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November 1960. While I restrain Missie the Zombie Dog, my nephew Jimmy is either still stunned by or anticipates the full-face smooch she gave him within moments of this shot (see first comment below). Interesting background details here in my mother's kitchen: upper right on the white table, a bowl of sliced figs fresh from my father's garden, along with an actual box of Pablum (presumably for Jimmy); on the table shelf, some of her recipe cards in a clothespin holder thingie behind a casserole dish; on the back wall, an ironing board cabinet, and under it, I guess, a metal compartment for the old kind of iron you heated on the stove; for some reason, a bamboo cane hangs from the cabinet handle; on the left, a typical accretion of kitchen items clogs the shelf, including an aluminum cake saver, hand-crocheted hot plate mats, wire glassware holder complete with table glassware, and in the corner, recipe boxes and cookbooks (one a Betty Crocker) are piled atop the breadbox, one of Mother's wedding presents from 1932 and which is now in my possession. I'm 14 here, Jimmy 8 months. My sister took the photo. View full size.
Every time I see my grandson eating his pablum (although it isn't called that any more), I think of this picture. His dad wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole, but he actually likes it!
I was eleven months old in November 1960, and although we lived in Eastern Europe I still feel really connected to this photo. I have an addiction for this kind of photos. Thank you so much for posting them.
An ironing board cupboard. I wish I still had one. Heck, I iron so infrequently now because I can't remember where I last tucked the darn thing away.
the exact same handles in our kitchen today. When we did a minor remodel several years ago, we considered replacing them. However, we needed 52 of the darned things and, at over $2 each for replacements, quickly decided that these would be fine. They were soaked in ammonia and I cleaned every one.
This picture takes me back a few years when my teenage sons were babies and our dog was an old lady. I have shots of her standing by their walkers, eating Cheerios from their hands.
Looks like the kind of skinny cane that came with a celluloid Kewpie doll or stuffed animal on the end of it, often sold at parades, fairs and circuses.
John Howard has got it, I'm sure. Of course the drawers would tend to stick if the sides were painted. I should have thought of that. To make them slide smoothly, we'd lubricate them with candle wax (or blocks of paraffin, which Mother always had around for jelly & jam making). Soap, too, now that I think of it.
Funny, I see a lot of comments about that painted drawer. That is the first thing I saw when I looked at the picture and I thought about that paint stripe.
tterrace, did you get the Draft Board shoulder-tap and end up doing a hitch for Uncle Sam?
Believe me, there are more than enough people in this world with cluttered countertops to make you, and everyone else on earth who has them and likes them, feel good!
But yeah I get the whole "posterity" thing and often would make it a point to take pictures of every room, everywhere I have lived for the better part of 30 years, so I get to see what coat I was wearing in the winter of '83 because it's hanging on the coat rack in the hallway. I love it!
You never paint the slides, or else they will stick and be hard to open.
By the pattern shown, I'd say the painter contained a run with a quick upstroke of the brush, leaving an uneven swath.
A lot of memories stoked by this precious photo. For one, 1960 was my high school graduation year and so many things in the kitchen area take me back to the 50's.
Dynomite!
I think we had that same model walker...I remember having to keep an eye on my younger sisters as they scooted around on the driveway in it. It's funny how a memory can lie dormant for so long until the sight of something like the plastic wheels in your photo retrieves it...then, BOOM!
My theory: paint on the sides of the drawers would quickly become unsightly because of scuffing and scraping. Painting the first couple inches or so would prevent bare wood from showing if the drawers weren't pushed all the way in. Obviously, my mother wasn't aware of item 2, or her calipers were lost in all the clutter on the shelf. You should see how much more clutter had accumulated by the 1980s.
The first thing I thought was, "Thank goodness there are others who have a cluttered kitchen!"
This is a great picture; another reason why this site is a daily stop -- and often a major time-suck -- for me.
Little Jimmy is on the short side of 50 and tterrace is approaching Medicare coverage.
I love your photos, tterrace, because you grew up around the same time I did and I see so many things in the photos you post that I had forgotten existed. For instance: We had an aluminum cake-saver exactly like the one in the picture and now I'm sitting here trying to remember whatever happened to it. And getting a bit teary-eyed because we always knew it was a special occasion when we saw the cake-saver, covering many a cake made by my own dear departed mother's hands.
Also, you look so much like a kid I grew up with in our neighborhood -- same haircut and everything.
I wish our pets can live as long as us.
I always find it interesting that the inside of drawers and cabinets in the 30s and 40s weren't painted. Did the original professional painters make such a sloppy line or is that from the homeowners doing a crappy job on a repaint?
I do not know why my daughters are such neat freaks. They have nothing on their counters. You want toast you get the toaster out of the cubard.
[Being careful, of course, not to let any cubs out. - Dave]
Our kitchen counter would never be that cluttered. Mom wouldn't stand for it.
Then again, I just spent the evening cleaning 10 years of clutter from my workshop's bench, so who am I to judge?
Where was your microwave?
tterrace, whether it's you, your sister, or some other family member taking the picture, all of these "slice of life" photos you post capture the true essence of the times they were taken. Great job!
Real life at its most charming! These type of pictures just make every visit a great pleasure. Thanks, Tterrace!
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