Now as November trudges in, it's time to see how Rawleigh's Good Health Guide Almanac Cook Book (1953) readies its readers for months of gray skies that turn ever-more-steadily colder. Was pumpkin spice big in 1953? Did Rawleigh refuse to acknowledge the season and call for strawberry rhubarb pie?
We know that Rawleigh didn't envision this week's recipes for Thanksgiving-- well, not unless they thought lamb patties with molded vegetable salad and brownies à la mode was a suitable holiday feast. It looks like cranberries might have been the mid-'50s equivalent of today's pumpkin spice, as they make an appearance as Sunday's dessert (cranberry meringue pie!) and as horseradishy molded cranberry relish on Saturday.
The recipes are mostly fall-appropriate: a cozy vegetable soup to use up some fall vegetables and canned tomatoes; an old-fashioned suet pudding loaded with raisins, nuts, and warm spices; a jam cake to showcase some of the jam mom presumably put up just a few months before.
So what does our green-faced genie have to say about Scorpios? The final line of the horoscope shows that they (well, we, since I'm one) are the types of people that are great to have right next door: "You are so busy with your own affairs that you have no time to be curious about your neighbors." Since they may "excel in short stories" (which seems like an oddly specific trait for a horoscope to call out), you might never see a Scorpio neighbor at all! Hopefully, they're too busy trying to get published in Galaxy Science Fiction or Fantastic Story Magazine to bother anyone.
And finally, the Rawleigh product of the month:
It's Raweligh's Hand Cream (also good "for arms, elbows and knees")! It's not for the face, though, even if you get that impression from the woman with a demented, far-off gleam in her eye rubbing her face. She's demonstrating the wonders of All-Purpose Cream, which is supposed to work as a foundation, cleanser, massage cream, and night cream, allowing it to "take the place of four jars on your dressing table!" I have no idea whether this claim is plausible since I have neither a dressing table nor jars of anything that would belong on one. I'll just mumble, "Sure, Rawleigh. Whatever you say" as I slowly back away from their November model, who is a little too happy with her All-Purpose Cream for my tastes.
When I read the headline I thought that the all purpose cream was some sort of highly processed, shelf stable food item intended to replace or imitate cream. Instead it's supposed to be a less time consuming, less inconvenient thing to put on your hands when you are silly enough to take them out of the hot soapy water that you're supposed to keep them in all the time.
ReplyDeleteI did want the title to be a bit misleading because I wanted people to briefly imagine a potentially horrifying 1950s processed foodstuff. Nice to know it worked!
DeleteMy favorite misleading title is "Peanut Butter Recall": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ISzJi0B7n4/