i saw this picture today and i was sucked in.
hot pink floors! turquoise walls! Yellow drapes! a man in an apron!
i totally want to hear this music… 99% chance that i LOVE it.
then i got lost for an hour looking at ads from the 50s -70s on pinterest, tumblers and google.
it was mesmerizing.
are you watching your weight? try velveeta!
(also… the fact that women are reminded they should be watching their weight)
matchy matchers.
times REALLY have changed.
if have to answer my phone even once a day i cringe.
i never knew the different phones were for specific rooms… i hadn’t thought about it.
my grandmothers had all three….in all those places.
back when people were cool!
what a neat block that would be to live on…. everyone’s garage painted with STYLE!
stretch shorts in luxury sueded fabrics.
only $5.97!!
the zippered shorts are cheaper than the step in style!
please notice her shoes too… wow!
is that an indoor rotisserie????
her washer is in her kitchen.
she is drying clothes from her kitchen cabinets?!
is she ironing in her kitchen?
what is that gray cabinet on the right? is that an oven?
but those yellow countertops are sweeeeeeeet!
it’s kinda hard to read this but it says that if she feeds her man Grape Nut flakes he will have loads of energy and feel won-n-n-der-ful!
if she makes this “Oh lady, you are going to get kissed!”
pink countertops?!
peg board wall?!! aqua ceiling!
silver outlet covers!
side note: i own those plates.
we eat on them every night. i got them at the thrift store several years ago.
she is cooking quite the feast in her pink dress and pearls!
SHE HAS AN AQUA WALL OVEN!!!!
does it appear she has a rotisserie in that oven too?
my grandmother told me that her family was the first family in town to have an air conditioner when she was young.
i imagine it was like this when people came over to visit.
there is too much to say….
but…
yellow toilet?
and you know that is most likely shag carpet in that bathroom!
{{{shudder}}}
that house is pretty awesome!
also i love the font… the red door and his hat.
– or dreams of owning – a tape recorder
these photos just get me more excited for Mad Men starting THIS sunday!
Northern Cottage - The woman in black admiring the ac unit looks exactly like my sweet mom (oh how I miss her!) she was so classic & stylish . Made tears come to my eyes reading your post & a smile from the stretchy shorts – wow!!
Mindy - I am late to the party (or the post as it be) but adore these ads!! And the strethy shorts – my mom had those! So glad I took time to come back for this post : )
Amy Woods - Advertising works! I’ll take the aqua wall oven and the bright yellow, ribbed double-knit stretch shorts please!!
BethJones - One of my favorite posts, Meg! Love reading your blog but hardly ever comment. Thanks for the walk down memory lane!
Sarah - I love what you love!!! The aqua oven is the best and I would install one in a heartbeat!
Sara - This is such a fun post! It’s great to get some perspective about how outmoded our gadgets, style and advertising will be in future decades.
April R - That GoodMorning Kiss though! And the fonts! That was fun 🙂 Thanks!
Lisa - Lol.
Don’t get too excited about the guy in the apron. He was smiling at his spouse.
My mom had a maternity dress out of Sears print 32. That’s back when clothes/dresses were cute!
LOVE the phones!
Tiffany - My 5th graders are writing compare and contrast essays about old vs new inventions. The rotary phone and cell phone are fun to read. I can’t help but feel old when I share what it was like to call on a rotary phone.
Jenny B. - I begged and begged for a phone in my room. I really wanted a princess phone with a rotary dial. There was something very satisfying about actually dialing the numbers. I never liked the push-button phones as much. I can still remember the phone number of my best friend down the street and how long it took to dial her number (it had several 8’s and 9’s in it). 🙂
Lynette - What a fun post! I enjoyed it so much!! You really made my day!
Alison - I love this! Old ads are so much fun to look at. I had no idea Sears sold fabric. I remember the Permanent- Pressed tag line. My Grandma had those shorts and I would wear those shoes in a heartbeat! Thanks so much for sharing.
Kerri - I am 55 – these photos are my childhood! lol Can’t wait for the new season of Mad Men, too! Miss all those catalogs: Sears, JC Penney, Montgomery Ward.
Kristin S - That woman on the phone has on 1950’s TOMs!
These were really fun.
Gillian - My parents still have a yellow toilet! An improvement on the previous ‘avocado’ toilets. Here in Ireland it has always been completely normal to have your washing machine in the kitchen, that was until the last few years when we developed notions of grandeur and started making ourselves American style laundry rooms. (It’d still be considered a moral sin to put clothes directly from the washer in to the drier without at least attempted to dry them on the line!)
This is a listing from a similar house to the one I grew up in http://brandnewretro.ie/2013/05/20/9-photos-house-of-the-month-1967-glenbrook-rathfarnham-dublin-14/ it’s a pity there is no colour but I would like to draw your attention the special feature of carpet in the kitchen! In fairness carpeted kitchens are not normal but I’ve been in many a carpeted bathroom – ah nothing like a squelchy carpet bathroom! Nice!
Lisa - These ads are so fun to look at!!! I love love love the dresses in the air conditioning ad. So awesome! Notice how all the advertisements are with white people? Kinda interesting… 🙂 This was a really fun post!
Karie - My dad JUST got rid if his pink toilet, tub and carpet in his bathroom. Still has a pink sink…. Baby steps…
Kimberlee - I will try to tell myself that I am so “Mad Men” whenever I look at my goldenrod counter tops, and if I light up a cig while I’m cooking please tell me I’ve once again taken things too far.
Mags - Had a good laugh over those stretchy shorts. My mom, my aunt, & my grandma ALL had them!!
Mags
Megan - I may have to print that air conditioner one. We are *hopefully* moving into a 1860’s farmhouse that has no air conditioning. In the summer. In Ohio. Ugh. Let’s see if we survive!?!
Alicia @ La Famille - Oh Ms. Meg!!! I love all these. LOVE them. I was totally born in the wrong era. I love their dresses. LOVE!!!
Juli Elgin - As I was reading your blog today I started to click off the computer when I noticed the corner of your banner. I am sure it had been there all along but for some reason it caught my eye today. Phil 4:8 . So I looked it up. Made me SMILE!
Thanks
Chris - Love the pig-latin translation on the Froot-Loops! I remember my mom making us matching caftans in the 70s – lol – caftans!!
Jenni - That Velveeta add? It explains soooo much.
And also, those garage doors would give our HOA an ulcer.
Maureen - Thanks Meg. Those were groovy to look at. I loved your comments too. You really spent time looking at all the details. Especially the kitchen with all the appliances. While i was reading a out that one i was doing a seek and find. Ironing board…check, drying clothes….check:). It was fun. And truly a phone education. I didnt know those things either. My favorite just might be the Fruit Loops ad.
Seriously Sassy Mama - OMG! Those ads.
Sara - I love this! Thanks for sharing! I could get drawn in for hours looking at the ads, too. Oh, how I have missed Don Draper.
Dawn - Oh. My. Goodness. This was all too familiar! I am sixty-one. Remember our phone number as a kid. Oxbow 5-4141 EVERYONE wanted a princess phone when they came out. Bell Telephone gave out princess phone key chains as a promo.
Sheesh. Such trivial information is still stored in my tired brain.
Tape recorded messages were the way we communicated with my uncle and aunt who were missionaries in the orient during the 50s and early 60s. We would gather round the reel to reel tape recorder and listen. (BIG monster of a machine)
I could sing the pepsodent ad. Never mind.
Thanks for prompting the memories.
Lots of fun.
Kirsten J - Love! Hmmm…what did I do with my old magazines?
My brother and his wife rented a gorgeous older house a few years back, in Seattle, overlooking the Sound, from the original owners. So very well kept, and so 50’s. My daughter was 4 and it was so fun to go to Uncle Todd’s house and choose which bathroom to go to the potty…..Yellow? Pink? Turquoise? I always imagined the family picking those out…
Tiffany - @Amanda Hardwick – What is Madmen? You need to call me, Gurl!!! 🙂
Jen - YEAH for Mad Men!! Perfect timing, too! Just as “Parenthood” is ending (on a sour note, stupid Julia!!), we can settle in for the last season (sniff, sniff) of MM!!
Adrienne - This is highly entertaining! Whenever my husband and I were looking at houses, if there was one with the washing machine in the kitchen we would always joke, “See, now you (the wife) never have to leave the kitchen! (Because that’s where women belong, haha).
Meg - I’m pretty sure if I started looking at ads like this on Pinterest it would become a rabbit hole… so I’m not. I’ll just keep coming back here and drooling over these! So much fun! Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong decade. Ha!
Southern Gal - Wow. That was a book. I wanted to share this post with you – I used one of your photos in it, too, from my Pinterest pin.
http://itwasbroughtonbylove.blogspot.com/2013/07/child-of-60s-and-70s.html
Southern Gal - Thank you for taking this 50-year-old down memory lane!
I made matchy matchy dresses for my daughter and granddaughters out of Lilly fabric for the Carolina Cup and Resurrection Day. Love it.
We had all three of those phones when I was little, too. My favorite was the princess one. Our first phone number was Hemlock + four numbers. Isn’t that wild? I just remembered that.
That gray cabinet looks like an autoclave! Maybe she’s OCD and needs to sterilize everything?
I have one of those 7 Up bottles with a lady in a swimsuit on one side. My son dug it up in our yard years ago. (We live in an area where people used to park in the woods years and years ago.)
Look at that little girl and dog when he really kisses her!
My mama had pink and blue plates like that and pink and blue Corningware to match. She still has a few pieces of it. When I think of all the things they sold at a huge yard sale before moving it makes me shudder. Pictures like this bring back the sweet memories.
Su Soutter - fun post. . .my grandmother’s washer was in the kitchen. And stayed there until my hubby and I moved into her home after she passed away. (1993)
Erica - These are great!!! I love that Velveeta Ad, so funny to think it was considered healthy at one point in time. My washer is in my kitchen and I often did my ironing in my kitchen, it’s pretty common in Europe and Asia. Our last apartment we were blessed to have a dryer, which was in the kitchen, and even though I loved that thing, I thought it was stranger than the washing machine in the kitchen. I guess in small spaces you do what you have to do, but I think I draw the line at hanging laundry up in the kitchen.
Jess - Gosh, this was such a fun post to read! I loved it. Thank you for sharing! 🙂
Amanda Hardwick - Where do I get copies of these ads and what is mad men?