Summing it Up...

Now, that I'm way on the wrong side of sixty, I feel that being true to self is important. "I yam, what I yam." Kindness and smiles are to be given away. Women are strong. Men are more vulnerable than we believe. Husbands may come and go...but one thing I know for sure is that I will NEVAH live without a corgi or coffee in my life if I can prevent it. Come piles of dog fur or hot water!

Saturday, February 11, 2012

~Retro Nostalgia~


Are you like me...someone who finds comfort in the past...comfort in a slower paced world? This high-tech decade is not my world. I-pods/pads, Droids, smart phones, blackberry's, do not interest me. I yearn for heavy dial faced phones, matches in folded packets, front porches with swings and legs covered in pantyhose. What is this with the bare-legged look anyway?



Two inch thick catalogs from Sears, and Montgomery Wards marked the seasons.
They came late in October for the holidays and July for the autumn school fashions. What a delight they arrived in our mailbox! Spiegel was the catalog we really yearned for though. Those clothes had an edge, were more fashionable and reflected a "big city" influence.



Remember wearing "can-cans" under a dress when young? We wanted all that fullness in those days. It's funny how fashions change, go to the extreme, then slowly return.
Maybe we'll see this style again.

Remember letters with rural route addresses? Mail postage in single digits? A sixteen year old could have a great time on the two bucks earned from babysitting. A cherry coke was a nickle, a pretzel rod was two cents. The adult price for a movie was sixty-five cents. A gallon of gas was thirty-two cents. Fast cars, drag racing, and a beer on a back road was really the worst of it when I was a teen. Drugs missed me totally...thank heavens!


Most girls owned a jewelry box. Most girls had a dressing table in her room of some sort with a large mirror. Mine had a huge circle centered mirror, with drawers on both sides. Makeup, hair rollers (dog food and juice cans because my hair was curly), and a bottle of Evening in Paris, Tabu, or Chantilly made me feel womanly.
Most of us slept on curlers every night. Wore girdles, and hose requiring garters. Would we do that now??? Heck no!

Daughters dried dishes every night, and that's when moms and daughters talked about things. Daughters helped clean the house on Saturday, with her washed hair up in rollers, anticipating a fun Saturday night. Sunday, the entire family went to church.
We stopped at the newstand to pick up the Sunday paper. There was no shopping on a Sunday in those days. Sunday was family time. Period.
I do admit to enjoying a more "relaxed" way of dressing now. Thank God for Land's End! It's handy to shop online when one lives in small town USA. No spanx (today's girdle) for me. I bulge freely here and there, so be it. Unless I spot myself in a window or a mirror somewhere, I don't have to see it!

I do miss how close family used to be. All of our kids, with the exception of Josh, live now in other states. We only see our grandkids once or twice a year. Computers do help in that area too. Skype, online viewing of photos, blogs, and Facebook, keep us connected. Weekly Sunday family gatherings were darn nice though; or at least getting together for every holiday. That does not happen anymore, darn it.

6 comments:

Marti said...

Very well said. I too, often yearn for the good old days. But then I think of all the challenges that I had to get to where I am now, and I am glad that I am in the here and now.

Mevely317 said...

OH wow ... I can soooo identify with most of these!!! Especially, the catalogues -- I could't wait to clip pictures of my "someday" rooms ... now, we've Pinterest.
Miss it all -- 'cept not having central a/c!

Angela said...

I wish we all could go back to the simple way of things too. It's nice to look at things online but I'd rather a catalog. It doesn't take as long either as looking with the computer! lol

Hugs,
Angela

ps We finally got snow last night! I've been telling everyone that it always snows on my birthday and it did! We were in the high 60s all week and now it's 24 and snow on the ground! lol Old Man Winter always gives me snow!

Ms Sparrow said...

Wow! What a wealth of old memories you brought back! I only had one limp can-can but I was never in style. But my dresser had the round mirror over it and the jewelry box, bottle of Evening in Paris and a jar of Mum deodorant (remember applying it with your fingers?) Those wonderful catalogs from Wards and Sears were called Wish Books because that's all I could do but wish. To this day I remember the rust corduroy shirred skirt I lusted after. I didn't even bother to ask my mom for it. Sigh...

Chatty Crone said...

I can identify with all these too. I miss those days. I was just talking to my husband about that same subject. All this new technology has made the world so distant. I miss my kids too! Sandie

Whosyergurl said...

I have to say there are things I miss: as you mentioned, catalogs: for me it was JCPenney and Sears and Spiegel. Oh, how I loved pouring over those catalogs! Both of my kids are out of state: North Carolina and Maryland. And the Bee is in Maryland. :-(

love you, Cheryl

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