It's only rock and roll

We had a few more big earthquakes yesterday. Not really what we needed two days before Christmas. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. Since there's not much you can do in these situations except keep calm and carry on, we spent Christmas eve eve eating blue cheese stuffed olives and pepperdews and watching telly (which was still sitting on the floor where it had fallen during the quake).

I'm not heavily into the whole Christmas thing (we don't even have a tree) and I hate Christmas songs but Tim Minchin's White Wine in the Sun pretty much sums up all my feelings about it. I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday however you celebrate, and manages to drink some white wine (or other beverage) in the sun (or snow if you live in the Northern hemisphere).

Australian Home Journal 1955

Sorry about my absence. It's been busy. I got a job as a research assistant for the summer. Fun, fun, fun! No, seriously. I love doing research.



Anyway, I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey. All the way back to 1955. This is the cover of an Australian Home Journal from April 1st 1955. I have a few of these which all used to belong to someone named Watson (she wrote her name on the top right). Sorry the pictures are taken with my camera. My scanner died. Hopefully you can click on the pictures to make them bigger. ETA: If you right click and go to 'open in a new tab' you can make them bigger and see the text. Apparently, blogger now has a weird thing where you can't make the pictures bigger by just clicking on them.



Inside they have pictures of the patterns that you could order by mail. I want all of them.




Alongside the patterns are little paragraphs about the lastest trends. Example:
"The New Line? The question in every woman's mind just now is, 'What is going to happen about Dior's 'H' line and his even newer 'A' line, and how much will they affect styles out there?' As yet no one knows the answer. The matter is controversial."

Controversial? If you say so.



How amazing is that dress on the left with the buttons and the pleating?



Aside from all the pretty dresses there are also some ads that make my feminist self nauseous. There are a disturbing number of these for laxatives/diet pills. This is only a small sampling.


'Tonic reducing globules' sounds way scary.



Least you think these were only aimed at adults, here is one for the kiddies. The ad actually says, "They're not habit-forming". Oh, that's so reassuring to know little Joan won't become addicted to laxatives.


On a less scary note, this ad on the back cover tickles me because you can still buy Arnott's milk arrowroot biscuits here. They are yummy!