A Day in the '50s

The harsh ring of our alarm clock, set to 6:15 am, is what wakes me up today. My husband wakes up too, though he roughly flips over to his stomach to stop the ringing by smacking the button on the clock. When he doesn't move further, I know that this is one of those days where he decides to sleep in a little more. Which is fine, the alarm clock is mainly for me anyway.

After all, how can I both get dressed and make a delicious breakfast without getting up early?

So I quickly but quietly get out of bed and go to the bathroom. After years of practice, I get all my makeup done in a matter of minutes. Thankfully, I was blessed with curly hair so I didn’t have to waste time curling it like the other ladies in our neighborhood. I just have to spray the curls to control the frizz.

Then I put on a simple yet pretty purple dress for the day, with golden earrings to match. Finally ready for the day, I make my way to the kitchen. I then make some chicken salad sandwiches before putting them into four paper bags along with apples and pudding cups. Then, planning to make French toast, I get the eggs, cinnamon, and milk out before slicing several slices of bread I made yesterday. I looked at the clock in our kitchen and saw that it just turned seven. It was now time to wake up our three young children.

I then walked out of our kitchen and headed to our boys’ room. Once there, I knocked on the door before I entered the room. I quietly told them to wake up as I opened up the curtains. This caused my boys to groan and one of them even pulled the blankets over his head but I just kindly reminded them of school before leaving. I then went to my little girl’s room and after gently waking her up, she smiled happily and reached for a hug, which I happily reciprocated. I then picked out a cute dress for her to wear to school before going back to the kitchen to make breakfast.

It doesn’t take me long to cook up several slices of French toast, just in time to serve my hungry children and husband, who are all dressed up and ready for the day now. We had a lovely breakfast together (after saying Grace of course) before my husband leaves for the office and our children run off to school.

Being a stay-at-home mother, I clean up the kitchen before going to my and my husband’s room to make the bed. I then checked on both my daughter’s room and my boys' room, and after putting a stray sock away and smoothing out the creases on their beds, their rooms were tidy and perfect.

I then went to water the garden, which was full of healthy and beautiful flowers. My good neighbor was watering her own garden nearby and we ended up chatting about many things. I eventually returned to dust some of our bookshelves and use our new Hoover 800 vacuum in the living room. After checking that the rest of the house was perfectly fine, I put the vacuum away and made a chicken salad sandwich for myself for lunch. I then reapplied my makeup and left the house and got into my car. I then drove into the heart of town and took my time to shop for dinner and other essentials. What luck, I found steak that was 84 cents a pound, what a bargain!

I then went home and put peanut butter on saltine crackers. By the time I finished a plate full of them, my children came back from school and greedily scarfed up their snacks. They then went off to do their homework while I prepared a hearty dinner of steak, mashed potatoes, and peas. For dessert, I prepared a simple green jello.

Right after my children and I finished setting up the table, my husband came home from a successful but tiring day at work. I helped him take his coat off and once we finished saying Grace at the dinner table, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner full of engaging conservation and laughter. After dinner was cleaned up, my children played quietly with their toys in the living room while my husband and I listened to the evening radio show.

Once the show was over, we said one more prayer together as a family before my husband and I put our children into bed. My husband and I chatted a little longer before we eventually went to bed ourselves. Overall, it was a wonderful day in the '50s.