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When Good Humor Ruled the Suburbs
You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream! Growing up in mid-century Long Island, no sound was more welcome than the suburban siren call of summer – the seductive jingling bells of the Good...
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The Beat of the Suburbs
For some, the suburbs were a splendid split level paradise The suburbs of postwar Long Island silently simmered in a preordained sameness, no more so than in the summer. Summer days were metered out in...
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Back to School Shoes
Back to School. Vintage ad Sears Back to School Clothes 1957 It was the day before Labor Day 1957 and the countdown had begun for the end of summer and the new school term. From Long Island to Little...
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Plugged into the American Dream
Vintage ad “Live Better Electrically” 1965 In 1956 happy homemaker Helen Watson didn’t give a hoot about leaving carbon footprints; in fact if one were pointed out to her she’d most likely plug-in...
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Vintage Fall Follies
Burning Leaves- Hokey Smokey! The smell of burning leaves is forever seared in my mind. As memorable as the blazing orange and red colors of the fall leaves of my childhood were , it was the vibrant...
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Vintage Fall Follies-Fallout Pt II
Burning Fall leaves 1958 The blaze of fall color took on a different meaning, the autumn of 1959. Many neighbors did not only burn autumn leaves but their trash as well, giving new meaning to fall...
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Xmas or Hanukkah – The True Festival Of Lights
Normally, while Jews across the country begin celebrating Hanukkah, the festival of lights, Christians have had a good 2 week start on them with their own festival of lights- the installation of Xmas...
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It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Magazine World
Mad Magazine’s sensibility shaped our current culture of cynicism, credited with spawning today’s “Snark Generation.” This April 1974 issue of Mad was the most controversial cover. Many newsstands and...
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The Real Housewives of The Cold war
Like most women growing up in the 1950s and 1960s I was fed a generous serving of sugar-coated media stereotypes of happy homemakers who were as frozen and neatly packaged as the processed foods they...
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Fractured Fairy Tales for Earth Day
1954 advertisement Post War Pesticides on Parade Mid century America was the golden age of pesticides and it was love at first sight. Any thoughts about Earth Day and the environment lay far in the...
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Male Turf
The sexist suburban landscape. With names like Dandy Boy, The Lawn Boy and Lazy Boy, lawn mowing was clearly male turf. Vintage Illustrations (L) Saturday Evening Post Cover 1955 illustration: Dick...
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I Love a July Fourth Parade
July 4th was a candy coated Kodachrome explosion of Kool Aid colored patriotism With the acrid smell of firecrackers lingering in the hot summer air, mid-century memories of July 4th parades past...
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This Is Your Life- The Atomic Age
Conceived as I was in the warm afterglow of the Hydrogen bomb it was also in the dark shadow cast by Godzilla that radioactive mutated monster of mass destruction. Together they would send a collective...
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Beach Club Preening
L) Vintage Ray Ban Sunglasses Ad 1960 (R) Vintage Jantzen Swimsuit Ad 1950s, illustration by Pete Hawley How To Enjoy The Sun In Style In the summer of 1960 the glitter and glamor of my Grandmothers...
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Cold War Halloween
On most mid-century days, the suburban streets of my childhood were filled by a legion of door to door salesmen trafficking in fantasy. The pavement belonged to this endless parade of post war...
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Where’s the Beef?
When it comes to American exceptionalism, we Americans have long had an exceptionally voracious appetite for red meat, making us the proud leader of the free, meat-eatin’ world. In this land of...
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Drawn to Paris
#JeSuisEnTerrasse One of Paris iconic outdoor cafe – Le Dome in Montparnasse 1950s Photo by Ervin Martin I was a Francophile by the time I was five. Even as a toddler I was drawn to Paris. Literally....
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The Telephone and the Housewife
It’s a very mobile Christmas. Imagine the old days of being tied to a desktop computer to do shopping. It’s so 2006. As we swipe our ways through the holidays on our smart phones, it’s hard to...
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The Fading Middle Class
The Middle Class Fades Away America’s middle class is vanishing before our eyes, fading away like a once cherished Kodacolor snapshot. Today the possibility of obtaining the American Dream feels as...
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America at Steak
Where’s the Beef Mr. Trump? More Sizzle Than Steak Donald Trump can boast about his juicy steaks all he wants but when it comes to substance and policy…where’s the beef? The Republican front runner is...
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