Originally Posted by kellen46

I was searching for "vintage" images for a collage project and this popped up. It would be just a curiosity except it was real for a lot of women in the forties and fifties. It was real for my family, long ago when I was newly married into a cattle rancher family all the women, from grandmother to daughter would gather in the kitchen to cook, and then to serve the menfolk in the dinning room, we would eat standing in the kitchen just in case there was an order for more of something or the other. Later we would clean up and care for any little ones around while the men napped in chairs. Shhsh daddy is sleeping. We also worked outdoors, gardening, helping with field work or caring for livestock. While the men watched Ed Sullivan we were preparing for the next day, last thing was to set the table for breakfast. I was young, only a teen, but the amazing thing was none of us questioned it back then. It was just the way things were. When I finally did take a breath I asked myself why and rebelled. It earned me a slap in the face, led to the end of my marriage and hard years of being a single parent. But it also taught me the value of personal freedom and it kept my ex mom in law as a lifelong friend. When men get sentimental about the great old days of the fifties and the sixties I get a little steamed, it was not a good time for women and children and we did have to march in the streets for, at the minimum, some recognition of the need for change. I spent the last twenty years of my working life working in the field of child protection. I have seen the damage that comes from powerlessness. I will give one small example. I had a client who was expecting her fifth child. In our conversation I asked if she was planning to breast feed her baby. She was shocked I would ask her to do something so perverted, in her words, "titties are for men, not for children". After I got my wits back I tried to educate her that no they were specifically for children, only men think of them as sexual. I finally had to point out kittens, puppies, calves and etc drank milk from the mother, that's what mammals do, she was still skeptical but admitted I might have a point.
I know this is simplistic, and not all women experienced this but, I know I we still have a long way to go when I hear women say " My husband lets me....." you fill in the blank. Our daughters and granddaughters need to know the past to create their futures, and to know that as recent as fifty years ago there were laws on the books that a woman who was pregnant outside of marriage could be incarcerated as a threat to public morals. Women were jailed for having a "love child". What an irony that is. I think the best thing we can do for our children, male or female is to teach them critical thinking. Enough, I will get off the soap box.

Originally Posted by Eddie

Hahaha....you have NOooooo idea how right you are. I am outnumbered and never will have the odds in my favor. If I were to show that to my wife and even suggest that she follow it, well...I better be prepared to protect myself! :D

Originally Posted by Chasing Hawk

This outta get ya marching and burning down buildings :P

Originally Posted by Grammy o'5

OMG!!! You are right ... no wonder ...
Is this straight from "Leave it to Beaver"?
I wonder if there really were women who tried to be this way?

Anyway ... it ain't happenin' at this house!!! LOL

Originally Posted by kellen46

I just sort of see her talking through the grimace, " you know dear this thing I am pressing into your back..well it is one of those wonderful knives from the set you bought me for my birthday....and then I will clean up with the great shop vac you bought, and oh yeah the carpet shampooer I got for our anniversary, along with the the nifty stain remover you brought home for the wash....and well, I will miss you dear but that mixer sure seems nice, may be I will bake a cake to celebrate." That man had better get her a new sewing machine pdq and maybe a gift certificate to the quilt shop, I think. He he he