Anyone Else Stuck in the Early 1930's ?

[St. Louis]

I was thinking about all this again this morning, when I toasted some bread in my "flap" toaster. I had to remember to flip the slices and it suddenly occurred to me that living in the 1930s really slows me down, calms me, makes me more mindful and aware of what's going on around me, and just plain soothes the stress of work. Everything takes a little longer -- for example, having to grind my coffee by hand and then waiting for it to percolate -- and everything requires time and attention.

There's a lot more to be said about this, but I'm trying to keep my posts under 8000 words these days. Let's just say that remembering to put clean handkerchiefs in my purse and some nice gloves on as I leave the house makes me feel so much more civilized. As a result I actually feel as though I like other people better when I see them outside on the sidewalk, if that makes any sense.

 

[highway66blues]

I was thinking about all this again this morning, when I toasted some bread in my "flap" toaster. I had to remember to flip the slices and it suddenly occurred to me that living in the 1930s really slows me down, calms me, makes me more mindful and aware of what's going on around me, and just plain soothes the stress of work. Everything takes a little longer -- for example, having to grind my coffee by hand and then waiting for it to percolate -- and everything requires time and attention.

There's a lot more to be said about this, but I'm trying to keep my posts under 8000 words these days. Let's just say that remembering to put clean handkerchiefs in my purse and some nice gloves on as I leave the house makes me feel so much more civilized. As a result I actually feel as though I like other people better when I see them outside on the sidewalk, if that makes any sense.

Yup, this is much closer to what I was meanin'. Not try be or live near how actual day-to-day life was for folks during that time (although a lot of how I choose to shop for and the groceries I buy and the meals I make for me kinda is). I am very working class (lower, to be sure), and it's how I choose to live (as close as I can,mostly) and how I choose to dress (got 1 suit, rest is work wear).
And, Yes Ma'am, there's a lot more to be said about it.
Just wonderin' was all.... if there's anyone anyone else a'sides me ???

BTW... I have a flap toaster too.

 

[vitanola]

Now that's a subject I am still learn in' lots about... what other makes of vehicles were aside from the Model A's

Well, Plymouth sold for about the same price as an equivalent Model A.

Up through 1932 the Plymouth cars had four cylinder engines, but what four cylinder engines! Large main and connecting rod journals, full pressure oiling, a fully counterbalanced five main bearing crankshaft, "Floating power" (engine mounted in rubber to eliminate vibration and noise).

The Plymouths of this period are generally more servicable than the Model A Fords. A rebuilt Plymouth engine will be good for between hundred and a hundred fifty thousand miles, the cars ride better than do the Ford machines, and they handle better at speed. Even the four-door sedans have all steel bodies, and all of these cars have four-wheel hydraulic brakes, which are helpful in modern traffic conditions.

A late 1920's Dodge Victory Six is similarly situated. The Dodge will be improved by the addition of an accessory oil filter. Some years ago I had the chance to drive a Victory Six which had an E35 engine and transmission substituted. This was the power plant from a 1935 Dodge, which was nearly a bolt-in substitute except for the front motor mounts. The machine drove like something from the 1960's, not a 1920s sedan.

 

[BlueTrain]

It might be said that the house where I grew up was stuck in the 1920s. I was born in 1946. We moved away in 1960, so those were my formative years. The gas furnace was barely five years old when I was born. We used an icebox and a wringer washing machine. The icebox was replaced at some point but not the washing machine. We were probably the last house on the block to get a television or a gas-powered lawn mower. My father got a new car, a 1950 Chevrolet that replaced an older Chevrolet. He kept that car until sometime in the 1960s when he inherited (acquired by marriage) my step-mother's 1957 Chevrolet station wagon. Nobody seemed particularly conscious of the decades but the depression was a vivid memory, even if it wasn't talked about very much. One uncle was in the CCCs, but again, not discussed very much. One might say that nobody lived in the past but were very much involved in contemporary life, so to speak. They all tried to do the best they could with what they had.

All of my relatives on my mother's side lived close by. One uncle somehow managed to lived in eight or nine different houses or apartments in town. He would build a house or remodel one and sell it and move somewhere else. He and two of his brothers worked for the railroad, which was the major employer in town. They closed up shop and moved operations to Roanoke sometime in the 1970s, which devastated the town. But it's still a major crossroads and the community was evolved into something like Breezewood, Pennsylvania. So with the exception of the depression years, the town was a pretty nice place to be from sometime in the 1890s, when the railroad boom started, until the 1980s, when it ended. Even though it's not what it used to be, I'm surprised that new housing developments have been built in the area, developments that were built since I left, some with "McMansions," even. I have no idea who lives in them but evidently the area isn't as depressed as one might think.

The downtown area looks sad, though, but I'm afraid it shares that state with many other towns everywhere irrespective of what the local economy may be like. The small, locally owned businesses are mostly gone and the big box stores rule the retail world. Even when I lived there, though, many businesses were chain stores or franchises, including the supermarkets and drug stores. It's just a case of the chain stores getting bigger. Many of the older ones never successfully made the leap from a main street store front to a big box store for some reason. Although the downtown loses whatever vibrancy it may have had, the effect on the consumer is probably nil.

 

[Stormy]

Not stuck in the 30's at all, but sure am stuck on this thread. Enjoyed every single minute of it. THANKS!

 

[BlueTrain]

If you want a proper old-style home, you absolutely have to have copious numbers of lace doilies around the house. On the armrests and backs of easy chairs and sofas and on end tables under lamps and whatnots, all stiffly starched. And on the windows, you want lace see-through curtains that have to be stretched to shape on a curtain-stretcher frame. Somebody in the neighborhood ought to have one. If not, there's nothing to do but move. You can't have wall-to-wall carpeting, either. You can have a large rug in the parlor or living room, throw rugs anywhere you care to throw them, linoleum in the kitchen, either the roll kind or if you're rich, the kind that is laid as tile. The floors in the rest of the house may be painted or clear-coat finished but they have to be heavily waxed. Johnson's Self-Polishing floor wax is highly recommended, especially by the likes of Harlow Wilcox. No finer recommendation is possible.

You have no television, of course, and the Victrola is so old-fashioned that it has been banished to the upstairs hall where it sits unloved with trays full of little phonograph needles and even a few albums of recordings of Broadway tunes. The radio is the center of attention most evenings and if you are an early riser, you must listen to the farm report.

If at all possible, try to arrange for home delivery of milk, if you drink it. Otherwise, beer will do.

 

[Studebaker Driver]

If you want a proper old-style home, you absolutely have to have copious numbers of lace doilies around the house. On the armrests and backs of easy chairs and sofas and on end tables under lamps and whatnots, all stiffly starched. And on the windows, you want lace see-through curtains that have to be stretched to shape on a curtain-stretcher frame. Somebody in the neighborhood ought to have one. If not, there's nothing to do but move. You can't have wall-to-wall carpeting, either. You can have a large rug in the parlor or living room, throw rugs anywhere you care to throw them, linoleum in the kitchen, either the roll kind or if you're rich, the kind that is laid as tile. The floors in the rest of the house may be painted or clear-coat finished but they have to be heavily waxed. Johnson's Self-Polishing floor wax is highly recommended, especially by the likes of Harlow Wilcox. No finer recommendation is possible.

You have no television, of course, and the Victrola is so old-fashioned that it has been banished to the upstairs hall where it sits unloved with trays full of little phonograph needles and even a few albums of recordings of Broadway tunes. The radio is the center of attention most evenings and if you are an early riser, you must listen to the farm report.

If at all possible, try to arrange for home delivery of milk, if you drink it. Otherwise, beer will do.

Yeah, that's all fine, but how will we arrange for home delivery of the beer?

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you want a proper old-style home, you absolutely have to have copious numbers of lace doilies around the house. On the armrests and backs of easy chairs and sofas and on end tables under lamps and whatnots, all stiffly starched. And on the windows, you want lace see-through curtains that have to be stretched to shape on a curtain-stretcher frame. Somebody in the neighborhood ought to have one. If not, there's nothing to do but move. You can't have wall-to-wall carpeting, either. You can have a large rug in the parlor or living room, throw rugs anywhere you care to throw them, linoleum in the kitchen, either the roll kind or if you're rich, the kind that is laid as tile. The floors in the rest of the house may be painted or clear-coat finished but they have to be heavily waxed. Johnson's Self-Polishing floor wax is highly recommended, especially by the likes of Harlow Wilcox. No finer recommendation is possible.

You have no television, of course, and the Victrola is so old-fashioned that it has been banished to the upstairs hall where it sits unloved with trays full of little phonograph needles and even a few albums of recordings of Broadway tunes. The radio is the center of attention most evenings and if you are an early riser, you must listen to the farm report.

If at all possible, try to arrange for home delivery of milk, if you drink it. Otherwise, beer will do.

You've come awfully close to describing my house. Except I got rid of the lace curtains because the cat shredded them. Wide-slat, white-tape venetian blinds are less inviting to feline destruction.

"Gems From The Student Prince" turns up in every pile of records I sift thru. Right along side Alma Gluck's recording of "Carry Me Back To Old Virginny."

I have pine floors, which were heavily varnished when I first moved in seventeen years ago, but the varnish is wearing thru along the paths where I walk. I wouldn't have wall-to-wall carpet if you gave it to me -- cats and carpet don't mix -- but I do have a shabby "oriental" rug that gets hauled out onto the clothesline once a year and beaten furiously with a baseball bat. It's a good way for me to work out my suppressed aggressions.

Your living room furniture needs to be overstuffed, and a bit threadbare, with the mohair on the arms and back worn thru in the spots where your arms and head rub against them. If you're fastidious, you wrap the furniture up in lumpy homemade slipcovers made from heavy damask in a big floral print. I'm not fastidious.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yeah, that's all fine, but how will we arrange for home delivery of the beer?

You talk to your brother-in-law, who knows a guy.

 

[hatsRme]

I've always considered the thirties to be the most fascinating, most radical decade in the twentieth century. My tastes run more to the Northeastern working-class side of things, and if I had to pinpoint the most interesting period of the decade to me it would be 1936-38: a period where real progress was being made in improving the lot of people like my family. Plus, I'd submit that American popular culture -- music, movies, radio, art, literature, you name it -- reached its absolute peak in 1937. When George Gershwin died, there was nowhere to go but down.

Always a favorite era of mine, (culturally) as well. We all know the high-styled fashions, and then Benny Goodman was another type of trendsetter, improving racial equality performing onstage with Teddy Wilson. Prior to this, interracial music was confined to studio production. Then, on to Carnegie Hall in 1938, the first "jass" concert ever played there.

Yes, most folks drove (IF they drove) Fords, Chevys, Dodges, etc., but then there was the rare, upper crust style of the Cord, Duesenberg, and Pierce-Arrow lot, all of which ceased operations in 1937-38. Right on schedule, peaking late in the decade. Those vehicles were over the top on style.

I do prefer most of what we have in life today, but I won't forget the thirties culture and style.

Great thread!!

 

[Studebaker Driver]

Always a favorite era of mine, (culturally) as well. We all know the high-styled fashions, and then Benny Goodman was another type of trendsetter, improving racial equality performing onstage with Teddy Wilson. Prior to this, interracial music was confined to studio production. Then, on to Carnegie Hall in 1938, the first "jass" concert ever played there.

Yes, most folks drove (IF they drove) Fords, Chevys, Dodges, etc., but then there was the rare, upper crust style of the Cord, Duesenberg, and Pierce-Arrow lot, all of which ceased operations in 1937-38. Right on schedule, peaking late in the decade. Those vehicles were over the top on style.

I do prefer most of what we have in life today, but I won't forget the thirties culture and style.

Great thread!!

C'mon, HatsR, while you're listing great car makes, don't forget Lincoln.

 

[hatsRme]

C'mon, HatsR, while you're listing great car makes, don't forget Lincoln. View attachment 66571

RIGHTyouARE, SD!! (Although the Lincoln picture posted is a 1925.) I just threw out a few Hollywood-targeted types, specifically from the late thirties.

'37 Pierce-Arrow

The '37 Duesy

My personal Fav, '37 Cord

We could have another thread on just the transportation of the day!

 

[Studebaker Driver]

RIGHTyouARE, SD!! (Although the Lincoln picture posted is a 1925.) I just threw out a few Hollywood-targeted types, specifically from the late thirties.

'37 Pierce-Arrow
View attachment 66572
The '37 Duesy
View attachment 66573
My personal Fav, '37 Cord
View attachment 66574
We could have another thread on just the transportation of the day!

LOL, I know well the year of that particular Lincoln!
: - )

 

[Studebaker Driver]

 

[Studebaker Driver]

 

[Studebaker Driver]

Let's start a "What Car are You Driving While Wearing a Hat Today" thread.

 

[hatsRme]

Fine, for sure! Definitely a different style era, (it smacks of the 20's, as it should) and I would cruise in the Lincoln, too!!! It's a sweet whip.

I still prefer the 30's style. Always have... can't help it.

 

[Studebaker Driver]

Fine, for sure! Definitely a different style era, (it smacks of the 20's, as it should) and I would cruise in the Lincoln, too!!! It's a sweet whip.

I still prefer the 30's style. Always have... can't help it.

Yay! I finally achieved "Familiar Face" status!
Woo hoo!!! C/8^)

 

[hatsRme]

Yay! I finally achieved "Familiar Face" status!
Woo hoo!!! C/8^)

A RED LETTER DAY! Mazel Tov, Driver

 

[highway66blues]

Well Damn.. just all manner of Silliness goin' on here ain't there.

Thank you, Vitanola for the car info. More I learned and for me to learn about.

Got no need or want of doilies or lace anything. Cotton and wool I have do just fine.
Sofas and "easy" chairs, carpet of any kind either.
You can have the beer an' I'll keep to my whiskey.
Got no upstairs or Victoria.
Many things I have are thread bare or close to it.
And I am just fine with that.