Young housewives in the 1950's stretched their husbands' often meagre earnings as best they could.
We used our flannelette sheets till they were paper-thin and then sewed the good parts together. My sewing machine was a very old one passed down to me from my mother. You fed the material through with one hand, using the other hand to turn a handle. I, like many others, removed worn-out shirt collars from shirts, reversed them and reattached them to the same shirt. The result was immediate and the shirt soldiered on for a few more years.
We never had our hair styled, or nails manicured and we certainly never had pedicures. The word 'spa' was foreign to us, as was 'massage'. Yoga and Pilates were unheard of and as for 'boot camp' - that was something endured by men in the armed forces. By the time we had made our meals from scratch, washed and dried all the dishes, scrubbed and waxed floors, done the laundry - filling and emptying the machine by bucket, putting the items through the wringer and hanging them on the clothesline - our 'exercise classes' were over. Everything then had to be ironed - there were no perma press materials in those days. Its a good thing we didn't get paid by the hour.
The odd day we housewives gave ourselves a break. Most of us were home raising our children, so we 'girls' got together with neighbours for coffee. Usually with our kids in tow, we gathered in someone's warm kitchen to chat over cups of coffee, supplemented by home-made goodies - cookies, cupcakes or thickly iced squares. No talk of calories or gluten free stuff. We discussed recipes, husbands, mothers-in-law and other earth-shattering subjects. Now most wives are out working. The little ones are closeted in daycare and that lovely social time has disappeared. Sometimes I wonder if our simple life was less hectic and more rewarding. We didn't have much but we had good friends and made time to cultivate our relationships.
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