Category: Nostalgia

The Weather Outside Is Seriously Frightful

I’ve been watching the Hallmark Channel’s Christmas in July this month. It’s especially attractive, since our weather forecast is:

Anything that reminds me of winter is particularly heartening lately, like this yuletide image.

I don’t imagine the two young men at Southwest Missouri State College had ever been in 109 temps. They look quite comfortable. To be honest, the entire image could be a current ad campaign, though it was 56 years ago. Those Converse, the skinny jeans, the sockless loafers and plaid hat, even the legs of the mid-century chair–it all works in 2023.

Their classmates may look a bit more dated, but the winter of ’67 looks mighty fine. I guess the ladies had no trouble keeping their calves warm.

Or toned.

Missouri will see the 60s tomorrow night. We were at 101 at 9:30PM last night. We dined outside with friends, and the wind felt like waves of furnace heat upon us. Perhaps I should start a Missouri Zillow search today.

Measuring for Caps & Gowns

1957 Tulia High School

Today is the last day of school for our local school district. I jogged past the middle school this morning, noting that the PE-uniformed kids would be absent from the track for the next three months. Facebook has been awash in graduation photos of friends’ children. It remains bittersweet to me that my own son was denied his junior and senior years due to the virus. Can you imagine not having a senior year? Remember all the amazing things you did those last two years of high school? His class spent them in their bedrooms, staring at a laptop. In any event, I salute the class of 2023 today. May you go out and make this world better.

Forget Electric Cars

First it was tiny houses. Now it’s tiny cars. And I mean TINY.

This 1955 Eshelman may not seem like the perfect gift. Sure, it only has one cylinder and a horsepower of 3. Top speed is 25 mph. Brakes are a 2 wheel paddle. I don’t even know what that is.

But I know I don’t have to call shotgun. I don’t have to cart some scrub around because this ride only seats one. I don’t have to worry about driving too fast in the suburbs because I can’t gun it past the limit. No speeding tickets for me. And the color, why, it’s inspiring!

http://www.microcarmuseum.com/

Ditching Mom’s Swimsuit Look

These fresh-faced ladies of the 1920s modeled the current swimsuit garb of “modish jersey tank suits, curl-revealing caps and high two-tone shoes.” One can hardly imagine lacing up shoes for the beach or how much sand would enter them.

In contrast, the 2/7/55 LIFE compares the bleak, black tank/shorts of the past to the fashionable “sweater-girl bathing suits” of the present, with clinging knit, loud stripes, broad straps, skirts, and sleeves. Plus, they had the luxury of going barefoot.

Either way, the lesson here is to always have a cigarette handy, especially at the beach.

When You Not Only Want To See His Armpit Sweat, But You Want To Feel The Moist Warmth Upon You

This 1947 Blueprint yearbook referred to one of these fellows as “Lonesome Polecat,” and I immediately thought that that might be the best name for an indie folk band ever, until I Googled it, and DARNED if it isn’t a song from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It includes the lyrics, “a man can’t sleep when he sleeps with sheep.” Goodness!