Category: Culture

Because Boys Like Chemistry

Girls didn’t have anything to do with chemistry back in 1940; they were busy using typewriters, at least according to Junior Scholastic magazine.

With no TV to entertain young people, they had to settle for pictures in the paper to show them what they missed–like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Does he look familiar to you?

While historical dramas would put today’s teens into a coma, folks actually ordered albums to listen to, over and over, till they shoved some history in their noggins.

Or you could wait till Wednesday and listen to the radio.

And in the meantime, you could learn some simply atrocious jokes.

 

Get ‘Em Vivid

You guys, I have this January 1933 Spur magazine, and it’s only black and white on the inside. But the cover has color, and it’s a-MA-zing! Check out this Firestone ad on the inside cover. It hasn’t faded a smidge.

The Spur was a fancy-pants magazine that cost a whopping 50 cents in 1933. The horsedrawn carriage was meant to be quaint. But inside, they advertised all kinds of worldly vacations for those who still had means.

The colors on the inside back cover are just as amazing, even 86 years later.

The back cover, to me, looks like a 1970s ad that’s trying to look like the 30s, but this really WAS the 30s. It doesn’t state the actress, but it looks like Joan Crawford to me. That hat! Those sleeves! The ring! The cigarette holder!

Bread At EVERY Meal

Do you want to be healthy? Chow down on carbs three times a day. Oprah may say nay/neigh, but it worked for Joanna Bard.

My December 2, 1940 copy of Junior Scholastic touts the merits of delicious, starchy bread.

Included inside was a fun news quiz! Don’t all teens like news quizzes? This one is a doozy!

Clever Senior Quips 1952

Some high schools allow seniors to come up with quotes for their yearbook. By that fourth year, teens are tired of learning, and they fancy silly sayings. But these Midland High School quotes are in a whole different realm.

By the way, geophagy is the practice of eating earth or soil-like substrates such as clay or chalk. A perruquier is a maker of wigs.

I like how Lil Slowpoke was already looking 40 years into the future!

Peasants Are Downers

Old magazines did not mince words. This September 1933 Fortune magazine told it like it was. American bicycles were mostly for kids’ recreation. German women, however, used them to go fetch vegetables.

Strap your scarves on and off to market with you, proles!

Meanwhile, in America, nearly nude (especially in 1933!) women cavorted through neighborhoods on handlebars. What fun The Depression was! How could these gals have known that in only three months, Prohibition would be repealed by FDR, and everyone could toss their moonshine and swig legit ale? Happy days are here again!

Slam Dunk

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8c00683

I’m not sure exactly what this gentleman is dunking, but I know it ain’t donuts and coffee. I’ve sung the praises of Shorpy before, but it’s been many moons since I last visited the site. They have the most amazing high-res images, including this April 1941 shot of a tavern catering exclusively to African-Americans. Note the Snow White murals in the background. And those hats!!

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8c00683

It’s fun to zoom right into their faces and wonder what they were thinking.

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8c00683

Witness To A Wedgie

credit: Pam MacDonald, 1987 Cactus

Intent on Jehovah-knows-what, Miss Radley performs one of her duties as a member of Bevo’s Babes, a group of gals who served the men’s and women’s swim team. One job was to “boost the spirit of the swimmers.” Said the secretary of Bevo’s Babes, “We don’t want the girls who just want to look at guys in Speedos.” Personally, I’ve never met a girl who enjoyed that sight in the least. But to each her own.

The Babes also hosted and timed the National Collegiate Athletic Association swim meets, which lent some legitimacy to the organization. However, we all know the term “babe” is highly offensive in modern times and would not fly in 2018. While we’re at it, DJ’s should stop playing “I Got You, Babe” and Styxx’s “Babe,” and hurl the LP’s atop the pile of recent radio victim “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” It’s a dirty four-letter-word now, problematic and sexist, so–as you can well imagine, the group is now defunct, babe.

Mid-Century Uber

French barouche, Holiday June 1952
ba·rouche
/bəˈro͞oSH
noun
a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with a collapsible hood over the rear half, a seat in front for the driver, and seats facing each other for the passengers, used especially in the 19th century

Armageddon Has Come, Folks Gather Kindling For Fires, And Pepsi Is STILL NOT OKAY

UT ’79

What dystopian circumstances have arisen that require these students to build a fire inside a library, presumably from the unread pages of old Encyclopedia Brittanicas? What chaos has ensued that they must sit in weakly-constructed patio chairs and grow their sloven bangs out just to retain head heat? Who can say? All we know is Pepsi was still not okay.

http://www.quickmeme.com