I have always been fascinated by people... how they look, how they talk, how they dress, but mostly how they think, what makes them 'tick.' I love animals and have all kinds of interests, but people... never get tired of trying to 'figure them out.' God bless'em.

Some facts about the 1940's:

Population 132,122,000
Unemployed in 1940 - 8,120,000
National Debt $43 Billion
Average Salary $1,299. Teacher's salary $1,441
Minimum Wage $.43 per hour
55% of U.S. homes have indoor plumbing (we didn't!)
Antarctica is discovered to be a continent
Life expectancy 68.2 female, 60.8 male
Auto deaths 34,500
Supreme Court decides blacks do have a right to vote
World War II changed the order of world power, the United States and the USSR became super powers
Cold War begins.

In the 1940's, with fathers away and mothers at work, another new phenomenon arose - the juvenile delinquent. I never met any of those, not until the 1960's. Children really were seen and not heard in those days. There was no arguing with parents, 'venting,' opinions or such. You did what you were told, pronto and with no 'lip.' I don't know any area where the 'times' have changed any more than in parent/child relationships although male/female relationships have changed drastically too.

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Dresses worn by women in 1944 and 1947. No bare midriffs here. :)

I remember when strapless bras become popular for women, allowing them to wear bare-shouldered fashions. To go without a bra then was scandalous. A family friend, Eva Mae, bought one and I was fascinated with its 'engineering.' That was funny for I had nothing to need one.... then.

A great boon to housewives... the first automatic washers and dryers came along with "Tide", the first detergent designed for automatic clothes washing machines. There were other 'brands' eventually but the best housewives used "Tide." Maybe they still do. lol

The "New Look" of long, full skirts becomes the rage of female fashion. We called those skirks 'broom stick' skirts, but I don't remember why. Maybe someone does and will email me. Underneat the full skirts were crinolines and more crinolines, starched and ironed to be 'stiff' so the skirt would 'stand out' and be fuller.

More than 1 million veterans enrolled in college through the G.I. Bill which allowed the 'average Joe' to go to college, instead of just the 'privilege few.' The privileged few hated that, of course.

Inventor Earl Tupper invents Tupperware, and with it the "Tupperware party," a unique way of marketing the products directly to homemakers. I remember my first tupperware party. I won a plastic thingy that opened bottle caps.

The game "Scrabble" was introduced in the 1940's, but we didn't 'take' to this game. We preferred poker. We used match sticks as money or pennies if we were high rollers. :)

Editor Russel Lyons coins the terms "highbrow," "middlebrow" and "lowbrow." I suspect we were pretty 'lowbrow' by his standards.

Hang on.. plenty to come....