We can move to a more simple era once we step through our doorway by making choices in how we live.
These photos are very precious to me, please do not copy them or use them for any purpose. I use these photos so you can see glimpses of the past.
There is a term used when researching one's family history called removed. Once removed, twice removed, three times removed etc. It is a term used to describe your relationship with a family member. This term has come to mind quite often lately as I have thrown in the towel to modern times and gone back to what my husband and I call the sensible days.
I am old enough to remember a better time or era and since my husband and I have been ridding ourselves of the junk that came with the new times we feel better. I have mentioned in different articles that we have been trying to rid ourselves of non useful and poorly made items. I feel in today's world we are at least eight or nine times removed from an era that had common sense.
If you have ever been to a vintage car show you have seen people admiring the workmanship of the old cars and the quality in the materials used to build those cars. Many vintage household items have the same quality as the vintage cars and for instance our hand crank can opener is a joy to use because it is made from sturdy high quality metal. We once used a can opener with high quality metal but removed it and replaced it with the newer can openers. After having to replace the newer ones several times because of poor quality we came to our senses and searched out the old one.
This item is leaving our house........
When you look back at very early newspaper advertising you can clearly see the goals of manufacturers were to make sure you buy what they are selling. When television came along advertising was glamorized and made you feel you could not live without what they were selling. The new modern gadgets would absolutely make your life easier. People started replacing their well made goods for the brightly colored plastic stuff and to this day I am trying to find the old things I once used that were much better than any new one made today. Little by little my husband and I are returning to our vintage items.
When they came out with these food processors all of a sudden every cooking show was using one. Were they paid to do this? Was there a plan to get one of these into every household? You bet there was! Notice the dirt and dust on this from sitting unused. To me, this makes cooking more difficult, it is bulky and requires a lot of space to store and clean up requires more effort.
I am back to using the older kitchen items because it makes me happy using something well made.
There has been a increase in British television series and has inspired some people to dress and style their hair as they did in the thirties, forties and fifties era and live somewhat like people did in those days. The clothes were nicer, the hair styles were prettier, the houses were simpler and people were more polite and modest. All you have to do is go to you tube and type in 1940's hair tutorial and you will understand the trend. But if you want to know what they really looked like you can look at the following pictures.
Please do Not use any of my photos on my website. I take the time to do this website to share information and history.
The 1940's was a very proper time as far as dress. It was more modern but appearance was important. If you were at work or home or shopping people would dress appropriate.
Hats and pretty scarfs were worn but then styles became more casual as did most everything else and I think we have become too casual.
Gloves in hand meant going to town. Even children wore gloves to town and I still have a pair of my first white gloves or rather I have one of the white gloves.
One of my older cookbooks, (1909 ) has advertising. If you notice in the top advertisement it states We want your Orders. At that time advertising was letting you know what they had to offer.
As time passed great difficulties came about and in the 1930's the great depression caused much difficulty for families food was scarce for many. The 1940's world war two caused food rationing and then after the war good times rolled. Advertising took off and ready to eat foods were more available. Manufacturers advertised using all their glitz and glimmer and pushed their goods. Furniture, appliances, new gadgets then frozen dinners. They showed the wife and mother dressed up with their pretty crisp aprons removing the meals from the oven. Surely they would not lie to us, right? The new foods were easier and never did we know that they were for sure not better for us.
People started moving to the suburbs and living more modern.
There were films showing people how to live and how to decorate their homes and showed families living in new houses and driving the newest car. Yes, people were living the American dream and manufacturers were making sure people continued to purchase goods no matter what and continue to this day. The goods were well made at first but as time went on as everyone knows good quality stopped.
My husband and I have watched several of the British series and they made us realize how far we have come and not necessarily for the good. We had already realized this and had started making our move backwards to a more comfortable place. We do own a computer and have internet but we do not have I paddy things and poddy things and such. My husband does have work electronics but when he is at home those are put away. We do have television but we do not watch it near as often as we did in the past. We only watch television for thirty minutes in the morning and in the evening when everything is done and put away we sit down and watch a program or two. Recently we stopped watching the morning news on television and turn on the radio to public radio because it has better news.
We removed the automatic drip coffeemaker and replaced it with the old Pyrex coffee pot that I once used and we question again why did we stop using the better made goods? To me the automatic drip does make coffee faster but it does not taste as good.
I closed the door on my dishwasher and I said no more. I went back to hand washing our dishes and I have come to realize several things by doing this. It has come to light that a dishwasher truly altered my day. Using a dishwasher washes the dishes for us but it caused us to own duplicates of many kitchen items because if our items were in the dishwasher dirty it was not ready for use. The dishwasher put stains in our glasses and silverware and it also became a dread to unload and empty because by the time it was finished washing I was too tired to put the dishes away. I am in a better mental state of washing dishes, I really do not mind hand washing the dishes anymore because I wash, rinse, dry them and put them away and it is just done. This means that my favorite paring knife is always clean and ready to use and that the shelf that holds glasses is always full. We really do not need all the extras.
More about housework.
I did not have any egg custard pie to take a picture of but I did have a Ganny Tart so this will have to do for now and will understand as you read on.
It is my belief that it is not possible to have the entire house clean on the same day because the dust monster and the dirt devil will show up no matter what. It does not matter if you have twelve children or live alone the house will mess itself up when you are not looking. That is unless you are Fannie Bell which I have mentioned a few times in other articles.
Fannie Bell was one of my mother's friends and her house was always tidy. Anytime you went to visit Fanny Bell you would get a piece of freshly made egg custard pie because Fanny Bell was the perfect housekeeper as so it seemed. I feel that if I ever get to that point that my house is perfect I will have egg custard pie for everyone that stops by. I was close to that perfect day and I managed to make the Ganny Tart this week.
I have several very old house management books and I absolutely cherish these books. I pull them off my shelf often and use the advice given to remedy many household issues.
To me one of the most important bits of information and hardly used anymore is the power of the sun. Sunshine sanitizes the laundry. When I was younger and first married I often carried my entire contents of the house outside to air out and get sunshine. While the mattress and headboards, the dresser drawers and everything aired out I wiped down everything, dusted, mopped and waxed the floors. I cleaned the entire house top to bottom. After our children were born this did not happen as often then stopped completely as we acquired more furniture and gadgets and followed along what everyone else was doing.
Recently I was thinking about people in my past and remembering those that lived on farms. Every morning they had specific jobs to do and there was no getting up and checking emails and watching the news, it was straight out to the barn in the wee hours of the morning to milk the cow. They fed the animals first and then came in for breakfast. In the house it was getting up and heating up the stove and making the biscuits. It was scrubbing the floors and washing the clothes; it was ironing the linens and washing the dishes. It was something that was done, it was routine and there was no girl's night out, there were no man caves, there was no eating out most every day because it was home life and there was always something to do at home. They knew how to do and take care of what they were use to using and they knew how to repair what they had.
People were more focused on what they were doing. They were not on the phone, there was no texting, there was no running around in SUV's hauling children to daily activities. Children had chores and studies and outdoor play time. Living in the city it was much different but the principles were still there doing the same thing in a different way.
When I go shopping for groceries it feels as if we have passed into a world that is just not real. I see things that make we want to leave the store before I even finish with my shopping. I refuse to become immune to seeing people dressed in skimpy clothes and children screaming in the buggies as the children and parent are wearing their pajamas. I dislike people pushing the cart nearly knocking you down and would not give you the time of day if they asked you. One day this past year I spoke to a person I was passing and they looked at me and walked away. It actually brought tears to my eyes and had a lump in my throat. I want no part of this. I will continue to try and be polite, get what I need and leave.
I am not saying to do as I do but to take notice of your lifestyle. Are you eating well and living a good clean life? Are you frustrated and don't know why? Maybe because you are surrounded with goods that just don't feel right. Maybe you have too much junk. It is better to have two outfits that look nice and feel comfortable that you can mix and match and are good quality than a closet full of cheaply made clothing that cost you much more than those two quality outfits. Look at everything you purchase. Do not purchase it in a hurry and think it over completely before purchasing. Is it made good, does it have real materials? Is it going to leach some kind of chemical? Take your time making any decisions.
Life is too short to follow others around and do what they are doing. Don't let what others have bother you because behind every closed door people can be living a miserable life. Today there are people living in beautiful homes and they never see or speak to each other. They go to their rooms or places and stare into electronic devices. When someone does speak the other does not listen because their head if full and over stimulated. Life has to be better than this. I have come to enjoy the quiet and now I can see clearly. Grandma Donna
