At the beginning of the Lock-Down there was a headline in the newspaper asking "Have you turned into a 1950's housewife?" and went on to say that many locked in at home were rediscovering all kinds of domestic tasks of cleaning and cooking which they had hitherto never indulged in. I certainly have been doing more home baking and have reached for old and well trusted cookery books of days gone by. My excuse is that because my only kitchen scales are in pounds and ounces modern cookery books are no use to me. As for cleaning - well, as long as the weather has been fine I have been out in the garden, but eventually the dust lay so thick that I could not ignore it any longer. However, in reaching for those cookery books of years gone by I did find some of the 1950s that belonged to my mother, and very interesting they are too, not just because of the recipes, but because of the Household Hints. So this month I will share with you some of the Labour Saving hints that may be helpful in household tasks. This 1952 Almanac is a gem, and has some amazing labour saving tips - these are things every 1950s housewife needed to know. To clean ostrich feathers hold them over flames of a lighted sulphur candle. Cigarette ash in the water will help to keep cut flowers fresh. Sew small combs onto the band inside a large hat to prevent it blowing off. To remove cottons from the carpet etc after dressmaking go over the surface with a clean comb. Now this one I will try, a constant problem for me ! To clean wicker furniture (unpainted) wash with soapy water then apply paste made of tartaric acid and flowers of sulphur, leave to dry and then brush off. This next one you must all try - Shoe polish applied to the eye lashes makes an excellent waterproof mascara for when you go swimming ! To make cellar stairs skid-proof apply some flat paint mixed with silver sand. Use the water in which onions have been boiled to clean gilt picture frames. A saucer of ammonia placed overnight in the oven will loosen the dirt and grease before cleaning. To save your feet getting tired during ironing, stand on a cushion. And of course what makes this little book a delight is the advertisements. Double sugar and salt ????? And how inventive the 1950's housewife was with Weetabix - You could incorporate it into biscuits and also make a Savoury Cereal Scramble. 4 or 5 portions of buttered Weetabix (I have found other references of buttering Weetabix and eating it like you would Ryvita), 3 tomatoes, 2 eggs, 1 desertspoon of chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste (in case there was not enough salt in the Weetabix !) Pour boiling water over the tomatoes and skin them, rub them through a sieve into a pan and cook in butter or margarine. Stir in two beaten eggs, add parsley and seasoning, cook for five minutes and spread over the Weetabix. Yum. This dates from about 1951 when my mother would have joined the W.I. in the village nearest to the farm. As well as a lovely variety of recipes from all the different W.I.s in the County, there are also useful Home Hints. I can remember sometime in the 1990 there was a television programme called "How clean is your house?" or something similar with two feisty ladies who took on untidy and unloved houses and cleaned them. They used to have the novelty of showing you how to clean taps with tomato sauce or some such gimmick, but in days gone by, with few proprietary cleaners, you really did have to make you own. From the W.I. book - Brass Cleaner - 1 pint of paraffin and 6d worth of brilliantine mixed together and shaken well, rub on brass with a piece of flannel. To remove mildew - Moisten soft soap and starch with the juice of a lemon. Spread the paste over the mildew and lay out and bleach, afterwards wash. New Lamp Wicks - before putting a new wick into a lamp soak well in vinegar and dry throughly. Scorch marks may be removed from linen by rubbing with a freshly cut onion and afterwards soaking in cold water. Rub the bars of the firegrate with a cut onion before using black lead and they will keep black much longer. ... I could go on, but all these take us back to another age and place. Add a handful or two of salt to a bucket of whitewash and it will stick better. These two illutrations of the many types of brushes a housewife needed are from The National Trust book of forgotton household crafts. And they do not go into the department of brushes in the bedroom for clothes and the bathroom for your person. How important were brushes before the age of the electric vacuum cleaner ? What were Madagascar Brushes ? This is from the Yorkshire Evening Post 10 January 1908. A brush for everything and some you never knew you needed. This reminds you that you have to Spring Clean, and is from The Boston Guardian 15 March 1919. What a chore it was to have open fires, carry in the fuel, carry out the ashes and cinders, and then that magic day came when the weather turned warmer, you did not need to have fires in every room, the sweep came, you covered everything with dust sheets, and then after he had gone you Spring Cleaned and there would be no more smoke and ashes until the weather turned colder again. This is from the Hull Daily Mail 12 March 1924. And they stocked Ewbanks, remember those carpet cleaners ? But also in the same newspaper - Branded polish that you did not need to make yourself. Some of the recipes I have found must have been dangerous - from the W.I book - 4 oz of castile soap, 4 oz of beeswax, 1 quart of turpentine, 4 oz of white wax, 1 quart of soft water - put all together in a pan, it doesn't say Boil, but how else would the wax melt ? But then at last - also from the same newspaper Not only a vacuum cleaner but a washer and an ironer ! Wow - but just look at the price in 1924. The first mechanical vacuum cleaner was from America and invented in 1876 and called "The Grand Rapids", the English equivalent was "The Ewbank" invented in 1889 by Thomas Ewbank. This picked up dirt with a rotating brush and then you had to empty the dust pan. The next stage was to add an electric motor, again in America, where J Murray Spangler had a tin can on a broom stick with a flour sack and electric motor in 1907. William Hoover saw the future and bought up his rights and then brought the invention to England, but of course you had to have electricity. There were still many housewives in the 1950s who did not have electricity, particularly in rural areas. Notably at home the cow byres had electricity to milk the cows long before it ever was installed in the house (my mother always said the cows came first in their marriage). So many still had to resort to a plethora of brushes and brooms. The Hull Daily Mail of 24 March 1924 as well as advertisements for cleaning products had a feature article on Spring Cleaning. The writer made reference to labour saving devices and "at a small dinner party the conversation turned on the labour saving devices in the home ..." so that gives you an idea of the social rank of both writer and readers - "and the question was raised of the respective importance and value of numerous discoveries and inventions in lightening the task of women engaged in kitchen work" ..... mention was made of various kitchen utensils, but the conclusion was that the greatest thing was Stainless Steel. Something we would perhaps never give a second thought to. " Sheffield has the credit of evolving stainless steel, and its first products were received with wonderment by housewives ..." The 1950's housewife would not have had servants, they were now very much part of history. Fetching, carrying, cleaning , polishing knives to stop them getting rusty, had all been jobs you could have expected your servants to do, if you were in that level of society of course. This young girl would be typical of so many who went into domestic service. It is called The Servant, by Albert Belleroche [ 1864 - 1944] and at the Brighton and Hove Museum and art Gallery. All the messy bits to do with child care would be the task of the Nurse Maid. Here the light is shining on the face of the baby, the downward looking face of the maid is in the shadow. This is called The Happy Infant by William Charles Penn [ 1877 - 1968] at the Walker Gallery. This picture shows a cook with her mistress and is called "What's for pudding today?" by Margaret Gere [ 1878 - 1965] at the Wilson Art Gallery. All of these artists have covered the early part of the twentieth century reminding us that the age of having servants is not that far away, but by the 1950s had most certainly gone. This little book is a gem, and I keep it not with my cookery books but with my sewing and knitting books. Now here I could almost say that I am a 1950s housewife because I do a lot of sewing and knitting, but not quite to the extent that it recommends. It tells you how to unpick a knitted garment, wash the wool in hanks and knit it up again. Honestly, what's the point ? Except that I can remember my mother doing exactly that and re-knitting wool carefully unpicked and washed. And here's a handy little hint, if the elbows of a knitted garment are starting to wear thin, unpick the sleeves and then sew back the right sleeve where the left one was and vice versa and then the thin bit will be inside the elbow ! Or - don't put your elbows on the table. And I have been knitting socks (small ones for children) during the lock-down, because I like knitting socks on four needles. We may continue a little longer being locked into domesticity, who knows ? But until we can once again go out and about I will appreciate my modern appliances and stainless steel knives, modern plumbing and flushing loo and the vacuum cleaner. Teach me my God and King / In all things Thee to see / And what I do in anything / To do it as for Thee.
A servant with this clause / Makes drudgery divine;/ Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws / Makes that and the action fine. You may or may not hold the point of view of George Herbert [1593 - 1632] but it would have been shared by the 1950s housewife. Happy sweeping.
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
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