2 February 1955 "TV, Coke, Nutrition, and Interiors"

2 February 1955: First Presidential news conference on network TV - Dwight Eisenhower on ABC.

Until 1955, Coca-Cola was available only as a soda fountain drink and in 6 1/2-ounce glass contour bottles.
1955 saw the debut of the King Size (10- and 12-ounce) and Family Size (26-ounce) glass contour bottles in the U.S., marking an important step in giving people more options to meet their needs.

I just bought the 8 oz. glass bottle 6 packs they have at our local grocery store. Unfortunately there is not diet soda until TAB in 1962, but with only 8 oz. of soda (1 cup) not too many calories. I love the feel and weight of the small bottle. It seems appropriate to my year, however the 8 oz. is even bigger than the original bottle.

Here is a real swell video showing the evolution of the coke can from 1955 to present: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1062118640244&oid=8605796091

I had decided to include some of the dietary information in one of the main cookbooks I use, then someone had commented on my last blog that they would like to see this, so here it is. This is only a small portion of the info, but I will include more in the future.

I really find it interesting that the daily amount of calories seems quite high and yet I don't think we had the obesity problem we have today in this country. Of course, after rationing in WWII I guess we were heading towards the eventual outcome as we began to stuff ourselves on the overabundance of food.

In post-WWII USA, the diet industry took off like a rocket. Diet books muliplied and monopolized the bestseller list. Metracal and other good substitute products were introduced very successfully as were national weight-reducing chains. Women were the primary targets of these marketing strategies.
Here we even see advertising giving various options for the low-calorie lifestyle.

With this new concern over calories and eating properly comes exercise. And, if you are a housewife in middle america that can only mean one thing. Jack Lalanne. Here he is talking about a diet plan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuW3RfWJ1H0

Here is a great site that has most of his shows. This is the site I am using to start my 1950's exercise program: http://jacklalanne.com/tv.html

"Between 1951 and 1985, LaLanne presented fitness and exercise advice on television. "The Jack LaLanne Show" was the longest running television exercise program. It began as a local program on San Francisco's ABC television station, KGO-TV, and was eventually carried on the ABC network nationwide. Critics said the show would last less than six weeks, but it ended up lasting 34 years. In 1959, LaLanne recorded Glamour Stretcher Time, a workout album which provided phonograph-based instruction for exercising with an elastic cord called the Glamour Stretcher."

Here he is in 1954. In 1955 (age 41): Jack swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco while handcuffed. He is still alive today at 94.
I have been a good girl this week, and here is this mornings breakfast: black coffee and dry toast. It is hard to cook bacon, eggs, and pancakes, as I did this morning for hubby, and not want to snack. I am determined, however, as the fashions of 1955 have really inspired me to finally drop those pounds I have been chasing around for the past few years.

Now, speaking of food, I am still cooking using recipes in my book, no modern meals of bulger wheat etc. Last night I made a really good Vegetable au gratin dish. My cookbook tells you how to make vegetables au gratin and then it is up to you WHAT vegetables. I did green beans, potatos, and peas. They were SO yummy.
Here is what it looked like before I dished it up. The bread crumbs were quite tasty mixed into it.

Today was a Gussie day. As it is washday, I did (am still doing) the laundry. In the America's Housekeeping Book under the Household Employees chapter it suggests: "Experienced homemakers will tell you that if the employee does the washing and ironing, the homemaker must assume a major share of the other housekeeping jobs on laundry days." I, in fact, did the reverse. I did the laundry while 'Gussie' cleaned, shopped for the meal, prepared it and cleaned up afterwards. I have to say I am getting used to having the help. I am hoping that the interest 'Gussie' has in the project will last the year out.

With no dishes to do and a wonderful warm meal to be served up, I even had time to 'dress for dinner'.

Having had the freedom to go out shopping, I did.

I found this wonderful vintage metal step stool at one of my antique haunts. It is so perfect for the kitchen redo. Obviously I have to repaint the seat, but I am hoping I can find a matching red to this color as I believe it is the original paint. I want splashes of red to go along with my robins egg blue and touches of yellow. I can't wait until this and the 'new ice box' get to dwell in the kitchen. Do any of you have vintage kitchens?



I also stopped at our local Sherwin Williams paint store. I love it as it seems very 1950's to go to a store dedicated to paint and wallpaper instead of HomeDepot. They have a nice line of vintage paint colors. So, I nabbed these two great brouchures fot the 1950's. I think the cover artwork is so nice.

This scan is not completely true to one of the palletes in the brouchere, but you can get the general idea. I am thinking of this pink as the main color of my new sewing/laundry room. I think a very girly pink confectionary room would be fun in a smaller space and one in which I will only use sometimes. What do any of you think?
I also bought five of these boxes. I know they are not vitage, but I think they definitely have a vintage feel. I can see them on a shelf to hold patterns and ribbon and zippors etc. They have great little metal tag holders on the front. Don't you love the image on the top of the box? I hope it isn't too modern. I have some wonderful vintage wallpaper I found today that is too delicate to actually cover walls, but I think I will use it for hat boxes for my closet as well as some for my sewing room and some in the kitchen redo maybe on some tins or maybe to line the back of a cabinet. The color in the scan is not very true to the real color, but you get the idea.

I also found a wonderfrul vintage repro new plaid wallpaper in taupe and soft blues and greens that I might use in the living room which is going to become the library. There will be pics when I get to that. I really want to do wallpaper. It is making a comeback today and would be quite normal to use in the 1950s.

Well, I need to post this as I have to get back to my laundry. I think I have done far too much galavanting about today. I won't take the time to edit, so you will excuse me I hope. Have a great day.

31 January & 1 February 1955 "Actresses, Advertising, Art, Dinner, Dessert, and a New Baby!"

Here is the time magazine from 31 January 1955. Grace Kelly (not yet Princess Grace) graces the cover, if you forgive the pun.

There is an interesting article about her entitled "The Girl in White Gloves". It goes on to say how she is quite different from the garish flashy do-anything bottle blonde actresses of the day. That she comes from money (albeit new money) seems to help her play that role of being choosy with her choice of roles. She is an interesting creation and very American, I think.

Her father became rich through owning the largest brick works in Philidelphia. He was the son of a farmer and became a brick layer who segwayed into a large company. He went to Henly(england) to row in 1920 but was refused as he was "not a gentleman" as he had "worked with his hands". He later went on to beat the Henley winner at the olympics and he sent his sweaty rowing cap to King George as a sort of, "I told you so". His son, who went to Penn State, later righted that wrong winning at Henly in 1947.
They were an interesting family: The American Dream of coming up from nothing and then outdoing the upper classes. This was the formula that was needed to make a 'Grace Kelly'. From Farmer to Princess in Three Generations, now that is American Ingenuity!

There is another article in this issue rather interesting. Entitled: "Death of a Salesman?", it espouses the fall of the radio announcer to the new movement of television ads. It is interesting to see that in 1955 commercials did not just jarringly interrupt your show:

"Manhattan Adman Frank Egan explains that the new trend is simply an effort by sponsors to make commercials as painless as possible for viewers: "In radio you could use a musical bridge between the entertainment and the message so that the commercials didn't seem so abrupt and jarring. But on TV, if you interrupt audience attention to plunge into a commercial, viewers get resentful." For this reason nearly all TV hosts and masters of ceremonies are supposed to ease the way into the sales message".

On NBC's Oldsmobile Spectaculars, Actor Lee Bowman dresses up in evening clothes for the sole purpose of saying: "And now, ladies and gentlemen, here is Ed Herlihy with a message from our sponsor . . ."

Although they are doing it to make you buy products, it is nice that they started the idea of advertising on television with the consumers comfort in mind and to make sure that the audience was presented with someone well-dressed and groomed. In 2009 advertising on tv is having to evolve now that tivo exists. More product placement is required to grab the viewer. I wonder if the return to the 'sponsered' show is on it's way? We shall see.

On the Art scece, there is an interesting article on Ben Shan, an artist I am really just beginning to learn about. He became perhaps the best, and most depressing, painter of the Great Depression. Shahn was raised in a Brooklyn slum, where the local toughs forced him to portray favorite athletes on the pavement with chalk. His review seems to express that he has begun to mellow in his age, as evidence by this bit from the Time article:

"One of the nation's most admired artists last week showed what he had accomplished in his last 25 years of painting. The retrospective exhibition at Manhattan's Downtown Gallery proved that in the past quarter century the art of burly Ben Shahn has mellowed and broadened with the man. The bristling dark mustache of his fiery youth has faded to white, and now it screens more smiles than scowls. At 56, after many storms, Shahn seems to have entered a calm sea."

What I find interesting is this: Here is an image from his Depression heyday entitled, "scabbies are welcome" from 1937. You can see how dark and desolute the painting. The general air of quiet desolution is evidenced by none of the figures facing the viewer.

Next, you see this painting from Post war 1947 entitled: "Vanity". It's as if you can see one of the characters from the previous paintings, having survived the war and the Depression, getting ready for the new bright decade of promise; the colorful background, the smile on his face.

Now, in 1955 when this article is written, we see this image entitled: "Beautitudes" It seems more dark and disjuncted than his Depression work. There he was mirroring the present day, their sad desperation, but the figures had a quiet human dignity to them, they 'fit' into their dim landscape. Here, the figure not only seems to be unaware of his landscape, which is no more than a bare sky and stylizied wheat field, He does not look at the viewer, nor himself, but down and seems to be attacked by heavy thoughts not unlike Hitchcocks Birds (which won't come out until 1963)

I think it is intersting to see that an artist, who is often a mirror of society, is somewhat disillisoned by the present day. The hope he had after the war has slipped into a sort of melaise.

This photograph from January 22 1955 reveals a similar sentiment. The Pentagon announced a plan to develop ICBMs(intercontinental ballistic missiles) armed with nuclear weapons. The beginning of the Modern world is upon us.

Now, to the more particular problems and successes of the home.

Last night was Saturday's 1950 night. It was suppose to be at my vintage friends house this week, as we switch off on Saturdays, but she has company coming today and wanted to keep the house clean and ordered, so I did it again here.

The menu was Chicken-Fried Pork Chops. (I used a 3/4 cup cornmeal and 1/4 cup flour instead of the crackers and I added Dried Oregano, Rosemary, and Parsley to the mixture)

Scalloped tomatoes, which was a great use of some leftover toast from breakfast. And Greenbeans with pearl onions.

I am not making my 'sunday cake' today, as I made a pie yesterday for dinner. I wanted to try something I felt was very 'modern 1950's' This recipe with it's canned pears and prepared graham cracker crust seemed to fit the bill. I did use a fresh lemon for the peel and I also juiced the same lemon for the lemon juice. This was my first attempt at meringue and it turned out lovely and I was quite proud. I slipped a bit of almond extract into the egg whites when I was beating them and it added a nice warm mellow taste to the sharpness of the pear and lemon. It was funny, as I felt this was a 'cheating' dessert for me. Although it was definitely home-made, the fact that I used canned pears and a prepared crust, there was still alot of 'home-made' in it. It was a hit and it was lovely, if I do say so myself, and I DO!
I am quite proud of how this merigue looks. Don't be fooled by the pie tin, this is indeed a homemade pie, but the crust came premade in the tin.
Here is a shot of my one and only piece (part of my diet: one piece of my weekly cake/pie/dessert) with a cup of tea.

Now, on the home interiors front, I have to show off my new 'Baby'. It is far from finding it's home in my kitchen yet and is in fact now relegated to the shed until it can get cleaned and the door sanded and repainted. It is a 1950's Frigedaire Deluxe. I know I know, it uses alot of electricity. I have gone over and over again as to wether this is a bad decision for the bills. I think after it is installed we will just moniter the bill to see how much more it has added. I am willing to take an additional amount out of my food or entertainment budget each month to allow it to live in my kitchen. Perhaps I am going crazy with my need to surround myself with vintage things, but I do think it is a beautiful machine. I have heard they will last forever.
Look how pretty she is inside. Can't you just see my milk bottle and vintage juice jars in here? My vintage glass pyrex refridgerator dishes will also look a treat all tidily stacked and filled with leftovers and marinading awaiting dinners, right?
This is the door and it has alot of stoage. That top bit that says eggs folds down and safely holds quite a bit (we go through a LOT of eggs around here).

The freezer door is really pretty, too, I think and it's quilted pattern makes me think of a Chanel purse. There is even a real metal ice cube tray. It has that ingenious lever you pull to release the cubes. I am planning on doing a lot of daily shopping so I don't need a big freezer here, however, I may want to get the must have accesory for any 1950s housewife: the "DeepFreeze" as they were called. A large freezer. I am not sure if I need one, but we shall see.
Look how lovely the handle is and it makes such a wonderful noise when you open it. This bit pulls down to open the door. So much beauty amongst function.

So, do any of you think I am crazy or do you like the idea of more vintage items?

Well, I am going to enjoy the rest of my sunday. I did not have Gussie yesterday (had to serve myself and set table and prepare etc) but did have her this morning. So, as I was working away on this post my kitchen was being cleaned, dishes put away, clean swept and mopped floor and a nicely arranged bowl of fruit on the kitchen table. Ahhh to be middle class in 1955, sometimes it is sweet.

30 January 1955 "Poet, Pulp, and Patterns"

Although I know this is current news, but John Updike died on the 27th of January and I just now found out from my husband (again, no modern news and such for me except what hubby mentions.)
This is a picture of him in 1955, which I was lucky enough to find. Though I would not be too familiar with him this year, some of his poetry and short stories were about in magazines. His famous 'Rabbit' series wouldn't be started until 1960. He was a great poet and writer. This year has really brought me to face with my mortality. It is a good thing, I think, as so many of us just get up and schlub through our days as if they are never ending. Well, really we better do and enjoy what we can, they are not here always. I am glad for this project and know that what I gain this year in knowledge, fun, experience, and yes even the blues and sadness, are going to be important to me as I grow old.

This is from a poem Updike wrote last year (2008)

It came to me the other day:
Were I to die, no one would say,
'Oh, what a shame! So young, so full
Of promise - depths unplumbable!
Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes
Will greet my overdue demise;
The wide response will be, I know,
'I thought he died a while ago.'
For life's a shabby subterfuge,
And death is real, and dark, and huge.
The shock of it will register
Nowhere but where it will occur.

This is also a nice poem ( I hope you don't mind my putting these in) and although this Updike poem was not published until 1960 in the new yorker, it was in response to experiments done this year in 1955 by Clyde L. Cowan and Frederick Reines called the Neutrino Experiment. This experiment confirmed the existence of the antineutrino—a neutrally charged subatomic particle with very low mass

Cosmic Gall

Neutrinos they are very small.

They have no charge and have no mass

And do not interact at all.

The earth is just a silly ball

To them, through which they simply pass,

Like dustmaids down a drafty hall

Or photons through a sheet of glass.

They snub the most exquisite gas,

Ignore the most substantial wall,

Cold-shoulder steel and sounding brass,

Insult the stallion in his stall,

And, scorning barriers of class,

Infiltrate you and me! Like tall

And painless guillotines, they fall

Down through our heads into the grass.

At night, they enter at Nepal

And pierce the lover and his lass

From underneath the bed—you call

It wonderful; I call it crass.

R.I.P. John Updike.

It is funny and interesting how much of the modern world is being made here in 1955. The computer, medicine, tv, advertsing, grocery stores, premade foods, the list goes on. What is so very normal to all of us only began this short while ago.

Here is some interesting pulp, another modern ideal:

I guess this is the equivalent of Maxim magazine in my time. I LOVE that bathing suit however. I think if and when I return to 2010 there will NOT be a return to lowrise pants, skirts, bathing suit bottoms. I love never having to worry about bending over and wondering if my behind is sticking out. I also like displaying the fact that woman have waists!

It looks like if I wanted to read this little deadly, I'd have to keep it hidden. I can see me now, slipping into the pantry with a biscuit in my apron pocket and a cup of tea. I look around and casually saunter over to the tins of extra Flour. With a deft hand, this book slids out, slighty powdered from its hiding place. I lean against the counter, eyes glued to the dog-earred and well worn page, sliding the biscuit from my pocket to my lips. I nibble, wide-eyed, unwary of the abstract pattern the crumbs are making on my apron front.

"Mrs. -" calls out Gussie, "Do you want me to start on the Living room drapes...Mrs.-?"

"Cheese it! It's Gussie!", A quick jerk, spilling tepid tea and biscuit crumbs, my forbidden contraband plops down into the flour bin in an attempt to hide my guilty pleasure. Until another time, my steamy friend. Perhaps a sneek at you while the iron steams away and the washer hides my shame with its dull thud thud thud.

Or something along those lines, anyway! It does look a steamy book.

Speaking of Pulp, my husband (besides collecting vintage typewriters) collects vintage scifi pulp mags. This is intersting for me. He came into my sitting room the other day with these two little mags. One is from December 54 so only a month old and I think the other is from March. It is interesting, as I am sure my husband would have been reading these in 1955 as well as he has read them now. Only, of course, they would have been new.

I was really excited about the art. I am really getting into the modern art of the times, De Kooning, Pollack etc. It is an era of art that I have never bothered to really study other than what I was required to do at university (I studied art history). The contrast between pulp art/advertising art (which is rampant in 1955)/ and High art is quite striking. More future study for me! And more, hopefully not boring, discussions in the future for you. I hope you like art!

Here is breakfast this morning. As you can see, I am really into as much accuracy as I can manage. The milk bottle is authentic old milk bottle. It recieves my milk the second I get it home from the grocery store. It seems normal for me now to see it in the 'icebox' and to feel the weight of it as I am baking or pouring it out for hot cereals. I also love the oj glass container. I have two of these and one always has oj the other keeps tart pink lemonade for whiskey sours (our family version anyway) for cocktail hour with hubby, after work but before dinner. The gold star pattern on it is SO 1950's. I think I may need a vintage 'ice box' for these to live in, what do you think?

Yesterdays hateful errand of car repair (brake job) resulted in a fun day out with my vintage friend. We had a blast. Although she is not doing this project perse, she has been inspired to now dress vintage most of the time. You can often overhear us discussing the differing merits of an open-bottom girdle (which I prefer) to the more 'stay in place' power of a full legged affair (to much bother in the bathroom if u get my drift). It really helps having a kindred soul. It makes those times when I feel 'out of my time' less when I feel I have a fellow time travelor. It is making this project more fun and really chaning our realtionship as friends and coherts in vintage lifestyle.

After the afternoon of car repair we treated ourselves with a trip to Joanne fabrics as Vogue patterns were on sale for 3.99!! They are usually 27.50!! (that is .51 cents and 3.51 respectively in 1955 money) I love the way this pattern looks. It also has the evening gown pattern which could be a runner up for the April Opera Gown, but not sure yet.

Tomorrow I will start putting in bits and bobs of what I am learning from the interior design books of the times. I thought it might be a fun little excerpt every other day with pics and ideas an such. I know I LOVE looking at interiors and such. Do any of you?

Until tomorrow and thank you again for all your lovely comments on my 'blue day'.

Mini post to thank everyone!

This is just a quick note, I will do my post tonight and again tomorrow, but I just had to really thank everyone for their great comments and support.
What was funny, was my blue feeling left me not wanting to leave the project, but to literally go back to 1955. It is almost as if the more I do and experience about it (though I know it is from the standpoint of the present) it makes me long for it more.
I fell renewed and energized. I sort of want to even add a bit more to my blogs, as I really have been reading alot of vintage interior design books and think a section every day or everyother day about various styles and ideas for the home from my various books. I am also excited to start doing these things to my home and will want to do before and after pics.
Thank you so much. I had to go out and get my brakes done today and I spent the day with my most sympathetic vintage friend who dresses vintage everytime we are together. Her car would not start today, of all days, so she went with me to the garage and dropped off the car with me and then we walked a mile on slippery sidewalks in our flats and stockings and hats etc to the local cafe and played cribbage, dished, and talked about fashion and such. SO, it was a good day and I have come home to so many wonderful comments. Thank you again.
I just had to post this between my getting dinner prepared and setting the table.

28 January 1955 "Early Rise, The Blues, The War, and Wonderland"

January 28- The United States Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to protect Formosa from the People's Republic of China.

The Formosa Resolution was a bill enacted by the U.S. Congres on January 28, 1955 that established an American commitment to defend Formosa (Taiwan). As a matter of American foreign policy, President Eisenhower promised to protect Taiwan against invasion by the People's Republic of China. The legislation provided the President with the power to intervene if the island was attacked.

The legislation was prompted, in part, by attacks on the islands of Kinmen and Matsu in the Taiwan Straits by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1954. Both islands had been held by the Chinese Nationalists government of the Republic of China led by Chiang Kai-shek, which then also controlled the island of Taiwan. Kinmen Following the enactment of the Formosa Resolution, the People's Republic of China and the United States successfully negotiated an agreement to stop the bombing of the islands in the Taiwan Straits. This peaceful result ended the First Taiwan Strait Crisis.

I was feeling a little blue today.

A sort of melaise swept over me.

The day started out fine enough, though it started early. Hubby had to leave early to get to the city for some business and the impending snow storm in the city was enough to cause him an early leave. I started my day at 6:30 am. Everything went as normal. I made lunch while boiling oatmeal and making juice and toast. I set the table and put coffee and tea on. I fed the dogs and was at the dinning room table as usual. Maybe just having everything just a bit off threw me.

After clearing up the dinning room and doing my morning dishes, I thought, I am going to take a little morning break, as I would just be getting started. I sat down to watch a bit of some old 1950's home movies we had found on youtube and put on a disc. I really think that was it.

You know the type: Old super 8's of someones vacation or xmas set to music, often sappy. There was one some children had done for their parents showing the two of them in their respective home states preparing for their wedding, then the honeymoon, etc finally their three children at young ages. I found myself crying. I suddenly felt left behind or somthing.

It is odd, as I realize I am NOT living in 1955, but I am REALLY immersed in it. I know I am typing on a computer right now, but it might just as well be a typewriter. My fiction and magazines and decorating books, all from the 1950s. Heck, even my manuals to care for my new parakeet are from the 50s. My music and any tv and movies I watch all 1950s. It starts to become normal, second nature. The human animal quickly adapts. I just saw all these silent smiling faces in full skirts white gloves and hats and thought, "that's where I am suppose to be". I really felt as if I was Rip VanWinkle and had just awakened to find all my family old and the world changed.

I don't know, maybe this project really can get to you.

The resulting day left me staring out the window watching the snow turn to rain.

A friend stopped by around 4:00 and it perked me up. I thought, "I cannot just sit and mope I have things to do. I am still catching up on ironing, because let me tell you rolling up damp clothes in towels and then starching and ironing, is not a fast task. Maybe I will get better at it.

So, I checked my daily list. I had to do the bedroom today, vacuum and empty and organize my closet. Took down our shower curtains to bleach and wash. Straighten and vaccuum the living room. I got going.
After my friend had left and I had stopped from my flurry of late day 'catch up' I was playing, I realized there was a package on the kitchen table. My friend had got my mail for me and there was somthing. I tore it open and it was my 1944 House Beautiful I had ordered. I promised myself literature and study in the 1940s for more context to where I am mid 50's.
A pot of tea later and I am feeling better.

It is so interesting to see the ads for women joining the service.

Here is a Wamsutta (bedding) ad asking women to join to allow a man to go to the front.

Here we see a father leaving his son in a radio ad.

Even a bookshelf takes on the import of father's return.

These show how easily it must have been for women to set down the rivetor, take off the trousers and put on the crinolins and make a home. The concept of those we love suddenly gone and possibly in danger of their own life is inconcievable. It is an odd feeling. It brought me out of my funk. It not only made be 'buck up' and get 'back to it', it took some of my blues away.

I have always felt a little out of my present time. I think anyone who likes vintage feels that a bit, a sort of romantic fondness for 'what was' even if we weren't there. I wonder, though, if I have stepped through the looking glass with this project? Am I going to find myself even more out of step with my peers and really feel very like Alice: wondering why every five minutes we have to change places at the tea table, or how skewered the world around me seems.

I only wish there was a bit of mushroom or a bottle of somthing to drink to help me. The question is, which side of the looking glass would I want to wake up on?

Let me know, if you have the time, am I crazy doing this project? Does it have merit? Sometimes a gal needs to know.

27 January 1955 "Mixed Marriages, Youth worship, summer clothes, A Housewives Battle with Cornmeal, and Cake"

Here is a cover from today, 27 January 1955, about Pearl Baileys marriage. She married in 1952 Louie Bellson, an Italian-American Jazz Drummer. He was a well known jazz artist. ( I would love to know what gossip columnists don't know about their marriage, but we can assume it was a healthy happy one as

they

remained married until Baileys death in 1990) It is interesting to me that at this time in history you can see a high-profile mixed couple. Although, this is from JET, a '

negroe' magazine as they would have called it,

no most white housewives probably did not have a copy of this. However, they were both very well known artists, so there must have been talk of it. As the modern age is quickly moving us through the 20th century, the speed and innovation really allowed racism and womens rights to take the forefront. Things like Jazz, though originally an african-american thing, brought together all sorts of people after WWI. And WWII gave many women the opportunity and the experience to go into 'mens jobs', as they had to. Though we were all expected to return to the home, a spark had been ignited then burned in many women. I really find this decade as the definitive moment in the turn into what we now know as the modern world.

In this mix of changing times, we can even see the beginning of how we really view women today. In one sense women are beginning to feel the power of their sexuality that they had not enjoyed in the last century. Only prostitues were really viewed as 'sex objects'. Here we see a young lady who is a librarian and yet she needs to pose basically pantless in a fitted shirt and

sexy pose. This image harkens to what we now see today, I think. The role of woman as sex object existed before, as I said, but you would delegate it to the prostitute or those who were in the first nude victorian photos, here we have a respected member of a community, a librarian, and since she is young and pretty she is now viewed as a sex object. Maybe it is merely because I am getting older myself, but there is somthing a little frightening about this turn in the image of women. It definitely is starting during this time. The new concept of 'youth worship' is really beginning now.

Here is an interesting article on the worship of the 'youth culture'. It shows the same woman dressed as a 'teenager' as well as a woman her own age should.

I have scanned in the whole article so you can click on it and read it for yourself. There are some interesting bits, for example, "There is a strong current of feeling in our society that the world spins mainly for the teens and 20s, and that anyone over 30-especially the woman over 30-had better take a back seat." It is a very interesting piece and you should read it if you get a chance.

When I saw the woman dressed in the jeans my

first thought was, "well, she does look younger," than I stopped myself and thought,"why IS that important? Is this part of the evolution of youth being of utmost importance? "It has always been desireable to be young and beautiful, but today(2009) it is just normal to see all the magazine covers plastered either with really young girls or aging movie stars airbrushed and facelifted into young outfits. I see daughters and mothers dressed identical where the mother is in tight jeans stilleto boots hair extensions etc, where she is copying the daughters style. I think it used to be the other way round. Rather this is good or bad, who can say. I honestly don't know. I do know that when I have tried to dress modern I would often do it with the eye of is this sort of 'cool' looking. Now, when I dress to go out I dress more for myself, because I like the way I feel when I have a hat and gloves and my hair is in place etc. I think I am dressing more for myself. What do any of you think? Does it matter if we appear to worship youth? Do we appear to be doing so today? I am curious. Has it affected us negatively or positively? Does it even matter, let me know.

When we stopped saying clothes were important what other things did we throw away with the concept? Self-worth? Maturity status?

Now, speaking of clothes, it looks like I will be quite comfortable this summer. Obviously, when I am shopping or at a more formal gathering, I will wear hose and gloves and hat. However, we spend quite a bit of time on the water and in boats and on the beach in the summer, so these will be quite appropriate and comfortable.

I want to have some garden parties (hopefully trying some 1950's planting and landscaping schemes as well) so I should be quite comfy in these little numbers. I think the dress with the bag could be used for shopping but not sure if I would still wear hose, anyone know?

This sunday was our usual day of sleeping in and then a big breakfast.

There I was: adorned in apron, pets staring up expectant (they love the increase in bacon consumption) waiting for the bacon to cook as it sizzled away with the perk of the coffee.

I took out, with pride, my saved cornmeal mush from the 'icebox'. I had made it a few days earlier and thought, "I am saving this to fry up with Sundays breakfast". Opening the lid, it

seemed to have congealed, but it was only an inch think along the bottom of the pan.

As I perused my recipe retrived from my little recipe box, I felt confident in the next step until...I had set it wrong! It was meant to have been put in a loaf pan, presumably so it would resemble a loaf cake in size. The insturctions said to slice it 1/2" thick and to roll it in dry cornmeal and fry it, of course, in bacon fat. I had forgot to thoroughly read my directions.

I thought of my new acquistion of the household manual. I had just been reading it the night before on the subject of 'hired help'. It said in training a new girl to be sure to go through all the directions and mesaurments of recipes with her at first to make sure she understands. Now, here I was, suppose to be the lady of the house and I could not even follow simple directions. I looked about, making sure Gussie wasn't looming with her dissaproving stare, nope, just the dogs, me, and the bacon.

"Well," said I, to no one in particular, "I'll make do. I am industrious"

But, no matter how I cut it or rolled it or squeezed it, it merely fell to a new form of mush in the pan. It just sat there mocking me ( I swear it was mocking me) spreading out in its hot bath of fat.

"Try to contain me, will ya?" it seemed to say, sounding like a character from an old cartoon "wise guy, huh? Why I oughta..." it rang in my head as it relaxed further into a greasy blob.

Then, it dawned on me. When all else fails what does a 1950's housewife do with any leftovers? Why, she makes it into a patty of course! Salmon patties, creamed corn patties, heck Bacon patties, if I wanted.

So, I scooped out the wretched slop I had thus made, regretting the lost bacon grease (this stuff is gold, I tell you) and commenced to make patties. I took sections of the gelatinous cornmeal mush and shaped them into proximities of patty shapes. I squeezed them a bit with paper toweling, to sort of dry them out, toweling them off like a new baby.

Then, carefully now, not to harsh and don't rush...I slowly lower them into their dry corn meal dustbath. Gently powdering them with the stuff, as if I am lightly powdering a childs bum with talcum(yes the child metaphor really works here). Ever so gently now, lift it slowly, carefully, don't mind the spattering bacon fat leaping ever close to your hands; let it scaled and spit at you. Stare it down, You are HOUSEWIFE! You are strong and resiliant!

There you go now, my little corn meal baby, into the fat. Nice and sizzly now, brown, damn you BROWN!

I heaved a heavy sigh when I slid that spatula under the first little cornmeal patty and delicately flipped it over. A nice browned fatted patty. What more could I ask for?

They even looked quite pretty on the plate there, next to the eggs and bacon and little toast points.

Another victory for Housewife kind.

Housewife:1 Cornmeal mush : 0

I had a little problem with my sunday cake as well. I made my usual 7 minute frosting, adding chocolate and coconut. However, the coconut made it rather stiff and unweildy to icing the cake. So, I added milk to it: big mistake! It became too runny and slid down the sides of the cake. Gussie was still here at this point, as it was late in the evening, and she turned to me and said, "I would have just heated it on the stove to loosen it up". Great, foiled by the hired help! It would most likely have been the right solution. I just stuck it in the freezer until it stiffened a bit and then coated it in the toasted coconut I had made earlier for that purpose. So the resulting cake did not look very nice, but boy oh boy does it taste like seconds, as my husband

put it! I thought I would share the recipes.

Here is the cake recipe. I love this recipe. It is the second time I have made this type of chocolate cake and it is so moist yet dense and wonderful. It really is fudgey.

I made this recipe for the filling. I was going to originally use it for filling and frosting, but I did not have any evaporated milk (another item I have since added to my list to keep stocked in the growing baking section of my pantry) so I used cream. It made a wonderful buttery sweet filling, so I just used it between the layers of the cake. It made a scrumpcious combination and the toasted coconut on the top is sooo yummy. That was also the first time I have toasted coconut. It is amazing the amount of things I have learned in under a month! Sometimes I feel like I am at the University of the Home.

Well, until tomorrow then. I hope everyone has a good day.

Yesterday was my laundry day, so today is ironing and starch. Wish me luck!