5 July 1956 “Our Town’s 4th of July Parade and Celebrations”

I hope all had a wonderful 4th celebration (you American followers I mean). Our parade was cute at its start. This old 1900 wooden school bus.
   The Soldiers and the cars made one feel it was 1950’s   This float was from our local book store, Titcombs. The have  a colonial figure out front of their business on our historic hwy (which I also live on) that is a famous landmark. Here they recreated him for the parade and the truck says, “Join the Reading Revolution” and they were followed by family members/workers dressed in Revolutionary hats. Titcomb’s has its own blog and here is the link to the post about how they were started, rather cute story. HERE it is.
After that, the parade took an odd turn. First off the remainder of the parade appeared to just be modern cars with random business names and then people in the back with high powered water guns and buckets of water. They squirted and squirted. Had they only done so to the youngsters up front who wanted it, fine, but they would spray up the lawn embankments and many had expensive cameras. Myself and Gussie were ‘dressed up’ (dress, petticoat etc per usual) and did not enjoy getting wet. I suppose for the throngs of t-shirt wearing cut off short individuals they didn’t mind. But it continued on like that. Then, on top of that, we had three fire trucks BLARING their sirens and horns. Now, in the old days, when the siren and bell was a darling little clang, I understand, but these sirens and whistles are ear piercing and meant to be heard by modern fast traffic of people blasting their music. At close quarters on a small town street, children were literally plugging their ears, and I joined it. It is rather easy to hurt ones eardrums permanently.
Then to top off the odd parades ending, everyone got up and immediately left with a huge mess and trail of candy half eaten empty wrappers and garbage all over the streets! How much effort to pick up your own garbage and all the children who had been collecting up the candy had no admonitions from any parents, we were appalled to say the least.
We ended the morning by going to our local tea shop for afternoon tea only to be stared at when we left by some out of town tourist all of 17 dressed in shorts TOO short and a bland uninspired Wal-Mart top. I had to laugh to myself when I thought she found US funny, we had nice dresses, ironed, earrings, handbags etc. I am not sure why style is hilarious, but it seemed to be.  But, I digress.
Here are the simple but fun parfaits I made for our gathering. The berries were picked from our local farm and the whipped cream is, of course, homemade. If anyone has ever had that horrid can stuff or the tub, then whipped their own, where in you can add the amount of sugar and vanilla or whatever you wish (chocolate, lavender anything) you will never go back to the store bought. And, of course, I do love photographing food, so here are two close ups. This was my centerpiece for our gathering, and I didn’t want it to be red white and blue. I decided to use the flowers from my yard and I think the hydrangea, lillies and Phlox, look like explosions of fireoworks, don’t you?
We returned downtown at 7p.m. to the Mill pond where a band performs and then at 9pm the 4th of July Boat Parade on the water begins. Any local can enter and you decorate your boats (canoes, dinghy what have you) with lights and affects but you have to have candle lit Chinese Lanterns as part of it, as it is the tradition.
Here is a shot by the Grist Mill and the pond to set the scene. This is fairly representative of my town and area in which I live. In many ways, very small town New England America, you can even see a couple fishing in the background. here you can see people settling in with the band in the background and the boats, later, will appear on the water from behind the old Burial ground, which juts out into the pond.
This part of our day was probably the most Vintage feeling. The band was playing older music and the mood was not as odd as our Parade.

   Here you can see the people working their boat lit only by the Chinese Lanterns. They set off a great fire display out of the top of their boat. This boat was called the Huck Finn and they had a nice campfire and tent going on their entry.
It was hard getting good pictures, as it was so dark. But some of the photos turned out to be so beautiful, that I think they almost have a surreal or abstract quality. These photos that only captured the dancing Chinese paper lanterns and one errant rocket  made me think of Whistlers painting Nocturne in Black and Gold. By no means exhibiting the depth and character of that infamous painting (he sued Ruskin for slander of his public hatred of the painting) but it has that quality to it for me; The abstraction of color and form with the reality of representation behind.  I think the images would look nice enlarged in a mid-century modern setting. This photo, again rather abstract, was beautiful to behold in person. This particular boat filled itself with beautiful large paper shapes that looked like jellyfish, which when they lit them and let them go, floated over us. you could almost feel you were under the sea in its deep dark depths. Two of these got caught up in trees and the crown began to worry and fret, “It’s going to catch on fire” many said and were worried. We were not. It soon burned itself out. Many seem to forget this whole town once was lit by whale oil then kerosene, very flammable substances, and has made it just fine. It did add to the excitement of the night.
It was very small town America. You could almost believe you were in 1950’s at points, as the local band played many 1950’s rock n roll songs, with some Beatles and Jimmy Buffet (not a fan) thrown in. At first, only the children were dancing on the lawn as all others sat and watched. I thought, ‘If this was 1956, the band would be playing dance music and the adults would be dancing, in couples.” It seemed today, only the children danced. Later, as the light ebbed and the excitement of the upcoming boats was upon us, many adults then joined in to dance. Only, it was modern in that all were just jumping up and down. I squinted my eyes a bit and imagined white gloves, sun hats and twirling couples. A Vintage girl can dream, can’t she?
One of the entries this year was interesting in that it was the same boat that had won 100 years earlier in 1910. Obviously, new decorations, as the rules imply, but I thought, my how the world has changed since that boat first tread the waters. We had not even had our first World War yet. So much innocence. The nice part is my town, in many ways, is still very much the same, only the people and their attitudes seem different. I can walk past houses and building hundreds of years old and the old grist mill, which still grinds corn meal to this day, but when I see a mother, clad in almost nothing, ignore her son as he unwraps the candy he just got at the parade and drop the wrapper to the ground with no repercussion, it feels very modern and cold.
I suppose we Vintage lovers have to found our world where we can and to make it today in ways we would think those in the past would have. We can let go of bigotry but still embrace common courtesy and general kindness. It might be old fashioned to dress nicely and appropriately for the occasion, say please and thank you and hold doors for ladies and the elderly, but whenever we modern people manage these things, I think the past smiles a little on us.
So, here is to your present and your future, may they be filled with the joy of the past. I hope all had a wonderful holiday.
Happy Homemaking.

4th of July 1956 “Elvis, Charity, Cooking Show, and Parades”

First off, let me start out by saying thank you to all of you who took the time to comment yesterday. I shall not worry, in the future, about comments. I suppose in some way I was really faced with the dilemma of “Do I post this blog for myself as much as others” and wasn’t really sure of what my answer would be. I am glad to know that there are a few of you out there enjoying my ramblings and I must say it does make it seem more exciting to know so. But, after must rumination, I do think I would have just continued on as usual, even if I had received no comments. For any of you who might feel that my blog has changed drastically from 1955, I am sorry about that. Yet, I do need to write ‘as I find’ and I think if I were in 1955 then my 1956 self would be different as well. We must evolve. I also feel that to only close my eyes to 2010 at all times would be an in-service to what I have come to really admire about the 1950’s. I think what I have learned and continue to learn about our social past IS relevant today and would serve little purpose to myself or anyone if I chose to live in a vacuum. Those in 1950’s were very forward thinking and so part of that has rubbed off on me. In some ways I almost feel more modern then before 1955, as before that I always longed for the 19th century. Now, I find myself rather modern and wanting to take all the good from the 1950s, a time I really do believe is the beginning of how we live now, and remake my own present in a better way with the advantage of my 2010 crystal ball.
So, again, thank you so kindly for all your lovely thoughts. I do appreciate it very much. And do not feel, now, that you need to comment on my account. I understand now than many just enjoy reading and have no need to say anything. I am still very innocent in the ways of blogging, though I have done it for a year and a half now. Thank you all again.
This evening, here in 1956, at the Russwood Park, Memphis Tennessee, Elvis will perform. Many of the 14,000 fans were there early in the morning, camping out to be close to the growing legend. The concept of idol and God-like star is truly born.
Young girls weep in his presence hoping to merely touch his clothes. The shift here in 1956, I believe, is beginning for youth. Today, in many ways, music probably plays the role religion once played in the lives of those in the Middle Ages. Its chants and rhythms almost a prayer to its followers. Though many, of course, are simply drawn into this new form of music. This American music which taps the roots of it’s Afro-centric heritage and the simple tunes and verbiage of the ‘Hillbilly’ that is becoming Rockabilly. This sound, in its true form, still exists today, though not on the level it is gaining here in 1956.

An interesting story about this concert is that it was in part for the benefit of the Cynthia Milk Fund which still exists today. The story of that organization is actually rather interesting and shows the power of the press:
On a winter day in 1914 a telephone call came in to the Memphis Press. The caller was concerned about the faint wailing of a baby he heard coming from a seemingly deserted house in downtown Memphis. The city editor sent Memory McCord, one of Memphis' earliest women reporters, to investigate. When she arrived at the building, a woman, holding a tiny baby, opened the door of the one-room apartment. The mother was frightened and cold. The poorly clad baby was hungry. There was no wood for the apartment's stove and the icebox lacked food and milk.
McCord, who wrote under the byline of Cynthia Grey, wrote a touching story the next day. Soon the newspaper office was flooded with contributions and offers of housing and food for the mother and child. As a result, a fund was created to help needy infants and babies get a healthy start in life. Incorporated in 1933, the fund later became a tax-exempt organization.
I find that story both interesting in it showing the growing response the populace has to the ‘new media’ (the newspaper) in accordance to such a story. Though, quite honestly, there were many opportunities for anyone to see such poor people, it was not until it was portrayed in story form that it touched enough hearts to make a difference. It really shows the power of the story. We have, even today with our blogs, still that ancient human need to gather round the fire and listen to the storyteller. We are rapt and often touched greatly when even a reality we might know very well of is put into a context of beginning and end. Digital or handwritten scribe, or oral history, we love a good story.
I also am impressed with the woman reporter in 1914, we were not always in the kitchen tied to children until the 1960’s saved us, as some people will have us believe. It is a nice story, though, isn’t it?
This darling little girl, Elizabeth, in Hopkinton Iowa today in 56. How sweet is she. I adore the children’s clothing of today and can imagine the fun for the little girls to wear the petticoats and longer skirts. At my current age here in 1956 I would most likely have had a childhood outfit much like these children in the 20’s celebrating the 4th of July. Whenever I put myself into the historical perspective of what my 1950’s self would have known as a child, it is always humbling to think what I have even here in 1956. Washing machine, Dishwasher, Good sized freezer, air conditioning, a really good vacuum. But, much as today, some of the innocence may be gone with the ease. If I had a child, I might wonder at it wanting to stare at a flickering screen watching cowboy films when there are perfectly good frogs to catch outside or cans to kick. Funny, really.
Today I am off to my own hometown to watch our little parade and later the band and a funny little boat contest on the old mill pond. This image of a 1956 4th of July parade would probably have some tears made in the audience. These veterans reenacting that famous image, it was still so close to home. I am sure there were many wives who held their hubby’s a little closer while remembering the fear of their absence and the uncertainties of the future. It is images like this that always spurs me on to over analyze where we have come since the war. There is a part of me that feels we owe that generation the right to be ‘awake’ to what is happening in our new America and to make better choices to make sure our country can become what those young men fought for. I will not rant today, but it burns me to think of American flags bought at big box stores manufactured in communist china. There is something almost face slapping about it. But, I will not spoil our Holiday, but do remember those brave men that fought and died so that we might have the opportunity to live as we do. We DO owe our past an allegiance and a certain amount of responsibility. Enough said…
Here is a Parade from Today in California.

Well, I will close with a 4th of July 1956 airing of the show “Television Kitchen” with Florence Hanford. The show was aired live at 2:30 PM Wednesdays on Channel 3 in Philadelphia, WPTZ-TV, which was the only airwave available in Philadelphia at that time, and later on Channel 6. It was sponsored by the Philadelphia Electric Company and was one of the earliest televised cooking shows, closely following that of James Beard. I do have to disagree with the electric cooking, but she is sponsored by the Electric company. And a fun side note, I love the way she says “Marsh-mallers”. Enjoy and have a Great 4th of July (for the American followers of course)

3 July 1956 “What, Me Worry?”

I have been worried of late. Not about myself, so much, but just little bits of everything. I am overall quite happy, actually rather content with my life. My time travel has turned out to be one of the smartest things I have attempted. Yet, here happy working in my yard and home, I have been worried about my posts and my blog. That documentation which began like a secret diary to my adventures and then become happily shared by many now has an odd sting in its tail. I find now, especially as I am trying to post more, that as I notice the vast reduction in comments an almost anxiety. Did I do something wrong? Am I not entertaining or are my antics boring? Have I, like most modern things, simply used up my few minutes of attention and others simply moved on.
I rarely notice my number of followers, but now that it is over 500 I begin to feel a trepidation, because I do want to continue to grow as a person and to share that growth and yet I see very little activity on the posts. Should I care? Why does it worry me? These are the actual things that worry me, why I should or should not care.

That sounds silly, I know, but probably one of my largest foibles is over thinking. I tend to analyze and re-analyze a thing until it becomes like a stone washed smooth by the eons of waves over it. It’s silly, I know. And yet, me, myself, I am not unhappy nor directionless. In fact the more I find myself getting a grip on being able to do all the things I set out to learn last year in 1955, the more I find myself wondering why there seems to be less comments. Perhaps I have become pedantic or mundane, or, as I really feel, people simply got bored and moved on. Now, with my high numbered followers, I have just become another statistic in Blog land where individuals go about seeing high numbered followers, they have a blog or an item to sell and then simply ‘add’ themselves. I believe that is an actual tactic to increase ‘traffic’ or whatever the point of many blogs are.

For me, it was really to document my life. I didn’t know or really care at first if anyone ‘heard my silent notations’ but now, as I have been heard and subsequently began to feel it almost an important thing for me to do, now with the comments almost nil, I find myself worried. Why is that? Does it matter? If I did offend, should i be upset? If I am simply old hat now or others are doing what I have done better, should it matter to me? I feel I wanted to still write it all down into a book form one day, but should I bother with that, have I lost my ‘window’ as the modern marketing world would have it. “Get in there, grab there interest, and then BLAM hit em with product and a book!” Is that what anything is about these days? Did I do wrong  by not seeking out advertisers to put on my page? Was I suppose to do that? Am I suppose to make my blog more flashy? I honestly don’t know.

I don’t know, I guess if there are any of you out there still reading and just not commenting, should I care? Am I merely being silly? And, if no one really is listening any more, how much of this recording is for them and how much for me? Would I merely stop if no one was listening? When did it become more for others than myself? Is this the odd addiction or game that is subsequent to all bloggers? I don’t know.

Well, that is enough of that today. I have a 4th of July dinner for which to prepare. We are having a few friends over and then will watch the olde time band and boat parade on the old mill pond on the 4th. It should be hometown fun. But, will my answer to this post, if it were no comments therefore meaning I am talking to an empty room, mean sadness? Or the freedom from the need to document my life rather than just live it be a happy one? Does our life have more value to us (we modern people) if we can see it on a screen? Are we so plugged in that what we do, our food cooked, rooms decorated, like lived, not become REAL until it appears on that screen or in that digital camera? Odd.

2 July 1956 “The Insular Move Indoors”

Though by comparison, here in 1956 we are much more community orientated than in 2010. We know our neighbors far more on average than in 2010, but the move away from the collective and into the single family unit is beginning here.
(click to enlarge and read) This is simply an ad for Armstrong tiles, but its focus is the need of the new nuclear family needing more interior space, sewing, tv, hobbies etc.  The porch that was sat upon and ‘hey’ to neighbors is going. When screens were invented, people said it would be the ‘good-bye’ to neighborliness, as now you could sit inside, the same was said with air-conditioning. My 1950’s magazines from the summer months are FILLED with air conditioning ads. The disposable income is becoming available for such things as this ad from Woolworth for model cars. Even here you see the cars are ‘vintage’ for 1950’s. Are we already relegating the past to ‘quaintness’ to admire and to enjoy through simply purchasing images and likeness to it? I love the 1950’s here is an apron with cherries and a picture of Elvis, now I am off to Walmart to buy my American flag made in China to celebrate our Independence from a Foreign country. I can see the beginning of the tear in our fabric forming here.
What is an interesting hypothesis is : Did the 1950’s Father spend more ‘quality’ time with his offspring than the 1930’s father, who worked longer hours (when he had work-due to the Depression) and while the child had more freedom to be out and about all hours of the day? As the family moved away from the external members (aunts, grandparents, cousins) and into the nuclear unit in a detached home on a small plot of land, they turned to one another more. Yet, in that, burgeoning hobbies, the DIY craze and TV began to then separate those individuals within the group. Now in 2010 we often have families that don’t even eat at the same time or in the same room, share very little conversation (let alone building models) and more time independently using computers and other entertainment devices. It is as if we have slowly moved and separated from one another. It seems that while the most plugged in the 21st century we are, in many ways, the most isolated. Odd, indeed.
Once, families lived in closer groups, grandparents were there for childcare and knowledge, cousins and unmarried aunts stayed on to help out and be a part of a family. Part of the conveniences for teh 1950’s housewife made it possible for her to stay home with the children and not need granny and auntie to help on wash day ( just pop it in the new machine and go). Cooking and cleaning is becoming easier by comparison to decades earlier. And the increased need for housing for all the new families after the war made the shared space with no need for cars in the cities become replaced by the growing suburbia. With that move, the family broke apart and the new crop of children are more coddled and a little less free.
I recall an episode of Leave it to Beaver when Ward remarks how much less freedom the children have then when he was a child. And how many more supervised and structured activities such as league baseball and sports and clubs. In another episode they go to a remote cabin that Ward recalled enjoying at a boy and marvels at his offspring's desire to be back in ‘civilization’ as they are bored with sticks and trees. So, even here in 1956, we see the young generation learning to be entertained more than entertaining themselves. Children’s tv shows are increasing and re-runs and monster movies are all the rage. Organized sports teams and other clubs are becoming almost mandatory and the free wheeling days of playing with an old rusty coffee can in an inner city alley or dangerous old farm equipment and guns unsupervised in the country are becoming things of the past already.
I would hate to be the purveyor of bad news here in 1956 about what is to become. Though, the children would think it keen, I am sure, but wait until they become the grandparents of 2010.
My husband and I were discussing how we know each generation always says, ‘These kids these days’ but we felt rather disparaged by the youngsters today, and heck our own generation as well. I know things are over all better, but have we lost a bit of the interactive humanity of old? Does there always have to be a this way or that and not a great meld of all the good?
Are we really reaching that bloated state that came to Rome before its fall or am I just a cantankerous old curmudgeon? What do you think?

1 July 1956 “Oh, You Beautiful Doll”

I thought today, in honor of our July Apronite of the Month on the Site, (Yes, we are back to honoring Apronite’s, so check that out on the site’s main page) I would post some adverts for 1950’s dolls, Enjoy.
This appears to be a knock off Barbie (who came to life in 1959 at the end of the decade)

This is a doll of a character from the popular children’s show, Howdy Doody,  Princess Summerfall Winterspring

Wouldn’t YOU like to have a Shirley Temple Doll?

Paper dolls, too!

And of course, who can forget Barbie? Though she really only appeared at the end of the 1950’s. Just imagined if she started in 55, the clothes would have remained wonderful.

Did you have a favorite doll or toy as a child?

30 June 1956 “I Wanna be Teacher’s Pet”

Here in 1956 I happened to notice this cover of the Saturday Evening Post with the usual Norman Rockwell painting (one of the most underappreciated artists of our time, in my opinion.) I couldn’t help notice the sweetness of the image. Nothing new for Rockwell, of course, for even here in 1956, sometimes his images portray more of what one wishes the moment to be than what it may have actually have been. Yet, Rockwell in true artist style, shows us what we would hope or wish to be. His art had that element, not unlike the Religious painters of old, Michelangelo etc, the figure and moment in glorified rightness. No angst nor in your face representation of the lowest aspects of our society, but the higher form we are, as humans, able to obtain. It is harder, one must work at it, but there is a Divinity in it. Even if one is not religious, to be hopeful and kind is surely that which any truly advanced species would hope to achieve.
But, I digress, this is a ‘short post day’ and here I am off rambling nonsense.
My point was that, even though I am childless here in 1956 as well as 2010, I worry of the public schools systems and the future of our world through the children. When I think of what public schools (well possibly not all, but it seems many) are really just great baby-sitting factories. Many children are either raised first by day care, then the public school with tv and computer thrown in. It is odd to me how in a way we have just produced an almost factory like child rearing system of day care/public school/computer tv. Many parents today are of they same system, themselves never having had a more ‘traditional’ system of one parent there at all times.
I think I see this evidenced often in shops when I see the mothers often bargaining or trying to just pacify the child. It is as if they have such little time for themselves that they would rather just give the child something to keep them quiet. Are children even really being raised anymore? I know they are being taught to be good American consumers from an early age, that is for sure and the reinforcement I see of the parents in the stores certainly puts the cherry on the cake, as it were.
Today a teacher could never spank a child. A teacher has almost no power over their student. Most of their lessons, even in later grades, are about trying something ‘fun or entertaining’ to get them to learn. Whatever happened to : sit down be quiet raise your hand if you have a question and listen to my knowledge and then lets test you on it? Obviously somewhere along the lines we abandoned this method and not for a better one when you compare American children scholastically with other countries.
I just wonder if in our perpetual search for fun, entertainment and the need to  ‘get away from the rat race’ if we are not really doing ourselves a disservice. Work has become a dirty word and only has meaning if you go to it for long hours for money. Work, in your spare time, such as art or learning things because you want to better yourself, seems an idea as old as the dinosaurs in 2010. Yet, here in 1956, though I see the conveniences rolling in everyday in magazines and tv, there is still that sense that work, making meals from scratch, entertaining and working hard so your guests are happy and comfortable, working to teach your children and yourself more each day, is still very much apart of our life. Yet, in a decade or so, our children will laugh at our ‘knuckle down and get to work’ attitude and replace that with drugs and ‘freedoms’ which will ultimately result in today with Reality shows glorifying those that chose the road to addiction, as if they are the movie stars, those to be emulated.
Many today would see this high school image and think, “they look so old, what squares” when really I see young ladies and gentleman with reality on the tips of their fingers, ready to go out into a very real world, not an endless contest to be cool and hip and ‘Forever 21’.
So, I guess really this image of the happy well behaved students and the appreciated teacher here in 1956 made me not want to look into my 21st century crystal ball. Today, I think, I will close my eyes to what I know is coming and smile at the little girl in her plaid dress and tin lunch pail with the apple behind her back, anxiously awaiting the smile of her teacher.
I don’t want to know that in my own time the term ‘school girl’ often means this.
Have a good day all.

29 June 1956 “ A Plane Crash That Changed the Way We Fly, Gardens: Victory Garden vs. 50’s Garden, A Green Bag: why not antique?”

A TWA Lockheed Constellation and United Airlines Douglas DC-7 collide in mid-air over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft in the deadliest civil aviation disaster to date; the accident leads to sweeping changes in the regulation of cross-country flight and air traffic control over the United States.
This was a horrible plane disaster and really, for the first time in our growing modern world here in the 50’s, we are faced with the challenges of modern travel. Air traffic patterns are becoming such that we must begin to treat them with the seriousness we have done with the opening of all our highways this decade as well. The world is growing faster and we more restless. Living in your own neighborhood and a 20 mile radius is all but gone. The modern world of travel is upon us.
There is still much debris in the Grand canyon area where this crash took place. Many people today even find such things hiking, but are not allowed to remove it without a permit. This image has an eerie sad quality. What appears to have been a ladies purse over 50 years later among the rocks and debris of the canyon.
Well, when thinking of our mortality one can also think of the future. And no one is more positive of the future than a Gardener. I think someone once said planting a garden is like believing in the future. We plant and plan for that moment when we can cherish and eat our harvest.
I have been both thinking about and doing a lot of gardening lately. Here in 1956 one may find themselves more interested in the ornamental than the productive, at least my magazines seem to portray that. These halcyon post war days are about ornamentation of ourselves, our homes and our yards. Yet, as an older homemaker and a war-bride, I would still make room for the veg and fruit in my garden, I think. Though many wives were probably happy to plant petunias and leave the peas for the grocer to deal with, my own personality tells me I would have held onto some of my Victory garden urges.
If not from the very practical point of view of saving on summer grocery bills, the satisfaction of eating from your own plants would be too much to let go. So, here happy in the boon of the American mid-century, I am still happily cultivating my fruit and veg.
Here we see some proud young boys in their wartime Victory garden.  The importance on the food they are growing (here tomatoes) over the care of ornamental perfection is evidenced in the tall grasses and weeds behind them. When growing is food, we tend to forgo the ornamental somewhat in lieu of providing for the table.
So, on a very basic level we could say 1940’s war time Victory Garden meant: Survival. Lawns and rose beds were given over to veg and fruit. The 50’s Atomic Garden was the host to many new ‘helpful’ chemicals to rid the garden of pests and provide more energy for the biggest blooms and greenest most weed free lawn. The dichotomy of the two can surely serve to aid modern gardens to this: Balance. As in all things, Balance. So, give up some of that lawn, which requires so much water and chemical to some veg or even lovely flowers that are also edible. I have a tea garden started that looks as ornamental as anything, Hyssop, Bee Balm, Lemon Verbena, Chamomile, Echinacea, all of these are beautiful perennial flowers  you can enjoy esthetically. They also have the added benefit of making great tea. Snip the leaves and blooms and steep fresh and also hang to dry come fall and enjoy your bounty through the winter. Herbal teas are not cheap in stores, so grow your own. All of these plants flourish in pots as well, if you only have a deck or terrace or an urban windowsill.
Yet, I too have only ornamental, for what would love be if it were all utility? I adore Hydrangea and as far as I know they provide nothing for the table except exquisite bouquets, but what a joy they are, indeed.
Here are some pictures of my garden thus far. This is a lovely edible lavender variety called ‘Kew Red’ whose blossoms can be added to soup stocks and meat dishes. They smell wonderful, but are not as perfumey in food as a more aromatic sachet type lavender would be.
I adore my little French finger radishes. They grow like the dickens and they are spicy but not so much so that you can’t use that at breakfast time. They are great in omelets and the greens are wonderful in sandwiches and salads. I highly recommend these as they are SO easy to grow and I am on my third planting already, that is how fast they grow and we eat them! And I cannot stop taking photos of them. There is something intrinsically beautiful about them. Here they are with a fresh batch of Snow Peas. These have also been a wonderful crop so far this year. We eat them as fast as they grow and I am going to give over a spot later in the summer to another larger batch of these so that I shall have some left to freeze. So tender and sweet!Here you can see my row of French Runner Beans. They are coming along nicely, but you can see they need a good weeeding. Yet, I have noticed this year my new veg garden is much more about utility than beauty. I think the ornamentation I once sought in the veg garden will find its way back, but now I am all about production and yield.Here you can see my 42 Tomato plants growing. I think these need a new place next year (you should rotate your crops anyway) as this spot does not get enough sun, I think. They seem to be taking longer to bloom than they should be.
The blackberries are ripeningI dug these last summer and brought them from the other house once we decided we were moving back here to stay. These are a thorn less variety that I love and could not find anymore this year. I hope to mail order some next early spring as they are great producers and no thorns! It’s heaven!
here are some of the flowers in my Tea Garden. A lovely Hyssop bloom. Their leaves impart a wonderful licorice/anise scent that I love in teas. I have anise and licorice plants as well. Here is that beauty, Echinacea, that makes a nice calming herbal tea and the blooms are wonderful. There are many varieties now avialable, including a chartruese I would like to try, but this is the old school antique wild version that I felt would be more true to flavor in tea. This is my coveted Bee Balm, which is Bergamot. I have the normal Red Bee Balm that is more common as well, but it is this plant with the lavender flowers that produces the bergamot scent I adore in Earl Grey tea. I will mix this plant with plain black tea I can buy in bulk from our local tea shop to make my own “50’s Lady Grey” tea.
And, of course, for the ornamental, you cannot go wrong with Hydrangea. The soil conditions on Cape Cod are such that the most brillant blue blooms are made. These are just beginning to color, so they are not as vibrant as they will be by the end of July.
And, as I really consider them part of the the Garden, my chicks are coming along nicely.Here you can see they are beginning to resemble little chickens and I am starting to see who is going to be roosters and hens. Those unlucky boys will either make it into my oven or for sale, as they are all more rare ‘blue’ variety of purebred chickens that would be good show quality. So, first they will get their chance to be sold locally to any aspiring 4-H-er who might like a prize Blue Rooster to show next Summer at the Fair. I will do a separate post just about their new home. It has been a few months in the making and been rather an undertaking and is almost done…almost. Come Fall, these little darlings (well the hens at least) will be providing me with all the eggs I can take and more, hopefully.
             I thought I would take a photo of my shopping basket on my latest marketing trip to our local farm. To me, it was just a normal day, but to others they were amused. This is an old 50’s metal and canvas marketing basket that I use often. The day of the farm, there were many people there and as I stood in line, with my vintage basket filled with potted lavender and French tarragon and rosemary, they seemed to love it. Don’t get me wrong, most of the people on the farm had their ‘bring along bags’ but they were a motley assortment of various chain store bags sewn out of that odd plastic type fiber ( I am sure you have seen it almost all stores now offer these for sale, of course the irony being producing more and more bags for people to buy is not really cutting bag on waste-but I digress). The uniqueness of my basket made it look like a ‘magazine display’ one person told me. I thought that true, as I looked at it, but for me it was just a normal marketing day. This got me to thinking how with very little money and effort ( I think my basket cost all of 5 dollars at a junk shop) we could buy old already manufactured items to be our ‘carry all’ bags. But, again, we are a consummer culture. We hear the latest thing is to carry your own bag, so we simply buy the bag. We don’t try to make it or buy something old or use what we may already have. (I know that is not true for most of you, but I am speaking in the terms of the general populace).
So, my point was, here were many people admiring my shopping experience when it would be so easy for them to have the same type of experience. The idea of simple beauty or calm order seems unique and extraordinary and is only commonplace in photo shoots in the home and living magazines of which we cannot get enough. There may be much modern irony in a cluttered home filled with unused plastic items and expensive gadgets then piled with magazines full of images of the ‘perfect home’ as if it is only something to look at in a magazine. Like an animal in the zoo, “Oh, look honey, a coffee table with a neat stack of magazines and no clutter or remotes” “Oooh, look at that, book shelves neatly stacked with books, how novel, no clutter or piles of things”.
I think many of us allow the clutter to become just the normal background noise to our life. I know I have done so. Even now, after a year and a half in the 1950’s, I still have area’s of my life that I am ‘getting to’ to sort and organize. Not until the task begun in January of 55, did I realize what an undertaking it was. The decades of modernity have a heavy price tag both in the cost to our bank accounts as well as to our homes and physical realms. Clutter of mind and home; disorganized thoughts and bank accounts, it all seems common today as milk at the door in glass bottles in the 1950’s.
So, if you feel that in any way, pick a closet or even a drawer today and attack it. Take it all out, sort, donate, throw away or sell and put the money in your pin money jar. Then, the next time you find something cute or lovely in your home you had forgot about, an old basket, maybe the Easter basket you had as a child, woven and tattered, why not use that for marketing? Or if you’re at the yard sale and you see an unloved receptacle of some sort, plop down that quarter and go shopping in style, leave the icky plastic-cloth bags blazoned with the corporate logos on the shelves of the stores where they stand. Being unique and living a lovely life isn’t hard, it just takes a moment to think before you pass that money or debit card over the counter.

28 June 1956 “Cream Cheese and a Bagel, what’s that?”

Though Bagel baking was happening in our country since the Jewish immigrants brought them over to New York, to most of America they were not a normal part of their life. This quote shows the seriousness of bagels early on to the Jewish culture.
The American bagel industry established formal roots in New York between 1910 and 1915 with the formation of Bagel Bakers Local #338. This exclusive group of 300 craftsmen with "bagels in their blood" limited its members to sons of its members. At the time, it was probably easier to get into medical school than to get an apprenticeship in one of the 36 union bagel shops in New York City and New Jersey.
And even though prepackaged bagels first became available in grocery stores in the 1950's (With the introduction of frozen bagels in the 1960's) most consumers did not have a reason to eat a bagel.
This quote from a landlord to a new Bagel shop owner in 1966 says it all about average Middle class America and Bagels, One bagel maker  who opened a bagel bakery in a suburb of Washington, D.C., in 1966, remembers his skeptical landlord nervously questioning, "Who's gonna spend seven cents for one of those things?"
In the early 60’s in New York, Bagels were becoming ‘hip’ to the point that a restaurant called the Hip Bagel was opened by a local prominent restaurateur.
The Hip Bagel was started in the early 60s by a man who became a very prominent New York restaurateur, Shelly Fireman. Mr. Fireman later went on to open Café Fiorello at Lincoln Center, as well as Trattoria Dell’Arte across from Carnegie Hall as well as the Brooklyn Diner and Redeye Grill, Shelly’s New York and Bond 45. Today his restaurants employ more than a thousand people.
This is a sketch from a Hip Bagel Patron by an artist called Schulenberg. He kept sketch diaries for many years and there is an interesting bit of him and the Hip Bagel HERE.
So, what did all we non-Jewish and or non-New York or New Jersy American’s do with all the Philadelphia cream cheese we were buying? Well, here you can see the beginnings of the ‘ad as an article’ in my 54 issue of Better Homes and Gardens. This appears as an article and the recipes are even fold outs that you can cut and fit into your recipe box. Though this is obvious product placement there is still an innocence about this form of advertising compared to what we have today. For, though the recipes clearly say to use Philly brand, you could certainly use whichever you like.
So, get your own favorite brand of Cream cheese and add some vintage spice to your party or your life in general. (click to enlarge images)
And, as always, Happy Homemaking!

27 July 1956 “New Blog Schedule and 1956 Computers”

As I have been rather lax of late in my posts and with continued good advice from some of you, I have decided to try and make an ‘official Blog Schedule’. I simply used to make time each morning as part of my normal home making schedule, but have increasingly found the call of the garden, chickens and my Barn Project (more to come on that) too tempting.
So, my proposed new schedule is to try and post something everyday. On Tuesdays and Fridays I will do my usual rambling photo filled posts. The rest of the week I will simply put up an image or video or recipe etc a single item of interest to us, 1956, the Home and general vintage living. This way, at least, we can keep our conversations and insight going everyday. I know we have the Forum for this as well, but I rather like way our conversations have unfolded in the past on the blog and hope to keep that and rekindle the old ways. (See I am already nostalgic for 1955 and it was only last year! I suppose I am just a hopeless romantic)
Well, then, today (as it is not Tuesday nor Friday) Will be the first simple post. Enjoy, comment and thank you if you are still sticking around.
Hubby emailed me this picture. He said it is a 350 disk Storage unit for IBM. It holds the equivalent of roughly TWO mp3 files! So basically, two songs from your i Pod would fit on this. I looked up the Computer this was associated with and found this interesting film about the IBM computer in 1956. We often forget the impetus for the computer was warfare and protection. This film has that mid-century feel of living with that fear. I suppose when you consider two world wars, people had become used to the idea of their world being taken away rather easily. Ironic, as well, that all the power and work that went into systems to protect or create fear now allows us to bob along to our favorite songs on our iPod or sit and blog about what we had for dinner. Sometimes 1956 seems Centuries away.

Well, there you go. Simple information but I shall try and do so each day. Let’s do discuss, though. The impact of computers on our current life. What do you think our life would be like today if the computer had never been invented? Is our casual use of technology today for entertainment merely a part of our consumer culture, or is it an almost pacifier for us to not think and worry about what is actually happening with technology in the military? Are we any safer than those felt in 1956 or are we just more distracted?