Saturday, February 17, 2018

CLOTHING


Male Vanity

            Looking good for the job and or interview, has been a way for decades.  After the war, during the 50’s, jobs were shifting.  No longer was it a work a day job, rather it was becoming a formal job, in offices and clerks in nice department stores.  Serving the public, lots of employers were asking that their workers dress up for the job. 


            Clothes manufacturers began to pander to this vanity in men when they advertised their clothing.  Wearing nice shoes became just as important as having a dress shirt where the collar behaved.  A starched cotton collar has a tendency to curl up at the points after the top button is hooked.  All types of gadgets were tried to keep the collar in place.  Collar stays of all types were made for that distinctive look a man would want. 
            Upscale shirt manufacturers began putting a small plastic tab in the points of the collar to hold it in place when a tie was worn.  This tiny piece of plastic caught the attention of the man who had the starched shirt and tie.  Here was a way the working man could look nice and keep things in their place with little effort. 
            Working in a department store, what the store clerk was wearing would impact the choice of the customer the clerk was helping.  Like today, image is very important with customers.  During the 50’s the work force was predominately male.  Most women left their war jobs and married their homeys to raise a family.  The husband was the primary bread winner and the woman stayed at home taking care of the family. 


            The fabric of American society during the 50’s had their ideals, just like every generation has their way of wanting to live. 
            Clothing makes the man, as the saying went.  Clothing does create an image and for many was it comfortable?  Footwear became just as important to being comfortable.  Large shoe manufacturers, advertised style as much as they did comfort, even the manufacturers of soles for shoes advertised their wares.  The shoe cobbler was still in business back then and repairing shoes was more common then replacing them. 
            In choosing clothes, vanity so often overruled, being practical.  When the garment manufacturer could satisfy both vanity and practical, they had a winner. 





Saturday, February 10, 2018

PHONE CALLS


Telephone


It is amazing to sit back and look at the world of electronics and electricity has taken society.  If ya wanted to talk with someone years ago, hook the horse up and ride over and talk with the neighbor.  Then came the talking machine, ring, ring…. Hi .. is this Alexander?  With some effort and the aid of singing wires, you could talk to your neighbor in the next town.  The isolation of life was coming to an end and soon the singing wires would reach round the world. 

During WWII, communications was critical among the troops and their commanders.  Phone lines were difficult to lay, so radio communications was polished up and information was radioed back to headquarters’ via various relays.  At the end of the war, lots of this new technology became available to the public. 

One could pick up the phone and dial directly without having to call Maggie the operator first to connect ya to Mildred.  With transcontinental cables one could make phone calls from coast to coast.  The singing wires of the telegraph no longer had a monopoly on communications.  The phone allowed people to make phone calls in the comfort of their homes.  News from around the world was almost instantaneous...   

Technology was transforming how society interacted.  The war had created massive machines of destruction but it had also brought machines to change how people lived.  Before the war, a telephone was a luxury item.  After the war, mass production and the stringing of more lines, the phone became available to all at an affordable price. 

This was also the beginning of the computer age.  Look where that has taken us.  Our phone is now personal, wireless, television, video calls and world wide web is available. 

Until the phone came along, letters the primary method of correspondence and dispatches.  Even with the telegraph, one had to write out the message and because of the rates, words were few and very precise.  The pen is still around but writing has lost is glamour.  The art of letter writing is becoming a dim memory.  One can pull out their phone, send a text, e-mail, video call of just a phone call.  Even conversation is less and less, with texting. 


There were dramatic changes after the war but they have not slowed down. 

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Brewed VS Instant




COFFEE  
         
          Going thru the old magazine ads of the 50’s opens many memory drawers.  A look into the not so distant past, that is kind of fuzzy.  It seems coffee has been forever, yet it is a fairly recent beverage, just a few centuries old.  Well for the old world.  With the discovery of the America’s, came the discovery of coffee.  For many in the old world, coffee did not replace tea.  Tea was so important to the English that they taxed it to any end and it resulted in a Revolutionary war. 
          With the end of the war, resources were now directed to new products.  One of them was instant coffee and a variety of ways to roast the coffee bean.  Brewed coffee was the standard and instant was the upstart.  Instant coffee had an uphill battle with satisfying the taste buds of coffee drinkers but the makers of instant pushed on.  Still today, brewed coffee is the preferred method of making a cup of coffee.


          The makers of instant coffee did not give up.  They reformulated the way they made the instant brand.  Exotic flavors were added, claims of tasting like fresh brewed were plastered across the media extolling the virtues of their instant coffee. 
          This was but one step in America wanting the instant gratification.  It took time to brew a pot of coffee.  The percolator had to be put on the stove after the right amount of water and coffee grounds were added.  Then sit there and wait for the water to boil, not letting it perk over and then turning it off at the right time.  Then to keep it warm or heat it up, took a bit of effort.  There were no nuclear ovens back then, one had to use the stove to heat things.  With all this work in making coffee is where instant coffee got some inroads into the coffee drinkers table.


         
-30-

          Life magazine along with their counterparts, Look and the Saturday Evening Post, chronicled this emerging new American middle class.  Back in the 50’s, the news was not real slanted and the agenda of a few was not apparent.  The advertising set the tone for the changes and reflects life of the transitional decade.  Technology of the day, was the television and the Atomic Bomb, both impacted how people lived during the 50’s. 
          I will be taking ads from the magazines, along with stories and writing my impression of life back then.  I’m old enough to of been a wee lad back then and I remember a few things from way back then.