Wednesday 19 September 2012

ALL THINGS RETRO

Carmi's Challenge this week is all things RETRO – and a year or so ago I went to a “40’s Weekend”.   I found it very amusing that everyone wanted to dress up in what they saw as 40’s clothes, and dress up was the word.   Up to the nines, as they say!   But I can remember coupons, lack of anything useful like knitting wool, and my mother carefully unravelling old knitted jumpers to reknit them up for me and my sister.  Well, when I say my mother unravelled – she did the knitting, I did the unravelling!

However, at the 40’s weekend, I came across some wonderful HATS!

 

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The “Weekend” was held at an old Railway Station (actually still used by a steam train up and down an old line) all done out as it would have been pre WWII.   I found these milk churns on the platform.   Do you remember seeing them at the end of the lane up to the farm, waiting for the milk lorry to collect?   Not nowadays, all pumped straight into the big tankers. 

 

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And then there was this marvellous Art Deco window in Gran Canaria, Spain.

 

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And if you really want Retro, don’t you just love me and my sister, with her pigtails, and our little puffed sleeves.   This would be about 1944 I think.   My sister is wearing a hand-me-down from me, and I am wearing either one made from my mother’s dress or a hand-me-down from someone else who had an older child than me!

 

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Ah, happy days!

7 comments:

21 Wits said...

I would adore an art deco window like that one from Spain. I am a fan of those lovely hats too. At our Mall of America they opened up a hat store with all the latest and repeats of greatest hats from all over ...especially copies from the most recent royal wedding. Great retro photos !

Lisa Shafer said...

What fun pics! (And, appropriately enough, the word verification includes #42!)
My folks don't think of scrimping during the 40s, but more during the 30s. They associate the 40s with the War. And they did have some nice clothes; I know because our family saves everything, perfectly preserved, so we have a good deal of vintage stuff.
However, Dad always jokes that he didn't mind having cardboard to line his shoes as a kid because everyone in his town had shoes like that, so it wasn't embarrassing at all. :)

Max Sartin said...

Great photos. My grandmother was a hat maker in NYC for most of her life. Her arms got so strong from pulling the material down over the mold that, even in her 70's, she could win an arm wrestle with her teenage grandsons.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Ladies had long necks back then!

I love that pic of you and your sister.
~

Alexia said...

Ah, the hats and their wearers are gorgeous! I love the two sisters, too.

carmilevy said...

That picture of you and your sister is remarkable. Like a time machine: I love scenes like this. The look on both of your faces is precious!

I miss milk jugs - and all the other things that defined a simpler age. Things may be faster and more efficient today, but I'm not entirely convinced we've advanced as much as we think we have.

Bob Scotney said...

The milk churns are not quite dead yet. I knnow some farms that still use them.
That window could almost be a large shaving mirror.
Glad I didn't miss this post even if I'm a bit late commenting.