21 & 22 February 1955 "Servants and Sewing"

21 February 1955: A Coy Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI), who arrived in Bermuda in 1954, paraded for HRH Princess Margaret in Hamilton.

22 February 1955 :British aircraft carrier Ark Royal sets sail. The new aircraft carrier was part of the new "Audacious class" aircraft carrier and were a class of ship proposed by the British government in the 1930s - 1940s. The Audacious class was originally designed as an expansion of the Implacable class with double storied hangars. However, it was realised that the hangar height would not be sufficient for the new aircraft that were expected to enter service, so the design was considerably enlarged and commissoned now in 1955.

In the New York Tims of 22 February 1955 there is an article on the inadequate car for the sick and aged. It discusses the problems of the 'senile' (which of course we know today to have dimentia or alzheimers). It looks as if most nursing homes and facilities were reluctant to take them. Again, much as today, the middle class seem to be the most affected. The article states:

"Wealthy families can hire companions or nurses and keep the patient at home...If the family is supported by welfare funds, or demostrably unable to pay for the care of teh senile relative public agencies will assume all or part of the burden...The average, self-supporting, middle-income family, however, finds it virtually impossible in New York City to solve the problem of long-term custodial care for a senile relative in a way commensurate with its pride and self-respect...Fees at a nursing home (if they are willing to take the patient) fees will be at least $150 a month for bed, board and nursing care alone. Medical care when needed will be billed separately."

So, for a middle class family that cost would be equivalent to $1, 187.00 today. I do know, however, that here in New England (2009) that cost is around $6000.00 a month. Both of these cost factors whether 1950s or now show what a heavy burden on the middle class. It is unfortunate, as the family may show that they have the money to pay, it wouldn't account for possible children to put through college, or the mere fact of needing their own nest egg. I am not sure why it always seems, since the Great Depression in this country, the heaviest tax burden and cost seems to always fall on the middle class. Very sad and unfortunate.

This was a rather nice Sunday morning as I had Gussie in. While she was working away in the kitchen, I was at the sewing machine. She was humming away in the kitchen, the clang and clatter of the pans mingled with Ruth Brown on the 'radio'. I had my sewing machine whirring and clattering along; fabric and pattern pieces spread out on the Dinning room table. (My sewing room is not even close to being usuable.) The dogs wandered in and out of the two rooms wondering who was most likely to drop a scrap of food. Hubby was slumbering away in bed, his day to sleep in. The sound of my small industry, the song of Ruth Brown, the smell of coffee and sausage all of it seemed rather normal to me. I had to stop and think, "Two months ago this would not really be happening."

Now it seems normal of a Sunday to have a large breakfast set before us by Gussie followed by her turning back into our friend and having a nice conversational breakfast. After breakfast we all help 'Gussie' clear the table and then hubby is off to his study and I to my sitting room.

Now, the cacophony of sounds include the rain, Doris Day and the random high-pitch squeal that the ole' Kirby as Gussie cleans. The Kirby will call out sometimes with a great ear-splitting squeal, as if it is giving out its great YELP to the heavens; calling to any old unloved vacuums to awaken from their slumber. It is funny to hear the normal jet engine noise of the Kirby punctuated by this screech followed by Gussies, "Oh my goodness, this thing is loud!"
Our relationship with Gussie as a servant is an interesting aspect I would love to study more. Gussie and I joke around and help each other out. Now, it is true that Gussie is actually my friend (so we are comfortable with one another)but I think had I a real Gussie in 1955 she would most likely have been with us since my marriage. She would have probably been released during the war time for war work ( I am including a funny article about this from my 1944 magazine) However, I am certain she would have returned with the wars end. I think the laughter we have while she is cooking up breakfast and I try on my half finished dress to get her approval would have happened. Also, as a middle class woman I would have helped her with meals and cleaning. She would not have been a servant in the upper class since of the world. I would not ring bells for her to come and 'wait on me'. A sort of commaraderie between the maid and the housewife would have been the norm I think. It is too bad this no longer exists, as my friend has stated that she wished what she did with and for us was her actual job, as she likes it. I am certain there would be people out there who would have been happy to live in and help out a wife and in a sense be a part of their family. A relationship one would not normally have with their boss and it would result in a friendly excahange. I think as with all things of the past, most people want to deem it bad. As if it no longer exists it must be a bad thing. When, really, I think there must have been many happy 'Gussies' who enjoyed their family, and got much satisfaction (as do I) from a clean kitchen and a nice meal. She would have recieved gifts on birthdays and chirstmas, and been, all around, another memeber of the family. This relationship between the middle class and their 'servant' would be an interesting project in and of itself.

It appears that the middle class servant was often the 'boss' of the house, yeilding a power over the family members in an almost reversal of boss/employee position. Probably not unlike a bossy great aunt or some similiar relative. She is responsible for the cleanliness and running of the house WITH the housewife and won't stand for any nonsense from the husband or the children. I love the little 'song' the husband sings in this story from my 1944 House Beautiful about their Maid, Gertie:

Gertie's gone to war,

And that's the final straw.

She ran the joint,

And here's the point-

Her word's no longer law!

Now, onto my sewing: Contrary to what I think some of my readers think, I have not really been much of a seamstress before. I have made a dress here and there in the past but with no regularity or feverent need as I do now. I have never had an official class to learn how to sew nor had I anyone (including my mother) to show me how to do it. At university in my early twenties I found my vintage machine I now have and managed a few things here and there, but it has been some time since I have really sewn. So, now I am slowly learning to address the patterns and their strange language much the way I am becoming increasingly familiar with the language of the cook book.This was one of the exciting bits, as with the cooking/baking, that I was looking forward to accomplish from this years project.
I think a woman of my class in the 1950s would have sewn. I am sure I would, as I do now, have had 'store bought' things here and there. I have my new fur coat. I would most likely have a few nice suits and some evening clothes I would buy on a shopping trip to the city, but to get a stylish wardrobe while not being wealthy, sewing would have been rather necessary. So, I am trying to become acquainted with it. Here I am again, faced with cram sessions on things of which a true 1955 housewife would most likely have had experience. I mean if not learning from a relative I would have had Home Ec in high school and most likely University level as well.

So, I think I will start documenting my progress more to share with all of you. Here is the pattern I am using now to make a dress. I am starting with the red number as its sleevless scooped neck top seems the simplest for me to get a handle on. I think if it turns out well, it can be a very good all around base pattern for me to add to here and there as my skill increases.

Here is the fabric I am using. It is not vintage (as I have ordered some vintage fabric but do not want to cut it up until I get better at my sewing). I think it has a pretty vintage feel, however. It is a simple cotton.

Here is how far I am as of this morning. ( Gussie took the pic for me and believe you me you would be glad I cut off my head in the pic, curlers no makeup does not make for a fun vintage photo!) You can see the top is not finished. I have not lined it but am going to instead pipe the neck and sleeves with bias tape. The bottom is also not yet hemmed. I am also holding it on myself as the zipper is not installed yet. These things will happen today.
I am using a vintage zipper, however. My vintage friend gave me this one! Don't you love the images on the back of the women. I am not sure exactly the date of this zipper but you can see from the clothing on the women on the back it looks at least late 1950's. I am going to attempt to make many of my future clothes ( as my skill increases) with vintage fabric and notions, so even if they are not actually vintage per se, they at least are made as vintage as possible.

Today's Sunday bake is going to be a pie. I think this one sounds rather yummy. I will post a pic and let you know how it turned.

I like that this pie breaks the class barrior as it "the choice of males whether they work in the office or the out of doors". A very diplomatic and delicious pie. And if you do not want to make your own crust I am certain this would be lovely in a premade frozen crust. Or, better yet, why not make your own crust in bulk and freeze a few for that busy day when hubby calls and an important client is to come to dinner, or unexpected guests drop by!

20 February 1955 "My Walden"

My illness has lead me to spend my 'busy time' during the day, when I would have been ironing or baking or cleaning in reading. I, by chance, picked up Walden (Henry David Thoreau) and suddenly felt akin to him.

" I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

He, in the middle of the 19th century is faced with the ever and vastly changing modern world. Trains, Science, and Industrialization is changing the face of the world. He chooses to, in the words of Robert Frost, to take the 'road less travelled'.
I, on some level, have left that bustling modern world behind; only my Walden is the Home. The lapping shores of the pond is the rhythmic music of the laundry. The streams and valleys to traverse and contemplate in fields, are my rooms in my home. The dinning room, laid out quiet and waiting, the flowers set in their moment of peak bloom upon the freshly ironed linen, the plates solitary and quite awaiting the voices of guests. These are my birdsong. My open field. My quiet yet turbulent nature.
Am I living a modern Walden? Has the domesticity of the home become as fleeting and likely to disapear as the beauty and quiet of nature in the fastly changing industrial revolution of Thoroueas time? Walden was published almost exactly 100 years before my experiment (1854). What will be the Walden of 2055?

"This small lake was of most value as a neighbor in the intervals of a gentle rain-storm in August, when, both air and water being perfectly still, but the sky overcast, mid-afternoon had all the serenity of evening, and the wood thrush sang around, and was heard from shore to shore."

Though I have a small man made pond in my yard and I live walking distance to a salt marsh and but 2 miles from the seashore, my neighbor is not these waters, though they have often called and consoled me. My POND is my home. My neighbor, when there has been none, has become my house. Which, for my loving it, has started to become my Home.
I have felt a return embrace from my home. I have listened, quiet as the washer spins or the water whistles in the kettle, to its song. There has been a hush when I am alone and the house is quiet, save the movements of my dogs upon the little sofa in my sitting room, or the crick cracking of seeds from my parakeet. When I have stopped, sweated from the fury of the clean, in the midst of my kitchen, the heart of my home, I have seen it's glisten on the countertop, the shine of its floor as the calm of the water. The smile back from this neighbor, this friend, this child and parent rolled into one, this building: This HOME, has sated me.
Others may and will scoff at such a statement. They might say that the folded ironed linen is the shackles which bind me. That the broom and dust pan, the signs of my submission, but I say to that: these are not shackles but the bird song and fresh smell of Thoreua's nature. They are not a prison but a new kind of freedom of the home. The freedom Thoreau had in leaving his society, stepping outside of his present day norm of the vastly changing modern world into the open air is no different from my own. His separation from his now was not bondage but freedom. He made a choice to return to the 'old ways'.
I am sorry if I am waxing so poetic this post, but these days of contemplation have really got me to find a new level in my housewifery. I was not able to blindly dash through the house in some great struggle, "the war against the dust and the grease", which I had here-to-fore considered it. I was wrong. I am not in battle with my house, I am in sync with it! Having chopped at the forest and hacked at the ground I have stopped and listened to it. The quiet. The organic movement of it. There is dirt and animals and smells and sounds in this house. It has lived for my being in it and on its own. I am no longer attacking it daily with my sword of broom and vacuum, forcing it to wear the clothes I pick for it that day, but stopping and listening. It is funny how so often just stopping and doing nothing, the mere cessation of an act, often brings such clarity such realizations.
My illness and subsequent 'giving in' to what I had percieved as the enemey: my house and it's encroaching dirt, I have become to see as my ally. It has embraced me. When I allowed my eye to wander from the dust bunnies under the sofa and the crumbs on the kitchen floor to the window sill where the sun lay warm and dappled. The unpainted fence in the front was no longer taunting me for its not having been yet painted, but its beauty of weathered wood and the dance it was making with the dry crips brown embrace of the Clematis and Hydrangea. It held me and my dogs in a quiet embrace on the sofa as I read. It gave me the entertainment of the snow falling through its glass eyes and protected me from the wind and rain that followed, holding me in its bed and warmth of covers.
I urge any of you homemakers to take this advice: Just stop for a moment. Put down that broom, set aside that rag, turn off that tv and listen. Find a spot in your house and listen to it. Let go of the dust bunnies and the impending meals and piling laundry and listen. Can you hear that? It is the sound of your closest friend. The pal that is alwasy with you. Yes, sometimes it is a naughty child, hiding dust in all its crevices and that sock that you were sure had a mate in the laundry, but its rebellion is your voice too. You help to make and shape it, much as a mother does a child, and we love a child even when it is naughty. Even if your dwelling is not your own and if it is a one room flat, it is your home. It can be your home. The outter layer of your thoughts, hopes and dreams. Only, don't pin too much on it. Give it a break. The pair of you can rest and listen together. There is plenty of time to brush and spit polish it to be ready in its sunday best, but leave it off for now and sit and listen to your 'neighbor' your silent friend, your Home.

"Direct your eye right inward, and you'll find
A thousand regions in your mind
Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be
Expert in home-cosmography."

In Walden there is a quote I think most pertinent to those who made up that time of the post war ear. We may yearn for it, wax nostalgic or hate and dispise it, whatever opinion we have of those in the mid twentieth century, we have to acknowledge that they took nothing and made something. They saw hope when hope had been lost. Their world, their youth and childhood, had been bleak, their families had been touched by death in so many ways. Wants and needs became like companions to them, as they were so often with them. This quote sums them up for me and also is the best advice for anyone living anywhere in ANY time:

"However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names."

And though the 1950s is so often painted as a time of conformity, you have to realize at the time it was not conformity. It was a break from the past. The ideas, the art, the architecture, even civil rights were all born out of this time. They had to work at it each day to change and make a new world. It was not perfect, but is anything of real beauty ever perfect? Is not the failings what we learn from and make a better way?

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

I think these famous words of Rober Frost are fitting here. I am sorry if this post contains no photos nor recipes nor specific facts, but I think these realizations are as true to 1955 as to 2009 and 2055.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference"

I am not sure where this road is leading me, but I am glad that I have taken it. I am glad to be honored to meet those of you who I have along the way and I hope to meet more. Thank you for coming along on my journey.

17 February 1955 "Tv, Sewing Machines, Patterns, Etiquette, and Chocolate Chippers"

I thought the news for today could be an example of my 1955 tv viewing. Luckily these things are available in their entireity sometimes. It makes the viewing much more realistic and genuine.

This show from 1955 is in its entirety and you can see how commercials were more about sponsering the whole show. The total price of that singer sewing machine they advertise is equivalent to about $1100.00 today and the down payment of $15.00 makes it about a $100.00 payment. But when you consider all you will do with it for your family and home ,this machine is as important as your icebox or Kirby (or Hoover)! I think the story is really sweet and not to give away the end, what a darling conclusion, I think this story today would end very differenlty. Let me know what you think of it.

If anyone is interested in this particular sewing machine, here is one for sale today on ebay. It is much cheaper now then, then. http://cgi.ebay.com/SINGER-221-FEATHERWEIGHT-SEWING-MACHINE-CASE-1955_W0QQitemZ380103947609QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item380103947609&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1307%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

This lady looks like she was surprised while busy as a bee in her little sewing room. I have a similar version

of that lamp that I just bought at our local tag sale except mine also has a telescoping magnafying glass. I have not begun the project of kitting out my new sewing room. I cannot wait to be rid of this cold, as I am chomping at the bit to get to my projects and to get on top of my household chores again.

As I said, $1,100.00 is a lot for a sewing machine, but when it is such an integral part of the homemakers life, you can see why. Not only yourself and your families wardrobe would recieve the diligence of your creativity and your Singer, but your decor as well. This is a great layout of how best to make a slip cover for a chair. I am glad they use a wing chair in the example, as I have quite a few of these I would like to recover. I think it ingenious the use of the zipper at the back to hold in taut.

If anyone is interested in trying this pattern let me know and I can post the details that go with the chart I pictured.

Don't you love the pride on her face in the last photo. My experienced eye can also make out how well her girdle is helping her to achieve her lovely figure.

Actually, that chair and the striped fabric, if it were in pink and white, would look a treat in my fantasy sewing room. It is the one room I am going to be frilly and pink.

While we are on the subject of sewing and patterns I need to say that I love
my 1955 version of the mail order catalog: ebay. I was looking at Sewretro's blog today and she had this pattern and had made the dress, only her pattern number was torn off and didn't know what year/number it was. One of her commentors knew the pattern number and posted it. I saw it, went to ebay, typed in the number and there it was just waiting for me! It was only 4.99 plus shipping. This is gonna be perfect as I really need a good easy servicable pattern for a day dress. This will be nice for cleaning in and can go over my pajamas in the morning instead of my robe for breakfast with hubby. It is from 1953 so it fits in there as well. Thanks sewretro and thanks ebay, This little devil is on its way! By the end of this year, I may have to just go into 1956 as my closets will be full of nothing but vintage. Ahhh, what a loverly thought, eh ladies?

As I have been ill, which I am sure you are all sick of hearing (pun intended!) I thought I would muster up enough energy to make a good all-around yummy cookie. I was really craving a comfort food today and this fit the bill. Also,

tonight is a Gussie night, as my cleaning has been falling behind, so I thought a plate of these and some coffee would be a welcome treat for her after she sees the present state of the kitchen. Perhaps after cleaning up the mess it took to make these little lovelies, the dishpan hands won't seem as bad with these melting in her mouth.

I used to make my chocolate chip cookies with butter, but this vintage recipe from my much used cookbook, uses shortening, so I figured I should too. Here is my secret to making these extra wonderful. Follow the above recipe but add to it 1/4 tsp. of Almond extract and instead of the nuts had 1/2 cup of coconut. Then, after spooning them onto the cookie sheet with a teaspoon, press coconut into the top of each. This will get toasted to perfection as the cookie bakes. Put them in a 375 degree oven for ONLY 10 minutes. I know they will look doughy, but when you take them out they continue to cook, but will remain soft for days. These are sure to please anyone's sweet tooth. I may make a batch of these as my 'bring along treat' when our new neighbors eventually move into their new house. A nice casserole to be heated and a batch of these cookies, if they aren't my friends or at least good neighbors after that, then maybe I won't want to know them!

I think I will finish today with some etiquette from my 1955 "Home Makers Guide". This section starts off with a good little quote from Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe known as Lady Mendl was an American interior decorator, nominal author of the influential 1913 book "The House in Good Taste,"and a prominent figure in New York, Paris, and London society. During her married life, the press usually referred to her as Lady Mendl. She would have been known of in 1955 still.

"Be pretty if you can, witty if you must, but be agreeable, if it kills you!"

Here are some tips. These are only a few and I will list more in later blogs when the mood hits or if anyone requests more.

A man always walks on the outside whether he is with one or two women.

Keep your hands to yourseld. Do not poke or hudge, or fondle publicly.

Don't "put on" just because you are at a party. Be "yourself" at all times. This eliminates the crooked little finger when drinking tea or coffee.

Well, these are todays sage words of advice, now go out there and homemake!

16 January 1955 "Old Folks, Nursing Homes, Girdles, and Patterns"

February 16 - Nearly 100 die in a fire at a home for the elderly in Yokohama, Japan.

This was appropriate news, as I have been thinking on how we treat and care for our elderly lately, particularly as I have been to a nursing home a few times in the past month.

A 1952 nursing home fire in Hillsboro, Missouri had claimed the life of 20 nursing home residents, and the impact of two major nursing home fires in five years stimulated the Missouri legislature into action. They met the day after the Warrenton fire and immediately introduced a bill to require sprinkler systems in all nursing homes and other institutions in the state.

We were talking the other day, after having visited a nursing home on a few occasions, how odd it is the way we treat the two main aspects of life: Birth and Death. We stick women in hospitals as if they are suffering an illness to do probably the most natural thing. I know, obviously, it makes sense in case something arises. With our aged, we stick them in places very much like hospitals, treating age not with dignity and respect, but with the aniseptic gloves of hospital care. I am not sure when old age became less revered and more feared or tolerated. I do see that with the advances we are gaining in medicine here in 1955 that it is really beginning to be the first time ever that the population of aged or old people is occuring. We, then, our left with what to do with them.

Really, the nuclear family of mother father and children really begins now, in the 1950s. Prior to this it would have been normal to have extended members of the family, grandma, grandpa, old aunt ruth etc living with you. They provided child care and knowledge to youngsters. And they recieved companionship and a feeling of belonging. I am not really sure if it was just the boom in housing after the war which produced so many small houses. This allowed people to get 'out on their own' and not be dependent on their families. But, it is odd how that dependency went from our families to the state and other institutions like mortgages to banks and increased taxes. Maybe the increase of childbirth in the new small houses meant no room for grandma or grandpa or they didn't want to give up the old farm to live in a small suburban box, I don't know. We also have the role of wife and homemaker really being defined now, and the concept of it being shared with an aging parent or grandparent somehow did not fit into the scheme. Maybe it was a subconscious feeling of the old at this stage representing all that they were trying to forget after the war: "The Old Way". I honestly don't know, but you really begin to see the nursing home as hospital take shape now in the 1950s.

The care of the elderly is all tied up with Social Security in this country which began in the 1930's. There were countless changes to Social Security over the years. In 1950 domestic labor, household employees working at least two days a week for the same person were added to the list of those who were eligible and thus had to pay into Social Security. In 1955 an interesting thing happened. This list of those eligible, thus those who had to pay, was added self-employed farmers. They had not been required previously to do so before. This affected one group in particular: the Amish. I think this is a rather interesting story:

"The Amish were faced with a problem, as they thought they should obey the law and pay their taxes and get along with the government and outside world, they saw this tax as violating their religious beliefs and refused to pay. This brough on a clash between them and the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). There was a general outcry form the public regarding this. It culminated in 1961 an IRS agent toon an AMish man's horses after he had refused to pay the tax for some years.

The result of all of this lead to a 1965 waiver granted for self-emplyed persons belong to any religious sect that found the system contrary to their beliefs free to not pay, but interestingly enough by 1989 Kray Bill will make it only sepcific to the Amish as they didn't want any other group to get out of paying the tax.

I really think all of this ties into the concept of how we treat the elderly. I just think that taxes are good sometimes, but when we allow the government to become our nanny and we just throw money at it and wait for it to solve the problems, we often end up giving up more of our individual rights and freedoms. I think this leads to a loss of alot of what people like me are finding we long for, the 'old way of life', which is really just a time in which we respected old people, didn't revere youth, were couteous and kind and cared for our families. I don't want to sound preachy, but it seems that here in 1955 I keep seeing our trying to make a new world of happy family life and kindness to others after the hate and destruction of war, and yet we are really beginning the processes that ultimately sacriface what we care for and are working to preserve.

On a lighter note on this subject, our trip yesterday to the nursing home was at first sombre and meloncholy. One can only imagine the sadness in such places, if you have not been.

As we walked down the corridor, which had to be reached through a series of doors with codes you have to punch into little pads of numbers (not unlike a prison, perhaps) we were greeted with endless rooms with old people in various stages of neglect. Their aniseptic rooms and beds I am sure where germ free, but what a cold unfeeling place to exist. As we passed one door, a woman laid half-uncovered, straining to get out of her bed, her thin bare leg dangling sadly from the side. "Help me, Someone help me!" She cried out. I kid you not, that was her only plea. The few workers we saw in the hall ignored her and we too, looking in, realized what could we really do. We had to pass on. I felt so inhuman at that moment.

As our visit continued, once we were seated in a large aniseptic room rimmed with the aged and sad, we tried our best to lighten the mood. I tell you that a smile on a face in such a setting is like the explosion of your heart, it gives one the feeling of a thousand christmas mornings all in one. To see any happiness in that setting is such a contrast.

So, my hubby and my friend (Gussie though she was not Gussie at that moment) are sitting with me trying to make smiles in such a setting. We started singing old songs, which we have come to know so well in the past two months, and others would join in. So, in the midst of the sadness, laughter always seems to help. It is that moment of human foilble that makes us smile and forget ourselves. Here is what happened. Now, I was dressed rather smartly. I had on a fitted wool jacket over a vintage white thin sweater, neck scarf, matching tweed skirt. It was a straighter skirt, so I did not have on my usual crinolin. I was also wearing a new open bottom girdle I had just got and really like. It was a little shorter than usual. In my fevered preparations of the morning, I had forgot to put on my full slip. I am not sure how many of you have worn an open bottom girdle and stockings, but it is like wearing a tight little skirt under your clothes. As I was sitting my skirt, as it had no slip to protect it, had slid up under the bottom of my girdle. When I stood to use the restroom, I turned and walked a bit, feeling proud of my chic attire, when I realized the back of my skirt felt odd, a bit bucnhy. I turned, caught Gussie/friend's eye and quickly tugged at the back. I am certain I looked hilarious or comical. Gussie/Friend's eye twinkled and those around me smiled. After the first flush of embarrasment, I had to laugh. We all ended up laughing and discussing the foibles of girdles an such. It was such a human moment. In the midst of sadness and even our own feelings of immortality, which such a place certainly elicits, we laughed. It made us realize, we are all on this same ride together. Happy or sad, health or illness, sometimes all you can do is laugh. And laugh we did.

When I came home I crashed and my hubby put me to bed. He brought me tea and managed dinner for himself, as I couldn't think of eating.

I have found out, yesterday and today, how important a housewives role really is. I have been ill this past week, but had managed to really just feel run down but not actually get as sick as my hubby. That changed yesterday when I awoke feeling miserable, sore throat, hard to speak and exhausted. We had already made important family plans that really could not be broken (that involved the nursing home I mentioned earliers) so I had to get up and get ready.

At first I dreaded my girdle and stockings etc and wanted to just stay in my nightgown in bed. But, I do have to say after making myself get up as I knew it was important for me to go, I felt better. I think I paid for it later in the afternoon when we got home. But, I sat at my vanity, fastened my stockings, put on my face, adjusted my hat etc and by the end of it I felt good enough to go out into the world. I really felt for my pre 1950's self, where I would not have thought of myself but for the country and the men fighting over there. It is good to care and think of yourself, but sometimes you have to just pull yourself up, brush yourself off and get going.

So, today I awoke feeling equally as bad and began to get up, as I usually do, to prepare breakfast and get lunch together etc. This is when I would really enjoy Gussie being a full time live in person, but no such luck. As was probably the case with most 1955 housewives, I had to face it myself. My husband insisted I stay in bed, so I tried, but as I heard him getting ready and such, I just couldn't rest. I thought, really I need to go to work today. And that is the thing with being a housewife, you are always AT work. You live and dwell withing your work environment, so I got up, against my husbands protests, and made us bacon and eggs, packed his lunch and honestly the smell of the coffee helped to perk me up. Then he left for work.

Here I am now, alone. There is no one to bring hot tea and soup to the housewife. I could go to bed, but I have no Gussie to ring for, so I would sit there alone waiting for my tea and soup forever. Today is also wash day, and the hampers are full of clothes awaiting me. The kitchen is littered with my ill-attempts at breakfast. I am proud of myself, as I did not even think of using the microwave. I did notice that my husband was thoughtful enough to load up the 'new' dishwasher last night, but when I reached to get clean dishes for breakfast he had forgot to turn it on. Another moment where I realize how much I really do do to keep this house running throughout the day.

When I, the captain and crew of this ship, falls ill, the whole place goes to pot. Again, I have no one to turn to. I could, as would most likely normally do, just leave everything until I feel better, but honestly, my husband goes to work when he is ill unless he cannot stand. I can stand. This house is my work. It is my career. I don't feel like I can go on and on about how I am finding homemaking to be a career and then at the first sign of not feeling well, throw in the towel. I need to do as much as I can and I will feel better when I rest later, knowing the kitchen is clean the laundry is in progress and dinner is ready to pop in the oven. I owe it to myself, the house, my husband, and all the homemakers who have gone before me to buckle down and get to it. Get the job done!

As I have said before, it is funny how quickly routine becomes natural. Here it is not even two full months into this project, and I do feel like I really NEED to make sure dinner is planned, laundry is done, rooms are clean, beds made. I feel, probably more than I have before, that I have taken on this challenge and need to see it through. I am also scheduled to go to tea this afternoon with some friends who are leaving to return home to another state. I need to just focus on not letting others down and get through it. I have nothing on tomorrow, excpet ironing and basic cleaning, so I will rest up then.

On the subject of homemaking here are some great little tips from my latest homemakers manual. I think they are little gems:

For better flavor add a pinch of salt to coffee as it is being brewed.

Rinse a pan in cold water before scalding milke to prevent sticking.

A cake which sticks to the pan may be loosened by placing the tin over a bowl of boiling water (this works wonders, as I have tried it!)

If bacon moulds, sponge witha a clean cloth dipped in vinegar (this was probably a leftover from the meaner times of the war when everything had to be saved)

If lemons are put in the oven a few minutes before they are squeezed. more juice will be obtained from them.

After frosting cakes, dip a knife in hot water and smooth over the frosting to make it glossy (this also works nicely, as I have done this as well!)

Now, onto the sewing room:

I just recieved 6 yards of this wonderful vintage dress fabric. The scan does it little justice, as it is a lovely brownish gray, which is not showing up, but the little designs are threaded into is and raised. I want to make a full skirted dress with short sleeves to wear all seasons, as it would look pretty with a cardigan in cold weather, or good in summer with sandals.

I really needed some good serviceble skirt patterns. These are two 'new' patterns I just recieved. They are actual vintage patterns, so I will have to be careful measuring and making sure that I plot out my actual size compared to the size of clothes then. They are both from 58, so I know that's not quite right, but I can just make the skirts a little longer and they will be appropriate. I love the little kick pleat on the gray tweed skirt. And the Vogue skirt looks a dream to make, it looks rather simple, actully. I think using a quilted fabric edged in bias tape would really look nice with this pattern. What do you think?

Well, I need to get back to work. Laundry to do. I need to give myself time to set my hair and pick out my clothes for tea this afternoon. A housewifes day is a busy one.

Until tomorrow...

14 February 1955 "Happy Valentines Day"

Just a quick one tonight as we have plans tonight in the city.

I just wanted to show off one of my two valentines day gifts from my darling hubby. This wonderful vintage fur coat! He won't tell me where he found it, but I love it! I am wearing it out tonight to dinner and the theatre.




I made this shot like a colored black and white photo. I am wearing my mother's pearl earrings and one of my new hats. I also am wearing a new pair of vintage inspired shoes that I LOVE!

Let's just say the theme today is love.

Oh, the second 'gift' is a new dishwasher. Not really, it is the one that already lives in our kitchen, but hubby said it would have been a good valentines day gift and he is right. I was looking for the right time to start using it and this is it!

Also, a quick story about what I love about 1955 compared to 2009: Garters and stockings! The other day I didn't have any clean stockings and I had to go out, so I broke down, reached into the hidden recesses of my lingerie drawer, where the 21st century items have been stashed and pulled out a pair. They are horrible. They pinck and slide down. At one point, in the grocery store, I was sure they were about to plop down to my ankles. I am sure, ladies, you know what I mean. I am quite tall and this has always been a horror for me, finding nylons long enough for comfort, but with stockings, they stay put and leave one free and easy, yay 1955!

Here is a list from one of my 'new' home books that seem like really good ideas.

SO, I will leave these with you to think upon on this fine Valentines Day evening.






Until tomorrow, then, Happy St. Valentines Day!

12 & 13 February 1955 "Colds, orrespondence and Carrot Cake"

Here is the New Yorker cover from Feb. 12 1955. Darling, I think.

This is a photo of former president Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess at the future Truman Library site.

Truman returned to Independence, Missouri to live at the Wallace home he and Bess had shared for years with her mother. His predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had organized his own presidential library, but legislation to enable future presidents to do something similar still remained to be enacted. Truman worked to garner private donations to build a presidential library, which he then donated to the federal government to maintain and operate—a practice adopted by all of his successors.

Once out of office, Truman quickly decided that he did not wish to be on any corporate payroll, believing that taking advantage of such financial opportunities would diminish the integrity of the nation's highest office. He also turned down numerous offers for commercial endorsements.

Can you imagine a president today saying no to continuing to recieve a salary. He was quite penniless and was able to make a book contract on his life and times which would come out this year. Thought the deal was for 670,000 dollars, after taxes and other payments he was left with about $37,000.

President Eisenhower sent the first U.S. military advisors to South Vietnam, to train an army under Ngo Dinh Diem. I didn't realize how early on our involvment with Vietnam had begun.

"The Geneva Conference (May 8 – July 21, 1954) was a conference between many countries that agreed to end hostilities and restore peace in French Indochinaand Vietnam. It produced a set of treaties known as the Geneva Accords, signed on behalf of France by Pierre Mendès-France and of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam by Pham Van Dong.

The State of Vietnam referendum of 1955 determined the future form of government of the State of Vietnam, the nation that was to become the Republic of Vietnam. It was contested by Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem, who proposed a republic, and former emperor Bao Dai (Bao Dai had abdicated as emperor in 1945 ) "

It appears the struggle between these two leaders will later lead us into the war in vietnam which so characterized the late 1960s. I often wonder, had we not been in such an odd war/police action would we have held more close to the ideals of the 1950s? Without the disillusionment of the ill-fated Vietnam crisis, would the divide of youth and adult represented by the government have happened?

What a year 1955 is turning out to be!

Now, onto other things:

I am still recovering from my cold all the while helping hubby to get over his. I have to say that having him home all day to clean up after and feed (he was unable to really get out of bed) made me realize how much more a child would add to your day. Now, I am not saying my husband is acting a child (in fact is overall a good patient) nor am I equating a few days of a sick husband to the constant demands of a child, but it did make me think. Here I am, running about trying to do my usual day, which I am usually alone in doing or having Gussie to put on a task, and I found myself trying to play catch-up all day. I continued to lose my normal order of things on top of also feeling ill myself. A routine one can follow when in the house alone compared to the unexpected happenings when one has someone there to care for is like night and day. How ANYONE could say being a housewife is not a job needs to walk in the shoes of one for a week to see how much you actually do!

Here is hubby yesterday. He was feeling well enough to use one of his vintage typewriters in bed. You can see how I was unable to keep the room tidy with papers strewn about and medicine bottles and typewriter cases. Though, the comfort of my hubby is far more important the tidyness of our room or the neatness of the bed. (On an interior design level, I do want to get some vintage bedspreads. I was happy to see the dark brown the walls I painted was actually a color available and popular in 1950s interiors, particularly if I want to have an 'early american' theme. You can just see the corner of the white and orange boudoir chair. I love this chair, it is in the style of a Louis XV Bergere. I will address the bedroom decor in a future blog)

While out on my errands this afternoon I was excited to recieve two lovely letters from readers in the mail! It is so exciting, as I cannot actually remember the last time I recieved a letter in the mail. Everything is email and you do find yourself keeping up with people more, but at the same time, the excitement of the letter in the post cannot be denied.

It was a ray of light in my busy day in my fog of illness. I had to get my marketing done, go to the post, get more medicine for hubby, drop some things off at a local sale that sells things for charity, so it was a nice surprise. Seeing those two letters waiting patiently in my little post box was rather exciting. One of the letters even appears to be on vintage stationary. I am rather excited to begin such coorespondence.

The feeling I had when I got home with the two little gems was one of a special treat. I said to myself, "get the groceries put away, make hubby and you lunch, clean up the kitchen, get hubby off to bed (again the child analogy of the little boy off to his nap!) and I can snuggle into my sofa in my little sitting room. I have just put on a pot of coffee and when I am done here I am going to snuggle down with those letters and enjoy the dying sunlight streaming in my windows. It definitely makes me feel very 1955.

I thought I would take a peek at my Amy Vanderbilts Everyday Etiquette to see what her chapter on Coorespondence had to say. It really does not address any very personal letters of friends to friends (which I hope my letters to these 'new friends' will become) but I thought this was interesting. [The book is laid out with questions she recieved in her newspaper article she wrote with her answer.]

I like this one, as it states, "Like all housewives, I have occasion to write some business letters..." I thought it was very interesting in the way of showing how even on this level a housewife was seen as a person in a career.

Thanks to a tip from another reader, I found and bought this on ebay. It just arrived today and I am excited by its contents. I will be sharing its tips and photos with you, don't worry.

I did manage to make a cake yesterday. I found the recipe on this site where old 1950's index card recipes have been saved. I hope it is okay to reproduce the recipe here.

Carrot Cake Attributed to the name "Hazel"

Beat well:

4 eggs,

2 cups sugar

Add: 3 jars - 3 1/2 ounce sieved carrots (use baby food)

1 cup oil

1 cup crushed pineapple - drained1 cup raisins

1 cup nuts - chopped ( I used Cashews but walnuts would be better, I bet)

Add:2 cups flour

2 teaspoons soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

FrostingMix thoroughly until smooth the following:

1 package - 8 ounce cream cheese

1 package powdered sugar (32 oz)

1 cub butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 pineapple juice

This made a wonderfully moist cake, but I think I took it out too soon or else it was meant to be a sheet cake, as the two 9" layers I made did not hold together well and really the frosting is the glue holding it together. It is very good and moist. The frosting is wonderful and we had some left over and it is good on warm homemade bread. Gussie thinks we should use the frosting as icing for homemade cinnamon rolls, that sounds like a post-illness project to me.

You can see what a gooey mess it is, not one of my prettier cakes, but so moist and yummy. It was odd, too, to buy baby food. The recipe doesn't say what size baby food, so I assumed they only came in one size. Wrong, baby food comes in a myriad of sizes and containers. So, I just bought the smallest size glass jar, as I figured that would be close to the original. Also, substitued the cup of raisons for one cup of fresh grated carrot. I think the raisons would have been lovely in it, but I didn't have any in the house.

We have been talking a lot of late in comments about the idea of the 1950's woman as being percieved as a doormat. I like the way that one of the readers put it about someone holding a door open for you, that it is like "not giving someone a birthday gift, because they could have bought it for themselves".

How we can view the simple act of courtesy and respect as being a victum I don't know. I definitely like that we have opened a dialogue about it. I think today courtesy and respect are viewed as weak positions. Everyone is out for themselves.

This letter in the "Teen-agers" section of my Amy Vanderbilt Etiquette book really shows what a different concept we use to have towards one another. This is a letter from a teenage boy! I think again a certain level of courtesy which in effect is really consideration and respect, is gone. I hope we can get it back!

This might seem an odd thing to end on, but this playboy from 1955 has an almost considerate approach to it. Rather than a cover full of cleavage, you have two darling ladies in cute outfits in the snow. Even the innocence of the cartoon snowman makes it appear as if a "Highlights Magazine" compared to todays version of Playboy and such. It is almost saying, to those of you who do not want to see the nudity inside, at least here is an enjoyable non-offensive scene on the cover.

I hope you are all well and until tomorrow...

11 February 1955 "Colds, Commercials, & Cookies"

Hubby and I were feeling a bit under the weather yesterday. He, as usual, did not miss work. I don't know about any of your signifigant others, but it takes malaria mixed with the measels to get my husband to stay home from work. I, however, am always at work (the home) and so my day was definitely affected by my cold like symptoms.

Not sure what would have been available to me, I just took an aspirin and ate an orange for breakfast. So, I spent some of yesterday trying to see what was available and what one would do in 1955 if they had a cold. As usual, my research turned up some interesting bits of information.

This poster from war time definitely would make you think twice before staying home from work. To think you were in anyway jeopardizing the 'boys overseas' would have made you buck up and work through the cold.

I think even as a homemaker during wartime, everything you did would have seemed important and therefore you would try to avoid a cold as much as possible or either ignore it.

I believe this is a UK ad from the 1940's and have any of my UK readers heard of this? Does it still exist? At least they had somthing to take, even for the placebo affect, right?

I love this ad, which is actually from the 1930's, and it apparently banishes depression. This was an interesting find as I wondered when in our society the term "depression" really came about concerning our mental state? I wonder what this was made of, let's hope not alcohol!


When I found this ad, 1950's, I had a strange memory of this item. It must have existed in the 70s and 80s because I have odd memories of sticking a plastic tube up my nose and breathing in a vicks menthol smell to help with my stuffed nose. I don't recall if it worked or not. This would most likely have been in my 1955 medicine cabinet along wiht a jar of Vicks and Aspirin and possibly this following product. I found the commercial for it, but could find no information on the actual product. Is anyone old enough to remember this product and did it work?

Here it is from 1955?

Antihistimines were available since 1947:

"By 1950 antihistamines were mass-produced and prescribed extensively as the drug of choice for those suffering from allergies. Hailed as "wonder drugs," antihistamines were often mistakenly perceived by the public as a cure for thecommon cold. Although not a cure, antihistamines provided the first dependable relief for some of the cold's symptoms.

By 1955 the prevailing thought was that antihistamines may actually be harmful to asthmatics by drying their lung secretions and making the secretions more viscous (thick). After years of indecision by the medical establishment, medical students were taught after 1955 not to prescribe antihistamines to patients with asthma. The debate and research into the potential benefits of antihistamines for asthmatics continued."

Having to go to the doctors in the 1950's started to really change. The concept we currently have of a physician was basically born in post war times. Here is an excerpt from somthing I just read explaining the change in the docotors office:

"A typical doctor's office may not have looked much different to patients of the 1950s than it looked to their parents, but a new generation of physicians was inside providing care. Sick patients received the best treatment that had ever been available, and they complained as they never had before. Using newly available medicines and fresh knowledge based on recent research, doctors were, for the first time, able to cure a variety of maladies that they previously had treated only with kind words and tender care. The doctor had access to more knowledge about the nature of disease than ever before, and he (women doctors were rare in the 1950s) was likely to take a more professional, if less kindly, attitude toward his work than older patients were used to. But the patients missed the attentive personal care they had come to associate with doctors"

The article goes on to say that many patients actually missed and preferred the home-spun kindly words of the doctor who would show up at the house, maybe have had dinner with the family.

Again, I am faced with another modern concept really born in this decade. The idea of the cold aniseptic doctor (and for we Americans the ungodly cost of healthcare and the crippling economic effects that Insurance and their lobbyists have had on our country is mind boggling) really began in the 1950s. I am certainly glad of the strides we have made in medicine (Salk will cure Polio later in this year 1955 which must have been a sense of relief to all parents) . That people can be healthier and live longer is the goal of modern medicine, but why do we need to take out the human equation in medicine? A very good friend of mine is an E.R. Physician and he is always reagaling me with stories of the other doctors egos and also the stupidity and 'ME ME ME' atitude so many patients exhibit today.

The further I get into this experiment, the more I see how much that main question: that of humanity, seems to be changing during this decade (1950s). So many things that just seem normal to us today, even somthing you wouldn't consider like going to the doctors, has really been de-humanized. I don't think I am the only person who wants it back! We can have the advances AND the humanity. We are working, supposedly, to make life easier, and yet none of us have more time for anything. The subtle changes our world has made with the aid of tv and print ads as propaganda has let us throw away the chances we could have had for more time with our families and friends. We NEED to buy more and have the latest etc etc, so rather than live comfortably with less and focus more on going out our front doors and meeting our neighbors and getting to know the community and being a part of the community, we just feel alone and empty and wonder why. Maybe I am only speaking for myself here, but honestly I really feel that this hunt for more has become such a normal part of the last generations that we don't even question it anymore. I will step off my soapbox now...

Feeling ill has also made me want to do some of this things I like to do when feeling sick. This is to pop in a dvd put on my fleece socks and robe and veg. These things have not been invented, so I began to think of something Jitterbug asked in a previous comment, "What do you miss about the 21st. century" now I feel I can answer that better:
At first thought, I could think of little else save my dishwasher and microwave. I, of course, would miss my computer if it had to go away. But, I have since thought about it and here are a few things.

1.) Dishwasher (but this will not be so, as I see I would most likely have one, still deciding when to use it again.)
2.)The following dvds:
"Strangers with Candy" the series (I love Amy Sedaris)
"Kath & Kim" (the australian comedy. I heard they have made an american version which I can only guess is crap, if you will excuse my language.)
My period films, which is odd as they all take place before the 1950s (upstairs downstairs, Brideshead Revisited, Pride & Prejudice (the bbc version ) etc)
I think what I have found is that humor really evolves with your time. Although I am finding many things in 1955 that I actually like more than my present day, comedy is not one of them. With the exception of I love Lucy, the comedy of 1955 seems to not hit me on the same level as modern comedy. Now, I personally do not like american stand up comedy, but comedy seems to really be a mirror, maybe even more so than tactile art, of the times.

3.)Microwave. Though I mostly only used this for cooking bacon (my pan fried is much better now, though I did have a few black strips in the interium) and heating and defrosting. I find I don't drink as much 'leftover' coffee now. I try to make as much as I will drink or I drink more tea, as that is good cold and good reboiled. Reboiled coffee is not pleasant. Also, I have had to really learn planning my meals. No last minute frozen chicken from the freezer to the micro for quick defrost. Now, if I forget the night before, it's cold water in the sink. I did end up covering it with a 'gay' curtain after someones suggestion. I have all but forgot about it really. But every so often, I will reflexively reach for it.

4.)Diet Soda. Not until early 1960's will there be any Tab. The upside is I drink almost no soda (pop, coke, soda-pop, tonic whatever you call it in your area) and when I do drink regular soda it is an 8 oz bottle. I often think of ad that Jitterbug had posted of the housewife taking a break with her bottle of coke. That is EXACTLY what I do. I set aside some time, grab a magazine, open a coke and kick my feet up.


In that same vein I started to think of things that I use and are available now as well as 1955.
It really hit home when I found this ad.


I hadn't really thought about the fact that their are not sanitary pads. No light days thin little bits with their own adhesive. I know that there was a scare with Toxic Shock Syndrome after a few years of women using tampons. I also wonder, would I have hopped on board the 'Tampax train" so to speak, or would it have seem so alien to me that I would have stuck with my sanitary belt. Considering my age in 1955 I would have been using that horrendous belt for some years. Another thing we take for granted today.




Anyway here are some more items that I use that were in 1955. ( I just started using Pesopdent as i saw it was available then, also it is only .99 cents at my local shop! I often find myself humming the little jingle to myself and have now caught 'Gussie' doing it as well. Then or now, advertising does its job!







here is a commercial for ivory soap



Here is an ad for pepsodent toothpaste



here is an advert for Nabisco


here is tide


here is a great coke commercial





So, to give myself some comfort food yesterday, I made these cookies. The name intrigued me as it is a place I know well in Boston. Here is the recipe and here are a few of them on my plate. They tasted like a lovely blend of brownies, candy bar, and cookie. I used cashews instead of walnuts, as it was what I had in the house. I HIGHLY reccomend them.

9 February 1955 "Unions, Clean Houses, and Feathers"

Today, 9 February 1955, the AFL and CIO merged after a long estrangement.
The AFL (American Federation of Labor) was founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1886 by Samuel Gompers as a reorganization of its predecessor, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions.The AFL represented a conservative "pure and simple unionism" that stressed foremost the concern with working conditions, pay and control over jobs, relegating political goals to a minor role.
The CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) "proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not Communists. Many CIO leaders refused to obey that requirement, later found unconstitutional.
The CIO supported Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal Coalition, and was open to African Americans. Both federations grew rapidly during the Great Depression. The rivalry for dominance was bitter and sometimes violent. The CIO (Committee for Industrial Organization) was founded on November 9, 1935."

I understood that we had unions, but until discovering this I had no idea that the afl-cio once were separate unions. I also find it quite interesting that The Taft-Harley act, which I had mentioned in an earlier blog about McCarthyism, even affected labor unions. Many stars, including Lucille Ball I belive, were considered Communist and a threat during that period. By now (1955) this had ended and Sen. McCarthy was found to be untrustworthy and had been forced to resign. (Funny how no matter what decade we are in, the politicians seem to not be trustworthy. Good intentions don't always lead to good people, it seems.)




Here is some news from 1955 concerning a labor strike. (if the youtube video did not show up, here is the link to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CoIe9k7rGk&feature=PlayList&p=C6D542D7D11EB166&index=0&playnext=1)












This is an odd paste job I did, but this article was somewhat scattered about the magazine. It is an article on cleaning from my 1944 House Beautiful entitled :"Don't Clean just where it shows!"
It advises:
"Promise yourself this spring to clean all the forgotten places around the house. Here are some reminders. Cross just one or two jobs off daily and in a month's time the job will be done"

We are still in the war when this article came out. The Post-War wife (though there are numerous ads for the post-war home) has not yet, actually come to pass. I know, of course, that we wanted clean homes, but at this point in time most of the men were at war. I think, on some level, articles like these were to help the morale of our women at home who maybe were not working in factories or their entire day was not filled with war work. Busy hands stop idle minds, I would think was the mindset. It probably was a boon to go about your day trying to forget about the reality of the present moment in hopes of making that perfect home for when, "Johnny came marching home." You really can see the beginning of the 1950's ideal of the homemaker forming here, I think.
With that said, there are some good tips here. It might seem a bit obsessive, but really I find (as I am sure the 1940s wartime wife found) the more you do the more you can handle and then you add on some more and before you know it, it is second nature. Let me know if any of you try any of these things or do them now as a matter of course? I am not so sure about the bedspring cleaning, as I am not even sure if our bed has springs?

According to the article, I am not sure if I am yet up to snuff as a housekeeper.
"Bureau drawers reflect your brand of housekeeping, too. Try lining them with oilcloth (as we discussed in the comments of the last blog!) that can be kept dust free with a damp cloth"

With many of us using the longer lasting more energy effecient light bulbs nowadyas this advice seems as sound now as it did then"

"You dust lampshade as a matter of course, but lighting experst tell us that dirty bulbs steal precious light, too. So remove the bulbs form teh sockets seveeral times a year and wash them in soap and water. Between washings, do dust them."

This one is pertinent to today , for me:
"Slipcovers may look ari-tight, but don't be misled. When you remove them, be sure to brush or vacuum those deep crevices in upholstered furniture where dust and moths like to congregate."
Today I had a little mishap with my slipcovers which u will read about next, but a quick question: In my housekeeping books and magazines there seems to be so much mention of moths and fear of moths getting at your clothes. I even have an attachement for my old Kirby and some old chemicals (which I am sure are highly toxic) specifically to fumigate for moths. Does anyone have trouble with moth anymore? I have never had a moth attack my clothing. Have any of you ever had to worry about or prevent for moths? I am really curious about this.

Now, my little laundry mishap concerning my sofa's slipcovers. Here is a warning to any of you: if you are planning on washing the covers on your downfilled sofa cushions, be prepared to 'pluck your washer and damp clothes like a chicken'.
I found this out today. Having begun vacuuming the upholstery, so proud of myself, I thought, "these covers need a good sound washing." I mean, I was only trying to be thorough and maybe it is the sunny day that got me thinking of spring cleaning.
I carefully removed the down filled cushions and placed each of them ever so gently in garbage bags to keep the feather mess down (note to self, see when plastic garbage bags were actually invented, anyone know?) I then zipped up the covers to hopefully keep any stray feathers from escaping. Proud as a peacock for my ingenuity towards the precaution of the feathers, I went down to the laundry room and softly dropped them into the machine.
Having been so sure of myself, without paying any attention to the inside of the machine after taking out the washed slipcovers, I threw my next load of clothing in, thinking nothing of it.
I was rather surprised, to say the least, when I took out the subsequent load of clothing to find it tar and feathered! Well, okay, there was no tar, but you'd be surprised how damp wrung clothes act as a great adhesive to the feathers the cushions had left behind. Let me say, there were some harsh words being uttered in the laundry room this morning. I am sure the dogs even cowered in their corners, for the language mummy was using.
So, with the air let out of my balloon of cleaning pride, I sat with damp clothes upon my lap plucking away. A feather here and a feather there. I tell you, I felt a special place in my heart for all our old relatives who had to pluck their own birds and for the sad little kitchen maid, bent over a bucket in the basement, plucking away as a matter of course for her day.
Well, being a housewife is never dull, at least not when you wander so blindly into it as I seem to do.
Until tomorrow, then, have a great day!