather or not I wore seamed stockings when I vacuumed, etc. And, yet, so enmeshed in my own 21st century consumer society, that my search for the ‘next thing’ was immediately followed by, “alright, I need to buy some vintage dishes and some vintage this and that”. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am still doing that. However, now I find I am doing it not only because I have come to enjoy the lines and style of the period, but because they are inexpensive well made things that obviously do not break down in two years like the stuff you usually get at Wal-Mart, target, home depot etc. Now, I am trying to surround myself with well made inexpensive things, to scale down my ownership and to donate all the things I don’t need or want to those who can actually use them. I admit, there still is a certain ‘magic’ quality for me in old items. I do sometimes come across an old appliance or item that I am sure went unloved and sat in an attic and then I remember, it is an inanimate object. It feels nothing. I am merely transferring my own emotional state onto it. I can hold that old magazine that may have sat upon the lap of an old homemaker while she laughed with her children, now grown and smiled at her husband, perhaps now dead and sat at bridge and gossiped with her friends and neighbors, but I do not get to own her. I do not get to just buy something and magically become transformed to her life. WE live in a time of instant gratification. We are told we can solve all of our problems by buying this or that or taking this or that pill or reading this book with all the answers. But, having something easily is not always worth the having of it. How dare I try and have a life that was fulfilling and rich with laughter and happiness, trauma and sadness, loss over war and coming together in a community by purchasing their old things! It should not be that easy! So, what do you do? There you are sat down in your piles of things that you want to co-opt into your own life and it is just so much accumulated detritus.
Well, I am coming to realize if I want to be, or any of us want to become, more like this or that person or to take on the qualities of vintage times that we admire, we have to work at it. We cannot just buy the product and ta-dah! there we are happy and transformed.  I am finding that what I love and cherish of this generation, their community spirit, their ability to make do and to smile through hardship, cannot be bought. It has to happen. You have to not just wear their fashions, you have to go out and try to make a difference. In your own home and how you respond to things. How you shop. How you connect to your community and family. But, in doing it and failing along the way or being unhappy in it, now you are building character and a real life. I don’t know if I will ever live up to what I think those 1950’s homemakers were, and they probably never lived up to their predecessors either, but in trying, in being self-aware and caring for others, for people more than whether or not you ‘fit in’ or you are part of this or that group or you buy the right things or you wear the right clothes.
Now, I think one of the reasons I have taken to the clothing so easily is not what I originally thought, which was that they are pretty. They are. But, in not having to look at a magazine cover and try to copy it (it is odd as most of my magazines do not have models all over it talking of how great they look, how much weight they lost, or young they look etc) or worry if I need to have this or that style, I feel I have found my own real style. I feel an almost calm about my clothing to know that I can get rid of all those things that are too tight that I ‘might fit into some day’ or things that are sort of crazy that I thought I might wear one day and bought on a whim and it just hangs there with the tags still on. Now, I know I need a certain number of skirts and dresses. Work dungarees. Some nice wool trousers for winter, nice cotton, linen, and seersucker pedal pushers for summer and that is it. I can add to my wardrobe as I like, through my own hand at my sewing machine, or at thrift stores and if I find a deal on eBay. I now can look and feel good and it costs little and I will TAKE CARE of the clothes I have. I actually have a mending basket. Something that never existed for me before 1955. Before, it was just ‘easier’ to toss out socks with holes or sweaters, why not you could buy up some new ones so cheap at old navy etc. But, that is how they get you and that is why we want everything so quickly and then feel empty when we get it without work. There is pride in mending you own sock. I know it sounds hokey, but it is true. There is pride in a neat closet of things you made or take care of and hope to have forever, if you can manage it. The amount of money we spend on ‘just getting some quick things cheap’ add up. We all spend more even though things are so much less expensive today than in 1955. But, this false world of easy pleasure without the work is empty. At least it was for me. I didn’t realize how empty and pointless I really felt until I began digging for this project.
I have come to find the actual processes of 1955 work meaningful. The fact that I can find happiness in shining my coffee pot and canisters. Before, I would not have cared and watched TV instead. I used to play this video game, “the Sims”. I am not sure if any of you know what it is. When the second version came out, I was so excited. It is one of the MOST popular video games ever and even people who don’t normally play video games love it. And, do you know what it is? Simulated living. You make your house how you like it. You go to work and find a career or work at home and raise kids. You have generations etc. Another example of an easy solution to a very natural tendency in people. So, there you sit, your own actual home not being cared for or your friends and family on hold while you slip into the fantasy of this world. Sims 3 is coming out this year and I had to laugh when I heard. This news would have been received with much excitement in 2008, now I wonder, how did I ever have time to play a video game and why waste my time on a false world when I now get to play the “The Sims” in real life. Sure, it is easier to build a house and furnish it in an hour, but it is not as rewarding as doing it over time, with my own hands and mind and then getting to live in it and share it with others. When I heard about Sims 3 coming out, I really thought about it. I realized how far I have come in three months. Who knew this ride would take me to an actual life. This one attempt at trying to buy my way into a new ‘definition of myself’ has lead me to find the real me. I just feel bad to see so many people feeling empty and trying to fill their lives with things or games. Fun and entertainment is important, but all fun and the constant need to amuse or to ‘get away from it all’ is a sad example of a decline of a generation. The world should not be so bad to people that they need to escape into an unreal world or to try and define and make themselves happy through buying things that they think make them into the person they want to be. The real solution is to just work at it. Try and reach out to people and really look at what you are buying. Maybe you want to learn a real instrument instead of playing a video game version. Maybe you want a real family and not just run one on a video game. Just because you dress like Paris Hilton doesn’t mean you will have jets at your disposal and endless travel. But, why settle for a sham life of someone else’s ideal when you can build and make your own so good and so fulfilling and so uniquely your own.
I have so much more to learn and it will be a long time before I can ever fully shake my initial response to things through consumerism. It is so ingrained in all of us, we cannot help it. In yesterday’s blog a commenter pointed out that I said, “Oh I need one of these vintage nut choppers, but I used a knife and board instead” and called me on the fact that I was, at that point, wanting to buy something I didn’t need and in fact felt I did. That is what is so amazing about this project for me. I certainly do not think I am infallible or that I ‘have all the answers’. In fact, I am just learning and in my realizations am probably saying many things some of you already know. But, you see, I am so FAR from where I want to be in this realization that I welcome things like that. On my own I will catch myself in my moments of ‘I need to buy this’, but I don’t always, and that is why I like the community of this blog. I can definitely see, though, that with an actual community of people whom you would be involved with on a daily basis, you would most likely be a ‘better’ person, not because you were trying to be who you aren’t in front of others, but because you are trying to be the ‘best you’ you can and having others around almost fuels you to be ‘good’. It is so much easier to be slothful and ‘bad’ when you are more isolated. Even those of us with busy social lives, compared to 1950’s families, I think there is still a lot of alone time. Today children may have to be driven to soccer and ballet and have this and that and go with friends etc and when they are home everyone is on their own computer or individual TV. That most likely was not happening in 1950’s (especially the computer) there was more together time as you just really had to have it. Even TV time had to be together as there was only one if you were lucky enough to own one.
Yesterday at dinner when I was discussing the new dining room with hubby and gussie they both sort of laughed and said, ‘Until you get sick of it and change everything around again’. Normally I would have laughed and they would have been right. But, I got serious and said, “No. That person is gone now. I am doing this house over both to make a nice place for us to live in as well as a way to just get my life more solid and tangible. After that, I am focusing on my community.” It was odd to hear it out loud. It was true, as well. It is as if this redoing of my home, this settling into this one place, is a sort of cathartic moment to rid myself of all the things I don’t like about who the modern me was/is. I still have that need to consume and shop and collect up things. But, it is becoming less important. Even my decision to construct built in furnishings into each room is almost a physical statement to myself and others that ‘this is it’, this stays here and this is where these dishes go. They look nice and I love them as an object but that is it, I can walk away and care more about other things like people and community. I am hoping, by the end of 1955, that I have done a lot to have my home ‘set’ and I have unfettered myself quite a bit from the modern concept of buy, change, collect up, unorganized and feel better by going shopping and buying more etc. The endless hamster wheel of consumerism is no place to be a real adult or to be a fulfilled human being. I want off, and I am getting off. Who knew buying things could be so harmful and simple things like caring for your home mending socks could be so fulfilling. I don’t want to listen to the modern lie of ‘gimme gimme it’ll make me happy’ any more.
Now, I know, I really do, that I should just leave my house alone and go out NOW into my community. I can harp on about consumerism all I want, but it is a hard habit to break. I honestly feel like my doing over my house (which honestly I sort of had to do as we are turning a duplex back into a single house) is a cathartic moment for me. It is a big part of this year’s project which has come to mean more about changing my personal life into one in which I can be proud. I know that I do not NEED to go out and buy new trim work and paint to make over my dining room. I know I don’t NEED to donate my old stuff and buy ‘new used things cheap’, but somehow I feel like I am in consumer rehab. I am in the rehab center to cure my disease: 21st century consumerism. It is very contagious and it sneaks up on you and it is a monkey on your back and hard to shake.
“Hello, I am 50’s Gal and I am a consumer” I seem to be saying, here at my meeting of Consumer Anonymous. It is not easy for me to shake what I really feel has been a part of my physical and emotional makeup. It is such a part of me that I have to do a sort of personal lobotomy to loosen myself from the grip. I am sure many of you are not as bad as me, perhaps and I am asking for you patience. I will slip up. I will make mistakes and I will fall back into the ‘Oh, I need to go buy that”. It is a hard habit to break, but honestly I am trying. I am doing it because I have seem moments of my life when it has been better that I wanted to do something on my own instead of having someone or something do it for me. That I have felt good, walking through HomeGoods, filling my cart with this or that for a few dollars and then stopping myself and saying, NO and walking out. I like the feeling. When I would spend an afternoon shopping now I spend it in my yard or tearing down a wall or simply shinning my coffee maker. Maybe I am still a product of ‘things’. Maybe in my need to make my home a certain way to feel I am in control of it is still a part of a society based on things, I don’t know anymore. I just know that I do want my home clean and organized and free of unnecessary clutter. I want to be able to go out and be a part of my community. And, please, be patient with me in that respect as well. I want to and need to, but I am a little afraid almost. I tell myself, “when I get the house done I will do this” and I know I should not say that but do it anyway. I do need to and I will try. I think having this project to hold myself accountable for is a major aide in helping to change my life. I think many of we modern people have very little accountability. I am finding when that is gone, many people won’t do or act or live the way that maybe they should. I used to think, modern girl that I was, ‘who cares’. I have no specific beliefs and I felt that most of the roles and rules had broken down and for the better too. You can do what you what, have fun, there really is no ‘right way’ to be. But, I am finding, even if that might be true, there should be a right way. Without structure we can feel disconnected and with no connection we feel little accountability for our actions. Perhaps much of the breakdown of society as we know it IS due to that very fact. What to do to change it, I don’t know. All I know is I have turned to the 1950’s as a sort of guide. A wiser older woman as mentor who does not judge, but by her actions, her clean home, happy smile, nice meals, pretty and clean appearance makes me want to live up to her. Who do we have to live up to now? The other day I saw some modern magazines, women’s magazines, and they all had various stars on the cover in skimpy outfits with headings about who was heavier or whose body fat got caught on the camera. WHO CARES! Honestly, who cares, but many must or they wouldn’t be putting it out there. Maybe, if anyone wants to change their life, they should find that accountability factor. For some it might be religion, for others perhaps the ideals of the past could stand as a guide for them, an older wiser person who, by their example, you want to live up to. Would this person do this or that? No. I admire and respect that person, so I am not going to do it.
That is probably why this project is so good on me. I am and have been such a consumer and a person who wanted and reveled in instant gratification, that this trip to being a responsible homemaker of another era is that much more a stark contrast for me. I am sure there are plenty of you who already ironed your sheets, shopped locally etc, but I didn’t. This somehow makes me a good guinea pig, I think. Speaking of being a Guinea pig in my own experiment, I was a subject of such an experiment:
Yesterday I was hurled into the 21st century. In the moment of it, I first felt guilty and then thought, ‘well this is fun anyway so who cares’. Here is what happened, and this is my confession.
What is a vintage girl to do? Honestly I am not a true time-traveler but in the sense that I am one, I was suddenly rocketed to the modern world in a rush. I felt that at that moment I was a true time-traveler and here is my journal entry from that moment:
“I had spent the afternoon working in the house, as was normal for a Tuesday. The ironing basket called out to me, it’s contents brimming and waiting to be pressed. The day was sunny and I was going to allow myself some garden time as a treat, in between making dinner and my other daily chores.  Then, like a flash of light, I was teleported to the modern world. There were loud noises, flashing lights, and laughter. A group of people were apparently plugged into some odd machine and staring at a wall filled with images as one would see at the picture show! The colors were vibrant and they danced upon the wall. The people seemed to gyrate and move with the rhythmic music that was more noise than song. They pressed their fingers and beat upon a strange series of circles, there were mutterings of “dang, oops I missed’ mingled with laughter as the pulse , the cacophony of noise and sound washed over me. The scantily clad cartoonish people on the virtual stage seemed to mock my crisp ponytail and neat skirt and neck scarf. Where had I landed? Was this some strange new world? Was I even on earth?”
No, I was in my friends living room and they were playing Rock Band. I am not sure all of you know what that it is, but it is a video game that allows you to ‘play’ on instruments that are plastic controllers molded to be like a guitar and set of drums and a microphone etc. I was lured in with the siren song of bad music, flashing lights, and laughter of my friends. I thought, “Oh, well. I don’t get to see this friend very often, so I’ll just join in and that way we can hang out”. Two hours later we wondered where the pretty sunny day had gone and I said maybe 20 odd words to my friend. There was a pleasure to it, but it sort of represented all I had been thinking about that day. The no accountability and instant gratification. Why learn real instruments or just hang out and talk with your friends when you can be a group of grown people ‘pretending to play in a rock band’. It should just  be a simple fun time, but I thought of what I had missed. I had let the rest of my day go. My shirts went un-ironed. My dining room missed a day of my redo schedule. The garden sat, wondering where I had gone, as the sun set on it. Did I have fun? I had the sort of fun I have had in the past, which was actually the future (21st century) but now that sort of fun is ruined for me. I don’t think it is bad, but I cannot enjoy it. There is so much I would rather do than that. At the end of the day of even a simple day of cleaning and decorating, I feel good. I have an exhaustion and happiness and can see and live in my results. After a few hours of such a video game I felt tired, dizzy and dreaded going home and working on dinner. The thing I actually enjoy doing. I can see how easy it would have been to just order pizza, let the house go and continue on. I can see the lure of the modern world and it’s ease, but now I see the result of it. That person I was in 2008, I don’t want to go back. I was a child, I had fun, but now, I actually LIKE being a grown up. I am sure this sounds silly to many of you who are much more advanced than I, but I know for me the realization of adulthood is new and I strive for it. IT will be a long a rocky road ahead, but by the sweat of my brow and the use of my brain and intellect I will build a better me and not be made by the things around me, what I put in the shopping cart and sit back and idle in.
I am not really sure where I am going with this rant other than I want to change, that I know I do, but realize what a long road ahead of have. It will be hard work and I will slip up, but I think that will make the voyage the better and me a fuller more real person at its end. Easy is there for any of us. We can be a rock star with our friends, just plug in watch the screen and push the buttons. But, we can also learn the guitar in real life and play it quietly for ourselves or with our friends around a fire or even put a video of ourselves up on youtube for others to enjoy, but we don’t have to all be famous. I just think that the marketing plays into that need and makes us feel that way. How will we ever be truly happy if we want to chase a false dream and only fulfill it in a false reality.
I hope I can be forgiven. I am back, safely in 1955, but bruised and battered emotionally. You see, I have to realize how much of the modern consumer and instant pleasure world is a part of me? When I begin to strip that away, what will be left of me? Am I person under all my objects? It is truly, sometimes, frightening, but I don’t want to turn back. I realize, as well, that I cannot honestly just live safely as if it is 1955. I am going to continue this year to adhere as much as possible to it, as it is this which is helping me to realize the truth of my modern time and to be a better person, but to be able to touch up and brush up against 2009 whilst living in 1955 is more educational than just closing my eyes, shoving my fingers in my ears and shouting “I’m in 1955! LA LA LA”. I am glad that yesterday happened. It made the things I am finding and learning sparkle a little more today. I felt a little bit more grounded in the present while surrounding myself with the past. This is becoming an interesting ride and I am glad you are all along with me.
I never want to seem like I am trying to tell anyone how to live. I am only just discovering these things new myself and am finding a new sort of happiness I have not felt before. I am not perfect and I have so much to still learn. I really do feel, though, that I cannot go back. I have gone too far in now. To use a modern comparison, I have taken the red pill (whatever color pill it was, I don’t recall) in the Matrix and now I see the reality. I don’t want to go back and lie down in the goo and be plugged into a false world. I think I would rather be isolated and feel what I now feel than to feel connected to others through things that don’t honestly give me any true happiness or fulfillment. That is not for everyone. Many people need that feeling of ‘belonging’. I just wish that feeling could come outside of some of our modern ways. I have not found such a group as of yet and who knows, maybe when I start my vintage club I will meet others as wholeheartedly committed as am I, but until then I feel I may have to bump up on those in the modern plugged in world for moments of that sort of happiness, but like a foreign friend I will be able to visit a little but then must again return to my native land. As I said, this land has a very low population right now, me and I do get visitors, but maybe someday I can increase the population. I cannot completely not be connected to my current friends, but there is a part of me, now, that makes me unable to be wholly there with modern fun. I hope I have made the right decision, but I know I cannot turn back now, I have looked behind the curtain. I know the wizard is just some guy pulling levers and I cannot close the curtain and pretend to believe in the GREAT OZ. Have I ruined myself? Am I becoming an anachronism to my life? Who can tell. Only time will tell. I do appreciate all of you coming along for the ride. 

5 & 6 April 1955 “Churchill, China, Pic-Nics, and Ham Loaf”

5 April 1955: Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister. This must have felt the end of an era. Churchill had such an extraordinary life and if any of you get the chance you should read about him. I have always felt we, Americans, owned a little piece of him, as it were. He was, after all, half American, for whatever that is worth. As his mother, Jennie Jerome (later Lady Randolph Churchill) was an American heiress born in Brooklyn New York to the wealthy speculator Leonard Jerome. She, too, merits reading up on. She had an interesting life and her second and third husbands were the same age and younger than her son, Winston.

After the outbreak of World War II, on 3 September 1939 the day Britain declared war on Germany, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and a member of the War Cabinet, just as he had been during the first part of World War I.

Will the U.S. soon be at war again?

U.S. leaders are convinced that the Chinese Communists are about to attack the offshore islands now held by Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces. The Reds are expected to hit the Matsu group between April 15 and April 30, the Quemoys a month or so later. To inform and prepare the Congress and the people, the White House this week scheduled a series of bipartisan conferences on the danger and the problems the new estimate presents.

If the U.S. bows before Communist aggression again, the watching Asian millions may finally decide that the U.S. is, as Red China has charged, merely a paper tiger, of no value as a friend and ally. [Here we see the fear of the Red Menace moving into Asia. Had we acted differently, I do wonder how it would now be. What is incredibly amazing to me, is there is little talk of our connection with China, and now this “Red Fear” we once held for the country has come true and yet we are in great debt to this communist country and indeed, continue to support its way every time we buy anything made in China. Something to think about.]

This past Saturday’s Vintage Dinner was at Vintage friend’s house. We did a Summer’s Coming “picnic- theme”. I wore a cotton sun dress, used one of my summer wicker pocketbooks and even went without hose (which would be appropriate at a picnic at say a park or near the beach). I am in hubby’s study here, as you can see a pipe and a pair of typewriters. I am wearing a petticoat but for some reason this shot does not show off the fullness of the skirt.

Some of the fare (here shown in Vintage friend’s collection of Pyrex Gooseberry pattern) included":

Pea and Cheese salad served cold of course. It was so good and very summery pic-nic!

Here are here home-made baked beans, which were divine.

Of course, apple pie, what would an American Summer picnic be without one?

Vintage friend and I ADORE lemons and limes. We have been known to eat the fruit straight! MMMmm. She makes a mean lemon bar and for this summery setting she made both lemon AND lime squares. It was the first time she tried the lime squares and used her own recipe. They were quite fine and had a nice tart feel. The checkerboard effect was not lost on the party-goers, receiving “oohs and ahs” when they were presented (and quickly gobbled up) I had to show a close-up of the texture and color.

We even enjoyed chilled Sangria with fresh fruit! We all left that evening dreaming of warm days spent in hammocks, wading in the cool salty waters and sandy footprints in the wake of slamming screen doors. It is coming, for those of us here in the NorthEast, Summer will be here before we know it!

We may all have those black frozen bananas in our freezers waiting for banana bread and the like. Well, in one of my ‘new’ 1952 Good Housekeeping magazines, there is a great section on cookies. These chocolate banana drops sounded good and I had the bananas so I made them. They were quite good, my only problem with them is that they were really more like a cake batter and I think would have been better baked in a cake pan and frosted with chocolate icing. I may, however, make some divine white cream and make the remainder of them into little cookie sandwiches. They are also good with peanut butter smeared betwixt a pair of them.

   

In my “etiquette for every day” book from 1952 that I won on a readers blog, the following information seemed interesting concerning manners in public:

Since the beginning of World War II there has been a noticeable decrease in politeness in public places. Probably because of the tension of the times and the crowded conditions in most American towns and cities, thoughtfulness and consideration for others in streets, buses, theatres, and other public places have greatly declined. This is unfortunate because the resultant irritations make it harder for everyone to maintain a harmonious outlook on life.

It seems the current level of manners were beginning their wane at this point. They mention how the relationship between the sexes has certainly lessened, “…men and women today enjoy a casual social relationship in which they can grow to know each better in a short time than some of our grandparents did by the time they had reached the alter.” It will interesting to see how these changes were viewed by the grandparents and rather or not in the freedoms of that time, we have perhaps gone too far today or are we better off today with the more casual relationship among the sexes?

Sunday was a great sunny warm outdoor day. I rose at my new weekend time of 8:00 and went down to the kitchen. I put on the percolator and made some sausage patties out of ground pork (adding my secret ingredient syrup of course!) While that was sizzling away and the coffee aroma was wafting through the air, I began chopping some walnuts. I need to get one of these vintage nut choppers. I have seen them before and just always forget I need one until it is time to chop nuts. So, my knife and cutting board did the trick. Next, I headed out to the chickens and let them out. They were so happy to stretch and ruffle their feathers in the warm morning sun. Our rooster let out his crow and I thought better of having let them out so early on a Sunday morning. But, he crowed once, gave me his usual quizzical look as I opened the door to the run, tossing scratch and leftover toast and greens to his wives, then returned to scratching the ground. Into the Chicken house and there found the mornings eggs, warm and waiting. There is nothing so lovely as a fresh egg.

Back to the kitchen. My recipe for waffles calls for stiff egg whites to be folded in and to leave ‘some of the peaks unmixed’. I did. The vintage waffle iron began to smoke, this is the ‘sign’ for me to unplug it wait a few minutes and plug it back in. Then I know it will be the right temperature to receive the batter. The waffle iron is actually from the early 40’s and I imagine it is a wedding gift that I just can’t part with, so I put up with it’s habits rather than get a ‘new fangled one’. It works and so why get rid of it, right? I am a child of the depression and the war (well at least for this year) so I am not going to get rid of my old standbys.

In goes the batter and before I close the lid, I sprinkle on some of the knife-cut walnuts. They bake in wonderfully. While the first one is cooking away, I get out my butter, put it in the pan and just melt it to softness, adding some honey. I use the mixer and whip it up making a wonderful concoction to place on our warm waffles. I set the table.

Now the dogs are down and want to go play in the sun. I open the curtains in the old dining room (where we are still eating until the new one is done) and let in the morning sun. The percolator has stopped perking. So, I pour out a cup of coffee and bring it up to hubby. He is sound asleep. I open the curtains and let in the morning sun. It is now 8:30. I tell him he has 1/2 an hour until breakfast and coffee is there on his bed side table. He answers with a muffled ‘hurmphh’.

So, by 9:00 we are at the table eating wonderful walnut waffles with whipped honey butter and syrup, sizzling hot sausage patties and juice and coffee. We need to fill up and get our energy, for today we work!

I am glad to have instigated a weekend routine. It has done wonders for our weekend. We were less tired this morning, not having slept in too late, and we accomplished so much yesterday in the yard.

It was one of those great Sundays rather vintage or not, though it did seem so. Hubby cutting away at some trees I wanted cleared for my mini orchard. At one point, I had a rope around the oak we were felling and he was cutting away with the chain saw, I trying to make sure it did not hit anything other than the ground (including myself!) I don’t feel bad losing the tree as it will be replaced with 10 fruit trees and the woodpile for next fall received a nice new stacking.

I am not sure if everyone has or can have spring burns, but we love them here in this family. My MIL actually plans her return to the cape from Florida so that she can have the month of April to burn. She, like me, is an avid gardener and the collecting of twigs, pruning of bushes and trimming of trees followed by a large bon fire and a glass of wine are enough to make one giddy with the thought of it. I was impressed with how much we did get done. We were able to get down some large branches that had partially fallen from a heavy snow we had had in winter. We lost an entire pine tree in the back yard and it blocked the side path to our backyard. Hubby made quick work of it with the chainsaw. I was even able to get some more postholes dug for my veg garden fence I am putting in.  By late afternoon, we rewarded ourselves with a bottle of wine and a sit down to watch the large fire burn down. Hubby snapped this shot, at least I managed to get one glove off to drink my wine, showing off my nail polish (varnish). Just because a gal has to work out in the yard doesn’t mean she can’t wear lipstick and nail polish, right?

I thought this shot said it all for the afternoon.

Of course, a busy homemaker still has to make dinner, so in between digging fence posts, hauling wood and drinking wine, I threw together this for our main course Sunday dinner.

Here is a recipe I used and what is should have looked like. It came from one of the lovely cookbooks one of my kind readers was nice enough to send to me. I did not use ground ham, though as I had none, so I used ground beef and ground pork. I have no pastry bags (they are on my list to get) and so tried to make do with parchment paper. I have tried this in the past with frosting for cakes with some success. But, with heavy potatoes, they were having none of it. I ended up with a handful of mangled potato and parchment, so after some diligent scraping I was able to save enough to make the coating. I spread it with a knife and then made the design with a fork. The result was pretty enough and tasted delightful. The leftovers today made a fine sandwich.

Well, I have been busy plugging away at my new dining room today as well as my usual laundry day. I am glad I have learned the skills I have thus far, or this remodeling project would be even more messy and unpredictable, but I find that the chaos and indecision of a remodel seems to work rather well within the framework of an organized homemaker’s week. I cannot wait until it is done, however, and I can focus on the fun bits of putting my china in it’s new home and hanging new curtains etc.

Well, it is far too late for me to be up and I need to get off to sleep so I will have energy for tomorrow. I hope every one had a wonderful weekend and until tomorrow.

Happy Homemaking.

4 April 1955 “Taxes, Work, and Remodeling”

This is from the April 4, 1955 Time magazine and thought it was interesting:

In 1949 Joan Ring of Clayton, Mo., a 17-year-old high-school student, made a pilgrimage to the shrine at Lourdes, France, where the Roman Catholic Church has officially affirmed miracles of healing. Joan, a devout Catholic, had undergone an operation for cancer and was seeking "spiritual help" for recovery. A little more than a year after her visit to Lourdes she had completely recovered. When they filed their joint 1949 income tax, Joan's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Vincent P. Ring, claimed the cost of the trip to Lourdes ($2,787.19) as a medical expense.

Last week the U.S. Tax Court, in a precedent-setting opinion ruled that the cost of Joan's trip could not be deducted. Before Joan went to Lourdes, said the court, "she appears to have been making a normal recovery without need for further medical services." The ruling implied that even if a church-accepted miracle had occurred, the trip's expenses would not be deductible. The court found nothing in the law "disclosing intent to treat as an expense for medical care the cost of travel to a place for the purpose of seeking spiritual help."

What do you think about it? Should she have been able to deduct it? Was it part of her healing? Also, can we, today, deduct medical costs? I don’t know.

 

 

I was thinking I need to really list more of what I do everyday as part of my blog. Every week I add another item or chore to make it ‘second nature’ and part of my routine. Now, I often do more in the first half of the day in 1955 than I would do in three days or a week in 2008. I like that they are becoming commonplace to me, in that I don’t think to list them, but today I was really just thinking about it. Remember, always look back to look forward and appreciate today! So simple and yet SO effective.

So, here it is noon on Saturday. I awake at 8:00 I have started to instigate a routine on weekends, as during the week I was very regimented, but then come weekends we were willy nilly. Now I don’t want to be, as I have said before, a time Nazi, but really more structure usually results in more accomplishment which equals happiness  at the end of the day. So, during the week I am up at 7:00 thus on Saturday and Sunday up at 8:00. I feel better, and really I think it is better for my hubby, as he enjoys writing and the weekends are his main time to indulge in it, so wasting the day in bed often leads to more regret than restfulness. Now, back to my day: Up at 8:00, made steak and eggs and toast. Juice, Coffee, table laid breakfast at 8:30. Then, after breakfast, my hubby and I , as we were not being slug-a-beds, had just finished a nice breakfast in our pajamas and could sit back, enjoy our coffee and talk. And we did. We had a good hour long talk about many things, some of which I want to discuss this week such as, art and the aspects of consumer culture etc. Then, he was off for his morning run, while I attacked the kitchen. Dishes washed, counters scrubbed, floor vacuumed (I love my Kirby) swept and mopped with my ‘Busy Gal’ cleaner (just inexpensive store brand pine-sol). Next, the bedroom. Close the windows which were open to air the room and blankets, make the bed, put a clean set of pajamas under our pillows. Put away clothes on our dressing chairs from night before ( I stopped doing it the day of, as I had seen it is good to air your clothes as well, as if they are not going into the laundry hamper, they need a good airing before joining their compatriots in the closet.) Kirby the rug and floor and then shower time. Today is ‘hair washing day for me’, so I did that, dressed and set my hair for tonight (it is our Vintage dinner and at Vintage friend’s house this evening, so no dinner cooking for me tonight!)Then, off to the new dining room. Sanded the patched holes from last night and reapplied a second coat of wall patch.  Removed base-boards (they are just the hideous builders boards, as we call them, that they always throw on inexpensive construction. It will be replaced by a nice thick 8” baseboard, applied and sanded and eventually painted by me.) Now, a toast and jam, a cup of tea and I am sat down to write this blog. All by noon on Saturday.

It was only when I stopped and was planning the rest of my day that I thought, wow, think of me April 2008!I really can do much more than I ever thought. Learning to budget time and not getting distracted with tv is amazing. It is like gaining super powers or something. “Faster than a Swiffer, able to leap through projects in a single bound, Quicker than a microwave, it is Vintage Housewife!” Now, there is a superhero I can get behind! Flying is great and all, or seeing through steel, but making an entire meal form scratch, baking a cake, ironing, rebuilding a room and still being all dolled up for lunch with the girls? That is amazing! And the best part, it is actually attainable. I don’t think I will ever master flying, but I can do the other. We homemaker should form our own Superhero Legion.

Now, as for part of today I will be working in the new dining room. Inspired by the wonderful flikr site here that one of you was kind enough to lead me to, I am trying to document me more. This site has all these wonderful photos taken by the fellow’s mother. She is still living and writes such wonderful stories to go with the photos that her son is putting up. She was a photographer and documented her early marriage and projects and their son. I am really enamored of her and am finding some interesting parallels between us, so I am going to endeavor to do more images, though staged as she herself did, of my exploits.

Thus, here I am plastering in the future dining room. I had to bug hubby to get this shot, but I dug out my old tripod and am determined to use it again. The wonderful lady at the flikr site I mentioned, staged many of her own shots and used a tripod, so there is no reason I cannot do that, as well. I would like, at the end of this year, to have a pictorial record of my accomplishments. I realize doing this project WHILE I am renovating seems crazy, but what a great time to do it, really.  I am really learning time management this year!

Here are some of the holes I have to deal with in the new dining room.

I am really going to consider this the first real ‘re-decorating’ room for this project. The future dining room is in fact a small room off the kitchen hall that was serving as my husbands study. He is now, happily I might add, safely tucked away in his new study which is easily twice the size of this room. He is surrounded by leather, pipes, tobacco, typewriters and computers, in other words he is in his own version of heaven. Now, the new dining room has also served as a second kitchen in this house. This house we have only lived in briefly before our return to the Cape. It was always a rental/summer house. We even divided it into a duplex and when we first moved back last March, we lived on one side until our tenants lease ran out. So, the kitchen for one side of the duplex is now going to be the new dining room. Walls have come down awhile ago (before 1955) to turn the house back into one house rather than a split house. So, this room is rough. There are large holes in the wall, as evidenced by this picture. That is the whole where the plumbing had to be brought through for the kitchen sink that sat in here, now I have , smartly I think, had the plumber bring the plumbing back into the closet of this room and it will become a wet bar. There will be a place for pretty bar ware (vintage of course) and all the wine glasses, and it will be nice, I think, to have running water in the dining room. For drinks and, well, water. So, I wanted to just show some of the bad holes and mess of the room so that when it is done, you can experience what a change it has undergone. I bought all the lumber I need today, decided on the two paint colors, the sky blue for the walls above the wainscot and the ceiling. This will be the backdrop for my mural and the sky ceiling. The woodwork below as well as my antique corner cabinet( I got this at a great deal when we still lived in the city when I was ‘antiquing on the cape’, having no idea where I was going to put it, but somehow I must have known this dining room would be in my future.) This will receive the same color as the woodwork, as will this antique dresser I now use in my kitchen. They will be trimmed out and essentially become built ins in the dining room. I have not yet decided on a fabric for the dining chairs which will also cover one of my wing chairs. The room is fairly small, but I have made room for a corner with a wing chair. I just think a comfortable chair in most rooms is important, even in the kitchen. You often find yourself wanting a comfortable place to sit down and I can see the dining room full of guests after a vintage dinner, cards and drinks and a nice set down on the soft chair watching the fire. There is no fireplace now in this room, but my plan is to install these wonderful vent free gas logs in each room. (well, my plumber will install them, they need to be plumbed to gas)They are nice as they have actual flame with real looking logs and they also heat wonderfully and thus we won’t have to rely on electric heat. And, who ever heard of a proper dining room without a fire? We use our dining room a lot and being able to have a fire at a push of a button will be nice.

 

I want to have a day for correspondence, as many of you have been nice enough to write me ‘snail mail’ so I can experience such communication as I would in 1955. I keep putting off getting to all of it, and I thought, “how would I deal with this 1955 style? Easy, just make it part of my day. My routine can be set by me, so gosh darn it, set it!”

I was going to do it on Sunday, as that is often a nice relaxing day around here, but really I need to address it more during my week. So, I think Monday mornings, pre-blog post kitchen cleanup will be my letter time. I even have this darling desk set to help me!

 

Well, I need to enjoy this ‘cooking free day’ and get back to my dining room project and back to my garden. I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend and I will see you again come Monday.

Happy Homemaking.

1 & 2 April 1955 “Lending, Chocolate Cake, Shopping, a Breakdown, and WHY”

Boston's First National Bank has started a new-type personal loan based on the revolving credit fund used by business. The bank extends credit to a borrower based on how much he can pay back each month for a year, lets him write checks against it, charges him 1% a month on the outstanding balance and a service charge of 25¢ a check.

As long as he keeps up his monthly payments, the borrower can go on indefinitely drawing checks against his limit. To date, about 2,000 people have been approved for the revolving credit plan (average credit: $450), 100 applications are being made daily. [Here we see it beginning. The concept that you have ‘free money’. Just spend with ease and pay it back when you can, there is plenty for all, spend spend!]

Colored Tires. White-sidewall tires edged with a band of blue, green or brown were put on sale by U.S. Rubber Co. The color band starts at the outer edge of the white sidewall and runs to the tread of the tire. Price: $16 to $17.50 above present white-wall prices. [I wonder, when did whitewall tires go out of fashion? I am not old enough to remember them on anything but vintage cars, does anyone know?]

I made one of the best chocolate cakes so far the other day and here is the recipe.

I made my with two 9” layers, as that was the amount of pans I had, but would like to try it in the future with the three layers. I used the seven minute frosting and made it chocolate and then I toasted coconut for the top and sides. This was the fluffiest from scratch cake I have made thus far and it was very easy, as the ‘one bowl recipe’ which this is called, made it a joy to make.  Here it is in all it’s glory.

I received some wonderful books from readers. This first set is from a lovely lady who is lucky enough to live on a farm in Nebraska and has some wonderful farm stories and life with cows worth reading. Thank you so much and we shall all be benefitting from these in the future.

I also was the lucky winner of this book from Haven of Home’s giveaway. There is some wonderful stuff in here that will begin showing up in my blog. I found some interesting bits in here where they say that manners have ‘changed greatly since the end of WWII” so here they are already noticing the change in people’s relationships to one another, interesting stuff, I promise you.

 

Now, onto decorating. I found some great bargains for my ongoing redecorating vintage style:

Here is a wonderful set of Heywood-Wakefield side tables. Two are matching lower end tables and one it a little taller square lamp table. They are the most wonderful golden honey maple that I used to hate. Now I really appreciate the color and the craftmanship of these tables, though mass produced, is rather fine. Solid maple. Their modern clean lines would work with modern 1950s furniture, of course, but also blend nicely with antiques and the more ‘early American’ look I am going for.

Here are a lovely set of gold chairs. Again, in the old days I would have thought this hideous, but now I not only enjoy their playful take on the classic wing chair, I am not going to recover them but actually enjoy the nubby gold fabric. It fits with the overall color scheme of the house.

I love the pleated skirts and buttons. They are actually spot on same color, though you cannot tell form these pictures. I am not sure if they will live together in the new living room cum library or if one will end up in the new dinning room makeover. Oh, I forgot the best part the side tables were $35.00 for all three! The two chairs were a grand total of $40.00 (that is for both). They are all so well made and would cost so much more even at an IKEA which would end up breaking apart in a couple of years and be made of laminate or something.

This darling little desk cost me all of $18.00. It is sitting right now in the corner of my kitchen but is destined to replace the antique table I use for my vanity. I love the paint and stenciling, but alas, it will be repainted to go with that color scheme. I really wanted multiple drawers for my vanity and this fits the bill. Don’t mind the hideous vinyl floor in my kitchen. I had nothing to do with it. When I originally planned to do over the kitchen, I was going to put in a nice wood floor, but now am going to do a vintage inspired vinyl or linoleum floor for easy clean up and the eat in section ( the future breakfast room off the kitchen) will receive the wood floor.

Now, my current project is the new dinning room. I had settled myself to wallpaper it. I spent some time at a local store the other day trying to decide. I had just settled on this one when I came across this one in the store. The first I would have to order and it is not cheap, wallpaper. This one they had a few rolls of and was marked down to $9.00 a roll! It is actually more blue than the picture shows, but also has touches of green and tan in. So I got two rolls for $18.00 as opposed to one roll of the above for $70.00! Since then, though, I may have decided to use the wallpaper when I redo my little sitting room where I study and write this blog and instead, paint a mural on the walls of the dinning room. I have not painted in some time and it would allow me that pleasure as well as making a nice view for the room we do spend a lot of time in. For, until the breakfast room can be done (who knows when) we eat all meals in the dinning room. There is a door in that room that leads to our side yard that will receive a patio by my hand and it over looks the chickens, which are fun to watch and would make a great spot for summer alfresco dinning. There will be picks of this progress, I promise.

   I also bought these two pair of ‘costume’ jewelry earrings to start a nice vintage earring collection. I have only a few pair of vintage earrings and they are real pearls and nice, but I want some variety and I don’t need to spend a lot to look nice. Both these pair cost me $10.00 total! I do like them, what do you think. I would like to convert them to pierced though, any suggestions?

Now, onto my rant for today, which is really just a self-realization. I seem to be having a lot of these lately.

I felt bad that I have not posted a blog in the past two days, but the research I began on the U.S. budget and about the contribution to litter, health, and overall culture that the growth of fast foods has put upon our country has seriously depressed me. I wanted to retreat into my safe world of vacuuming and cooking, but somehow it felt as if I was hiding out. I, since then, have had a good ‘sit down’ with myself and have come to realize I need to strike a balance. I cannot feel bad that I need to focus much on my home right now, as I am still in the process of organizing and really trying to get everything ship shape, so it can run smoothly and that I can have a home that is easy to maintain and in which to entertain. In so doing, I won’t, at the end of that, just have a nice decorated organized home to sit in reading vintage magazine in pretty clothes, but will, in fact, have a center to continue my research and to try and help and create change in my own community.  A place to commune and meet to try and change my community for the better. I really want my eventual ‘vintage club’ to become an organization of like-minded vintage loving people, but not merely to just enjoy one another and vintage, but to take that vintage spirit out into our community. I want us to help and grow our community. To try to encourage others to shop locally and raise money to help locally. I am not sure how to go about doing it, but I am going to try. I figure, I don’t have children and the time I would spend on their welfare can go to this endeavor.

I realize, since this project began, I have probably thought about children more than ever in my life. The thought that I could have a well run home and be an adult made me feel I could, in fact, contribute to the positive growth of a child and make a better person for the future. Now, I feel I really want to try to help and inspire and encourage those who are already here. I don’t know if a gathering of ladies who like to wear girdles and gloves can solve any problems, but I know if we were to get together and try, we could do something.

I have, as well, come to terms with the idea that I do need first and foremost to continue training myself in my homemaking skills. I need a home that is ship shape from bottom to top. When my home is set to receive guests, is easy to maintain its cleanliness and I can whip up a buffet for 20 at the drop of a hat, I will be poised to go out into the world, much in the way a 1950s homemaker most likely did. I know that women of this class and calling did volunteer work. They helped in their neighborhoods, held committee meetings, and took care of their family, their homes, themselves. These are the real hero’s I now look to. I know it can be done, as they who have gone before us have done so. I may not, through my future small group,  be able to change the world nor maybe even do more than make a small ripple in my community, but at least I will go down fighting. I will know at the end of each day that I have lived for myself in my habits and for others. This is a feeling I don’t want to lose and in fact want to get more.

I mentioned to a friend that the past two days have sort of been a revisit to the ‘modern world’ somewhat in that I felt really affected by my findings so that I didn’t get my housework done, we had Chinese food last night, instead of my cooking, I went shopping (though only vintage shopping) instead of writing my blog, I watched some “tv” (it was vintage don’t worry and no real commercials) and now I felt horrible. She said, “Oh, that’s so sad. So you can’t relax and just be lazy, that is really sad” and I was shocked by her answer. “I don’t want to be lazy!” I said, “I don’t want to just relax and think about myself and how I feel and hide away, I feel better AND happier, doing things. Laziness no longer  a reward to me. I would rather have free time working in the garden, or organizing a cabinet, or doing something. Just sitting and watching things on screens is not fun for me. Or buying something to make me feel better; to fill the emptiness inside, I don’t like it anymore and probably never really did”.

It was at that moment that I realized how much I have gained already from this experiment. I have already changed a major part of my modern personality: that I used to think reward is sitting on my bum, staring at moving pictures and eating. This was once a treat. Something I did look forward too (no wonder I have gained so much weight in the past few years!) This is the ‘ideal day off’ that so many people think homemakers have, “Oh, you must get to sit around and watch t.v. and eat bon bons all day!” Ha!, now that is not fun but a punishment!

So, again, my vintage reality has stepped in to save me. 1955 took me up by my shirt collar and said, “What are you doing? Don’t waste your time wallowing in your own misery and just don’t WASTE YOUR TIME”. We all only have so much time, really, so why am I going to want to spend it sitting and staring at moving pictures or just buying things that I don’t need?

I feel renewed and am more ambitious than ever to get back to it. I can try to sympathize with my 1955 self and think of the days during the war when you were exhausted and depressed and just wanted to curl up in a ball, but you couldn’t. You WOULDN’T. You’d get up, dust yourself off, and get out there and do it for others if not for yourself. Then you’d be taken out of yourself and really feel a happiness that I have never felt before. I am not even really doing that much for others as of yet, except trying to make a nice home for my family and friends, but that already gives me more satisfaction than watching t.v. and eating snacks, the old ‘relaxation’.

I thought of the grandmother in the British reality show, “the 1940’s house”. I haven’t seen it in a few years and I own it, but can’t really watch it as it hasn’t been made yet, but I suddenly recalled the end of it. How she, the grandmother,  was so greatly changed by her time in 1940’s. How she stopped shopping at big stores and didn’t buy prepackaged anymore. Her grandchildren said, ‘Yea, we used to have a cool grandmother and now she is gone off her rocker’. That really hit home for me. Here she was, an older woman and a grandmother and all she had really learned was to grow up. She didn’t need to be ‘cool’ to a 10 year old way of thinking, but in fact be a grown up. To take responsibility for her actions and her family and her community. She took a few minutes to just think, “ I actually spend less by shopping locally and not just buying cheap prepackaged foods. I help my local community as well as get to know them. My free time is spent in working and enjoying it not watching t.v. and just ‘goin down the pub with my daughter ‘. I don’t know why I hadn’t remembered that before, but I recalled how it had changed her.

I feel the same. This has changed me. I can’t ever totally go back to that person on Dec. 31 2008. I can’t. And, really, I don’t want to.  I have so much learning and growing and growing up to do, really. But, you know what, for the first time in my life I WANT to be an adult. Here I am closer to 40 than 30 just realizing it, but I don’t think I am alone in our modern world in that. I don’t want to be a perpetual baby trying to ‘find myself’ and only seeking personal enjoyment in video games and tv and entertainment only. We are so over stimulated, that we bore so easily and constantly need to be entertained, like great spoiled babies, wanting someone to rattle their keys in our face to amuse us. I actually want to grow up. I want others to feel this feeling. I cannot explain it. It has an elation and happiness to it that I cannot explain. I have never ever felt this particular form of happiness before. And all of it came, along with the sadness and frustration, from opening my eyes and looking around at the world in which I live. REALLY looking at it. Asking myself WHY?

That should be the vintage creed ‘WHY’. Why am I buying this? Why do I need to rush. Why do I watch so much tv. Why do I think it is cheaper and better to shop at this chain? Why do I only wear my ‘nice clothes’ at funerals and weddings? Why can’t I cook my own food? Why can’t I sew my own clothes? Why can’t I grow my own food? Why WHY WHY!

Even if it is only in a small way, in some little aspect of your life, stop what you are doing and ask yourself, why am I doing it. It might be a good thing that you should continue to do and do more of! Or, you might wonder, why am I doing it? Did the tv and magazines and popular culture tell me to do it?

Just ask why.

So, here are some of the findings that made me feel sad and as if I could do nothing but curl up in a ball or try to ignore it:

Uncle Sam has never had trouble spending the taxpayers' money. By 1960 it had more money to spend than ever: the federal budget grew from $42.6 billion in 1950 to $92.1 billion in 1959. After World War II the government had sharply reduced its expenditures on defense from a wartime high of $83 billion in 1945 to $42.7 billion in 1946. By 1950 national defense spending—at $13.7 billion—only consumed approximately 35 percent of federal government outlays. Although defense spending soared again during the Korean conflict by more than 75 percent, it fell again by 1960 to less than 60 percent. Payments to individuals, which in later decades often meant welfare or social security, remained at roughly 30 percent of the government's outlays during the 1950s.

Each year since 1969, Congress has spent more money than its income. The Treasury Department has to borrow money to meet Congress's appropriations. The total borrowed is more than $11,000,000,000,000 and growing. Even when government officials claim to have a surplus, they still spend more than they get in. We pay interest on that huge debt. And now the Treasury is having trouble finding lenders!

In Fiscal Year 2008, the U. S. Government spent $412 Billion of your money on interest payments* to the holders of the National Debt. Compare that to NASA at $15 Billion, Education at $61 Billion, and Department of Transportation at $56 Billion. -- As of 28 February 2009, the total interest spent so far this fiscal year is $148 Billion.

Imagine if we spent half of that ‘interest payment’ money on free college education and free healthcare. And so many people still feel that those two things free are somehow socialsim, but our money going to pay interest on money borrowed that I government chose to take from places such as China which is COMMUNIST, I just even can’t imagine it. I really needed this trip to 1955 to see that ‘our America’ is now really slipping away. Pride in local business and economy is replaced with easy spending at large chains that just give more money to those we are already in debt too! How DARE they have 412 billion in interest and NOT have health and education for all? What happens when China calls in the debt? What if we don’t have the money (which we don’t) then what? So right now, our government is telling us that is it more important to try to pay down loans we could not afford more than the education and health of future generations. NO wonder we are a nation of spenders without thinking, that we have so many people defaulting on loans they could not afford originally, this pattern of spending and throwing the smoke screen of ‘oh, no don’t have health or education free, that’s socialism’ while they grow the government and in its debt bigger and bigger.

I am actually quite scared. I thought my biggest worry would be if I could handle my girdle or if I felt that time would seem to restrictive in the 1950s instead I am seeing how sad I am, representing those women who set out to make a new world from their homes by caring for children and keeping the home fires burning to only end it all in a world such as this. I am honestly not being dramatic, now, especially after I started looking at spending and such, so disgusted by the very act of going out and buying anything from someplace that is not a little mom and pop, as it feels dirty to me. I know a lot of you will think I am crazy or silly, but when I think that I have gone into Walmart and purchased things it now makes me actually feel dirty, as if I was cheating our world and stripping away the america we could be for all of us and not just for a few who are on top. We are basically living in a Consumer Dictatorship. Free market is now a joke, as who can be that happy American pulling himself up by his bootstraps, starting his own business, when he can never compete with the top 3 corporations. And, when they begin to fail, like GM, the government just throws ‘our money’ at the problem, while if ‘Joe Smith’ down the street started a business and it began to fail, the best he could hope for is bankruptcy and possibly losing his house.

So, now if someone were to ask me ‘what is the hardest part about tying to live in 1955” I would have to say “Having my eyes open to our modern world and that none of the good things I see in 1955 could really exist for us anymore and I don’t know why they ever left us”.

Our national debt in 1955 was 209 billion today it is 11 TRILLION. when I used my inflation calculator it told me that the national debt in 1955 put in to today’s money would be 1 Trillion. So, our national debt is ten times greater than 1955  and we had come out of WWII and the Korean war. Something has to be done.

There is a great quote from William Weld (a good Bostonian) that goes, "There is no such thing as government money - only taxpayer money."

30 march 1955 “Academy Awards, Beauty, Food, and Spring Cleaning for your Life”

March 30, 1955 Brando and Grace Kelly wind for “On the Waterfront” at the 27th annual Academy Awards.

This New Yorker is actually from the 26 of March 1955, but I forgot to picture it before. I think the image is very telling of the times. The bucolic setting, the innocence of the children, the serenity of an autumn New England day as a jet cuts across the sky. The ideals of antiquity are now being poised to receive modern life.

I know some of you have asked about beauty and personal care in the 1950s. So, I thought I would show some articles and images from some of my magazines.

This is rather sweet how they encourage you to help and guide your daughter through a good beauty routine. I need to up my game, as I thought I only needed 100 strokes to my hair, but I guess I was wrong. I do know, that hair washed once a week and brushed thoroughly shines wonderfully. I realized another savings I have come upon with my 1955 life. I used to wash my hair alot. I would shower, not everyday, but at least five times a week and my hair is thick and needs conditioner. I now wash and condition my hair once a week. That means I use my shampoo and conditioner only four times a month. I can now get five months use out of what was one months use! I am not sure when the daily showering/hair washing began, but I can bet if we trace it far enough it will lead to some advertising on soaps and shampoo. Your hair does not need to be shampooed that often. Think of all the water, energy, money and waste if we used 1/4 of the bottles of shampoo and conditioner per person per year. Now, I still shower more than once a week, but I use my trusty friend, the shower cap. I do not, however, shower every day. I now have a good wash up on days I don’t show and probably shower three times a week of which one of those days is to shower and shampoo. It might sound disgusting, but I do not feel any dirtier and in fact think my hair looks the better for it. I keep coming upon these little realizations and they are amazing. I just really thought about it the other day, wow, five months of product out of my old one months supply. And the amout of plastic I won’t be throwing out, the amount of money I will save, and the energy costs. Again, something done to be authentic to the 1950s has lead to a green decision without my knowing it. I think it is funny that marketing and advertising follows trends, so as green is now the ‘it’ thing it uses that. So, people can feel green by going out and buying more things. We just respond to change in this way, “Oh, I need a new way of thinking, let me go buy the stuff that goes along with it” when, really, instead of buying green bags, use bags you already have or take some of your old shirts or clothes you don’t want and fasten those into green bags, but now our response is to buy more things. I know we reuse the bags, but do you sort of see where I am going with this. Even green cleaning products, silly. You can make all you need with vinegar, soda, pinesol, bleach and water. Use an old bottle you ALREADY have over and over again. Decorate it, like I and some of my followers did. Just because some product comes out in a new shape bottle with cooler writing you are still buying things that have to be put into plastic bottles. Here is an example of SC Johnsons approach. See, how happy and earth friendly this page is, but you can make your own green products and use the bottles you have.

Now, I was suppose to be talking about beauty, but you see how these rants just come upon me. This is, however, how my days often will unfold. I will be doing something or trying something ‘vintage’ and realize how ‘now’ it really should be.

Here is an article on antiperspirant use. It is scary to me how they point out in this article that the aluminum works well to keep you dry but that it can irritate and ruin your clothing. “However, because they check perspiration so well, they have a faithful following”. I know that many studies have shown that the aluminum in antiperspirants are harmful and can lead to Alzheimer’s disease. I tried to find a woman’s product that did not contain aluminum and had a hard time. The idea of not sweating was so important that good sense was set aside for social stigma. It is odd to me, too, as these women’s grandmothers would certainly have had sweat and the smell as part of their life and thought little of it, save using lemon verbena water or something. I think I found another chemical product that used advertising to promote the need to ‘not be sweaty’.

And, finally, here are some sweet beauty tips:

I am sort of behind in my food discussions here, so I have a couple of meals to cover. I wanted to make a souffle’ with some left over pork shoulder, as I had mentioned in a previous blog, so it would be a ham and cheese souffle’. I could find no recipe for this, so I simply created my own using the basic souffle recipe I had. It turned out lovely, but I used a too large dish. I actually have this dish in the next size down, too, so I could have really made it look spectacular, as I made the ‘paper crown’ for it with wax paper, but as the dish was too large, it did raise properly, but does not look like it in this dish. I was so proud of it, as I served it, it stood so tall and was so light to eat. As I was preparing it, I saw how similar it was to making a cake. The beating of the egg whites, the beating of the egg yolks, folding in the ingredients, and honestly it looked like cake batter as I poured it in. It was heavenly and light. I am really beginning to see the skill set grow in cooking. As I have mentioned before, what used to seem like a random assortment of recipes to follow, are now really displaying the various similar traits. Now, I know when I look at a new cake recipe why it needs this or that and I am now rearing to make my own. I mentioned to Gussie yesterday that I want to make a maple walnut two layer cake with a maple cream cheese frosting decorated with crushed walnuts and topped with a circular halo of whole walnuts. I can see it in my mind. I tried finding a recipe for a maple walnut cake but could not find one in my old books and magazines, so if I can find a maple cake, then I will simply alter it. Although I really want to just try, based on my growing cake knowledge, to make up my own recipe. If it turns out good, of course I will share the recipe with you and pics.

Now, onto another dessert, that is all eat up now, is a blueberry apple pie. I mentioned it before that I was going to make it for our Saturday dinner and I did. I had some left over fresh blueberries from jam in my fridge and some apples, I had not enough of either to make a blueberry or an apple pie, so I combined them. This was also really a made up recipe. I used my ‘easy’ crust recipe that I have listed before where you use shortening and add boiling water etc. It really is so simple and this time it was wonderfully flaky. Almost as good as my lard crust. It was not too sweet as I mixed the fruit fresh with one cup sugar and I made a topping of butter and flour to crumble on top. And I squeezed half a fresh lemon on top before I popped it in the oven. It was really good, if I do say so myself, and I do! I know the crust looks a little sloppy, but I liked the rusticity of it. I will try my hand at fancy braided crusts and such in the future. Here is is waiting for coffee and me to devour it.

Here are my lovely Chicken croquets I made for our Saturday Vintage Dinner. I was so proud and they were so good.

Here is the recipe:

You will see it says to serve with Cream sauce. That is simply the plain white sauce recipe I have given in a previous blog, but make it with 1 cup cream instead of milk. I have not tried the sauterne Jelly, but will next time. Sauternes is a French dessert wine from the Sauternais region of the Graves section in Bordeaux. Sauternes is made from Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscadelle grapes that have been affected by Botrytis cinerea, also known as noble rot. This causes the grapes to become partially “raisined”, resulting in concentrated and distinctively flavored wines. Sauternes is one of the few wine regions where infection with noble rot is a frequent occurrence, due to its climate. It is a sweet dessert wine and it is commonly served with Fois Gras (which I adore!), caviar, and pates. This wine is fairly expensive due to what goes into making it and there are really no domestic versions worth mentioning (however, if you know differently, please let me know as I love a good dessert wine!). I have heard there is a California version, but that it is not very good, I have not had that type. I would, and probably will, use an inexpensive Riesling when I make this sauce. I know it is a German wine and not a French wine, but I think in cooking and wanting to save on budget, the sweetness of a Riesling would work for this recipe. If anyone tries it let me know or if anyone wants to spend the money on a good Sauterne and use it in a recipe, let me know how it tastes. I would probably save the ‘real deal’ for a special occasion, Thanksgiving or something. If you have not heard of this wine and would like to try it, let me know what you think, oh, and for those of you who don’t know it is pronounced “So-Tairn” I know sometimes people feel funny asking for something if they are uncertain of how to ask for it. Anyway, here is the recipe.

Okay, so how I actually made my croquettes, which I was so proud of and I really liked how they looked on the table. Was as follows:

I used boneless chicken thighs, as they are less expensive and dark meat is much juicier in a croquette. I think the white meat would be nice, but really liked the more moist quality of a thigh and it the cost can’t be beat! To moisten the ingredients, I did not use the white sauce but used their first recommendation of the 3/4 cup chicken stock and 1/4 cream. So, I took my chicken thighs and boiled them earlier in the day and put in my various spices that I like. I put in about 4 cups of water, let them boil and simmer for a few hours as I was about my day, until it boiled down to about 2 cups. Then I took my 3/4 cup of stock and the rest went into the freezer for future sauces and soups. You could use canned stock in a pinch, but I like making my own stock as it is easy, less expensive and I think much nicer and you can control the sodium more. I also chose to use fresh cut cilantro in lieu of the parsley. I am not sure if cilantro would have been used in 1955, I need to check on that, but I really like the taste and it did add a nice bite to the croquettes. So, I shredded the cooked chicken and mixed the ingredients, adding the above sauce of stock and cream as needed an shaped my little pyramids. Then I rolled them in bread crumbs (if you have any old croutons sitting about, these work great too!) and I popped them in the freezer for about 1/2 hour while I made my cream sauce. Don’t let them freeze, because when you deep fry something you want it to be close to room temperature so it doesn’t cool the oil. For my cream sauce I used the rest of the mixture of stock and cream that didn’t go into my croquettes and added that with the flour to the butter as I made the sauce. I put it in a serving pitcher and set it aside. Before I fried the croquets I dipped them in beaten egg and rolled them again in crumbs, this gives them a nice coating, then into the hot fat. You don’t really need them in there that long, just enough to brown the coating, as the chicken is already cooked from making the stock. I got many raves from these at our dinner and will definitely make them again, next time with the Sauterene sauce (or Riesling sauce). I think they would be a great answer to leftovers. Really any left over meat would be lovely this way and breaks the monotony of leftover predictability.

Now, with this ‘gourmet’ recipe, I used a recipe from my Campbell’s soup book. I like the idea that I am using a book that teaches you ‘high cooking’ and paring it with an advertising book that I would have most likely got as a promotion at my local grocer. That is the joy of cooking. Gourmet does not have to be hard, nor does it have to be exclusive. If you pair things that sound as if they would be good together, most likely they will.

Now, when I used this recipe, I did not make the sauce with Campbell’s chicken and rice soup, as I really don’t buy canned soup and enjoy making my own. However, with that said, I am certain it would be good and easy for a busy mother to use the soup as directed. I used, instead, the same sauce I made for the croquettes. It was lovely and tasted great and so no need to have another type of sauce with the dinner. Oh, and as I used bacon for this recipe, I put the bacon fat into the stuffing with the egg to hold it together. It was lovely and the tomato was just cooked enough.

So, after I prepared the croquettes, I put them in a pan and then I put in the tomatos with the stuffing, but did not cook it. I put the whole thing in the oven and 20 minutes before my guests arrived I turned the oven to 350 and it heated up the already prepared croquets, and cooked the tomatos. Then I just had to reheat the sauce and serve it all. The clean up was easier this week as well, as I am getting more skilled at doing things in stages and thinking ahead to what can be prepared and heated at the last minute. I can see now how women with multiple children ran a home and still put on lovely meals. It is just training and practice. When you approach this type of work as that work, but if you also love it, as I do, then multiple tasks become easier and in the efficiency of it you also garner more pleasure as you test yourself and think, “Oh, I can do one more thing, or Oh, I am going to make the soup from scratch or the cake from scratch etc.”

Yesterday, Sunday, was a good day. The three of us, hubby, myself and Gussie (yes, she is sporadically around) had a good lazy but productive day. It was raining. It was that good heavy Spring New England rain. It falls straight down, with purpose and hope, wetting the birds, the ground, those leaves that missed the rake. The light is soft grey shot with moments of bright. The tip-tapping on windows in my little sitting room gives me leave to stay inside and not feel the guilt of the approaching planting season. Instead, that busy yet lazy energy of a Sunday morning was put to the kitchen and its increasing list of little odd jobs. Today it was the pantry. Gussie and I took out everything! The kitchen was littered with canned goods and things long forgot in the dark recess of the pantry. When I do my little breakfast room addition there will be a new pantry. One I have oft dreamed of and imagined. There will be a window and neat white shelves edged in vintage shelf paper. Drawers below, tall spaces for cookie sheets, everything labeled and lovely. No have twisted bags of chocolate chips with ill-used twist-ties, but honest clear jars, standing ready and at attention, the soldiers of the cooking world; Ready and clearly labeled for battle. That, however, is in the future. Now, my pantry is a fairly large but deep and dark closet. It is the perfect place to hide out, if you so chose, for you could slip there, on that top shelf behind the countless bags of opened rice that you meant to condense and next to the odd batch of hideous Halloween plates that someone brought to a party and you hadn’t the heart to throw away. You could safely linger there for months, never being spotted and you’d have many cans of beans and various goodies to keep you going.

So, all of this came out as well as the two closed cabinets above the stove. It was all laid out upon the kitchen table and Gussie and I looked at each other, then the piles and stacks of things, and with a nod of a surgeon to the nurse, dug in.

This was rather cathartic and we dubbed it the ‘official’ beginning of Spring cleaning.

I have a darling set of vintage milk glass spice jars. They have been patiently awaiting their proper labeling and filling. Today, we did it. They needed to be scrubbed and washed and then I ran them through the dishwasher (ah, it’s good to be middle class in the 1950s) . I used a very 1950s idea of applying your own decoration to make something match your home, but did it in a very 21st century way. I scanned a Pyrex dish with part of the pattern that I collect. I then added the name of whatever space would go in that jar and printed it on sticky paper. The result is darling I think. They have great lids that screw on and a little shaker top that are not on in this picture. I think the result is darling, as they are milkglass and the rooster image from my Pyrex in my color is very effective, don’t you think?

So, I had to sit down, with all the spices I use and collect up before me, and consider, what are the 12 most used? I have so many spices and began sorting through realizing I use this most often this only in certain things, this for holiday cakes etc. It was really a great mini-exercise for the overall project of doing over my house; my life. Sit down, put all your cards on the table, what do you do most, what is a dream or a plan for the future, and what is just left rotting in the back shelf. By going through and check-listing out your life, you can decide what is worth keeping, worth striving for and what you realize is just something you are holding onto that would be better tossed aside. Spring cleaning for you life, I like it! Let’s all do it, shall we?

Happy Homemaking.