Clik here to view.
JFK and the Summer of High Hopes
JFK in the swim. Photo by Bill Beebe/Los Angeles Times Archives?UCLA A Favorite From the Vault The sizzling summer of 1960 was dominated by the equally hot Presidential race between John F. Kennedy and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stumping On The Kindergarten Campaign Trail 1960
In the fall of 1960 I would be joining Dick and Jane and heading to Kindergarten In the crisp fall of 1960 as presidential hopeful Senator John Kennedy beckoned us into a New Frontier I would be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Beer and the Happy Homemaker
Why was the Happy Homemaker so happy? Beer of Course! Vintage Budweiser ad Ever wonder what made the mid-century Happy Housewife so happy? It turns out hubby wasn’t the only one knocking back a few...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Kennedy Nixon Debate – A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
The 1960 television debate between Kennedy and Nixon was the presidential debate that proved a picture is worth a thousand words. The 1960 presidential debate was an unprecedented event. For the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nuclear Nightmares
Collage by © Sally Edelstein “Bedime Stories: Sweet Dreams” Appropriated images. Currently on view at “Embedded Messages, Debating the Dream : Truth Justice and the American Way”, University Art...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Halloween Candy-Treat or Trick?
The scariest part of Halloween for many parents is the prospect of all the candy their children will consume once they’ve brought home their haul. Relax. In mid-century America a Snickers bar would...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Castro and My Cold War Childhood
My cold war childhood filled with cold war warriors could easily have turned hot if not for MAD… oh, and our nuclear policy of Mutually Assured Destruction too. Mad Magazine covers (L) Fidel Castro...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Passover Tradition
From the Holiday Archive: Like Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix produced no tears. That dehydrated marvel of mid-century cookery was a staple in my Mothers repertoire. Mom...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Memorial Day- Remembering My Greatest Generation Dad
The Greatest Generation loses one more…. Memorial day this year takes on a different significance than other years for me. This year as the number of WWII veterans continue to dwindle, another former...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Phone Exchanges- A Connection to the Past
I confess. I rarely talk on the phone. Some might even call me a phone-a-phobe. When it comes to telephone exchanges I rarely make a connection. Once fun, a phone call now feels like, well, a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hot Dog Competition
A summer staple at my 1960’s family barbecues was the ritual hot dog competition not in competitive eating but dissecting who made the best toothsome well turned frank. The mouth-watering aroma of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Baby, What a Tan
“Turn on a tan, you great big beautiful baby you!” Summer and tanning is deeply burned into me…literally. Though I no longer sport the deeply burnished Bain de Soliel St. Tropez tan of my twenties nor...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Charlottesville Has Made the Past Present For Jews
How does a Holocaust survivor, a little boy who lost his family, now 70 years later and a proud American citizen endure listening his own President talk about the “good people” at the torch lit Nazi...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I Was a Johnny Reb
With battles being drawn over Confederate monuments, one retro toy, the Johnny Reb Cannon is sure not to make a comeback. As the battle rages across the US over the fate of Confederate monuments and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Surviving a Nuclear Attack, Cold War Style Pt 1
With the nuclear sabre rattling mounting in North Korea, its hard for old fears not to be renewed. For those of us who grew up during the 1950’s and 1960’s the fear of nuclear attack was the subtext...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Halloween Cold War Style
On most mid-century days, the suburban streets of my childhood were filled by a legion of door to door salesmen trafficking in fantasy. The pavement belonged to this endless parade of post war...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Twisted Times with Twister
Twisted Times When I think back to being 14, the same age as Leigh Corfman was, the woman who accused Alabama’s Roy Moore of molesting her, the sexiest encounter for me was contorting my body in a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Christmas or Chanukah- The True Festival of Lights
A Holiday Classic Normally, while Jews across the country begin celebrating Hanukkah, the festival of lights, Christians have had a good 2 week start on them with their own festival of lights- the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Passover Plot – Operation: Matzo Ball
It was a post war Passover plot worthy of the Russians; a cold war caper to rival anything Julius and Ethel Rosenberg cooked up. A top-secret stolen – during the Jewish holiday of Passover...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Mid Century Send Off
My mid-century home is fading fast. Right now strangers and bottom feeders are traipsing thru my parent’s suburban house picking over the remains of a family’s long life hoping to score a deal at a...
View Article