How do you live the "Golden Era?"

[Thunderhead19]

Hello friends
I'd like to canvas as many of you as I can to find out what Golden era lifestyle is reflected in your lives (Wartime millionaire? Upscale professional? .......Wartime factory worker? Dust bowl dirt farmer? Grifter? etc...), and what you're motivation is. For example I'm trying to immerse myself in an era of determined, incredibly resourceful people who made do with what they had and knew how to do without when they had to. Judging by what I've found on the internet many are inspired the high fashion of the era, and by art deco and streamline modern, while others still have a more archaeological interest in the artefacts of a bygone age.

I'll start out. I'm a middle-of-the-road income earner and I want to experience the way of life of a person of that era.
When people went shopping they were conducting business, and dressed accordingly. I like the idea that an effort was made to be respectable, both in the way people dressed, and the way they behaved.
People seldom dined out, but entertained at home. People came to their houses to see them...real people...face to face...and enjoyed each others company...and shared a meal together!!!
And yes...I'm a cheapskate...and those people could make a dollar stretch a mile. The artefacts of their lives were so well made, and they took such good care of their belongings that many of those items are still around today.
Kids played outside.
And most of all, you have to be impressed with people who designed high-performance jet aircraft with pencils, paper and slide-rules.
The clothes aren't much out of place even today (although I did see recently someone walk into WalMart wearing what looked like pyjamas and nobody seemed to bat an eye), and they're comfortable. They make a grown-up look like a grown-up (read "they make me feel more like an adult").
Anyway, that's me. What about you?

 

[1930artdeco]

The one thing I wish I could do more is dress the part in my off work time. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of money so I am forced to use modern clothing to look like I am dressing the part. But if I buy things, I tend to buy older things and I tend to fix things as well. So if I had to hazard a guess I would be a middle of the road wage earner.

Mike

 

[LizzieMaine]

Middle-aged working-class woman. Because that's what I am.

Simple home-made cotton dresses, cotton stockings, flat and sensible shoes. Hair usually up in a rag. Only wear makeup if I have to.

Never buy anything unless I can't find it at the dump for free. Only have close friends over, because they don't care if my house is a mess or not. Which it usually is, because I'm too busy working for a living to care if my floor is shiny or my dust is swept.

 

[St. Louis]

This is a great question & a terrific idea for a thread. Thanks!

I live in a tiny 1929 bungalow (smaller than most people's toilets) and like LizzieMaine, have mostly recreated the life of a working woman. All my furniture, linens, dishes, cookware, clothing, flatware, telephones, and most appliances are from the Era.

I do work at home quite often, so I need a computer here. When I go in to the office, about ninety percent of my outfits are things I sewed or knitted for myself using vintage patterns. My shoes, gloves, hats, bags, etc., are reproductions or real vintage. I do wear a bit of make-up b/c I tend to look very washed out if I don't, but it's minimal & as correct as I can manage for the period & for my age.

And to answer your question about the way of life:

I was partly raised by my grandparents, who had lived through the Depression, so to this day I can't throw away a perfectly good rag, let alone any edible food. I have several bags full of clean rags in my basement that I use to wash the floors, dust furniture, or catch paint drips. I wish there were a rag-and-bone man in St. Louis, but I can't find anyone who recycles fabric that is no longer usable as clothing. I'd even be willing to ship. When it came to food, my mother always said that throwing away edible food was a "sin." It was just not done in our home. Granted, with all my brothers to feed, food rarely became spoiled in the first place.

I feel quite liberated from modern consumerism--I'm not remotely tempted to buy fashionable clothes, the latest electronic toy (e.g., I do not know how to text) or every new "miraculous" skin cream. That was an unexpected side benefit. After I began living my Golden Era way of life full time, I realized that my clothes weren't going out of style! Who knew?

There's more to this, but I have this awful tendency to write War-and-Peace-length posts, so I'll stop here for the time being.

 

[Fading Fast]

This is a great question & a terrific idea for a thread. Thanks!

I live in a tiny 1929 bungalow (smaller than most people's toilets) and like LizzieMaine, have mostly recreated the life of a working woman. All my furniture, linens, dishes, cookware, clothing, flatware, telephones, and most appliances are from the Era.

I do work at home quite often, so I need a computer here. When I go in to the office, about ninety percent of my outfits are things I sewed or knitted for myself using vintage patterns. My shoes, gloves, hats, bags, etc., are reproductions or real vintage. I do wear a bit of make-up b/c I tend to look very washed out if I don't, but it's minimal & as correct as I can manage for the period & for my age.

And to answer your question about the way of life:

I was partly raised by my grandparents, who had lived through the Depression, so to this day I can't throw away a perfectly good rag, let alone any edible food. I have several bags full of clean rags in my basement that I use to wash the floors, dust furniture, or catch paint drips. I wish there were a rag-and-bone man in St. Louis, but I can't find anyone who recycles fabric that is no longer usable as clothing. I'd even be willing to ship. When it came to food, my mother always said that throwing away edible food was a "sin." It was just not done in our home. Granted, with all my brothers to feed, food rarely became spoiled in the first place.

I feel quite liberated from modern consumerism--I'm not remotely tempted to buy fashionable clothes, the latest electronic toy (e.g., I do not know how to text) or every new "miraculous" skin cream. That was an unexpected side benefit. After I began living my Golden Era way of life full time, I realized that my clothes weren't going out of style! Who knew?

There's more to this, but I have this awful tendency to write War-and-Peace-length posts, so I'll stop here for the time being.

Your theme has come up before on this forum - I was raised by two depression era kids - one whose family lost their house, the other whose family lost their small diner business in the depression - and it, literally, was a daily theme in my house growing up how hard the depression was / how lucky we are today / how fearful we are that it will return / how food isn't wasted (it wasn't) / how we don't care what others do - that's their business - but we live modestly and thankfully in this house. I hear those phrases, feel the weight of that philosophy on me every single day, even at the age of 51. I marvel at people who didn't grow up like that and don't live worried every day that a depression will return, who spend money with joy, who don't worry about debt, etc. - it is so foreign to my warp and woof that it's like I'm watching another species when I see that behavior and philosophy. I am no where near as conservative or thrifty or vintage-living as you, but compared to my peers, I must look so as they constantly make fun of me for living so frugally (although, I've gotten a lot, and I mean a lot, less of that since the 2007 crash).

Last thought, my girlfriend uses a basic drug store moisturizer as she thinks all the "fancy" stuff is just taking your money. I often think about that when I see movies or read old ads from every decade about this or that "miracle" moisturizer or face cream. Does anybody use the miracle face cream of the 1940s or '50s or '60s today? I have a good friend who is very level headed and her one real extravagance is some face cream that cost (no kidding) over $100 a jar - her money, her choice - and I often wonder if there is any chance on earth that there truly is something better in that than the $10 moisturizer my girlfriend uses. Enjoyed your post and just wanted to share some overlapping thoughts.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pond's Cold Cream is the nuts. Gives me the skin of a twenty-five year old, without having to worry about her asking for it back.

 

[2jakes]

"St. Louis, post: 2016765, member: 19640”]

... I have this awful tendency to write War-and-Peace-length posts, so I'll stop here for the time being.

Most of what I would write has already been mentioned by the op .
I’ll just echo that I too like the idea to make an effort to be respectable, in dress & behavior towards others.
People visiting one another, enjoying each others company...share a meal together & not just once a year because it’s a tradition.

And mostly I enjoy War-and-Peace, so please continue whenever possible. Thanks.

 

[Stormy]

I'm a blend of jazz age bohemian and late Victorian era Gothic, I reckon. It's all on account of my traumatic birth and the way I was reared.

 

[Edward]

I live in an East London flat which was first inhabited in 1951; currently redecorating it in a sympathetic (if not completely period) style. I dress to a vintage style as a normal thing. The reason I harken back to vintage style is not of out great affection or nostalgia for the period, but simply because I love the styles of the clothing and much about the popular culture. I suppose I hold to what you might call Dieselpunk, or perhaps Chappism - retain the style and the good things of the period, but move on with the rest, rather than seeking to live in or as if in 19xx.

 

[St. Louis]

To answer Fading Fast: from what I've seen, $100 isn't even that expensive for high quality face cream. I have no idea whether that stuff works -- I'm sure it must, considering the research scientists who work on those formulas, but that wouldn't fit into my budget. It's not that I'm frugal, it's just that my monthly pay envelope is very thin indeed. Above all, I love the look and style of the 1930s and 40s, though I'm drawn to the more old-fashioned styles of the decades, not so much art deco.

People often ask me why I've retro-engineered my life this way, and I don't have a rational answer. I just feel at home there.