Toastmaster

It's Friday night and time to give my kitchen its weekly cleaning. You know, it's lovely when I have social plans that keep me from being able to do this chore at its appointed time, but it's also awfully nice to have it done and out of the way before the weekend really begins. There's nothing like waking up on Saturday morning with the kitchen already under my belt!

One of the various things that doesn't make The Manual's list of daily or weekly tasks in the kitchen is cleaning small appliances. Like the toaster. The icebox and range are covered, but the authors never hit on the toaster. Is it because they weren't yet common enough in American kitchens by 1945? Maybe the authors didn't want their non-toaster owning readers to feel slighted? Not to worry, care of toasters is covered in a chapter near the back of the book titled Small Electrical Equipment --- or "electrical servants" as the authors call them.

1. The metal shell in some toasters may be removed to brush out crumbs.

2. A collection of crumbs in the bottom of the toaster may cause a short circuit. Use a soft brush (a pastry brush does nicely) to brush out crumbs. If it is necessary to shake the toaster, be gentle about it. Violent thumping or shaking damages the fine wires.

3. "Warped" slices of bread are apt to stick to the wires; use even slices for best results.

4. Wipe the outside of the toaster with a soft cloth wrung out of warm soapsuds. Rinse with a cloth wrung out of clear water. Polish with a soft dry cloth.

5. Never immerse the toaster in water.

My own dear toaster is a vintage Toastmaster - an "Automatic Pop-up" model. It's a heavy little piece and awkward to move when I clean the counter underneath it, but it makes a lovely ticking sound as it toasts my whole grain bread in the morning. Sadly, I don't take very good care of it. There's a crumb tray on the bottom which can be unlatched and pulled forward to brush the crumbs away (though I rarely do it). I'll swipe the top or sides of it as I'm cleaning the kitchen --- but only once in a blue moon. Sounds like it's high time that my toaster made it onto my list of chores for the kitchen!

I don't own a pastry brush, but I'll add that to my shopping list so I can do a more thorough job cleaning that crumb tray. For now, I'll tip the toaster on its side, open the crumb tray, and try to clean it out that way. Before I clean the countertop. When the counter is clean and dry, I'll move the toaster back into place and clean off the outside before moving on to my next task.



How are your toast-making skills? Believe it or not, The American Woman's Cook Book (1945) actually includes a recipe for Buttered Toast, presumably for the most inexperienced, young housewives in the group. And Milk Toast, for the housewives who were nursing invalids. Ooh, yes, and a recipe for Cinnamon Toast. How decadent that sounds to this hungry little reducer!

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Cinnamon Toast

Spread hot toast with butter and sprinkle generously with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Place on the top shelf of the oven or under the broiler just long enough to melt the sugar.

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It's a Girl!

I've gotten some great compliments from women lately. A co-worker whom I see only once every couple months asked me the other day if I had new glasses. "Nope." "Your face looks different," she insisted. So we gabbed for a good long while about my diet and exercise regimen. A friend of mine told me yesterday how young I was looking these days. Incredible compliments, I tell you --- I'm so grateful. The women around you can build up your spirits and your resolve in a wonderful way.

But it's the reaction of men that has been the zinger.

It started on the street one morning as I was walking to my office building. A middle-aged man looked directly at me and gave me an appreciative smile. It's probably the first time that's happened to this former frump in several years and it caught me completely off-guard! (I think it must have been the red lipstick.) The men I work with are all too dear and polite - and much older than I am - to even breathe a word to me about my having lost weight, but some of them smile in a new way when they see me lately. Kind of in a curious, appreciative, it's-nice-to-see-a-pretty-woman-around-here kind of way. Like they'd like to ask what I've been doing with myself, but there's a rule in the Book of Masculine Etiquette that a gentleman never brings up weight around a lady.

It's not that I'm interested in what any of these particular men think of my looks, but it has been a strange and novel experience for me even to sample that kind of admiration again. I'd forgotten the power that an attractive woman can have when it comes to men. I don't think I've sensed that power since I was in my early to mid-twenties. Oh, it was heady stuff in those days... These days, I'm more than content that the men I work with, for instance, think of me simply as a trusted and accomplished colleague. I guess they just happen to be serving as a kind of mirror to me lately. Allowing me to see myself in a new light.

Maybe it's my crush. (I'll call him Curly.) There's such electricity in the air for me these days - I don't know which end is up when he walks by. I guess what I'm trying to say in a very clumsy way is that I'm actually feeling like a woman again. And it's been a long time coming. It makes me teary even now just to try and express this in writing.

When I had to shop for some new clothes (in a new size) a few weeks ago, I picked out clothes in colors - passionate lipstick pinks and bright, beautiful yellows. What a change they brought to my old wardrobe of neutrals! Blacks, whites, grays, khakis --- now I'm reaching for colors that make me feel more feminine than I have in years. I even bought a silk flower on a clip to wear in my hair. Since picking up a set of curlers a few days ago, I've been experimenting. It feels so good to have a little bounce and sass to my hair. I'm going to start sounding like a broken record soon, but it's a far cry from the buns and ponytails and the ever popular hair-tucked-behind-the-ears look that had become my signature hairstyles.

Gosh, if this is what losing 20 lbs. can do, I can't even imagine what I'll find myself thinking and feeling - and doing - at 40!

The Fine Art of Bathing

When I stepped into the bathtub last week for my first nightly bath, I found myself a little at ends. What to do with myself? For most of my life, a bathtub has strictly been about relaxation. Soaking in hot water on a cold winter's night, filling the tub with bubbles, setting the stage with candles and soft music. Now, I suddenly have to make the bathtub a functional place. I've got work to do in there! Washing, exfoliating --- where to begin?

The next day, I found myself reaching into the past for some vintage advice on bathing. Here are two descriptions of the ideal bath from 1940s beauty experts. They're strikingly similar.

...The next clue to relaxation is a tepid bath with a dash of your favorite bath oil, salts, or bubbling bath added. Swab your face with cold cream and into the tub with you. Rest your head back, close your eyes, apply eye pads of cotton dipped in alcohol and witch hazel, and rest for at least 10 minutes - before you even think of scrubbing…

Now remove the eyepads, take your bath-brush and work up a grand lather with pure, mild soap. Let the water out of the tub and refill again with clean, cool water for your refreshing rinse.

“Be Lovely If He Comes On Furlough" by Antoinette Donnelly
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 31, 1944

A bath should be a nerve tonic and a beautifying treatment as well as a matter of cleanliness. A morning bath is to invigorate and awaken, while a bedtime bath is to induce sleep…

BEDTIME BATH - Hot, of course, and add bath salts - pine essence will help draw out that achy feeling. (2) Pat Three-Purpose Cream into your face to let it do its good work while the steam opens the pores. (3) Into the water. Lie back, with eyes closed. (4) Wash leisurely - avoid hurried movements. Have a lazy soak afterwards, with eyes closed and cotton-wool soaked in witch hazel resting on them. (5) Dry with gentle massage movements. (6) Cleanse face, rinse with cold water, then re-apply cream if you wish it to remain on overnight.

“Make the Most of Your Bath!” by Barbara Lynn
The Coaticook Observer And Stanstead, June 14, 1940

Isn't it interesting how they both mention treating the face with cold cream during the bath? Both writers also recommend spending a little time just soaking with cotton pads treated with witch hazel on the eyes. (And what's the witch hazel thing about anyway?) The idea of applying cold cream at the beginning of the bath and rinsing it off afterward is actually right in keeping, too, with the brief description of bathing in the 1946 grooming routine I've been adopting:

Coat yourself thoroughly with a susdy lather, and don't spare the elbow grease. Rinse well, doing face separately with water from the faucet.

So it's cold cream twice a day now for me... once in the a.m. (which is helpful in feeling wide awake - without a shower) and once in the p.m. during my bath. I am cutting myself a little bit of slack at this point when it comes to shampooing and conditioning my hair and shaving my legs and underarms. After I've finished washing up, I drain the tub and take a brief cool-ish shower in order to give myself a little time to do the kinds of things not attended to on a daily basis in the '40s routine. I may very well get to a place someday when I'm happily washing my hair once a week, but that's certainly not going to happen overnight!

And I'm not sure whether I'll do the nightly baths on Friday and Saturday nights. With those super sweaty morning walks on Saturdays and Sundays, it's really tough not to be able to jump in the shower when I get home. Could I do both? Sure, but that seems a little wasteful on the water/soap/shampoo/conditioner front.

One thing I am loving is the sensation of being squeaky clean when I crawl into bed. (I'm also grateful to have lost enough weight to fit a bit more comfortably in my bathtub!) And you know how you can kind of get into a rut when it comes to the things you hit in the shower --- well, I've probably given my legs and feet a better scrubbing in the last few days than they've had in a long time! My skin feels softer and better exfoliated than it usually does.

Just a few more chores and it'll be time to draw this evening's bath. Sweet dreams!

Dollars and Distractions

In late January, I began tracking my "food dollar" for a month-long experiment. Based on some vintage advice on budgeting for groceries, I started keeping track of my expenditures on food and beverages. Each item ended up in one of five categories: Breads and Cereals/Fruits and Vegetables/Eggs, Beans, and Soy/Milk and Cheese/Fats, Sugar, and Miscellaneous Items (this category included most pre-packaged, processed foods or restaurant meals). The idea being that at the end of the month I should see about 1/5 of my food dollar falling into each category. Wrong! At the end of the month, I tallied everything up and was dismayed by the results. Not only was I spending $100-$125 per month more than I thought I'd been, but my food dollar was wildly skewed with 2/3 of my spending going right into that last category (Fats, Sugar, and Miscellaneous Items).

I decided to try the experiment again in six months and hoped to see some better results after making some positive changes in my eating habits. It's been six months, so I've posted a new food dollar tally in the column to the right. I think it'll be real interesting to see what kind of progess I've made in another month!

After cooling off from my workout this morning, I got myself all gussied up for the 9:00 Mass. I actually do belong to a parish. Though I've attended church erratically in the various places I've lived as an adult, I hadn't been a member of any particular parish since I was living under my parents' roof. When my sister asked me to be Poppet's godmother last spring, I had to settle down somewhere. So I joined the church I'd attended with my parents when they spent the winter here two years ago. I've even got the printed collection envelopes and everything - though it did take some time to find 'em this morning!

I felt a bit self-conscious as I walked to my car in the parking lot of my apartment building. Most of the people out and about were dressed in jeans or shorts and T-shirts. But that self-consciousness disappeared once I got to church and saw plenty of folks in their Sunday best. I usually listen to CDs or the radio when I'm driving, but it didn't feel quite right this morning. Like I was breaking some sort of spell of silence or something. Maybe it'd be a good idea to turn off the radio on Sunday mornings. Just so I'm in a more reflective place by the time I arrive to church. Come to think of it, there was a lot of static this first Sunday morning. I was so distracted by the usual discomforts that it was hard to really slow down and enjoy the experience. I've always hated going to church by myself. And it stinks when you end up sitting in a section with a bunch of non-singers. I like to sing along to the hymns but feel so self-conscious (there it is again!) when most of the people around me are silent.

The biggest distraction of all was physical. One of the nasty side effects of carrying around the kind of weight I have is high blood pressure. For two years now, I've treated that problem with two medications - one of which is a diuretic. When I saw my doctor three weeks ago, she suggested that I stop taking the diuretic at some point soon. My blood pressure is lowering naturally as I lose weight and eventually I'll be able to taper off both medications. That's great news, right? I've been hesitant to do it, because I knew I'd probably gain a few pounds of water weight. Well, my blood pressure dropped so low this morning that I almost fainted during church. Just after the homily. We were kneeling down and I started blacking out. Sat back up, took a mint from my purse, and blessedly made it through the Mass. It was a frightening experience though, so I've stopped taking the diuretic.

Let's just say my first Sunday of regular church attendance was not a wild success --- but I'll be back! With my envelope.

Show and Tell

Here's a picture that needs no introduction. I'm sure you all recognize this iconic photo taken in Times Square on V-J Day. It's been the star of many of WWII documentary - plus an unending to quest to confirm just who was the nurse being kissed by the sailor.



Well, imagine my surprise when I was browsing through the LIFE photo archive and came across this photo taken just a moment later. It looks like the photographer moved closer to and just to the right of the couple. Sailor and nurse are still in full liplock. Check out the reactions of some of the onlookers!



Sheesh. I must have kissing on the brain or something...

15 + 5 = 20

Good morning, dearies!

Three days and one new computer monitor later, I'm back in business. My monitor's been acting up for a couple weeks now, but it gave up the game yesterday. When I couldn't get online, I actually started feeling a little worried. Would I be able to keep up the hard work without my dear readers to help me through the rough patches? As soon as I'd finished my workout this morning, eaten my breakfast, and powdered my nose, it was off to the store to pick up a new monitor. Whatever it is about this blog, it's been an absolute necessity to me in this journey and I haven't the time to hem and haw about repairing the old monitor. Now if I can just get used to this extra wide, new screen...

As you can see from the title to this post, I had some wonderful news from the scale to compensate for the computer issues. It was 2 lbs. a few days ago and 3 more this morning, leaving me at a weight of 174. That's 20 lbs. lost since April 9!!! I'm not sure why - you know firsthand how hard those first 11 lbs. were - but the last 9 have come off fairly quickly.

Is it the humidity?
With temps in the 90s and 100s every day, I am sweating an awful lot more when I walk than I was in April or May. (I'm also continuing to drink 64 oz. of water per day to make up for that.)

Has my stomach been shrinking?
It's a strange place indeed to find myself, but I've actually had zero temptation to snack lately. I watched my co-workers gorge themselves on tres leches cake yesterday and it didn't even cross my mind to have a taste. Hit one of the bars last night for happy hour and drank a diet soda (which is rare in and of itself for me). Didn't have the remotest interest in sampling all the appetizers that were being shared around the table. It wigs me out a bit to think of the quantity of food I used to eat. Even just a month ago when I was still eating peanut butter cups for dessert after dinner. There are a few minor changes I've been making lately --- buying skim milk instead of 1%, using two sugars in my morning coffee instead of three. That kind of thing. Maybe these little changes are making a difference.

Am I working out with more intensity?
I'm not sure. I can tell you that I'm beginning to look forward to my walks these days. (Could you have imagined me saying that three months ago?) I've even felt impelled this morning to break into a jog a couple of times. Crazy! One of the limbering and stretching exercises that I do each day is a leg lift in bed first thing in the morning. I do it just five times each morning - and what I noticed a few days ago is that while my back used to really do the work, my abdomen has taken over. I can actually feel some strength in my core which I never in a million years thought I'd feel again. I had open abdominal surgery several times during my late twenties. Cut open from stem to stern. Sliced right through that abdominal wall. I never thought I'd be able to rebuild any kind of strength or power in that area.

Or could it just be that crush?
Yep, you heard it here first. Little Miss Jitterbug has a good old-fashioned, butterflies-in-the-tummy, weak-in-the-knees kind of crush! He's a man who works in the same building as I do, though he's in a different department. Probably a few years younger than me, but he's got a 3,000-watt smile, the kind of curls they write songs about, and - from the few conversations we've had - seems like a super sweet person. *swoon* Nothing will probably come of this, but it's been a looooooooooooooong time since I even had a crush on somebody... so I'll take whatever loss of appetite comes along with it for as long as it lasts!

Now how 'bout that bedroom. I've got some housework to do! I'll check in later this weekend to share my adventures in bathing.

Week Thirty-six: The Mission

Eeesh! How did it already get to be Wednesday? I'm sorry for the delay in new posts. Kitten was suffering from a virus and I've been pulling some Auntie overtime. But I'm back in my own little nest this evening and looking forward to some quality time with my iron. So how about a new vintage beauty mission? It's been a few weeks and I'm itching to add something new to my routine...

Fitness
I'm going to add a few more "limbering and stretching exercises" to my pre-bed fitness routine. The first is from a July 1940 edition of the St. Petersburg [Florida] Times and is especially designed for reducing fatty tissue in the hip area:

10. If you are bothered by this special beauty sorrow stand erect, steady yourself by holding to the back of a chair, swing the leg in wide circles. Lift the foot as high as you can. You will be aware of a strong muscle pull from knees to hips…

Two more exercises are from a charming article in a February 1940 edition of The Evening Independent. The author, a syndicated woman's page columnist, suggests that women living in a cold climate go in for skiing or skating to attain the new "stretched look." Tennis and swimming were suggested for women living in a warm climate. If money is tight or time is short, not to fear! Here are some exercises designed to mimic these sports. Anybody up for a game of imaginary tennis?

11. Simply hold a pie pan or other round, shallow pan in your right hand high above your head and look toward the ceiling as if you were watching for a high ball to come across an imaginary net. As the imaginary ball comes closer, jump a foot off the floor and hit it with the pan, driving it back across the imaginary net to an imaginary opponent. Drop arm to side, count to four slowly, then raise arm, jump and strike at the ball again. Repeat 10 times.

Reverse, holding pan in left hand and make believe that you are a left-handed tennis player. Incidentally, since jumping up and down is a simple exercise which reduces the thighs and hips, an imaginary tennis game a day may serve a double purpose.

12. The breast stroke exercise is also recommended. Lie across a single bed so that arms and legs are not supported by the bed. Keeping head up with neck straight, stretch arms forward with palms facing each other. Now fling arms wide apart, turning palms in the opposite direction. Do this slowly and deliberately. Repeat 20 times.

Reducing
In an effort to rev up the protein content in my dinners - and eliminate those late night temptations! - I'm going to continue limiting the portion size of the prepared, pre-packaged foods and add a serving of a bean dish of one sort or another. My dinner plate (and lunch on the weekends) will now look something like this: 1/3 my once-typical serving of prepared foods + 1 serving of vegetables + 1 serving of beans. And since it's summer, I'm all about cold bean dishes. There's a Moroccan lentil salad I used to be nuts about and haven't made in forever. A restaurant here in the city makes a chickpea/tomato/parsley salad that I've been dying to replicate. I think I've found a recipe online that should be close. I'm going to give it a try tonight after my ironing is finished. The flavors should be perfectly meshed by suppertime tomorrow night. I ought to be able to whip up a big dish of one of these salads once a week and having a serving from it every day!

Grooming
Well, this reforming frump has finished the 1946 morning grooming routine and lived to tell the tale... so this week I'm tackling the evening grooming routine:

Out of your clothes and into the tub -

1. Coat yourself thoroughly with a susdy lather, and don't spare the elbow grease. Rinse well, doing face separately with water from the faucet.

It's a good thing I've been cleaning my bathroom on a weekly basis --- my tub is ready for a good, hot bath. Every night, no less! Can I survive the shift from Shower Land?

Jitterbug 1:1

I've tried to approach The Experiment as an attempt to understand the 1940s housewife as a whole woman. Not just the nitty gritty like housework, beauty rituals, vintage cookery, and not just the fun stuff like hairstyling, clothes, and movies --- but the rhythm of life and ways of relating to others which made up the context for all that. Things like etiquette, arts, and social activities - they can be so deeply engrained in the background of life that my '40s counterpart may not even have noticed them herself. Mind you, there's plenty of things about the 1940s cultural mindset that I'm perfectly happy to leave in the past, but there's much of value, I think, that could enrich our modern lives.

And if I'm ever going to truly understand the world to which my grandmothers belonged, I must hie myself to church.

Now if I can just get across the threshhold without being struck down by a thunderbolt, I wonder how my life might be shaped by going to Mass every week. (I'm being a little over-dramatic with the thunderbolts stuff. I was just in church last Sunday with my parents. Nothing happened.) I hope those of you who are deeply serious and devoted to your faith will not feel that I'm being flippant or proposing this in jest. I'm not. (Likewise, I hope those readers who might feel impelled to proselytize will step away from the comments button.) I've come to appreciate more with the years just how important and meaningful my parents' faith has been to them. My own relationship with God has been a long and stormy one, but there have been many occasions when going to church has been a comforting experience to me. I have theological differences with every religion out there, but despite all the churches I've "sampled" over the years, none has ever felt quite as much like home as the Catholic church in which I was raised.

My grandmothers had very different religious experiences. My paternal grandmother was raised in the Methodist church and married into the Catholic church. Her faith must have been deeply shaken when she was widowed at 36 (my age!) with four small children. But it also must have reminded her of her late husband and helped her in keeping his memory alive in her children's hearts. My maternal grandmother was raised in the Baptist church and married a Catholic man, much to the consternation of both their families. "Mixed marriage" was a big deal in rural America in the 1930s. (Her mother-in-law never accepted the marriage.) She and my grandfather set religion aside and raised their daughter outside either church.

This must have been fairly unusual in the small town in which they lived... Agnostics, atheists, working folks who were just too plain tired on their one day off in a six-day-working-week world - these good folks have existed in every time and place, but they were still a very small minority in 1940s America. If you were a member of the business class, you could lose clients and social standing if you weren't a member of some faith. For many people, the church to which they belonged was the center of their social activities. The vast majority of Americans were Christians and so on Sunday mornings the world came to a virtual pause for church. Stores and restaurants were closed. Social activities were taboo on Sunday mornings. Church services and religious music could be found across the radio dial. Things certainly picked up on Sunday afternoons, but even then most folks shared in experiences like hearty noon-day meals, visits with family, drives in the country, leisurely activities at the park or at home.

It's hard for me to imagine in 2009 how hushed and still Sunday mornings must once have seemed. Today, Sundays are like every other day of the week for almost all of the people I know. And yet, I think there's something of great value in taking regular time out every week to stop and reflect on your place in this world and feel gratitude for blessings. I may have mentioned this before, but I'd really like to bring back that kind of rest and ritual to my own life. So will I chafe at attending Mass so regularly in my Sunday best? Will I listen to the service with a new ear? Will I find myself joining the choir and crocheting doilies for the Christmas crafts fair with the other church ladies? Hmmm... I hope my red lipstick isn't too flashy for church!

13 + 2 = 15

Looks like the PMS storm clouds have passed... and the combination of things which seemed completely overwhelming yesterday turn out to be quite defeatable this morning. I've just got to prioritize and tackle things one at a time. And no matter how bad it gets, I'm not going to let this trivia drive me to the cupboards or prevent me from doing my workout. Things may be falling down around me, but I'm determined to continue seeing some progress on the scale.

On a much happier note, I've weighed in at 179 for the last two mornings in a row! That's 2 more lbs. gone and a grand total of 15 lbs. lost since beginning this fitness and reducing plan in April. I suspect the disappearance of peanut butter cups from my pantry has had a lot to do with that, but the transformation in my dinners and lunches on weekends may be responsible as well. One thing I've noticed with my walks is how much the increased heat and humidity slows me down. (Temps reached 112 degrees F. yesterday!) It takes me the same amount of time to do five laps now as it used to take to do six laps. I'd be worried, but things continue to move in the right direction on the scale. Could the humidity be acting as a kind of weight resistance?

My figure isn't the only thing undergoing a makeover. Here are some of the other makeovers taking place at Casa Jitterbug these days:

The $11 Renovation
Just before my vacation, I purchased a new padded cover for my little countertop ironing board. Nothing fancy, just a $7 cover made from a blue fabric with white ticking stripes. What a change after ironing on a cover so threadbare I could see the metal grid pattern on my clothes! Between my new ironing board cover and a new lavender sachet ($4) to freshen up my linen closet, I'm looking forward to Tuesday nights again...

Thinning out the Wardrobe
With 15 less lbs. on my frame, there are lots of things in my closet that don't come close to fitting me any longer. Garments I wore at my heaviest (208 lbs. in January 2008), garments that I still wore with a belt just for the sake of frugality. I resolved during my vacation to thin out my wardrobe and quit hanging on to saggy, unfashionable clothes like a security blanket. I went in there with my metaphorical pruning shears the other night and removed everything in a size 20W, 22W, or 2X/XXL. Filled an entire garbage bag with clothing which hasn't come near to fitting me in a long time. This will keep me from reaching for garments that don't do my figure any favors. It also makes room for some new clothing in a size that fits me.

Meow!
I've also been thinking about investing in a pair of kitten heels. Something at a height comfy enough that I can wear 'em all day long at work, but more flattering to my legs than flats. I think I'll hit the shoe store this evening.

Back in a bit with my new vintage culture mission...