3 September 1956 “Called on account of Hurricane”

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

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

Hurricane Connie actually preceded Diane and was also quite damaging.

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

2 September 1956 “The Telephone”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

31 August 1956 “Steel Houses, Made Of Ticky Tacky”

I know this song is meant to be a sort stereotype of the middleclass, but in a way it sort of has a new meaning to me. Sometimes a little ‘same’ is nice and comforting. Sometimes all the ‘same’ is merely many people happy. But, I digress.
Sorry for such a late post today.  I thought I would share more photos. I just love photos like these. They come from a site about steel homes, (there are more pictures there). The site is interesting and apparently they made and still make all steel homes. I imagine the cleaning inside was easy, as it appears the walls and all are metal. It makes me think of these vintage metal doll houses, Here are the doll houses and here is this family’s real steel house: I am not getting any kickback or anything for mentioning this company, but too bad, because as far as advertising goes, I’d be proud to be a ‘sponser’ for a wonderful old American company like this that still produces product and building in our country! They are called LUSTRON. How adorable are these girls at this birthday party? You can see the shiny metal walls.
Here a game of “Beat the Clock” is a night’s entertainment in their modern home.   Here is the game which was based on a popular show of the time.

This photo just makes me smile. I love their modern dishes and metal cups. And I really love the little girl’s glasses. I also find it sweet how the phone was once used, especially when you compare it to 2010. Maybe I am an old fuddy duddy, but somehow this image makes me sad.

Anyway, it seems there are only a few thousand of these Lustron Steel homes still standing, which is sad as they seem like a rather good idea. I wonder if any of you have one in your town and not realize it. If any of you are interested  HERE is a site dedicated to preservation.
Until tomorrow, Happy Homemaking.

30 August 1956 “A Fun Book Making Challenge”

I discovered, hopefully not too late, a fun challenge on a site. The challenge was the questions, “Is the old saying true, Everyone has one book inside of them?” With that in mind we were asked to make up a dummy or idea of a book we would like to make.

So for the “Nuffnang August Blogger Challenge” I thought I would have a go at it. I have often thought that my year in 1955 would make a fun and interesting book. My current busy schedule of both living in the past, running my household, and also trying to create the site to become a sort of vintage community and vintage magazine for all of you takes up quite a bit of my time, not to mention Blog posts. But, I love it all and thought, why not try out this challenge.

So, here it is, my quick thrown together idea for ‘My Book’. (All images can be clicked to view and read full size)

  The cover. This could be done in so many ways, but for this challenge I thought sweet and simple was the way to go.

  A fun introduction is always good, don’t you think. It doesn’t have to be a novel, right?

  Chapters that leave room for tips and maybe even a rant or two. There would be more than four chapters of course, this is just an ‘overview’ idea.

And, of course, I would want to include many of my food photos.Because, a gal can never cook enough, learn enough new recipe nor, it seems, take enough artsy photos of her food. It, much like baking and cooking, is an addiction with me!And, there would be images of various parties and spreads I have done with ideas for more.I would want to touch on sewing and fashion, and the general work ethic and kind and considerate manners of the past, all of which many of us would like to bring back and use in our daily life.

Well, that is my silly little post today. I need to get this off, because I just realized that Australia is a day ahead of the USA!

Until tomorrow, then, Happy Homemaking.

Content Copyright All rights reserved. If you wish to use this content in any matter, You need written permission.

29 August 1956 “Taking today off”

I am taking today off, sort of. I am using my ‘computer time’ today to work more on the total re-vamp of the site that I have been doing. I also will be busy over the next three days easing my old tenants out and letting new tenants into the house we rent out.

So, I hope all are enjoying their Sunday. Hubby, Gussie, and I are about to go for a lovely walk to the shore. I need some good calming rest before dealing with my tenants.

I shall still endeavor to post this week, daily, though. I hope all are still interested in my shorter but more frequent posting.

Until tomorrow, then, Happy Homemaking.

28 August 1956 “Brownies, and Chocolate and Chickens…Oh My!”

I have mentioned this before and shall, most likely, do so again in the future: Why use box or prepared when it is easier and cheaper to make your own?
I think often we modern women (well when I was a modern woman I did) think, ‘Oh, it’s just easier to use prepared’. However, every day I try another pre-packaged item home-made, I am always more pleased with myself and the product quality.
Cake mixes are fairly easy to make ahead, in fact I have blogged about it before. There are some good dry mixes from my vintage books and even modern versions such as THIS which you can store in the icebox or freezer and is easy to ‘whip up’ as it has the butter already in (hence icebox/freezer storage needed).
I just made some homemade brownies yesterday and they are quite easy. I did not use any homemade make ahead mix, for it is so simple to whip these up.

Yummy Brownies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 TBS vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan or round pan (I used an 8” single layer cake pan to make fun cake slice servings.)
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes. I always ‘undercook’ brownies, because as with all foods, they continue to cook when you remove them from the oven.

Again, on the ‘homemade’ track, I often will be in my kitchen using something store bought and will think, “Hmmm, can I make this?” Which has happened with everything from Catsup to Mayonnaise. So, when I wanted some chocolate syrup the other day I thought, “Why buy it?” First of all, most syrups are corn syrup not sugar. They also have odd preservatives and a higher quality would be more expensive. Yet, if you use a good quality unsweetened powdered baking chocolate, then you have the base for homemade chocolate syrup.
I don’t know about you, but my basic pantry supplies always contain powdered unsweetened baking chocolate. It is the base for many wonderful foods and again, the more we reduce our foods to their basic ingredient components, the less we really need to buy and the better quality and healthier our food will be.
I came up with this very basic chocolate syrup recipe which can easily be stored in your fridge for a month or more (maybe longer, I don’t know as I make small batches and then when I need some last minute, it is so easy to whip up, why have gallons of the stuff sitting around?)
The recipe is basically one part unsweetened chocolate powder to two parts sugar and water and vanilla or any essence to taste. You can use almond or coconut extracts. Because you boil it you can infuse it with any flavor, put some fresh picked culinary variety Lavender in there if you like.  So as an example of the recipe:
Chocolate Syrup
1/2 cup unsweetened powdered baking cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
flavoring to taste.
Boil, stirring constantly, until thickened ( about 2 minutes)
cool and decant.
I keep mine in little mason jars. But here is another opportunity to make use of some darling containers or saved jars and print up some of your own labels or little stickers.
Now you wouldn’t think such a simple thing could taste so good. Or else you would just think of the taste of a cheap plastic bottled syrup, it’s good, but you might not think it amazing. Well, last night when we had our friend over, I served the above brownies with a scoop of ice-cream and my chocolate sauce. She thought it was so good and I noticed, as we sat and gabbed over our coffee, that she kept dipping her finger into the leftover sauce on her plate, apologizing but she couldn’t help it. To borrow from a not so tasty fried chicken chain, ‘it’s finger lickin good’.
Now, an odd jump from homemade food to chickens, but I thought I would share some photos of how big my gals (and guys) have got. I still need to share the making of my chicken house and that entire building project I did. But, for now, here they are. I have started free ranging them in my yard. They have a covered chicken run that they can access from their house, but during the day I live the door to from the run to the yard open.
Buttons, my favorite hen, is so tame that she will sit on my lap whenever given the chance. She is the first out and the first to come running when I shout ‘chick chick chick’. I keep my kitchen door open, so my dogs can come and go as they please, and this morning I found Buttons the hen walking about bold as brass in the kitchen. When she saw me and I admonished, “Buttons, what are you doing in here” she just looked at me, clucked and casually strolled out, as if to say, “I will go now, but I will be back”.
It’s funny to think they have gone from this to thisto these  and now here they are and still not full grown.
I hope everyone enjoys their Saturday, I am lucky that mine is warm and sunny. I shall get a bike ride in this afternoon. Until tomorrow, Happy Homemaking.

27 August 1956 “Just some fun pictures”

We had a friend in today so I didn’t have a moment to post. She is moving back from Austen to Maryland and is from the Cape originally. I had fun and made dinner and enjoyed our company.
Here are some fun pictures, then, to make up a last minute post for today.
Here are some darling dressed from a Speigal catalog from 1956 summer. Aren’t their strappy shoes adorable and fresh. These are so adorable, I love both the drop but fitted waist of the blue number and the puff sleeves of the lilac frock.
When I spoke of uniforms the other day, I can’t believe I forgot the stewardess. I am sure this outfit looks as if it might be hard to work in, yet women did. And it looks smart and does a great job to represent the class and style of the airlines. I also think it would be fun to go to work in something like this, I would feel proud. This is from August 1956.
I liked this photo because to me it just felt very ‘normal’ not vintage. Because to me this is just another day out on the bike. My bike, which is vintage, is similar to this only teal blue and I often ride in my dress and this summer I was often in transit from the shore and home with my dress and beach things on my trusty bike. This photo is from a jims army daze.
Well, I am off to bed. Until tomorrow, Happy Homemaking.