The Java Jive

I was recently given my late Grandmother's coffee pot.



Now, I don't drink or even make coffee but I really love having my grandmother's pot.
Especially after seeing what a big deal it was for women to be able to make coffee back
in the day. Here. See what I mean:



Like the way that Harvey brought up the girls at the office? He's pretty much letting
her know that he can replace her with any number of girls from the steno pool.


Um, did anyone notice how he shook his finger in her face?
I was hoping that Papa Eddie was one of her Dad's mafia friends.



Belittling is the anniversary gift that never has to be returned!


Harold better be careful with that refusing to talk stuff. It only
makes it easier for Jean to picture him with duct tape over his mouth.


If she knows what's good for her, she'll take those puppies
and file some paperwork.



"You make me feel very unwifely!"


Yay! Margie gets to keep her job as wife!

And my favorite:


What's Janie doing out late like that, roving the streets?
Shouldn't she be at home? In her place?

Wow, Folgers was a girl's best friend, huh? I'm both intrigued and annoyed by Folgers' ad campaign. There were so many of these ads that I couldn't even use them all. And it wasn't
just Folgers. Anyone remember that classic ad where the wife says "Jim never has a second
cup of coffee at home!"? That wasn't even Folgers. That was Yuban coffee, who also had an
ad campaign with several commercials just like these. One can imagine that with these ads running constantly for decades, women might have been practically brainwashed into believing
that they were something less of a woman if they couldn't make good coffee!

It's these kinds of things that allow me to temper my love for the vintage lifestyle with a little bit of reality. Sometimes, when people learn that I love vintage things and ideas so much, they say things like, "But things were so backwards then!" or "I wouldn't want to be a woman back in those days!" I think though that it's about knowing which parts to be nostalgic about and which parts to learn from, you know?

And I think that this whole coffee thing is a lesson in looking with a well-trained eye at what modern advertisers work so hard to make us think that we have to do or be like. I think that it's just as okay to giggle at the standards that they're trying to push on us now as it is to giggle in retrospect at what they were trying to convince us of then.

Until next time (ring around the collar is NOT a sin),
x's and o's,
Eartha