It's fun to be beige.

[contraste]

She looks happy even though her phone is beige.

[bingster]

I sure hope her dishes are finished.

[bwanna]

that's why  she is happy, bing

[Phonesrfun]

Yes, but notice that she's hiding the vacuum behind the chair.  Obviously, she is behind in her housework and wasting valuable time sipping coffee chatting away on her new beige Western Electric model 500 phone, probably spending $2.50 for the first three minutes and $.50 for each minute thereafter calling her mother in a neighboring state.  What would her husband say??

Things were different then.

[HobieSport]

Suddenly I have an entirely new appreciation for beige colored telephones.

(Previously I only liked shiny black colors.)

Is it possible to find a 1950s wife on ebay? I have tried with very little success.

[jsowers]

I saw a show about a week ago on HGTV, one of those shows where they redo someone's house to get it to sell, and they painted one room dark beige with light beige trim and everyone went ga-ga over it. I'm not sure they called it beige. But it was that exact shade.

So beige is back, baby!

In the 50s and 60s it was a very popular color and went with many different colors so you didn't have to change the phone when you redecorated. We should be indebted to those people who didn't change their phones and send them back to the phone company. Those are the phones we collect--the ones that are left.

And Hobie, a 50s wife would be about 80 now, like my mom who was married in 1951. She wasn't the stereotypical 50s June Cleaver housewife, though. She taught High School English, Typing and Driver's Ed before I was born in 1958. Do you still want one? Not that my mom is interested. But her master bedroom was painted beige in the 50s. It just didn't have a phone in it.

[bwanna]

the vacuum is behind the chair because she too exhausted from all that housewife stuff to put it away.

and she's talking to her husband, who is at the club, calling to tell her he is bringing an old chum home for dinner.

[McHeath]

That must explain the big smile.

At least she has "sensible shoes" on.  Personally I like house work, in fact I'd trade the work world in a heartbeat for stay at homeness.  My work typically feels like a mix of TV shows, take 1 cup COPS, mix in 1 cup Days of Our Lives, a half cup of Boston Public, a half cup of Welcome Back Kotter, and a healthy dash of Gilligan's Island with a sprinkle of Monty Python's Flying Circus.  That's a typical day.

Vacuuming the carpet looks more appealing each year.   

[bwanna]

wow, mcheath, your job sounds really exciting.

i have been on both sides of the fence, stay-at-home mom & career gal.  amazingly i would choose housework over climbing telephone poles anyday.

i really get a kick out of the old ads & the blatant sexism.

[HobieSport]

I personally like house work. Real men have pink telephones.

I would be glad to discuss  blatant 1950s sexism.

[McHeath]

Yeah we get two and half months off each summer when skools out, and it's my favorite time of the year.   My dad loved the work world and heading out the door at 5am each day was his thing, I never once saw him wash a dish, fold clothes, or vacuum anything, it was old school all the way. 

And when I moved into my house, built in 66', it had never been painted inside and every surface that was painted was beige as was the carpet.  A little too much beige.  Okay, a lot too much beige. 

[Greg G.]

Is it possible to find a 1950s wife on ebay? I have tried with very little success.

No, but I can introduce you to one, my mother.  (Those 50s wives are all growed up now!)  Dad's gone so it's ok.  I'll even supply a badly outdated picture, just like in the personals!  Here she is, isn't she a cutie?

[bwanna]

then came the '70's.  remember avocado green, harvest gold & burnt orange.

briny, your ma is a quite a looker

[McHeath]

Hey, I love avocado green, harvest gold and all the 70's ilk.   

My folks had a house built in 73' that had the greatest thick harvest gold shag rug in the world, it came with a plastic rake so you could rake it to make it stand up.  Way cool.  And of course our kitchen phone was a matching 554.  (well in color, it was not shaggy)

[bingster]

Our kitchen had "toast" appliances when I was growning up, the countertops were gold and the walls were a very pale celery green.  The phone was always white, though. Around that time Tupperware changed their colors from the old pastels to the four "modern" kitchen colors, and my Mom was weirdly excited when she got replace all her old Tupperware.  It always struck me as odd that a handful of colors could become so universal, so quickly.  I wonder where they originated?