The Attraction of 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s in Retro – by Simplicitretro

Many of us growing up during these simple times are now senior citizens. You might be like me and reflect upon these simpler times and still get a feeling of love, family and more peaceful circumstances within our American roots by just seeing an old retro handmade item. Although, the 1930’s were the depression years, we learned to live fugally with what little we had, and appreciate what we had. There was never any throw aways and many times dress fabrics were recycled into newer items such as aprons or other needed things. Feed sacks were saved to make curtains, aprons, quilts or decorative pillows. These decades were probably considered to be the best "at home" years when technology was still in its infancy. The radio, along with record players, prior to TV were our only technical entertainment. Most mothers stayed home and did house chores and part of those daily chores were sewing, mending and embroidering as a form of relaxation. It had its’ purpose in maintaining neat order in home life.

Having grown up as a child in the 1950’s I can remember waking up to some embroidered design on my pillow cases. There were cats doing laundry in a wash tub, rabbits frolicking in a garden, or maybe some mother goose rhyme illustrated at the pillow’s end. These threaded portrayals with their many colors could make having the flu just a little more comforting to one’s aching miserable time while sick. Now my mother at the time was a nurse and she didn’t have time to embroider our pillows, so grandma made many of these things for us. Sometimes when mother baked a pie, or grandma was in the kitchen cooking when she came to visit us, there would be some kitchen towel with some food adornment that gave us a smile that all was good. Sometimes they even reminded us what day it was, although we never had towels like these. When the 1960’s came along, the mod and more geometric fashions came into vogue and made the prior decades look – well – tacky, especially if you were a teenager by then. However, what goes around comes around as we see with dress fashion, architecture, furniture design, and even automobiles still borrowing style fragments from the past. The old becomes the new as it repeats itself forever.

The styles of these years were indeed simple and seemed to have their own charm about them. Many of us older people feel a memory or two become attached to these old hand-embroidered items. Retro aprons were cheerful and gay from either having bold-colored fabrics used or simple country prints that were always framed with bias tape of some color. They too made the kitchen chores seem a little less dreadful. There were the lacey fancy aprons for special holiday occasions and then the basic everyday aprons. Half aprons, bibbed aprons, gathered aprons, cobbler-styled aprons, and the ruffled aprons were all the rage during these decades. The charm of these styles will never really die as long as there is a little bit of family love involved and memories attached to them.