9 June 1957 “Fashion: Ten Years Forward, Ten Years Back, 1947, 1957, 1967”

1947 introduced Dior’s “New Look”. It gave longer and fuller skirts. Nipped in waists and an overall 19th century femininity that had not been seen in ladies fashions since, well, the 19th century.

Though in 1947 most women were still wearing a more general war time 1940’s look.

Now, here in 1957 we have been rather used to the New Look for some time and the silhouette is the same, but the skirts are beginning to rise and we are getting closer to that early 1960’s “Mad Men” look. Though the everyday today is not much different from the New Look. Full skirts, waists accented, trim form fitting sleeves, skirts, jackets and so on.

Yet, in 10 years hence how the look shall change so drastically.
This split skirt or skort is new on the scene. And this lovely teal blue dress is adorable and wearable for any age.
This ad for teen knits seems very modern. The young man could easily walk about today and completely blend in.

We also have 1967 to thank for low rise trousers, or as they were then called “Hip Huggers”. I have to say, if you are Twiggy thin, these are adorable, or if you are a 12 year old girl straight as a pin. However, for the majority of women, this style is the worse. It gives today’s fashion ‘no no’ the “muffin top”. Yet consider, if you will, the joy of that same figure in a 1950’s curvaceous outfit, even a bathing suit.

We seem to have gone back to the 1967 body image today. Even twiggy’s odd angular clumsy child pose seems des rigueur today. Certainly her child-like ultra thin body seems the norm on Catwalks today.
Consider the 1947 New Look.

The model is thin, but with a woman’s body. She is grown up, mature, confident. No put on ‘childishness’ nor feigned innocence. I am not saying one is necessarily better than the other, but I am saying that the overall appearance and therefore ideal to be obtained has changed drastically from 57 to 67. Gone is the role of the mature strong woman, or even the motherly can do it all and we have, instead, the time of the Teen. The epitome of youth, which of course we know is an odd ideal as we are but such youths for a mere five years. Then, we are expected to be quirky innocent self obsessed posing vixens into our 50’s? Can you imagine a grandmother in this outfit, constantly modeling and hoping to be cool?

I have to say I love some of the 67 fashions. The more mainstream looks seem wearable yet quite adorable and certainly a granny or a teen would look lovely in this coat and hat, don’t you think?

Pierre Cardin was a big contributor to the Mod look of 1967. The fun and pop of brigth color and simple line. It has an almost comic book appeal. It is as if having been a part of TV and Pop culture now since the 1950’s, fashion and youth simply live in that colorful moment of TV and Magazine snap shots. Certainly 1967 is a closer to our modern day than 1957. That simply 10 year span could be hundreds of years apart. 1957 to those in 1957 might as well be 1867.

Here is what 1967 Mod fashion thinks we shall be wearing come the year 2000. We often hear talk of interplanetary living by 2000, as the space race lead us to the moon in 1969. However, such dreams seem as distant now as buggy rides in a surrey with a fringe on top.


Any way you slice it, fashion not only reflects societies views as a whole, but most likely helps to form the younger sets view and ideals of what is important. I won’t even begin to guess what these teen jeans pre-destroyed says about our current society or what we consider important.

Well, let’s close with this 1967 moment of Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones singing a duet.

8 June 1957 “Peril On Your Food Shelf: A 1951 Article and the FDA today”

This is an interesting article from one of my 1951 magazines. It is apparent here that such topics with actual facts found themselves even in ‘ladies magazines’. It is also apparent that we expected our government to be out to protect our interest and not just those of big business. The article is quite interesting.

Now, today the FDA is simply peopled with former employees of the large corporations in which they are meant to monitor. Monsanto, whom I have spoken of before, affects many aspects of food from the farm itself to the chemicals allowed to be put in. They set mandates for how farms in the US HAVE to be set up and run (and it is not for the benefit of the animal NOR the human who shall be eating it).

Some interesting facts concerning Monsanto (just one of the many involved in FDA):

This excerpt from a Monsanto newsletter lets us see we should be less concerned about rather we are Republican or Democrat, as it seems it matters little now. It is more about who is in the pocket of what company:

"Agricultural biotechnology will find a supporter occupying the White House next year, regardless of which candidate win the election in November"
- Monsanto Inhouse Newsletter, 2000

This was also from the mouths of Monsanto:

A Monsanto official told the New York Times that the corporation should not have to take responsibility for the safety of its food products. "Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food," said Phil Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications. "Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."

However, the FDA is part of Monsanto and other such companies. For example:

The supreme court judge Clarence Thomas was previously Monsanto’s lawyer.

The once US secretary of Agriculture was on the  Board of Directors of Monsanto's Calgene Corporation.

The once Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto's Searle pharmaceuticals.

“In order for the FDA to determine if Monsanto's growth hormones were safe or not, Monsanto was required to submit a scientific report on that topic. Margaret Miller, one of Monsanto's researchers put the report together. Shortly before the report submission, Miller left Monsanto and was hired by the FDA. Her first job for the FDA was to determine whether or not to approve the report she wrote for Monsanto. In short, Monsanto approved its own report. Assisting Miller was another former Monsanto researcher, Susan Sechen. Deciding whether or not rBGH-derived milk should be labeled fell under the jurisdiction of another FDA official, Michael Taylor, who previously worked as a lawyer for Monsanto.”

I honestly worry about all of us. It matters little what political party we might support or what we think of various issues, but our health is utmost and important to all. I fear we are so distracted, intentionally so, in today’s world with ‘Entertainment’ and gadgets to keep us busy (the baby with the jangling keys while Doctor gives him his shot) to not pay attention to the real problems facing our country. I try not to be political, but when it concerns the home and that main staple of the home, the food we eat, it is best that we throw out party lines and silly squabbles and begin to pay attention to how our food is grown, who decides how we must grow it, and how it is processed and how it is made. What chemicals go into making it from the animal to the laboratory.

Here is a scary list of “natural” product companies associated with Monsanto:

Brand Name(s): Arrowhead Mills, Bearitos, Breadshop, Celestial Seasonings, Earth's Best Baby Food, Garden of Eatin, Health Valley, Imagine Foods, Terra Chips, Westbrae, Millina's, Mountain Sun, Shari Ann's, Walnut Acres Owned By: Hain Food Group Principle Stockholders: Bank of America, Entergy Nuclear, ExxonMobil, H.J. Heinz, Lockheed Martin, Merck, Monsanto, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Walmart, Waste Mangement Inc. Significantly Owned By: Citigroup

I think I will close with this excerpt from the funny 1981 movie starring Lily Tomlin, “The incredibly Shrinking Woman” who finds herself in peril due to all the chemicals in her daily life in the modern suburb.

6 June 1957 “A Can Of Fruit Cocktail”

I am always intrigued by the ‘made from can’ recipes I find in my various magazines. This one caught my eye both by the color and the variety of items made from a simple can of fruit cocktail.

Certainly the can of fruit cocktail is often overlooked by modern people at the local grocery store. Perhaps they still exist simply for the ‘older set’ but I think these recipes actually sound quite lovely, especially the ice cream and the pork skillet.

I have provided the recipe cards here for you to print out and put in your own recipe box or book. I even copied over the little colored images of the product onto the card, so if you refer to it later you will know what the heck a ‘fruit shrub’ is. I hope you enjoy them and let me know if any of you make them. I am going to be trying the shrub and the ice cream this summer as well as the pork skillet.

 

  

Happy Homemaking!

5 June 1957 “Comics and a Shirley Temple for a Sunday Afternoon”

I am busy this weekend with my yard sale and therefore have not had my usual allotted time for my posts. So, I thought I would let you have a 1950 afternoon. Though I believe the Shirley Temple movies were played on Television Saturday Mornings, this Sunday Afternoon you can enjoy one with your Sunday Comic.

Have a wonderful Day, and I shall check in periodically today if I can.

And enjoy Shirley Temple in Curly Top. I cannot embed it here but you can watch the entire movie HERE on ApronTv.

Happy Homemaking.

3 June 1957 “Apron Making from One Yard of Material and Big Plans for my Family Ahead”

I thought I would share these wonderful patterns with you today. After all, the Apron Revolution should provide some good Apron patterns, right?

I think these are darling and rather easy to make. It’s nice, as well, to know you can make them with only one yard of fabric. It would be a great way to use up the rest of those leftover pieces. I was thinking, even if you had 1/2 or 1/4 fabric scraps, you could sew those up to make a yard and that’d make a darling patchwork apron or a contrasting ruffle and waistband/tie. Either way you ‘sew’ it, they will be fun.

I am going to be rather busy this month. We have made some major life decisions around here. We had been toying with the idea of moving and changing our lives again, but the problem with the tenants has sort of pushed us into fast gear.

As many of you know, we are now only in the beginning process with those tenants and they now legally have all of June as well to live there without paying us any rent. This, of course, could stretch out even further but hopefully will not. Thus, we have decided, though we love our antique little house, that with the economy and changing times we are planning on putting this house on the market.

It has mean a lot to me and my family over the years. We have had many happy and sad times here. You may recall, when I made my decision to move back here two years ago, it was very emotional for me. I had to fight many emotional dragons upon my return, come full circle and to acceptance of my Mother’s Alzheimer’s and various other Family situations. We have done much, made gardens and stone walls, put our love back into the place. Yet, we feel, as if we have outgrown the place.

It isn’t that we need a larger home, but we need more room to grow. We haven’t even an acre of land here. And having higher taxes here is also not really wonderful. We know, as I am sure many of my fellow American’s know, hard times they are a comin’. We have most likely only seen the very tip of the Recession or possibly a Depression. We have decided it is best to be in a position of one who owns their house out right. Is not it a situation with two mortgages. With all I have learned of savings, planning, and self sufficiency over the past two and half a years, we are ready to move towards that more.

We are not certain where the place shall be, but we are certain that NOW is the time to sell up. To become as liquid as possible and to prepare for the worse. House and land values will most likely contiue to plummet next year and having sold up and be prepared for that time is a must. When we find the right place, with low taxes, plenty of land that we can buy outright, we will know we have found the perfect final house.

I have been continually wishing to grow more, keep more animals and really grow a small world in which we feel we have some control. To find a new small community and plug ourselves in and help that community to grow. I long to own horses again, and to have bigger gardens. To grow more of our own food, including meat. And, hopefully, to make a refuge for others who want a little break from the pace and insanity of the modern world for little ‘vacations into the past’. We finally feel we are ready for such a move.

So, I hope you continue to come along on my journey. It will truly be an adventure as we haven’t decided where that will end as of yet. Now, however, I am faced with the prospect of putting this house on the market and being my own real estate agent. We are also going to purge ourselves of most of our ‘things’ and really start fresh. We intend to sell, donate, and give away as much as we can so we are not bogged down. As there will be an interim of time between selling and buying again, we cannot drag all our possessions around with us. This allowed me to realize how all these possessions sometimes drag us down with them! It is almost cathartic to realize one can suddenly be free of things. It forces you to take stock and consider what you have that really has value. Those few small family heirlooms. Some treasured books, and so on. The rest is just stuff. And really, the joy of starting fresh with a new place sounds more fun to me anyway. And I can document it and you can come along on our crazy ride with us.

I am also really wanting to have more time and dedicated space to blogging. I have really come to enjoy the things I do here and for here. I would love to add more aspects to it and I think it would be fun to do. Even if I only had 2 or 3 people, the very act of creating and sharing is well worth it.  I have come to realize the value of the thing is in the doing and sharing and not rather one gets praise or cash in return for it.

I hope all have a lovely day and now I am off to do more prep to ready my home for sale and more gardening today. Happy Homemaking.

1 June 1957 “Husband and Wife Budget Tips and Kitchen Design 1957, 1967, and 1977”

I believe I shared these tips once back in ‘55. I think they are a good basic list for a husband and wife to consider. They certainly are valid today, I think.

Today is my hubby’s birthday and he has the day off. We will be spending the day at my MIL and were to have a cook out. Now, however, we are getting severe thunderstorms, so we may have to spend the day indoors.

For today I thought these three images representing 10 year increments would just be fun to see. The Kitchen, In Brown:

1957 (Brown theme)

1967 (brown theme)

1977 (Brown is very popular now in dark woods)

Have a great day and Happy Homemaking.

31 May 1957 “Dungaree Doll and How To Make An Adorable Mother and Child Bunny Dolls from Socks”

These Darling Bunny dolls are easy to make from socks. I have included the pattern today. A great way to either use up old socks or a fun way to use new socks!

Well, Dickie Bennet is singing about a different kind of a doll: a teen girl in dungarees, but its such a nifty ditty, I thought it’d make a great song to accompany you as you make a cute doll out of socks.

What is fun about this song is it mentions a few things teens must have done in the mid 1950’s, such as 1) writing boyfriends initials on jeans 2)wearing old letterman sweaters and 3) making paperclip jewelry.

Enjoy these patterns and if any of you make them, please share your finished results and we can post about them and your results. Simply click on the images and they will enlarge. The second pattern should be printer reader and not need to be increased in scale.

I am going to skip news today as I am not sure if any of you are enjoying it or even reading it really. It takes some time to hunt things down, but if you are enjoying it, let  me know and I shall continue.

Have Fun and Happy Homemaking!

30 May 1957 “Geodesic Dome : Part Two and Memorial Day”

  Today is Memorial Day here in the U.S. We celebrate and honor those who have fought in the military.

Interestingly enough, it was first celebrated by formerly enslaved Black Americans  to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War who had died in the cause of their freedom.  After  World War I  it came to represent and honor those Americans who had died in all wars. After WWII it began to include visiting graves and reflecting on all those in the military, rather they had fallen or not. It also marks the official beginning of the Summer Season. This is particularly felt here where I live on Cape Cod, a summer destination.
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28 May 1957 “Buckminster Fuller and the Geodesic Dome”

Richard Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller was an American engineer, designer, inventor, author, and futurist. He hails from my home state of Massachusetts and had a very colorful youth. He was kicked out of Harvard twice, once for “spending all his money partying with a vaudeville troupe”.
His most famous work is with the geodesic dome, which even garnered names for Carbon molecules known as ”fullerenes”, named by scientists for their resemblance to geodesic spheres.

Though many associate the dome with the earth/natural movement of the 1970’s, Fuller had created these unique forms in the 1950’s. Today I am sharing this article with you on his work from a 1954 Better Homes and Gardens.

I just want to go off topic here for a moment and point out that I loved that a woman’s magazine in the 1950’s thought to include up to the minute news in design and science. How odd to consider a homemaker, a woman to boot, would be interested in science and design. Again, another example of our perceived idea of how women were treated or represented in the 1950s and the actual fact. Compare this with a woman’s magazine of today.
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27 May 1957 “Bad Tenants and Loss of Freedoms”

I would like to apologize for not posting yesterday. As many of you may know, I have been dealing with the worse tenant situation I have ever had. We have a house we rent out for the amount it costs to pay the mortgage. We make zero dollars from it and quite often end up paying more for various things like water and repairs.

Our latest tenants have stopped paying rent two months ago. They have destroyed the house beyond belief. The home reeks of animal waste and the yard has bags of actual garbage as well as an odd array of broken furniture, various appliances in disrepair and more ‘free’ garbage, not bagged. It appears they literally eat, drink, or smoke something and then let it fall where it may.

The last week has been one of talking to lawyers, going to various government offices (where they seem to care very little) and to the local sheriffs office. What I have come to fine, and this is not an exaggeration, as a homeowner/landlord in MA I have NO legal rights to the house. I have to give a 30 day amount of time AFTER they have stopped paying rent. It has to be delivered BEFORE the last of the month it gives as the final month. It has to be signed for by the tenant by certifies mail (which I paid for) BUT if they do NOT accept the letter and go pick it up. That counts as their NOT having it! I couldn’t believe that, because obviously they have done this before.
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