~~Photo By G.S. Cardwell~~
Washing doll clothes in the downstairs bathroom: Margie Cardwell,Janice Ballou, and Debbie Willson Electric Avenue, Alhambra, California.
Flickr friend snapscot gave me permission to use this old family photo on the blog. Oh my goodness. Those smiles.
Reader Mid Mod Meg sent this photo of her with Flora D’Alessio. Flora was the longtime owner of Meg’s time capsule Las Vegas home, and they partied down at Meg’s recent housewarming party. That’s pink mink on Meg’s mid mod collar, swoon!
Me and my brother, at the University of Louisville game when I visited over Thanksgiving. My oldest friend in the world.
…Aren’t all these pictures great? Who is cuter? Margie? Janice? Debbie? Meg? Flora? David? An impossible question.
Sumac Sue aka Judi writes:
Your visit got me out of a rut I have been in lately about the house. (I have been feeling sorry for myself because I have such tiny bathrooms, for instance!)
But, just days after you were here, I met a woman, Martha, who lives in a 1950s house here in town. (She has the coolest little 1940s/50s era natural gas heater we are considering buying to sit in our fireplace for some extra heat — if our plumber says it’s safe to hook up, that is.) She regularly visits retrorenovation-com-staging.enwf9w61-liquidwebsites.com, and is very excited about her house and its details. We had fun talking about our houses, and we showed her around our house when she brought over the heater.
Second showing of this house in a week! How hilarious, since it isn’t even a great example of 50s style. But, showing the house, and talking about houses, got me inspired to remember that we can keep adding little touches, make little improvements, to make the house more pleasant.
Visiting with people and talking about our houses also is just a lot of fun. It isn’t really about being materialistic, it seems to be about making warm, comfortable, inviting places for people to be together.
For a quasi-hermit like me, this is a big deal! I even have gotten up the nerve to invite my family here for the family Christmas party, rather than leave it to someone with a bigger house!
In a recent story about which holiday deals offer “lasting delight” The Wall Street Journal writes:
Experts who study happiness have repeatedly found that people get the most joy out of time with family and friends or activities that provide personal enrichment, such as hobbies. What matters is not the amount that we spend, but the quality of the overall experience, so a picnic can be as satisfying as a weekend getaway.
“Human beings are social animals, so it is no surprise that our greatest sources of happiness and unhappiness are our social relationships,” says Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychology professor.
I’m guessing that for many of us, our houses are big hobbies. Fill ’em with friends and family – and you get a double shot of lasting delight.
MbS says
Darling pix, all. Especially love the girls busy on laundry day for their dollies. We did this but with enamel basins and a tiny clothelsine strung between an cottonwood tree and a birch tree.
Elvis says
“I’m guessing that for many of us, our houses are big hobbies. Fill ‘em with friends and family – and you get a double shot of lasting delight.”
Pam, you’re so right! I’ll keep combing eBay for a great retractable light for the sun room, and scanning craigslist for a pair of danish modern chairs for the living room. But we love having people over, and the best times are when the overall mid-century comfort of our home enhances a gathering of family or friends. After all, it’s how we grew up.