Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Truth About The 1950's


My neighbor Mary comes to every birthday party of my children's. You may remember me mentioning her before on other posts. Mary and her husband John were the nicest people to us when we first moved into our house.  John was a WWII war hero, having fought as a Marine in the Pacific. We lost John in 2009, but I have created a new friendship with Mary through the years. My children adore her and so do I!

She is now 85 years old and ironically celebrates her birthday the same day my grandmother did~May 1st. I have been sharing with her little by little my passion for the 1940's and what I do. Although it is hard to explain blogging to her generation, my dad is more than twenty years younger than her and he doesn't understand blogging either LOL

So, the other day at my son's second birthday party, Mary and I started talking about the 1940's and 1950's. I asked her something that I have been wondering for sometime now. After women were in the workforce and becoming more independent in the 1940's because of the war, why does the 1950's depict women as the perfect housewife and hostess? Why does it seem like women happily took a step backwards?

The answer was simple, at least for Mary. She explained to me that after the war people just wanted to get back to "normal". They knew that so many of the boys suffered greatly and missed out on a great deal of everyday life such as, attending college, dating, etc. She also told me that because the boys basically grew up while at war, people back home, especially the women, wanted to cater to them and make them feel good. It was also their way of saying "thank you".


All this time I thought women were forced back into the kitchen when it was women who put themselves back. Not out of feeling pressured to do so but they naturally felt inclined to continue to do their part. Mary told me that it wasn't a conscious thing that people spoke about openly but rather an unconscious understanding and need to want to help the boys get back to their lives.

She made me feel even prouder of being a women. By golly, we are capable of such sacrifices and such heroism, even in the simple confines of our own homes!

Oh and I have to throw in this bit that she shared with me about the 1950's-she told me that no one she knew had the same hairstyle. Mary still pin curls her hair and we were talking about how difficult of a time I have been having trying to learn how to figure out my full head of wavy hair. Hers is pin straight but I would have never known because it is always curly! LOL She also told me that women matched everything-their hats with their gloves with their dresses with their shoes. I love that! I have always been one to match my clothing from the inside out and I dress my children in the same fashion. Matching is fun!

I hope you enjoyed a little peak into the past through my friend Mary's eyes. It is always a pleasure to be able to talk to her and share with her my thoughts and ask her questions. I am so grateful that she is willing to share with me. It was like talking to a friend I have known forever-I was in bliss!

What are your thoughts about women in the 1950's? Did you ever wonder why society attempted to depict itself in such an ideal manner? Let me know your thoughts!

xox

17 comments:

  1. Oh, how sweet!! Mary sounds darling! We have some people like that in our lives. I lost my grandparents young and I adopted them as my grandparents. :-)

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    1. Oh thats darling! Mary can adopt me anytime hehe xox

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  2. Fascinating... and you know what? It sounds exactly right!
    A fascinating insight from your friend :) (We have several older friends too, who cares about the age difference?!)

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    1. Exactly! You are so right! And thank you Rachel!! xox

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  3. Oh how I wish I could spend time with Mary, too, she truly sounds like a marvelous, elegant lady. She's just a couple years older than my maternal grandma, Bernice, who, like Mary, is widowed, but still independent and full of touching, inspiring stories from the 40s and 50s. We've talked about these very subjects before, too, and her answers were extremely similar to Mary's. I suspect that these two wonderful ladies speak for much of their gender during that generation and, you know, I think I would have felt much the same had I been a part of the Greatest Generation, too.

    ♥ Jessica

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    1. I couldn't agree more Jess! When I told Mary hers was the best generation around, she beamed and said "yes-we were!". I love it! xox

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  4. I pin curled my hair last night, woke up with a big ole afro! I brushed the crap out of it and just kept getting bigger and bigger!

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    1. Heheheh thats the way I think it would be for me too oh no heheh xox

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  5. Nice story, I really love to listen old people while they talk about they in young ages.
    I like your blog, and I m following you now :)
    Kisses

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    1. Thank you sweetie! I do too! Was just telling my hubby that I need more older friends-their stories are like rare diamonds! Thank you for following!! xox

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  6. Awesome story! How cool to have an older friend like that. :) It all makes sense now. I can see why everyone would want to just be normal again.

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  7. I love conversations like that with people from older generations! And what a blessing to have someone so wonderful as a neighbor and friend!

    I liked hearing about the hair styling. My great-aunt and I just had a similar discussion last week about pin curling. After telling her about having a difficult time getting my hair into any setting pattern, I was more than happy to hear she didn't use one and she didn't recall many other people she knew using them either. Talking to an older generation is certainly the best way to find out about these sorts of things!

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  8. I can usually do ok styling a pin curl set, it just takes me forever. Now the pillow rollers are a different story. They go in quicker so I like that part but boy when I take those out I have some very tight curls and if I even think about putting a brush to them they turn into an afro. lol

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  9. How sweet is this story! I love hearing flash backs into the past of people who experienced it. I'm glad you were able to seek inspiration from this lady:)

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  10. Hi Bunny,

    This is a great post, so sweet, too.

    :) Hope

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  11. That is really interesting to hear what Mary had to say! She seemed like such a sweet woman when I met her at R's party. I miss having my grandmother around for a lot of those things that you are able to talk with Mary about. I miss her stories!

    Hope you're well, doll. I'm gonna send you a FB message soon, I'm on Thanksgiving vacation until Wednesday - time to breathe, woohoo! LOL.

    -Holly

    http://veronicavintage.wordpress.com/

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