Comments On Article: Peek Week Monday 1940

If you would like to share your comments for article Peek Week Monday 1940, this is where to do it! 

Click the Reply To This Topic button below to post yours.

This is going to be fun and engaging!!!! 

I absolutely love these studies. I think I will see if my husband is willing to participate this time. Thank you so much, Donna.

This is so much fun!  I am going to spend way too much time, I am sure, on perusing the Vintage Dancer link! I putter decluttered this weekend. I do not have a large wardrobe, not very into clothes and shoes. I am at home most days but dress well when I go out to run errands. I am turning back to some more of the old ways, but if I did all of them, my partner would probably lose his mind...I am looking at you TV, cell phone use  and daily showers! I tend to "do it old school" for my housekeeping and cooking/baking anyway, but love searching out the way homes were run back in the day! Thank you so much!!

I have started reading Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther. It is on my list of the 10 best selling books of 1940. So far it is a very pleasant read. 
I’m not sure which 1940 movie to watch first. Maybe I will see if I can find the 1940 version of Rebecca. 

I’m very much enjoying this study of 1940. Thank you for sharing it. 

such a wonderful post. Eventhough I live in The Netherlands, I will try to keep up and try things. It would have been different here, because we were already at war at that time. 

My mother had an old version of Emily Post's Etiquette book, which I think was from the late 1920's.  It had a section on the wardrobe needed for a college girl (so, obviously a girl from a family with means if they can send a girl to college).  My memory is a little faulty, but I seem to remember a girl was advised to take about 3 skirts, a small handful of blouses, a sweater or two, a coat, a gown for dances, and a couple of dresses.  

Working outside the home, I find I need office clothes and home clothes, a few nice dresses for church, weddings, funerals, etc., and hard-work clothes for gardening, painting and household repairs.  Then I have some pullover and cardigan sweaters and warm socks for when we have colder weather, which we do have here in my area of North Florida - we can have nights in the upper teens or low 20's (F) at times, and days in the low to mid-thirties, although those aren't common. I have a longish rain coat for downpours, a rain jacket for days with quick, light showers, a light car coat for most of the cool winter weather and a heavy car coat for the really cold days.

I wear my hard-work clothes until they are no longer wearable.  We all get company shirts at my office, so I only have to supply the slacks to go with them.  I dutifully get rid of clothes as I wear them out.  Still I've ended up with a lot of clothes!  I have less than many people I know, but I'd love to simplify.  I think when I retire, some of that will get simpler.  

I look forward to following this foray into 1940, and thanks for the link!  That site is very interesting!

The movie of Mrs Miniver is also lovely, but as yet I have not read the book - however, it's on my iPad right now and I shall enjoy it as gDonna begins this study. I love the 40's and am intending to take note of everything shared and see what can be incorporated into our lives.

oh Donna!!  A thousand thank yous for doing and sharing another history time. The current news feels as dreadful as the 1940 news does and having something to study is so helpful.  My dad would have been 7 years old then and his mother was a champion at economizing and making do. Hence, the balls of string, package of rubber bands, a few Bobby pins thrown in with the cookies she would mail to me in 1976.  My mother passed in February but I would have been all over her with the clothing questions.  Her mother was a scrimper (solid lower middle class)  in everything except her 3 daughters were dressed to kill!   Mom told me her mother bought her an ($80) junior prom dress (probably $800 now) and I nearly fell over. She told mom not to tell her father so I have the feeling that maybe the maternal parents sent some money. But at age 91 my mother could remember every inch of the gorgeous dress.  

Pondering the small number of undies is icky. Surely the housewife was handwashing stuff at night. Menstruation!!!   And only one nightie,

so far this study has been enlightening when I think back on the clothing my parents and grandparents owned.  My dad was an engineer so had an office and business job. Always a suit and he owned 4 pairs of the same expensive shoes. He wore them for 20 years!! And polished them on Sunday nights , Along with my school shoes. 

Grandma Donna wrote, To all, I am enjoying all of your comments so much I just want to read and not say anything!  I feel like I can hear these conversations going on with one another, it is so enjoyable. Keep it up!   You all have me looking up things including finding the moving Mrs. Miniver.  Tomorrows post I will be mentioning those small number of undies among other things. :)

I think that undies were washed by hand daily so fewer pairs were needed.  Laundry day was once a week, but handwashing was done in between as needed.

My mother (born in 1921) talked about a neighbor who had taken in the daughter of a relative who had passed away.  The girl had only one set of clothing for school.  Her foster mother washed, dried and ironed everything daily so the girl had fresh clean clothing for each school day. The girl and mom were friends and similar age.  My mother graduated from high school in 1939 so we're talking Great Depression.  

In the 1960's I had a neighbor whose toddler had only one set of play clothes and she used to wash, dry and iron them during naptime so her dd had a clean outfit when she woke.  

My mother and her friends used to make most of the girl's clothing and would share patterns.  I never realized that until mom mentioned it a few years before she passed.  There were 4 couples each with two children with only 4 years between the oldest and youngest, so we used to have a blast as the parents played Cribbage.  Six girls so lots of pattern sharing.

Laundry was a problem in Britain in the 40s. Industrial areas and cities were dirty, the air filthy from coal fires, the notorious London sulphurous fog which killed thousands. There are a lot of references in novels written by women, about the laundry service becoming unreliable, not knowing when it would be collected or returned, and so many buttons going missing. 

I am loving these posts and also the comments. Thank you everyone. I definitely am wanting to incorporate some 1940’s mindset and ways with my household. I immediately thought of going through my clothes and getting rid of things but am almost 6 months pregnant and don’t want to get rid of something I can wear later in pregnancy or postpartum. I know the pregnant women probably even had less clothing options back then. Does anyone have any insight on that? But I will be knitting some things for this little baby boy. And going through my children’s clothes. I’m already in nesting mode so this seems to all fit. Can’t wait to hear/read more

If you like Mrs Miniver.... Random Harvest, Now Voyager, and Stella Dallas are all favorites of mine.l  They are both books and movies.  

Donna, thank you and Charles so much for doing these studies. I rarely say anything but I do want you to know that I eagerly await each of your posts, and I appreciate all your knowledge and experience and ideas. My grandmother who was my best friend in the whole world ever, was raised during the depression and she taught me all that I know about anything. Being a wife and mother, how to sew and knit, and how to be creative and frugal. She was a master at it all. She probably only bought one roll of aluminum foil her entire life because she washed each piece of foil she used and folded it up and put it back in the drawer. My kids think that is so funny.

Anyway, learning about the WWII Homefront (in the UK as well as America) has been a passion of mine for over 30 years. I have collected quite a large library of books written during and about homefront life at that time. So needless to say, I am very excited about joining in with you and all the other ladies commenting here. Thank you again. :-)

Any best book recommendations??

I feel you have created a BEAUTIFUL family of friends..my mother is 93 and very clean and stylish..my grandma was the same...Although neither had much money..we drank from crystal glasses and always ate at lovely tables..my heart treasures the women in my life

I don't know if i learned more from the forum or the post. There's so much to learn about ad its exciting to hear about others experiences especially the laundry service in the 40s in London. I never knew that. You would assume people would still take the time to care for others items. I wonder where buttons and things went? Did they sell them for money? Makes you think. 

Grandma Donna Wrote, Andrea B, I am so happy with the conversations going on in the forum these conversations are very helpful to the study and we are a collective of information now. Thank you to all that are adding to the study with your forum posts. 

I agree! They are very beneficial for us all to learn about.