Jen But Never Jenn

16 May 2010

The Keeping of the House, 1950s Style

Wow.

The 50s housewife was busy, to say the least. According to what I’ve read, she cleans certain things on a weekly basis that I haven’t cleaned once since moving into our condo in 2006. Kidding, mom. (Not kidding, everyone else.)

I’ve compiled the advice, and here’s the daily housekeeping schedule I’ll attempt to follow for the 50s Housewife Experiment:

Throw back the covers
Open up the blinds and windows
Freshen up
Make and serve breakfast
Clean up breakfast
Complete a 10-minute exercise regime
Shower, do hair and make-up, get dressed
Gather a basket for tidying. As the rooms of the home are tackled, pick up items that aren’t where they belong and place them in a basket. Redistribute them where they should be as you enter a new room
Straighten up the living and dining room, including picking up potential clutter, light dusting, fluffing / straightening pillows, and watering plants or flowers
Make the beds
Tidy the bedroom, including light dusting
Hang up any clothes that may be about or ensure dirty ones are in the hamper
Do a light tidy of the bathroom including removing and replacing used towels, refilling toilet paper and soap (if needed) and cleaning the sink and basin area including soap dishes
Review the menu for the current day and the next and compare it to what’s currently available in the home. Make note of anything that needs to be prepared ahead of time or marketing (shopping) that needs to get done
Begin long-advance preparations for dinner (such as making dessert)
Wipe down kitchen work surfaces and inside the fridge
Dispose of garbage
Rinse dish cloths and hang to dry
Sweep or mop the kitchen floor
Handle errands that might take you out of the home (such as marketing, volunteering, going to the post office, getting an item fixed, etc), bookkeeping, correspondence, or indulge in a hobby
If returning from the grocery store, wash vegetables, wrap them and put them away. Place rest of groceries or purchases in their proper place
Have a quick lunch <- Yoinks?
Start advance food conditioning like crisping vegetables or thawing frozen foods
Handle weekly chore for the day (more on that below!)
Set the table for dinner
Arrange the living room for evening enjoyment (such as “the Mister’s” newspaper, book, and cigarettes)
Do a quick sweep of the floors and ensure entrance ways are clear
Prepare a special dish for dinner
Freshen up before the husband returns from work. Consider changing into something more festive if the day dress is plain
Set out a tray with equipment for making cocktails, should “the Mister” want to serve drinks before dinner
Greet husband “gayly”
Serve dinner
Clear table and wash dishes
Pour boiling water down the sink to ensure pipes are flushed
If necessary, pack the husband’s lunch for the next day. Set aside a lunch tray in the refrigerator for yourself if having leftovers
Set table for breakfast
Ensure breakfast foods are available and do any make-ahead preparations for it
~~Shoot yourself in the head~~ Enjoy an evening of relaxation

If that isn’t enough, each day there is a once-a-week chore to tackle, which is basically a deep clean of a particular room. It’s not your typical “wipe the tub” cleaning. Nope. It’s stuff like:

Use metal polish on bathroom fixtures
Clean and disinfect all kitchen appliances
Scald and disinfect bread boxes and garbage pails and bins
Replace flowers with fresh bouquets

In addition, laundry should be done at least twice a week (including bedding) and floors should be mopped / vacuumed on a similar schedule.

There is also a recommendation in there to try to squeeze a 10 – 30 minute nap in the afternoon (if not because you’re actually tired but to “look more refreshed” for he-who-wants-to-be-greeted-with-prettiness when he gets home).

While there were certainly brand name cleaning products available to her, the 50s housewife used a lot of simple household products as well – such as baking soda, vinegar, lemon, castile soap and borax – not to mention a good deal of elbow grease. She used things like cheese cloth, rags and old newspapers instead of paper towels. This actually all suits me fine as I figure these are all environmentally friendly options – and who knows – they might even work better than the contemporary products.

I’d also like to note - and will bold this so that a certain someone sees it - that all the guides indicate that a husband shouldn’t expect to be waited on hand and foot. He is fully capable of putting away his coat when he arrives home, fetching and putting away the objects he uses and properly hanging and / or putting his clothes away after undressing. Extras like helping with the dishes after dinner are also "courteous contributions."

Image Source: The Bride's Reference Book

Meals & Nutrition of the 50s

Sweet merciful Papa Smurf, help me through this.

Handling the meals for the 50s Housewife Experiment is going to be tough for a few reasons: I’ve come to appreciate vegan cuisine (something I started getting into for health, ethical and environmental reasons); I generally try not to eat too many simple carbs (potatoes, rice, white bread, white sugar) as they’re not great for your blood sugar / insulin levels (I’m not diabetic but I also don’t want to become one); and I usually aim for fresh, local, seasonal foods.

This all flies in the oleo-smeared face of 1950s cuisine. If you think today’s Canada Food Pyramid is outdated (and it is), you should see what it was like then (clicking on images will expand them):

The American food guide was essentially the same thing, except it was called The Basic Seven Foods. You can see what was involved from this page from my Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book:

Forget an apple a day. Then, it was a potato a day. Ugh. And plenty of whole milk. And FOUR pieces of bread, covered and smothered with lard. UUUUGGGHHH.

There was also a big thing in the day for gelatin-based molds. Like, as dinner. And marshmallows on vegetables. And canned everything. And salt and pepper as the sole seasonings for food. And shortening. So. Much. Shortening.

My household guides range from semi-sane menu suggestions of a breakfast of juice, toast, jam and milk to maniacal morning spreads that will require an angry 6am rising to create, only to inevitably have my husband complain that it’s too much food. His inability to even eat half of it will add to my not-exactly-perfect-wife-more-like-angry-Hulk disposition. Here are a few breakfast suggestions that will test our marriage:

Who can eat ham, eggs, muffins, hot cereal, and a glass of orange juice, coffee and milk (each) on a regular basis in one sitting immediately after rolling out of bed? Well, I’m going to see if I can stuff it in my husband without having to haul out a bucket.

They also had dessert once, if not twice a day. So, we’ll suffer through it. Somehow.

Image Sources: Retroflections; Food and Management; The Searchlight Homemaking Guide

Welcome to the 50s Housewife Experiment

So, we’ve decided to do it.

For two weeks (May 17th through May 30th), I’ll be living the life of a 1950s housewife.

Why?

For fun. I think it’s easy to romanticize or demonize the era – so I’m going to attempt to “realitycize” it (well, as realistic as it can be, should you believe all the magazines and books from the time!). At the end of the two weeks my husband and I are going to see how happy / bitter we’re each feeling, if our weight changed, if our blood pressure changed, how much we spent vs. how much we normally spend, and if there are any lessons we can take from it all.

Why just two weeks? Why not a year? Or even a month?

Have you seen the crap people ate back then? Housewives were well intentioned, but we’ve learned a lot about nutrition since then. The 50s diet is fairly high is saturated fats, salt and sugar – plus it marked the dawn of the "miracle" of convenience foods (see: highly processed junk). I can only take so much. An additional reason is that I’ve managed to get a lot of client work done ahead of time, but there will be things that come up that I’ll need to get on. Going hardcore as a housewife for a long period of time would interrupt my ability to pay my mortgage, which I'm told is sort of important.

What will you do after the two weeks?

We’ll do our assessment (as mentioned above). It will hardly be scientific - after all, this is just a fluffy, fun-inspired attempt at living in this hyper-idealized manner.

What is the 50s Housewife Experiment?

For two weeks I'll attempt, in a highly superficial way, to live up to the ideals placed on housewives in the 1950s. I’ll be basing what a 1950s housewife may have strived toward on a few references:

My 1950s era household guides – The Searchlight Household Guide, my Bride’s Reference Book and a 1952 Canadian home economics textbook
Several cookbooks from the era
A few vintage magazines like Redbook, Household Magazine, Today's Woman Magazine and Ladies' Home Journal
Prelinger Archive films and commercials that were aimed at women at the time

From all above, I’ve picked up that the 1950s (childfree) housewife had five key goals. Put simply, I’ll aim to (Note: Click those links for the details!):

Create a comfortable, clean and beautiful home
Provide nutritious and tasty meals
Handle the household income as economically as possible
Show pride in being a Mrs. by putting a concerted effort into my appearance
Make home life as relaxing and supportive as possible so that the breadwinner can succeed in providing for the family to the best of his abilities

Guess which one of these credos my husband likes best? Actually, all men seem to like that last one best. Whenever I've explained to guys what I'm about to do, it's like some big-chested, bendy woman just walked out of my mouth and started dancing for them. Their jaws drop open a little, their eyes get glazey and they ask me to repeat myself, like, a few times over, just to be sure they heard what they think they heard.

Anyway, during the two weeks, I will do these things as a 1950s housewife likely would have, using the technology and means that she had. This means that I will:

Create meals based on nutritional rules at the time, her recipes, her serving sizes, and the types of ingredients that were available to her. Please send prayers / fairy dust / The Secret vibes / The Force our way as the strength of our gag reflexes and arteries will be tested
Use the household instruments available to her. Sadly, I won’t presume we were wealthy, which means my microwave, dishwasher, blender and juicer are going to take a bit of a holiday
Care for the home based on her ideals and schedule while using the cleaning products and methods suggested where available
Take part in the beauty and exercise regiments she would have

Things I’ll be wavering on:

Work. I’ve handled a lot of my regular clients’ demands ahead of time. I still, however, expect to spend at least 2-3 hours a day managing / doing my freelance writing work. We’ll just pretend that time is spent volunteering at the Red Cross or Junior League, like a good 50s housewife apparently would
I’m not going to get rid of my stuff and trade it in for 50s era tools – so the phone isn’t rotary. The modern washing machine will still be used. The computer will serve as record player
The Internet exists … but! Internet time will be limited to work and blogging / blabbing of said blog. No goofing. If friends e-mail me, I’ll either call them, write them a letter (via snail mail) or be a brat and ignore them until the experiment is through
I’ll watch TV, but no more than someone would then – so, about two hours a day? Other leisure time will be spent reading or doing hobbies
The clothes won’t be retro – but close. Dresses and skirts will be largely in use, but I don’t plan to get costumey (only because I don't own much of that)
I’ll have a credit card and cell phone on me for emergencies but don’t plan to use either
I'll still be "me." I'm not going to walk around like someone who works at one of those historic forts and say things like "Golly, gee, mister, what's that strange book you're reading from? A laptop? What kind of devil machine is that?"

You can read up on the details of the 50s Housewife Experiment by clicking on the links within the post … and then just stay tuned as I update throughout the two weeks!:

Wish me luck. Wish me sanity. Wish me vodka.

And now - Part 2 (October 25 - 31) - a husband-centric version!

PLUS: A SPECIAL (see: petty, ridiculous) post in response to some random critiques from the Internet:
The 50s Housewife Gets Way More Sarcastic Than Usual

Part 3: The 50s Housewife Does Christmas (December 20 - 24):

Also: I post snippets of 50s Housewife stuff here and there, using the tag 50s housewife experiment. Click it to read more random finds, insights and general silliness from this era.

Please feel free to post your comments or send me a note to jenbutneverjenn (at) gmail (dot) com.

Image Source: Hamilton Beach advertisement, circa 1946.

11 May 2010

More Visions Of Things To Come

Curious to know what you're looking at? It's a gigantic pot of beans that's been baked with Ketchup-glazed oranges and topped with a sprinkling of cloves for a surprise crunch. Let's not forget to balance that meal with celery, carrot sticks and a bundle of radishes.

After a long day of work, isn't that what every man hopes to come home to?

Still prepping a bit of the 50s Housewife Experiment. Stay tuned!

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16 May 2010

The Keeping of the House, 1950s Style

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