My 80th Birthday – Page 2 – LILLIAN'S CUPBOARD

It Was a Very Good Year – 1961-1967

On July 13, 2012, my two daughters surprised me with a big box of wrapped gifts, informing me it was exactly 80 days until my 80th birthday and I would be able to unwrap one gift a day. The gift items would commemorate a year in my life in some way. This is what I received this week.

1961 – A 1961 edition of a television schedule that was included with our newspaper. It’s so much fun to read because of the ads for local businesses. And wasn’t Andy Williams young and handsome?

1962 – A copy of Life magazine featuring one of my favorites from the early days of television – Sid Caesar.

1963 – My youngest daughter knitted this for me from a vintage pattern – everyone had to have a fancy toilet tissue cover in 1963, right?

1964 – A tiny tray with salt and pepper shakers from the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

1965 – A copy of Strange but True Baseball Stories. Anything relating to baseball has been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember.

1966 – A token from Cincinnati’s Potter’s Shoes celebrating 100 years in business – from 1866 to 1966. On the reverse side is a memorial to our Suspension Bridge which was also built in 1866.

1967 – A small plate commemorating Salzburg and The Sound of Music. My oldest daughter included a note reminiscing about how the two of us saw the movie in a neighborhood theater in the fall of 1967. She writes, “The theater was packed with kids, who cheered loudly when Maria and the Captain did their “Something Good” number, then again when Maria appeared in her wedding gown. I always think of The Sound of Music in October and imagine the hills of Cincinnati are the hills above Salzburg.” In 1990, we were able to go to Austria and visit Salzburg.

All of my posts on this wonderful celebration are listed in Family – My 80th Birthday in my index on the right hand side of the page.

It Was a Very Good Year – 1954-1960

1954 – My oldest daughter embroidered dish towels from 1954 patterns. The Dutch Boy is from The Workbasket – April, 1954 (the same month and year she was born) and the girl with the umbrella is from a 1954 coloring book.

1955 – A 1-½ inch diameter tin labeled School Buildings 1955 and containing an actual film strip showing the latest improvements in school buildings in that year.

1956 – A TV Guide for February 4-10, 1956. A note is attached, “You were probably watching some of these shows waiting for your first son to arrive.” My oldest son was born on March 8, 1956, so I was spending a lot of time watching Gary Moore, Perry Como, Annie Oakley (a favorite of my toddler daughter), and Cincinnati’s local star, Ruth Lyons.

1957 – A Betty Furness Westinghouse Roast Meat Thermometer and Skewer. Betty Furness was best known in the early days of television for opening Westinghouse refrigerators and talking about all of their wonderful features.

1958 – A 1958 copy of Woman’s Day Cook Book of Favorite Recipes. I have a large cookbook collection but have never seen this one. I was interested to find a lot of canning and bake-from-scratch recipes.

1959 – A metal tin that had held a typewriter ribbon. It has an interesting graphic on the top of the tin and Feb 59 on the back. After all of the years I spent typing, I love anything dealing with typewriters, especially the vintage items.

1960 – A picture of President and First Lady Kennedy leaving the hospital with John Kennedy, Jr. The note attached to this picture says, “1960 – The year two important John-Johns were born“. This refers to my youngest son, John, who was born March 11, 1960. When he was a toddler, we did refer to him as John-John now and then.

As I was leaving the hospital with my baby John, I looked nothing like Jackie in her perfect suit, hat, gloves and pumps.

All of my posts on this wonderful celebration are listed in Family – My 80th Birthday in my index on the right hand side of the page.

It Was a Very Good Year – 1947 – 1953

1947 – A 1947 magazine article about the Cincinnati Reds’ star pitcher, Ewell Blackwell. I’ve always been a baseball fan and was particularly devoted to the Reds in 1947. As usual, we had a pretty poor team but then Ewell Blackwell came within two outs of consecutive no-hitters (I’ve never forgiven Eddie Stanky of the Brooklyn Dodgers for ruining that moment) and dazzled everyone that season.

1948 – A set of leaflets showing the wonderful hair styles that could be achieved with cold wave permanents. I always had naturally curly hair and never needed a permanent, but I remember my mother and sister trying every means to having pretty hair – and they succeeded.

1949 – A 1949 baby care book which I would have loved when I had my first child in 1954. This is really interesting to me but there’s a bonus –

…there’s a letter from the old French Bauer Dairy in Cincinnati which I can add to my collection.

1950 – My youngest daughter copied 26 songs from the 1950s, chosen by my oldest daughter who remembers hearing a lot of them when she was growing up in the 50s.

1951 – A 1951 baseball card for Cincinnati Reds third-baseman, Grady Hatton. Ewell Blackwell, mentioned above, was a super-star, but the one all the girls liked was Grady Hatton. He was young, single, and handsome. I’m sure he made the Ladies’ Days at old Crosley Field a lot more crowded than they normally would have been.

1952 – A special piece my oldest daughter made from an Altoid tin. I was 20 in 1952 – not old enough to vote but I admired Dwight D. Eisenhower from World War II days. The inside of the tin shows a picture of me showing off my I LIKE IKE pin.

I was more of an Eisenhower fan than I was a Republican and I was so thrilled when he won. I posted about that 1952 election here.

1953 – My youngest daughter knit a great dusting mitt from a 1953 pattern.

Here is the link to my daughter’s blog for the pattern and information:

http://wardenslog.blogspot.com/2012/08/celebrating-80-yearswith-knit-dusting.html

All of my posts on this wonderful celebration are listed in Family – My 80th Birthday in my index on the right hand side of the page.

A Beautiful Beaded Stiletto

I’ve been getting advance gifts from my daughters for my upcoming 80th birthday, but I was surprised by a wonderful gift from my blogging friend, Freda, at The Adventures of the Empress of the Universe. Last week, she had posted a tutorial on making stilettos from turkey lacers to use in sewing – and she sent me one! It’s so precious and will definitely be used. Freda enclosed it with a card by one of my favorites, Mary Engelbreit.

To learn how to make these beautiful stilettos, go to Freda’s blog:

http://imperamagna.blogspot.com/2012/07/up-to-mischief-again.html

Thank you, Freda, for making my day.

It Was a Very Good Year – 1940-1946

1940 – A 1940s AAA tour book for the eastern seaboard which included my home state of Ohio. It’s so interesting to compare the listings to what we have today. Most hotel restaurants at that time offered breakfast for 50 cents, lunch for 75 cents and dinner for $1.00. For chicken or steak dinners, the cost was $1.25. Of course, we were still fighting our way out of the depression and wages were low.

1941 – My youngest daughter knitted a Navy watch cap made from a 1941 Red Cross pattern along with a flyer saying that “the boys need sox – knit your best”. I’ll wear this cap to take the dog for walks on cold winter days. Actually, my husband had a cap just like this when he was in the Navy in 1952.

1942 – A copy of Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library, published in 1942 along with a scarf knitted by my daughter. This scarf is identical to one that Miss Marple wore on a TV series, pictured on a bookmark my daughter made. The yarn is called “Chipmunk Tweed”, just right for a Miss Marple scarf.

My granddaughter is a perfect model for the scarf.

1943 – Three copies of the 1943 magazine, The Gregg Writer. This is the perfect gift for me. I started taking shorthand classes in 1947, used it throughout my long career and still use it today as a time-saving way of keeping notes.

1944 – A postcard from August 29, 1944, showing our glorious art-deco Union Terminal.

Message on the back: “Hi Mom – In Cinn. now sure glad we came. We are at the zoo waiting for the monkey show. Came up to the zoo on the incline. See you soon.” Two more famous Cincinnati landmarks are mentioned – the Zoo and the incline with a cable car that brought passengers up and down the hill between the Cincinnati valley and the Zoo. One year, my mother brought my little sister and me back home from a school outing at the Zoo by riding on the incline.

1945 – My youngest daughter made up a CD of 25 hits from the 1940s, including some of my favorite artists – Perry Como, Dinah Shore and, of course, Spike Jones.

1946 – A March 18, 1946 copy of Life Magazine. There are all of the usual great pictures and ads, but of special interest to me is an article about one of my favorite authors, Betty MacDonald. Her book, The Egg and I was a best seller in 1946.

I have an original 1945 edition of the book which the article mentions sells for $2.75 in 1946.

Another wonderful week of gifts which show how well my daughters know me and know what I like.

Note: My youngest daughter has a post on her blog with information and links for the gifts she has knitted so far.

http://wardenslog.blogspot.com/2012/07/one-way-to-celebrate-80th-birthday.html

All of my posts on this wonderful celebration are listed in Family – My 80th Birthday in my index on the right hand side of the page.

It Was a Very Good Year – 1933-1939

https://lillianscupboard.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/it-was-a-very-good-year-1932/

As promised, today, July 20, 2012, I am sharing the 7 gifts I received this week.

1933 – Recipe and souvenir folder from the Chicago World’s Fair for Durkee products. I have a fairly large collection of product recipe pamphlets, but I didn’t have this one.

1934 – My youngest daughter knitted a pair of fingerless gloves from a 1934 pattern, overcoming some differences in needles and yarn. These are so unbelievably soft. They will definitely be worn next winter.

1935 – My youngest daughter knitted a “Hoover Blanket” from a 1935 pattern attributed to President Hoover’s wife. The center of this baby-size blanket is double knit, done by knitting the front and back simultaneously. The vintage green is my favorite. It will make such a nice lap blanket.

1936 – My oldest daughter embroidered a Halloween huck towel from a 1936 pattern. This will be a nice stand cover when I get out my Halloween decorations.

1937 – Sheet music from 1937 for The Donkey Serenade. In the 1930s-40s, my family went to the picture show often, but always the ones my father wanted to see – westerns, historical dramas, war movies. The only musicals we saw were the Road movies with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. I don’t know how we wound up in a theater watching The Firefly with Alan Jones and Jeanette MacDonald, but I remember after watching Alan Jones sing his Donkey Serenade, my father got up abruptly and started toward the exit. My mother, my little sister and I followed along and I said in a loud voice, “That was lousy with a capital L”. At that point, my embarrassed mother gave me a stage whispered “HUSH” and a sharp nudge up the aisle. My daughters have always enjoyed this story, which prompted the sheet music gift. I never did care much for Alan Jones, but in later years, I enjoyed hearing and seeing his very cool son, Jack Jones.

1938 – My youngest daughter recorded 26 songs from the 1930s era onto a CD for me. The first track was (what else?) The Donkey Serenade. But there were a lot of songs I really liked – Lazy Bones, Boo Hoo, Happy Days are Here Again, Minnie the Moocher, Frankie and Johnny, You’re in the Money, Pennies from Heaven, etc. There were only a couple of tracks that I didn’t remember, mostly big band numbers which I was too young to appreciate at the time. I listen to these songs and I’m transported back to a flat on Elm Street in downtown Cincinnati. A small radio was kept on the mantel and I can see my little sister and me listening intently to the latest hits. I remember hearing Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen and thinking they were saying, “My Dear Mr. Shane”. I’m not sure even my mother knew what they were saying on that recording.

1939 –Two postcards from the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The card on the left shows a view of the statue of George Washington by James Earle Fraser, from the Sun Dial, Time and the Fates of Man by Paul Manship.

The card on the right shows the Hall of Music.

I love vintage postcards and these will be wonderful additions to my collection.

Wonder what all those packages for next week contain?

It Was a Very Good Year – 1932

My two daughters were here for lunch and brought out a huge, brightly wrapped box.

They informed me that it was exactly 80 days until my 80th birthday and that I was going to receive a gift each of the 80 days to commemorate a year in my life. This box held the gifts for the first 20 years.

The first gift to be opened was for the year I was born, 1932 – a large bottle commemorating Washington’s 200th Birthday – 1732-1932.

Truly, there are treasures in my life – far greater than antique bottles.

These two girls have spent six months scouring antique malls and eBay to come up with gifts representing 80 years. Next Friday, I’ll show what else they found.