Clams casino, handwritten diaries, gold lamé house shoes, paper dictionaries: certain things are slipping away. To some of these I wave a hearty goodbye — that would be you, dial-up modem — but other changes I note with a pang. Sure, some of the regret is pure nostalgia. I love the full-throated trill of a dial telephone, for example. But some of it is a lament for changes in fashion, in what’s considered beautiful. That's how I feel about some perfume. No publicly traded company in its right mind would make a heartbreaker of a chypre like Rochas Mousseline these days. That’s too bad.
Perfumer Edmond Roudnitska developed Mousseline, and Rochas released it in 1946, just two years after Rochas Femme. Information on Mousseline is scarce. My parfum is at least 45 years old — quite possibly older — but it’s clearly a fruity chypre and Femme’s little sister. My “flacon sac” perfume came in a tiny, black lace printed splash bottle accompanied by an inch-and-a-half long eyedropper for extracting the precious extrait.
I picture a woman settling into her car after a day of shopping. She’s mastered the sit/knees together/swing of easing into a car with heels and a shapely skirt. She pulls off her gloves and reaches into her purse for her cylinder of Mousseline. She nudges aside the veil on her hat and with the eyedropper delivers a drop of the amber-colored perfume behind each ear. Next stop, a fancy hotel for cocktails.
Mousseline is a perfume of the grand tradition in which a fragrance is more its own being than an assemblage of easy-to-identify notes. I smell stewed plums that don’t overwhelm a floral heart, cool violet leaf, dulled (by time?) jasmine, perhaps a touch of carnation, rooty vetiver, sandalwood, musk, and plenty of real oakmoss. Mousseline isn’t sweet or particularly fruity, floral, or animalic, but seems to rest on its lush chypréed base notes. Of course, this may be due to its age. I wish I could have smelled it new when it probably lived up to the wispy translucence of its name.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Mousseline contains a touch of the oily-rich secret ingredient called “Vat 5” that went into Femme. When I was at Art et Parfum with Denyse Beaulieu,1 Olivier Maure brought us paper strips dipped into Vat 5’s tarry liquid, and a whiff brought up Femme’s butch core, the genius that elevated Femme from a girly-girl perfume to a complicated, womanly fragrance. Mousseline shares that thread of toughness.
These days, Mousseline would suit the same occasions that would welcome Femme. For the confident person, that means just about any occasion that would hold up to a flash of character. Mousseline has enough body to suit cooler weather and evenings, but I’d imagine that an Eau de Cologne version of the fragrance would bloom on an August day. Mousseline isn’t quite as easy as Femme, though. Femme comes at you with parted lips, but Mousseline demands playful banter before you’re allowed to touch her elbow.
They say fashion has cycles. I think for challenging perfumes to return to vogue, it’s not just fashion, but culture, that must evolve. Fragrance will need to be valued as visual art is, or music. But even with that, the murky chypre might never command the audience it once did. That’s O.K. Style trumps fashion every time, and in my book, perfumes like Rochas Mousseline will always be stylish. Let’s just hope there’s always a little bit of Mousseline’s type around for us to appreciate.
What are you sad to see pass out of fashion, both in perfume and in life in general?
1. See Cabris and Art et Parfum, part 1 and part 2.
Excellent review, Angela. I had been curious about Mousseline, and unfortunately it sounds every bit as gorgeous as I’d imagined.
Like you, I’m sad to see the murky chypres fall out of favor, both because of changing tastes and restrictions on ingredients. More generally, though, I regret the obsolescence of the idea that adults should dress (and smell) like adults. I don’t mean to sound crabby or to call for a return to restrictive formality, but I’m tired of seeing women my age and older running around with “PRINCESS” splashed across the butts of their short-shorts, and I’m tired of dreck like Pink Sugar that’s inexplicably found an adult audience. (Sorry to any Pink Sugar fans out there; feel free to counter-complain about my Mahora and Amarige.)
It just seems like adults used to age more gracefully instead of frantically trying to prove that they’re still young and hip and whatnot. I wish I didn’t feel like an anomaly for wanting to have a more dignified and elegant later adulthood look forward to.
(sorry, make that “to look forward to” — need caffeine.)
I knew what you meant!
I know what you mean about aging gracefully. I fully believe you’re only as young as you feel etc etc, and that people should dress however they please. But, there’s something wonderful about the experienced woman who presents herself with confidence and sophistication, rather than fighting tooth and nail to come off exactly like her 16-year old daughter. Where’s the mystery, the “knowingness” that is so alluring?
Exactly! And it’s especially perverse that the idea of remaining forever young (via incessant consumption of “youthful” clothes and makeup and whatnot, of course) is generally presented as liberating — when in fact it seems like just the opposite of liberating, because you’re sucked into a perpetual and unwinnable struggle against the plain fact of time and its effects. So much more liberating to learn how to accept yourself at whatever age and to look forward to the person you’re always in the process of becoming, methinks.
So true! I admit I’d rather have glowing, smooth skin than not, but I also like knowing I can pull off attitudes and fashions a teenager can’t.
Oh, Emily, you’ve pushed my hot button! 😉 I completely agree with what you say, and would add to consider how very little *men’s* fashions have changed in 150 years. And percentage wise, virtually NO men wear toxic makeup on their skin or color their hair with carcinogenic chemicals or wear feet deforming shoes! At what point did women start buying into the message that we’re not good enough just as we are, without resorting to ridiculous and extreme measures to be or to remain nubile and sexy?
End of rant… carry on. 🙂
I agree with you 100% in principle–but I have to admit that I love my lipstick!
Sigh… me too.
Sigh … me three. I try not to even think about how little of this stuff men have to put up with, because it just makes me too peeved. But then I get peeved at myself for cultivating a state of denial. And then I need retail therapy and buy more perfume, and we can’t have THAT, now can we?
Seriously, though, Alyssa’s book has prompted me to start thinking about my beloved red lipsticks and vintage jewelry in the same way that she thinks about perfume — as a source of pleasure, and not as ironclad evidence that I’m a failed feminist. Here I’m not endorsing the free-to-be-a-sex-object school of feminist thought (and I don’t think Alyssa is, either); rather, pleasure and the objects that provide it aren’t necessarily reducible to a single interpretive paradigm.
I think that’s a sensible approach. After all, if those things didn’t bring you pleasure, you’d quit them, right? So, embrace that Weiss crystal necklace and red lipstick with joy.
I hope I age gracefully. I also think there’s an age that allows you to get away with things too. I want to grow up to be an eccentric old lady with lavender hair.
I agree! Have you browsed at the Advanced Style blog yet? It’s inspirational.
What’s that?
Here’s the address: http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com/
By all means, allow me to place the call for a return to restrictive formality for you. On the rotary phone that we have in our basement which sounds so much better and is so much more reliable than any of our other phones.
I like old school perfume, old school phones, and old school manners.
Old school manners are especially nice!
I like my old school phone too. I hate talking on the cell. Hate it! Only use it if I have to.
I like the heaviness of my phone, and how I’m trapped in a limited area of the house when I’m on it. If I stretch, I can let the dog out the back door, but otherwise I stick to the couch and focus on the person I’m talking to.
Completely second this!
I hate that I’m expected to always be available by phone, just because everyone has cell phones now. (Well, almost everyone!) I don’t answer it unless I’m actually not busy and have time to talk, which apparently makes me antisocial and backwards. I still have a dumb-phone (i.e., not a smart phone) and if AT&T wants me to “upgrade,” they will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.
I’ve had a few friends actually irritated with me because I’m not available by cell phone. And then there are the people who try to text my landline….
My husband texts our landline sometimes just to be funny. He has that on his phone. When I check the answering machine I get this wacky computer voice who may or may not ge the words in his text right. It does make me laugh sometimes.
I didn’t know that could happen! That’s hilarious.
In perfume: I yearn for more fragrances that are a return to the complicated variety that aren’t afraid to offend & half the time, intend to. Jicky, Shocking, Shalimar, Bal a Versailles, etc. The fragrances that slap one in the face like a drag queen taking the stage and haughtily demanding that all eyes should be on them.
In life: The dial up modem got blown up about eight years ago on 4rth of July. Analog cell phones that were only good for calls & texting (if you were lucky). And, last but certainly not least… All mortal diseases that have been rendered extinct or nothing mroe than a passing illness thanks to medical science & antibiotics. 🙂
A perfume with real personality is a huge treat! As for phones, I’m still stuck way back in the dark ages with a phone attached to the wall with a wire.
I’m so with you Angela, as always in most things, but particularly with phones. I insist on having plug ins (that stay on during power outages thank you very much!) in at least three rooms and have one of those silly remotes to appease my husband (he does let me buy copious quantities of perfume after all!) and my cel phone has the simulated ring of those old desk phones that weighed 20 lbs. and were probably in evidence in The Thin Man movies. People look at me like I’m mental when it rings. Haven’t tried or even heard of Mousseline, now I must seek out at least a tiny sample. Did however get Diorling (new) and find it very, very good and quite old school. Keep the wonderful reviews coming!
Diorling is one of my favorites!
Yes, those old phones are ideal in power outages. I’ve learned that one first hand.
I live in tornado country – why *wouldn’t* I want a land line?!?
You need one!
Ha! That’s the ringtone my husband has on his smart phone. It cracks me up every time.
Wouldn’t it be hilarious to reach into your purse and pull out a giant desk phone?! Or better yet, take your shoe off and answer it. Better stop now, my age is showing!
I’ve wanted a shoe phone since forever!
A lovely review! I will most likely never smell this but it’s a style I love. People were not afraid to launch fragrances with huge character at the time.
My phone is unattached to a wire, but I have never owned either a dishwasher, dryer or microwave!
No clothes dryer? I do love line-dried clothing, but that must be tough in the winter! I don’t want to sound overly luddite–I had a cordless phone until it pooped out. I never got around to replacing it, so I have a fabulous 1970s red phone now.
Well I dry my clothes inside the house on lines. Upstairs, there is no drying washing inside my living room.
I am very careful with my clothes and dryers do damage them, or at least they make them look old and worn more quickly.
On another note how did you feel about Mon Parfum Chéri?
I bet your clothes last forever, then, which is very nice. Plus, you save a lot on energy bills. Another plus.
Can you believe I still haven’t tried that perfume? I’ve heard such good things about it, too.
Wonderful review, Angela. I’ve not come across Mousseline before but I will definitely keep an eye out for it in charity shops. I too love the sound and feel of rotary phones from the 1940’s. I feel like I should be wearing a peignoir when I answer or at the very least a sharply tailored jacket and skirt. Red lips required, of course.
I mourn the demise of sets of encyclopaedias- I used to adore going to the library and selecting the volume of Encyclopaedia Brittanica that I needed for a paper for school. My daughters won’t do that, they will use Google or online reference tools. The won’t have the smell or feel of the book, or the delight in having something catching your eye as you flipped through and going off on a tangent. What a great way to learn!
They will have old-fashioned manners though, as they both attend a private girls’ school that makes a point of such things. They will have a well-rounded ‘classical’ education and I am extremely grateful for that.
I also wish there was more accountability- people take no responsibility for their communities, schools or children. There is a lot of ‘someone else will do it’ mentality.
Sheesh, I just read that back and, at 37, sound like my grandmother!
My laptop’s bookmarks are full of articles found through online reference tools. The Encyclopaedia Brittanica may be full of information, but if I look up “Germany” I won’t be able to find in depth information about intercultural literature, which I am studying right now as an independent study. I even contacted the author of one of the articles, a professor at a university across the country, and she helped me create a book and film list.
Most of my favorite perfumes are from 1999 or later…Comme des Garcons, Bulgari Black, YSL M7, Cuir Ottoman, and so on.
I mean from 1990 (I was born in November 1989, by the way) or later
Oh, I’m not suggesting that the EB is better than online tools. Quite the contrary, the amount of information available online is breathtaking and deserves to be utilised fully. Rather, it. Is nostalgia that makes me pine for Enclyclopaedia Brittanica- it was the feel and smell of the pages and the fact that so much was contained within those pages. It’s a different method of discovery is all!
It’s a method of discovery that’s open to rewarding accidents. You look up Paul Revere and find yourself reading the entry next to it…
Yes, it’s amazing what you can find online. Amazing and sometimes almost overwhelming. But when you have a professor to help make a reading list, it’s perfect.
I used to read the encyclopedia when I was a kid. It was wonderful. I was a big fan of National Geographic magazine too. I think I learned a lot from them too.
So did I…and my 1 year old nephew can read ours when he visits if he’s interested in learning about Yugoslavia because books don’t necessarily poof into some unknown dimension after a few decades. It does cost hundreds of dollars to replace outdated sets, though.
Even the outdated sets probably have lots of good information–although old info about Yugoslavia probably isn’t very useful at all!
My grandparents had some kind of encyclopedia set that was oriented to kids, too, that I liked. It had “how to” articles on magic tricks and science experiments, and cool things like that.
Sounds like “The Children’s Encyclopedia”, a.k.a. “The Book of Knowledge”. My mother had them when she was a kid, and kept them around the house when I was growing up. I found them fascinating. Does this ring a bell?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_knowledge
Yes! I think that was it!
My dad had something similar to these from his childhood in our house when I was growing up; my favorites were the volumes of stories and folklore. I blame my bookish nerdiness on those books quite happily.
Bookish nerdiness is a badge of honor! One of the big bookstores, Powells, in my town sells stickers with the outline of a woman reading. They say Reading is Sexy.
It’s true, it would be impossible to go back to not having the internet or perfumes like Cuir Ottoman.
Without the internet, we wouldn’t be here right now, in fact.
Great point! I guess I’ll try to ignore flip-flops, etc….
I don’t know. Flip flops at a special event are a serious misdemeanor in my book.
When I was a kid, I could lost for hours in my grandma’s encyclopedias! That, and the Ripley’s Believe it or Not book. Everything was so fascinating. I do love Wikipedia, but there’s something delightfully serendipitous about grabbing a volume of an encyclopedia and reading randomly.
When I was a kid, I was *obsessed* with my grandparents’ World Book Encyclopedia set. I read a lot of entries, but the one I remember most fondly is the article on clothing. It was accompanied by a full-color, multi-page spread of illustrations of clothing styles throughout history. There was an especially exotic drawing of a dress from ancient Crete, which left the breasts exposed. That picture is still the first thing that pops into my mind in association with Crete.
That sounds marvelous! It would make a good background for a computer, too.
Thereby reconciling the new technology with the old 🙂
It’s not easy, but it makes it all go down so much better.
I also miss the old-fashioned woody chypres and how people used to make a point of dressing up when going out to a nice restaurant. Now we are lucky if they change out of their pajamas. And don’t even get me started on the ubiquitous flip-flop!
I like dressing up to go out, too, but you’re so right–where I live people will even wear fleece to the opera!
Don’t even get me started on the stuff I’ve seen people wear to the opera. I know that San Francisco is a pretty laid-back place, but still. Though I’d take a patron in jeans and a hoodie who sticks around during curtain calls, vs. a patron in couture who bolts as soon as (or sometimes before) the final curtain goes down. I’m always on the aisle when I review, and I once had a woman bruise my thigh as she scrambled over my lap and into the aisle (this was before the curtain had even fallen). I would give her the benefit of the doubt — maybe there was an emergency of some sort? — except that her phone had gone off during the overture, and she thought the appropriate response was to loudly announce that she didn’t know how to turn it off. That was two strikes right there. GAH.
I have a lot of opera peeves, as you may have guessed.
When you spend a lot of money to see a production you’re really looking forward to, the last thing you want is to have to come fully outfitted in leg guards!
Emily, you and Opera Fan need to exchange emails! As you can tell from her screen name, you all have a lot in common.
Oh, that would be terrific. I’ll flag her down next time I see her on here.
I miss people having manners and simple etiquette. I miss people dressing up one in a while. I miss the days when young girls didn’t dress like hookers. I could go on and on…I miss a lot of things I guess.
Heheee… I wore my share of fishnets and miniskirts in my early twenties (I was a goth,) but today’s styles are shocking even compared to my once low standards.
Oh, I did too at that age but not when I was 12. I sound like such an old fart.
It’s amazing how far a few, simple courtesies go.
There was a Studio 360 program on time travel, and host Kurt Anderson pointed out that if you are over 50, you really have time traveled. I think, like the fictional time travelers, it’s natural for us to want to go back “home” at some point. That’s where vintage perfume comes in! 🙂
I have Mousseline EdC from probably the 50s, and you’re right, it’s much better in summer air. It’s a bit sharp once the central heating comes on and suck out all the humidity. Your flacon sounds so beautiful!
I think there’s so often a dreamy nostalgia for a time someone hasn’t lived in, too. The old “the grass is greener” feeling about past times, romanticized in movies and books. I know I feel it.
What do you think of the EdC? What notes do you smell? I feel a little handicapped with my old extrait.
Angela, the first time I tried it I didn’t like it. I was expecting something soft, and it’s quite strong and almost masculine at first. You’re right that it has a lot in common with Femme, but I didn’t focus on that until you said it. I haven’t learned to identify notes, but I’d say it’s possible that the perfumer started with Femme and did what LT calls the funhouse mirror effect of magnifying different notes, in this case the ones that seem more masculine, although that lovely plum is there instead of the more masculine citrus. I’m quite liking it in this humid weather, though, and plan to wear it often this month.
I also have a decant of Rochas Rose, a contemporary of Femme and Mousseline, from TPC. It has a similar effect. I wonder if it also shares that intriguing Vat 5 that you sniffed in Cabris?
Well, I’m old enough to remember a simpler time – and it was often terribly boring, actually! I’ve also lived in places where very little was available, and seen the wisdom of the Puritan principle that enough is as good as a feast – not that I am able to step away from the feast voluntarily very often.
Thanks for the mini-review! You’re so lucky to have those decants.
I miss letter-writing. Long ago, my friends and I used to scribe page after page of correspondence, complete with hand-drawn illustrations, footnotes, margin comments, and cut-and-paste collages. And every word was spelled out in full. With curlicues.
In the same vein, I love vintage perfumes because they expressed full sentences. So many current fragrances are the equivalent of LOL, OMG, WTF, TTYL. And they fade away faster than the last text message.
What a gorgeously expressed sentiment! I agree with every word.
This is so well put, I couldn’t agree more.
A very good friend of mine spent three years in Africa in the late nineties. We wrote letters. I didn’t have a computer and phoning was too expensive. Writing a letter does force you to sit down and think before you confide your thoughts to the paper.
Good perfume requires slowing down to be appreciated.
Sometimes it’s nice to be forced to slow down, to have to make an effort, to appreciate those things.
I totally agree! And with fountain pens…
I am convinced that using a fountain pen improves my penmanship – no need to exert pressure to get a word out and yet the variance of pressure makes a document that can really express emotion beyond the words.
My favorite pen is a Shaeffer NoNonsense cartridge pen I bought when I was in university – it still writes beautifully.
And Shaeffer makes my favorite ink color – peacock blue. 🙂
That sounds beautiful!
See? I learn the best things from NST’s commenters!
I miss letters, too. I should treat myself to really beautiful stationery and gorgeous pens.
I try to make an effort to wear skirts and dresses, because I’m afraid of the day when they’ll look weird. As it is, people ask why you’re “so dressed up,” whenever you wear them.
But yes, there are a lot of things that are modern that I love, too. I love using the internet. When my six-year-old son has questions about anything, I can find answers.
I have some lovely monogrammed stationery, but I’ve found that my handwriting has really disintegrated! It’s worth it to send letters, though–even if they’re only a few lines long. I know the few letters I get feel like real luxuries.
This blog could go on and on as far as I am concerned. I am always shocked when I am discussing something from my past and someone chimes in with, “Oh, that was before my time”. I don’t tolerate it anymore. My go-to responses are, “Don’t be proud of what you don’t know”, or “That’s correct. You got here and things went to pot. We blame your parents”.
I, too, keep my land line because I will remeber the number long after I have forgotten my name. I wear scarves and gloves, and I am really enjoying this time in my life. The internet allows me to contect with folks who share my passions and you can drill down and get wonderful information. I use it, it doesn’t use me. I am curious about and love learning about any new fragrance and its story and notes, but I go usually go back to my old chypres. One name. Not those flanker run-ons that go on for days. Angela, you always light a fire under me with your topics!
I love the “you got here and everything went to pot” line! That’s hilarious. As for scarves, I love them, too. Yesterday I watched a movie with Audrey Hepburn where she wrapped her hair in a chiffon scarf to protect it from the wind. She looked so chic.
ROTFL at your responses! I may have to “borrow” them!
Irresistible review, many thanks. I did not resist the temptation to purchase a sample of Mouselline EDC from TPC; I clicked ‘place your order’ just seconds ago.
I’m intrigued by many aspects of Mouselline, especially the extreme femininity of the advertising, which it shares with the ads for Femme (same bottle too). We can see and smell the yearning in those late-war and post-war years for luxuries like a dab of perfume or a scrap of lace. They must have been strong women then; women surely had to grow up fast in France in those years. Miss Dior is the other famous example of a complex and commanding femininity. Of course the vast majority of French women in 1946 could not have afforded those perfumes, but they still stand as evidence of their aspirations.
I wonder why Femme survived and Mousseline did not?
God I love Femme …
Maybe that’s why the perfumes had the same bottle–it was too expensive to make a new one. Times are hard now, too (although nothing like post WWII in Europe). I wonder if we might all benefit from a small bit of a big luxury instead of a whole lot of cheap stuff?
Don’t get me started on all the cheap Chinese throwaway stuff!
I won’t get you started, then!
I wish that more ordinary housewares were still made like they were fifty years ago. I was recently refinishing some old bentwood dining chairs from the factory my grandfather used to work at, and they are still elegant, stylish, and completely functional. I don’t think the same could be said for similar contemporary pieces. I also love the lines of old cars from the forties and fifties; I understand that they were heavy, gas guzzling beasts, but the boring little aerodynamic things that everyone drives nowadays are all so depressingly similar.
I love old furniture, too, and old cars are marvels of beauty. The way the windshields curved, the angle of a rear view mirror, the upholstery–gorgeous.
The worst thing is that it isn’t just things. There is an old apartment complex near me that has beautiful trees and used to have nice grounds. But now, instead of having a caretaker or two on staff who knew and took care of the plantings, they have these robo lawn care companies on contract who have destroyed the grass. I’m sure the workers, who appear to be immigrants, are treated a completely disposable. The result is that a beautiful and oxygen producing area is being ruined, and people have no decent jobs. You find this on every level.
I’m sorry the grounds don’t get the loving care they deserve! Hopefully at least the trees are doing well. There’s something so comforting in big, old trees.
I miss my old record-playing days; actually, I miss the entire ritual of buying a record or album. It was fun to go to the store and flip through the records or the albums, searching for the new release or the song you just heard on the radio. There was that smell of the brand new vinyl record as you carefully slid it out of its protective album cover….no fingerprints on the vinyl!…and gently plopped it on the record player. Then, if your record player was manual, you had to execute placing the arm with its needle just so on the spinning record to avoid scratches. It was a simple way to purchase music, but it was filled with anticipation and excitement.
The music from those records had a fullness to them that I find lacking in music that has been streamed, or ripped, or burned or whatever. It’s quite like the fullness or roundness one finds in those lovely vintage perfumes.
And the liner notes! Listening to an album the first time was a real ritual. You could settle back and read the liner notes and look at the cover art while you listened. After 15 or 20 minutes, you had to get up and flip the record. It demanded interaction. Kind of nice.
and in the singer-songwriter heyday you could learn the words. I can barely read the verbage on a CD box now…
When I listen to a CD for which I had the album I still want to flip it at the right place.
Although it can be a hassle, it’s also nice to have to be involved enough with an album to have to get up and flip it.
Liner notes, yes! I can’t get used to buying music online because I miss having a tangible object to connect with the aural experience. I always feel kind of robbed when I buy a CD and the lyrics aren’t inside.
Liner notes are a whole art form in and of themselves!
Wonderful review as always, Angela, but today (or yesterday) the discussion is even better.
Like others have said before me, I mostly miss good manners and civility, making an occasion special by dressing up for it, the quality in most everything sold, and on and on.
But I try to stop myself from lamenting too much by realizing that everything in life is change and cycles, so I try to embrace the change. I do love the internet, my computer and my Kindle, although I hate my cell phone, and only have one, a dumb one at that, as my boss bought it and pays for the usage on the office plan. She’s also the only one who has the number as if I’m not home, I certainly am not able to have a phone conversation!
And as far as perfume, you know what a vintage lover I am so that goes without saying. That quality issue again!
That’s a great perspective, Rappleyea. And of course other changes are so self-evidently for the best that we tend to take them for granted — much as I’d love to have a full complement of 1930s and 1940s perfumes, I’d certainly prefer a full complement of present-day rights and choices and freedoms. Despite the vehemence of some of my crabby rants, I always feel a little conflicted about romanticizing the past because it’s easy to gloss over the fact that it was really a mixed bag. And in that regard, I suppose it’s not so different from the present.
I understand that profoundly.
It’s true–of course, it would be foolish and painful to roll back time. But to be able to walk into a restaurant and order clams casino…
waah! I want some…it sounds wonderful. SOTD is vintage (1980) Quartz…
Hey, you’re wearing a good one as it is!
Oh, so sad to have missed this conversation! For as far back as I can remember, I’ve been accused of being born in the wrong era! The comments are kinder now–most recently, I’ve been described as “charmingly anachronistic.”
I can “ditto” nearly every comment above. I don’t own a cell phone–the last phone I bought was a beautiful teal rotary phone. I still read bound books, and I miss the Encyclopedia. What I *really* miss, though is the card catalog! What a joy to flip through those cards and happen upon some unexpected book! I like feeling “put together” when I dress, and it saddens me that we don’t have an expectation of dressing. Not that I want to feel like I have to hide my age, but just look like I care for myself and I care for how I’m perceived. I bake all my own bread, and no, not with a bread machine. I like well-made furniture and housewares–my favorite birthday present of late was my great great grandmother’s cast iron “fry pot” (Dutch oven), which came over on the Oregon Trail with her. Can’t imagine anything made today lasting 150 years.
Not yet mentioned–I miss the ritual of nightly dinner. When you sit around the table and talk to each other, without the distraction of TV or other devices. I miss walking down the street and making eye contact with strangers with a “hello” or “good morning” as you pass (ok, not sure I’ve ever lived when that was commonplace, but I want to believe it could be). For that matter, I miss walking down the grocery store aisle and making eye contact with other shoppers–instead of them staring at their phones!
Am I a curmudgeon at the ripe age of 34?
Wow, what an amazing heirloom! I can only imagine the stories that Dutch oven could tell.
“Charmingly anachronistic” is high praise, as far as I’m concerned.
I know what you mean about the Dutch oven! I love imagining my great great grandmother deciding on the few things she had to have across that ordeal–guarding her fry pot and probably little else on the journey!
And yeah, the fella who dubbed me “charmingly anachronistic” is pretty nice, too! I felt accepted and understood in that moment! 😀
Some people are born curmudgeons–but I’m sure you’re not. I love it that you pointed out nightly dinners, though. I love them, too!
I can’t really relate to things I miss, just because life in general has become much more fulfilling as I age (though I’m only 33) and in many ways less painful. But there is just one, or two things. The first is that I can’t relate at all to what is played on mainstream radio. When I was younger there was music I loved – usually alternative, and music I hated – usually techno. There was also sort of shmaltzy stuff which I wouldn’t own up to liking – but which I did! Now I seem unable to relate to any of it. The second thing is childrens’ books. It seems so rare now to find beautifully illustrated, enchanting ones. Now when I look at whats available (just out of interest as I don’t have kids) they all seem to be done by way of graphic design and those beautiful flourishes just aren’t there anymore.
I’m just talking about the pics though!
My mom teaches kindergarten, and boy oh boy does she have some choice opinions about the quality of children’s books anymore. I think most of the ones in her classroom are the classics (Goodnight Moon, Madeline, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, etc.).
Gosh, I don’t even listen to music radio anymore, so props to you for keeping in touch. And, yes, will there ever be another Dr. Seuss? I hope so.
I have been on the computer and phone all, ALL DAMN DAY TRYING TO FIND THIS. A, you make me HAVE to have it.
Where can I get some?