My Stroll Through the 1918 Sears Catalogue

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While researching 1918 fashion for my historical-novel-in-progress, I stumbled upon a 1918 Sears, Roebuck and Company catalogue, which someone had uploaded on the internet. The catalogue's 1,676 pages provided a treasure trove of details about that year in time and brought back memories of catalogue browsing in my younger days.  

In Canada, where I grew up, the Eaton's mail-order catalogue was a mainstay in middle class homes from the early twentieth century until the catalogue expired in 1976. My cousin, who lived in the countryside, ordered all her back-to-school clothes from the thick fall/winter catalogue. My aunt in the city made ordering and returning catalogue items into a hobby. Her husband joked that the Eaton's delivery truck made a daily beeline to their street. Catalogues were the forerunner of today's online shopping although they couldn't offer one-day service. 

I don't recall purchasing many catalogue goods, but I enjoyed flipping through the pages to see what was available. A common joke of the time was that little boys--and not so little ones--spent hours studying the ads for women's underwear. I expect boys living 100 years ago were equally intrigued by the 1918 catalogue's not-so-demure ladies modelling corsets. Prices for these complex articles of clothing ranged from $1.85 to $3.98 for Sear's finest corsets. Corsets for children and teenage girls started at 98 cents.

I always find it interesting when old or historical books cite prices that are stunningly lower than today's costs. On the next revision of my historical novel, I'll look for ways to insert a few 1918 prices into the story. While the earlier drafts mentioned corsets and petticoats, my catalogue stroll reminded me that people wore more underwear a century ago because houses were colder than they are today. The 1918 Sears catalogue featured twenty-eight pages of long underwear ads for women, men, and children. A note explained that wool underwear had become scarce because the Government required woolen mills to prioritize supply to soldiers and sailors fighting the Great War. Most civilians would have to make do with cotton underwear.

The one-piece long-sleeved undershirt and underpants garment was called a union suit in 1918. Long underwear was originally designed to liberate women from corsets, petticoats, and stockings. Perhaps I'll have my protagonist wear a pair of long johns under her housedress to stay warm in her chilly home. Catalogue ads for coal kitchen stoves, called ranges, promoted their side benefit of warming the room in winter. Customers could purchase ranges fueled by hard coal, soft coal, wood, coke, corn cob, and/or gas. No kindling required. They'd start the stove with a lit piece of paper that might be a page from last season's catalogue. Old catalogue pages also served as toilet paper and little girls cut out pictures of the models for paper dolls--the original Barbies.

All of these details would add period interest to a historical story and the 1918 catalogue offered many more. Women's muffs and collarettes made from the fur of China goat, raccoon, opossum, muskrat, marmot, and weasel. Ostrich plumes for hats. Seventeen pages of pocket watches, watch chains, and watch fobs. Collar boxes with round forms inside to keep the shape of men's shirt collars. Wool robes for riding in open-top buggies and cars.  

The catalogue also sold War Savings stamps to "support our boys at the front," official war pictures taken by the US government of trenches, gas attacks, and war ruins for ten cents each, and rubber face masks, presumably to improve complexion. The catalogue states, with surprising candor, "The usefulness of rubber masks has been exaggerated. We make no specific claims for these articles, but we offer them for women desiring them." They also offered a washable rubber night strap to reduce double chins for the bargain price of forty-nine cents. 

If you're interested in your own stroll through 1918 daily life check out  Sears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago: Originators of the Guarantee that stands the test in the Scales of Justice.

            

              

To Freeze or Not to Freeze, That is the Question by Karla Stover

 

https://bookswelove.net/stover-karla/

BY THE SAME AUTHOR:    Available through BWL Publishing

Parlor Girls

Wynter's Way

Murder, When One Isn't Enough

A Line to Murder.

Golly Mosses, as if I don’t have enough to worry about, now it’s my jeans! No longer can they be tossed in the washing machine with other like-minded (so to speak and dare I say ) rough-and-tumble, manly items. No, now they have moved into the realm of one’s unmentionables and require TLC. Yes, those faded, distressed, ladder-ripped (professionally done, of course,) jeans, which are worn by those who want to show that they are an angry, societal non-conformist, and who knew so many were so irked, are actually quite fragile. So delicate, in fact, that people have been avoiding the washing machine altogether and are, instead, making use of the freezer.

 Blame this peculiar attempt to eliminate odor-causing bacteria on Levi Strauss & Co., “which has long warned customers that washing machines can fade denim’s indigo hue and cause shrinkage. For some time, the brand advised consumers to place jeans in a freezer whenever they began to smell.”

For a zoophilist (otherwise known as a person who loves animals) this practice is actually cruel and unusual punishment. Though the practice does stun and temporarily immobilize bacteria, once the denim comes out of the freezer, the little germs warm up and go on with their lives. And think about this: “most of the bacteria found on worn jeans comes from our bodies, particularly skin cells and sweat.” Not what I want keeping company with my frozen foods.

However, should you want to try consider some fun options for your jeans, here’s what others do:

1.         1.  They try and “create a unique pattern in the natural faded and creased areas " by wearing them in salt water at the beach.

       2. They wear them while bathing, hoping for a good shrink-to-fit.

3.        3.  They only wash their jeans twice a year and spot clean as necessary.

       So, let’s look at what the experts have to say. 1. The "denim laundry" has already done what is necessary to create “an authentic or worn look.” 2. They are already prewashed and preshrunk. 3. The jury is out on the semi-annual wash. As to freezing, it just doesn’t work. 

       However, if you think a good washing is an anathema, try leaving your jeans outside in direct sunlight for a day or two, spraying them with a mixture of one part vodka to nine parts water, turning them every few hours and letting them dry naturally. To which I say, “oh, for gosh sakes!”

Spring Ahead with Trivia - Barbara Baker

 

Goodbye winter. Hello spring. Another round of setting clocks ahead is behind us as well as all the rant on social media about why we continue with this practice. Some people blame farmers for screwing with our circadian rhythm, but they're not the culprits. Cows and crops rely on the sun. Not clocks. Maybe that’s why Saskatchewan ignores time change.

In 1895, George Hudson, an entomologist, made the first attempt to introduce time change. He wanted the world to go ahead two hours in the spring so he could hunt bugs in daylight after his day-job ended. He was unsuccessful with his request.

Time change kicked in during WW1 and WW2 to optimize daylight hours and conserve energy. After each war, it was up to jurisdictions to decide whether they stuck with it. In the winter of 1974, permanent daylight-saving time came into play and children started walking to school in the dark. Hello logic.

But now I’m over time change and have moved onto hello spring. The hunt for the first crocus, first dandelion sighting and of course watching birds as they construct or renovate their nests.   

I checked some of my favourite nesting sites. Unfortunately, the great horned owl's home was gone. When I found the pile of sticks scattered at the base of the tree, my heart sank. Great horned owl parents raised their fuzzy owlets here for over a decade.

I went down the Google rabbit hole to determine whether owls rebuild in the same place. What I read, shocked me. Owls typically do not build their own nest. What? How did I not know this? They apparently take over a suitable nest from another bird and spruce it up to their liking. I’m a huge owl fan. Should I think less of them for being opportunists? Or more of them for conserving their energy?

Later that day I discovered owls aren't the only opportunists. A ballsy Canadian Goose honked at me from it's perch high in the tree. Last spring a bald eagle lived there with an unobstructed view of the Bow River. Maybe I have never given geese enough credit. Maybe they are smart.  

But the first flight for her goslings will be a true test of wing power.

Geese can be cheeky buggers.

And the bald eagle moved on, seemingly unperturbed about the nest thief.

Cowbirds don’t steal nests. They merely deposit their eggs in an already furnished home. If the eggs in the nest she selects are white with beige specks, the cowbird will lay her eggs with the exact same colour pattern.

After the cowbird lays her eggs (sometimes as many as six) in the unsuspecting nest of, let’s say, Mrs. Red-Winged Blackbird, she might peck tiny holes in the host’s eggs. This way her chicks won’t have to compete for food or attention. When Mrs. Cowbird leaves, she doesn’t go far. She sticks around for a while to keep an eye on her eggs.

Mrs. Cowbird may be a negligent mom, but she wants to make sure Mrs. Red-Winged Blackbird has adequate mothering skills. If she dares to push out any of Mrs. Cowbird’s eggs, well, female cowbirds have a way of getting even. She will return to the nest when it’s unattended and toss out the original eggs.

When Mrs. Red-Winged Blackbird proves she’s a worthy foster mother, Mrs. Cowbird flies away to enjoy her freedom. In just a few weeks, she’ll flit her wings at another dashing male cowbird and the process repeats itself. As for her young, they grow up knowing they're cowbirds without their mother ever being around.

Nature is fun and funny. 

And Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humour. She can still turn on the snow-switch randomly for a few more months.

 

 

You can contact me at: bbaker.write@gmail.com

Summer of Lies: Baker, Barbara:9780228615774: Books - Amazon.ca

What About Me?: Sequel to Summer of Lies : Baker, Barbara: Amazon.ca: Books

So You've Finished Your Novel... Now What? by Vanessa C. Hawkins

 

 

 Vanessa Hawkins Author Page

    

Yes! You see correctly! I have finally included another cover amongst my books! Twice Hung is finally finished (at least the draft) and I can rest easy knowing that it has now flown off to visit the editors, who will--hopefully--rip it apart until I cry and feel sorry for myself. A good editor does that, ya know. Any editor that tells you the first draft is perfect is... well, fibbin'. Get you a Doctor Frankenstein if you can, because an editor that can take a few bare bones and help you to stick some meat on them, is worth every penny. Really though. But what do you do after you write a novel? In my case... start a new one! But if you aren't ready for that, just sit back and bask in your ability to follow through on an idea.

... I was going to end the blog there for comedic effect, but I DID follow through! I finished a book!

I think I'll watch an entire crime docuseries... With icecream... What do you do to celebrate when you finish a book? After George R. R. Martin finishes a book he...

Just kidding! George R. R. Martin never finishes books...

Moon meets Sun by J. S. Marlo

 

The Red Quilt 

Sweet Christmas Story

 Click here to buy

 

 

  

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

NASA estimates that 31.6 millions people live in the path of today's total solar eclipse.

I'm not among these millions of people, and I will only experience a partial eclipse, but it's still a big thing. Around here, school kids will be kept inside at recess so they don't accidentally, or not, look at the sun.

Here are some facts about solar eclipses:

- A solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, the Moon, and Earth are aligned. It's called syzygy. If you play Scrabble, remember that word. It's worth 21 points (without counting doubles or triples).

- A solar eclipse can only happen at New Moon.

- Eclipse totalities are different lengths.

- Today's total eclipse will last a maximum of 4 minutes 28 seconds, and that will happen over the small town of Nazas, Mexico.

- The longest possible total solar eclipse is 7 minutes 32 seconds.

- The temperature can drop by 20 degrees during a total solar eclipse.

- Wildlife reacts to solar eclipses.

- There will be 69 solar eclipses over the next 100 years, but most of them will only be seen over the water.

- The first solar eclipse was recorded more than 4,000 years ago in China. At the time, the inhabitants thought a dragon was eating the sun.

Beware of people selling fake glasses and keep your eyes safe. Happy watching!

J. S.

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website