10 January 1957 “Gay Little Dots, Spritz Cookies, and The Art of the Book Continues”

I thought I would start today with this lovely ad from my 1956 Better Homes and Gardens. It is for an Armstrong floor. First of all, to some it might see a bit ‘icky’ perhaps like something someone grew up with and loathed. To me it has a very Doris Day movie set feel.
There are two things I love about this ad: First I really adore that floor! A lovely 50’s Grey (not the bland darkened sad sea gray we see so often today. I believe Pam at Retrorenovation.com calls it Graige-which it is!) I am sure this is that grey I often see if fabrics, lampshades, upholstery on vintage items, somewhere between a fine men’s flannel suiting (think The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit) and a soft bunny. Now add to this good background pink and blue and white dots and you are in heaven. Well, at least I would be in Heaven. I was thinking how lovely this would be with robins egg blue (as pictured) but still punctuated with Reds and Butter yellows. It could be a dream. And those swirly brackets might seem rather Three’s company (decade’s away) I think they are rather fun. If we decorate with things that might not seem ‘in’ but are joyous to us, then we never have to change them or feel we aren’t quite ‘keeping up’. There is much to be said about consistency and constancy. Particularly in today’s rapid changing world where even our phones are not expected to live out the year!
Now, the second think I love about this ad is the word ‘gay’. I have tried, here and there, to incorporate more 50’s words into daily usage. My favorite is the word, “fine”. If you pay attention to speech in movies from the 30’s to the 50’s you will often hear things such as:“Well, fine, just fine” for something being good, or alright or ‘cool’.
Therefore, the use of the word ‘Gay’ to mean fun, happy, darling I am trying to bring back. When I was young the term “Gay” meant two things, one being a person with that life choice OR mostly to young kids, dumb or stupid. Such as, “Those pink legwarmers are so Gay, you should get the neon green” or some such. You get the idea.
Now when I read in my books, magazines or see on my TV (which is no tv at all but simply old shows sometimes played or old commercials) the word “gay” it means the polar opposite. It is fun, wonderful.
“What a lovely gay print that fabric is, won’t it make darling curtains?” And so on.
So, to all you vintage lovers out there, why not try to re-introduce the word for its original meaning and see how many people join you after awhile.
These don’t look that amazing, but they were rather good. Yesterday I used one of my Christmas gifts, my cookie press, and made some spritz cookies. I love these cookies and always have. My own mother used to make these in every concievable shape and style and had them dipped in chocolate or coated in bright sugars. They were the perfect tea cookie for bridge parties, teas and holidays. I recall getting to help turn the dial on the press when I was young. Of course, I never learned to make the cookies, as I never learned any Homemaking skills. I believe my mother just thought it was a different time (the 80’s) and I didn’t need to know. So, I never bothered.
I am glad to say they are rather easy to make and a joy to create. My head is spinning with the ideas of ways to make these cookies. There is a thin and ridged disc that makes long thin cookies great for dipping or for halves to sandwich cream frosting in between. I imagine gay little pistachio flavored green cookies (ah ha, see ‘gay’ meaning darling, I told you…)and robins egg blue half dipped in dark chocolate. Oh, the cookies I shall make.
Here is the Recipe I used from my Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book.
Now, as you may or may not know, a big part of this year for me is Art & Craft. This month and next I have set myself the task to create, write, and illustrate a children’s book. I showed a few sketches before. This is a sample page. It is not done, by any means, but you can see the various layers. The little girl, Imogen, needs more layers as does the background. This scene will have flowers, fence, building and of course, the Hen, Buttons. I was excited to find the font I would like to use, as you can see here in the sample text, as it is a very classic children’s book text.
I cannot help but be influenced by the art and children’s illustrations of the 1950’s. In fact, I want to be, my only fear is that I am so immersed into it, it will only seem derivative of that time rather than original work. We shall see what we shall see. But, I really enjoy the process and style and I love working with colors. So, all round for me, it is fun but VERY challenging. There is much that goes into a book such as this, but since I have made sure that some part of each day goes to it, I hope to follow through with this first big Art & Craft task.
Again, let me know what you think. This is not a finished page by any means. It needs many more layers but I know some of you have wanted to see the process of build up of how I work, so there you go.
I hope all are having a lovely day and 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?”

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

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

23 July 1956 “The American Dream Home”

I think what a 21st century visitor would notice at first about middle class life here in 1956 is the size of the homes. They are diminutive by today’s standards and are not all full of brand new plastic Eames chairs as we might see in the magazines of the time. There would be much ‘recycling’ of items handed down, borrowed etc. The  middle class homemaker would look at you oddly if you said ‘recycling’, for you see being Green here simply  means being smart and frugal. Thrift, it seems, is even taught in high schools and at home. A ‘consumer economy’ has not yet set itself into the psyche of the American public.
There was an increase need for homes after the war. Returning soldiers were already husbands or soon to be and they were getting ready to feather the nest. Many had GI bill aspirations to college and all facets of the middle class (even the lower rungs) were beginning to have a taste of a life they may not have considered before the war: college, their own home, a sense of economic growth. All of these things were held like shiny apples before the donkey cart to the new American middle class families at this time. Yet, these families came to them with the inante thrift and frugality of Depression Children and War Time Ration still fresh in their minds. They also felt their country was now set upon the eve of a Brave New World and all in it would now be done for the good of all.
What is interesting to me is that many things today such as food and clothing are dirt cheap comparative to 1956 yet housing is the opposite. The above kit ranch house of 1200 sq. feet cost $6030 at the time. That is comparative to around $35,000 today. (the image came from a nice Flickr site HERE, they have other houses and prices listed) I can’t even imagine a piece of land that cheap today.
In my research for this post I read a modern article about recent home sizes. I thought this an interesting quote from a real estate agent on L.I. in New York from a modern newspaper, "You know, we are very tenuous," says local architect Ann Surchin. "No one knows when the next 9/11 will happen. And these houses represent safety — and the bigger the house, the bigger the fortress."
I had to laugh at that. 9/11? I mean come on. I am certainly not belittling what happened, but here in 1956 people not only remember a world war that has maimed and killed friends and family, people are still living daily with a very real fear that at any moment the Atomic bomb could come crashing down on them. And yet they have no problem having one bathroom for a family of five or having older children (even teens) share a bedroom. Rather than seclude themselves in fortresses they cannot afford, they open up their new little modern homes with ‘window walls’ and patios to Barbeque with neighbors. Even wealthier individuals who summer here on Cape Cod do not all have mansions. But, their quaint little cottages are going to be decimated with Mc-mansions in 60 years.
So why such a great divide between houses then and now? I think the real answer, again, is the media. What do we watch? What do we see on tv/computer: Perceived wealth; shows like Cribs and many design shows portray homes very large and beyond many peoples means. We don’t even realize anymore that half of the shows being presented are just really highly advanced 30-60 minute ads. Because we find ourselves wanting to emulate the show and buy and have the things the characters have, this really is effective advertising. We are unable to distinguish the reality from the fantasy. We are SO plugged into the digital/media/ad/entertainment world, that our brains have trouble distinguishing the difference. When you consider we mostly give our mind these false images,  it follows we then succumb to wanting what they have. There is a realness to it: I see all that wealth and stuff, they have it, it seems real, I have this card, so now I want it and have it.  The advertising of today is so genius and smart and sophisticated, even what you look up online is collected and fed back to us in adverts that sell to our own demographic. The level of marketing is more advanced than the intelligence we had access to when in WWII. Advertising here, in 1956, is still a young art/ad man drawing out images and coloring them in to be placed in magazines. There is an innocence that still exists not only in the ads themselves, but in the very nature of the people. In some ways we are so removed from them by how we think, it is as if we are a different species, breed to buy.
I shudder now, when I think of the design shows I used to watch when they would just gut and tear out any kitchen and replace it with the latest style. The idea of using what we have or making do and making it pretty seems completely gone. Which is odd to me when I think the average homemaker or wife today has SO much at her fingertips as far as design inspiration and lessons on how to do it all, but it seems it has just become another form of entertainment to watch OTHERS do it and then hire someone to rip out and replace.
A homemaker in 1956 would not even have access to the money we see today and yet would use what she had to make her home lovely. A woman who was a homemaker in her 20's in the 50's told me she wanted to redo her bedroom and wanted valances. She couldn't afford wood, so she saved up heavy cardboard from boxes, bought fabric and glued and made valances and matching pillows and bed skirts. You couldn't tell the difference, she told me and I believe her. Especially when I think of what house wares today ARE made of and where they are thrown together.
I don't always want to end up seeming to be playing the 'its better back here' game, but some how it always happens. I think really it is more, “Oh, they did that, then why can’t we do that AND still move forward”.Even if you think of me, "Well, your not really there, so of course it seems better” There still seems to be lessons here in frugality, creativity, and action. That means even if you are not a  time traveling homemaker like me, you can be a thoroughly modern Millie and start taking advantage of what our 50's sisters did with the power and ease of today! Why spend what we perceive of as less at a big box store for particle board, when you can use scrap wood you might have, a jigsaw, some paint, and fabric and make a custom item fit for you, for less!
Here is another quote from that same modern article on house size. The man has built a large house and says, "I always wanted a house big enough that my kids could be in their room screaming, and my wife could be in a room screaming, and I could be somewhere else and not hear any of them," he says. "And I think I have accomplished this with this house, because this house is so big that everyone has their own space."
I think it is odd that this man should not mind that his children or his wife ARE screaming, as long as he does not have to hear it. I think that says so much about modern family and community dynamics. We don't care what happens to people as long as we don't see it. Who cares that our cheap products are made by children in china, as long as I don't have to make it or see it. It all makes sense. Yet a father in 1956 would not allow a child TO scream in his room for it would firstly upset the family and secondly he would, hopefully, want to know why they are screaming. Because if it is for fun then you have to learn that you cannot just scream when you want just because you are in a big place. How does any of this prepare us for the real world. Does that mean if you go to a large library or the airport, which is also large, you can scream at the top of your lungs? This bigger house size merely adds to the unrealistic atitude we have and give to children who then have to go out into the real world. It also shows our own increasing inability to accept a new reality here in our country. Bigger and more is not better and it is not only leading us down a bad path, but really not the unique original American ideal.
The lead me to consider that increased house size actually affects our overall attitudes. No wonder people are so rude to one another and staff at restaurants and stores. When you have your own bedroom and bath and rarely see your siblings and family members (even to eat) there is no need for compromise. There is no working it out with your siblings to get to the bathroom, so you get what you want, when you want it. Now add that to the instantaneousness of our world. Tv, computers, phone , texting, microwave food, drive-thrus, its all there cheap and ready in a second and if it is a moment late, look out we will shout at you! We want it and we want it NOW and we want it BIG! (Would you like to Super size that? It’s only 20 cents extra for a Venti)
I also find it interesting that the 50’s woman will have to spend much more time IN her home than the modern woman, yet has so much less space. But, to a person whose job it is to maintain the home, decorate it, feed a family and have time for her extra curricular such as reading, sewing, knitting, art and so on, a small house is a boon! It is odd that as the decrease in home food prep goes down the kitchen size and cost goes up. If you were to see this on a graph it would be two lines diverging drastically. And the increase in money spent on rooms where little happens save microwave use and heating up prepared food, we could really have 5 x 5 kitchens with a  microwave a few burners and a small stove. But, of course, a bank of freezers and ice boxes would be needed.
I have felt this need to enlarge and live big in my own home often. Before 1955, I always was planning a large home. My ideas and dreams often had endless rooms. But, as I have become a homemaker, the appreciation of smaller space has actually begun to really shine through. At the end of last year (1955) we moved out of our house that was twice the size of our current old antique cottage so we could rent it out. We now literally have 1/2 the size as when I started my project and probably have closer to what an average homemaker would have had at the time. Initially it required me to really downsize and many of those things are still boxed in our out building/barn waiting for a yard sale. Many of the things I had originally intended on keeping but lately I have really begun to see that I have been living without them for the past 7 months and have not noticed, except that there is less to dust and organize. Smaller really is a part of a proper vintage life. Even if we consider the size of 1950’s car, it was large, but not like the monstrous 6000 lb vehicles we have today with tv panels in each seat and ipod docking stations. Our cars are more advanced than the home of 1956, but are we happier, more organized or smarter? I don’t know, I think not.
  This house size also got me thinking about kitchen size. Many of the kitchens in my 50’s magazines, though they are ‘redone’ modern versions are still very small in square footage compared to today. When we first moved back to this house, I kept redesigning my kitchen over and over. I started with additions and breaking down a wall into another room (all on paper of course) and pouring over my vintage magazines for ideas and Craigslist for vintage appliances. I had slowly lessened my plan to no additions and just removing a wall that separates my little sitting room from the kitchen to enlarge the space inside. Since our Holiday at Home and my increases desire to sew more and do more art with my non homemaking time, I am really rethinking the entire idea. I do still need a better vintage stove and I have an old 50’s icebox (refrigerator) in storage waiting to be redone, but do I really need more space? The kitchen we now have was added on in the 1900’s and redone in the 1950’s but I stupidly removed the old vinyl (this was years ago) and the original handles to the cabinets. There is very little space in there, yet I have really had no trouble preparing meals, baking a cake and getting hubby’s lunch together all at one time. As it is mainly just me in there, there is no issue of a crowd.
Our Staycation really has had me look at our home in such a new light. The small house became the quaint sea cottage through the perception of our Holiday at Home and now, though I again view it as our main home, have begun to appreciate it’s size. Luckily I added a barn type building a few years ago that I can turn into my sewing/craft/art/50’s club location, so really there is no need to add to this house.
So, if any of you are on the track to redoing any of your home, I ask you to sit down and think about how you really use it. Think about what you do in the kitchen and what would help it out. When you are on a holiday or in a holiday cottage or camping or something such as that, do you enjoy the simplicity of that? If so, then your home can reflect that ease and comfort. You don’t need dirt floors, but you could possibly pare down the amount of dishes you have (make them be a collection you love so each time you drink or give a guest a drink, it is from something you have chosen. It has meaning and artful purpose). I think we just have so much STUFF today, that we don’t really even see it clogging up our lives. It fills every nook and cranny and we give over our lives our contentment and happiness to all this stuff.
I know for me it has been a gradual process over the past year and a half to really come to terms with the STUFF and see it for what it is. And if we are to have stuff around us, let it me things we feel connected to and have personally chosen. The positive aspect for we vintage women, is many 1950’s items are still fairly inexpensive (as the fad grows, this will become less so of course) so sell off 10 items you don’t care about at a yard sale and take that money and buy one dear thing you cherish and put the change in your pin money. It can be very liberating.
Now, from a simply esthetics standpoint, many of the modern huge houses are just ugly. They have no proportion or beauty. They almost feel like an aniseptic office building.The first house here has no trim or ornamentation, nothing to break up the endless expanse of brick and office building windows. I would not want to pay the ac/heating bill for this.
Yet, consider these little 1950’s homes. Consider their charm and position in the landscape. When one has less to build more can be done to it to make it special and livable. (this image from RetroRenovation.com check it out to see more on prefab 50’s homes.)
Here are some house plans from my magazines. (click to enlarge) and you can see how small the rooms actually are.
Even consider something as simple as the outdoor room. Here we see a darling 1950’s version.There is small space, but it is used wisely and you can see it is also practical. There is a place to eat, barbeque, prepare food, but also lawn and garden tools are neatly stored and easily reached. Inexpensive items such as peg board is used with style.
Though this is a lovely modern outdoor room, it almost has a cold feeling to it.  I wonder how often that huge grill gets used and that great expanse of space for dinning, where is the intimacy? I am not saying large is bad, when done right and one can have an architect and many friends, but for the intimate needs of a small family on a fixed income, this would be shown as their ideal today. There would be no ‘cute and clever’ solution for them. But, then again, why bother, we can just charge it all, right? And then go off and work more hours to pay it off while not using it and the kids are inside on the computer or texting anyway.
So, house size may seem a simple thing, but once we really start to break down all the factors of cost and emotional connections we have in small as opposed to larger spaces, I feel it is just another layer of the modern dilemma. This is one more point where we have been lead astray from the 1950’s to today that does not, in my opinion, make for an easier or better life. So, next time you are planning a room or house or even apartment, really consider our 50’s sisters and what they had to work with. They were clever ladies from which we can learn a lot.
If you would like to read the article where I took the two modern quotes HERE it is.
Have a great day and Happy Homemaking.

9 June 1956 “Becoming Our Own Domestics and Living In Our Own Five Star Hotels”

I was thinking today how I treat my “work time” and my “me time” ( a very modern term, I know) quite separately. And although the ME in that statement might seem rather 2010 more than 1956, I believe the 50’s homemaker, without the psychological explanation of what she was doing, was rather doing the same thing. To treat that ‘work time’ as very much real work seems an almost alien concept to most modern people. When you understand that you suddenly see why it is so undervalued or not valued at all. Why people consider it only drudgery, even people who have to work very menial ‘paying jobs’ most likely consider the Home Arts more chore than challenge, more Criminal than Career.
This was how I came to see this in myself today. I was about my usual ‘daily routines’ and had just collected up all the washcloths, dishcloths, etc, that I change out. I collect them up daily for their eventual weekly wash day. After that I go about and lay out their ‘new’ replacements. As I laid out, on my freshly cleaned sink, the new dry iron and folded dish rag, I felt as if I was the ‘maid of the moment’. That I was, in fact, the domestic ( a very real job) and that the “ME Time” Me was reaping the rewards of such a thoughtful and efficient housekeeper. Certainly my historical counterpart felt very much the same in that she had a job to do, she did it to the best of her abilities and then had time and made time to read, relax, craft, make herself up, be dressed for the shops and when hubby was home, have time to show off her skills at cooking and baking at home gatherings and enjoyed keeping her hat and gloves on and being ‘treated’ as the lady in her friends home for their gatherings. No over analyzing needed. Her job was real, seen so by society and therefore she did it and also had a Life. In many ways we have no ‘outside’ life and we still make no time to do, ugh ‘housework’ that’s drudgery. Why make your bed, it’s just going to get messed up again any way, right?
Well, many people rush about all year and give away a week or two a year to go on holiday. For that chocolate on the pillow and those few moments to read by the pool or share a nice meal with loved ones. For me, and I think for the 1950’s family (at least many of them) such treats were enjoyed as a part of normal daily life. Even breakfast, for example, was a place where people daily were treated as if in a lovely little diner or restaurant. Again, you, the Homemaker, might be the chef and then waitress, but if you do a good JOB then when you magically become the breakfast guest along with your family, won’t you be happy for those flowers on the table or the few kitchen plants you keep in lovely ceramic holders that you trade out for centerpiece. To have that nice ironed linen napkin on your lap as you sip your fresh squeezed juice? Why, the syrup is heated so as not to cool the pancakes and your little butter pats are soft to the touch, what great service! Conversation (no texting or tv), laughter and sharing of one another’s life or plans for the day.
We’ll send something back in a restaurant if it is not right, we will complain about dirty silverware or smudged drinking glasses. We will be upset if a  store does not have what we want or the dressing rooms are a mess. Yet, our own lives and home, the place we spend much of our time, we care less about. There we put up with and in some cases simply expect the worse service, that most wretched food and the poorest conditions of cleanliness and overall atmosphere. It’s just a place where the tv and computer lives, where we can flop about eating corn chips from bags or pizza out of boxes as we watch our ‘shows’ (re-runs we have seen a million times) and not care a scrap about it. Go to a hotel or a restaurant on vacation and expect that, no way? So, do we really only deserve a week a year as payment for all the work and stress we do have through the rest of the year? Or, do we deserve better? And if so, can we make it better? I think so.
Think about the things you like to do on Holiday/Vacation. Do you like a quiet peaceful cabin on the lake? Do you like to pamper yourself with nice meals and dressing up? Make a list (yes the list returns again, it is SO helpful) of the things you and your spouse/and or family enjoy or dream of as Relaxing, Fun, Pleasure, Pampering and then see if there are not ways to make that a part of your daily life. Your life at home.
Simply preparing yourself and getting into the habit of the thing is half the battle. If you are a Stay-at-home, then certainly we have much time in the day to make our homes thus. But, even if you are a ‘working gal’ with a little prep and routine, you would be surprised how much of your ‘me time’ at home when not at work can be served by being your own domestic for part-time during each week. Think about it, just take even 1/2 an hour of your tv/computer time and dedicate it to being your own maid and you will find cook ahead food in the freezer, ironed napkins in the linen drawer, time to slip that sectioned grapefruit and juice on your breakfast table with hubby that morning if your ‘little maid’ saw fit to do it before going to bed and putting it in the ice box.
I think Breakfast is a fun way to introduce a change in how we view and eat our meals. Many may not want to try out the big dinner at the table, so why not try the early morning family breakfast? This article in my 1953 Better Homes and Gardens  tells us: “Yes, Breakfast Can be lovely!” and it goes on to tell us
You can have attractive breakfast tables-meals as memorable as those served in the dining room. With planning, such a meal is little more work than the usual hasty, makeshift breakfast. These tables are set simply but well-just right for happy, family get-togethers in the kitchen.
Round table with yellow plastic surface and comfortable wire barrel chairs encourage pleasant family circle meals in the Mandel Hopkins Dutch blue breakfast nook. Black wire lazy Susan in table’s center is a combination step saver and efficient server. Here it holds the entire meal. Scalloped wire place mats match the lazy Susan.
(Click on the images below to see larger and read corresponding text)

So, even if you were to just try (assuming you don’t already) having at least one meal at table With nice china, water pitcher, food in serving dishes (no boxes or bottles of dressing-no advertising or packaging) you might find yourself slowing down and enjoying your food and your company. And it isn’t really just food, no that is really just the tip of the iceberg, to how we can change little bits of our home life to feel more as if we are on vacation or just simply ‘enjoying our life to the fullest’. We need to sit down and have a good but firm talk with the domestic in us, telling ourselves we not only Need but Deserve to have a well run ship and nice accommodations and meals. You would not visit an hotel that treated you poorly, was dirty or had bad service/food/ambience, so why return again and again to a home that does not feel welcoming or only serves as a sort of fast food restaurant with tv and computer and a freezer full of unappetizing frozen food. You might be surprised how well you do when you slip into your little ‘maid mode’. Give it a try, you might like what you find.
I had intended to talk about a good Vintage Fashion Primer, but I think that will hold until next time. I think we all need to get out our pens and pads and start jotting down how we would like to live if we had a maid or were in an hotel and then think about how we can serve ourselves. And, after all, who better knows what you really want than you?
Until next time, Happy Homemaking.

1 June 1956 “June is Bustin Out All Over! The Basic Seven and More Talk on Nutrition and Food”

June IS bustin out all over and this muscial Carousel, was realeased this year, 1956. It stared Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones. An interesting story is that Frank Sinatra was actually cast

to play the male lead and at the time they were shooting it in CinemaScope 55 (which was a larger format version of Cinema Scope introduced in 1955) which meant all the scenes had to be shot twice, one in Cinemascope and once in Cinemascope 55, so he apparently walked off the set saying, “You’re not getting two Sinatras for the price of one”. The irony being shortly after they dicsovered a way to only shoot the scene once. I guess there were even Diva’s ( or Divo as the case may be) back then. It is a great musical with many wonderful songs, such as “If I loved You”
The soundtrack to this film is wonderful. You can get it on the original vinyl (how I prefer it) HERE, or the CD HERE or even download it HERE. And if you don’t have the movie you can get it HERE, if you like. I think they are around 8 U.S. Dollars.
So, Summer is on it’s way. I hope all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We had sun and steak tips and Gin and Tonics, so a usual ushering into the official Summer season here on Cape Cod.
I thought we would continue discussing more on nutrition. In the last post I mentioned the Basic Seven Foods in the early 50’s Betty Crocker cookbook. Most of you may have it, but for those of you who don’t I have scanned some relevant information here. You simply click on the image to read it. I think this a very smart, realistic and healthy grouping. I think it more detailed than the 4 food groups I grew up with. I like, for instance, that is says” 1 serving of meat poultry or fish each day. Occasionally dried beans or peas instead.” So the 50’s diet was not martini’s and fat steaks everyday with piles of potatoes and butter. It was, if the homemaker paid attention in her Home Economics courses and her cookbooks, savvy to good diets.
I think what I am continuing to find is that if one looks at what was known and suggested as good healthy eating at the time, when can actually maintain a simple, healthy diet that could be very cost effective. Today, the diet industry is big. It really took off in the 1950’s and there were some scary ‘pills’ and quick reduction plans starting, but by and large people would be skeptical of that. And that seems to be a main element we modern people have lost. We are skeptical of many things, but when things are simply fed to us through the various media channels or magazines we gobble them up like Gospel. The endless diets and diet plans, all the pills. The adverts for prescription drugs would certainly have been seen as suspicious then, why would a drug company advertise prescription drugs? In a way, we think we are more savvy today, but the people of the 50’s and earlier had a certain dose of healthy skepticism. They seemed less likely to be duped. But, as the decade progressed and we became more consumed with consuming and ease (as I said the first instant cake mixes were often not used because the wives felt guilty for the ease and when they changed the labels to read, Just add an egg, it worked). We have slowly, through the past generations, been conditioned to the expectancy of change. We expect to hear this week that eggs are bad so do this and buy this and eat this way, next week, “Oh, did you hear milk can kill drink soy milk” then “Now we see soy in abundance is bad for you, what do we do next TV, Computer, News? Lead us”
I think we all need a good dose of ole fashioned ‘Grandma’s no-nonsense skepticism. “Well, it sounds suspicious to me, eat your eggs and toast and get to work! Who needs fancy tv dinners, eat your greens and you will be okay”. (I love this picture, if this is any of my readers relative, I hope you don’t mind I used the picture, so darling.)
I mean really, if we just stop and think logically, eating basic foods in lower quantities and exercise is all we need to do. However, today that ease is complicated with a myriad of ruts and potholes in the road that the 1950’s were only beginning to see. Entertainment is forefront in our lives. We NEED no we EXPECT to be entertained ALL the time and so through these vehicles of entertainment, the bits of time we must sit and wait for the next entertaining things, we hear all the nonsense to buy this or be like that. You are fat you must be this thin take this pill drink this drink, buy this idea followed by adverts for processed fatty foods and dial up pizza. We are easily lead because of what we have become to think the normal amount of passive living.
When you look at a basic diet such as the Basic Seven, it couldn’t really be easier, nor cheaper. Just think, you could go to the market and simply just not go down many aisles. All the frozen prepared foods (though frozen veg is an okay option when it is just the veg frozen and not all the additives or cream sauces and French fries/chips are not a replacement for a green or yellow vegetable) the processed kids cereals, the cookies aisles all that. I find now how simple it is to buy key ingredients (flour, milk, egg, butter, cream, sugar, meat, veg, fruit, grain-rice, oatmeal, etc) all the things we need and even which shall taste good and give good variety of plate and palette are at our fingertips. You want some fun exciting cracker with dill and cumin, then whip up a batch of basic cracker dough, add it in and bake, in 10 minutes you will have them and you can store the rest. You want a delicious decadent chocolate dessert, okay, make it from scratch and have a 50’s serving, not the 1/4 of a cake you get in cafe’s and restaurants today. And with all that make sure you are eating your veg and fruit.
Okay, so if you refer to this chart (which if you have the old version of Betty Crockers picture cookbook-which they have also reprinted and is available anywhere, really, then you can turn to the Meal-Planning’ section to find this.    You can buy it in the store HERE as little as 6 dollars, or go to your local book store and support them. This is a good basic 50’s book, though and easily laid out in a binder form. I feel like a teacher, “Refer to your chart on page 33 of your Betty Crocker text”. Anyway, simply click here to enlarge it. You can see they say, “The basic Seven is Easy if you follow this pattern”. It even gives the suggestion for ‘adequate’ meals, so even you haven’t enough of one thing one day, you can think at least you are doing the basics. It is also very interesting to point on that for Dinner on the Complete List, it includes green or yellow vegetables AND salad with raw vegetables. Even at this point they were aware of the import of vegetables in the raw as part of a balanced diet. And one might think, “Oh, that looks like a lot with the bread and butter and piece of pie or cake for dessert”. Well, if you eat half a pizza you are eating as much if not more than a 1950’s version of this dinner. You would have a 1950’s bowl of soup, not the giant mixing bowl sizes we have today. Your meat would be between 2-3 oz serving. And a slice of good whole grain bread with some butter is much more healthy for you than the processed and chemical-ized action in a store bought or take away pizza or Chinese food. It also points out that the dinner is good after a ‘full day’ which means you have been active.
When I think how someone might get upset by the idea of the carb (bread and butter) with dinner, it is silly when you think of merely drinking a starbucks drink at your break is probably like five slices of bread and butter. And, butter, if you buy properly, is a very natural product. IT is simply the by-product of milk production, so if you could find a source where they use milk that is not from hormone injected cows and if you make or buy a good whole grain bread that is not full of preservatives, you are not that far removed from your foods beginnings. That is what I have been coming to realize: The closer you get to your foods source, the healthier it seems and easier to prepare. Butter is just made from the separation of the milk and cream, very pure. Bread is simply grains and liquid baked into nutrition. Now think about any packaged food, all the chemicals, the way it has to be made, any meat in it was probably made form a slurry of various animal parts (all the animal, whole chickens head, feet) you just don’t know what you are eating. Yet, in the 50’s, if you were not eating a Swanson Tv dinner every night, you were just naturally eating food closer to its pure source. A cut of meat for protein, veg cooked and raw, even desserts were homemade from butter, flour, eggs, pure ingredients meeting and combining to make a good tasty form of calories and vitamins.
I think the more we take control over the aspects of our lives that we can control, the better we can live and enjoy our time. Then, when we are enjoying our Entertainment, it will feel well earned and we may even find ourselves entertained with our own actions in the kitchen and home. I know I have and I laugh when I think of how much passive tv/computer time I used to use and wonder at all the time I lost that could have been spent simply DOING. I mean we can really do almost anything to entertain ourselves that can also enrich our minds and increase our skill sets. Why just watch tv when you could build that dollhouse, sew those dresses, make a garden, go to the library and study African tribal pottery. The world is out there with so much information and fun and yet we let so much of our lives simply pass by in front of our eyes as we passively sit there. Our food, in a way, is an example of this. Why bother to learn to cook or control your food by choosing your food yourself, just buy some stuff in boxes with pictures of the meal on it, nuke it and shove it down your gullet while you watch your ‘stories’ for the 15th time. Hey, it is your life, but really, I know, it’s so much MORE fun and rewarding to just be more active in it.
So, be more ACTIVE in your life and your food. Think about what you are putting in your mouth and your mind. Use your hands and your brains to make and do and NOT just click the TIVO button or press enter on the computer. You will find yourself so much more fulfilled and less dissatisfied. When you remove that element of covetousness often found through the media, “Oh, I wish I looked like her, or had that beautiful house, or lovely yard, or that yacht, car, hot movie star boyfriend, lifestyle etc etc” Who cares! There is so much YOU already have around you that is wonderful and can be improved upon and increased with your own access to knowledge, information, and skill. So our ACTION still exists here on the blog. It is becoming more and more important to me than ever.
Until next time, happy homemaking, cooking and just take 20 minutes of your tv/computer time and try something new: learn one easy pure dish to make, read up on that subject you like, paint a picture, plant some seeds, do anything that YOU control.
I will leave you with two cute 50’s ideas/kitchens for a simple eat-in bar for those early morning meals before school/work.