I was thrilled this morning when my author shared the photo above with me. It's her great-aunt, Dorothy Mulac, who in the Roaring Twenties lives right here in Chicago. I must look her up! How pretty she is, and so stylish. The style of hat she's wearing is called a "cloche," which is French for "bell" because of its shape. Some people called it a "helmet." It looks like Dorothy's hair has been bobbed short, which is considered quite daring in our day. From the little Jennifer knew of her great-aunt, she was not a shy lady, but a bolder sort of personality. Her facial expression here indicates that she brooks no nonsense. But she is quite pretty, with those piercing dark eyes, which, alas, Jennifer did not inherit.
Here is a poster that a barber of the time might have put up as he more or less reluctantly accepted the rush of feminine customers requesting his skills with a razor.
My own personal story of getting my hair bobbed will soon be available to all and sundry in You're the Cream in My Coffee, releasing September 2016. I did the deed under the questionable influence of my dear friend, who ironically is also named Dorothy, but everyone calls her Dot. With bobbed hair, she looks like Louise Brooks. Me, not so much, but I like it anyway.
XOXO
Marjorie
Oooh, am I ever in hot water! I've just been informed by my author (and rather rudely, too, I must say) that I've neglected to tell you about Trouble Brewing, the short story she penned about the time our landlady was brewing something suspicious in her kitchen and somebody called the cops. It wasn't me who called, I swear, although, let me tell you, our apartment stank to high heaven for days. Not even the clouds of "Evening in Paris" that Dot sprayed all over the place did any good.
Anyway, Jennifer thought the whole incident made a whopping good story and wrote it up for your amusement. Apparently she finds my life ever so much more interesting than her own, poor dear. It's currently free on Amazon, or free to Amazons, or free for people living along the Amazon, or something like that. Still working on getting your 21st-century lingo down.
xoxoxo
Marjorie
"An informal porch party, with the right sort of
hostess, will rouse enthusiasm...More strenuous but quite as well
worthwhile, are community picnics...Refreshments...
should be homemade if practicable. Too often our fashions for public
luncheons are settled by the caterers, and what they find it most
convenient to serve. Wherever there is a
historical aspect about our picnic...why not plan the food to be served
to fit the period as carefully as we do the costumes? Few would be ready
to lend choice, old
china, even to decorate the tables, but it may be there are some pewter
platters and pitchers, that would not be injured by use, and would lend
an 'air' to the whole feast.
Pies and doughnuts, loaf cakes and cookies are to be chosen rather than
the ices and angel cakes of the present day, and often will win applause
because they are less common
than ice cream. Since ice cream cones have become daily food, it is no
longer a rarity, a 'treat,' in the old sense of that word."
---"Summer Celebrations," Anna Barrows American Cookery, June-July 1925 (p. 23-26)
What could be more fun in the summertime than a party on the porch? Just call the neighbors over and enjoy a feast! Anna Barrows was talking here about an Independence Day party, hence the reference to historic costumes. Oodles of patriotic fun! (But since when did ice cream cones become "daily food"? In my dreams!)
A porch party wouldn't really work in the Chicago two-flat Dot and I share--unless it were an intimate picnic a deux on the miniscule back porch, which sounds romantic but made less so by the presence of the landlady's lawn mowing apparatus. But it would be just the thing for the big porch of my parents' home in Kerryville.
Just three more months until our book comes out! Then obscure references like "Kerryville" and "Chicago two-flat" will make sense to you--I promise!
xoxoxo
Marjorie
