Women in 1935

Lately I've been living in the past.
Ever since I found that little stack of Reader's Digest Magazines at the thrift store,
I've become fascinated with the 1930s and 40s.
This was the era my parents grew up in.
Not only was the culture different back then, but people thought differently.
Like this article below written by a woman in 1935.

In case you don't have time to read it, 
just scroll down to the highlighted parts. Those were most amazing to me. 
Perhaps you will not agree. (with what I found interesting, I mean)

The above was written when my mom was about 5 years old. 
However, my grandmother would have none of this. (Grandma was a very unusual woman for her time.)
She told Mom she was not allowed to get married until she graduated from college. 
So she graduated on a Friday with a degree in social work, 
and married my Dad two days later.
Grandma and Mom in 1948

Mom pregnant with her first baby in 1952.

She use to tell me, "One of the best kept secrets ever, 
is being a wife and Mom is the best job in the world."

(...Despite what the RD's article of 1935 implies!)


9 comments:

the Rich girl said...

Yikes. When I dance, I'm all feet. (It's a good thing that Tyler doesn't mind that I don't know how to dance, or we never would have made it this far.)

I think one of the best lines in this article is, "Her ugliness had style."

However, I don't think everything about this article is terrible. One of the main premises, that good habits are best established early, is certainly true.

Anonymous said...

This was my mother's world, and she lived it to the fullest. She valued everything the article talked about and was considered a very desirable "catch" because of it.
Thanks for sharing this. Oh, and even my dad, who is no dancer, knew how to dance back then. It was pretty much mandatory. Not like today, where it doesn't seem to matter at all.
darlene

Grandma Honey said...

Karen- I never even noticed that line, "Her ugliness had style." I kept laughing about that while making dinner tonight :)

Darlene- My mom use to tell me when I was a little girl that I would need to take ballroom dance classes and also enroll in a good charm school when I got older. She acted like that was as important as learning to drive or learning how to type. As I got older and she had more children and reality set in, charm school never happened and I didn't learn to dance either. I never knew what the big deal was. She did try to teach me to have good posture by having me walk across the room with a book on my head.

Anonymous said...

My mom wanted me to go to charm school. She was a model in her 30s, and took that stuff very seriously. But, I would have nothing to do with it. Too much of a tomboy. I do regret not learning to dance though. My mom was a great dancer. She even danced with Lawrence Welk a few times!
I did take ballet for a few years in my teens, and I think that helped me have good posture and poise. I wasn't a total wash!
darlene

Lisa said...

Wish I could've known your Mom personally but I believe I get the blessing of glimpses through you. : )
Thanks for sharing a wonderful post!

Grandma Honey said...

Was your Mom on his show? Or where did she dance with him? Your sons are sure good dancers....must be in the blood.

Anonymous said...

My mom was in the audience a few times, dancing with my dad, and Lawrence came down and singled her out to dance with him. She was so thrilled!
darlene

Anonymous said...

By the way, if my mom were alive today, she would have LOVED to dance with her grandsons! She didn't live long enough to know they would be such good dancers.
darlene

Susan Anderson said...

This was a fascinating read. I can see why you've been so caught up in these articles.

And your mom was ahead of her time!

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