MID-CENTURY PRODUCT CONTAINERS, PART 2

It's still cold here.

So, before we had so much plastic at our disposal, just how did we buy and store food? It’s hard to remember exactly how it was because we took what we had for granted and didn’t know anything else. It might differ some from household to household, and overall change was subtle. And it never occurred to anyone that a picture of an ordinary day in the kitchen – or people doing ordinary things – might one day be precious.

We already mentioned waxed paper, but it bears mentioning again. Back in the day, kids carried sandwiches to school wrapped in waxed paper, as Aunt Chris confirmed. At some point, you could even buy waxed paper sandwich bags, and these are readily available today (here). At our school, we didn’t have hot lunch, so without sealed bags, food odors from bread, tuna fish, etc., were ever-present in the schoolroom – fresh in the morning and stale in the afternoon. Yes, students carried those metal lunchboxes you see in the antiques and collectibles shops, and I suppose some students carried brown bags.

My grandmother -- Ina Dobson

Cereal and crackers came in cardboard boxes as they do today. Any inner protection was waxed paper. Today’s liners are heavier, though they doesn't seem to be plastic? Cracker tins were mostly a thing of the past by my day, I think. I remember some cookies in cellophane wrappings much as we find today.

My other grandmother -- Nina Portfors

I don't know if the consumer could use waxed paper sacks instead of plastic to purchase products from bulk bins. I think the advantage of plastic is that the product is visible, and that seems important. Waxed paper would be somewhat translucent, but perhaps not as sanitary. Sanitary seems important, too. I don’t remember bulk food bins in my youth, but nails, bolts, screws, etc., were in bins and your selection went into a brown paper sack. What? That's still the system today? Imagine that!

A clean muslin dishtowel might be used to wrap cakes and breads. And don’t forget canisters, bread boxes, and cake keepers which protected foods that didn’t need refrigeration.

Crocks were used for baking and perhaps some food storage. Grandma Portfors used a crock as a cookie jar. Beans were baked in crocks, and I don’t know what else. Ina left a number of them at the farm, several with missing lids, making them more or less useless except as picturesque reminders of yesteryear.

I don’t recall that Mother stored food in jars, but today glass is recommended over plastic for food storage as long as it’s manufactured in the U.S. Avoid glass from China. (I’m not sure I’d know the difference.)

I think we can conclude, though, that in the pre-plastic age, food storage wasn’t so great. We used what we had, and it wasn’t an orderly system. Today I still use plastic containers for storage, but the more recent additions to my cupboard are small Pyrex dishes with plastic lids. The lids aren’t microwave proof, though, so the dish has to be covered in another way for re-heating. I also use Corningware and Pyrex with glass lids. KW

MID-CENTURY PRODUCT CONTAINERS, PART 1

It's still the season, isn't it?

Comments on the previous post were helpful reminders, which we'll discuss as we go along. Researched history is detailed and available online. I suggest these Wikipedia sites (here and here), but you can find many more. My goal in this series is to spark memories of mid-century containers. Then we might discuss what we can do to reduce plastic usage, which was not a goal at that time. I just hope I can present my thoughts in an orderly manner without being too repetitious (forgetful).

One of the problems with these posts is the lack of proper illustrations. If we’re going to illustrate, I’ll need to be innovative.

By the time I was born (1949) plastics were already becoming common. I remember plastic toys, including a set of doll dishes, and most of my dolls were vinyl or hard plastic rather than composition.

Kathy, Dorothy, and Vance Dobson, 1959

I was about 10 years old (1960) when Mother and I went to our first Tupperware party. Like other mid-century housewives, Mother was impressed. She bought several packs – rounds and “square rounds,” and our family’s food storage habits were changed forever by this revolutionary product.

As I recall (the 1950s), most suppers were cooked in pots and pans and the contents then removed to serving dishes – no exceptions. It was considered tacky to serve food in the pan in which it was cooked, even for the informal supper. After the meal, left-overs were transferred to smaller bowls to take up less room in the refrigerator. If food was baked and served in a casserole dish, left-overs were likewise removed to a smaller bowl or casserole. Mother didn’t re-heat in the same dish because it causes the food to bake on. We didn’t have a dishwasher, so the impact of all this food transfer was an increase of time-consuming mindless work, which Mother graciously accepted. (Me? Not so much.)

Of course, this was also the pre-plastic wrap era, but Mother had elasticized plastic caps that stretched over the bowls. These are still available today (here). They were better than nothing but didn’t seal freshness in and odors out. We washed and re-used these caps, and my dislike for washing and drying them was second only to washing and drying bread sacks. (Yes – we did that, too.)

The Family Home, 1959

I think we used quite a lot of waxed paper. I suppose we might have crumpled it over the food in a bowl, or held a piece in place over the top of a bowl with a rubber band. Sometimes a pan lid would fit a particular bowl, and Mother also had flat lids. But the food was subject to drying and depending on what was in there, the fridge was smelly with mingling food odors.

When plastic storage containers came on the scene – and Tupper held a patent on that – the first thing we saw was an orderly system. Beyond that, those containers would seal, which kept the food fresher and the refrigerator less odorous. Even if your food spoiled – perish the thought! – it was still contained in its airtight compartment. But -- it was not considered dishwasher safe, so it didn’t reduce our workload. KW

STEPPING BACK FROM PLASTIC: THE PREMISE

Kathy and Bess

It was really cold here last night -- +2 or +4 or something like that. Mike let the dogs sleep inside, and they were glad. Taking a clue from the little girl that used to live at my house, I pulled a soft crocheted shawl around my shoulder and neck and slept quite comfortably.

Here's a new blog topic that Daughter Hallie provided. She writes:

I've recently been giving a lot of thought to plastic. Mostly just carrying around guilt about it. I'd like to be mindful of reducing my plastic footprint, which sparks the question, "how did our ancestors do it without plastic?"

- Buying in bulk: I know we've talked about flour sacks before. Do you suppose people would use fabric sacks to purchase flour, nuts, or other items that you can typically get in bulk? Perhaps they would put things into small paper bags rather than plastic?

- Liquids: liquids were probably entirely in glass. What about shampoo and cosmetics? Also glass? What were the options for reusing glass bottles? What was happening before the "buy bottled water" craze? Were drinking fountains more prevalent? Did people carry around canteens?

- Cereal: How did people keep cereal from going stale? Was it purchased in bulk in a sack and then transferred to a glass canister with a gasket?

- What kind of packaging were plants kept in? If you were to buy a tree or small plant, was it kept in burlap or something made of wood? Were nurseries not a thing? Did people have to order seeds and plant everything from seed?

I just wish we could go back in time and never discover plastic. Plastic is practically forced upon the consumer. Could I be a plastic-free consumer? Hmmmm....
Hallie

[My first thought is that the consumer doesn't have a lot of options unless government and corporate entities are behind the program. I'm not an expert in the subject, but I do remember a little about how it was mid-century. We'll have several installments on this subject, so join in the discussion. Till next time . . . KW]

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

“Vow to make 2017 the year you finish your unfinished projects,” said the email message from a quilting website. “Please join our Facebook group and finish your UFOs.”

“Oh no you don’t,” I said to myself. That was my 2016 resolution. I made a list of all my unfinished projects with the resolution that I would not start anything new in 2016. While I enjoyed some success with that, in other ways it was counterproductive to creativity. This year I’m returning to less restrictive goals.

 

I always write a few resolutions, and they have nothing to do with areas in which I traditionally fail – eating and exercising to lose weight. Those things I have always with me, and as important as it is to diet and exercise, the subject brings me no joy. My resolutions will probably just be a list in my journal of things I want to do. And it will be way more than I can do in a year, but you know, if I don’t make that list, it will be year’s end again, and I will have forgotten all about this afghan and that quilt, that apron I want to make out of this border print, and the lovely Cinderella ball gowns for the dolls. Where does the time go?

2016 was a difficult year for our family, but when I count my blessings, I count the little shed that we installed on the back of our lot last January. For the first time since we moved here, my stuff is fully accessible to me. I have been gradually putting away Christmas decorations all by myself, and yesterday I brought in two large bins of yarn which I sorted and organized.

Next up: A discussion of storage solutions prior to plastic. KW

A FINAL WORD FROM INA AS 2017 BEGINS

And now as the holiday season draws to a close and the New Year begins, I post one of my favorite passages from Ina’s correspondence: 

Last night Shirley and I stayed up to see the New Year in from the east coast to the west. They began at 9:00 at New York City when pandemonium broke loose on Broadway till we could hardly hear the chimes from the great Trinity Church. Perhaps you were listening in, too. We bathed while the New Year was crossing the Great Plains and getting into the mountains to be heralded at Denver. Chicago ushered it in on Central Standard time. I curled up on the couch and took a nap while 1933 was crossing the mountain chains and reaching the city which sits by the Golden Gate. There again was great sound and we could hear the steamers bellowing and such a confusion of sounds [so that] we could hardly hear the bell tolling out the midnight hour. Earlier in the evening we heard a funny and clever program from the New York studio, “The Kukus.” They put on such clever skits. We heard Arthur Lipman do a stunt. You know he writes poetry and I’ve often read it in the Saturday Evening Post. Ina to Vance, New Year’s Day 1933

Mike and I have long since given up greeting the New Year in its infancy. The morning is soon enough, thank you. We stayed up until 10:30 watching Christmas Vacation for the tenth time, and then we were happy enough to slip into a nice warm bed and drift off to sleep. Even the fireworks across the street didn’t keep us awake.

Today is New Year’s Day, right? – January 1, 2017, right? But as I searched the television program guide for New Year’s Day programming, Mike enlightened me: all those programs are tomorrow – tomorrow – because that’s the official holiday. I think there’s something flawed in that reasoning. Hmmph!

As the Christmas season comes to an end, I’m now grateful for the simplicity of our celebration. I’ll cover my little two-foot artificial tree with its cloth bag and remove the vintage plastic carolers from the window.  Those things will slip quickly into storage, the only difficulty being the cold and the icy path to the shed. Candles, lit houses, and ceramic angels can stay where they are for the time being while short days gradually grow longer. I’m free to move on to more interesting things, like crocheting a new Christmas afghan with the yarn that was delivered yesterday.

 

The pictures here were taken yesterday (Sat., Dec. 31) as Ken, Mike, and I walked the dogs at the dog park on the Snake River. KW