22 March 1955 "Closed for Gardening, Open for Discussion"

I am half way through a blog post, but know if I spend anymore time on it today I will not get out to the yard as I had promised myself.

My veg garden needs some attention. Besides the basic turning of the soil and prepaing the area, there are leaves to be raked and I have to move some plants to go

with my over all new landscape scheme. There will be a new fence and gate (made by yours truly) surronding this area and some new permamnent plantings (possibly a grape arbor).

I have to get my beets, onion sets and snow peas in today!

So, enjoy your sunday and maybe you could share with me some of your gardening tips, stories, ideas, questions etc. I would love to know anything about vintage gardening if anyone has any tips and also maybe stories of parents and grandparents gardening or perhaps hating gardening.

Have a great day and enjoy your weather where ever you are. I will be back tomorrow with a post. I will most likely pop my head in time to time to see if anyone has commented. It might be a fun all gardening day for all! If you are trapped in the city in a small space, live vicariously!

Happy planting.

23 March 1955 "Middle East, a New Bread Pudding, Kedgeree, and a challange!"

Convertible Boat. A steel, all-purpose boat that looks like a shallow square box on pontoons has been developed by Trail-Craft Corp. of Clarksburg, W. Va. Designed for use with an outboard motor, the boat weighs 230 lbs., can carry 750 Ibs. as a trailer, and also converts into a tent for four, a duck blind, a wading pool, a swimming raft. Price (including tent top and four cots): $324.50. (I love that this one even has fins!)

The Central Treaty Organization (also referred to as CENTO, original name was Middle East Treaty Organization or METO, also known as the Baghdad Pact) was adopted in 1955 by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1955, at the urging of the U.S. and Britain, to counter the threat of Soviet expansion into the Middle East. CENTO was never very effective. Iraq withdrew after its anti-Soviet monarchy was overthrown in 1959.(It was dissolved in 1979.) [We see the beginning of that middle east rumble. Also the Saudi Arabian Rulers are gaining in power and money as their hold of oil begins to become the shinning beacon of power for our countries production of everything from gas to all the increasing plastics and other pertroleum products. It is amazing to me how so much of EVERY aspect of our daily life is somehow connected to petroleum. The plastics in just the computer I am now using are all possible due to it. We are so deeply entrenched, it can sometimes be rather scary to me.]

Now, let's hop right into the kitchen:

Here is the recipe I used as the base for my 'leftover cake pudding'. I had a yellow cake mix in my pantry from pre 1955 that I had forgot about and decided to make early this week. I wanted to 'jazz it up' so I added coconut and chocolate chips to the mix and then coconut on top so it would toast as it baked. It was good but hardly a contender with my other homemade goodies about (see cherry pie recipe in previous blog!) so for tonights dinner I thought, hey that leftover cake would make an interesting 'bread pudding'. I used only 1/4 cup brown sugar, as it is already sweet as it is cake. I put less raisins in and sprinkled extra cinnamon on top. I also whisked all the ingredients save the cake and then cut the cake into little squares and lined my casserole dish. Then I poured in the mixture over that and sort of mixed it and setteled it until it looked pretty, topped it with a sprinkle of cinnamon and popped it in the oven. Oh, and I (surprise surprise) drizzled maple syrop on the top half way through baking. I think if I had to go to a desert island I would need to take bacon and maple syrup, they seem to play a large role in my life.

It was funny, though, as we really didn't like or eat up the box cake, it just wasn't up to snuff compared to what I make homemade (if I can toot my own horn) but taking it and using it in a new form of a homemade recipe was such a hit. My hubby isn't really a fan of sweet, but he loved this! He said it was the best, cold in the morning as a snack as he waited for our Saturday breakfast. I am definitely going to grab some cake mixes the next time they are on sale to experiment with some various versions of this 'busy gal bread pudding' as I am calling it! Vintage friend and I were already dreaming up a version with carrot cake as the base! I think I feel a challange coming on to perfect a cream cheese/whipped cream for that one!

Ahh, the smell of my chicken boling for the homemade stock and the warm fragrance of this pudding in the kitchen was heaven. This is why I don't think I would want to do the cook for a month that hairball had mentioned some people do. I would miss that daily cooking smell. Honestly, I don't know how I lived without it before. It does make a gal want to 'feather her nest'.

Now, back to the smell of chicken boiling away. I had this recipe I wanted to try.

It is from my Boston Cooking School vintage cook book. I love the name, as if you know french, poulette translates to pullet which is a female chicken or a hen. So this is basically chicken chicken. Anyhoo, I am a jeune poulette (spring chicken) when it comes to cooking. I had some chicken thighs, which I really love. They are always so expensive as most people prefer the white meat. The juicyness AND the cost of thighs make them a favorite for me to use.

This is the sauce that goes with this recipe. Simple to make and I like adding another sauce to my repetoire. My French is a little shaky, but I think Veloute means 'to soften' not sure. (Any french speakers want to help me out with that translation?)

This presentation is not the best, I actually dressed it up with some greens, but it was really delicious. I squeezed fresh lemon on it just before serving it and though I had intended the leftovers to go into hubby's lunch come monday, he squirreled this away to his den on Saturday for a snack. I think he is really getting into my cooking! I would defnitely recommend it and plan on trying many of the other chicken/sauce dishes in that cook book.

Now, if any of you have had a good English breakfast you will have had Kedgeree. It is actually scottish. It is usually made with curry powder and I think that is because the scottish took it with them to India and it became what it is today due to that. Any English/Scottish readers can correct me on any of this. Anyway, I love eating it and found this recipe for it in the same Boston Cooking School cook book from early 1950's. I did not have any curry, so it did not have that taste, so I suppose it was sort of pre-Anglo/Indian. It was good none-the-less. It would be wonderful with fresh salmon, but I had a can of Mackeral that I wanted to try. I have to say, for canned fish, it was rather yummy. And served warm with the rice and boiled eggs on toast with fresh grilled tomatos (another English breakfast treat) it was quite fine. My hubby loved it. (do excuse the wrinkles in my linen. I put it on fresh that day and had not got to it in my ironing pile.) I have to say, fish and tomatos are really good at breakfast time. If you have not tried it, go for it. It is a nice filling start to a busy day, or a lazy day off too!

Here is what I wore this Saturday to our Vintage Dinner. It was vintage friends turn to cook, so I enjoyed having saturday off from making dinner. She made a wonderful roast and a great vegetable dish from my new campbells soup recipe book I illustrated on an earlier post. She did the eggplant dish (recipe is on previous post) and I loved it. She also made a lovely banana cream pie in her first made from scratch pie crust. It was delicious and I KNOW she loved making it. We had our usual fun and watched a Vincet Price movie 'The Tingler'. It was rather silly, though meant to be scary. I love Vincent Price films, and though this was from 1958, I still watched it. The womens dresses were wonderful and there is a dressing gown in it that I have to copy for myself.

I often come across many fun little ads when perusing my magazines. They are the intersting little black and white ads, with say 10 to a page. They often show an interesting element of the time. They offer up another level, or layer of you will, of the time. I somtimes feel like an archaeoligist of pop culture, combing through my old mags and peeling back another layer of society through what they may have sent for with their pin money from the 'kitchen money jar'.

Here is a great one, for a 'phony phone' which is in fact a usuable flashlight for safety, but disguised as a car phone. I would imagine to have a car phone in 1950s you would need to be quite wealthy or high up in the government. I wonder how many people had these? I bet they were recieved as fun 'dad' Christmas gifts with a laugh!
I am not sure if visors do not yet exist, or if this is just another attempt at one. I makes me think of the invention in the Steve Martin movie ( I know, it doesn't exist for me yet!) The Jerk, when he invents that eye glass holder that makes you cross-eyed (boss-eyed). I wonder how many stockings recieved these little lovlies for mummy on the course love Johnny and Susie, or somthing along those lines.

I like this ad for both pointing out another piece of evidence of women working in trousers, as well as showing how tight women wore their trousers then. Though, I suppose, many women recalling the 1940's would still have and wear loose trousers. I think these were more for work, biking, gardening etc. I love that the ad encourages you to buy and wear these toreador pants because it is safe, it reads:

"safe, yes, because so many home accidents are caused by tripping over a skirt hem! Save your skirts for streetwear!"

Sometimes these little ads speak volumes. They give a segment of the times that is sometimes telling of our own. This ad, for example, for this board to make it safe for your child in the back seat. I am sure at first viewing of it, as I did, you almost gasp! You think, "How could they just leave their children to sit freely in the cars". It does make you realize how much legislation has gone thru for 'safety'. Now, I am not saying it is safer to not have a child in a car seat, but how did the people back then survive? We often act as if we, in the present, have a monopoly on how things should be done or the right way to do a thing. Certainly, there are more cars today, maybe driving faster etc, but I wonder how many accidents their were with children in cars then? It would be interesting to find out.

These ads also sort of confront us with another current issue: our garbage and waste. In this little snippet about various labor saving deviced for the home, it states "doesn't it seem we have more garbage to dispose of today then we used to?" Simply stated to promote this new type of garbage burner. Yet, how loaded is that statement! In is then that so many pre-packaged goods are coming out. And boy, oh boy, hold on, because the level of packaging you will have in the future kids, you would not believe. I don't know if these are still legal today. I imagine if you are just burning trash that is animal, vegetable and packaging that is just paper, it wouldn't matter. But, did they burn plastic? I imagine it was starting to show up on some products. Then, there is this ad. I am not sure, but I think this might actually be a precurser to the composting bin. I do recall that in the 'old days' people used to bury their garbage. But, what did they have for garbage in say 1900? Old clothes that were beyond reuse, maybe old shoes beyond repair, tin cans and bones? Isn't it amazing the amount of throw away we actually have today. Just the junk mail in my mailbox is insane! Does anyone remember what sort of garbage you had if you were around in the 1950s? Did you have a dump you went to, or garbage pick up? It is all very telling and interesting

Finally, I keep badgering on and on about shopping local etc, so I thought, maybe I could prepose a project for any of you who would like to participate. What if for one week we said, only buy local? JUST for one week. When you need anything (even gas or oil change) try to go to a local place. It might be intersting don't you think? We can see what has been completely removed from our communities, like perhaps you no longer have a butcher or a baker locally, only in your chain grcoery store, if you do have one or try looking one up, go try it out and see what it was like. Did you like it? was it too expensive? How did it feel compared to just popping in and getting everything in one place etc. So, what do you think? Should we try it? Let me know. I prepose we start next monday if anyone is game.

I often feel as if I am at the university of Home and so, if we are learning, then let us make this an assignement. Let me know if you want to try it out. Next monday we will start. It will be hard, I know, as I will not be doing my weekly grocery shopping at my local Stop and Shop, but we do have a new place that just reopenend that has some groceries etc. Even for an oil change, no jiffy lube but the local guys garage. Let me know if anyone wants to try this challange with me. I think it could be fun and a great learning experience.

Until tomorrow: Happy Homemaking.

19 March 1955 "Advertising, Savings, Interiors, Bulk Buying, and Fashion"

ADVERTISING spending is still climbing at a rapid pace, reports Advertising Age. In 1954 the 60 top ($10 million or better) U.S. and Canadian agencies billed $2.2 billion in ads, a 10% increase over 1953. Four U.S. advertising agencies cracked the $100 million mark. [And so it begins. The money pours into the propaganda machine, hold on tight 20th century, your in for a long and controlling ride!]

ROBERT R. YOUNG won his fight to keep Allegheny Corp. out of reach of the Securities & Exchange Commission's strict regulations. The Interstate Commerce Commission ruled that Alleghany, which controls the New York Central railroad, is a railroad carrier coming under its more flexible rules, thus overriding SEC, which had contended that Alleghany was an investment company. [Here we begin to see the game being played by the growing corporation. Through a loop-hole in that the corp. controls the entire NYC railroad system, it is able to not be guided under the stricter guidelines of the S.E.C.]

I promised to scan the whole of the 1950's childrens book on savings, so here it is:

They say "familiarity breeds contempt", but in my yearning for vintage design, I am finding it quite the opposite. Out of all the various trials I have had in trying to stay 'true' to 1955, the one constant has been magazines. I have had slip ups of course: Thousand dollar microwave use, swiffer etc, and so on and then in the realization, corrected it and also learned my modern dependency on the item. The one aspect that has been purely 100% (so far) 1950s for me has been magazines and books.

I have not, even once yet, touched a book or magazine later than the 50s (sometimes a magazine from 56-59 slips in but never even 1960). So, by having only seen these magazines about interiors and the home (the type of modern magazine I enjoyed reading before my trip to 1955) it has begun to affect my taste. My esthetic has changed somewhat, in regards to 1950s interiors.

I have always collected vintage magazines. The last couple of years I had really begun to find myself "into" the 1950s, where before I had adored the early magazines of pre WWI. Perhaps it was the precurser to this project. I naturally am drawn to magazines on the home, decorating and gardening and their ilk. However, I never really had much but disdain or a passing apalled gasp when vieweing mid-century interiors. However, I am finding myself (especially with my current pile of 1951-54 House Beautifuls) to find things I may have otherwise considered horrendous, "normal" or even somthing to aspire to or that I might try in my own interiors. While I had every intention of trying various 1950's deocrating ideas, it was mostly for the project. Now, I am actually finding myself drawn to the design esthetic.

This, of course, has got me thinking. Again I am finding another element of my personality (my esthetic taste) being questioned.

Taste. What we are drawn too, obviously, is highly affected by what we are shown. I no longer can, nor do I, watch modern design shows. I read no modern magazines. My continuing 'taste' in decor and design now can only be formed from the 1950s. Now I am finding when I see a wallpaper or a even, yes, wood panelling, from this era in my magazines, I no longer recoil. It, like ads for girdles, have just become 'normal' to my viewing.

This brought up two points for me:

The first: I am beginning to see a certain beauty and element to which I am drawn in these 1950s interiors. It is really enticing me to redo the whole house and furnishings.

The second: Oh, my god! The same thing is happening to me in 1955! I am succumbing to advertising. Is this because the 1950s is really when this is beginning? Or, is it because, as a modern woman, I am transferring my modern desire to covet and want what I see in a magazine simply now being transferred to these new 'tastes'? (Perhaps I just thing to much, but I am a homemaker and I am training my mind to a razor sharp decision maker and evaluator.)

I want to make over this house. I want to make it feel the way I wish it to feel. But, is my wanting to change and have a 'new style' to go along with the project for the project, or is it just another aspect of the old me wanting to spend and redo?

It is becoming harder to separate my conditioning from the real me. Who IS the real me? I also don't want to get bogged down in the other thing I fear: that sort of delusion of phsychotherapy where you are left evaluating yourself so much you just end up obsessed with YOU and only thinking about how YOU feel or what makes YOU happy.

It is at this point that I channel my 1955 self.

I tell myself, "alright, you made it thru WWII and the Depression, don't worry about YOU so much. If you want to change the house to make you feel more 'connected' to your work place AND to make it more efficeint to live frugally, then just do it! Don't over-analyize! If you can't afford something, take somthing you have and repaint it or decopage it. Make your life happy and comfortable within the reason of your funds and move on. This will give you time to worry more about what you can do to become more a part of your neighborhood rather than wasting time on if you can find wallpaper to match the drapes!"

This IS important to me: my home and my interior and how I decorate and live. But, don't make it become an excuse to fall into the habit of the 21st. century. Do what a 1955 housewife could ONLY do. Live within your means. I know you could 'charge' things back then, but it was not really common. Take what you have and make it different and better and only buy here and there to supplement it. Also, try to buy actual vintage that is sturdy and worth more in that if it is still around, it is probably fairly well made.

This is the balance I am beginning to strike.

I am beginning to see my 1955 personna as a sort of 'symbol' I can call upon. Let us hope I don't end up with multiple personalities! Really she has become more of a Jimminy Cricket character for me, or the angel on my shoulder. After all she has been through a war and a depression, so she knows hardship!

So, with that said, I thought I would share some of the images of different designs in my magazines. You may find them hideous due to your own living in the modern world. Maybe they look like 'grandmas' house. Any way, I am responding to them, either good or bad, and thought you might like to see them.

This is an ad for Heywood-wakefield furniture which was actually quite well made and I somtimes come across such pieces at sales and antique shops. It often is rather inexpensive, as most people don't consider it worth collecting. I love the almost 'doll house' like quality of the line. It has a rustic simplicity mingled with a modern esthetic that seemed unique to this time. What once looked like a bad hotel to me, now seems to have charm and warmth. If you saw the post I did where I found the top of a china cabinet, you will see how similiar it is to the bottom picture in the dinning room. Mine will end up in the breakfast room, either in its orignal wood or painted.

I like the daring of this room. I am also, since 1955, beginning to view pink as an actual choice for interiors. I used to loathe it and found it to twee. Here I think it is treated in a nice way and I like how the pattern on the ceiling is carried into the draperies. There is a sort of calm organized maturity to these rooms. There is never too many 'things' and each item seem well thought out. I find this 'decorating' less 'overdone' than many modern ways of decorating (21st century I mean)

Though I don't, myself, really respond to this green (having live in the 1980's I am still shell shock from all the Forest Green) the concept of the design is good. I like that the fabric on the sofas is bold and that the series of paintings over the mantle share not frame styles but the color. I think that grey-white painted frame is quintessential 1950s. I am really growing to love it and I am sure by the end of the year, some of my non-antique frames will be recieving some such paint affect.

I really like this room. I like the color. I like that the calm of the room is the result of minimal amounts of color. I think a room can be too matchy, but here, for me it works. Another thing I now like that I used to make fun of, is that froth of sheer curtain at the window. You often see it in movies of the 40s and 50s. I really think I want some. This is a great example of taking a bunch of disparedged garage sale finds, giving them all a lick of paint, and suddenly you have a pleasing set of furntiure. I would use more artwork on the wall, but again, less seems to be more in these instances.

This is one of my latest acquistions. It cost me the whopping amount of $5.00. I bought it at my favorite little antique shop. The woman said, "well the frame is really nice and worth more than that" to which I replied, "oh, the picture is staying in there."

This blue is the perfect color to my bedroom which is this blue and deep brown. She will hang in my corner next my dressing table. I will post a photo when she is in her new home. Isn't she adorable. I might have thought this too sweet once, but now find it the perfect boudoir pic. When I see it, it just makes me smile. Perhaps I see myself at my own dressing table, waiting for a big evening in the city.

Now, onto cooking.
I thought I would share a little experiment I made yesterday. I keep coming across various recipes with advertising for pie crust. Each claims the recipe ONLY works with their particular brand, which of course I do not believe. Yesterday I made a pie with this recipe. I have cut out and enlareged the directions as well as leaving the whole ad in tact. I do not think they make this type of shortening any longer, so I just used my store brand.

It was a very quick and easy recipe.
The result was really nice. (that is cinnamon on the crust not burnt) It does not compare with my homemade pastry that uses lard and ice cold water, but it was fast and delicious. I explained the flavor as having a definite homemade taste, but more like the 50's diner we go to, where I know they make their own pie. It was flaky and nice, but not like my old fashioned recipe. I would recommend it and it is great in a pinch for homemade taste and feel ( I mean it is homemade) but when you don't want to take the time to properly cut the flour into the lard. It rolled out quickly and was much like sugar cookie dough.

To make it more of a 'quick busy day' recipe, I used a can of canned cherries (which I would never use, but someone had given me a can for some reason.) I added to this a can of whole canned cranberries. It was easy and made a nice tart/sweet pie. It served beautifully and hubby enjoyed it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. There is a piece in his lunch today as well.

I found an interesting article in my 1954 House Beautiful entitled: "What is a woman's time worth?" At first I thought it would be an article pointing out the hard work and efforts of a homemaker. But, on further reading, I found it to fit with my ongoing look into the subtle manipulation that is to become the modern consumming we endulge in today.

The article is pointing out the positive of doing all your grocery shopping in one day for the whole month. They compare your spending $300 to $500 a month as an investment kin to the ease of owning a washing machine! You only buy the machine once, but they go on with various ways to 'persuade' you to this type of shopping.

They point out the following:

"Any good domestic worker knows she can get from $50 to $60 for her 40-hour work week. [that is $350-$420 a week now] 40 hours doesn't begin to suffice for all we have to do around the home. SO, if we can save eight hours a week why wouldn't we?"

This is article the goes on to say:

"Having a variety of food on hand gives us freedom to do the kind of imaginative cooking we have always wanted to try.

Having a lot of food on hand in all stages of readiness is also very calming. For you can provide for any unexpected situation, whatever it may be."

I really think they are beginning to really prey on that feeling many would still have remembering the shortages of the war. And the idea that doing a large shop all at once for the month with every sort of food 'just in case'. Just in case, what? And also to give you a 'calming effect'. Very subtle. They call this type of freedom of choice in your own food pantry and meal making 'chain cooking'. This image I thought was crazy. The heading to this cartoon reads:

"Here's an artist's drawing of Mrs. Wiley's dream:"in our next house I want a whole room of open shelves and freezer space for storing all the supplies I need for chain-cooking"

If you look at the drawing, what she basically wants, and what they are illustrating, is your own grocery store! You would spend so much more than you would need. You also need to use more electricity to keep the freezer running and you have to have more space and maitenance on this much prodcut. This is the mentality that has lead to such places as BJ's in the modern world. Those places often result in people shopping in 'bulk' thinking they are saving, when they are in fact spending more and buying more!

What is so wrong with going to the grocery store once a week? The french housewife often goes daily to the market to get what she needs for the evening meal. This concept of hoarding, consumming, and endless quantity is becoming to me almost vile. Who would need that wall of food and products? Click on the image, you can see there is one shelf for endless Soaps!

The cost they expect as well, which is equivalent to $3500 a month! Perhaps those of you who have children spend this, but there is no way I would now spend even half that on a months worth of groceries. In fact, since I am trying to really budget and control all the aspects of my home, my shopping is in a very tight budget, which I never vary too greatly.

What do any of you spend per month on food?

It is all very interesting and now that I am more aware of it, I can see the subtle beginnings which have formulated and lead to our current spending. Certainly, I could imagine a room of shelves filled with canned good, you yourself have canned. You grew your food and you need to preserve it, but to go to the store, where they keep it anyway, and then buy it up as if there is an impending food shortage?

They almost try to address food buying as you would savings in a bank:

"The term 'Chain-Cooking' is based on the freezer, the refrigerator, and ample shelf space for canned and packaged foods. It means Wuantity buying, quantity cooking, and quantity storing, instead of hand-to-mouth buying and cooking."

Now, not to seem that I am always now on some anti-buying or having nice things tirade, I thought I would end with this image someone set me. It is from Michael Kors Fall 2008 collection. Now tell me that isn't 1950s. I guess his line was inspired by MadMen, which is the early 1960's but that is still a very 1950's time in style. This coat actually looks alot like my fur, though I am sure mine was not even 1/8 the price this would go for. So, true classic style will always be around. Even in two years when the vintage look may be considered dated, I will still wear it. Because, what better way to have nice quality things that you can care for, then dressing a particular way and NOT changing it. Then you can care for your wardrobe instead of needing to constantly shed your clothes every year to remain on the fashion hamster wheel. Go vintage! Also, there is somthing about a dress at the natural waist, a full or a nice pencil skirt and tweed that just makes a gal feel good. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

17 & 18 march 1955 "Riot, Sports, Saving and Schemes"

The Richard Riot was a riot that occurred on March 17, 1955 in Montreal, Quebec. Maurice Richard, the star ice hockey player for the Montreal Canadiens, was suspended for a violent attack on a linesman and it provoked a riot at the Montreal Forum that spilled out into the streets. Some commentators have linked the Richard Riot with the birth of Quebec nationalism and the Quiet Revolution


I took an history course at university, the history of sport (yes, I know, a liberal arts education, all thought and no substance! but it was interesting!) and it really showed me how even the concept of the american male as being the macho tough guy was born out of this time during the turn of the last century. we began to break away from the concept of the more feminie (or then beginning to be percieved as such) aspect of the english man. Though, there are plenty of tough as nails bull-dog cockney lads, the idea of propaganda was used to demonstrate to us that the american male were not the foppish men of europe but the tough as nails men in sport. This was during Theodore Roosevelts time and I think it might also be the time when American English took on some of the spelling differences we now use, such as we spell galmor without the "u". But, I dirgress, anyway this really began the idea which was later formulated into what we have now with sports stars being role models and recieving millions of dollars ,while the conept of education for intelligence and work is put aside. The goal of the star athelete is added to the 'dream list' for the average american, one they can never achieve (save for a very limited few) and in their dashed hopes they can makeup for lost dreams in millions of dollars of merchandise in jerseys, baseball caps, and video games where they are the star. Not just a fun little game of baseball with friends, but a frenzied merchandise buying and feeding ground. It is becoming more and more apparanet how we were fed such things. But, you see, had I not had a class that took me specifically to before we had organized teams of sports which then became business, I would not have known that the concept of the sport world is just another element made up of someones enjoyable past time twisted into some extreme business model.
I am not a sports fan, but I have friends who go to baseball games in Boston and they said the ticket prices are ridiculous and do not know how an entire family can afford to go.
In the story I had been mentioning in previous blogs about the young american couple, The McClosckys , her husband was both an high school coach but made 'extra money' playing basketball professionally. In 1955 this entailed his having to drive to the game where he recieved 50 dollars a game. Sure in todays money that is $350 dollars, but can you imgaine a modern basketball player recieving this and also living just a normal life at 50 dollars a game? But, on some level, it is rather nice. You can use your ability to make extra money for your family instead of being a product some company needs to use and sell.
I don't mean to keep coming back to this point, and please forgive me, but I am like a blind person who has just recieved their sight. I want to keep explaining to you how much I like the color yellow! The more I 'uncover' of the past, the more I begin to see our present on shaky ground. That things one just considers a normal part of life, like giant money-making sports teams, are just another product of the corporate world.

On to other topics,
I found this wonderful book when I found the 1908 housekeeping manual.
I think the sage advice from this one page would do so many of us some good. I really don't know that much about children's books, but a quick look around that section of a large book chain mostly showed me books about how it is 'okay to be who you are' and 'don't worry about it we are all different and yet the same'. Certainly, it is good to teach children to be happy and to co-exist, but practical living should not be put off until college or later. Why should not a child of 4 or 5 begin to understand spending and its consequences. But, really, probably most parents (and I am not saying 'oh bad parents') most likely themselves do not know how to save or how to spend appropriately. We have come from a generation of those who were not responsible for spending and now even our government and big business is teaching the lesson, "Don't worry, if you overspend or don't save, some one will 'bail you out'". I don't think that is a very good or realistic lesson.

I don't want to seem that I am becoming more preachy or political, but I cannot help that everytime I look deeper into the simplest aspects of the past I keep uncovering mistakes I make today that I would like to fix. How funny that a child's book from the 1950s is humbling me to a lesson that should have been with me since the cradle!

If you are all interested in the book, I would be willing to scan the whole of it, it is not too long, but why not share it with your own children? I love, too, that the book was written and illustrated by women. How funny, working women with sound advice in 1950 co-exisiting with homemakers and mothers. What a novel idea! (pun intended)

Since my last blog I have got quite a few wonderful things to help me with my ongoing project that I want to share with you. This cook book, for one, which was put out by the campbells soup company. There are some interesting recipes including a lamp recipe that is made in gelatin, and believe you me, I will be trying it for one of our Saturday vintage dinners.

This saturday is my vintage friends turn, and I think she will be making the tomato dish pictured here and the recipe as well, if any of you would like to try it. I will tell you how it turned out this weekend.

I also purchased a huge stack of 1954 House Beautiful magazines that I am so excited about, as well as some Good Housekeeping. I have a great book called creative decorating too. ALl of these will be playing a role in upcoming days and blogs. There is so much information and so much to do and with spring upon us I am excited to get out into the yard.

There is a great article on outdoor plants and I found an article on houseplants that I would like to scan, as I remember Jitterbug asked about vintage houseplants in one of her own blogs.

Now, I feel bad as I seem to have become a little lax in my blogging these past few days. This is due to a project that vintage friend and I are working on. The jist of it is, we are working on a small building to become our 'sewing studio workshop'.
My hubby and I own a darling little house in another town here. It is a wonderful old house, built in 1718, before this was even the united states. We, ourselves, once lived in it. Then, I had my parents in there, but they have recently (through some sad events I don't want to dwell on now) have left. We could not afford to keep the house vacant and so have rented it out.

Now, on this property, last year, I had built (and I helped with my own hands) a two story barn structure. The hope was it would be my studio (for painting) and a sort of extra sleeping space when we visited my parents and family from the city. We no longer live in the city and have a house we currently live in. That house will be featured in all my 'vintage renovations' as the year progresses.
The other building, which we call the "studio", is finished to a point, but was sitting idle. Vintage friend and I began a "Lucy and Ethel" scheme to turn it into our 'dream sewing room'. The second floor can be our place to sew and create. I also would LOVE to, in time, do our podcasts from there. We could treat it like the central spot for our vintage ideas and dreams. Pictures and progress will follow. But, it has taken up most of my non-homemkaing time. SO, I feel I have been rather lax here, and I do not want that to happen. I really believe the community I am beginning to feel with all of you is very important and I want it to continue as best as I can and to include all of you in it and perhaps ask your advice when we need it or give out our won, which I love to do of course!

So, look for that in the future as well as more adventures. I need to post more pics, I know, I will try to catch up with that. My own sewing has been put on the back burner until we get the 'studio' up and running. I even have a pipe dream of one day having the first floor of this building eventually become a sort of 'clubhouse' for like minded people. A place for homemakers, future homemakers, vintage lovers, crafters, artists, (even closeted homemakers who have to hide their need to decorate and nest in a cubicle in some office!) to gather and sip coffee, tea, trade recipes and swap stain removal tips.

A vintage gal can dream, can't she?

Until tomorrow, then...

Happy Homemaking.

16 March 1955 "Bombs, Peace, and Grandmothers Life"

President Eisenhower declares that the United States would use atomic weapons against military targets in the even of war. "Now in any combat where these things can be used on strictly military purposes, I see no reason why they shouldn't be used just exactly as you would use a bullet or anything else."

Prime Minister Winston Churchill tells the House of Commons that he is working for a big power meeting to ease world tensions. That meeting should now include West Germany, France and the big three. "O still believe that vast and fearsome as the human scene has become, personal contacts of the right people in the right place at the right time might yet have a potent and valuable part to play in the cause of peace which is in all our hearts."
So, today I had planned on having my blog up sooner than this. However, as I had mentioned in previous blogs, there is a new house going one door down. Today, they came to connect their electricity, so they shut off the power for the street for a good hour or so. Thus, in the middle of wash day, and blogging time, I was left powerless. It certainly made me think of my ancestors. And, had I been really my age in 1955 my grandmother could have lived without power. Not only would I not be blogging (no computers in the 1950s) but I would be spending a lot of time hand washing (no electric washers in 1900)

That brings me to this great find! The book of Household Discoveries. It was printed in 1908 (this is the frontice piece) and belonged to some member of my family. Who that was, I do not know. Could have been for a homemaker of the past or for her servant or for the pair of them. It is SO interesting. I feel as if the knowledge in here would be the stories I would hear from my grandmother as she visited me here (in 1955 of course). I would be using my electric washer and dryer and she could regail me with stories of the 'old days'.

There are pages and pages on 'wash day'. To give an example of how one would have to just 'make do' until wash day due to its being so involved, here is a tidbit:

"To dry-clean White Goods.-Small mud stains and a clen white skirt may be concealed until ready for the laundry by pipe clay or painting over with white water-color paint.

Or if a clean white skirt or shirt wasit is spattered or spotted by mud or soot, let it dry, scrape off with a penknife, and rub over the stain with white crayon or school chalk.

Rub with a clean white cloth until the spot disappears."

Better to coneal the stain, it seems, as the act of washing was perhaps rather involved and you certainly did not have a closet full of clothes.

It looks like dry-cleaning in grandmothers time was also a 'do it yourself' job.

"To dry-clean shirt waists-Put 4 quarts of corn meal into a 24-pound flour sack or a pillow slip. Put the waist into this, and rub or knead gently so that the meal will come in contact with all parts of the fabric. Leave it there for a day or two, then shake and dust thoroughly, and press with a hot iron."

I wonder if this actually worked? It would save on your modern dry cleaning bill, I suppose.

So, this would be my grandmother or her servant.

While I enjoyed this luxery. I have to say, as well, that I would love that set of waher and dryer as that is one of my favorite colors. I am sure these are still around and working fine. It would be interesting to see if I could come by an old set like this. I love how you step on the floor and the dryer opens, even my 'modern' dryer does not have that option.

So, there will be more from this book in the future. It could be called :"My Grandmothers Corner" or "The Good Ole Days". Anyway, I am certain as a 1955 woman I would know of many of these things. My own mother would remember some of these things as a child or my grandmother telling them to me.

Again, I like the idea that a 1955 homemaker didn't just land on earth one day:magically be-pearled and be-petticoated in her electric kitchen. She had a history as told by her mother and grandmother and her own childhood in the 1930's would also be ever present in her mind as she went about her day. Opening the 'icebox' and remembering when there really was a block of 'ice' in there (although many middle class families in the 1930s had electric iceboxes, many did not). Or when she sat down with her family to watch Father Knows Best, recall huddling in front of the Radio to listen to 'Little Orphan Annie' or her grandparents regailing over the 'wireless'. If I am going to look back, I am going to keep looking back. As a woman in 1955, I would have this whole segment of American history from the late 1800's to the present day through my families memories as well as my education.

We often think of the good ole days as those that were more natural or green. And, quite often, they were. Yet, this bit about cleaning wood floors from 1908 sounds like a chemical explosion waiting to happen:

"To clean wood floors.-Detergents recommended for cleaning kitchen floors and other coarse and unpainted wookwork are caustic potash and soda lyes, soft soap, sand, lime, chloride of lim, ammonia, kerosene, gasoline, and various mixtures of these."

What a comparison to my fictional grandmothers time and my own fictional 1955 time. Does ease of living breed complacency, boredom and unrest? With more time do we simply fill it with pointless spending and then work to pay the bill? I am not saying I want to trade places with the woman on the floor. Nor, do I want to turn back the clock on womens rights, but it does beg the question, is more and easier always = better life quality? And if we find the answer different for each of us, then living in the modern world we can make the choice of which is better for us personally? Obviously, though, without walking for a moment in our ancestors shoes, how will we know? We cannot see the future, but in living the past for just a moment, is not our present a sort of crystal ball? Can we not look forward while stepping back and think, "Ah, yes, isn't that lovely, aren't we lucky we have this, or Oh, I never realized this or how much I enjoy that."

Those things which seem second nature or normal or just 'the American way', we may find are indeed only modern interpretations of the world. Better to know what and why we think and do what we do. Then, like a futuristic time-travelor, we can speed back to our present with the knowledge of the past. And knowledge is the key to any answer, really.

What is amazing to me, is look how close we actually are to this 'future prediction'. That floor cleaning robot on the lower left could be a roomba. This kitchen looks like it could be duplicated easily from IKEA. And could not that homemaker be any of us sitting at our table with our computer? Eerie, isn't it? It is amazing how far we have come in 100 years. I only hope we can keep and raise up the level of respect and reality there is in being a homemaker. Let us celebrate our past womanhood and revere her life in our own homemaking today. Don't worry if we are trying to 'recreate Leave it to Beaver', but look at what they were trying to portray and take the good in it. The knowledge of the home and the ability to ask why and to manage money, spend wisely, and sustain yourself as much as you can without the aid of 'instant meals, closests of cheap throw away clothes, and mindless spending.'

We can do it.

Happy Homemaking!