You know you are getting old when:

[vitanola]

1940s LIFE had a lot of little home life / home front stories that looked staged but nevertheless look great photographically. And many featured preppy girls wearing saddle shoes or penny loafers (with a real penny in the little pocket), cosy workwear and those 40s hairstyles like Lauren Bacall sported (obviously a favorite amongst the preppy girls). My August 1945 issue of LIFE has some preppy girls fixing the roof of their house!

Yes, those "Life Goes To..." cheesecake features.
uh
Rea Irvin did a scathing (and hilarious) parody in the October 25, 1941 issue of The New Yorker:

Remember that the inspiration for this parody was not only the insipid Life features, but the willfully obtuse America Firsters. The immediate inspiration was reported to have been Charles Lindbergh's infamous speech at Des Moines.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Here's Harold Lloyd on "What's My Line?" in 1953, putting nothing over on Dorothy Kilgallen.

He is not wearing the glove here, and when he shakes hands with the panel at the end, you get a quick glimpse of the damaged hand.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Remember that the inspiration for this parody was not only the insipid Life features, but the willfully obtuse America Firsters. The immediate inspiration was reported to have been Charles Lindbergh's infamous speech at Des Moines.

The satire of the too-too-too "Timese" writing style common to all the Luce publications is also spot on. Articles indefinite never Henry liked.

 

[2jakes]

Rea Irvin did a scathing (and hilarious) parody in the October 25, 1941 issue of The New Yorker.

First cover by Rea Irvin;

"No magazine fit his graphic style better than The New Yorker, in which he was present from
its very first issue.
The magazine was created by journalists Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, with the goal of establishing
a humor magazine offering room for various amusing short stories, columns and particularly cartoons.
The pair wanted to promote a classy public image and therefore the first cover had to instantly bring across
this message.
Initially the editors wanted to show the Manhattan skyline revealed behind theater curtains being pulled away.
At the last minute Irvin came up with a more eye-catching idea.
He drew a dandy in a high hat, inspired by a 1834 caricature by James Fraser, depicting Count d'Orsay.
The dandy sported a monocle and observed a butterfly through it.
Columnist Corey Ford named the character Eustace Tilley, inspired by the last name of one of his aunts.

The New Yorker became one of the best-selling American magazines in the world.
Various other newspapers and magazines across the globe who tried to maintain a similar sophisticated
public image all took their inspiration from it.
Eustace Tilley was featured as often as possible. He not only appeared on several covers, but traditionally
also heads the magazine's 'Talk of the Town' section."
Lambiek Comiclopedia

 

[HanauMan]

The Rea Irvine parody is quite good, with some bite too. I remember that MAD magazine had similar parodies as well in its heyday.

I never read the New Yorker much, it seemed a bit out of my league whenever I looked at a copy. However, I did enjoy the Charles Addams cartoons. Some of them were pretty creepy.

I did, however, like The Saturday Evening Post, though of course I read it long after the classic Norman Rockwell cover era. Still like Norman Rockwell, the way he painted small town Americana.

Here is one of those LIFE stories, still as entertaining now as it was when this one was published in August 1945.

What comes across the whole magazine, from articles to adverts, is a feel good factor, a sense of optimism and hope for a better future. This went right on into the 1960s.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Yes, those "Life Goes To..." cheesecake features.
uh
Rea Irvin did a scathing (and hilarious) parody in the October 25, 1941 issue of The New Yorker:

**************************************
Remember that the inspiration for this parody was not only the insipid Life features, but the willfully obtuse America Firsters. The immediate inspiration was reported to have been Charles Lindbergh's infamous speech at Des Moines.

Reminds me of The National Lampoon in its heyday. Damn, how I miss those issues.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The wonderful S. J. Perelman did a devastating "Saturday Evening Post" parody in "Contact" magazine around 1932, under the title "Second Class Matter." The entire bit was essentially a collage made up of short quotes from the hokiest of hokey Post fiction -- Scattergood Baines, Florian Slappey, Earthworm Tractors, etc. -- alternated with lethal morsels from typical Post ads: "FINISHED YOUR DINNER? NOW IT'S ACID'S TURN TO DINE!" "YOU'RE ON YOUR WAY TO SHAVE-HAPPINESS!" and such as that. All he leaves out are the articles by Ford or Mussolini, and Mr. Lorimer's beaverboard editorials.

"Second Class Matter" doesn't seem to be online anywhere -- "Contact" was a magazine that was far too smart for its own good, as you might expect from any publication co-edited by Nathaniel West -- but the piece has been anthologized several times, notably in Modern Library's "The Most of S. J. Perelman." Perelman, who was a cartoonist colleague of Dr. Seuss at "Judge" in the twenties, and who later wrote for the Marx Brothers, was the most penetrating satiric pen of his time, and is well worth a look for anyone who wants to get a sense of the essential dopeyness of the Era's mass media. (For example, his New Yorker piece "Somewhere A Roscoe" does for pulp detective fiction what "Second Class Matter" does for the Post.)

 

[2jakes]

Bill Mauldin, cartoonist, Army sergeant who showed WW2 through G.I. eyes.
(Willie & Joe) in the Stars and Stripes.

Although these cartoons were before my time, I recall my father telling
me about his time in the Pacific during WW2. He wasn’t prone to talking much.
I enjoyed it when he did.
I relate to this one because I was also in the Pacific.

Bill was not too popular with Patton. General Eisenhower thought otherwise.
I mostly recall these cartoons when I would visit the public library on Saturdays.
I would spend most of the day there.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Mauldin had some pretty pungent things to say about Vietnam, too.

 

[Fading Fast]

Mauldin had some pretty pungent things to say about Vietnam, too.

Tweak and reuse for Afghanistan.

 

[LizzieMaine]

 

[2jakes]

You know you’re getting old if you remember:

When we saw this on TV we would add something about bending over
and kissing your behind goodbye, although not exactly in those words and
out of range from the grown-ups!

 

[2jakes]

Laundromats.
I just don’t recall anybody dressing up like these folks.
About the only time folks dressed like this at home was
on the Donna Reed Show, Leave it to Beaver or
Father Knows Best.
The 70s "All in the Family" was more real in many ways
which I related very much.
Mostly the clothes were washed and hung out to dry on
the clothes-line in the backyard.
Something that I still do.

 

[vitanola]

Laundromats.
I just don’t recall anybody dressing up like these folks.
About the only time folks dressed like this at home was
on the Donna Reed Show, Leave it to Beaver or
Father Knows Best.
The 70s "All in the Family" was more real in many ways
which I related very much.
Mostly the clothes were washed and hung out to dry on
the clothes-line in the backyard.
Something that I still do.
View attachment 108234
View attachment 108235

My mother dressed like this (and dressed my brother and I like the boys in the above picture) whenever she left our immediate neighborhood. She stopped dressing up in the summer of 1971, when she was swamped with responsibilities, for Father was working out of town and my grandfather was hospitalized with his final illness.

That summer was when we stopped our lessons, club memberships, vacations, and other outside activities. After our grandfather died (late September) we had a few months of the old routine before we had to help my grandmother close up her house and move into ours.

It seems to me that family troubles (such as sickness) have a way of emphasizing which things are important and which are supurfluous. We really didn't miss all of those things that we had supposed were necessities.

Living with Grandma in our house for her final three years was a wonderful experience for my brother and I, though in retrospect it was very hard on Mom. She never complained, of course, and was always cheerfully optomistic, as she still is, despite her ninety-six years and her advanced dementia.

 

[Bushman]

Laundromats.
I just don’t recall anybody dressing up like these folks.
About the only time folks dressed like this at home was
on the Donna Reed Show, Leave it to Beaver or
Father Knows Best.
The 70s "All in the Family" was more real in many ways
which I related very much.
Mostly the clothes were washed and hung out to dry on
the clothes-line in the backyard.
Something that I still do.
View attachment 108234
View attachment 108235

My Dad and I were just discussing this the other day. We had some painters tarps we needed to wash and neither of us could remember for the life of us where we could find a laundromat in our area. I think I've only used one once in the past 15 years, and that was in Ireland when I was staying for two weeks and needed some clothes washed to get me through the last few days.

 

[dnjan]

In additional to the people appearing so "dressed up" in those pictures, I don't see a single person smoking.

My housemates and I bought a used washing machine while we were in grad school, just so we could avoid the smoking and screaming kids at the laundromat.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

In additional to the people appearing so "dressed up" in those pictures, I don't see a single person smoking.

My housemates and I bought a used washing machine while we were in grad school, just so we could avoid the smoking and screaming kids at the laundromat.

There is a sand-filled "ashtray," (urn?) in the foreground, so smoking is at least acknowledged.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Every landuromat I've ever been in in fifty-five years of life has been dirty, smelly, and run down filled with tired, sad-eyed people staring vacantly into space or thumbing thru dog-eared, coffee-stained copies of the "Watchtower" as they wait for their loads to dry. I don't believe I have ever been in a more joyless place in all the world than any laundromat, with the possible exception of a hospital cafeteria on Christmas Eve.

 

[Zombie_61]

Every landuromat I've ever been in in fifty-five years of life has been dirty, smelly, and run down filled with tired, sad-eyed people staring vacantly into space or thumbing thru dog-eared, coffee-stained copies of the "Watchtower" as they wait for their loads to dry. I don't believe I have ever been in a more joyless place in all the world than any laundromat, with the possible exception of a hospital cafeteria on Christmas Eve.

Remove the Watchtower and add gang graffiti and panhandlers waiting outside to ask for your spare change, and you've accurately described almost every laundromat I can think of around here. I think the misery associated with such places is nearly universal unless there's a bar next door.

 

[scottyrocks]

Every landuromat I've ever been in in fifty-five years of life has been dirty, smelly, and run down filled with tired, sad-eyed people staring vacantly into space or thumbing thru dog-eared, coffee-stained copies of the "Watchtower" as they wait for their loads to dry. I don't believe I have ever been in a more joyless place in all the world than any laundromat, with the possible exception of a hospital cafeteria on Christmas Eve.

Over the years, when I have needed a laundromat, I have searched out the older, dirtier, smellier places because they are not as busy as the newer, cleaner, sweet-smelling places, which are usually packed. I have been lucky in finding places that were older, dirtier, and smellier, but not too old, dirty, or smelly.

I used to put my stuff in, read a book for the 30 minutes of the wash cycle, put it in the dryer, and then go home and come back by the end of the hour-long drying cycle.