October 07, 2008

Women who live in the past.
posted by Capt. Renault 16 years ago
  • I think I could get into that 40's thing. OK, maybe just the car :)
  • I don't even know where to start. My dad *is* one of these women. He is currently living in 1940 or thereabouts. His Wedgewood stove is to die for. From the bakelite telephone, to the vacuum tube radio, stepping into his home is a time warp indeed. He bakes apples pies in a pinch, and you can rest-assured that dessert will *ALWAYS* be served. I enjoyed thumbing through some 1930's magazines the previous week. I am most looking forward to the return of the 1948 Buick next year (currently being overhauled in Wyoming); Dad always wears a vintage suit and hat while driving it out, and the radio fixed to the oldies station is a must, of course. Oh, she will be my baby one day!!
  • I saw a VCR and DVD player in one of those pics. They fail the 1950s.
  • In the past year I have purchased a manual typewriter, a treadle sewing machine, and many wind-up wristwatches. *is horrified to note that the women in the article all wear shoes in the house*
  • The nice though about all that old household stuff is that it's still out there - they made stuff to last. I don't know about all the submissive stuff, but I know a lot of people of a certain generation who just never gave up using that stuff in the first place. I made more than one project on a treadle sewing machine when I was a kid, and aside from having trouble finding the proper bobbins it worked like a dream. I still have a manual typewriter in the back of the closet "just in case."
  • I saw a VCR and DVD player in one of those pics. Aside from buying a TV station, it's probably the only way to make sure there's nothing but The Loretta Young Show and Spencer Tracy movies on the tube. But they could have at least hidden them inside a hollowed-out Victrola or something. I wonder if they have an electric ironer.
  • Monkeyfilter: I still have a manual typewriter in the back of the closet "just in case."
  • They Really Creep Me Out. I don't know how you could live in such an isolated little lonely world of your own making and not go crazy. Oh wait . . . scratch that.
  • My house is full of old crap from pre-1950, much of which I use everyday, no problem with that -- the weirdo lifestyle -- idunno. I guess they are still less weird than furries.
  • Also, I can't help but think that these people, none of whom have actual real-life experience living in those eras, are living in a made-up imaginary idealised world of what they think those eras should have been like. Like not having any kids to crap up their little playworld with ugly plastic things and electronic gizmos that go bing.
  • I was going to comment that this is no different tham Steampunk or any other anachronistic lifestyle, but I don't think steampunks live that way 24/7. This is more comarable to the Amish.
  • We didn't have preview buttons in the 1950s.
  • Monkeyfilter: We didn't have preview buttons in the 1950s. I was thinking the same thing, fimbulvetr. The lady who was so proud of having the original rationing stamps on her furniture and clothes would probably be singing a different Cole Porter tune if she had to deal with the actual hassle of rationing. Also, she buys her gear on the internet.
  • I thought everyone who read the Daily Mail lived in a pastiche version of 50s Britain? /obligatory My parents still use kitchen scales exactly like the one in the last picture, but it's my dad does most of the bread baking now he's retired.
  • I want to make some sort of joke about the whole thing, but I actually think it is kind of cool. These women are choosing to live this way because they want to. Isn't that what feminism is really all about -- giving women the opportunity to choose to live however they would like? If women want to live like this, they can have at it. It is their choice. Prior to feminism, women didn't have so much of a choice about what they were going to do or how they were going to live. So now a woman can be a doctor, lawyer, plumber, etc. And a woman can also choose to not just live at home, but do so in some chosen unusual way. Good for these people.
  • Since when is posting a single link to an article from the Daily Mail a quality post? We can all read the tabloids. Work harder on your submissions.
  • Fome fay that thefe be womynfolk that doth refide in ancient timef, tif' true. Yet thofe among uf who art God-fearing gentlemen difagree with thif analyfif, and wouldft proclaim that thefe gentel ladief do not live in the paft far enough, if thou getft my drift. Why, youngpersonf thefe dayf with their ultra-moderne 1900f fetififhes - feriousfly, it doth make me fucking fick.
  • I'd like to smack these spoiled stupid b*tches upside the head with a mangle iron. Not materialistic? My ruby red monkey rump! All that retro crap they've collected costs a fortune. They simply have enough in material goods to play out a fantasy life--unlike those who actually have to get down in the grit and work for a living. I know people who have to use those kinds of stoves, not bright and shiny, but with burners that don't work and ovens that have to have the doors propped shut because the hinges are shot. They'd gladly give up retro for something that works. Not materialistic? Then why are they so busy collecting all that fancy crap? Live with a simple $150 stove from Home Depot, like your average '50s woman would have had to do. What happens if hubby dies or is severely injured? Will little Mrs. Happy Housewife go to work like a real woman, or will she look for another fool to support her in her fantasy world? Fimbulvetr's got it nailed. Their conspicuous consumption lifestyle is just done a bit differently. 'Nockle, I'll just bet these women aren't into choice for the rest of us. We're so unfeminine to want to work outside and have something as horrifically masculine as equal pay for equal labor.
  • Quidnunc for Beadle!
  • Yep, Ms. Fimbulvetr and I were just laughing about the not materialistic bit -- from the woman who doesn't drink with the fully done up 1950's bar in her home.
  • Wow, this is really fuckin' cool. Now let's see the entries from the 60's and 70's. Fondue sets? Avocado-colored fridges? Shag haircuts!
  • Good God. "Back then, the world just seemed a sunnier place, even though it was an austere time between the wars." We may all be living in a 'sunnier place' soon.
  • Mrs K loves to live in the past. She's forever trawling up things I've said or done years ago, as if they are releveant to the argument in hand. Take my wife, please etc...
  • Three married couples, no children.
  • Three married couples, no children. They wear their shoes in bed, and probably lots else, also. And twin beds, no doubt.
  • OMG tonight I picked up the greatest little Pyrex Amish Blue refrigerator dishes at a thrift store. Tee hee!
  • I'm a little jealous. Fifteen years ago I had marijuana. Now I have newsletters from cooking.com and America's Test Kitchen.
  • I had a Zeus cigarette holder (early fifties or late forties! Why not? Man, woman or bat --drift on back to those sterling days of yesteryear!).
  • You want to talk fifties, I'll talk fifties--remember those homemade popsicle kits you could buy? Little plastic trays, plastic stick that fit into them--freeze KoolAde or juice? I have a set in the original box. Charming, but totally worthless. Talk about a design flaw.
  • Here's your design flaw, sir.
  • We had them & they worked fine. But we preferred the Piker model, which was made in an ice cube tray with toothpicks for sticks.