I am nostalgic for many things but not all. Here is a quick take on some of the items from the 50s and 60s I don’t miss.
Women’s clothing: Panty girdles, with their tourniquet-like grip on my thighs. I’ll spare folks the details of feminine hygiene products and accessories of the 60s, but suffice it to say that they could be primitive.
Hair: Those bonnet dryers with plastic hoods and long hoses, attached to a motor unit that was incredibly noisy. Worse were “hot rollers.” You added water to a tray of rollers, plugged in the unit, waited until the water boiled, and then rolled the spiky devils into your hair. Ouch!
Food: Sour-cream-based Jello molds. Lipton tea brewed really weak when I was sick. A dessert (?) called Junket rennet custard, a slimy clotted concoction with a strawberry flavor.
MarianI have recently retired from a marketing and technical writing and editing career and am thoroughly enjoying writing for myself and others.
You make a good case, despite our natural nostalgia, that we are far better off in the present!
Yes Marian! I don’t miss those panty girdles at all! Spanx are bad enough! And those bonnet things? I had long hair in high school and college. At least by college I’d gotten a blow dryer, but in HS, I washed it on Sunday and Thursday nights, then sat under that bonnet for the rest of the night! Good riddance!
Betsy, I washed my hair on Sunday and Thursday and also had long, very wavy hair. I’d wrap it around my head using long, skinny clips and sat under the dryer. At least I could read. Yes, good riddance.