13 August 1956 “Gone Sailing”

I am sorry for no post today. I have only just got back home now (10:00 p.m. my time). I spent the day with our family sailing. It was wonderful, nice and cool and good wind.

I shall share pictures tomorrow but have to show our rental house tomorrow and Sunday, so they shall be shorter posts.

I hope are all having a lovely weekend and, as always, Happy Homemaking.

12 August 1956” Budget article concluded, My Financial Budget Recipe, and a New Dress”

Now, I know there is much in this article that one could protest, but honestly there is some sound advice as well. And as far as the husband, “Opening his wallet and laying down a 20” in our household and indeed in many if not most 1950’s household, the woman handed out the money. Managing it and budgeting the inflow of money was her job and one she took seriously.
I also think the image of the bad wife running about dress shops is funny to me, because I would say today it is both the husband and wife who are running about spending. And with no task master at all, we can sometimes be like great children with play money. The use of electronic money makes it even easier, as if it is some magic card that gives us what we want. The use of cash is really utmost in a proper homemaking budget duties. You cannot overspend what you do not have in your hand, the store won’t allow it. But, the credit cards and banks will and they even encourage it. When your 4 dollar latte costs 100 down the road with interest, you would have been glad to have to say, “Oh, I only have enough for a small coffee”. Something to think about anyway. So, how did any of you think of the article overall?
I thought we could discuss budget making a little. I often get letters from readers asking me about my own budget. Obviously each individual will need to cater their money situation to their own personal needs, but really I use a sort of ‘formula’ that came from my vintage books on housekeeping and trial and error.
For the overall budget of the household I break it down into three categories:
1. Set In Stone: This first bit is what we HAVE to pay each month or we get into trouble. These include

• Mortgage/rent
• Taxes
• Utilities (phone, electric, fuel oil, internet services)
• Car Payments (which I am lucky to be without)
• Insurance costs (home, auto, health)

2. Elastic: This second set of items are NEEDED but can sometimes be tweaked if there are unforeseen circumstances that money needs to be shuffled about.

• Savings-now savings ARE important and need to be addressed each month. I like to attempt to keep these in the above list, but really they belong here, because if one needs to for one particular month or week, this can be lessened. Perhaps with an attempt to make up the difference another month when there is a surplus. We should be saving at least one weeks salary a month. (If both couples work, yes that means both. With today’s housing market I know this is not always easy but it is a specific amount to work towards.
• Groceries-Here I try to keep this budget down to the penny, but if something comes up, I will cut back in favor of savings. So, if an unexpected car cost or something arose, I would steal from groceries first and then allowances before Savings. Having one member of the couple home makes this aspect perfect. It is part of my job to economize here, so if this needs to be lessened one month, then soups and other things I may have prepared and froze come into play.
• Allowances-I allot a weekly allowance in cash in hand for both hubby and myself. Hubby gets 10% roughly of his weekly pay. I take 5%. When tweaking needs to be done and the groceries have been done then allowances would come next affecting mine first. This is a decision I made as I feel it is important for my hubby to have a steady weekly cash flow, since all the money he earns comes straight to me. He is a marvelous saver and spends only from this allotment. He does not even have a Debit card from our main checking account.
• Auto Fuel-This may seem odd to have this placed in elastic, but for us it is. Hubby needs to drive the same amount each month, but as we now only have one car, I do not need to take it as often. My having the car on a day he works involves double driving. This is an expense easily done away with. I use the car often when he works an odd day or when he is off. Careful planning of shopping trips avoids the need to say, “Oh, I forgot this I better hop down and get it” Before we went down to one car, I would often do this, but slowly learned how easy it was to make do. When it is there, you will use it, that is just human nature. And the reduction in gas cost, insurance and excise taxes means more savings or an increase in allowance.

3.Extraneous-This encompasses anything outside of the other listed items. Including clothing. I maintain and repair husbands clothes. I make my own clothes. My fabric and notions come out of my allowance/pin money. If hubby needs clothes, he informs me and I buy them for him. I am lucky as he never fluctuates in size so I can buy him shirts/trousers or shoes and know they will fit. Part of his last birthday gift from me was new shoes from my allowance.

•   Entertainment-movies, theatre
• Dining out-restaurants or even stopping at our local cafe whilst on our bikes
• magazines/books etc (we get free magazines by checking them out of our local library. We often find great books for free at our local dump swap shop and hubby downloads endless free books for his nook (paid for out of his cash allowance).
• clothing

So, I know this is a very large overview and one’s savings should be really broken down into weekly allotments ( I find saving that much easier when it is a smaller amount each week) but this gives a general guideline that I think most anyone could apply to their own budgets. And those of you who have children have to add much more, such as college savings, etc, but children's clothing could certainly go in the elastic section. The worst situation, of course (which I had before 1955) is to not have any budget at all. There really is no excuse and it is not hard to do . The less we consider our spending the easier it is to over spend.
Now, onto sewing. I do not have a photo of my latest dress (the blue and red and white dotted number I showed on my manikin a few posts ago) but I do have another dress I made. I had not documented it, as I became rather lazy in my posting after our satiation week.
This little number is definitely a summer and also spring dress. It is of seersucker. It looks lovely with a vintage lavender sweater I have with pearl beadwork. The colors are so close it is uncanny. I didn’t have the cardigan in mind when I bought the fabric, either. My hat is vintage, of course and is of white straw with a grosgrain ribbon on back. I cut the bodice of the dress (which has a separate piece for the waistline) out of a sold blue seersucker and then embossed it with two fancy stitches using the ‘discs’ in my Singer Rocketeer. I also tripped the bodice top in bias tape to match the the blue midriff. It is a comfortable summer weight dress and seersucker is a dream for ‘carefree’ summer fabric.
I am really getting into changing and altering the style of the dress by using inlays of different fabric. I did this even more so in my latest dress that I will post about at some point. I have been good enough to stick to my ‘one dress a month’ so far. Now I need to schedule more ‘doll making’ into that sewing time. It’s lovely when your job is so elastic to encompass so much creativity and you pile more and more on. Yet, rather than feeling too overwhelmed (though I can sometimes) you feel mostly lucky and happy and almost never call it work (well, maybe cleaning the bathroom I call work!)
Well, until next time, Happy Homemaking!

11 August 1956 “Nuclear Warheads, Vintage Food Packaging, Hats, and A Great Car”

This month in 1956, not far from where I live here on Cape Cod, a missile will be developed. The Polaris missile developed at the Woods Hole, Mass., Oceanographic Institute can be launched underwater from submarines and carry a nuclear warhead. The cold war marches on.
Just for fun, some vintage food stuffs. What I might see in the aisles of local grocer.
You will notice that we are not afraid of the word Sugar in our cereals. It is still in there today (when it is not corn syrup of course) but if we don’t write it on the box, I guess it doesn’t count? This advert offers miniature Grandma Moses prints. I need to do a post on Grandma Moses. I have a wonderful copy of House Beautiful with an article on her and a cover. She was quite the ‘it’ artist of the homemaker set and the middle class.
And though I would be suspect of cake mixes, I am sure by 56 I would use one in a pinch. Here is a fun commercial for Betty Crocker Cake Mix.

And I have to admit, when I buy bread at my grocer (I usually make it as well, but sometimes I need it in a pinch) I get Sunbeam. It is entirely because of the packaging. It is the same as it was in the 1950’s and there is something about unpacking that when I get home and putting it in my vintage bread box. Advertising really works, I suppose, but it doesn’t always have to be bad. In fact, in a pinch, it makes quick and yummy French toast or stuffing.

It was nice to see in this 1956 ad for Max Factor make up that her hat is very similar to the pattern for a hat I just purchased. It seems got very close to the head, almost like large headbands, and are now moving up a bit. This will eventually become the famous ‘pillbox’ of Jackie Kennedy in the early 60’s. Then hats will become larger versions of 1920’s cloche’s but worn atop the head rather than down over it such as this. 1965 vs. 1925. Then, of course by the late 60’s they will become big and floppy and then just, poof! Disappear. Such a sad shame hats are no longer des rigueur, as they can add so much style so quickly to even the last minute thrown together outfit. 
And to close, in a purely selfish, American consumer way, this would have to be my current dream car. A 1956 Mercury Monterey woody station wagon. Oh, gals, imagine the groceries I could haul and the tailgating and rambling down the old road with a lovely vintage chair in the back from the local antique store. A gal can be a little greedy sometimes, can’t she?
Until tomorrow, then, Happy Homemaking.

10 August 1956 “Patti Page, Woman’s March, Some New Patterns and More of our Budget Article.”

This week in Tv here in 1956, we can look forward to seeing Patti Page sing her heart out. I love that her ‘fuller arms’ are not hidden. There is no Photoshop here in 1956, and it seems she was merely cut out by hand by some lower rung ad man in the arts department. There is a lot to be said for the naiveté’ of our times here in the 1950’s. A genuine rawness even to something as simply as our Tv guides.
Here she is on the Patti Page Show this year (56)

This is a new song by Patti Page for this year 1956. (this tune “Nevertheless” is a great one to clean to)

The young Elizabeth Taylor is on the cover of this month’s Cosmopolitan. I adore her hair this way, short and so chic’.
Yesterday, the 9th of August 1956, South African women marched to petition against legislation that required African persons to carry the "pass", special identification documents which curtailed an African's freedom of movement during the apartheid era. It is held as a public holiday to this day. Read more about that HERE. For those Homeschoolers out there, it would be an interesting topic. Women’s rights and minority’s rates are beginning to have a move to the forefront as the decade ends. Oh, if only we could really go back and handle things differently. But, we can move forward and I think women are always the best at understanding both sides of an argument. I am sure most women have to do it daily with their children.
I just purchased two new patterns. I know, I know, I need another pattern like I need a hole in the head, but a gal must be prepared. These are both very crucial to my future sewing ventures.
The first is this wonderful hat and collar pattern. How cunning is it that there are collar patterns! I can already imagine more of my dresses and tops becoming ‘new’ simply by adding these collars. (Although the pilgrim version might have to be reserved for only trips to Plimoth Plantaion) The striped dickey top with the button and peter pan collar is adorable. And the basic beret/pill box is going to be glorious in wool and felt.
This second pattern made my heart skip a beat. I have been trying to find a pattern for the dresses I see that have  the sleeve as part of the bodice. Some of my faithful readers will recall my own attempts at my own pattern for this. It worked rather well, but I am dying to see how and where to put darts and such. I like the second version because I really like finding new vintage ways to wear scarves. Isn’t it just ducky peeking out like that! And pickets are always nice in any dress/skirt.
And, for those few of you who have been faithfully reading this very long column on Marriage and Money, here is the next installment. And NO it still is not all of it! There was always much more writing in old magazines than what we are given today. As I said, modern ladies magazines are like an elementary school second grade primer: See Jane Shop, Look Jane Look, there are some dishes and sheets, Buy Jane BUY. But, I digress.
Simply click on them to read and enjoy!

I have also been really working on remaking the website again this week. I know I did it once before, but it was laid out in such a way that I could not keep up with that and all the other things I must and want to do. The new format will be simpler but easier for me to update so it can actually be a fun place to visit and share with all of you.
Until tomorrow, then, Happy Homemaking.
Because a Commenter said Allegheny Moon by Patti Page is her favorite, I edited this post to include it. This Record is from this year, as well, 1956. Here you can hear how we here in 1956 would hear it. There are no i-Pods or digital, but the lovely whirl and hiss of the Record adds something. Picture it on the large Hi-Fi the size of a sideboard. Wine chilling, the lights dimmed and you and your loved one (he in his white dinner jacket) dancing cheek to cheek. Ah…..

8 August 1956 “Budget: Your Paycheck and Your Marriage Article Continued and a Homemaker’s Poem”

I am continuing today with the article of yesterday “Your Paycheck and your Marriage”. This is a rather long article, so here is the next section, but I will conclude it on tomorrow’s post. There are some interesting bits in this article.
I think I will repost yesterday’s beginning of the article, in case you are just joining us now. You can click on each section to read or download full size.

This article is full of common sense, something I think sometimes is lacking in the 21st century. And, contrary to many conceptions of the 50’s Housewife, we can see presented here a very real ‘shared’ aspect of money and responsibility. I still get a little upset when I hear the accepted idea of the cowering 1950’s housewife doing her husbands bidding. Many homemakers were very much the financial backbone of a family. They did not feel the money being earned was ‘HIS’ and that her role was valuable and necessary and therefore had no problem spending and saving the money as a collective of two people. The concept of marriage as both a partnership of mind and body is equally balanced with one of shared financial goal and purpose.
Some might balk at the mention of the wife ‘wanting to live beyond her husbands means’ as a sort of bondage. “Why not have two incomes and then you don’t have to answer to your husband” I can almost hear modern women speak. Yet, they miss the very point. First off, there were working wives in the 1950’s but if a wife was a ‘stay at home’ it is silly to think of it as bondage. In many ways it is rather freeing and can require much more financial skill. The ability to budget and balance all that needs to be provided by she is tantamount to a good relationship as much as if both members of the couple like the same music or want the same number of children. It also forces one to pay more attention to spending when only one income is available.
It is also interesting that they mention a working wife should not feel that ‘His money’ is theirs and Hers only for herself. Equality is laid out here and though it is easy to put a blanket of oppression over the wives of old, I am always finding the contrary in my research.
The bit about the ‘no money down’ was very relevant. Though we here in 1956 do not have the potholes and trappings of easy credit cards and expected debt, the increase in ‘pay on credit’ could be a mine-field for the Homemaker. We can still feel the need to keep up with the Joneses. And our increasing advertising on television as well as the homes of TV homemakers and what we see in magazines can be a siren song to ill-spending. Yet, we do try here to address it from a very tactful matter of fact way.
I think one thing I have come to realize about the 1950’s (at least what I can garner from my research at least) is the emotions did not rule one as greatly as it seems to today. Though there may be jokes of martini’s and ‘we don’t talk about things or share our emotions’ from those times, in many ways it decreases over all drama and also prepares children for a realistic adulthood. One was not expected to have every whim met or to be the center of attention at all times. Of course, we do see that their own lavishing on their offspring made their Baby Boomer children have a more skewed idea of their own rights and privileges. (not all baby boomers mind, but just in a general sense). So, who can say, maybe their own hardships should have been passed down more. Perhaps given the children a little less and work a little harder, we can’t really change the past. But, we can learn from it, I think. At least I am now basing my entire life upon it!
I think the more we can divorce unnecessary emotions from things where they are not helpful, such as money and our budget, the better off we shall be. This idea of “Well, I deserve it” seems to permeate 21st century. Certainly we should spend on joy and fun, but I think it will be better spent and enjoyed if we do so within the framework of a budget that works for us. I love my vintage items and to buy something new can give one a lift, as long as we don’t use it to quell other suffering or as an excuse to be irresponsible. Spend, certainly, but as a team (if we are married) and with a budget.
So, we can continue this article tomorrow, as it is a long one. I am also always impressed with the length and thoroughness of articles in my old magazines. I picked up a modern magazine the other day and was surprised to see more ads, mostly pictures and writing more catered to a 6th grade level. It was like a picture book or early reader for adults. I suppose we get used to what we get used to.
I am going to close with this sentimental but darling little poem from the same magazine as this article.

7 August 1956 “Yes, we have them too: Fitted Sheets, Chubbies, and Budgets”

Sometimes I think it is nice to allow you all to see that here in the 1950’s we have some of the same issues still present in the 21st century. So, in many ways people change, but also we seem to stay the same.
One of the things we have around here that is a luxury to have, is fitted sheets. Ours may have the added advantage (for ironing) of our ‘modern Atomic age’ and that being polyester. Honestly, though, I much prefer a high thread count cotton or Egyptian cotton, but polyester and nylon is all the rage in the 1950’s. I recall the first time I wore one of my vintage nightgowns and peignoir. (image thanks to somelikeitvintage)It felt odd and a bit ‘icky’ to my modern sensibilities. Yet, now, I rather enjoy its silky feel and I haven’t to feel guilty about it’s being a petroleum product, as it is old and recycled, it being actually from the 1950’s, and it is a dream to wash and dry! You can also see that pastels are high on the list of desired colors here in the 1950’s. Soft shades of pink and green pretty butter cup yellows. The bedroom and boudoir are the realms of the wife as the Den is the manly leather filled, pipe smoke, old leather bound book venue of the Husband. And a man of the 1950’s (as my hubby truly is) hasn’t any qualms about sleeping in pink sheets or a flowered dust ruffle. The men of the 1950’s hadn’t need to ‘prove’ their manhood. And honestly, men in 21st century with their hair-do’s and their hip clothes worn so carefully to give the illusion of nonchalance, seem all the more womanly to me than brylcreem, close shaves and button down shirts ever would. But I digress. The shades of bedrooms are definitely fit for a woman to express her femininity.
Another thing we 1950’s folk have is, believe it or not, child seats. (this image thanks to robynsravings) Now, you will notice it is not really similar to a 21st century car seat. But, for the child, it appears to be a fun way to look straight out the front window. I wonder what the fatality rate for infants in car’s? We must remember there were less cars and though many think our cars large here in 1956, just take a look out your own window at all the SUV’s and then think of the Chevy Bel Air, not as big as you thought, is it?
Certainly car seats were not des rigueur, as they are now, and in many cases were never used at all. A child and a baby may simply ride along with mother, no worries. Some cars even offered fold down front seats that became beds so family could sleep during a long drive or overnight at rest stops. I think today in 1956 we have a general feeling that people, over all, have a more cumulative form of common sense than is expected or assumed in the 21st century.
And, finally, yes in 1956 we also have heavier children. I think it very interesting that Lane Bryant is still a clothing store for the heavier set. Now, I am not sure if this drawing is just being kind to ‘Chubbies’ and not showing how fat a child can be, or if fat in 1956 means nothing compared to 2010. I do know that there is much evidence that today’s newer generations are expected to have shorter life spans than their parents due to disease such as heart disease and diabetes. Perhaps because the parents, over all, eat better here in 1956 (not much junk food or fast food to tempt us) that the children eat less as a result. And there is much more playtime outside, though the 1956 tv is the beginning of the ‘stay inside’ phase of childhood.
And finally, the subject that probably always remains true no matter the time: money, budgets and couples. This article from a 1954 Better Homes and Gardens touches on some interesting points and still has relevant ideas for today.
You can click on it to read and I will post the remainder of the article tomorrow. That way you can read this today and digest it and tomorrow you can get out your pen and paper and prepare for that ‘family meeting’ to adjust your budget. Or you can just read it, laugh at the quaintness of the 1950’s and go forward. Many of you may already be good at budgeting, but I know it took my own journey to 1955 to finally really get a handle on my own spending and savings plan.
Until tomorrow, then, Happy Homemaking.

6 August 1956 “Forbidden Planet and The Theremin”

My husband, though is rather learned and has consumed many of the classics, love’s science fiction. After we started dating I began to look at it differently. And, to date, my favorite Science Fiction film came out this year 1956.

Until I did some research I had been under the impression that Forbidden planet used the magnetic instrument Theremin and that it was one of the first movies to do so. I have since found out that Forbidden planet actually used ring modulation. And that the Theramin was used in movies as early as 1931. And not only meant for SciFi, as it is used in the 1945 score of the psychological thriller Spell Bound
None the less, I think when speaking of the 1950’s and scifi and really the modern movements in all the arts, one must speak of the Theremin.This site HERE does a wonderful job of giving the history of this amazing instrument.
Much like the jarring and erratic movements that paint on canvas had taken with such artists as DeKooning and Pollack, it seems fitting that the eerie jarring sounds of the Theremin should be associated with the Atomic Age.
Any one who has watched old monster movies on a Saturday morning or watched old scifi is familiar with the sounds. Here is a good example of it in that context.

Yet, the Theremin was not only used for ‘spookie eerie’ sounds. Here in this wonderful segment on the show “You Asked For It” we see a lovely young lady playing it. At first one almost thinks it is the human voice.

This instrument was strange and popular enough to be featured again on “You Asked For It”. This time it was earlier in the decade 1953.

The instrument in many ways really embodies the time. The advancement in technology, the ‘futuristic’ way in which one plays it by touching the air before the machine and the subsequent sounds and compilations were very in tune with composers of the time. I recommend you listen all the way through the video I posted above for the scoring of “the Day The Earth Stood Still” as the piano arrangement has an almost Aaron Copeland quality to it.
Again, this seems another moment when the 1950’s really has that Modern structure that has built up our present day world. Though they may have been amazed at iPods and cell phones, they would have taken them in stride, I am sure. Only their level of common courtesy and overall thrift probably would have had them using those tools very differently.

5 August 1956 “The Boldness of Mid-Century Interiors and A New Dress…Almost”

I thought for a quick post today I would show the boldness of the 1950’s interior. Now, certainly not all homes had such bold looks, just as today most homes don’t look like magazine shots. But, there was a bravery, an almost innocent brashness in the post war color scheme.
This bedroom has no apologies. And the color combination is like a jewel box with Deep purple and coral pink and touches of teal blue. It makes me think of the colors of a coral reef. In fact, when you see this color in the context of nature, you can really see its beauty. And you could even add some orange to this bedroom with pillows and it would work as it does in nature. And you can see the boldness of this color scheme in a bath. Here the Golds and Browns remind me of this moth. And this same color scheme, with the green of the leaf, works in this dining room of Heywood-Wakefield Furnishing.
Even the Early American and Colonial mid century home boldness is the key.The contrast of the rough pine open shelves with the bright modern vinyl floor works because of the deliberateness of the room. The chosen items displayed in the window and on the shelves.
This living room gives me inspiration for my own actual 1700’s house using the bold strokes and colors of mid-century. The clean starkness of a Colonial home is enlivened with a daring pallette of pinks and greens. The inside of the shelves pick up the colors of the sofa fabric and even the pink tones in the brick. The mid-century decorator had an almost Victorian approach to color. Though they were much more selective with objects than their Victorian ancestors, the colors remind me of the unhindered use of color. There seems to be a deliberateness and confident action in ‘what is right and what should be done’ in many things done in the 1950s. And though there were things we are glad to have moved away from, the feeling of rightness of place and mature decision seems to permeate the decade as a whole. That is something I have truly come to love about my project and the decade.
Now, onto sewing.That same boldness of color and decision surely hit me in the making of my latest dress. Though it is not yet done, I wanted to share with you my latest attempt.
I found this lovely navy fabric with the dots of red white and a lighter blue. It just screamed vintage, though there was not enough to make an entire dress. So, I chose to match the lighter blue dot and used a solid cotton. The skirt will be the solid blue and trimmed in the patterned fabric. I had wanted to make a peter pan collar, but it did not work out as I had planned. So I am taking the large scale ric rac you see and pinning it and placing it where I would like to cut the new neckline. It will dip in the back like this. Now you can still see the fabric above the ric rac, but I will pin the ric rac down and then cut the new neckline, hem it and attach the rick rack to the neckline. I adore the look and to me it was a natural conclusion. It has a determined action of color and boldness the old me may not have taken, but now, 1956 style, it seems, well, natural. I will share the dress when it is done with how I trimmed the edge of the skirt.
Well, that is it for me today, Happy Homemaking all.