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Toys as I found them

This post might be evidence that the summer is starting to rot my brain. Then again, maybe it just represents the fact that if you look at something long enough, you will begin to see it from multiple possible angles — literally and figuratively. Today, as I was watching my boys collecting baby toads in the yard (a never-ending quest for boys, it seems), and I noticed some of their toys that they had left in mid-action that struck me as funny.

Some of these toy combinations can induce great sadness. The accidents that happen at the hands of two young boys are never pretty, especially for the figures of plastic that are at the mercy of my boys’ whims. How are the boys to understand the aftermath? What happens after they walk away?
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1955 inventions that never caught on

This continues my perusal of the 1955 American Home magazines. I have been delighted by some of the finds, aghast at some of the decorating ideas, and plain ol’ astounded by some of the products.

I have always marveled at the need for hiding our basic entertainment components. I grew up in a house with this feature; one did not see a TV in any room but the basement, which usually wasn’t occupied by guests. No TVs existed in bedrooms, either. TVs were essentially out of sight, and possibly out of mind. I always found it a curious habit, as if families were content to live in denial: nooooooo, they didn’t watch TV! How preposterous that you might think so!
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The good, bad, and ugly of 1955 decorating ideas

The American Home magazine collection from 1955 has been a hoot so far. First there was the bad soup collection, then the green ruin they actually presented as a good idea, and now I have a smattering of miscellany that I’ve found in the bound collection. Not everything presented in the magazine is a bad idea. There are some pictures of kitchens that make me yearn with desire — a sort of “wow-I-love-that-kitchen-and-would-do-just-about-anything-to-have-one-like-it-today” sort of desire.
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Not so green with envy . . .

I promised I’d post some pictures from the 1955 American Home magazines that I received a few weeks ago. What fun it has been leafing through them! If you missed my recent post on bad soup ideas from Campbell’s, you must go back and see it. There are some things that are better left in history, and that’s one of them.

There are some other things that history buried, and we should be forever thankful. Certain decorating ideas, for example. Sometimes I stare at rooms bedecked in vivid colors and myriad patterns and wonder what it would have been like to actually live in a room like that. Did the occupants suffer from dizziness or chronic gastric complaints? Did those ailments suddenly stop after moving? Once you see these pictures, I believe you’ll feel the same.
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A great find!

A friend and I visited a local consignment shop the other day. Despite it being local (ok, ok, it’s a few miles out of town, but I still consider it local), it was the first time I had been the first time I had been in there. To tell the truth, when I stepped into the store, I felt a little let down, because I had hoped for fewer clothes and more piles o’ stuff where I’d have a good chance of scoring something retro.

Imagine my surprise when I started lifting up dishes in a stack and found this gem:
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Bad soup ideas, courtesy of Campbell’s

I acquired a bound collection of American Home magazines from 1955. What a treasure trove of home decorating ideas! I’ll be posting some of those pictures in days to come. For now, however, I want to talk about food.

Ever notice that some of the food ideas presented in old magazines just seem plain disgusting? The pictures sometimes look like the aftermath of a messy operation, and the pairings sometimes make your stomach turn. No one will ever convince me that filling pear halves with mayonnaise is a good idea. No one!

I noticed a Campbell’s ad in one of the American Home editions, and a couple of their “creative” soup ideas caught my eye.  Please forgive my rather poor quality “pictures of pictures.”  The bound collection of magazines is so bulky that it’d take a special kind of amazon woman to scan the dang thing.  I like to think that I just don’t fit the bill.
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Headin’ Out

sodakpostcard
Taking our first family vacation to the Black Hills of South Dakota. For anyone who has made this trip, particularly with children, and had to drive across the plains of middle South Dakota, you know what I’m up against. I love prairieland, but driving through multiple hours of flat, sparse grassland makes it wholly understandable why pioneers experienced “prairie fever” back in the day. I’ll be flying through there at 75 miles per hour; I can’t imagine the mind-numbing that would ensue when one is driving a buggy through those same plains with even fewer people, fewer trees, and a whole lot more grass. If it weren’t for the semi-interesting change of landscape around the Missouri River, the trip would be out of the question. Couldn’t do it.

See you in a few days!

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Shopping for the retro heart

Sometimes I’m lucky enough to find cool retro products just by using the right search terms. Other times, though, I stumble across retro products that seem horribly misplaced. In general, I try to avoid the kitschy retro products that try a little too hard. You know the ones I’m talking about — the rusted signs that say “Mom’s Diner” or a clock styled like a jukebox. On the contrary, I love products that truly look as if they could have come from the 1950s. Some manufacturers are getting a clue that there is an honest demand for this stuff. Let’s encourage them, shall we? Take a look at what I’ve found via Amazon just by searching for the term “retro.” Continue reading “Shopping for the retro heart”

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Goin’ shopping with a 1957 Sears catalog

I often peruse through my old Sears catalog and wonder: if this were indeed 1957 and I were really ordering things for my house (and my life, since Sears offered everything from boots to boats “back in the day”), what would catch my eye? What items would I be writing down on the order form and sending away to Los Angeles?

The clothing just about does it for me. I could order nearly every single dress I see in the catalog and be in heaven when they arrived. Was there ever a fashion that made women more feminine than the Midcentury dresses? Flouncy and floral, they could make just about anyone look about as girly as Marilyn or Grace (Kelly, that is).

Here are a few gems that caught my eye this afternoon: Continue reading “Goin’ shopping with a 1957 Sears catalog”

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