Weevils in the Flour

Awhile back I was reading some (way) back issues in the archives of the Altus Times-Democrat newspaper on Google News. Altus is the county seat of the little town where my mother grew up. I am working on a novel set in the area during the Dust Bowl days of the Great Depression. This was an ad for a local grocery store during that time.

I guess they had more urgent things to worry about than weevils in their flour. "They are clean and harmless..." we are reassured. Yeah, I don't think I was all that worried about them being dirty and harmful. I just don't like the idea of bugs in my food. Apparently weevils fall in the category of First World problems.

On the other hand... I would like to have my groceries delivered right to my refrigerator, please.

Their Golden Anniversary

So grateful for parents who love God...

...each other...

...their children...

...and the rest of you...

in that order!

A Pre-Christmas Memory

I'm thinkin' it must have been about 40 Christmases ago... (Which is completely impossible, of course, because there's no way 1974 was actually 40 years ago. My math must be off somewhere.) Anyway, somewhere along in through there...

My mother, an accomplished and professional seamstress, sewed many of our Christmas gifts when we were growing up. Her project that year was to make five large rag dolls... one for each of us, boy dolls for my brothers, and girl dolls for my sisters and me. This was the pattern:

These were very large floppy dolls... about 2 feet long... so you can see it was quite an undertaking too make five of them, including the clothes. It seems Mother was sequestered in her bedroom with the door closed for days. We children had strict instructions not to go in there because she was working on "Christmas presents." Once our Christmas break from school started it was so hard to obey and not bother her.

One morning, shortly before Christmas, a friend of my mother's stopped by our house. Janie brought with her five large, flat wrapped gifts... and five much smaller ones. Even though it wasn't yet Christmas we were allowed to open them! Each of us received an over-sized Christmas coloring book and a box of crayons! We didn't even have to share our crayons with our brothers and sisters because we each had our own!

Probably a little birdy had told Janie that the preacher's kids needed something to do while their mother sewed. In any case, we happily gathered around the dining room table and spread open our new coloring books. I don't know how many days or hours that kept us occupied, but my mother still gratefully remembers the thoughtfulness of her friend that year.

I'm pretty sure I still have my doll from that Christmas packed away somewhere, along with other cherished rag dolls my mother made over the years. I would have liked to find her and take a picture to show you... but "ain't nobody got time for that" today. (I just Googled the pattern picture above.) But here's a snapshot from that era that I already had scanned. Obviously, it wasn't taken at Christmas time... but oh-so-definitely mid-1970s!

And yes, dear friends and readers, I do have good intentions of getting back to blogging! Maybe that will be a good New Year's resolution!

Merry Christmas to all!

Vintage China

 For several years I've enjoyed collecting random pieces of pretty vintage china when I find it at a garage sale or thrift store. Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile know about my eclectic violet tea set. Other than that the only full set of china I have is a set that Mother gave me that originally belonged to my great-grandmother.

I have treasured Granny's china and enjoyed displaying it and using it, but the pattern is not one I would have chosen. I like a delicate floral pattern. In fact, my favorite piece (other than the violet dishes) is a sweet little bread-and-butter plate I picked up for 50 cents about 3 years ago.

Imagine how thrilled I was this morning to discover a full service for 8 of that very pattern at a Salvation Army store we just "happened" to go in!

The set included dinner plates, soup bowls, salad plates, dessert bowls, and cups and saucers, plus a serving bowl, a cream pitcher, and sugar bowl. There were only 6 cups, but 8 of everything else (except the serving pieces, of course.) The price marked was $52.10. The dishes were all stacked on a counter so I thought maybe they had been spoken for. I asked the lady behind the counter who told me she had just put them out.

Lyle had given me some money a few weeks ago that he said I was to spend on something just for me. I had been hoarding it for just such a time. As I stood deliberating over it, the manager announced over the loud-speaker, "Our special today is 25% off brick-a-brack items..." That's when I noticed that the price tag was labeled "brick-a-brack!"

"This would be 25% off?" I asked the lady.

"Yes," she assured me. "It's labeled brick-a-brack, so that counts."

"I'll take it!" I declared.

She offered to wrap it and box it up for me while I continued to look around.

I went to find Lyle. "I just bought a set of china dishes," I told him. He knows my fondness for pretty china.

We were casually wandering through the furniture department when I spotted a hutch.

Lyle said, "I guess you need that to put your dishes in, don't you?"

It was marked $80. Mmm. I didn't really want to spend that much.

"Furniture is 50% off today," Lyle told me.

"It is?!" I guess I had been so tuned in to the "brick-a-brack" special that I tuned out everything else.

 So I got my dishes for $38... and the hutch to put them in for $40.

My "new" dishes coordinate nicely with Granny's china (which includes service for 6) so now I have enough dishes that I can have up to 14 guests and still set a pretty table! Before, any time we had more than 2 people for dinner I had to either use every-day dishes or paper-ware.

Naturally I had to come home and rearrange the living room to fit the hutch in just so, and then arrange all my pretty dishes in it. What fun!

How about a cup of tea?

The Workbasket (Installment #15)

This installment from my collection of vintage Workbasket magazines comes to you from July 1953. I thought the cover doily was so pretty that I made it myself! That was a fun project.

And while they got off to a good start with such a lovely crochet pattern, it must have been the month recruit Christmas card salesmen... er, salesladies.

 Page 4. "Ladies! Make Good Money Selling Exclusive 50 for $1.00 Christmas Cards!"
That does seem like a quite reasonable price. But what's the deal with a 'bonus' of "Low-Cost Hosiery to New Agents!"? We're supposed to sell nylons alongside the Christmas cards? That seems like an odd combination to me. And I have no idea what "60 gauge 15 denier" means. Do you?

Page 7. "Think of it! ...there are $$$ and $$$ of CASH PROFIT waiting for you in these wonderful boxes..." Presumably "$$$ and $$$" means "dollars and dollars." 

"...cards so handsome they'll be remembered and treasured through the years!" Yep. Grandma hoarded the ones she received through the years. She really did!

"Your own good sense will tell you there must be literally hundreds of folks right in your neighborhood who'll thank you for introducing them to these cards." I'm pretty sure that's not what my own good sense is telling me.

"If you are a fund raiser for an organization, please check here." Oh, yes. That would be me. Not a person with neighbors. I'm a fund raiser.

 Page 9. "A balanced selection of 21 lovely, heart-warming cards... just right for every name on every list." Yet there's a little note that says "This is only one of our 50 assortments." If the original "sensational" box is just right for every name on every list, why do they need to offer 49 other assortments?

 Page 13. "Meet Your Santa Claus for 1953: The Hedenkamp Family." It's unclear to me what makes this family my Santa Claus for 1953... and exactly which one is Santa Claus. They can't all be. Can they? And how are they a family? Mama, Daddy, and the three children? Their pictures don't exactly give me that impression. Maybe they're siblings.

 Pages 16-17. "Just let your friends and neighbors and co-workers SEE these lovely Doehla Christmas and All Occasion box assortments. YOU don't have to say another word!" All ya gotta do is smile and nod. No need to speak at all.

 Page 19. "$50--$100--no limit to what you can earn in spare time..." and they "sell themselves," of course. What else would you expect?

Oh, we're not anywhere close to being done yet.

 Page 21.  "I Earned $57.04 In less than 2 HOURS showing the Phillips Christmas line to a group of my neighbors." Very important to be precise, you know. It wouldn't do to round it off. Also, I would like to see "Wags the Dog 'In Action'." Sounds interesting!

 Page 23. "New Easy Way to Make... Extra Money." I have no idea how Easy it was to sell greeting cards 60 years ago, but I'm sorry. This was not New! It just wasn't. They need to quit saying that.

"Sell New 'Life-Like' Greeting Card That Move!" What in the world is a 'life-like' card? When were cards ever alive? I guess that would be something new all right.

Whoops! Looks like  I missed an ad for selling Christmas cards on page 24... and there's another one on page 32. Oh, well. Moving right along...

 Page 35. "30 Actual Cards..." as opposed to... um, what? Fake cards? "You can make every day 'pay day' from now to Christmas." So you're thinking I would actually get out there and sell cards every day for 6 months, huh? What a novel idea!

 Pages 40-41. With testimonials! "I am nine years old and selling your cards is the only way a girl as little as I am can earn money and have fun!" Bless her heart! She probably wouldn't have as much fun with any of the other card companies.

"One lady bought $19 worth in one hour!" Some of us take longer than that to make up our minds how we want to spend our $19. Just be patient with us. We can't help it.

Skipping over another small ad for selling cards on page 43... and one on page 44... honestly, I thought I had scanned them all. I think they're multiplying while I'm not looking!

 Finally! Here are some ideas for making "cents" that don't involve knocking on doors with sample boxes of cheap greeting cards! And while these ideas wouldn't go over today, I thought they were pretty interesting for the time... making foot stools out of tin cans... and cookie jars... excuse me, "cooky" jars out of shortening cans. Grandma definitely knew how to up-cycle, didn't she? I especially like the one about offering country dinners to city folks who are out for a "ride into the country." Can you just imagine?

I'm surprised there's not an ad for Christmas cards on that page. Never fear, though, they aren't going to let that idea go.

 Page 51. "Do you need money? $35.00 is yours for selling only 50 boxes of our 300 Christmas card line. And this can be done in a single day." Sure. If I get that woman who is willing to spend $19 in a single hour, and one of her friends who is willing to do the same. Then they'd each have 25 boxes of cards, which they'd still be sending out to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren 40 years later, in spite of the fact that the cards were beginning to turn yellow around the edges.

 Page 53. "It's easy! No trick offers! No gimmicks! Just show prize-winning Elliott Christmas cards... to Friends and other Folks." And you can pretty much count on the Friends moving over into the Other Folks category if you're gonna bug 'em like that all the time.

 Page 55. "Aggressive Detroit Com-
pany can help You or your club earn EXTRA MONEY!" Gotta get that line break in there at the right place, dontcha see? They also offer a large assortment of geegaws if greeting cards aren't going over quite as well as you might expect.

And now let me show you the lovely dress patterns, which I always enjoy poring over in each issue of the Workbasket.

Oh, no... say it ain't so... yet another ad for selling Christmas cards on the opposite page?

 Page 57. "I Made $93 and I Know How Easy It Is to Earn Extra Money the Southern Way!" I was trying to figure out what Mrs. J.R. Shields meant by "Southern Way" since she's from Illinois. That's not the South last time I checked. Oh! Turns out the company is named Southern. That explains it.

 Page 65. "...startling NEW $1.00 box assortments" That's what I want. Startling Christmas cards.

And now, more pretty dress patterns.

Wait! What's that little ad about a quarter of the way down the next page? Sure enough, yet another opportunity!

 Page 69. "At last! Something new and sensational in Christmas cards!" Well, good. I was getting tired of the same-old-same-old.

Aren't we done yet? Not quite.

 Page 71. "Amazingly Different and Smart..." I guess I'm gonna have to order these, too, to find out what the amazing difference is, because this ad sounds suspiciously like the previous one.

 Page 73. And here's another company asking "Do You Need Money?" This one sounds a lot like the ad on page 51, but they are supposedly different companies. Weird!

 Page 74. By now I'm about to go cross-eyed reading the tiny print on these silly ads. The dollar signs fading into infinity aren't helping any. This one admits to selling cards from other publishers. I wonder how many of these companies actually did overlap?

 Page 77. "Run a spare-time card and gift shop at home." That's the one I want. No knocking on doors for me. Let the customers come to my shop! Because, I'm sure they will.

And on the back cover, guess what? Yet another ad for Christmas cards! Are you surprised?

 So, how many Christmas card ads is that? Let's see... I scanned 21 of them... plus the 4 I overlooked. 25 ads for pretty much the same thing in one issue of a small magazine like The Workbasket seems like overkill. I'd say they were staunch supporters of Free Enterprise! Or brainwashing.

Don't you want to get right out there and sell some Christmas cards in your spare time?

Home Movie Stills

Among the "thou-shalt-not-touch" treasures tucked away in the secret storage places of my parents' bedroom was a movie camera. I don't remember where it came from. Perhaps my mother got it with S&H Green Stamps or something. What I do remember is that we had no projector for watching any home movies that had been filmed on it, so on the rare occasions we were able to borrow a projector, watching Our Movies was a Big Deal.

There was the reel of my parents' wedding (taken, I'm sure, on someone else's camera)... and the reel of me as a baby... and then a gap of about 5 years. The third reel starts when my youngest brother was a baby. Now that I think about it, that must have been about when we got our own movie camera, because there's a good bit of footage that year, relatively speaking.

I was five that year, and utterly convinced that if the movie camera was recording, I should probably perform. That is to say, show off. The footage of my newborn brother has me turning somersaults in the background.

The footage of the five of us children playing on our swing set has me running around like a maniac, "checking" on the baby, picking up the ball, prancing here and there. It's down-right embarrassing is what it is!

Fifteen or twenty years ago we had our old home movie reels transferred to VHS tape, and then later on to DVD. I was very surprised to discover that the full length production of the home movies from my childhood only amounted to about 20 minutes of footage total. That would be because, while we did have a camera, movie film was costly... and having the film developed was costlier still. Not only is the footage very brief, it is also very poor quality as a result of the film being left in the camera too long before developing.

(I know it makes me sound like an old woman to marvel at how far technology has come in my lifetime... but I can't help it. It's true.)

My parent's 50th anniversary is coming up in a few months, so I've been working on a PowerPoint presentation for the occasion. I was looking for some pictures of a particular period of time and couldn't find some that I thought we had. Then I remembered that it was actually footage on our old home movies. So I popped the DVD in the computer and attempted to capture some screen shots. That worked out okay except for the poor quality of the original, but there's not much I can do about that at this point.

The funny thing was, though, I found myself deleting the stills of me showing off. "Silly little girl!" I thought. "I'll teach her a lesson. If she's going to show off like that, she can't be in my PowerPoint!" And then I literally laughed out loud at myself. Not only was the "silly little girl" me... that was more than 40 years ago!

Yeah. Turns out I didn't grow up to be a movie star.

44 Years Ago

About lunchtime today, I got an interesting text message from one of my aunts. She asked if I knew the address of the house my family lived in back in 1969.

I was 3.

Now... I do have a pretty good memory. And I remember quite a few things from when I was 3. But the address of the house we lived in is not one of them.

Another aunt and uncle were trying to find the house, but couldn't remember the address. I suggested asking Mother. They had already done that. She didn't remember either.

We moved away from there that year and don't really have connections there anymore, so I couldn't figure out why they wanted to know.

As it happens, this particular aunt is my Dad's sister. She visited my parents there as a young single lady in 1969. And this particular uncle is my Mother's brother. He was in college there in 1969. And so... my parents played matchmaker. Uncle Keith and Aunt 'Nette had their first date from our house in that small Indiana town 44 years ago today.

 I wasn't much help on their search. All I could remember was that our house had a big front porch and an upstairs. I remember playing on the porch with my twin sisters and baby brother.

Sometimes teen girls from our church would come and take us for a walk.

Later my aunt texted back that they had found the house! I guess they kinda knew the neighborhood well enough to drive around until they found it. So they got an address.

I immediately headed for Google Earth and found a picture of the house as it is now. I thought it was interesting to see how the street and sloping driveway match in the pictures. The tree is different... and a building is gone.

And those sweet little tots? Well, we're all middle-aged now.

Ain't technology grand? Betcha they couldn't done this 44 years ago!

The Workbasket (Installment #14)

Time for some more scans from my collection of vintage Workbasket magazines, this one from June 1953. (Which I guess I should have posted in June, huh?) Anyway, 60 years ago.

 "Here is a hat which will keep you looking cool on the warmest days and is a perfect match for those casual summer dresses." So, I'm supposed to believe that wearing one of these fetching little numbers will keep me cooler than wearing no hat at all? Oh, wait! It says "...keep you looking cool..." That's entirely different. I definitely want to look cool in my casual summer dresses. Better whip me up one or three.

This is apparently what they considered "Air-Conditioned Driving" 60 years ago, before real air-conditioning  was a standard option in most cars. "You'll drive cool as a breeze through the hottest summer months with Cool Rest at your back! And there'll be no more wet sticky clothing, either!" Bless their hearts!

 This "Surprise Package For The Non-expectant" is "real fun"! Can't you just see the 1953 housewives giggling over the cleverness of the idea?

 I'm sorry, but I can't imagine that a inflatable pool that's only 42 inches across and 8 inches deep would "hold up to 8 children comfortably" and no, I don't call that "GIANT" either. (However, they do offer larger sizes at the bottom.) The fine prints says: "A private swimming pool all their own for your kids to splash in. Endless fun with all the different ways they can play--cooling carefree frolic in the water plus the added joy of bouncing on the broad air-cushioned seat." Yeah, how "endless" do you think the fun would be with 8 kids bouncing on the sides of the thing? But... it does come with a "free maintenance kit" so I guess you can just keep repairing it every time it deflates, huh? For "only $2.98" what did you expect?

 Let me see... If I sell 9 tubes of wonderful Genevieve Bedford's Creme Shampoo... (Wonder who Genevieve Bedford was? A shampoo guru, I guess.) ...at 89 cents each, I'd need to send in $8.01 for my aluminum pitcher "ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT COST." That seems kinda high to me at 1953 prices. But then, that does include all those tubes of shampoo, too. But I'd hafta get out and sell 'em to raise the money. Hmm... not sure I need a Cheerio pitcher that bad.

Speaking of 1953 prices, there's at least one thing that has amazingly not been hit by inflation over the years-- a ball point pen! The "sensational ball point pen" (with "actual photo") is an "unbelievable value! Not one--not three--but EIGHT Ball Point pens for $1." 

Guess what? I saw a package of not one-- not three-- not eight--but TEN ball point pens on sale at Wal-Mart just last week for $1! Better hurry over and stock up while they are still available at less than 1953 prices!

 This month's Women Who Make Cents column includes ideas for painting dog portraits on hankies, gluing "any bright colored feathers I have on hand" onto paper for stationery, and painting "different designs" on hand-made aprons. First of all, I don't think I could paint a dog portrait that anyone would want on their hanky... nor do I just happen to have bright colored feathers on hand. The apron thing? Well, maybe. If I liked to sew. Which I don't. So this month's suggestions to "add to the family income" are pretty worthless to me.

 I do like looking at the dainty dress patterns from long ago, though.

Hope you've enjoyed this bit of nostalgia. Which snippet did you like best?