Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day one and all. Do you have anything special planned for today?

I remember well the Memorial Days from my childhood. Mom and I always went to the Memorial Day parade on the northend of town. The parade always ended at the cemetery so afterward Mom and I would decorate the graves for the summer (her little brother who died shortly after birth, her father, her brother-in-law... then, when I was 12, her mother too). Once that was done we'd come home and Dad would fire up the charcoal grill. I don't remember much about the meals except that we always ate on the screened-in backporch. Dad would also fly the flag on that day too.

I don't think people make such a big deal out of Memorial Day today as they used to. Oh, they may have a picnic or something but it's not the same thing as truly celebrating Memorial Day.

Start a 1950s Memorial Day renaissance in your own home. Go to the cemetery, put out some flags on the graves of your loved ones who served or fly a flag on your house there at home, and then get out the grill... the old-fashioned one that needs charcoal and lighter fluid... and enjoy your day.

God bless our troops. The ones who have served and who are serving now. Long may the American flag wave!

~Retro Wife

Vacations in the 1950s~

There's been a lot of talk recently about how family vacations are going to be affected, with gasoline prices what they are. I think the same financial effects could be felt in the 1950s, when a family wanted to take a vacation on a one-income salary.

When I was a child growing up in the 1950s, we never flew on an airplane when we went on vacation. We went by car. No seatbelts either! I remember the most important things to pack into the backseat, for the ride, were my pillow and my babydoll. I would lay down almost the whole time we were driving. Dad liked to get an early start, leaving about 6am and stopping by 2pm each afternoon.

We never went very far from home on our trips. The maximum was usually two days' travel to get to our destination. The big treat for me was if the motel where we stopped had an outdoor swimming pool and a playground. There were no such things as indoor pools at that time and neither were there charge cards, to make motel reservations ahead of time. Travelers always had to take their chances, hoping to see the infamous "Vacancies" sign lit about the time Dad was ready to stop driving for the day.

My mom always took the cooler along... a big, steel, red plaid Igloo one. It was filled with cold pop, milk, juice, hot dogs, etc. Mom also packed one of those "hot pot" thingies that boiled water fast except we always boiled our hot dogs in it, for our supper. No too many motels had restaurants attached to them and most of the big chain discount eateries in existence today did NOT exist back then. Eating "out" was a luxury that was seldom, even on vacation. If we, as a family, ate one meal per day in a restaurant, that was a big deal.

Not many souvenirs were purchased either but there were indeed some. I think that's where the bulk of my family's "extra" vacation money went... on souvenirs. Something to take home, to remember that particular vacation forever!

It always felt good to get home again though and that much still hasn't changed, from vacations long ago. I think vacations are much more elaborate today, than they were in the 1950s however, and that's a shame. A lot of money isn't needed to go away for a few days. Swinging on a swingset in a different place besides a child's own backyard is still something special. I think parents forget about that and think that a family's vacation has to contain Mickey Mouse or else.

I suppose if kids are raised to expect that, the simple swingset in another town wouldn't mean that much to them. That's a shame too.

~Retro Wife

Remember Platex gloves?

I have acrylic nails. They're long, painted "girly" pink, and have rhinestones on each one. I have to take good care of them or they don't last. That means for all my chores like washing dishes, scrubbing sinks, and polishing furniture I have to wear Playtex gloves. Back in the 1950s wearing these type of gloves were common place.

A woman always took pride in her appearance back then. She never wanted her hands to get rough and dry... thus the gloves during chores. She also would have regular beauty shop appointments for perms, trims, and the occasional "touch up" on her color. It wasn't an exception to do these things but the norm.

In the 1950s, a woman always looked presentable during the day. Make-up would always be applied first thing in the morning and there were no such things as "sweats" or other grungy clothes worn. No, the lady of the house never looked like she was ready to go to a formal dance everyday... but she surely looked "put together" and presentable. Much of the time this was done for the husband's benefit more than anything else!

How a woman and her children looked were considered a direct reflection on how good of a provider the man of the house was. That's why the wife had such a focus on the housework and home decorating too.

Why not go get yourself some Playtex gloves and start a renaissance of 1950s living in that aspect as well?! Then go treat yourself to some beautifully feminine acrylic nails! You'll be happy with the results.

~Retro Wife

The good ole root beer stand~

Tonight we went to the root beer stand in town for supper. Fortunately our town has one of the only original root beer stands still left in Indiana. It looks the same now as it did when I was a child.

The wooden building is painted bright orange, as are the picnic tables. The carhops wear orange sweatshirts in the cool weather and orange t-shirts when it's hot. The big heavy glass steins are still used and yes, they still have the "baby root beer" steins too. The hot dogs come in waxed paper wrappers with "Eckrich" printed on the side. There's a few more items on the menu than I remember as a kid and the prices have gone up a bit too... but I'm happy to say that's all that has changed.

My dad (whose been gone 20 years now, God rest his soul) used to know the original owner. At least twice a week, in the evening, my parents and I would take a drive to the root beer stand and have a "cold one" before going back home and retiring for the night. The owner would never fail to come out and stand by the car and talk a spell with my dad. Paul would have his white apron on when he'd walk out to our car, with a wide grin on his face. My dad liked Paul and the feeling was mutual.

Tonight I was happy to see that the current owner (second one since original) maintains that same tradition. When we pulled up, there was John (in his white apron) sitting on a picnic bench drinking a root beer with a patron and his family. He sat there for a good while before going back into the kitchen to resume his duties. I could almost see my Dad and Paul talking at that very moment. Both are in heaven now so maybe they are!

I would often be in my pajamas, after having a bath, when we'd go in the evenings. That way I could get tucked into bed when we got home. I saw a little one there tonight, in her jammies and hoodie sweatshirt, being held by her daddy who was sitting at a picnic table. I'll bet she was sleeping before she ever got home tonight, from all the fresh air and passing around that the carhops were doing with her. :-)

I don't know about you but I seek out the old familiar places of my childhood. I patronize those businesses that are trying to keep tradition alive. We need more of those old traditions in our world and we need to familiarize our children with how things used to be when we were growing up... so those traditions never die.

~Retro Wife

On one income~

It doesn't take two incomes to survive in today's society. I promise you it doesn't!!

Bread is still .49 a loaf at Aldi. Flour and sugar are still the best bargains in town because you can make all sorts of things with them. Homemade food is just as economical to whip up today as it was 50 years ago. The difference is that most families want much more than food on the table and a roof over their head. They want two cars, big houses, vacations, electronic toys, nice clothes, and food which tempts the pallet rather than merely fills the empty stomach.

Both my parents and my husband's parents lived in rented upstairs apartments after they got married. Every young couple did because it took time to save for a down-payment on a house. My in-laws had birthed 4 boys before they ever had enough money saved up for a minimal down-payment on their first "real home". After moving in, all they had to furnish their new abode was hand-me-downs from family and friends. My mother-in-law told me that they had been given a kitchen table but it didn't come with any chairs. So they used orange crates to sit on until hearing of someone who had kitchen chairs to give away.

Can you picture a young married couple doing that today? I sure can't!

My parents said that their favorite wedding gift was a used radio that a relative gave them (because the relative had purchased a new one for himself). Mom said they thought they were real "swanky" because they had their own personal radio in their apartment! :-) Their friends would come over, after supper, and everyone would gather around the radio in the bedroom (there was no living room in their little apartment) to listen to "The Shadow" and other programming that was broadcast each evening. After their favorite shows were over, everyone would go home and that was the entertainment for the day.

My father-in-law was a union electrician and many times he was out of work due to lack of business. He also hurt himself on the job one year and shattered his foot. He was off work for many months and that meant little income, except for the stipend they received from the union hall. My mother-in-law talked many times about how she would make potato soup "without the potatoes", as she put it, to feed 6 hungry mouths every night for supper.

They had one "account" (there weren't things such as charge cards then) at that time... an account at Sears... and when they couldn't make the payment on it, my father-in-law immediately went to the store and made arrangements with the people in charge, sharing with them his predicament (he went there on crutches, with a cast on his foot, when his doctor told him that he needed to stay OFF that foot completely!). The people at Sears were sympathetic to his plight and said that because his credit was so good, they would simply hold on to his account and he could start making payments on it again once he was well enough to get back to work. My father-in-law left the store very relieved because he was a stickler about debt and making payments on time. In a few weeks, a statement from Sears came in the mail stating that if my in-laws didn't make their "late payment" on their account within 10 days, the credit bureau was going to be notified. That made my father-in-law so *angry* that he went to the bank, withdrew money they were saving for food, and paid-off the account. From that point forward he never EVER had another installment loan again, other than his house payment! He never wanted to be in that predicament again, of being unable to make a payment on something.

My mother-in-law took in ironing to make extra money for the household but she never worked outside the home. She was needed at home to cook meals, wash clothes, clean house and provide general stability during the lean years. It wasn't even an option for her to work outside the home to provide income. That was my father-in-law's job and that was that. It was a recognized fact back then that women couldn't do it all... work outside the home all day and then do chores at home after that.

I wonder why that fact isn't recognized by anybody, it seems, today?

Two people working outside the home, in a family, means that much more expense is needed to accomplish that. It's like the hamster on the wheel. Two people are running on the wheel and getting absolutely nowhere. If couples today would only live within their means, on one income... no matter what that one income could afford... life and society would be so much better for it. No more kids at daycare. No more kids coming home to empty houses after school. No more fast food. No more need for two cars. No worrying about two adults in the family having to own decent work clothes for every day of the week. No huge mortgage payments (families wouldn't qualify for them). No ability to spoil anyone in the family with excess because there would not be the funds for that sort of thing.

Have you ever driven by some of these 3,000 square foot McHouses (cookie cutter designs) in the new subdivisions that always seem to be on the edge of town? We do and we always say the same thing... "How can people AFFORD those monstrosities?" If you look closer, you will always see the Little Tyke equipment in the yard which means that a young couple with children resides there. A young couple on the hamster wheel... a young mother who has no idea what it's like to read a book in the afternoon or sit down for coffee with a cherished neighbor each morning or have an empty laundry hamper. Stress leads to problems of all sorts: marriage difficulties, child abuse, health maladies.

In the 1950s, men used to relax in the evening after work and supper. They used to read the paper, watch t.v. or listen to the radio, or play baseball at the field on the corner. Women used to relax at various points in the day and in the evening. They would sit down mid-morning and have coffee with the woman next-door, relax with a good book in the afternoon after their chores were done, or gather with girlfriends one Thursday night each month for Card Club. Work was mixed with pleasure and there was balance in people's lives. There is no more balance today... and that's the whole problem!

It doesn't take two incomes to live, in today's world, any more than it did 50 years ago. The difference is that people aren't willing to do what it takes to make it on one income, as they did 50 years ago. Couples are not content until they have everything they want... the things that their parents had to work 15 years for, before they could afford. We live in a "I want it and I want it right now!!" generation and couples are willing to run endlessly on the wheel to get it. I find that so incredibly sad.

~RetroWife

Love those 1950s!!

I decided to start a blog that reflects the lifestyle I lead here on our little piece 'o heaven... a 2 acre parcel of mostly-wooded land at the end of a cul-de-sac in a small subdivision, out in a rural county in Indiana.

My husband and I are both 50 years old and have been married for 31 years thus far. We've always been considered "old-fashioned" even when we got married at the ripe old age of 19. After we were wed, back in 1976, we immediately moved into an apartment complex that contained mostly retired couples. We felt very comfortable there and fit in quite well. We never played our music loud, stayed out late, or had parties. We were homebodies even back then so all our neighbors loved us, as we loved them.

Back in the 70s and 80s, it was still popular for young couples to get together and play cards on a Saturday night. There were no such things as computers or even cable television, so our main source of entertainment was a deck of cards and some snacks, enjoyed with close friends. We would go out for dinner once in awhile but most of us didn't have two nickels to rub together so each couple took their turn, once a month or so, hosting lively games of pinochle on Saturday night. Once in awhile we'd have the good fortune of being invited to a wedding reception and that was a HUGE treat. Unlike today, when most receptions are vacated before the band even starts to play (or is it rather the DJ?). Most folks today just want to stay home and play on their computers and watch their high definition televisions. What fun they're missing out on... the fun of human interaction IRL (in real life)!

This blog will probably end up being my little "public stand" too. A public stand for the reinstitution of the retro years... the age of front porches, coffee klatches between neighbor women, and being on a first-name basis with the meat market man and the pharmacist. I don't think those days are so bygone. At least they don't have to be if we don't let them. Create a 1950s renaissance right there in your own homes, neighborhoods and towns. Bring back the stay-at-home wives and the warm freshly-made chocolate chip cookies for the school kids when they get off the bus. As with all things, traditions and ways of life start small... right there within the individual family unit.

Long live orange shag carpet!!!

~RetroWife