5 May 1957 “Espalier Fruit Trees: Beauty and Function”

I had a comment asking about espalier fruit trees. I have mentioned espalier trees in the past. This is a very old form of keeping fruit and also displaying line and form in purely ornamental trees and shrubs.
Espalier :A tree or shrub that is trained to grow in a flat plane against a wall, often in a symmetrical pattern.  (French, from Italian spalliera, shoulder support, from spalla, shoulder, from Late Latin spatula, shoulder blade)
I thought I would start with some images showing the various shapes of espalier.
  (READ MORE)

4 May 1957 “Growing Chickens, Budding Fruit Trees, Stone Walls, and No-Rise Bread”

I haven’t shared any chicken news with any of you lately. If you recall, back in January I ordered a dozen fertile French Copper Maran eggs. You can see what a lovely chocolate brown they are. I put a few in my incubator and a few under my broody hen. What I learned is I should have put them ALL under the hen. The three I gave here all hatched, while only one in the incubator did so. Obviously Nature over Machine won out this time.
As I have also mentioned my dogs LOVE chicks. Here you can see my little Chi, Monty, happily snuggling with the little grey chick. She is one of my own chickens fertile eggs. A purebred Blue Orpington from my rooster. The sad tale with Monty’s love affair with the chicks, is once they become full sized hens, they no longer love him, often chase him and he runs squealing away. Yes, my chickens can beat up my dogs, what can one say? READ MORE

3 May 1957 “Fun Kitchen, 1950 Alice in Wonderland live action Movie, and Rss Feeds”

First, let’s start the day with this lively little ad. I like the checklist, very specific to these darling cabinets. I can say NONE of the checklist items are in my kitchen, sadly.
I also, as many of you know, love quaint and quirky look of the Early American mid-century design. Here we see happy function and practicality in metal cabinets and linoleum flooring living in serenity with old wood walls, colonial benches, brick walls and cross-hatch leaded paned windows. Read entire post --->

2 May 1957 “The Little Corner Shelf”

The corner shelf. That quintessential vintage kitchen accessory. This image here, is of my own corner shelf. My house, which is very old, had its 1880’s addition ‘done over’ in the 1950’s. My cabinets are of wood and were made to fit the space, as this house, even in the 1950’s, was never on square. A lot of settling can happen in 300 years.
I have always loved these little corner spaces. My own here houses a plant in a vintage yellow 1930’s McCoy Pottery planter, the gravy boat and sugar and creamer to my Temporama set and a smattering of shells and starfish. A nod to my proximity to the ocean. I also love pale blue, yellow and red in a kitchen. And touches of dark green, as from this plant, is very 1940’s actually. (Read Entire Post)...

1 May 1957 “Celillo Falls, Oregon”

Vice president Richard Nixon speaking at a dedication of the Dalles dam.
In 1952 the Army Corp of Engineers began the construction of a concrete dam to run a new electric power company in Oregon. They completed the dam in 1957. On March 10, hundreds of observers looked on as the rising waters rapidly silenced the falls, submerged fishing platforms, and consumed the village of Celilo. The various falls had been a part of the communities food and money. Here is a poignant video about that day and its affects on the local people... (Read Entire Post)

30 April 1957 “Trying Something New: A Vintage Newspaper/Magazine”

I have often felt myself the little reporter. My findings of all things 1950’s since the inception of my project has given me a very investigative aspect to my findings.
Often searching for news or simply recipes, I will uncover old laws or regulations that suddenly make the modern worlds current situation make sense. Much of what we seem to believe of the past is often a skewered view via popular culture. (Read Entire Post)...

27 April 1957 “Glow little Glow Worm: Some Music from this Year”

I love this song, which was featured this year on the Nat King Cole show. The Mills brothers were at one time the “Four Kings of Harmony” a barbershop quartet formed by their father who, of course, owned a barber shop.
Here is another wonderful song of theirs, “Paper Doll”

This next number is not from this year, but from 1941. I would have been an innocent unmarried gal in 1941. I have always loved this song and it most certainly show up on the radio in 1957. It has the same group tonal sensibilities of many current 1957 ‘groups’.

Though many associate the “Banana Boat Song” with Harry Belafonte’s wonderful rendition, it was actually written and performed by the Tarriers in 1957.

In Dale Hawkins Suzie Q from this year, you can almost hear the sounds of the upcoming 1960’s. The electric guitar riffs and the increased percussion and repetitive guitar riff, this has a very dissonant modern sound that will culminate in the late 60’s and then into the various branches of rock in the 1970s.
I also love when I find videos such as this with a record being played on an actual record player.

Consider, if you will, 10 years hence: 1967. This how vastly great the divide between music shall be. Those electric guitar sounds softly foreboding in Hawkins song have evolved into the likes of Jimmy Hendrix.

Now, for me, this music is too dissonant and loud. Its almost painful to listen to. This, I am sure, is not a view shared by my modern day contemporaries. Perhaps it was because I, myself, was raised by older parents. My parents did not have Rock n Roll as teenagers. So, I grew up listening to their old records of Ella, Billy Holiday, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Teresa Brewer, Andrew Sisters and so on. My first introduction to Rock n Roll was occasionally listening to the bubblegum rock 45’s of my sisters (born in the 50’s teens in the late 60’s). Therefore the petulant sounds of the 90’s and grunge were often hard for me to associate with. And the hair bands and heavy metal of the 1980’s were never my thing. That is perhaps why I tended to like the New Wave music of the 1980’s particularly as many such bands had a very 50’s sound and often sported vintage clothes of petticoats, spiked heels and so on.

It is amazing to me the great divide between two decades as the late 50’s and late 60’s. Music, like art, is both a mirror of society and a blueprint of its notions. The changes and unrest coming in the 1960’s certainly show in its music and social morays.
I think I will close with the smooth, structured and calming tones of the Dinning Sisters. I think their perfect hair, lovely dresses are as much stage art as Lady Gaga, though I am sure that opinion will also not be shared. Enjoy:

24 April 1957 “Happy Easter”

Of course, in 1957 Easter Sunday was on the 21st.

I think I have mentioned the Easter Seal before, but here is a quick bit of it’s history:

The organization that would become Easter Seals was founded by Edgar Allen, an Ohio-businessman who lost his son in a streetcar crash. The lack of adequate medical services available to save his son prompted Allen to sell his business and begin a fund-raising campaign to build a hospital in his hometown of Elyria, Ohio. That hospital continues to operate today as Elyria Memorial Hospital. After the hospital was built, Allen learned that children with disabilities were often hidden from public view. Inspired by this discovery, in 1919 he founded what would become the National Society for Crippled Children, the first organization of its kind.
     The birth of the Easter Seals seal
In the spring of 1934, the organization launched its first "seals" campaign to raise money for its services after funding declined during the Great Depression. To show support for the program, donors purchased the seals and placed them on envelopes and letters, in addition to normal postage. Cleveland Plain Dealer cartoonist J.H. Donahey designed the first seal. Donahey based the design on a concept of simplicity because those served by the charity asked "simply for the right to live a normal life." The overwhelming public support for the seals campaign raised $47,000, over twice the annual budget, and triggered a nationwide expansion of the organization and a swell of grassroots efforts on behalf of people with disabilities. In 1944, the organization broadened its mission to help adults and achieved a nationwide reach by 1950.  The "Easter Seals" name emerges.

Though both men and women often wear hats on a daily basis, Easter certainly is the time to show off that new “bonnet”.

Look at the Easter Bonnet spectrum from this 1951 darling cloche to today’s ‘57 version. Check out the images from 1950 to 1959 HERE.

 

Even Elvis is having a grand ole’ time this year at Easter with new girlfriend Yvonne Lime. This year,1957, Yvonne was chosen to co-star with Elvis Presley in Loving You in which she played the role of Sally. Elvis and Yvonne developed more than a professional interest in one another- and they dated some during the filming. On Easter weekend of 1957 she even went to visit him at Graceland, his Memphis home.

Here they are celebrating that fun day:

Here is an interesting performance from this year’s Easter Sunday on the TV show The Ted Mack Amateur Hour. Has anyone ever heard of Rick Pearce? I wonder if he ever made it even in a small way?

Here are two different views of this Easter. The first is Easter ‘down on the farm’. You can see that harvesting needs to be done even on Easter and then many gather to a pot luck or “pot latch” in the lovely Spring lawns of the farm.

Here we see the happy little Suburban Family in their Easter best. Though I notice Father and Son are not wearing ties, suit coats or hats. I wonder if they simply were off by now, as I assume they had them on earlier in the day, what do you think?

Well, have a lovely Easter Sunday. We are off to my MIL today. She is just back from Florida for the beginning of the coming Summer. I am excited to talk Gardening with her and of course hear of their latest boating adventures down south this past winter.

I will be making my chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing. The recipe is HERE on this post.

Happy Easter and may you have a lovely warm day filled with laughter and wonderful memories to come.

21 April 1957 “It’s Curtains For You!”

Though my title today reeks of silent film villainy, it is actually just a way for me to share these fun drapery solutions with you.

These are from a 1954 Better Homes & Gardens article. I always love vintage takes on such things and for those of you interested in recreating mid-century interiors and don’t want just the modern conception of rocket ships and boomerangs, these offer an interesting take on it. Again, featuring much of the Early American look I am often discussing.

  One could see Mrs. Cleaver or Lucy in Connecticut choosing an entrance such as this.

This must be a wonderful window to have. They have an almost modernist or shaker approach to the simple benches lined up for utility. The curtains are then intended to soften that severity.

The ruffled sheer has been a bedroom choice since the 1930’s. They are like a ladies dressing gown.

I love this hidden closet as part of the wall and pelmet/cornice piece. If the radiators were not there, you could see window benches working will in this type of lay out.

I think open shelves are always a good idea. They force you to keep track of what you have. Don’t you love the ever faithful dog with his children?

This is clever, too, the curtain hooks built under the trim like this. Again we see a more stream-lined modern approach to a Country air.

I hope these images inspire you or in the least make you laugh in their quaint 20th century way.

20 April 1957 “HOWL and Obscenity”

On the 12th of this month, 1957, Allan Ginsberg’s poem HOWL (which had been written in 1955 but published in England) was seized by customs officials on the grounds of obscenity. One has almost to chuckle at such as this when one compares today’s world and the word obscenity.
It has become such a part of American culture and therefore world culture via advertising, that the thought of words in a poem being obscene can seem almost alien. Yet, with today’s youth, the fear of their reading anything unsavory is increased 10 fold with easy access to the world via their phones which are mini computers.
Today obscenity in the form of words seems hardly a problem. The image is the media message de jour. And one wonders if anyone today is even alive enough to take heed of words, being so numb to violence and sexuality.
When I read the first few lines of Howl, it made me ponder:

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angel headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,

Today, our ‘hipsters’ are simply actors on the stage of the ever-changing world of consumerism. Those ‘cool kids’ are simply donning the latest version of ‘subversive’ supplied happily by Urban outfitters or other large retailers designed in the boardrooms of Advertising. The idea once behind the difference in the Beatniks is now simply a fashion statement; visuals with no sustenance. And the passive way in which the youth happily murder and destroy with video games, watch endless TV shows, often with parents, of bodies shot, destroyed in TV style murder all slicked back with the cool detachment of their latest ‘look’ bought on credit cards with digital money that, much like their own convictions, are backed by nothing.
Do we not live closer to the razor’s edge today than ever thought possible in 1957? Today’s ‘angel headed hipsters’ aren’t looking to ancient heavenly connections, they are simply, mindlessly, numbly wandering through their days, heads down and fingers punching away the numbness of the modern world: LOL, ;) while images of death and obscenity are so commonplace visually as to be almost laughable.
Sometimes, in my white gloves and hat, skirt and hose, I feel the rebel. The daring notion of individuality amid a myriad of easy ready to wear ‘attitude’. My costume, nay my uniform, sometimes feels my own armor. I need it  just to deal with the irony and base cold consumer world. This might sound extreme, but sometimes when I have had a good day of really researching and studying the past I see how the future turned out and it gives me a bit of a shudder.

who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war,

The scholars of war seems to really touch base today. Though we are currently in various wars, we seem almost numb to that as well. As if it is something just happening by the government that doesn’t concern us, as long as we have access to shopping and interest rates remain low.
I often think if somehow those happy new middle class, the people who just wanted to make a perfect world for their children could have seen that many of the beatniks probably wanted a freedom from the changes in the world not dissimilar to them. Somehow the culture of division began to separate the masses. When really we all wanted the same thing, freedom. Freedom of words and deeds. Today, however, the pendulum has shifted, and what was obscene is now the mainstream and those who choose the old ‘traditional’ ways are often seen almost subversive. Those returning to the land, growing and tending like many American pioneers are ‘hippies’ or ‘green freaks’. One can dress up hatred in any form of clothing but it always boils down to one thing: Control. Someone who has something wants to make sure no one else gets it.
I can’t help but think of our current president Eisenhower’s warning given at the end of his second term (in 1961) against the military industrial complex. We were somehow divided to think those who became the ‘hippies’ and those who thought they were ‘red blooded Americans’ were different. Eisenhower, an Army General who knew war and how to govern, was the epitome of this decade and his message was no different than the feelings of many Beatniks. “Be on guard, pay attention, don’t let ease and subterfuge take over our senses and make us forget what it is to be Americans”.
In 1961, Eisenhower became the first U.S. president to be constitutionally prevented from running for re-election to the office, having served the maximum two terms allowed by the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment was ratified in 1951, during Harry S. Truman's term, but it stipulated that Truman would not be affected by the amendment. Eisenhower would easily have been re-elected. And I wonder, were his ideals against the growing power of the corporate world of America made our land a different place today?
I will close with his words: