14 March 1957 “Our Towns and Public Transportation”

It seems that every time I innocently find an interesting topic, such as the beginning of the strip mall, I find myself going down an unexpected path. With the continued information I kept finding on the dismantling of tram and public trains I realized they were electric trains. I then found out that even California, where cars are so important, once had an electric tram public transportation system.

This photo from last year for me (1956) shows  an increasing pile of Pacific Electric Railway streetcars stacked at a junkyard on Terminal Island.

In the 19th century train lines were set and cities and towns had public trams powered by horses, as seen here in New Hampshire. As electricity became more prevalent, these systems were made over to electric trams and trains.

“At one time, nearly every city in the U.S. with population over 10,000 had at least one streetcar company and nearly all of which were privately owned and were later dismantled. Bradford Snell estimates that in 1920 90% of all trips were by rail using 1,200 separate electric street and interurban railways with 44,000 miles of track, 300,000 employees, 15 billion annual passengers, and $1 billion in income.”

What is interesting here is that at this time the street cars and even the electricity supplied to them were small business owned by locals in a community. One was getting the lines and the power from local businessmen they would see in their community. This allowed easy and inexpensive transportation for the poor and working middle classes as well as jobs and money directly to THAT town or community.

In 1922 the then head of General Motors (GM), Alfred P. Sloane, established a unit in the GM corporation to ‘replace America’s electric trams and trains with buses, trucks, and cars made by them’.

In 1926 John D. Hertz (yes eventually Hertz rent a car) formed the “The Omnibus Corporation”. This company owned the Chicago Motor Coach Company and the Fifth Avenue Coach Company in New York. “Hertz was made a board member of GM the next year when GM acquired a controlling share of the Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company, a very successful bus and coach manufacturer which Hertz had founded in 1923.”

Now I started to see all these movements of a few people intentionally setting themselves up to take away the local business of electric tram systems.

In 1941, Pacific City Lines attempted a hostile takeover of the Key System which operated electric trains and streetcars in Oakland, California. This was not public knowledge until 1955!

1946 E. Jay Quimby put out a message to let people know what was happening to their affordable locally controlled public transport by the owners of the National City Lines (GM, Firestone and Phillips Petroleum). It read:

 TO: The Mayors; The City Manager; The City Transit Engineer; The members of The Committee on Mass-Transportation and The Tax-Payers and The Riding Citizens of Your Community." It began, "This is an urgent warning to each and every one of you that there is a careful, deliberately planned campaign to swindle you out of your most important and valuable public utilities–your Electric Railway System"

I had no idea that prior to all our highways we just take for granted (which were installed in the 1950’s) that an entire country of public transportation was available even in smaller towns. And that that same transportation was small business owned and maintained by that community as well as being allowed to have local small business control the electric power as well!

By the end of the 1940’s and into the 1950’s these few corporations that had been allowed to literally strip the towns and cities of their own business finally were brought up on monopoly charges.

In 1949, Firestone Tire, Standard oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, General Motors and Mack Trucks were convicted of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to local transit companies controlled by National City Lines and other companies; they were acquitted of conspiring to monopolize the ownership of these companies. The verdicts were upheld on appeal in 1951. The corporations involved were fined only $5000. In addition, the jury convicted H.C. Grossman, who was then treasurer of General Motors. Grossman had played a key role in the motorization campaigns and had served as a director of PCL when that company undertook the dismantlement of the $100 million Pacific Electric system. The court fined Grossman the magnanimous sum of $1 [Yes only one dollar!].

According to Bradford Snell, GM's own testimony had shown that by the mid-1950s, GM and its agents had canvassed more than 1,000 electric railways and had motorized 90 percent, more than 900 systems. The struggling Pacific Electric Railway was purchased by Metropolitan Coach Lines in 1953. Jesse Haugh, who ran Metropolitan Coach Lines, had also bought San Diego Electric Railway though a separate company in 1948 and was a former executive of Pacific City Lines. The remaining streetcars converted to buses in the next two years.

The remains of the Pacific Electric Railway and of the Los Angeles Railway were taken into public ownership in 1958 and continued to replace streetcars with buses.

I have to say, this again was an innocent enough discovery at first. And really, one of the reasons I did not post yesterday, was because I spend the day really discussing this with hubby. I just couldn’t believe that we , now here in 2011 facing increasing gas prices and oil debates that are tearing the country apart as well as controlling the jobs and purse strings of entire states, took away our easy electric transportation.

Even our own area, Cape Cod, had a rail system (though it was not electric) that ran from Boston to every town on the Cape. In the late 1970’s these tracks were all pulled up and replaced with the “Cape Cod Rail Trail” literally a place to ride our bikes. It is used very little compared to the ability of the small towns that dot our little island having easy and cheap access to the other towns for shopping and to jobs off cape without the expense of the car or gas!

Again I find my innocent little sojourn into time travel; a trip that was to be of petticoats and funny jello salads, uncovering more and more lies told to we, the real people OF this country, by the few who had the most money.

When I consider the jobs and growing industry that could have been made by the electric power being a ‘small local business’ as well as affordable public transport (no worries of high gas prices or car insurance or repair or traffic jams!) It infuriates me.

I have also got to the point where if one wishes to debate this side or that, I simply don’t see it. There are no real sides as this point. We simply have been duped and both sides of the political aisle are the same. Some argue over the import of the oil business in their state and if that business left the state they would be without jobs. Well, why did we allow one industry to SO control one entire state that its decisions or whims of government could put an entire group of people in or out of the poor house? We have no LOCAL buisinss, industry or transportation. How have we got here in only 60 years!

Now, when I see and read things daily from my time (1957) I just see how ever closer we are approaching the modern 21st century world and how easily we let it all slip away. Really, sometimes, I begin to wonder what we can do. I wonder if the scales HAVE tipped to far and the hope of ‘voting with our dollars’ or ‘voting in the right person’ is simply a false hope set about to keep us ignorant to the reality of our country.

Look at the economic collapse and the eventual bail out of large private Banks with Public money, while the low end workers of those same companies lost all their 401K and savings for retirement? And, this is not a Democrat or Republican thing, it is merely that we have, over the past 60 years, simply let a few larger business grow to monopolies that joined together and literally altered and controlled all the states in our Union.

It is rather upsetting, to say the least. One may call me crazy or an conspiracy theorist, except I am simply state actual facts that are easily accessed in history books, legal documents and online.

I don’t want this to be a negative. I was rather excited to hear about our various local towns and villages. And I was happy to see some of you had lovely towns and good things to say. I think maybe we can focus on what is right in those towns and think about how we could copy that in our own. But, have we gone too far? Do you think there are answers or do you even think there are problems?

Let’s discuss this and maybe I will be cheered up with your words of encouragement or even your calling me a silly ninny. I wish the facts weren’t true and that we were more in control of our own country from the small towns up, but I feel more and more a puppet of my own country.

Who wants to cheer me up?

10 March 1957 “The American Strip Mall and Tell Us About Your Area”

This is a wonderful shot of these two ladies ready to shop at their local strip mall in New York really describes the changing landscape here in 1950’s America. The main streets, though still rather busy, are now merely an accompaniment to the strip mall.

With the automobile’s growth, the increase of roads and the growth of the suburb, America post WWII radically changed. The quick hop down town on a bike or the bus to the local market was being replaced with “Cars for everyone”. A growing middle class, increased wages and the chance for anyone to really own a car now. Consider the 1950’s teenager who has the ‘old’ cars of the 20’s as his first car. His parent’s generation didn’t have this in the same number and certainly not his grandparents.

Though the downtown was still the place to be and many shops existed there, the spreading out of families into ever increasing suburbs naturally lead to the strip mall. It was the solution to the increasing congestion of traffic in downtowns. By placing large parking spaces in front, more shoppers could easily park and shop.

Even much used tram lines were paved over to make more room for cars. Therefore, those who did not have them virtually lost their forms of public transportation, except the buses. They were recently discovered by digging utility workers.

Now, I am not certain if this is only a particular American situation. I know we simply had the money and the land post WWII that our allies did not. And we also have no real sense of history as far as preserving historical buildings that Europe enjoys.

For example, this mansion in Schenectady NY, the Schuyler-Standford Mansion built in the 1760’s, is being torn down to make room for a new strip mall.

I am very curious for any of my international followers to chime in here: What country do you live in and do you have strip malls, did they evolve and how did they affect your downtowns and public transportation.

Now for my American readers: How lively are the strip malls in your area of the USA and are they easy to get to only by car or are there bus services as well. How is your downtown area, if you still have one?

I really am curious to know and I think it will be fun to find out, don’t you?

8 March 1957 “Being Green 1950’s Style: or Common Sense”

I wanted to share this article again. It is from one of my 1940’s magazines discussing the importance of using the sun to aid in heating. It was written during the war years when we were more conscious of money and spending and saving.

I thought I’d just share a few things that were fairly normal in the past that would be considered green today. Really, just common sense and with the thought of thrift and the future. This idea of ‘saving’ or thinking ahead or even planning for the future often seems an alien idea in modern society.

Many people of old saved their glass jars. When one purchased something, it was often washed out and used again. If you were poor or furgal enough, there were many jam jars used as water glasses. In the 1950’s they even packaged things in a specifically reusable package.

Though many things were kept and repurposed rather than thrown out. And almost nothing came in plastic, so a good reusable sturdy glass jar with a good lid was valued.

Here is a vintage spice jar I use to hold my cinnamon sugar. I was surprised to see one can buy throwaway plastic containers of pre-mixed cinnamon sugar. Now, that’s pretty lazy to not be able to scoop your cinnamon and sugar together and give a little shake.  Here are some modern uses of glass jars.   This lovely craft rooms takes advantage of old rulers as decoration and it is still a usable measure, if one holds things such as fabric up to it.

You can also unify jars by painting the lids a single color, making varying sizes and shapes ‘go together’. Also it is easy enough to make up vintage labels for these using vintage clip art or old cards and magazines. Such as this clever crafter did here using old vintage button cards as labels.

 

 Something as simple as using cloth/linen napkins saves so much waste and saves on the pocket book as well. I use a napkin more than once and they all get laundered on Monday with my other things. I save money and make less garbage AND feel like my dinner is special. Here you can see mother has her cloth napkin on her lap.

Vintage napkins are so beautiful and really come in so many forms are are SO inexpensive, why not try it out.  Even vintage tea towels/kitchen towels are far prettier and can still be used to wipe hands in the kitchen in lieu of napkins. I use old tattered bath towels cut down and hemmed as my ‘hard duty’ wipe up kitchen towels. It is even better if they are white because they bleach easily enough or come clean if put in boiling water with some soda and left to soak overnight.

Did you know that boiling water converts baking soda to sodium carbonate? Why do you care? Well, it’s a great old-fashioned way to clean out the drain: Put One cup of baking soda down the drain and then pour Three cups of boiling water after. This is a great drain cleaner. Though many pre-made products were available in the 1950’s many a frugal homemaker knew these ‘old’ tricks from Mother or Grandmother, or gleaned their skills at the now vanished Home Economics classes.

Washing your hair in the sink was a very standard procedure in the 1950’s. In fact, the old joke was to get out of a date one would say, “Oh, I can’t go out tonight, I am staying in and washing my hair”.  A 10 minute shower uses between 25-50 gallons of water (depending on shower head which ranges from 2.5-5 gallons per minute). Consider how a once a week bath was replaced by daily showering and hair washing.

It actually is better for you hair not to be washed daily. If your hair is more oil, 2-3 times a week is better. I have ‘normal’ hair, in that I wash my hair usually Friday night and set it for the week. When I shower during the week (some days I simply do a ‘sink wash’) I wear a shower cap. This would have been the more usual water consumption in the 1950’s household.

There are so many easy things we can do to live a more vintage life and in so doing have the happy by-product of ‘being green’ or, as they called it, Common sense and purse sense. After all a penny saved IS a penny earned.

Check your pantry/cupboards now and see if you have product that is ready to be emptied and see if the jar/container could be used for another purpose than the garbage.

Happy Homemaking.

5 March 1957 “50 Years of Women’s Silhouette”

I thought it would be fun to see the change in women’s fashion silhouette over the past 50 years (1907-57). I have done this before in JULY 1955 HERE.

As a light and fun weekend pictorial I thought we could take that journey again:

First up 1907: The “S” curve shape and the corset has reached its pinnacle of contortion before disappearing somewhat during the first world War years. Corsets were worn in the teens, but they were more of a chemise and in fact much less constrictive than the 1950’s girdle. The waist line also received a combination of natural waist in the back scooping to a lower waist in front, all very held in a lower hip hugging corset. 

 

1917: Here we can see that the corset is almost not needed. This was probably one of the most relaxed silhouettes for women. You can see that an almost ‘large middle’ was encouraged. A heavier girl could easily hid her flaws during this period.

This is the more high fashion look at it While these 1917 shirtwaists and skirts would require a corset (though not as strict as 10 years earlier) The waist was raised from the 1907 lowered front and raised back look of the “S” curve.

1927: many people think 1920’s = short skirt. But it wasn’t until 1925 that the skirt actually reached above the knee. It then immediately began its descent down again. So, here by 1927 we see it just below the knee.

1937: And now 10 years later the hemline has migrated back down mid-calf, almost to the NEW LOOK length. Of course Dior has another 10 years and a war to get through before the look is found. Now the waist is gone and the dropped waist is des rigueur. The straighter boyish silhouette was murder for the fuller figure woman (who would have been the epitome of fashion in 1907) and she often wore a corset type garment that flattened her breasts and padded her middle to match her hips to give a straighter line.

  Here you can see the shoulder pad beginning to be introduced and it became very military in look during the war years. You do notice in the 1930’s that the waist has traveled up a bit almost to the 1917 position.

1947: Now the war has ended (and during the war years the skirt climbed back up to knee length due to shortages more than fashion). So the New Look celebrated the new abundance with a sloped shoulder and tighter natural waist and full skirt.

Though many women did not like the longer skirt length and on average a 1947 woman would still be dressed very ‘1940s’ Joan Crawford look. But the new look of longer skirt was definitely being embraced as well as can be seen in this 47 Butterick pattern book.

1957: Now as we are approaching the end of the 1950’s we still have the full skirt, dolman sleeve look of the mid 50’s as can be seen in these Speigal dresses. 

And Dior’s look had moved up the hemline and created the look of the 3/4 sleeve. An almost abridged version of his 1947 New Look 10 years earlier.

  But, here Lauren Bacall in 1957 is demonstrating the new dropped waist and straighter look that the early 1960’s will run parallel to the full skirted look.

When you consider the change in the past 50 years there have been changes but not to the level and distortion the first 5 decades of the 20th century showed.

What is your favorite period out of these presented? What is your favorite fashion period of any time?

3 March 1957 “The Queen, Thinking of War Times, and Preparing for the Worse?”

On 13 October 1940 young Princess Elizabeth ( the Future Queen) and her young sister Princess Margaret Rose gave a speech on the wireless during Children’s Hour.
It is a very sweet little speech. And it is amazing that by then, in 1940, many of Briton’s children were being sent out of the danger zone of London and its environs to the safety of the English countryside, Europe and overseas.

Here they are three years later in their Girl Guides uniforms.

This year, 1957, the young princess is Queen. And this year is the very first of her now yearly Christmas Television Broadcasts. That media now becoming more commonplace in homes ‘across the pond’ while in America, it has been quite a part of our lives this passing decade.
It was filmed at Sandringham House in Norfolk. A bit early but still nice, none the less.  It demonstrates the vast change in her life and all of those of the time in under 20 years.

In her talk she mentions the import of ‘modern inventions’ but also warns of people ‘carelessly throwing away old and ageless ideals as if outdated machinery’.
This really has hit home with me and my thinking of this past month. I have been ever haunted by the modern times. They keep poking their head through the vale of my 1957 seclusion. Perhaps the very great changes happening in the past few months are greater than when I started two years ago. Or merely it is my own ever increasing asking and questioning and therefore daily study of how things were and how they are that has lead me to feel this way.
The latest issue of the increasing oil per barrel prices have leaked into my little 1957 Eden. I cannot ignore them and find myself wanting to find out where it might lead us.
I have also come to realize it matters little why we are there. War, Middle East unrest, failing or peaking oil, the ability to drill or not drill for MORE oil, it all really matters very little. Because those decisions are really out of our hands, you and I. And the endless debate as to ‘why’ it is happening or whom to blame seems less important than how do we, the little people, prepare.
I have begun to think more and more about the future. I may very easily,now, slip into a false past but will the increasing costs of food and all that is connected with oil allow me such lax pleasure? I don’t know. I do know that the more I consider what I might want or like to do to prepare FOR such a future as left me with a dichotomy of feeling: Both fear and Hope.
The fear of increasing oil leads to any endless horrid scenarios: Extreme food costs and shortages, the economy failing, Increased unemployment mingled with recession (or Stagflation as it is referred) and the list goes on.
The Hope, then, comes in what I begin to think of when I consider ‘solutions’. I begin to see the things one had to do once during the Depression and the war years. And to even go back further, to before the industrial revolution existed. And in its scary scenario I also see some wonderful outcomes: an increased need for community, the very NEED to grow and manufacture at home in a very small mile radius community. The joy and return to we as individuals within a group and a community, not merely numbers to be advertised to, to become Citizens and NOT Consumers.
Now, surely there could be no worry at all. Oil could drop back down to 40 dollars a barrel and we could go on and on as we are. But, there is a part of me that wonders, why does it MATTER if any of it is true or if we ARE headed for bad times. Because if the preparedness and the outcome of planning for such a future would  be, in many ways, an enjoyable life, why not just go for it anyway! Prepare for the worse but enjoy the good if you have it.
Much of what I have learned from the 1950’s over the past two years has already put me on that path. But lately I have been looking in my 1957 magazines with all the plastic glow and bright promise of things and it begins to feel rather weak or almost false.  I am striving for more war time ideas of gardening and food on a shortage and a budget. I am curious and hungry for Victorian farming (though industrial still very animal or steam powered). I don’t know. It has left me wondering if 1957 is going to make it to the end of this year, or if I need to go back further?
I think, over all, that if bleak and bad times are coming then preparing for them may only make me a better person and in some ways improve my life. If there are no real bad times, then will I really miss being more disconnected to what the modern world really is? I don’t know. I know having got rid of modern TV/mags/advertising has done so much good for me. Perhaps I should continue back with my eyes fixed on the ‘news’ of the day leaving the ‘entertainment’ of it behind as I have done.
What do any of you think? Not rather or not Bad times ARE coming, but rather or night it might be a good idea to prepare for them even if they don’t? Is that too odd of a concept in the modern, instantaneous, now me me world?

 

Can we change? Do we want to? Should we regardless of the futures outcome?