Time Travel

Hello, all,

I was supposed to meet a friend for lunch this morning but that got pushed back a week, leaving extra room in my day. How about we take a trip back to 1955 and see what was going on then?

The cover picture is from a feature on a visit to an editor, Jean Austin. 

This is the story mentioned on the cover. Apparently it stopped traffic because it was a Cape Cod cottage located in Florida. It was entirely furnished in Early American and Colonial reproductions. 

Here's the dining room. It's certainly consistent, as are all the rooms pictured. Did you ever think of using antique crimping irons for cigarette boxes? Where's your imagination?

Some things don't change. Crafts were popular then, too. Here's a page of instructions for making bottles into animal ornaments.

People weren't as completely on board with the open floor plan as they are today. Here is an advertisement for a plastic kind of folding wall to separate spaces easily.

This page offers a way to see if your design instincts are on track.

Did you pick these choices? If not, you would have been in disgrace in 1955.

How happy is this lucky woman with her Republic Steel Kitchen? Downright ecstatic, it looks like!

This was during the baby boom, so using Old Mother Hubbard was an easy and appropriate choice. In the Republic Steel Kitchen inside her shoe, you can see she made her brood  Jello, and there were seven flavors to choose from then. She could also buy fine satin ribbon, a five-yard roll for .50 cents, have her old fur coat restyled into a stole or buy a Johnny Planter, a self-watering container for plants that fit atop the toilet tank. Are you getting jealous yet? I didn't think so. 1955 is fun to visit, but not fun at all to return to if it was possible, no matter how nostalgic old Saturday Evening Post covers might make it seem. Life is good, now. We should all remember that and be grateful.

Till next time,

Michele