21 March 1956 “Clotheslines: We Can Do It”

Recently on the Forum began a discussion of clotheslines. Here, in 1956, clotheslines are a normal part of both urban and country life. Even the modern suburbs popping up still have their clotheslines, even though that great American invention, the clothes dryer, is yet another status symbol on the list of ‘must haves’ for any self-respecting middle class homemaker along with the latest Washing machine  and Dish washer .

Today, in 2010, the return to the clothesline is no longer for the vintage lover or the Green minded. The recession has lead to many ‘vintage’ ways of doing things out of necessity. Which, surprisingly enough, was the reason they were done originally. Not to recreate a time lost or to set an atmosphere nor to make your ‘carbon-footprint’ (whatever that is-says my 1956 counterpart) smaller. You did it because you HAD to and today, with increasing cost, the need to run that energy sucking appliance, the dryer, has lead to many needing to return to this habit.

Now, as I often believe, Form should follow function, and utility should be beauty’s bedmate. You can slap up any old line, throw some wet clothes over it, and call it a clothesline, but you can also take a very utilitarian object and make it beautiful. And, as there are different esthetics, one person’s idea of ugly is another’s beauty, so luckily there are SO many wonderful way’s to dry your clothes!

This was becoming an increasing view often found only in slums in urban living in 1956. The increasing Laundromats available to the urban dweller made such hanging of clothes become more and more a ‘working class’ act. Today, however, the return to it is increasing and no longer a ‘slum act’.Modern cities are now gaining a ‘vintage’ look due to necessity and need to pinch pennies. As they say, “what goes around comes around”.

If you’re lucky enough to have a nice little suburban plot of land, or even acres in the country, a clothes line can be a permanent beautiful fixture, much like a trellis or arbor.This clothes line is not only sturdy but a beautiful piece of architecture for your yard. I believe, as inside as well as out, that the main element of any design is ‘good bones’. Your yard needs some good architecture to be buitl around and to dicated where to plant and sit and relax. This type of utility combined with beauty is only increased, I believe, by the addition of the clothes. I think even a trailing vine or some lovely roses planted near by, a chair and side table and you have a chore with joy attached. And who doesn’t love the smell of fresh sundried laundry?

Even the old rotary clothes line of the past is making a comeback.I recall pre 1955 when I was an avid TV watcher, I loved watching garden design shows and it seems every other one had the designers tossing out these old reliable work horses. Again, in the time of plenty and spend spend, why not have a flower bed instead of a place to economically dry your clothes. But, as in WWII, when flower beds and lawns became Victory Gardens, so too now are the yards getting a little more utility. And, there is not reason this old stand by can’t be situated in the yard in a considered way, so that there are flowers or better yet herbs (utility) nearby. Especially a lush bed of lavender planted nearby, so the wind carries the scent onto your clothes. It is like natures dryer sheets! This woman has proudly made a space for her dahlias and her laundry, and with a bench to enjoy both!

 

This is such a simple and basic set up that can be so beautiful and can be easy for any homemaker. A post hold digger and some wooden posts, screws, drill, paint and line and you are in business. You can color it how you like, even plant a vine on one of the posts. HERE is an easy tutorial with costs and supplies list that is helpful.

If you like this set up but don’t want to build or use wood, you can buy good metal versions of these retractable and stationary metal clotheslines. You can find these in the Corner Store HERE. There are even Sweater dryers for the line! HERE.

If you would like to construct your own , there are a few options. Here is a great TUTORIAL on building one.

 

 This dreamy bucolic scene of washing can be yours. In fact, you can see how simply this homemakers line is, simply old tree branches set in the ground. It can be as grand or as simple as you need. This is a simple set up where one side of the line is tied to a tree and the other a post.

A pulley system line is another option.

Don’t let apartment dwelling get you down, however. They eve have lovely versions that can be mounted to the side of your house on a deck or simply out one window and then the other of your apartment building.

The pulley system is nice as well. You can, as was done here, put it right out your back door or whever it is closest to your laundry room. This means, even in winter, you would not have to worry about walking about in snow. You could even have a summer and a winter setup, one in the yard the other the winter pulley system. They also work great indoors in basements and laundry rooms. For the Pulley clothes line system  HERE is a great tutorial. And you can buy the pulley, line all those things HERE. There are also simple retractable type, that you can pull out, use and then put away, if you don’t have the room for lines in the yard all the time.

I put a few in the Store, but I think THIS little metal one is cute for indoors or a small outdoor line. But they also have LARGER VERSIONS that work outside.

I actually thought this was a cute modern segment on someone making an ingenious clothes line with simple things.A great use for the extra ‘swim noodles’ that often accumulate at summer time, or buy some for this purpose, as they are not expensive. If you slit on side and insert a wooden dowel the size of the noodle hole, it is great for drying rugs, towels, things you wouldn’t want clothes pin marks on.

I think this is a great little modern video about a woman who made her own clothesline.

It also brought up something that was discussed on the forum and that some neighborhoods actually will NOT allow you to have a clothesline! Again, another aspect of our modern society. The look or appearance is more important the saving money, environment, or continuing a valid homemaking skill. I hope that is not the case in your neighborhood, if it is, I say march down to town hall and find out what you can do, signatures etc?

Now, check out the new section on the CORNER STORE for any laundry ideas. And, if you have any good ideas let’s discuss them HERE on the Forum topic of clotheslines!

And check out today’s Video of the Day on the SITE (on the bottom of the page) from 1958 about the new modern synthetic fabrics and the ease of modern laundry with electric dryers and synthetic fabrics. Interesting parallel to today’s topic, I think.

The more we make little changes that are economical the more we find the ‘side-affects’ are often Green choices and choices that enliven or teach us skills. It might be quicker to pop that load in the dryer, but think of the extra time outside, smelling the air, hearing the birds. Even if it is a cool autumn day, what a better activity than just staring at the computer screen. I wonder, as people begin to see the benefits and tactile pleasures of hanging out one’s clothes, how long before we can get a ‘virtual laundry line’ for or computer or AP for the i-Phone?

Well, it is a lovely day outside, so I am off to dream and plan my own laundry solutions. Tomorrow I will return with some recipes, some photos of Martha’s Vineyard in March and just a good ole’ chat. I shall see you on the Forums, and Happy Homemaking!

17 March 1956 “Happy St. Patrick’s Day”

Here is a 1950’s Celebration of St. Patrick in Ireland.

IRELAND HONOURS ST. PATRICK

Richard J. Daley became Mayor of Chicago in April 1955.  The very next year, the city's newspapers announced he was planning "a parade" for March 17--St. Patrick's Day.

Other American cities had a history of grand St. Patrick's Day parades.  Chicago's Irish had staged a few parades on-and-off since the 1840s, and there was a long-running event on 79th Street.  But holding a major, city-wide parade for the  feast day was not a Chicago tradition.

March 17 fell on a Saturday in 1956.  Led by the mayor, the City of Chicago's first official St. Patrick's Day parade stepped off from State and Kinzie at noon.  The route went south on State to Adams, then continued west on Adams to Des Plaines Street and Old St. Patrick Church. Today, Chicago goes so far as to dye their river way green!

This photo of two young Irish-American’s in the South End of Boston during a 1950’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is rather good, I think. South has for quite some time been a highly concentrated area of Irish Americans. What is rather sad is today, as much is the case around the country and world really, the increase in property values and need of space pushes out the poorer old neighborhood residents to make way for high-end condominiums and housing. Many places are losing their ‘local color’ and merely becoming homogenized versions of everywhere else. Much like the continuity of the big business  from one city to another, so to do we accept the ‘gentrification’ of various parts of cities.

A few years back, hubby and I had made a trip with the intent to buy a home in Savannah GA. It was a lovely city and many of the older houses were so beautiful and being fixed up and the city really having  a rebirth. One day, with our Real estate Agent, we were being shown around the city. There was almost an exact line where you could go to one street and it was fancy fixed up houses and the next would be rather run down and a bit scary. She was showing us a darling Victorian house on such a street. It was literally the next street after a ‘fixed up’ street. I remember getting out (we three white people) and many African Americans sitting about on porches and really looking at us. I felt, for the first time in my life, frightened by that racial difference. I asked our Real Estate Agent what was going on. She said they were upset because of the gentrification. She said, ‘Don’t worry, this is the right place to buy, you can get a good price now and others will follow”. “But what happens to those who already live here” I asked naively. “I don’t know,” says she, “they’ll find somewhere to live”. That was the moment that hubby and I knew we could not make the move. The thought of having to both be the object of their anger and hatred and also to know we actually DID contribute to their need to be moved out of their neighborhood was the last straw for us. We enjoyed the rest of our trip and decided to stay New Englanders. That is not to say that is not happening all the time here, though, so don’t think I am saying it is a Southern thing. We just seem to be displacing people.

The Irish were once on the very bottom rung of social order. After the Potato famine of the 1840’s, thousands fled to America. In one year Boston’s Irish Population jumped from 30,000 to 100,000! Many turned to servitude for employment and 70% of servants in Boston were Irish, two-thirds of which were female. Indeed, many of that time considered the Irish a ‘servant race’ in a sense.

The established working classes in America resented the influx of the Irish, as they would work for anything. And, though many Irish were servants, Employers would place signs with NINA scrawled across the front which stood for No Irish Need Apply.

We can look back now and be appalled by the blatant ill treatment of the Irish influx of people, yet places like the South End in Boston that had been the stronghold of the ‘undesirable’ Irish is now being taken over by development. Those, indeed many who are not Irish nor have that heritage, are moving in as they can afford the high rents and taxes, while the old families, now that their once ‘slums’ are desirable, have to move out. It is true, that if they owned their property they could make money from its sale, yet have to give up their place, home and cultural identity to that location. Such ill-treatment, then, still exists, it just has a different face and name.

Really, our country is made up of various groups of people who came here to leave hardship behind. Once established, they seem to forget their own plight and are happy to then oppress the next influx of people. Today there is still much talk of African American and Native American unfair treatment, but we must remember that almost all the various races that were forced here underwent ill treatment. We seem, we humans, to have short memories. Perhaps, sadly, it is just human nature. Rather a grim St. Patrick’s Day post, but the Irish are such a part of Boston today, that they are hardly considered a lower social order anymore.

Here is an old record from 1950’s about Southie town in Boston. A remembrance of pride and feeling of belonging to your neighborhood, even if it were a poorer area of town. The end makes me almost tear up when they talk about the fighting in world war II and there stands the Irish lad from Southie.

Sticking with the theme of the day, here is a rather good Irish Soda Bread recipe. I am not sure how common this type of bread is throughout the country, but around here, it is fairly common to buy Irish Soda Bread, particularly in March.

Nora's Irish Soda Bread

Mix Dry Ingredients

• 3½ Cups flour

• 4 Teaspoons baking powder

• 1/3 Cup sugar

• ½ Teaspoon baking soda

• 8 oz. Raisins, softened (soak in hot water, drain)

• ½ Teaspoon salt

• 1 Tablespoon caraway seeds

Mix Wet Ingredients

• 2 Eggs beaten

• 1 Cup sour cream

• ½ Cup buttermilk

• 3 Tablespoons melted butter

• Combine wet and dry ingredients, knead together

Add to greased, floured 9” pan. Cut an “X” in the top.

Bake 55-60 minutes at 350°

Wouldn’t this be a  lovely dress to wear today, showing the green? I am going to be wearing a green cotton dress (the one I wore in the photo for the TimeWarpWives interview-though it is B&W there, it is actually a soft green cotton)

Are any of you doing anything special for the day? Any particular way your area celebrates the day?

Happy Homemaking and keep those Apron Strings Tied!

16 March “Lady Gaga, Friend or Foe? Are we truly Free?”

After I wrote this post, I talked to a friend about  it. She came over and showed me the latest Lady Gaga Video (telephone) and, though I try to be open-minded, I was so shocked by the beginning bits, before the song actually started, that I almost cried. Watching the overt sexuality that honestly is only playing or pandering to a very low rung of male deviance (tough women wrestling) made me so sad. Here is this lovely talented girl who could really make beautiful music and yet there has to be all this ‘over the top in your face’ images. Why not just singing and music? Have we become so jaded and so bored with SO MUCH visual stimuli that we can only be shocked to sit up and take notice? Is there just so much going on all around us all the time that this is really what modern entertainment has to be? It does not make me mad or hate the person, but makes me wonder at the psychological health of our society and culture. 

I could not watch the whole video. I don’t want to despair of our modern world, but I wonder at Feminists who call 1950’s fashion oppression and restriction and sexist and then see a girl needing to literally dance and dress as a modern stripper and wonder, how far have we come? The holding of a door by a man is bad somehow, but to portray to young girls and boys that women are sexualized objects that must be in your face and scantily clad is scarier to me. What shall we do, ladies? Is there a way to fix or make a better world? Or do we need to merely become a sub-culture of old ideals, fashion, and living? I despair for the future generations and am sad that the passion and joy of pure art, entertainment and the lovely feel of relationships being ‘special’ and not just ‘available when you want it’. The human animal has become merely an object, without feeling or value. The only value being in the sexual aspects of it, which then disregards anyone over 35 and forget about the wisdom of the old. Yet, what wisdom shall there be in the old of the future. I am so sorry to be so bleak.

Well, here is the post I made BEFORE I saw that video. Maybe there is hope, I honestly don’t know.

 

I know this is not terribly 1956, but on my last post we had a little discussion about Lady Gaga. Though, I do not think her main image and music is any different than much glam/pop type dance music out there, she, as a performer, I believe is talented. I feel her current ‘image’ is almost due to she being a product of the times in which we live. If we continue to embrace greed, Fame, commercialism and such, is it a surprise music takes on that ilk? However, Lady Gaga herself,  at least what I gleaned from various interviews I found online, is actually anti-fame, has a good voice, is rather smart, and actually does not like the FAME lifestyle of big houses and plenty of Bling.

So, I thought, let’s listen to this version of one of her songs. The classical quality of her piano playing of her own writing and the pure joy she feels in her singing shines here. Her throaty tonal quality of her voice make me want to hear her sing 30s/40’s standards on a lavish Hollywood set. Even her hat is adorable here. We Apronite’s are not closed minded and will not make judgments until we have heard it all, at least I think that is our way.

So, let’s watch this first (it is not racy, don’t worry ladies, no nudity or anything, ) and then get to the meat of it.

This version of her song (though the lyrics are a little silly about getting ‘hot’) the sing song jazzy sound is rather good.

I guess I just wonder if we did live in a different society today, would she be up there with the singers of the 40/50s? She wouldn’t need to be ‘shocking’ or ‘overtly sexual’ and could dispense of this modern nonsense of always needed to be controversial and just get on with the joy of singing and the happiness of music and entertainment. It is almost sad to me that today if there is an actual talent, they must muck about with the nonsense of Shock and Awe. Ella and Billie and Peggy hadn’t had to worry if they were ‘controversial’ enough. They could just belt it out and it was accepted and wonderful.

Maybe, just maybe, Lady Gaga could have been doing as lovely Peggy Lee is doing here and sing and entertain and be glamorous.

Another aspect is the bizarre but obvious fashion of Lady Gaga. Girls once had such fashion and looks to aspire to as this 39 Vogue Hat You can see how an appeal of Gaga’s fashion has a pull to the young in their sea of product printed hoodies and sea of jeans. They certainly can’t turn to their well dressed mothers in hats and darling outfits and think, “One day, I will be a prettily dressed grown up” so, such artists draw the young in merely by their extreme fashion. Even a bright blue high cut leotard or red vinyl body suit has more appeal or more ‘passion’ than the jeans, oversized tops most teens see all the time. Perhaps, just maybe, some of the appeal of such artists is due to our own style approach?

I think I should never want us to lose sight of the value of artistic expression. When it is done as  pure joy or as a contrast to current norms, it has, in its very action, value. It says to us, “Hmm, think about things:your life, society, current concepts differently” and that can’t ever be bad. We do that here all the time as we go against the grain of modern ‘feminism’ and the modern ‘role of women’. In a way, in our petticoats smiling with a drink for our hubby, are we not as ‘in your face’ as Josephine once was shaking her banana’s? Do we not sometimes receive ill-informed judgments of our actions? :You must be trapped. You are oppressed, repressed. You are undermining women’s rights etc. Yet, we know it is not true. We must also remember that even further back than Madonna was Josephine Baker who was literally forced to move to France (where her actions were viewed as extreme as in America)  due to her ‘over the top’ dances and yet, she was not a wretch, nor  a whore not any such thing. IN fact she dedicated much of her money and love to raising countless adopted children over the years. I suppose, I don’t want us ever to judge too harshly.

Now, in a case of say a Britney Spears, I see a person who has ‘made it’ based on the very structure that built her up as a product to sell. Her music written for her, her dances made for her, even her voice not very good it piped in for her to lip-synched at performances, and yet mothers with children will happily sing along to her latest song in the car with her children. She has shown us her ‘real self’ in various paparazzi photos of how she ‘raises’ her children etc.

Now, in a case of a Lady Gaga, I actually see someone with both talent and artistic merit. She has skill and intelligence and actually views much of the FAME world today as ludicrous. I only wish she could use her talent and ability to make her followers feel more than just to be ‘different’ is an answer to life. To actually make and create is important. We won’t all be famous, yet the current trend for all youths seems to get rich and live FABULOUS lifestyles. But, what of the art of the kitchen, the song of the small family, the happiness of your small community and your small part in it. All of those things are valid and if only there were some way to get the Lady Gaga’s to be a wonderful talented background to that world, it could be as it once was. The songs and stars of the past often lived outside society’s norms, but their affect on the masses who chose not to live that way, was still entertainment and joy pure JOY that could be shared from grandma down to little Johnny. Lady Gaga now is Very shocking and I can understand why you would not want your daughter to listen to her, yet she is not a sudden surprise. Our world is so set up with reality tv, commercialism, over sexuality etc, we cannot be surprised. But, I can feel sad as I really feel a girl such as she in say 1940’s could have been a great entertainer. She would not have to react to nor subscribe to our current society which is all about appearence, yet without expressing ourselves in original fashion, but rather mass produced items and sameness. That is part of the sadness of the modern world for me. Someone from 1955 would laugh if you told them you paid money to wear a shirt that advertises the company from which you bought it.

Now, back to Lady Gaga. This outdated and out moded NEED to shock has certainly run its course. Let it, like the irreverent art movements of the 80’s, fall to the wayside and let us rejoice and embrace actual talent and it’s expression in Joy or sorrow, love or pain, but enough has been said and demonstrated of Lust, Cruel want for wealth, and In your face shock. It has been said. We are angry when those famous say it and represent it in their songs and videos, yet do we not feed into that very society with many of our choices. Even choosing to merely ignore it is, in a way, only adding to it. If somehow we could, through example in our own lives, rather than just our voice, express the need to change the world in which lady Gaga is Lady Gaga and not just a great singer of songs written by a current talented song writer like Copeland. The world is made up of all of us. We may act as if we have no control over it, but the trends and actions are made my our decisions or even our decision to simply turn away from it.

So, when I see a Lady Gaga, I feel a little saddened because I feel she is the type to have the talent and power and artistic ability to actually make an entire MOVEMENT towards expressing Joy and Life through music and art and throngs would follow her there. I feel she has so much more to say than simply, “look how shocking I am” and if she would say it, what a difference she could make. But, maybe if we all work a bit each day at improving our life outwards, the actions of True talent, Joy and happy living will begin to trump the idea of ease, money, and lazy rudeness. And, as Josephine Baker went from the young girl in The Banana dance, to this performance in 1950s, maybe the Lady Gaga of tomorrow will be different because we are being different as well.

Maybe Gaga’s expression of society as an artist will change if we all work to change what society is. We mustn't remain happy to merely dislike or be angry with the world unless we plan to change it. Though we may simply be a little homemaker in a little town in a rural area, we can still make a difference; we can still be that tiny pebble that sends large ripples through the great pond. Take pride in our dress, and attitude. Make and create our own food and clothes. Insist we and are family are important enough to have a nice dinner at a table with real dishes. Know it is better to try and shop local even if it is not always easier and important to get out into the community and connect. Begin to know our neighbors and make entertainment that involves and does not exclude youth. And make those changes. Perhaps our children won’t need, then, to look to the tv and Fame to find passion, art, and role models and maybe, just maybe, those in Fame and power will want or need to mirror the current trend of talent, hard work and deeper expression. In a way, all that happens in our country is part of our responsibility.

If we currently live in a society where someone both with actual talent or one who is just marketed, but both need the overt in your face approach to become mainstream, what does that say about that society? We do not merely respond to good talent for how would we? Our only connection to the world is though the tv and computer unless we live in large cities. The concept of the radio as it once was is no longer. We find and are introduced to new music through advertising, as much as we are anything else.The one positive role of the computer is it can and may put the power of the real talent and small time artist back into their hands and allow the masses access to them. Not just what large media companies feel we will respond to.

So, it makes we realize we all really can make such differences ourselves. Even when we choose to ‘dress nicely’ all the time (it doesn't’ have to be vintage) we are making not only an artistic statement but an actual valid change in our own life that says, “I am important to myself and my community and how I look affects others as well as myself.” There would maybe not be such a need to worship such obscure fashion statements as Lady Gaga, if the average teenager had the clothes and fashions of their own. They are a sea of hoodies, advertising shirts and sports printed shirts, jeans, tennis shoes and uggs. NO WONDER they lust after such extreme fashion statements as lady Gaga has made. They don’t realize how much they could have in their own life. Gone are the days of girls happily sewing and making dresses of various styles and their designs or planning to dress and look pretty like the various grown ups in their lives. We all, really, are craving change because we live in a world of ease in some areas. Cooking, clothes, decor, all that is rather easy and for the working masses, there is nothing left to do after working but watching tv and playing on the internet. If we could but take back those things we so happily delegated to the factories (food, clothing, decor) our living WOULD become more meaningful.

Now, I am not saying everyone. I am sure there are many of you out there that are happy just as you are, but I have found that most people who read my blog are ‘looking’ for something. There life is good, but…there is a missing element and we can often find it in the GOOD ways of yesterday. And, if we make them the NEW ways of today, we won’t feel we are only living a past life. Rather than having to isolate ourselves we will be encouraging others outside of it and their normal may become ours.

Here are two photos just to think about.

I am not saying either group of these two women are better than the other or the one is smarter or more repressed. What I am saying is, if you see these two images of the average woman today and then what you would see in the 50’s (not that there were not sloppily dressed then, but on the norm women in hats and gloves was normal). Could a young girl becoming  a teen want to emulate the fashion of her mother more, if it were in fact different and more grown up than her own? I am not saying yes, but just curious what you think. And how you feel or view these two images next to one another. How much attraction of a person as Lady Gaga is the youthful need to express and want to ‘dress up’ by her extreme fashions in contrast to the sameness of today?

  Now, before I publish this I am going to make some statements that might help those who are going to tell me how close minded or ill-informed I am. I am not saying ALL people must change and live as I say. I am everyday learning new things about my own modern world and the past and always adjusting my life to better suit, so I do not have an exact unchanging ‘Rule List” I wish to impose on any of you.

Also, I merely am stating ideas as questions to you as: do you think this could be true? Is it nonsense? What is your opinion on the matter? Not, “This is how it is, now go out and do my bidding”. So that covers that. As to any other comments, which I am sure I shall get, we shall deal with them case by case, I suppose, but it does always make for good conversation, I think. I just hope that we can see that all of what happens in our modern world is affected and due to all of us, which in a way makes it good. It means if we don’t like it, we need to change it and that change can’t be asked of anyone else until we first make it for ourselves. It would hardly be fair to ask others unless we, ourselves, first try.

Just for fun, here is a 1950’s maidenform bra ad with a hair bow like Lady Gaga’s I just thought it interesting is all.

So, maybe one day, if we do act and want to change our current world, the young kids will want to see a lady Gaga such as this.

13 March 1956 “News, Fashion, Spring, still springing along, and Seeds.”

Laurence Olivier's film, Richard III, adapted from Shakespeare's play, premieres in the U.S. in theatres and on NBC Television, on the same day as an afternoon matinée. It is one of the first such experiments of its kind. Olivier is later nominated for an Oscar for his performance.

Odd that once, when TV was a few networks and still in it’s infancy, such programs as ballet and Opera and, yes, even Shakespeare was shown. I can picture an older audience, to whom TV would either be interesting or annoying, enjoying this type of ‘theatre’ program.

Today we seem to have hundreds of channels, yet by their very vastness of choice, there is not that ‘camaraderie of tv’ I bet there was once. There are network shows that I am sure are ‘watercooler’ talk, but I sometimes wonder if the endless choice is almost too much of a distraction for we modern people. Speaking as someone who, until 1955, had increasingly been extending my own tv viewing (hours a day!) I didn’t really see it as a problem. And I suppose depending on what you want out of life, it does not have to be. But, for me now, the amount of things I can do and the very length and promise of each day seems extended since the glowing box went dim.

Now, I am not saying it is evil and we shouldn’t watch it or that we should have socialized TV where the government chooses one channel for all of us ( I figure I’d get a jump on any such comments!) Just merely stating my own personal facts and views. I know that since the TV is no longer a viable option in my day, I not only don’t miss it, but realize how much freer my thoughts are. I have not caught myself humming any commercials, radio jingles nor peppering my conversation with ‘Simpson’s Quote’s as I once did. I may, on occasion whilst scrubbing the floor or intently working on something, find myself humming an ‘old advert’ such as the Pepsodent ad.

and hubby and I will often say, in our best monotone, to one another, “BIZZZEE DAY OH BIZZZZZ EEE DAY…NO TIME FOR DEEEZIRT” because of this ad that just stuck with us.

Yet, it is interesting to note how I actually feel I have my thoughts back to myself now without tv. I am not wondering what's on, nor considering what I just watched or what is ‘coming up next week’. I feel like those people who get very physically fit later in life and say, “Why I have the body of when I was 20 again” yet, I feel I have the mind back of being 20 and at school and so hungry for more knowledge and craving to read and study and learn. I wonder how much the TV increases our later loss of memory. I happen to have Alzheimer's in my family, as well, so I figure, I’d better use it ‘while I got it’!

I was saying today on the forum how my idea of weight loss and my overall mind/body image has become almost Zen like since 1955. I  still wish to lose weight, but it seems more a casual, it will happen with exercise and diet, than before. The fear, anger, guilt-eating, etc has all but gone from my psyche. I wonder if it is not watching modern tv, reading modern magazines etc. Even at the grocery store, as I now frequent our local little market, there is not line with magazines piled up while you wait. So, I don’t really see that many magazines. Odd. I feel bad for the young girls today. The body image confusion must be really bad.

I thought it interesting what Karl Lagerfeld said about people thinking modern models are too thin, saying the people who were concerned were just fat housewives!

"These are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly," Lagerfeld said in an interview with Focus magazine. The creative director of the fashion house Chanel added that the world of fashion was all to do "with dreams and illusions, and no one wants to see round women".

  Somehow, fashion has become more about the body shape than the movement of the clothes.  The first modern image is certainly showing the woman’s body, in a very, “hey here it is under this black lace”. This is a high fashion piece so probably not meant to be interpreted on day wear, but the second from 1955 is also high fashion. It is very body conscious yet lovely. It has a sexy allure, but in a more fashionable way AND a home sewer could try and replicate it to a day wear outfit.

I think Chanel would be spinning in her grave and slap Lagerfeld across the face for his emaciated look. Channel wanted to free women from the constraints of the corset, now to only have them in fear of their own bodies! I would rather put on a good foundation garment and feel my clothes fit better than have to worry that my hip bones don’t stick out enough! And, fashion for the masses is a joke. Mass market ( I know we just talked about this, but it really does color every aspect of the modern life) clothing is slouchy and comfortable because it is EASIER to mass produce, not because there is some ‘movement’ to make women more comfortable.

The average woman in the 50’s, rather she knew it or not, had fashion sense! I remember a commenter saying how she remembered in the 1950’s going to her aunt’s farm on Sunday and the aunt would be in overall’s in curlers milking the cow and then, get dressed in a dress and have her hair done nicely for church. There was an innate sense that told her, yes I am a hard working farmer, but I can also be beautiful and look presentable. Even if the person was fat by today's standards and just wearing a simple cotton dress, with little cotton gloves and hat, compare that today. And we have so many easy ways to make beauty more a part of our life,too.

Again, I am not TELLING anyone what to do. By all means, keep wearing your Gap hoodies and Old Navy low rise jeans. It matters little to me, as long as you don’t mind my wearing a dress, all the underpinnings, hat gloves etc. I know there is a definite feeling among ‘average’ women that somehow fashion is gone. Yet, we are still very drawn to it. Again, it has been a part of women’s history. We might be told not to think about it or that it is being ‘silly’ to worry about or care what we are wearing, but why? Because burning our bras and wearing t-shirts with smiley faces somehow made us more liberated? I think the modern woman can be free and equal and still have the ability to care about beauty, and fashion. And, though it might sound silly, fashion is an important part of our daily lives. We have to wear clothes and if you like pretty things or a certain decade, then why not dress that way? What do you have to lose?

This has spurred me on to work more on the Grooming Page today. I will try to get some new content up on the site today about that with the new layout. Even from the standpoint of personal strength, think of it this way. You have the ability to sew your own clothes with patterns and make the decisions on fit and fabric, the strength to wear what you LIKE and not what is in the store, you are adding skill to your daily repertoire. As far as I can see, it is all win win! Even if you don’t want to sew and you want to have this look, find someone who does and pay them! They will be so happy to have the custom!

Spring is coming! Here are some crocus in my little front garden.

 

When you view nature close up like this, you can really be inspired with a color palate. Wouldn’t a dress in shades of purple with say an orange belt and grass green trim and accessories be lovely? Even a room could be done in mellowed versions of these colors. You can click on any of these to seem them larger. The detail on the stamens and the play of light and dark are inspring me to do some painting. Maybe the New England version of Georgia O’Keefe, non?

These little crocus pushing though the flattened winter grasses make me think of the little hats so in vogue during this decade (1950s) Here the Queen in the 50’s is very much sporting a jaunty little spring flower atop her regal head.

Here is one of my little cucumber seedlings, still holding onto its seedpod. All my seedlings I planted last week have all sprung up nicely. And since they have done so well, I have ordered the following seeds. (You can order it HERE in the store.) (and you can order these HERE in the store.) The first white tomato is suppose to have an almost melon like flavor. They are both antique Heritage seeds and great to grow and then collect the seeds for next year (economical and important to increase the amount of old Heritage seeds kept alive on earth!)

Melons usually do not do very well here on the cape as we do not have VERY hot conditions as they do in the midwest. But smaller melon will do alright. I am going to try this wonderful Heritage seed from 1800 that looks like a squash. It will be like ‘eating history’ to know the plant is the same as since Jane Austen’s time! (you can order it HERE, if you like.)

I am going to have a try at these french breakfast radish seeds that look so lovely. This variety is over 100 years old! (available HERE) Aren’t these beets just the living end? They look like candy when sliced and I bet they would be really beautiful pickled. We shall see, as I plan on pickling some. (available HERE)

Well, have a lovely weekend all. Perhaps I shall see you in the Forum, if not, then in the comments. Happy Homemaking!