They forgot Halloween

With Halloween as the next holiday on my mind, my apartment has a witch’s boot filed with candy and pumpkins scattered around, I choose the October issue from 1950’s. To choose something a little bit different, I went with the Ladies’ Home Journal. Flipping through the magazine, I realized that it has much of the same concerns that women today worry about. How do I look good, balance my family life, and get everything done for a reasonable amount of time without spending too much money. There are many advertisements for making recipes homemade, but with fewer ingredients.

There is an entire article about “going steady,” with advice for women and girls on what is and is not appropriate. The biggest difference I noticed between now and then was their suggestion of what “your age should be…” They say that there is no point in dating a boy before you are 18. This is interesting, since not that long before this many women were married before they were 18, and now most kids start dating in elementary school or junior high. A lot of the advice talks about getting hurt when you break up. It assumes that most people cannot handle it if they get their heart broken too young. I think that this is ridiculous, because getting your heart broken is part of growing up and maturing. If you never take the risk, you will never gain anything. This takes the opposite approach of the old maxim: It is better to have loved, and lost than to never have loved at all. Also, there is a section on how to walk in high heels. This was entertaining to me, since their heels are only one or two inches high, and incredibly stable to walk in. My closet is full of heels at least twice that high, and I have learned to walk in them all on my own without ever reading about it in a journal.

The journal also has many fictional stories, or perhaps they are true experiences, of what it means to be a lady. There are several stories of young girls and their experiences, along with watercolor pictures depicting them. These stories tell of what girls should be feeling about their everyday experiences and how they should react to them. These stories help me to imagine what it was like to be a young woman 60 years ago. They give more detail into the thoughts and feelings of these women, rather than just advice on the things that they are struggling with, which just happens to be the same things that I am struggling with and my friends are. Does he like me? What do I wear to this? Etc.

Another main focus of the journal is help from appliances and modern day conveniences. These are electric rangers, toasters, pre-packaged food, Aunt Jemima pancake mixes, dri-polish mixes. Everything is about easier and faster and better than before. There is even a letter to the editors “modern mothers have cinch” that says “instead of asking all the young women conveniences how they manage (and pretty poorly, seems to me), ask my mother-in-law, who is now eighty-three. She has had fifteen children, no modern conveniences and little money.” Lots of social opinions seem to focus on how a woman acts in the home, and how she utilizes her time. The advertisements are all encouraging the use of their helpers and such, but there seems to be a faction of older readers who do not agree with this method of cutting corners in the home.

Some of the advertisements are no different than current advertisements. Paper towels tout their strength, and how you can re-use them. This is no different than paper towel commercials on TV today. Obviously some things never change.

For the October issue, there is no mention of Halloween. No cute Halloween cupcake recipes, no tips on making costumes, or any other mention of the upcoming holiday. Since I was curious about the difference, I went to the Ladies Home Journal website today, and the very first picture that I was greeted with was of cute ghost Halloween cupcakes. Many of the overall stories are still the same. There are topics of beauty, relationships and women’s hygiene. Other top topics are community and do-good. I’m sure that these are topics that the 1950’s readers of LHJ would approve of.

The price of the journal has not increased as consistently as the products advertised in the magazine. The issue in 1950 cost 25 cents and issue, and now you can get an entire year for $6.00. That’s 50 cents and issue now, so it has only doubled in over 60 years. Not a bad bargain if you ask me. I wish that you could say the same about groceries and the price of cars. My budget would be in much better shape if that were true.

There is a much bigger focus in these journals on cleaning the house and cooking quickly. Also, the 1950’s LHJ focuses more on parenting than the current version does, but I think that is because women then spent more time in the home raising their kids, and less time out and in the offices like modern women do. Lots of the daughters described in the magazine are the perfect daughters. They are popular and well liked, beautiful and do well in school.

Overall, the general issues discussed have not changed, but how the women go about them have changed. Women focus less on the home, and just accept modern conveniences as a way of life. The way of life in general is the same. Women still want to do well in their relationships, although the emphasis has shifted from husbands to boyfriends, and cook good food. Looking through the magazine has been very interesting, but taught me that as much as things change, people in general still stay the same.

Second Conversation

After a lot of confusion the first week on who my conversation partner actually was, I finally got it figured out. I have been talking with more than just my conversation partner, because many of the IEP students will hang out after their classes are over. Many of them come over to talk, resulting in a very different experience than my first conversation which was one on one. My partner is very shy, and usually gets tired of speaking English after a while. Not that I can blame her!!! Lina, my real partner, is 18 and very nice. Her English is excellent, and I have learned that she is in one of the higher levels of English.

Norelly, who is my accidental partner, is much older than Lina and me. She has a more difficult time with English, and asks me to slow down often. Lina, Norelly, and a few other IEP students and I all were talking today, about a wide range of subjects. They are teaching me some Spanish (not that I am learning it very well) and I am helping them with English. One thing that this is helping me with is actually learning more about English. Today, I was trying to explain the difference between "may" and "can". I know that "Can I use the bathroom" is grammatically inncorrect, but I cannot tell you why. I also cannot tell you why "may" is correct and what the difference between the two is. Thinking about the subtle differences in words is a whole new thing. Some words mean basically the exact same thing if you look at their definition, but in a sentence they can have incredibly different meanings. Talking to my conversation partner(s) has showed me how much language is learned, rather than taught. I also have a newfound admiration for all teachers who teach another language, because they have to answer questions that I don't think I ever could answer.

English is hard, I get that. I just can't explain why.

A step back in time

Perhaps it is because I am a marketing major, but anytime I read a magazine, old or new, I look at the ads. When looking at the ads, I examine who is supposed to be reading this magazine. Nail polish ads, this is a magazine geared toward younger women. The type of car advertised tells me the income level, and everything else just builds on this portrayal of the audience. I often laugh out loud at the TV now, because they will miss out completely on who I am (ESPN doesn't realize I am a 20 year old female who loves to shop, but is still interested in sports). In general though, I know that reading ads tells me a lot about who is reading the magazine.

When I first open to TIME Magazine March 14, 1932 (I was born one day and 59 years later) I spy an article about the increase of pipe smoking as the economy normalizes. As I continue to read, I realize that this is actually and advertisement hidden in the format of an article. Different than current advertisements, where that is the first thing the article lists, I made it about half way down the one column article before I realize that it is encouraging working men to smoke Edgeworth smoking Tobacco, for "that cool, slow-burning, sweet smoke." The advertisement begins by describing a certain type of man, one who has to work for his dinner and knows the hardships that come with a bad economy. It tells the men how relaxing smoking a pipe is. This was an interesting ad to me, because it perfectly depicts the average man in the time period. This man needs to come home and relax, he has had a hard few years and he he is part of "a generation that has no illusions about sudden wealth without work." Even with no knowledge of the current events of 1932, I could have figured out a little bit about what just happened, and how it has affected the people that have lived through it.

The rest of the ads in the magazine follow this same outline. Relax after long hours of working. You earned it YOU deserve it. Take a vacation, go to Colorado, Japan or Russia.

Also, there are several advertisements about the railroad, which was celebrating an anniversary. Central United National Bank of Cleveland recalls 96 years ago the first railroad was chartered in Cleveland. They are looking towards "what the next four score and 16 years may hold!."  (Why don't we use scores to measure years anymore? Next time somebody asks me how old I am, I should reply with 1 score). If the writers of this ad could jump forward even to now, I doubt they would believe the changes. Instant communication all across the world, microwaves, cell phones, space travel and molecule science.
Another part of the magazine that astounds me are the prices of everything. You always see old advertisements for penny candy, and other everyday items for a few cents. However, looking at more expensive things puts it into a greater perspective for me. Chrysler has several advertisements for the net Packard eight. You could by a high quality convertible for $1,795. Also, there is an ad talking about $5,000 or more being an incredibly high income family. Today, that is what I hope to make all year working a minimum wage job while going to school, only to support my social life and shoe obsession. Families that make over $5,000 buy over twice as many automobiles and twice as much soap. I’m not sure why rich families get so much dirtier, but they obviously have plenty of money to make sure their kids wash behind their ears.

Many of the ads try to target what kind of person you are. This is very different than today, when ads assume that you already know exactly who you are. Are you a woman, who looks for a good deal? Then buy a Copeland refrigerator. If you think of yourself as a worldly person, buy A1. The advisements are very different, and say a lot about the people reading them. They are people coming out of a depression, who are smarter about spending their money. They are beginning to buy luxuries, but still looking at places where they can save a few pennies. They are interested in World News, and want to think of themselves as well informed about other parts of the world and their cultures. Looking at this magazine showed me more in depth about who these people are and what it meant to live in 1932 as a middle class American Citizen.

The First Encounter

After many problems with trying to connect to my conversation partner, (and more problems still continuing) I finally sat down and had a chat with Lina. I still have no idea what the first question she asked me was, but after a while we got into a pretty good rhythm. The hardest thing was coming up with things to say. Normally when you meet somebody new, you have a place or event in common that can serve as a topic when conversation lags. Randomly meeting a person who you know nothing about challenged my conversational skills. On the upside, it was great practice for those awkward first dates when you realize you have nothing to talk about. After a while we found out that we both like extreme sports. She started teaching me Spanish (I'm about the only Texan who doesn't speak it!) and I helped her with her English.

It was a very interesting experience learning about somebody who grew up in a different country, but finding out that it really isn't all that different. In general, people all over the world are the same, no matter what.