Going back 40 years.

Just over a year ago, I inherited a box of pattern books from one of my girl friends.  She was clearing out her father's belongings and she found not only the pattern books but a sizable stash of yarn that had belonged to her mother, which she also donated to me.  At the time I briefly flipped through the books, but then got busy with other things and forgot all about them.

This past weekend I decided to clean and organize my craft room, and what did I find?  The box of books.

So I dumped them on the floor and spent some real time looking at the treasures I had inherited.

Most of the books are Canadian knitting/crochet pattern books from the 40's to the 70's.  Some of them I already have, because I also inherited my mother's collection some years back.  There are some wonderful patterns from BeeHive, Patons, Canadiana, Monarch, yarns, and many older patterns that are not associated with any yarn at all.

Also in the box was a May 1971 issue of Family Circle... the price of the magazine?  25cents!  Now that is a treasure, to be sure.  I opened it up, and time sort of fell away for me.

I would have been 16 at the time of the publication of this magazine - just getting my driver's license, just getting my first paid part-time job, just thinking I was a real grown-up, perhaps?  Looking at the pictures in the magazine, I could almost feel 16 again!   Okay - maybe that's a stretch....

The crafts of the day (in 1971) were Macrame, and Needlepoint and Embroidery... in fact there is a whole pull-put section entitled Treasury of Needlework Stitches - which is just that - 6 pages of different stitches with directions and illustrations.

The article that caught my eye was entitled "How to Cut Household expenses by 10%."  In this article they had a Monthly Budget Expense for a family of 4.

Check this out - remember this is for a Family of Four!

Food, including meals out  -  $206.00/month 
Housing, including fuel, utilities, furnishings - $215.00/month
Clothing and Upkeep - $76.00/month
Transportation, including car - $79.00/month
Personal care - $21.00/month
Reading and Recreation - $31.00/month
Medical care, including insurance - $50.00/month
Other goods, services - $23.00/month
Gifts, contributions - $25.00/month
Life Insurance - $16.00/month
Occupational expenses - $8.00/month

for a total  of    750.00 per month (for 4 people)!

What happened to us?  How did we get so far ahead - or should I say behind, ourselves.  I don't know about you, but I pretty much spend their monthly budget for food - weekly!

Yes our wages are much more than those of 1971 - still in all I would be willing to bet that at the end of the day - they still had more cash in their pockets than we do today!

Another article that got my attention was "Pep up TV dinners".  I quote " With a few deft touches you can enhance and glamorize handy TV dinners in a matter of minutes.  Simply by adding sauces, spices, herbs and garnishes to the tray-pack dinners, you can turn out tempting eye-appealing meals."

Okay, so maybe some things have changed for the better....

Dinner anyone?