My years of reading as if I were living 100 years ago haven’t turned me into much of a nostalgist. In general, whatever is awful in the early 21st century was even worse in the early 20th century. Back then, the United States was a racist, sexist, war-scarred country. The white supremacist violence of the Red Summer of 1919 was far worse than what we’re experiencing now. We lost half a million more lives to the Spanish influenza than we’ve lost so far to COVID, among a population a third the size of today’s.
Poster, United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, 1918 (Free Library of Philadelphia)
Not that I’m minimizing what we’re going through now. We’re supposed to be better than our predecessors, and the fact that we can even draw parallels between that terrible time and our own shows that we haven’t done a very good job of learning lessons from the past.
Still, as this awful summer crawls to an end, I’m starting to feel like I wouldn’t mind spending some time in 1920.
Women have the vote!
League of Women Voters poster, 1920
Corsets are going out of fashion!
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
The pandemic is over, and people are free to go places and do things!
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
Sounds nice, doesn’t it? The perfect destination for an imaginary vacation. You can come too!
A house at the seaside is just the thing, wouldn’t you agree?
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
We’ll pack our clothes,
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
making sure not to forget to bring along our white shoes,
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
or our maid, whose greatest joy in life is cleaning them.
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
We’ll round up the kids,
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
but not the scary-looking ones,
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
and set out overland in the Overland.
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
Whew! That was quite a journey.
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
I need to freshen up.
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
I brush my hair,*
Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1920
sprinkle on a little talcum powder,**
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
dab on some Odorono,
Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1920
and I’m all set to go.
Of course we brought along the Grafonola.
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
Or the Victrola. Whatever! It’s party time!
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
We’ll go swimming
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
and play games
Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1920
and watch fireworks
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
and go on picnics
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
and Sunday drives.
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
If it gets too hot, we’ll just loll around in fetching outfits.
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
The fresh air will do the children a world of good
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
and maybe wean them off their weird obsession with bread.
Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1920
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
And of course it wouldn’t be summer without some romance.
Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1920
Enjoy it while you can! All too soon we’ll be cleaning up the summer house
Ladies’ Home Journal, May 1920
(just kidding, that’s the maid’s job),
Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1920
heading back home,
Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1920
and sending the kids off to school.
Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1920
Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1920
But it’s nice to get away for a while, isn’t it?
*I try to keep this a family blog, but oh 1920, you test me sometimes.
**A very little, since it’s full of asbestos.
My Life 100 Years Ago 
Lots of dainty artwork here! I always wanted a summer house, in the South of France, where Edith Wharton had one. She also had a maid, of course, whose greatest joy in life was polishing Edith’s white shoes with some sort of “dressing.” I wonder whether anyone actually asked the maid if that was indeed her greatest joy. Just as today’s TV commercials are mainly for luxury cars, in 1920 it was baking powder that appeared in print practically nonstop. So along with getting the vote, women were lavished with a stunning variety of cleaning products. Life was still stressful, it seems, with picnics to assemble and sweaters to hand-wash with pre-Woolite soap — one cared-for sweater for every frock. But here’s an inconsistency: the seaside house had to be cleaned and tidied for the family’s summer vacation, but that was suddenly the maid’s job. Where was the maid when shoes were being polished, and strawberry shortcake was in the oven? Who put it there? Then there was the delicate matter of the obligatory summer romance; apparently the man had a foot fetish: he seems to be in love with leather. Wasn’t that the wrong love-object?
So I’m not so sure about 1920, when everyone looked so nice and relaxed as they drove the Model-T over bumpy roads. And such big families! Six children swanning around in their new suits and middies were a common sight. I think I’ll stick with 2020 for now, when the appliances are shiny and hard-working, and the cars don’t break down at the drop of a straw hat. But thank you for this imaginary world of ease and nostalgia. We had a vacation after all, even if everyone did resemble the Lone Ranger.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, at least the prophelactic penetrator gave me a good laugh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Barbara, I love your comments! If you had a blog, I’d be your most devoted reader. That guy who keeps staring at the woman’s feet creeps me out too. Talcum powder was even more heavily advertised than baking powder. Bottom line: powder is good! You’re right, there’s an inconsistency between pretending everyone has a maid and emphasizing how effective the cleaning and cooking products are. If you have a maid, why do you care?
LikeLiked by 2 people
The bread ads! “Make your boy a top-notcher…(bread)will harden his muscles and make him healthy….Let him know how manly it is to eat….” I’m as gluten-tolerant as the next person, but…!
And the Overland cars were a product of Willys-Overland, the folks who created the Jeep.a couple of decades later. This advertising campaign makes one think they were already thinking off-road in 1920.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Bread is your best food—eat more of it!” A motto that I could, but probably shouldn’t, live by.
LikeLike