4 March 1955 "Propaganda and My Battle Cry"

STOCK GAINS in the next two years may push the Dow-Jones industrial average as high as 500, nearly a 25% rise, predicts FORTUNE. Barring war and no recession worse than the 1953-54 slump, stock dividends will jump 48% by 1957, and 65% (to a total of $16.5 billion) by 1959. Gross national product will soar an estimated 16% to $440 billion in the next four years. [ today in 2009 the Dow is at 6836.63 while in 2007 it was at 14,000! That is less than half what it was.)

AIRPORT PLAN for New York's International Airport at Idlewild will turn it into the world's most modern terminal, capable of handling 140 airliners at one time. To cost $60 million, the project calls for a 655-acre "Terminal City" with an eleven-block-long arrival building, two adjacent wing buildings, seven individual airline terminal buildings, plus a maze of taxiways and aprons. First buildings will be ready for their first passengers early in 1957.

(The airport was originally known as Idlewild Airport and it was later renamed "Major General Alexander E. Anderson Airport." General Anderson was a Queens resident who had commanded a Federalized National Guard unit in the southern United States and who had died in late 1942. In 1948, the airport was renamed New York International Airport, though the original name remained in common use. The airport was renamed in 1963 in memory of the late President John F. Kennedy. It is colloquially referred to simply as "Kennedy" or "JFK.")

Today I feel like giving my two cents (well a buck fifty's worth really), so hold on:

Sometimes propaganda can be good. It gets its point across.





Sometimes I feel it is bad in a very subtle way:

How has being a housewife become compared to being Hitler. Well, maybe that is a little strong, but this sort of image now gets my dander up. It used to amuse me somewhat and I could think, "Oh, those silly women back then. Slaves to their husbands and their house, haha, not free and alive like we modern women."

Yes, I used to laugh at this sort of thing, but now I am beginning to think that these images are actually anti-housewife propaganda. I may just be touting conspiracy therom, but honestly, is this some subtle coporate propaganda that pokes fun at a housewife? Does this make the idea of staying home and caring for you home similiar to that of a dictator? IF a woman isnt home and caring about her house, then she cannot realize how easily it is to clean with a few items, instead of the vast amount on the market. Why, she can't even stay home at all, as the need to buy and pay for everthing we have to make our not staying home easier after working all day. That means both husband and wife have to work. Now you are at work, so you need to get the housework done quickly, both because your busy and also you don't want to be a 'homemaker' (ck that is so 50's!) So, you buy swiffers and other throw away cleaning products. Who has time to do laundry so you buy too many clothes that you don't need and cheap things (think WalMart and Old Navy) to replace any tears or rips that you don't have the time nor skill to mend and toss those old ones in the junk heap. Now, with your busy schedule and your hatred for the bondage of the kitchen you don't have the time nor inclination to make meals, so prepared foods are your answer, all the while creating more and more garbage for landfills. Who has time to make a PBJ, just buy them pre-packaged and toss away what you don't need. And forget about setting a nice table for everyone to sit around and eat that prepared food, no way! Now the concept of the family meal is completley out of the picture. I know, I know, it does sound extreme, but don't you think there is a grain of truth in it? The removal of the woman from the home leads to more spending. The less time families spend together the more all members can go out and spend more. They need more money to buy all the things they 'need', so they have to make more money and then they have more money and they spend it. It is like a mobius strip of consumerism.

Isn't it funny how one little poster could bring all this up in me? However, that is the main point, really: A picture IS worth a thousand words.

You see an image and it slips into your subconscious and you file it away. "I hate these people, buy this product, this is the best of its kind." It just gets in there. I wonder what way we could use the propaganda to return the lost glory to the homemaker? Maybe a poster of Martha stewart standing in a spotless room with a broom and a mop in her hand and behind her piles of cash and gold and jewels with the caption "She did it, why don't you?" This would give the double draw of celebrity and money which often makes the most mundane thing seem extraordniary. Just a thought. A promise of whiter teeth, use this toothpaste, A happier more fulfilling life, clean and cook.

There is a line in one of my favorite movies "Mr. Blandings Builds a Dream House" where the daughter tells her father that his profession of Advertising is basically a 'parasitic profession'.

Says she, "It makes people buy things they don't want with money they haven't got", taught her by the teacher in her high-priced private school.

The father (played by wonderful Carey Grant) retorts,"Well, that basically parasitic profession pays for your expensive schools and puts the braces on your back teeth!"

It is an interesting and poignant relfection of the coming world. The movie is from 1948 so it is just the beginning of what the 1950s are to become. Thus we begin to walk that line of what we can do to make ourselves feel better, prettier, more comfortable and more popular. We soon learn to swallow propaganda as if it is gulps of oxygen, feeding us through our modern lives.

Even images like this irk me somewhat. First off, it isn't true. Marie Curie? Eleanor Roosevelt? They weren't some bad asses riding in on their motorcylces spitting in the eye of THE MAN. This concept that you have to be a rebel and throw over every current norm is a very modern idea. And why are you only a valid member of society if you DO make history? All the great people we do hear about did have mothers or nannies, people who cared for then, fed them, hugged them. Why is that not valid? Maybe I am being extreme, but I honestly feel these sorts of things make little jabs at wanting to be a homemaker or mother or just happily working and living a quiet life, wrong! It might even confuse things. I think the generations now have this horrible stress to be great: Be a star! Be Paris Hilton or a famous Basketball player etc. Maybe if they televised housework in an exciting way and made million dollar contracts for wives this wouldn't be the case.

What happened to trying to do the best job with what you are doing while you are doing it? I really feel tv and other media just show that you need to be like a few very wealthy spoiled population who always get in the papers! But, who can ever afford or hope to get to their status and if you did, why use your power and money the way they do? They are an annoying minority. There are scads of very wealthy people living normal lives, tipping waiters, being kind to their help, loving their families, but they don't make it in the paper because it isn't shocking or cool. It is funny how we have come to the culture of cool. I don't know, maybe James Dean started it, but things that are important to teenagers, like what is cool or 'in your face', seem to be the gauge we use for what is important in 'grown up' society. When did this exactly happen? I think it has really just been slowly coming on since the 1950s. Now we now seem to disdain things which are reachable goals and quiet happy lives for some 'ideal of celebrity' that many young people aspire to. They need to have the labels and the cars and the image, but it is all hollow and empty. Maybe that is why the teenager working at the local store is so rude, she figures she is gonna be a star or somthing 'better' someday so why should she put up wiht you? And why isn't a homemaker a viable option any longer? Why isn't it talked about in schools as an actual occupation and goal for a person (woman or man)?

It seems to me that the more I get into my project, the more I uncover both the myth and the reality of this small window in modern american history, the more I respect it. I am sure that a large portion of what we think of as "the 1950's" is our interpretation of the propaganda of the time. I am certain that many things we mock may or may not have even been true then. But, and here is the rub, the more I consider it and contemplate it, the more I want it to be true. And not just some truth in the past but an honest and real truth now.

Some day I won't be living in 1955, just as those who really did live it had to let go and move forward: 1956 showed up, then the turbulent 60's. The 1970's with its drugs and rising prices and increasing worries of foreign affairs. The 1980s taught us all to love greed and that it wasn't a bad thing to chase the mighty dollar. The 1990's tried, after the 1980's, to 'Grunge' it's way to a more homespun reality, only to be followed by more pop iconography and materialism at its end fueled by the sham of endless wealth and technology. Then the new millenium rolled in with all its promise of wealth built on sham foundations which have since broken down leaving the world wondering, "what just happened?". We seem to have been on some rollercoaster ride which started off well enough just after WWII and has ended at some odd destination.

Perhaps part of my project was to hide away in some forgotton decade, to turn my back on the real problems of my own time. The thing is, however, that now I don't want to turn away. I want to fix the mistake that we always seem to make as the human animal: The inability to look back in order to go forward. I can never know truly what 1955 was like for those who were there, but I know many of the things I am discovering are things that increasingly becoming important to me. Home, Family, Community, Self-Sustainability. I don't want to let go of these. And considering the technology we now have, we really can build a new world. I want to further those 'old-fashioned' ideals. I want to make the things we now see as silly or wasteful as valid and worthy. I want to wear my homemaking badge with honor! I will stare down any funny looks square in the eye when I am wearing my outfit of hat and white gloves in the heat of July like a soldier in uniform.

I would like to think I can make my only little bit of my world however I like it. And, 1955, I really like you. I know I cannot ever truly understand you nor honestly visit you, but in paying you respect and honor, I might make a better future for myself and hopefully for those around me. I can learn from your mistakes and fix them, but also learn from your success and adapt them to the 21st. century.

Who ever thought an idea for a fun project on a blog could be so life changing?

Who would ever have thought putting on a hat, gloves, petticoat and organizing my house and cooking meals could make me feel more powerful and more proud of being a woman than any modern concept of equality ever could?

I don't think I will ever really leave 1955 entirely. I think, like Dorothy, I may return to the black and white reality of the modern world, but I will hold all OZ has taught me in my heart. I am not quite ready to click my heals just yet.

You know, Dorothy, I am not yet ready to go home.

Maybe we can take this propaganda and put it to our cause: We can do it, we women. We can have the courage to make our homes and, even if we can afford new, sew and mend our own clothes. We can grow our food and make and bake it, we can clean our homes top to bottom with minimal products and plenty of elbow grease. We can hold up and support our families and husbands through clean homes, pretty smiles and the strength of all womankind behind us. WE do it for ourselves as well as for others. Goodbye ME generation hello WE generation.

Yes We Can.

3 March 1955 "Bombs, Sewing Failures, Pie, and Hope"

Waterproof Shoes. The Dow Corning Corp., jointly owned by Dow Chemical and Corning Glass, has developed a silicone product that will make leather virtually waterproof. First use of the chemical (trade name: Sylflex) will be for shoes. The Charles A. Eaton Co. will use it on golf shoes; Endicott Johnson Shoe Corp. will try it on a combination work-and-sports boot. Treated shoes will shed water, still allow air to come through to cool the foot.

Do-lt-Yourself Sink. For do-it-yourself hobbyists, American Kitchens of Connersville, Ind. put on sale a knockdown kitchen sink. Made of steel, baked enamel and porcelain, the sink can be assembled by one man using only a screwdriver and pliers. Each unit contains a regular 42-in. single-bowl, single-drainboard sinktop, a complete faucet and hardware kit, and all the parts for an undersink cabinet. Price: $59-95 [$464.00-748.45] (I guess this is what was available before IKEA and HOME DEPOT! It is amazing that cost, however, as I am sure you could get somthing for under $100.00 modern money at either place.)

This article in a March 1955 Time Magazine gave me chills:

"All week long a cold wind hurled grey clouds out of the Northwest and across the bleak Atomic Proving Grounds in Nevada. The Atomic Energy Commission, well aware of public concern about radioactive fallout, kept on postponing the big blast. But at 5:45 one morning, it touched off a small one.

Newsmen huddled on cold (10°), windy (40 m.p.h.) Mt. Charleston, nearly 50 miles away, muttered with frustration. The blast was a disappointment: the sky lit up with a dull red glow for a second; the mushroom cloud was hidden in the dark overcast; the sound bounced over Mt. Charleston completely.

But for less jaded observers the explosion had authority. Small though it was, the blast lit up predawn Los Angeles 250 air miles away. It rattled through Las Vegas, Nev. 75 miles away, rumbled on through St. George, Utah 135 miles to the East, and sounded like distant war drums in Cedar City, Utah 175 miles from the blast. Some in Los Angeles claimed to hear the distant drums 20 minutes after the flash."

The beginning of the spread and danger of large scale bombs. The fact that such tests were done while people were in 50 miles to report it, is frightening. We were and are children playing wiht fire. Nearby towns must have been affected. I wonder how much cancer and other horrors came about from such testing. Even though we have gone through two World Wars (or rather BECAUSE we have) I am really beginning to see the loss of the innocence of the world. Of course man has always been a terror to one another and there has always been war and bloodshed, but now is the beginning of fear on a new level. No wonder then, and I really think now as well, people are trying to return to a simple or more family/community centered life. We should enjoy and appreciate what we have together before those in power blow it all away!

Now to the Home:

I am rather frustrated with one of my patterns. It was the one for the wrap dress. I tried it last night and I was rather unimpressed. I unfortunately used up the pretty light blue printed fabric I showed yesterday with the pink cotton. It was such lovely fabric and I am so unhappy with the dress. I have decided to take my lemons and make lemonade. I am going to cut off the bodice and reconfigure what I can with the left over pink cotton and try to salvage it as a skirt. I will post a picture of the result.

This has made me more determined to try more of the patterns today, so I think this will be a short post today, so I can get through my ironing, and get to sewing. I feel challanged now and need to make something nice before I get too frustrated. It is just when I put the darn thing on I looked like a stuffed sausage. It did nothing for my self esteem, I can tell you that much, but I am determined. I did have to laugh, however, as I had posted that that scene from 'I Love Lucy' and certainly the dress did not look as bad as that, but it did not look good. I think this has definitely helped me decide NO to home perm. When the time comes I will take the trip to the city and go to a professional.

Here are some photos from this past Saturdays 1950's dinner. It was at my house this past week. I made Roast pork with a mango glaze. Roast potatos and asparagus with Hollandaise and for dessert a Magic Cream Pie. As I had been busy and thought, I wonder what I could do in 1955 to make my home cooked meal easier for me. So, I bought a frozen pie crust (as I didn't have any of my own in the freezer at the time) and chose the pie recipe for its simplicity. I also made dinner rolls from the pillsbury tube, as I saw they were invented and there are many 1950's recipes involving them. I also used this recipe for Mock Hollandaise to make it easier. (I included the recipe for actual Hollandaise as well, as it is soo yummy.)

Now, these are the changes I made to the pie. First off, the Pie called for Lemon juice but I was out of fresh lemons (as I like to squeeze them with my vintage juicer) so I raided the bar and found some lime juice. I think I liked it better as it was more tart. The recipe calls for no sugar, but I found it rather to tart so added 1/4 cup when mixing it. The whipping cream I added almond extract too, as I liked the combined taste with the tart lime. This was suppose to be a pie that would just set, but I am not sure why it did not, it could be due to my adding sugar. What I did instead, was to freeze it and it became a wonderful frozen pie. It was like a creamy tart icecream and the bananas, as they were frozen, were like little candies inside. I would make it again, maybe next time Chocolate and banana!

Here is the table set. The napkins were not on, as of yet, when I took this. You can see how busy I was, as I nor Gussie had time to iron my new tablecloth, those lines drive me crazy when I see the photo. Of course, no one noticed and as you all know I am working on my tablecloth therapy. "let it go," I must say to myslef.

The roast was nice and tender. I like to sort of do the opposite of what my books tell me in cooking a standing pork roast. I cook it first for about an hour covered and then cook it uncovered at the last to crisp up the fat on top and to give the potatos a nice crisp brown edge.

This is a great shot of my vintage friend as she arrived, removing her gloves. She told me she had used my blogs advice on whether to keep her hat on. I had posted before from my Amy Vanderbilt book of etiquette, that if the hostess is hatless and gloveless (which I was) you may do so youself.

You can see one of my dogs, Sophie, watiting patiently for the impending dinner in the background.

Of course, I forgot to get a picture of myself, but here is a great shot of my vintage friend and I that I cropped turned black and white and framed in white to look like an old photo. I think it really looks like a vintage shot, don't you? I love being a be-furred, hatted and gloved lady who lunches. Wouldn't you?

Well, I am sorry this is such a short post, but I must get back to my sewing. The challenge awaits! Hopefully this will be me today and into the future.

1 & 2 March 1955 " Speed, Technology, Hair, Clothes, and Food"

Lightweight Motorcycle. Milwaukee's Harley-Davidson Motor Co. unveiled a lightweight motorcycle called the Hummer. Weighing 160 lbs., the Hummer will get up to 100 miles per gallon, a top speed of 40 m.p.h. Price: $320 f.o.b. Milwaukee (about $100 under Harley's previous low-priced model). (that is $2521.11 in todays money)


Briefcase Tape Recorder. A battery-operated magnetic tape recorder that is built into an average-sized leather briefcase and weighs less than 12 Ibs. has been put on the market by Manhattan's Amplifier Corp. of America. The recorder, operated by touching a combination lock and switch, can pick up whispers at 12 ft. and ordinary speech at 100 ft. It provides recording for 1½ hours. Price: $225. (that is $1772.66 now that is an expensive gadget! )

On the personal technology front, the march towards better sounding music is really beginning and mingled with consumerism, get ready future, here we come. The beginning of quickly outdated technology with high price tags is beginning. The comparative price for today are in [ ] brackets:

Some 1,000,000 Americans have begun switching to Hi-Fi systems and established a new and burgeoning industry. Each week about 3,000 more homes go hifi. A mere fad until recently, hi-fi has become a $250 million business (equipment sales have increased as much as 500% in some areas since 1952). There is a standard pattern: about two years after an area is saturated with TV, hi-fi moves in.

The best buys among the package units—perhaps not as hi as fi should be, but certainly better than most old-fashioned phonographs—sell at around $150. [$1,181.77] A good custom hi-fi rig costs at least twice that much, and the price can go as high as $2,500. [$19,696,18]
In the wrong equipment, a great deal can go wrong with sound. Its top can be lopped off, like a headless amateur photograph, making a violin sound like a flute because its characteristic overtones are gone; its bottom can be restricted, making the basses sound an octave or more higher (or not at all). Overtones can be added that were never played by the musician (harmonic distortion) or be thickened (intermodulation).
Expensive equipment is not necessarily a guarantee against such hazards. But a good hi-fi system must include at least a turntable, price $60 [$472.71], a diamond stylus, $20 [$157.57] and magnetic cartridge, $15 [$118.18], a good amplifier, $100 [$787.85] and a loudspeaker system, $150 [$1181.77] which now usually consists of at least one woofer (a speaker designed to reproduce low tones) and tweeter (high tones). Tweeters may be cones (sweet, not too brilliant), horns (plenty of highs and often tinny), or the newly developed electrostatic type, in which a flat sheet of metal foil moves in the open air. Most speakers still need an enclosure of some six cubic feet, but it is no longer necessary to have huge coffins standing about the living room.
Looking Forward. When the all-out audiophile swings into action, his pet weapon is the tape recorder, with which he captures music for future use from his FM radio or his own and his friends' LPs.
At the current price of tape up to $5 per hour [$39.39], the tapeworm's music will cost him about as much as the most expensive LP; often it will sound better, because tape at its best reduces surface noise.









How is this for portable music. The pre-ipod maybe?




I thought I would talk about hair and clothes today.

I really want to get my hair cut short and plan on doing so in the future.

Here is a great commercial for a home perm showing wonderful short hairstyles of the day.

For my, it is a toss up between the loose casual style and the medium style. I want some where between those two.

However, I really want this look and I , too , do not want any "fussy frizzy styles" and I think I WANT a Bobbi perm.


What is wonderful about this advert is there is a great shot showing how she set her hair in the bobby pins to get that look! I want to try setting my hair like this after I get it cut and if I like the look of it, get a homeperm and try it this way with the pincurls and NOT perm rods. It makes sense, really. I never thought I would get another perm after my horror of one in the 1980s. I looked like a drowning poodle!

Unfortunately, I cannot find Bobbi perms any longer but the Vermont Country Store has the Lilt version. I am not sure, yet. I would have my hairdresser do it, but since my project I don't really trust anyone to try and recreate a style they little to nothing about. What do any of you think?

However, with my recent foray into home sewing my clothes and now considering doing my own permanent, I am concerned I may be reliving this hilarious scene from an "I Love Lucy" episdoe.



Now, before I said I would try to show some of the places I try to use as resources for vintage. Obviously one great source for vintage one of a kinds is Etsy. These Shoes are wonderful and though I would have once thought them only appropriate to the 1960s, I see many shoes similiar to this in my 50's magazines. I have two pair similiar to these in navy and white and red and white. Believe you me, if I could wear a size 8, I wouldn't be showing these to you except for maybe in a photo of them on my feet! But, for any of you 8's out there, $24.00 is pretty cheap for these shoes.

With stockings, sometimes I come across things like these. But, really for me, as I need to wear these as a normal part of my life, I stick with new reproductions. It is more afordable and realistic for me. There is the LadyGrace I had mentioned before. These are some of my favorites, though they do not have seams, but they are cheap and indestructible. I am very tall so the Queen size is perfect for long legs. These cost a little more and also do not have seams, but are really nice and hubby's like them, believe me! (I sometimes think lace was invented for men as much as women!) Now These are nice and I think a good buy, only they are in black. It is finding the seamed tan/nude stocking that is hard for me and they are honestly what you wear most of the time. Black is really more for evening, I believe. These are nice and you can get them in beige but not in the large, so they don't work for me. But, they look like a good price and if you can wear a small or a medium and want the beige, they look nice. Let me know if you try them.
For shoes it is really just hit and miss. I think I have found most of my really great vintage and vintage inspired on ebay. I have a large foot and it is hard to always buy vintage, but a site like this has great reproductions, but they are not cheap. But, then again, a frugal style of a few pair of high quality shoes that won't go out of style (another boon to dressing vintage!) can sometimes allow for a high priced shoe.
Now, for clothes, as you have been witnessing, sewing is going to hopefully be my salvation there. As I said, I am tall, so it is not always easy to find vintage things to fit me. But, I have good luck with cardigans and accesories at local thrift shops and also ebay. My fantasy by the years end is a redesigned newly built walk in closet (based on ideas in my homemakers manuals) neatly organized with hats in hatboxes (besides vintage ones, they always make hatbox size boxes in very pretty patterns at places like HomeGoods an such that are used for storage boxes, but they are indeed the original size of hatboxes.) Drawers for all my vintage hose and underthings organzied, scarves and gloves divided up for summer and winter wear. Shoes neatly placed on one wall with off season ones neatly stored in shoe boxes papered in a similiar pleasing pattern. And, of course, rows of my homemade dresses mingling happily with my vintage and modern but vintage inspired store bought items. Ahhhh. That will be a nice christmas present for myself, I think.

With my sewing I want to show some of the fabrics and the pattern I got the other day. As you remember, I post this pic as it was an inspiration for a pattern and some fabric.

Here is the pattern. I know the sleelves are different, but I think it was fairly close. This is the fabric I chose which I think has a very vintage feel and rather close to the original don't you think? This photo shows an enlarged closeup of the pattern, which I think is just lovely, don't you?











I had bought this pattern before and posted it for you, but I am showing it again to show the pattern I will be using for these fabrics.
The black and white two tone version of the dress will be made in this fabric. I am going ot use the pink in the front and the blue as the overskirt.

Here is the blue close-up and I really think it has a vintage feel as well.

This color combination will also be for the black and white dress. I will have the brown on the front and the back of the bodice and this pretty pink fabric as just the overskirt. I hope it looks good. I think the pink fabric is a very 1950s dusty/salmon pink.



Now, in the kitchen here is the eggs benny I made for our sunday breakfast. I actually prefer to make them on toast and they were quite yummy.






Gussie made us some delicious cinnamon rolls for Sunday breakfast, as well.
Here she is rolling it out.
Rolling them up,
and yummy,

here they are done.

They were delicious.



I am going to show pics and talk about recipes tomorrow concerning saturdays 1950's dinner.

Okay, I have spent too much modern time trying to figure out how the heck to imbed this MP3 they sent me of my interview. I have tried numerous times and it will not work. Please if anyone can help me or tell me how to do it.

Addendum: I think I may have figured it out, so hold on this may work. IF it does, please excuse my voice. I had been very ill and had actually lost my voice the day before, so please excuse it.

28 February 1955 "Communism, Cleaning, and Clothing"

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), was an international organization for collective defense created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty or the Manila Pact, which was signed on September 8, 1954. The formal institution of SEATO was established at a meeting of treaty partners in Bangkok in February 1955. It was primarily created to block further communist gains in Southeast Asia. The organization's headquarters were located in Bangkok, Thailand. SEATO was dissolved on June 30, 1977.
Despite being intended to provide a collective, anti-communist shield to Southeast Asia, SEATO was unable to intervene in the conflicts in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam because an intervention required a decision of unanimity, which was never reached; France and the Philippines objected. (again, here we see the turmoil bubbling up that would lead our country into the tangled web that would become Vietnam)

The United States sought, but failed, to make the Vietnam War into a SEATO collective defense problem.

Here is a stamp showing SEATO. This stamp is most likely from 1958 or on as in 1955 a stamp would cost you 3 cents. Interesting cost comparrison. A three cent stamp in 2009 money would be 24 cents. So, we can see the increase in postage has gone up.

(someone also mentioned on the last blog about the cost of housing today being higher tied to the smaller structures of those built in the 1950s. Perhaps it is just that I live in a more expensive area, but my friend bought a 1950s ranch a few towns over from me. It is very small and in the same square footage as when it was built in the late 1950s. Therefore as a model, it is the same size then available. This house cost almost $300,000.00 which in 1955 money would be $38,000.00 While records of the time state such a house in size would be around $3,500.00. I think that demonstrates the inflated real estate market at least in the area of New England that I live.)

Britain announced last week that it can and soon will produce its own hydrogen bombs. The decision was announced in a tough-minded White Paper on Defense.

"Communist military strength continues to grow at an impressive rate . . . The Soviet Union and her Eastern European satellites have some 6,000,000 men under arms. On the German front, the Soviet army could be increased to well over 100 divisions within 30 days."

The fear of Communism was fairly stong then. Yet we think little of it now, I think at least the average American, however one of the growing powers of the world is Communist China. Our country has a growing debt to that country and such places as Walmart and other big chains get their supplies from China both, I think, at the cost of their own peoples freedoms and our own, by allowind the small town America to dissapear.

That is enough news for today, onto the home:

I want to talk about cleaning today. We all have to do it in some form or another. For me it has become a new experience. I obviously cleaned before, but my version of cleaning was the "when it's dirty wipe it up, vacuum it, or attack the dust now that it has formed" sort of cleaning. I was like the person who didn't take vitamins or exercise and just waited to get sick and then took the antibiotics, but with cleaning.

Now, as it should be I suppose, I do what I call 'preventative cleaning'. This is really the revelation I have had with this project. Instead of waiting for the dust bunnies to grow and become a strong army under my beds and sofas, I vaccuum out their little burroughs before they get a chance. I am sure this is not a revelation to most of you out there, but it really was to me. Cleaning was the thing you did when it started to get bad. Then it was annoying and a chore that went on and on and took up an entire day without time for dinner. Now, thanks to my magazines and housekeeping manual, I treat this as part of the job of Homemaker.

It is interesting to me, as much has become with this project, how what I had once percieved as hours of drudgery, actually takes less time when done on a daily up-keep program. It also leaves me more time to do more things I like. When we view the 1950s housewife as either a lie or some superwoman we are doing it with these modern eyes. However, when you really do a small amount of upkeep a day, you really do have time to make that cake from scratch, suspend an entire dinner in jello and still have time to put on "somthing pretty" before hubby gets home. Now, how does this translate to a modern person who may not have a husband or who does not care how they look for their hubby? That is easy: More time to do what you want and still have a clean and happy home. I think that is an amazing discovery. I am sure it seems silly to most of you, as you are all probably better organized then I have been, but really this realization that has been coming on is phenomenal to my life. It is allowing me to really think, "maybe I can do all ( or most) of the things I do want to try to do in my life before the final end."

Now, don't get me wrong,.I am definitely still in the beginning stages of the proficiency in cleaning. I would not go head to head with a seasoned 1955 housewife. Not yet anyway (maybe by December), but I am learning. I am also learning that although this is the decade that really begins the barrage of products for cleaning (as well as packaged foods endless ready made inexpensive clothes etc) we are still the women who went through the war. We were the individuals who had to wash their hands with the soap scum left in the soap dish as that was all that was left. We had to make a dinner with no meat left in our rations and potato flour. Although the aisles in my grocery store are now full to brimming with fun bright products, I am, I believe, still frugal. I think I really would be. Maybe if I were 20 in 1955 it would be different, but I am closer to 40 than 20, so I think my frugality and need to economize would be ingrained in me. This is good, as this is a trait I am trying to slowly adapt to my modern life.

When I started this project I thought I would have to put economy and caring for the environment on the back burner for awhile. That the 1950's were all plastic and waste. Yet, again, I am finding that our perceptions of that past are not always true. Though my magazines are filled with ads for new products, the articles are full of what to do with leftovers and how to economize in cleaning. Most housewives had a limited weekly budget in which to buy food, clothes, fabric for sewing, and cleaning supplies. Although all the new products for cleaning this and that sounded nice, I think many probably stuck with the old standbys.

I have never really thought about cleaning products until this project. I shopped for cleaning products like a person who could not read. "Ah, a picture of a toilet on this bottle, that's for that then. Oh, kitchen counters on the label, ok, in the cart you go. Hey, that has a bathtub sparkling on the back, better get that one, too." And so on until you have a cabinet brimming with all these cleaning products when you really only need a few.

Then I start to think about all the plastic and waste to make all these things and the energy it took to get me to think I needed all these separate things to clean. The consumerism is so ingrained into me and my generation, it never even dawned on me that you could buy one bottle to do it all. But, you can.

These are my two new friends. The first is the supermarket version of Pine-sol. If you follow the link there to Pine-sol you can find some interesting info, such as in 2008 they took out the pine oil to make it have a cleaner lemon scent favored by the country despite its losing its cleaning and disenfecting qualities! Seriously! The original formula is anti-bacterial. A phrase we hear much today and yet they changed the formula in the lemon scent and made it no longer anti-bacterial. Odd.

Anyway, I like the smell. I think it adds a vintage odor to my kitchen and cleaning, as I am sure it was used for many things. You can use this on almost everything. 1/4 cup of this mixed with water is great for floors AND if you keep it wet for 10 mintues while you are mopping, you do not have to rinse! I know if you buy floor cleaner it is mostly water. This is the concentrate and you mix it yourself. When I think of all the money and waste of using a swiffer. All those little pre-soaked pads to toss away and the packaging they come in. When a bucket of water and pinesol and a sponge mop does an even better job AND disenfects the floor to boot! You can also use it in laundry to boost your detergent and it works GREAT for stains of grease and it is the one thing I found the really works for grease on mens collared dress shirts. It does wonders in the bath, too. For more upkeep cleaning I prefer it to comet in the bathroom, as it really cleans AND it disenfects and it doesn't seem as harsh as straight bleach. I even pour it in undiluted into the toilet bowls and let it set for 10 minutes, give it a good scrub and flush. It really sparkles and keeps down hardwater stains. ( I sound like a commercial, I know! These are great revelations to me during the day. And don't think I haven't stood alone in my bathroom, hair in curlers, rubber-gloved for action, gripping my pinesol, saying alout, "Wow, this works great in the bath!" I am my own sitcom somtimes WITH commercials!)

The other product is Lemon oil. That bottle cost $5.00 but honestly I may have it for the rest of my life! I could put it in my will for my heirs, no doubt. According to the recipe in my Homemakers manual, you treat cheesecloth with it and it makes a REUSABLE dustcloth. And you know what, it really does and it works wonders and it smells WONDERFUL. You can also use it full strength on wood furniture. Again, I think of the spray on aresol stuff for dusting or even all the other 'swiffer' products that just get tossed, but you know what. A treated cheesecloth can be washed after awhile and used again! I know it is a strange idea things to clean with that you DON'T throw away.

It is funny to me how we now claim to be trying to become green and I am sure I am not the only person who would have thought of the 1950s as a time of waste. Now we buy 'Green' products, but they are all divided into separate types of cleaners in more bottles to fill up more landfills. We have merely replaced buying the other brands with buying a 'safer' brand but have not done away with the waste and consumerism that lead to our polluting in the first place! It is very subtle how the marketing works. It lets us feel better about ourselves when we pay more for a product that is probably watered down old time cleaner in new packaging. But, is it green? The main ingredient in my knock off pine-sol is pine oil. Now I know that has to be green and is probably harvested from the wood from the processing of lumber and yet the NEW lemon pinesol does away with it. That now wastes a perfectly good byproduct of something we do need, lumber. Also, in concentrate form, which is what Pine-sol is, you have less packaging and less cost to you. I bet even the high-end 'green' cleaners are mostly water and of course packaging!

Now, don't get me wrong. Some of the cute bright fun quality of this decade is wonderful and can make cleaning more fun. This article I found sort of explains that and shows some cute retro inspired items. If you want to spend a pretty penny, why not make a lovely cleaning section in your house. However, what I am finding is it is more fun is to realize that the basic cleaning products Can be made pretty. For example the above image of my 'new discovery' looks more adorable when I affix this label I designed to it. Here you can see it on the bottle. Isn't it adorable? (the colors are truer to the image of just the label) Sure, you are thinking, do I have too much time on my hands. But, no! The time I saved on not lingering in the cleaning aisle over all the choices and the time I have from my daily cleaning ritual afforded it to me. I know, I know, it is a bit extreme, and really not '1955' to design and print out a new label on my computer, but honestly I don't see it any differently than cutting out a cute magazine picture and decorating with shelf paper that a real 1955 housewife may have done. A housewife has a NEED, I tell you, to beautify. We are artists, everyone one of us, and we need to express ourselves. I like a simple vintage cleaning product with a darling handmade label, so sue me.

Now, continuing on with our cleaning theme, I thought I would talk about tablecloths again. As some of you may remember, I used to have a somewhat nervous psychological disorder I like to call "Spillidous", that is the indescribable fear a homemaker feels when watching family and guests eat blueberry pie and other highly stainable items over her nice vintage linens. Its symptoms include feigned interest in a speakers story while being gripped with fear that the forkful of cherry/blueberry cobbler won't make it to the mouth of her guest as he drones on about God knows what, but, for cyring out loud, DON'T SPILL ON MY LINENS! A very serious condition I have since tried to rectify.

The add here for Oilcloth intrigued me, as did all of your comments on plastic tablecloths.

I found this site that has oil cloth made products with vintage inspired oil cloth. This cool site has some oilcloth placemats that I am considering. I think they are a good price. Then I thought, well I could sew my own table cloths and placemats. So this site has some yard goods. I do notice, however, that they call it oilcloth but it is in fact vinyl backed with cotton. The Vermont Contry Store has genuine oil cloth, but it is expensive and the only one I would even consider is the red gingham. I think the others are a bit 80's. So, I may do the yardage of the vinyl to start. I figure for only two yards I can make a nice size table cloth which would be under 20 dollars plus it says they are having a sale until March. However, the other site has a finished product for 20 dollars. Do you think that is alot to pay for somthing of this quality?

What do any of you think? I don't want to break the bank and I know the vinyl isn't really 'period correct', but what is a vintage gal to do? I think the cleaning aspect coupled with the price tells me to go with that, but the authenticity tells me to just buck up and pay a little more for the real thing. And I am having no success finding the real thing except for the Country store and I don't like the design. Oh, well. The dilemmas of the homemaker.

Now to the sewing room: As you know I am beginning to become obsessed with patterns and fabric. It is all very exciting to think that I can choose the design and color and cut of my own clothing. It also helps the pocketbook to make your own compared to the cost of a vintage dress on ebay. They often sell faily high and the cost of reproductions are often much greater than what it would cost to do it myself. This photo of this blue dress inspired the recent trip to the fabric store with my vintage friend and resulted in a new pattern and some fabric. I will post more about these tomorrow. I had also promised to talk more about finding vintage things, such a stocking and things online, but I think I will leave that for tomorrows post, as well.I had promised to talk more about finding vintage things, such a stocking and things online, but I think I will leave this for tomorrows post.

Speaking of clothing, however, sometimes I need to mix modern with vintage to stretch my wardrobe (until I get more sewing done at least)
Here I am wearing a vintage cardigan, but wore one of my husbands tuxedo shirts with pearls and the skirt is actaully from ebay. It is Talbots and I don't think it is old. I think it does look vintage though, do you?
I really will begin to put more photos of different outfits I wear as well as my clothes I am making as they progress. I just need to get into the habit.

Speaking of such photos, yesterday was a lovely warm 50 degrees here in New England, so on the way back from our fabric shopping, my vintage friend and I stopped and snapped these pictures of one another. I tried to make them look like a tinted vintage photo. Nothing like heels and hose at the beach. (My vintage friend is in the pencil skirt and orange sweater.)

And, finally, the radio station in Australia that interviewed me sent me the l final show they broadcast. My only problem is I am trying to figure out how to post audio to my blog. They didn't send me a link but rather the MP3 of the interview. If anyone knows how to do this, chime in with some help. Also, the TimeWarpWives website is going to interview me for their site. That is a written interview, so I won't have to worry about MP3's and such. They do want some photos to go along with it. I will let you know with a link when that is published.

Until tomorrow, then, happy homemaking.

26 February 1955 "Movies, Sewing, and the Jean Myth"

Here is a preview I would probably start seeing in theatres, as this movie will come out this summer.
In 1955, 20th Century Fox released this film adaptation directed by Billy Wilder and starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. It was presented in CinemaScope with color by DeLuxe. It's often cited as one of the great comedies of its time, having won critical acclaim and become the biggest US box office hit of the summer of 1955. It contains one of the most iconic images of the 20th century–a scene in which Marilyn Monroe, standing on a subway grate, has her dress blown up above her waist by a passing train. Her line when this happens, "Isn't it delicious?", has since become famous.
Another interesting thing about this film, is it's title :Seven Year Itch. This term was coined for this movie as a psychological condition where in after Seven years of marriage one partner becomes 'itchy' to have an affair. It was not an actual psychological term, but since this film this term has entered popular culture and has even been used by psychologists.

This was first done as a play in 1952 at the Fulton Theatre in New York

I was told the Oscars aired recently. The Oscars in 1955 were not until March, but I think a list of the winners now is still relevant, as any of you who watch them or know of them might find it interesting information now.

Best Picture- Marty

Best Director- Delbert Mann, Marty

Best Actor- Ernest Borgnine, Marty
Best Actor (in a leading role)-Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront.

Best Supporting Actor- Jack Lemmon, Mister Roberts Best

Actress- Anna Magnani, The Rose Tattoo Best Supporting

Actress- Jo Van Fleet, East of Eden

The film that won for 1955 (Marty) is really a good film and I suggest watching it. This preview is nice as well as it shows some good examples of 'average people's daily wardrobe' in the scene of the New York City crowds.

Speaking of clothing, I think the 1950's really are making a comeback in the clothing world. The lines and body conscious look seem to becoming more the norm. Although an Oscar dress is hardly, 'normal daily clothes', this dress Oscar Dress of
Anne Hathaways (one of my friends told me I had to see a picture of it) is very 1950's don't you?
This is a Givenchy of 1955 and I think the top is very close to this dress. Though the skirt is full, the sleek mermaid style of Hathaway's would be as appropriate in 1955 as 2009.






As we are speaking of clothes, I thought I would show the next phase of the dress I am working on. I have decided to trim it in this lovely robin's egg blue bias tape. I like how it picks up the color in the fabric. I have a lot of this color in my wardrobe and I think, since I am now making many of my clothes, to try and have this theme tie through my wardrobe. Just as in interior design you want an element of similiar color in every room to give each part of the whole a cohesion, I think this makes sense in your wardrobe as well. I like this color and think it really works well in all seasons, for example in Autumn with deeper oranges and browns it is lovely as well as with yellows in spring.
While buying the trim for this dress, of course I had to have a quick saunter over to the pattern books. I have seen this pattern before and my vintage friend has used it with much success, so I had to get my own, of course. As you can see by the picture of the dress layout, it could not be simpler. It is literally sewn into one piece with no zipper and then wraps around and ties and buttons. I have seen it on and it is adorable. I think the only draw back to it, is you cannot wear a crinoline with it. I think this would actually make a great set of 'house dresses' for me. I am going to try this pattern before the vintage house dress pattern I recently found on ebay. I bought this lovely turquoise quilting cotton, which has such a nice weight and satiny feel. I am going to make the dress this solid color with the robins egg blue trim.

It was only $4.99 a yard and I had a 50% off coupon. In 1955 that would have been .32 cents a yard or .64 cents at normal price. That seems comparable to todays cotton pricing. I found this image at Hearts Cottage Quilts . Here you can see that the the cost listed in this 1952 Sears catalog for a similiar cotton is .56 cents. Another example that many things today are similiar or cheaper than 1955 in comarrison with the exception of housing. Our housing market is so over-inflated it is ridiculous, but that can be another post.

I thought I would end this post with some interesting images I found in one of my Womans Home Companion magazine from 1953. I think there has been some debate and misconception, thanks to Hollywood, about what a 1950's woman would wear casually or when working. As much as tv and Hollywood wanted to protray the June Cleaver stereotype, the actuality was much different. As you can see, this article on a womans wardrobe was rather enlightening. The jeans and shirt are this womans housecleaning outfit. No pearls and heels and hose here.

Here the same woman is enjoying her yard with her family, who are all sporting jeans.



This shows how a good sturdy rubber soled shoe is the perfect paring with your jeans to clean and work in the yard.

And, even if you are having company for a 'television night' or going shopping, this outfit of slacks is appropriate. Now when I am doing basic marketing or running to the local store, dress slacks are appropriate. If I were to meet for lunch with friends or shop in the city, I believe a dress and hose would be more appropriate. This is going to change my entire view for the dressing of this project.

I am slowly uncovering that mysterious creature: the 1950's woman, and really finding an interesting creature there.

I had mentioned the other day that an Australian morning radio show interviewed me for my project. They are going to send me a link to the finished show and I will post it when I get it.

Also, I had some trouble the other day with blogger and one of my blogs dissapeared. I reslisted it and it is back in numerical order by date. Here it is, if you didn't see it before.

So, until tomorrow, happy homemaking!

24 February 1955, "I brought old Joe along for Dinner"

I only have time for a quick post, but I didn't want to go another day without one. This section in my cookbook is quite apropos for tonight.

My vintage friend and I were out shopping this afternoon and we spent over an hour in Joanne Fabrics, I think I might be getting addicted to sewing! I got some beautiful simple turquoise blue cotton and of course two new patterns, a darling pink tomato pin cushion for the eventual sewing room and some various notions. More on that later.

My husband, who works in the city (I know, very Mr. Blandings, non?) and he called and told me an old friend is coming home with him for dinner! Now, I had just got home, the house is clean, but I need to tidy, I have to throw the guest room linens in the wash, throw dinner together and a quick dessert! AHHH!

On the decorating front, I just got this book last night and read it almost cover to cover in bed last night. I didn't shut my bedside lamp out until 1 a.m. and now I have to freshen up to look good for our guest!

This is a room Dorothy Draper did, I believe it is an hotel, anyway, I just want to leave you with it, as it really strikes a balance for me between high drama city style and the country house. I think that is somewhat my design esthetic. Obviously this room is a bit grander than our little country house, but I do have a few busts and classical items. I am LOVING that navy wall. I am toying with that in the room I had shown in an earlier blog with the vintage 'early american' fabric.

I am excited about interiors and need to try and pinpoint my excitement in a blog tomorrow.

Now, I have to go make hollandaise sauce, coddle my egg for my Cesar dressing and pop some brownies in the oven. This housewife job is full time, I tell you.

Until tomorrow, then...