7 October 1957 “Touching Base with Tenant Troubles”

I have had something come up with our rental property again. The ice box (which we cleaned many times) still has a wretched smell and the tenants are saying it is not useable. As we do not want to spend unnecessarily, I am trying to get our fridge ready to take to them. And then we have to make do with a smaller back up one. Rather boring story with no real point other than to say, it is taking me out and about and I want to at least touch base with all of you. I am determined, however, to make lemonade out of these lemons and we shall see what I can whip up as a new layout for my kitchen with the large fridge gone.

I am happy to see the Forum is starting to get its steam up already. Any of you who have not stopped by, why not give it a try and say hello. I do hope all will have a lovely weekend.

Happy Homemaking.

4 October 1957 “There is Nothing Like a Bath”

 

“A hasty plash and dash may do a surface job of cleaning. But it’s time to revive the ancient art of bathing as one of life’s greatest satisfactions”

This article from a 1955 magazine of mine exclaims that in America (at the time) there were thirty million bathtubs and a number of ‘uncounted’ showers.

Though daily bathing as a norm then, in 1955, many older people most likely still had a sink wash daily and a bath/shower on Saturday. For most people, including my age group, in the 1950’s daily showering may have been the norm. Though washing one’s hair was a one time a week occurance for women. It is for me, today as well. I usually wash and set my hair on Friday’s. Other day’s my hair is protected by a shower cap.

This article goes on to mention that even those still using a bathtub as a means of cleansing oneself, the ‘art of the bath’ was something altogether. I have to say I agree.

Bathing has meant, for past civilizations, something quite important. The Greek word for ‘bathe’ meant: “ to drive sadness form the mind” and the Japanese call bathing “the washing of life.”

Ancient Romans baths, called thermae, were a social affair. Even the walls of their baths were rubbed and anointed with oils to herbs to give off scents.

The 18th century well to do enjoyed slipper of chaise longue shaped baths, filled by servants carrying gallons of hot water up flights of stairs to their boudoir, usually placed before a fire.

Benjamin Franklin brought the first bathtub here from Europe, but the United States colder climate and ill conceived plumbing did not see actual baths prevalent until the late 19th century with the advent of the shower and enameled baths.

This was probably a scene my fictional 1957 me would have been told of by my grandmother who would have been familiar with the odd boiler cranking away coal or wood fire to heat the bath.

Here is a list of 1950’s relaxing bath tips:

Here are some fun to make homemade luxury bath recipes

Ginger Cinnamon-Salt Body Scrub by "AJ"
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup almond oil or olive oil
Mix all ingredients together, then gently rub over your damp skin (except your face) to slough off dry skin. Rinse with warm water. Save remaining product in a wide mouth jar for easy use later.
Oatmeal & Brown Sugar Scrub
Exfoliates and is very moisturizing but doesn't leave a greasy feeling. Before you turn off your shower scoop a small handful of scrub into your hand. Rub gently onto your skin. Rinse.
3/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup ground oatmeal (not instant)
1/4 cup pure honey
3/4 to 1 cup (or to total saturation)
Oil of choice - I use Jojoba, Grape seed or Sweet Almond
1/4 tsp Essential or Fragrance oil of choice (optional) Vanilla works nicely. Though this smells great on it's own.
Mix the brown sugar & oatmeal together in a large bowl. Now add the honey. Drizzle the oil over the mix. Mix well. When all your mix is saturated and sinks to the bottom of the bowl and you have oil on top you're done. Add your essential oil or fragrance oil. A six or eight ounce wide-mouthed jar works nicely. Spoon mixture in.
Almond and Bran Scrub:
1/2 cup very finely ground almonds
1/2 cup coarse wheat bran
*1 cup hot green tea
10 drops lavender essential oil
Mix the almonds and bran. Add the tea; stir until the mixture forms a smooth paste. Cool just to body temperature. Add the lavender essential oil, thoroughly blending the mixture. Use this scrub as often as once a week.
* Green Tea is for toning and a oily buildup.

I currently have a smaller bath tub. I appreciate and enjoy the water in the summer and am often in a pool or the ocean as much as possible. Come the long winter months, I crave a good hot bath, but our tub is so small that I rarely enjoy it. I am planning, some day, to install a large claw-foot in our bedroom. I once saw a bedroom with a tub installed in the room in front of a fire and thought it a luxury that also made sense in that one would not have the expense of adding an entire new bathroom and also needing the space to find for the bathroom.

How many of you enjoy a good tub?

Happy Homemaking.

3 October 1957 “New Forum: Vintage Living, Modern Coffee Klatch”

As many of you know, I have had various attempts with our Forum. At one point, it was a wonderful place where we had such lively discussions and great debate. We shared recipes, ideas, asked and answered questions and really had some wonderful topics. All the while I was very impressed and happy how well we all got along even when we were on polar sides of a discussion. It felt very much like a place of friends. A virtual Coffee Klatch with neighbors around the kitchen table or over the garden fence with a cuppa and a good chin wag.

After our Forum began to grow in numbers it somehow became prey to Spammers and Bots. Rather like the town gossips, perhaps, who spoilt it all with unsavory discussions and odd behavior. Not understanding how to eliminate these predators to our quite little community, I had some help. However, this resulted in an inability to keep up with new members wanting to join coupled with my own misunderstanding as to how to accept said new members.

I have, therefore, been wanting to address the forum for some time. Well, after many attempts of frustration and pulling out my hair trying to understand PHPBB, I finally found a very good service that now hosts Forums. This is a new concept (long needed I might add) and I have decided to go that route. It means, however, all our wonderful back log of information is not going to be on it immediately. What I plan to do is attempt to cut and past our old information into the new Forum once we see how much interest we get in the new one.

I have laid it out now with simply three main categories of Meet and Greet, Homemaking, and Vintage Lifestyle. Then within those categories I have made some initial sub-categories such as recipes, Schedules lists, vintage dressing and so on. We can add to this as we go, but I think the format will be easier for us to control. I have had to pay for the service, but am willing to pay a small monthly amount to get back our wonderful chat area. We shall see if it is worth it in time based on how much we all use it.

If I understand it correctly, one can simply go to it and sign in. There is no need, at present, to be given a permission. If it comes to needing it again, I think this site will allow me to better understand how to go about giving said permissions. For now it should be open to all and ready to start a new. I hope you will all at least stop by and give a “hello” or even post and share to get our community back up and running. Though it doesn’t look like much right now, it could become another great part of this site and our community.

I have been doing much thinking lately about my online time and life. Realizing that much of what I hold dear in the Vintage world actually can and does live happily side by side with this technology. Right now we are living at a time when we can group together like minded folk to form a neighborhood and organization of a type, despite our geographical locations. This is, in many ways, the answer to the new real ‘small community’ and ‘small town or village life’. I think much of the modern world has become so homogenous and so over burdened by the bland corporate experience of the everyday, that the internet is a sort of new frontier for we to explore and make it what we wish it to be, at least our own little corner of it. In a way it is much like the New World or the Old West once was, unchartered territory for us to take and shape as we like. I hope you shall join me there and help carve out our new improved Vintage inspired online life.

I have linked up the new Forum with the above Forum button, so that should take you there. You can also simply click HERE to go and give it a try.

Now, as it is a new place to go and we have always been good in the past with our etiquette and behavior, I thought it fitting to close with this educational film on Office courtesy & etiquette from 1953. Enjoy and DO stop by the Forum and let me know if it is worth our time to build it up.

Happy Homemaking.

2 October 1957 “Blue Heaven: Collecting Anchor Hocking & Vintage China Mix n Match”

We had a power outage yesterday, the 1st, so both 1 & 2 October are posted today, thank you.

As many of you know, my everyday dishes are the lovely Temporama set I received as a gift on the Christmas the week before I began my 1955 project. Not only do I love their pattern, strength (easy in the dishwasher), and style, but they will always have a special place in my heart. In those timid beginnings in my project way back then, when I would find myself frazzled, apron-stained with various burnt offerings for Hubby’s initial 1950’s breakfasts, the joy of coming into the dinning room of a morning and seeing my lovely blue and white china on a pressed linen table cloth really helped me to move forward. I still contend that a clean pressed table cloth set with lovely dishes or an open cabinet of clean dishes in the kitchen far outweigh the strength of Prozac. At least for me, they did and still do.

There is something about rows of coordinated china that has always got me. It doesn't have to be all the same pattern but I keep my small growing collection with a base color of whites and creams and mostly blue detail.

Here is one of the cabinets in my kitchen displaying my Temporama and some of my Pyrex in the Amish Rooster pattern.

For coffee cups, when we are not using the cup and saucers of my Temporama, I use the standard white anchor hocking fire king coffee mug. These mugs come in a vast variety of shapes and patterns and were once even used at Mcdonald’s, possibly as a promotion.

Concerning the size of these, our basic morning coffee mugs, they are definitely a 1950’s measurement. These coffee cups hold exactly one cup or 8 oz. straight up to the brim. While, if you compare it to a modern coffee mug, as I have done here with an old IKEA mug I have, you can see the vast difference in size. The modern mug is exactly twice the size holding 16 oz. We do drink and eat more today merely by the larger size of our plates, bowls and cups, considering one hot chocolate, say, in a modern mug would be two cups of hot chocolate from the ‘old days’.

Now, another collection of which I have a few pieces, is Royal China, “Blue Heaven” pattern. Here you can see a collection in this Flickr group. I have a bowl, some serving plates, the salt, pepper, and creamer pitcher. It blends very nicely with the Temporama design. Here is the stamp from the bottom of one of my bowls. You can see it was then made in the USA in Sebring Ohio. The company was bought a few times, finally by Coca-Cola and then disappeared.

Now, Anchor hocking and fireking, which is the company who produced my small white mugs, also did a run of products with the Blue Heaven design. The other day, at our local antique shop, I found a set of six soup bowls in the white fireking with the Blue Heaven pattern stamped in the bottom. Here is one of the new bowls on the left with one of my plain berry bowls and mug.

Here you can see in this individuals Flickr set, that my plain white mugs can be found with the Blue Heaven stamp, the center is the soup bowl (as I found) and you can see berry bowls with a darling scalloped edge. There are also varying sizes of casserole dishes in this pattern, such as this And even darling little individual casseroles that I would love to won one day, like this: These would be great to serve French Onion soup or little individual servings of baked scallops at a summer dinner party alfresco.

  They even have drinking, low ball and other size glassware printed with the Blue Heaven pattern. I would love to get a set of these for our bar.

  Another pattern of which I have no pieces but would like to add to my dishes collection, is the Swiss Chalet (also called Apline)  pattern. This was  manufactured by the Stetson Pottery Company in Lincoln, Illinois and by Marcrest china (Where it was called Swiss Alpine) This is circa 1960.

Here we see the actual china cup and saucer. And here a Fireking mug stamped with their interpretation of the pattern. It seems Fireking/ Anchor Hocking often did such deals with various china patterns. This allowed one to get the get baking quality casseroles, sturdy mugs, and wonderful mixing bows of the Anchor Hocking company and still coordinate with their dish pattern.

A little about the Anchor Hocking (which produces Fireking as one of their product line). Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation  was founded in 1905 by Isaac Jacob Collins.  That company merged with the AnchorCap and Closure Corporations in 1937. Anchor Hocking is primarily located in Lancaster, Ohio. (Plant #44 is located in Monaca, Pennsylvania.) The first glassware they produced as the Anchor Hocking Glass Company was Royal Ruby in 1939.

They were sponsored by the well known radio program, “Casey, Crime Photographer”. I have a few of these episodes on Apron Tv  and here, in part 1, you can hear the radio announcer at the beginning mention the Anchor Hocking company. (Go to the Apron TV link to hear part 2 and more episodes).

So, one can have, without spending much money, a lovely set of dishes. And rather than amass an endless collection of random dishes from here and there or continue to buy ill made modern pieces, you can really have a nice set of dishes. Such patterns as can be found in these old style dishes can really make a difference to a kitchen redo. Some paint (coordinated to your choice of china pattern) and some contrasting or complimentary color as an accent and you can make your kitchen feel brand new without having to spend money on new cabinets or appliances. And in these tight money times, we still want to feel our homes are special but not spend an arm and a leg to do so.

What are your favorite patterns of vintage dishes/china?

Happy Homemaking.

There will be no Vintage News this week, as I have another project I hope to get out to you this week instead, so stay tuned.

1 October 1957 “Wash Day Helpers”

this was meant to be posted yesterday, but we had power outages and internet loss, so both 1 & 2 are posted today, Thank you.

Here are some fun helping hints from my vintage magazines.

I believe the ‘plastic starch’ they refer to in this hint is actually the liquid starch still available today. If added to laundry and then clothes simply dried until damp, ironing activates the starch and it will last into a few washes.

• to reduce static cling, simply add baking soda, borax or 1/2 cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle.
• to whiten laundry add 1/2 cup of 20 Mule Team Borax or Arm & Hammer Washing Soda to the wash cycle.
• for extra greasy stains simply add a bottle of Coca-Cola to the wash cycle. Wash as usual.

Enjoy and Happy Homemaking!

30 September 1957 “Ultra Vintage with Potted and Pressed Beef”

To me, Vintage isn’t always red lipstick and girdles. Though I obviously have an affinity for the middle of the last century, I have always loved earlier times as well. The other day, when I was feeling a bit peevish, I found myself day dreaming over my 1908 homemaker’s manual and old pre WWI Country Life magazines.

I have often found solace in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. I am not sure why, perhaps it is simply my ability to romanticize which leaves such a time ripe with possibilities. I also, from an historical standpoint, find it fascinating that prior to Industrialization, the civilized world changed very little. Grandparents and grandchildren knew horse and foot travel, lights of candles and clothes sewn only by hand. Then after the Railroads and Industry spread, the Victorians were the first real ‘modern’ people. Traveling with times tables on trains. Motor cars were arriving and more roadways. True, by today’s standards they are antique, but in many ways they would have seemed as modern and alien to those in the 17th century as are we. But, I digress.

  I found some interesting preservation techniques for potted meat that I think I shall actually try. I will share with you the results. It will give it about a month after I have prepared it, however, to see how it is holding up. Checking for mold and the like, because any way we could  make our own preserved food to use later, it is cheaper and better quality than canned foods and we know what goes into it.

1911, pre World Wars and even Pre Titanic, is beginning to see fashion really take a turn. The lady of fashion has greatly changed her overall sillohuete from just five years previous. The line is becoming smoother. The waist is being raised, much like the Regency period, and hats are beginning to shrink a bit. This smoother line and raised hemline will culminate in the dreaded ‘hobble skirt’ which literally restricted walking. Interesting to note, however, is in this postcard depicting the current fad, doesn’t the young lady actually have the beginnings of the sexy hourglass shape of the later 1950’s early 60’s associated with Marilyn an such?

Of course the average middle class woman is going to look more cohesive to her 5 year predecessor with the standard waist and fuller skirt and blowsier top, not unlike Queen Mary and her ladies here in 1911. The royals often taking a more sensible approach and of course much copied by the middle class. While the du monde were the ladies of the upper classes.

I will show images of my pressed and potted beef when I prepare it. Do any of you think you would ever try such an endeavor? Would you be more like to do so if the attempt is a success with me? I just love finding new ways to make and keep things handy that are more natural and less chemical. I also feel a bit more empowered when I garner a skill lost.

Happy Homemaking.

28 September 1957 “Fall Planting for Spring and Some New Additions to the Chickens”

  I found this concise little article that from an October issue extolling the virtues of Fall bulb planting. A true gardener’s work is never done. And we are always planning for the next season. What I love about gardening is it encompasses a rather good mind set. You HAVE to live in the moment to get those weeds or or relax amongst your roses with your iced tea. But, there are also wonderful days of dreaming over seed catalogs and pencil and paper imaging ‘castles in the sky’. And, when Spring comes, those castle’s become your hard sweat and labor to bring about your goals, which often change once the level of work is realized.

As you continue to gain experience as a gardener, you tweak your plans here and there. You begin to see what works for your soil, your amount of sun or your own amount of time for weeding. If you hate weeding, have little time and don’t care only about flowers, than succulents are  your best friend, especially if you have a sunny spot. If you like the cool feel of the shade on a hot summer day than hostas, ferns and even hydrangeas can fill out your shady spots and make weeding easier by their dense spreading.

Now, however, at least in our colder Easter climates, we are thinking of Spring. Yes, Spring, for that is what we plan for now. The wonderful world of bulbs. Tulips, hyacinths, you name, they go in now. So, lets look at our little article here:

Another type of plant, though not planted in fall for spring, is the water hyacinth. I only mention it here because mine our blooming like mad. They are a free floating water plant and are beautiful.  Look at the color of the lavender blues and yellows. I didn’t adjust the color either, that is their true vibrancy.These are SO easy to grow that you literally drop them in water and you are done. Of course if there are no fish than you would need water plant food. I know, in the South, these are illegal as they spread like mad. I start with one in Summer and by the end of the Season have to feed many of them to my chickens just to not choke out my little pond. But I also take cute little buckets or containers and place them around the yard with water and put the excess in there. They are an easy way to add green and color and a single 10 cent comet gold fish will happily leave with them.

Speaking of shrubs, not only is this a good time to plant these, as it is cooler and soon leaves shall be falling, so it is less stress on the plant. This allows a good dormancy so come Spring your plant/shrub will have had time to acclimate and will happily bud as if it has always been there.

I have been slowly adding Hydrangeas to our stone wall, as I want a hedgerow of them in time. This past month I took quite a few from our rental property, not caring anymore how pretty it is for tenants (who obviously don’t care). And yesterday I added four new ones to the area.

I got these and others from a local nursery about 30 minutes from my home. They are a little secret place tucked behind the feed lot where I get my chicken feed. They share a space with a boat yard and are entirely word of mouth. Their business has grown because of it and their prices are better than the Chain stores, because they propagate much of their own as well as not have to pay high rents. They actually propagate their own Hydrangea and they are strong and wonderful bloomers.

This is the time of the year, as well, to buy those more expensive trees and shrubs because they are often marked down for the season. Many places don’t have the space to store them all until the following season and you can get wonderful deals. It helps if you get to know the people there, as well, as when it is a small business they have the power to make deals with you. I even worked a deal yesterday with my grain store to start trading my extra fresh eggs for chicken feed.

Now, concerning my own chickens, I had a rather fun surprise the other day. I have one good broody hen, Ruth. She has sat for me before and hatched her own as well as mail ordered eggs. She is a good mother. She went broody last month and I didn’t have the heart to chase her off, so I took some older eggs made sure they had been sitting out and put ‘X’ on them. Then I placed them under her, so when I would collect eggs in the morning I would know not to take those, as the other hens lay under her during this time.

Now, when I have used her before I have tried various ways to sequester her off from the flock. My last experiment was when she was in a rabbit hutch in the chicken house so that the other hens could see her and hear her but not interfere with the chicks.

So, the other day I was letting out my chickens when I heard a peeping and as bold as brass comes Miss Ruth confidently marching down the ramp with three little puff balls following her. Not only did I think the eggs were not viable, she was sitting in a very high nest box about five feet from the ground. So, unbeknownst to me, she hatched and successfully brought down three chicks.

What I have discovered is that the easiest way to raise more chickens isn’t brooder pens and broody boxes, but to just allow the flock their way. The other hens basically ignore the chicks, often eating and drinking right next to them. IF one pecks at the chick, it is usually a warning peck and Mother steps in to protect. And of course Roostie, the proud Papa is such a wonderful helpmeet always calling over the chicks for some morsel he has scratched up. And he is always looking and scanning for any danger to his ladies. It has rather been a wonderful experiment in Chicken behavior this past year.

These are rather bad shots, but I cannot get too close to them or mother gets worried and chases the chicks back indoors. Here they are, though, happily scratching about with mum.

     I think they are crosses with my Ameracauna (blue egg layer) and my French Marans (deep brown egg layer) and these crossed with my rooster who is an Orpington. I am curious to see if all three make it.

Each night, though, they have to follow mum into the chicken house and find their way with her while all the other hens mingle and flutter to find their roosts and we have had no fatalities yet. I suppose Nature Will Out.

Happy Homemaking and start dreaming of next years garden.

24 September 1957 “Away a bit”

Yesterday I visited a friend I hadn’t seen in a month or two. We dressed up and went to a new tea house/art gallery in her town. It was a lovely old converted barn.

We had afternoon tea with sweets and little finger sandwiches. Their desserts were so good and you could tell were made on premises with actual ingredients. We were served in real China tea cups and pot. They were all mismatched and it made it charming. There were starched white linen tablecloths. We even had to pour our tea through strainers, which made it more fun and the tea better tasting. We had Earl Grey (I adore bergamot, one of the main elements of Earl Grey that gives it it’s wonderful aromatic bouquet).

My friend looked adorable and when we later went to a large antiques Market, one of the proprietors said, “Oh, it’s the Vintage gals again. We haven’t seen you in awhile”. We smiled at that, having been remembered. But, I suppose wearing dresses and looking ‘put together’ in our small ocean-side towns draws attention, good attention I might add.

I should have been good and brought my camera, but quite honestly I just forget. I went out without a thought about it. I feel bad now, but at the time I was just living a day. This past week I have been taking rather a little break from the computer and technology. It isn’t permanent, I assure you, but I just needed it. No concerns about what to write or share, no worries over the camera and downloading images, no scanning or dog earring magazines, just simply living. It was rather nice. And I think I needed it as a sort of cleanse from this past month and into the coming Autumn.

I hope in my doing so I haven’t lost many readers, but if I have, what can I do? Nothing. I am here to share and enjoy what I do. I love writing and I do, mostly, enjoy sharing images, ideas, tips, and such of the time. But, I wanted to see what it felt like without it being there. It felt like normal life. Yet I also see now, as I type this, that it also felt like a holiday and now this seems ‘work as usual’. Though I am sure you will scold for their being no pictures of my Vintage day out, nor any good recipes for tea things and so on.

I hope you all have a lovely day and I will close here with this helpful video from 1946 (arranging the Tea Table). Happy Homemaking.

19 September 1957 “Fuchsia and Spring Colors for Fall of ‘57 and The News”

The cover for this Autumn's fashion here in 1957 feels more like Spring than Fall. The fuchsia tones are bright and really give a nod to the brighter more dynamic colors fashion will move into as the early 1960’s approach.

The pink on this Fall ‘57 hat is bright and cheery.

Though the golden tones on this Cristobal Balenciaga cocktail dress have an autumnal gold, they are layered on a Robin’s Egg Blue background. One of my favorite shades to wear.

This Dior for Fall ‘57 has a bright fresh green.

Though dressing vintage myself, I am already not following trends. But, I like to see the actual trends of the year, in this case 1957. This let’s me see what was coming and I am happy to see that my Spring and Summer fashions can do double duty for this Autumn. The usual tweeds, browns and grey, can be paired with those summer delights of color. A darker shoe, a dark leather bag and dark hat and of course a coat and autumnal scarf and that Easter dress becomes the best Fall Fashion.

Today is also News day and I have this weeks Vintage News up. Today we look at women in Science, Space, and Science fiction in the past. It can be accessed HERE or by clicking the News button on the upper right.

Happy Homemaking.