Flashback Friday- November 1958

The current mag doesn't look much different from this!

Love this house!

This is the kids' playroom from the above house - I want it today! How fabulous is this? The checkerboard floor, the chalkboard, the fun turquoise walls and the light fixture!


And to think this was done before Martha Stewart!

I can't resist the ads. I can't help but picture Don Draper and company pitching these ideas.

Soooo 1950's.

Ok girls, this is a pattern for a trapeze dress, apron and pinafore. If you can't read the print, it says it was designed by "famed New York designer, Joset Walker." "Off comes the pinafore and you're well dressed for the market." (because apparently that was the only place you had to go) The short apron is "for tending baby." It also says that the "trapeze top slips easily over any toreador pants for fashionable relaxing at home." I do love the look.

"Casseroles for Casual Suppers" - the names of these gastronomic adventures are the BEST!

Salagumundi Bake

Baked Lasagne (is there any other kind?)

Club Chicken

Chopstick Tuna

Please leave me a contact under the comments if you would like a copy of the recipes.

This ad epitomizes 1950's America. The loving, perfect family preparing to entertain in their nicely appointed home with a card table and folding chairs. How swell!

The first post that I made here on Birdie Pearl was about my grandmothers. They are the namesakes of this here blog. Pearl is my paternal grandmother. She turns ninety on Christmas Day. She gave me a bunch of her old magazines that she has collected throughout the years and I ran across the November,1958 issue of Better Homes and Gardens today. My dad and aunt would have been around the ages that Fisherman and Sweet Pea are now. Knowing my Nanno, I am sure she gathered and used some entertaining ideas from this magazine. She has always tried to entertain beautifully and elegantly. I think it was to make-up for the fact that she isn't a very good cook.

Everyone should know how very much I love and respect Nanno, but cooking? Not her strong suit. Go with me to ninth grade: I invited my boyfriend over to a family dinner at Nanno's house. Remember now, this is junior high. I wanted to impress this boy and everything in a fourteen year old's life is "life or death" - understand? We muddled our way through a mediocre dinner. Everyone was seated around her large, dining table. The table was set with her Franciscan ivy dinner plates (my favorite) and we all laughed and had a lively time as was usual. At the end of the meal, Nanno got a twinkle in her eye and disappeared into the kitchen to prepare a "special" dessert. She then asked my brother to turn down the lights, and a few minutes later, in she walks with a crystal bowl that has flames shooting-out the top of it. She elegantly set the bowl in the middle of the table, as everyone was sitting there speechless and announced "Flaming fruit!" Yes, Nanno had dumped fruit cocktail into a bowl, soaked a few sugar cubes in some liquor, set them on fire and called it "dessert." Pan over to me - shame,horror! All this in front of my boyfriend! I told him I was not really related to these people. It was a long time before I invited anymore boyfriends to dinner. Maybe that was the point!

Ok, back to the magazine. Perhaps you too will glean some holiday entertaining wisdom from it's pages. You never know!

Happy Friday!

Krissy