... i wandered over to fairfield to view the christmas displays in the history house ... many, many years ago i was lucky to spend an entire day exploring this house, snapping photographs as i was lovingly guided through the ages by mrs. smith ...
... this year liz, her ma and grandma, and aunt, set up one of the christmas display rooms ...
... "do you want my bustle to show" ... how odd, i thought to myself, that many even of my age wouldn't have a clue what she was asking ...
... ma used to make bedcovers like these ...
... three-thirty in the afternoon, yet already the evening light was fading ...
... there is a "dividing line" in the history of art, before which even the youngest of children were portrayed with fully grown-up faces ...
... notice the illustration of the "proper" waist ... also, it seems, back then every home had a cupboard that served as a pharmacy ... in the little bottles, roots, herbs, that sort of thing, for sure, but also some powders and syrups that nowadays would get you five-to-ten in a federal prison ... (could almost make one look forward to becoming ill, i suppose) ...
... back then women knew and appreciated blue ...
... mary todd lincoln and a "gentleman friend" ... i think my history books left out this particular chapter ...
... in the julia family room, stockings i recognize ...
... because of norma's love of birds margaret created the little avian decorations ...
... over sixty years old, still celebrating ...
... from a time when "store-bought" was still a luxury ...
... new-englanders, it seems, have written into the scene a fourth sea captain wise man ...
... in the lower left corner of the picture is my kind of santa ...
... after spending a long, long night navigating the entire planet while standing directly to the rear of a team of reindeer, i suppose this makes perfect sense ...
... less expensive over time, i suppose, but i'm so very glad i missed the straight razor and soap age ... my triple-head waterproof norelco rechargeable may be technologically complex, but it's also much, much kinder to my face ...
... when dolls were anatomically correct and came with tea sets instead of uzis ...
... we could all look back with fond regard for a time when this picture would have evoked the word "dapper," but, to be historically realisitic, it's only fair to admit that it could also serve as an illustration for an article on dr. henry howard holmes ...
... another word no longer in vogue, "rakish" ...
... from a time when "proper" meant "hands appropriately covered" ...
... we were tested on this in home-ec class ("consumer education" for those who are young) ...
... he's making do, but her hairstyle would look good today ...
... i can remember when "topping the tree" was one of the year's highpoints ...
... a small kid could be scrubbed in one of those tubs—i know this for a fact ...
... all basements used to have one of these, a creepy sink with very, very strange red deposits coating the bottom ... we knew not to ask questions, but did we ever imagine ...
... back then a "man cave" wasn't a room to sit within getting fat ...
... this also served as a musical instrument ...
... i think effie smith would've loved this little clan ...
... no, they weren't "the good ol' days," absolutely not ... but, even so, there are things we would've been better off not so readily discarding ...
... go to the fairfield history house, take a little wanderabout through another time ...