Tabitha's tricks and 50s magazines

Have I mentioned that Tabitha and our youngest cat, Possum, are Best Buddies?  They practically wear BFF necklaces!  I know, it's very strange to have a cat that tolerates, let alone enjoys, a baby.  Luckily for us, Possum is no ordinary cat.  When we are being unkind, we say that he is 'a few sardines short of a tin'.  But the truth is, while he is a supremely stupid and uncoordinated cat (walking into walls, falling off the couch, that sort of thing), he is kind and gentle and endlessly patient.  He's barely one year old, a chocolate Burmese, and he's actually very small for an adult cat.

He always goes to stand a foot or so in front of Tabitha, then waits for her to lunge and throw herself onto his back.  He then lies there (purring!!!) while she lays on TOP of him, pulling his fur, squeezing his ears, and chewing his fur.  For ages, we worried for him, thinking he would get hurt, but every time we helped him escape, he just stood in front of Tabby again, waiting for her to pounce.  So we have decided that he actually enjoys these maulings.  Perhaps he lacks a pain gene.  Along with his missing balance genes and IQ points.  Anyway, we love him dearly, and are incredibly grateful to have a cat with whom Tabitha can play and cuddle.  The older cat stays away from her!

Oh - and Possum also enjoys fetching items from around the house, and bringing them to Tabitha, dropping them in her lap or in front of her - mostly small cat toys, which are a choking hazard!  So I am always taking them away.  But it is really gorgeous, the way he brings toys to her with such an earnest expression on his squishy little face.

Here they are having a cuddle this morning:

My little sister taught Tabby to 'high five' a couple of weeks ago.  Now she does it non-stop!  She initiates them herself - I'll be sitting in the living room, and she crawls over with one hand outstretched, smiling, waiting for me to high five her.  Then she giggles.  It is a very endearing new trick.  Except she loves to do it all through her meals, so I have to high five her greasy hands, covered in sardines or pesto or mashed up banana!

Here is Tabitha waiting for a high five during lunch.  She is eating a date scone.  There is some raw mushroom caught in her neckline:

 I love vintage magazines - primarily American women's magazines from the 1940s - 1960s.  I mostly buy them on eBay.  They are expensive (generally $20 - $30 delivered, for the good ones), however they are SO much thicker and more text-rich than modern magazines, so they take ages to read.  Plus I spend hours pouring over the ads!  I don't really buy regular (modern) magazines, so these are my 'trash reading'.

This is one of my favourites from my collection.  It is Ladies Home Journal from March 1955.  It cost 35c.

This is an advertisement for air travel - can you believe how they are sitting?!  This would be so lovely if you were travelling with friends or family.  Not so much if you were stuck dining with grumpy strangers.  Look at the curtains, the spacious table!

These magazines have loads of ads for canned and convenience ingredients, generally with a questionable 'recipe':

Yes, even the old magazines are filled with ads for face creams promising to remove wrinkles and years - no breakthrough ingredients, no Pitera or white tea or snake venom, just emulsified oils.  So it seems the claims are always the same, regardless of scientific advances!

Here is half of a double-page advertisement for that scary American yellow cheese, brought to you by the American Dairy Association.  Lots of lovely recipes involving frankfurters and chopped pickles.

I adore the fashions - this coat makes my heart sing!

I would be so thrilled to wear an outfit like this tomorrow.  I am a particular fan of white gloves (this is why Season One of Bewitched is my favourite - Samantha always wears white gloves when she leaves the house!):

The mothers in the advertisements are all SO young.  Their faces look like teenagers.  But their hair adds a few years to their look, generally!  I may be a boring traditionalist but I adore all the pretty photographs of mothers tending to their chubby, smiling babies:

The lingerie ads are a real highlight - gosh the underwear was a little scary back then!  The pointy bras fascinate me.  You can see that this ad hails from an age when having a 'Gay Time' meant something different to what it does today:

Dish Hands are a common concern in these magazines - thankfully, there is always the perfect cream available to cure them.

Twin beds anyone? I must say, though, I am loving that plant arrangement in the middle, so modern.  Is that a lamb at the bottom, or a poodle?  I can't tell!

I would love some gay sparking tiles!  They sound like a lot of fun...

This era really took its silverware seriously:

An age when every woman aspired to own a mink coat.  I cannot think of a modern alternative?  There doesn't seem to be any universal status item that is currently on the wish list of most women.

Gee whiz, that panty girdle DOES look comfortable!  I must say, though, for 5+ years of my life, I wore suspenders (proper 4- or 6-clip ones from Secrets in Lace or What Katie Did, not flimsy fashion ones) and nylon or silk stockings almost every day.  I hate pantyhose.

I can't decide whether these little kids are incredibly sweet or a little creepy:

This is the start of a brilliant article written by a 'manly' 50s dad, who actually enjoys caring for his son - even *gasp* changing nappies and chatting to his baby, despite endless mocking and derision from his friends.  It's actually quite a bittersweet article, as he struggles to justify why he chooses to care for his baby, rather than leaving the 'women's work' to his wife.  It makes me glad that we live in an age when men are actually considered to be equal parents.  I spoke to a man once, whose children were born in the late 50s, who recalled being yelled at by a nurse in hospital for trying to bathe his baby - apparently men weren't to be left alone with their babies lest they break them!

I am always on the hunt for a 'new' vintage magazine.  I used to also collect vintage hats and dresses, however I got rid of a lot of them when we were cleaning out before the arrival of the baby.  Hopefully they found new loving homes!