One of my sweet friends from Oregon recently sent me an old recipe book she found when cleaning out her mother-in-law's home. It was printed back in 1932 and it's full of outlandish recipes, like Mock Chicken Legs, which are made from beef and ham; Scrapple, which entails boiling a whole pig's head until tender and then removing the meat and chopping it real fine (gross!), and Sardine Rarebit, which consists of sardines, eggs, milk, spices and cheese and is served over toast. Ick!
The fun thing about the book though, are all the advertisements displayed on every other page. There are ads from insurance agencies for home insurance for a "few cents a day!" Metropolitan Beauty Shop has several ads throughout with 100% genuine steam waves for only $5. No more faulty electric permanent waves for the housewife that values her cherished locks! There are ads for Butter-Krust Bread, Coca-Cola, Piggly Wiggly and appliance sales shops selling new-fangled electric refrigerators for only $164.50, delivered! A few pages further and you can see an ad from Ace Ice Co., where they say their ice refrigerators are a much better way to go than electric. The slowly melting ice "moistens the air and carries away bacteria, food odors and food gases" that in the other types of refrigeration cannot escape.
The Park Lane Hotel has ads for $3 a night, or $65 a month. One patron bragged, "As a final touch of courtesy, even my cigar was lighted for me by the bellhop!" Well la-ti-da! Deer Rock Water Co., advertises they'll deliver a dozen half-gallon bottles of distilled water right to your door for only 75 cents! What a bargain! A home improvement store says they'll wallpaper a 10 x 12 room of your home for only $3.98, materials and labor included.
Sears, Roebuck & Co., has an ad for a Kenmore DeLuxe wringer washer and it has a picture of a little boy standing next to it. The headline for the ad says, "My Mother is Pretty and Young - She Uses a Kenmore DeLuxe!" The bottom of the ad quotes the little boy saying, "Dad bought our Kenmore because he likes to have Mother looking young. Mother lets me look inside it sometimes. The suds keep swishing through the clothes and it even gets my shirts clean! She says she's 'stonished' cause the Kenmore gets clothes cleaner and still doesn't cost hardly anything to run." Oh boy!
There's an ad for a carpet cleaning service that asks, "Do Your Children Romp on the Floor?" Silly question! What child doesn't "romp" on the floor! The Geo. Meyer Hardware co., has several ads for various household items, including an entire set of cookware for only $2.10! What a steal! And a Tearless Mincer for chopping onions for only 69 cents. They have a hand-held mixer/beater with a green glass bowl for only $1. I bet you couldn't find one of those in an antique store nowadays for less than $45!
Golden Gold Pet Food has ads for pet food that comes in a can and is good for cats AND dogs. The Carlson-Frink Milk Company advises a child should drink at least a quart of their fine milk a day, and adults at least a pint! And after you're done drinking all that milk, a drugstore advertises Alk-a-Mint alkaline powder. They say it stops acidity, gas, bad breath, sour stomach and heartburn and it's only 25 cents.
In the back of the book there are tips on proper etiquette, and there's even a 28-day "reducing" plan for the housewife who finds she can't quite button her skirt as easily as she used to. There's a budgeting plan for newly-married couples that is astonishing (and depressing!). Apparently back then, people didn't make much because it has a chart that shows monthly incomes ranging from $125 to $400 and how you should budget accordingly to make it through the month. Good grief! For instance, on $125 per month, they suggest you put $20 into savings, set aside $30 for food, $30 for shelter, $18 for clothing and $27 for operating and advancement. Yikes! Good thing those economic times are a thing of the past, at least for now (knock on wood!). Heaven forbid when the newly-married couple starts having kids!
It was fun reading, and while I might not be trying some of those crazy recipes anytime soon, I did at least get a few good household tips for cooking and cleaning. And thanks to the etiquette tips, I now know when I wear long gloves to dinner, I mustn't turn them back and roll them down at the wrist when eating, but remove them entirely! Good to know, right ladies?
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