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Via the Birdchick, uniforms female park rangers had to wear in history. (Go-go boots?!)

Also, from Young Living, the 1959 Pre-Hi (middle school) homemaking textbook, a photo caption:

Everyone enjoys giving children's parties.

Or what about this photo caption?

Do you really enjoy reading to or entertaining a child? You should, because it's fun.

The interesting thing is that by 1959, the book has a huge section on baby and child care and child development in it, which was not so in the 1947 book. (Shades of the baby boomers? Fewer extended families around to offer support? Difference between middle school and high school textbooks? Who knows!) There are also frequent references to babysitting, which makes sense to me, as girls of the age the textbook is aimed at were a lot more likely to face these issues when babysitting, rather than learning this in preparation for motherhood.

There are also rules for giving a large tea (NEVER line up at the tea table! Group yourselves and talk until there is room at the table to be served!), and for an informal buffet. And you should know that if you are at a picnic, it may not always be possible to be dainty with a hamburger or hotdog, but you should NEVER get messy or sticky on purpose. ~~Which, I think, takes out half the fun.~~

Two of the activities at the end of this section are:

1. Discuss the things you know about outdoor meals. Then make a list of the things to learn which will help you prepare them better.

2.Find pictures of outdoor table settings and display them on the bulletin board. Choose an arrangement which is best for the type of parties you have outside.

I don't know about you, but the way I choose to arrange a picnic table is heavy things on top of lighter things to stop them from blowing away in the wind, and with lids on the meat dishes to stop the cats from jumping on the table and getting into them.

I am also slightly confused by what this means:

In serving hot milk drinks, fill a cup or mug about 3/4 inch from the top of the cup, and place the cup and saucer about 2 inches from the edge of the table on the right side of the plate. Cocoa may be tasted with a spoon and laid on the saucer, but the entire cup of beverage may not correctly be drunk this way.

Huh? You can't drink your cocoa with a spoon like soup, or you can't leave the spoon in the saucer as you drink it? And don't forget your ruler when you serve!

Later on, in the chapter on cleaning, one of the activities is:

3. Clean the bathroom in your home. Report your success to the class.

I shall leave you with this photo caption:

Remember when you used to like to help mother? Care of the home and clothing are so important that you should still enjoy it!

... OR ELSE

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

These are fascinating.

Seeing the change from 1935 to 1959 is interesting. XD

ALL HAIL PROGRESS.

"Cocoa may be tasted with a spoon and laid on the saucer" == you may lay the cocoa on the saucer.

I mean, without severely mutilating the rules of English, there's nothing else that can mean. o_O (Well, unless you mistyped it, but that's no fun.)

HAY GUYZ, I HEARD YOU LIEK CLEAN BATHROOMS.

I don't THINK I mistyped, it, but I'll double-check when I get to work tomorrow. :D

What they were ATTEMPTING to say is, "You may taste cocoa by sipping from the spoon you used to stir it. However, once it is deemed acceptable, it is to be drunk by sipping directly from the cup. The dirty spoon used to stir (and possibly taste) the cocoa should be laid in the saucer, at an angle that does not interfere with lifting the cup and setting it back down."

Mind you, that's not what they ACTUALLY said, but that's the set of rules they meant to convey.

I recall schoolbooks much like this in my own childhood. All this dissection of them as though they're alien artifacts makes me feel OLD. :-/

You are not very much older than I am. :) I didn't have the whole manners/etiquette thing in school, but I got it in Girl Scouts.

OTHER Girl Scout troops got to ride horses, shoot skeet, and do all manner of cool things. We got our Etiquette badges. I can't ride a horse and my aim is terrible, but BY GOD I CAN SET A TABLE

I do wonder if one can achieve a passing score in the "clean the bathroom" assignment in event that one must report non-success.

"I tried, really I did, but I have an older sister and two younger brothers and it kept getting dirty again faster than I could clean it!" I mean, that's always been *my* experience with cleaning bathrooms--Step One must always be "lock out the rest of the family" and Step Last is "don't expect it to stay this nice for more than 5 minutes".

Edited 2009-05-07 13:22 (UTC)

One of the fondest moments of my life was when I yelled at my dad for coming in and letting our muddy dog track all over the kitchen floor I'd mopped five minutes before, and he actually went and got the mop and mopped it himself. :D

As a former NPS Park Naturalist, I don't know whether to be appalled or amused by that photo. Somehow, though, I'm not surprised.

BTW, I much prefer the unisex uniforms that the NPS was wearing in 1986, when I worked for the agency.

I read through the whole thing, and form the text I gather that most of the rangers went "Uh, no" and either wore older uniforms or modified them a bit. :D

I think they mean pouring a bit of cocoa into your saucer, but I may be wrong lol

WERE YOU SUCCESSFUL AT CLEANING YOUR BATHROOM?! O:

Man, I totally read that as "outfits pink rangers had to wear" and go-go boots did not sound at all out of line for Power Rangers.

LOL! Someone found that report for me a couple of years ago, and I did a little article on it for Women's History Month. My favorite part* was the polyester uniforms that had a tendency to melt when the rangers wearing them had to help fight fires.

*In the sense of "the part that made me feel most smugly correct."

Everyone enjoys giving children's parties.

Most people I know, myself included, consider giving and attending children's parties to be torture. It is like the third circle of hell or something. Sticky, sugar-high children! Aahhh!

My mom worked in the park services for a while ( even has a Parks & Recreation degree) so I'll have to pass this on to her. Thanks for the link!

I realize that (1) you have plenty to keep you busy and (2) tracking down rights holders might be problematic, but you have a book here, one that would sell pretty well.

It's occurred to me that something a la Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads by Sylvia Lovegren could be pulled out of these. I may have to think seriously about it. :D