Monthly Archives: November 2009

FASHIONS OF THE FIFTIES—CRINOLINES. Crinolines were a big fashion item in the late fifties (wikipedia has an article on the history of the crinoline). One girl years later remembered sneaking out of the house with three crinolines on despite her … Continue reading →

FASHIONS OF THE FIFTIES—THE CHEMISE. High fashion did affect middle America in the fifties. Yesterday’s posts brought back memories, including the high school awards ceremony at York Community High School for which almost every girl receiving an award had a … Continue reading →

“FADS”OF THE SIXTIES. Many of the fashion changes in the 60s seemed to be temporary fads, partly because some of them were so dramatic and partly because most people did not adopt them. At the beginning of the 60s, crew … Continue reading →

CONSERVATIVE DRESS IN THE SIXTIES. Jonathan Leaf argues that: “The dress of the 1960s was very conservative.” The miniskirt is the symbol of the Swinging Sixties, but Leaf is right. He says that many fine restaurants wouldn’t admit women in … Continue reading →

THE SOUND OF MUSIC AND CULTURAL CONFLICT. I know of one instance where The Sound of Music exposed some of the cultural fissures in America. One of my friends came from a fundamentalist Protestant background. His widowed mother had never … Continue reading →

THE MOST POPULAR MOVIE OF THE SIXTIES. Jonathan Leaf points out the fact that The Sound of Music was the highest grossing movie of the Sixties as an example of the cultural conservatism of the decade. There were dissenters. Only … Continue reading →

THE SWINGING SIXTIES. I have expressed admiration for Jonathan Leaf’s plays, so I bought his book THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO THE SIXTIES. I usually like revisionist history (Leaf’s point of view is very conservative); this book was not only … Continue reading →

REMEMBERING DECADES. History doesn’t come packaged in centuries and decades. Historians sometimes refer to the “Long Nineteenth Century” (1800 to 1914) and the “Short Twentieth Century” (1914 to 1989 or 1991). I don’t think the decade we are in has … Continue reading →