They’ve gone through significant construction and design changes, but there’s one thing that is unchanging when it comes to porch swings – their status as a place to relax on a nice, sunny day.

The front porch itself isn’t a concept that’s as old as you might think, but the swing, when placed in a garden or other outdoor setting – has been around since the ancient world. In ancient Greece and Rome, the design of the porch swing was quite simple, being made of wood and ropes. Since they were symbols of leisure and a simple, worry-free time, the wealthy were among the first to feature it prominently in their gardens (though all Greeks and Romans would come to enjoy them eventually), according to an article by Ashley Hanson on backyardboss.com.

The wealthy class were among the first to enjoy the porch swing as the centuries passed. During the Renaissance period, the design of the swing became more elaborate and made with higher-quality wood. The swing became a symbol of opulence, remaining at the center of many a large garden.

In Colonial America, “the garden swing gained popularity as a garden design feature of the upper class during America’s colonial era.

Although these swings were usually hand-made, they featured a very straightforward design that gave a comfortable way to enjoy the outdoors. Swings were more about relaxation at this point than anything else,” Hanson writes. “Over the ages, garden swings underwent substantial design and construction changes that reflect broader socioeconomic trends as well as advances in materials and technology.”

Along came the porch itself during the second half of the 19th century, in the middle of the Victorian era.

“Porches were originally built for good, practical reasons but quickly became important social gathering spots.  Porches were where social norms evolved as the use of porches evolved,” according to an article published by Quentin Robinson of the Tippecanoe County (IN) Historical Association. “Porches became the extravagant and important architectural feature that they were in 1900 as a result of American industrialization during the 19th century plus the suburbanization of our cities.”

Indeed, during the late 19th century, the porch itself reached its zenith as a social gathering space. Now, the porch was designed in both covered and uncovered versions; the porch swing would later hang from the porch’s ceiling. The porch became so popular that in 1873, U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes wrote in his journal, “The best part of his house is the veranda. But I would enlarge it. I want a veranda with a house attached.” 

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, porch swings continued to be made by wood, but wrought iron and plastic became increasingly used.

“The porch swing also saw a surge in popularity in the middle of the 20th century while becoming a mainstay in American households,” Hanson writes. “They attached to the porch ceiling and gave people a cozy spot to perch and watch the world go by.”

Still, as midcentury became the late 20th century, Robinson writes that the popularity of the porch swing saw a decline due, he says, to multiple factors.

“The automobile allowed people to get out of the house for entertainment and relaxation. The telephone allowed neighbors and friends to chat without meeting personally. Housing styles popularized in the construction boom following World War II eliminated the front porch as the back yard became the focus of family activity,” he writes. “The final nail in the coffin for the popularity of the porch were the inventions of air conditioning and television.  Why sit on the hot porch and watch traffic drive past when you could sit in your air-conditioned living room and be entertained by a program playing on that magic box?”

Vintage kitchen appliances aren’t just cool to look at, easy to use, and have a long lifespan. They also heralded the end of one of the country’s darkest periods and the start of a financial boon for the nation and its growing population.

When World War II ended in 1945, so did the moratorium on certain industries and companies which had to refocus all their resources on the efforts to defeat the Axis powers abroad. Post-1945, these companies stopped manufacturing war materials and resumed producing their peacetime consumer goods.

Not so coincidentally, as soldiers returned home from the war and began families in the ever-growing suburbs, innovations in everything from entertainment to technology to everyday goods surged. The Baby Boomer era had begun, and with it came appliances that could not only accommodate growing families – they could also make easier the lives of everyday Americans.

Nowhere was that more apparent than in the kitchen.

“The Boomers were raised in 1950s kitchens that seem basic by today’s standards,” writes blogger Scott McBride of Fine Homebuilding, who was born in 1955, “but to their parents, who lived through the Great Depres-sion, they were heaven. … Whereas our parents’ generation is lauded for its self-denial, we boomers are known for our prodigious consumption; our endless clamoring for a succession of must-have toys from hula hoops to latte-makers.”

Sure, they were functional and made life easier for the average homemaker, but at the dawn of the Baby Boomer era, the newest, shiniest appliances also stood as a status symbol of sorts.

Refrigerators

By the end of World War II, nearly 90% of American households owned a refrigerator; General Electric, then as today, was the giant in an industry adding new manufacturers to the production landscape each year. In 1950, GE chose Louisville, KY, as its home base for its major appliance division. Within five years of that move, the company released its kitchen appliances in “Mix-Or-Match Colors” – that’s Petal Pink, Canary Yellow, Cadet Blue, Turquoise Green, Woodtone Brown, and, of course, classic white. By the end of the decade, the company had designed three refrigerators with wood paneling, which “played well with consumers’ taste for warm, inviting kitchens,” according to the GE Appliances website (geappliancesco.com). Besides their look, these refrigerators were built larger, with higher-quality materials; features such as automatic defrost and icemakers. Higher-end brands like Frigidaire retailed for a little less than $500 (and that’s before the cost of labor is factored in). Truly, these were luxury items (and built to last as well)!

To give you an idea of how far the refrigerator had come – Whirlpool reports that they first began to enjoy widespread popularity in the mid-1920s (before that, you used your good, old, sturdy icebox – cabinet-type structures that held large blocks of ice used to keep foods cool).

Ovens and stoves

If the kitchen is the heart of a home, then the stove (nowadays, the stove-and-oven combo, called a range) is one its most critical features. It’s where memories are made and traditions upheld, whether baking cookies with a loved one or warming up a hearty soup or stew on a chilly winter evening.
Early ranges burned wood or coal, with gas stoves not coming onto the scene until the 1920s. The electric oven followed soonafter, in the 1930s.

If you, like me, have ever wondered what the bottom drawer on your oven is for, it can be used for broiling or warming – and, obviously, it can be used simply as storage for your collection of metal baking sheets.

Like refrigerators of the same era, vintage ranges usually cost a few hundred (or several thousand today, when adjusted for inflation). Special features on some included a rotisserie cooker, a “grillevator” that lowered food close to flames for indoor barbecuing, and built-in salt-and-pepper shakers.

“Vintage stove brands have played an important role in the history of home cooking,” according to the blog on the website of New York-based Belgrove Appliance, which restores vintage stoves. “They have not only provided a means to prepare meals but also served as beautiful focal points in our kitchens. They are not only functional kitchen appliances but also beautiful pieces of history.”

Toasters

General Electric toasters hit the market in 1909; the earliest models toasted bread on only one side. Eventually, the Electric Stove Co. would release a toaster with an automatic bread turner. The first automatic pop-up toaster found its way to shelves as the Roaring ‘20s began. These newer models cooked bread on both sides, with the heating element set on a timer and eject the toast when the timer expires.

By the 1940s, Sunbeam Products dominated the toaster industry; toasters used the thermal expansion of the resistance wire in the center element to lower the bread. When done, a sensor “shuts the heaters off and the pull-down mechanism returns to its room-temperature position, slowly raising the finished toast.”

The jukebox remains one of the most beloved symbols of midcentury America. If you have a coin in your pocket, you have the ticket to crafting a magical, musical memory, complete with tapping toes and a song on your lips.

A revolution in sound

At more than a century old, jukeboxes are just one in a long line of technological innovations that have moved the music industry forward since the Industrial Revolution. Their precursor, the phonograph, was invented by American inventor (and household name) Thomas Edison. The phonograph, which Edison patented in 1877, featured a recorded message etched onto the tiny indentations of a tin foil-covered cylinder, which was then played by turning a crank handle and allowing an attached needle to fall on each of the indentations to play the completed message. Nearly a decade later, inventor Alexander Graham Bell would later improve upon Edison’s invention by covering the cylinder in wax and using a floating stylus instead of a rigid needle. This device, which Bell named the graphophone, offered a clearer, cleaner sound.

In 1889, another inventor by the name of Louis Glass created a device considered to be the first type of jukebox, though it looked absolutely nothing like the jukeboxes we have come to recognize today. Glass’ creation was “large and clunky,” according to an article on the website for Victrola.

“Additionally, since a listener could only play one cylinder at a time, the music options were limited because each change was done manually,” according to the Victrola article. “To get the traditional jukebox to work in public spaces, it required inserting a token or coin to activate its operation, much like a vending machine. Though the sound quality was poor and the workings of the machine itself cumbersome and inconvenient, the novelty was enough to inspire other inventors to improve upon this original contraption.” 

Entertainment at the push of a button

The dawn of the 20th century saw those days of tedious disc changes end; by 1906, units like the “Automatic Entertainer” could play 24 different selections on 10-inch discs, according to the National Center for Families Learning’s education website Wonderopolis.org.

Individuals who rose to the challenge of improving upon the invention included Justice Seeburg – a Swedish immigrant whose company began producing jukeboxes in the mid-1920s — and the members of the Wurlitzer family, German immigrants whose company began making pianos and organs but who would become better known for their jukeboxes starting in the early 1930s.

These early 20th century jukeboxes not only allowed for speedy music changes and better sound; their design was appealing to the eye, too, with Seeburg unveiling one model that would become a game changer for its competitors.

It’s party time

Meanwhile, Wurlitzer jukeboxes sold especially well starting with the repeal of Prohibition in late 1933.

“The demand for coin-operated music was about to explode,” van Etten writes. “It did, and by 1937, Wurlitzer had sold over 100,000 phonographs.”

The industry would become inundated with manufacturers by the late 1930s, with companies like AMI, Mills, Rockola, Aireon, and Chicago Coin joining the fray. Like radio and television technologies, jukebox production grinded to a halt when the United States entered World War II, but when production resumed in the late 1940s, the numbers showed that their popularity was only growing – by the end of the decade, in fact, more than 75% of the records produced in the U.S. went into jukeboxes. The trio of Wurlitzer, Seeburg, and Rockola dominated the industry.

It seems that aspic – that clear, savory jelly, not to be confused with Jell-O – was ever present in the cookbooks of the 1950s. It surrounded fruits and vegetables, eggs, poultry, even fish. If it was edible, it could be suspended in gelatin and pass as a midcentury dinner party “treat,” assuming you held a very broad definition of the word.
The idea today, of course, doesn’t just seem silly; it’s downright stomach-turning. But talk to an older family member like a grandmother or an aunt, and at least one of them will brag about her “famous” gelatin concoction that can be found at every family gathering (usually untouched). How did the idea and execution of aspic dishes come about, and why do they make us chuckle and cringe?

There’s always room for Jell-O

First of all, a distinction must be made between aspic and its more popular cousin, Jell-O. Though both are made using gelatin, which itself is made of animal collagen (read: cartilage and bone), the powdered gelatin dessert with sugar added was invented in 1897, and, within its first decade of existence, marketed as “America’s Favorite Dessert.”

Aspic, meanwhile, is simply the savory jelly version, made with fish stock or meat stock. Unlike Jell-O salads, which still make appearances at potluck dinners or family gatherings, the aspic’s time on Americans’ dinner plates has largely passed. Both Jell-O and aspics can be molded into decorative shapes, and aspics are usually clear, though some are amber in color. Before refrigeration, aspics were used to protect food from air. Delicate and sliceable aspics (two of the three types of aspic), enhance the food’s flavor; some cooks even use aspics as a decoration (decorative aspic is the third and final type), according to author Wayne Gisslenen’s book “Professional Cooking.”

“Aspic looks kind of weird, kind of futuristic, but at the same time kind of old school,” writes Samantha Maxwell of Tasting Table, a fan of the dish. “But there’s also that unfair association with all those weird Jell-O salads that float around the Internet every few months. These negative impressions mean that some of us will never get to savor the fun, jelly-like joy that is quality aspic.”

If you’ve ever had bone broth, you might already know the taste of aspic (a French version is called “chaud froid,” which translates to “hot-cold,” a reference to boiling the meat broth to let it chill and congeal, Maxwell notes).

Wiggly, jiggly … and savory

The earliest references to meat aspics in recipes and texts related to coking appear as early as the 8th century, and vegetable aspics soon followed. By the early 19th century, aspics were popular in Europe. According to MyRecipes, in the centuries before the Industrial Revolution, aspic was considered “haute cuisine”  something only the wealthy consumed. But by the mid-19th century, gelatin became easier to produce, thus it became more widely available and more cost-effective to those who wanted to give the exotic dish a try. And at the dawn of the 20th century, aspics gained a following in the United States. At the height of its popularity in the mid-20th century, celebrity chef Julia Child introduced many Americans to the dish.

“Of course, eating these foods in what we now consider to be a Jell-O mold might seem like a strange practice these days,” Maxwell notes, “but at the time, aspic was at the height of dinner party trendiness.”

Unlike Jell-O, which is relatively simple and quick to prepare, aspic is quite labor-intensive, Maxwell continues.

“Aspic takes so long to make because the cook must boil the bones and cartilage long enough to release the gelatin that gives aspic its signature jiggle,” she writes.

By the 1960s, however, aspics were falling out of favor with the public, instead being relegated to the category of “cringe-worthy, bizarre recipes of yesteryear” sections of America’s cookbooks. So, while it doesn’t appetize us – especially the aspics centered around cuts of meat – the aspic has never failed to entertain, shock, and even make us chuckle.

Those who remember the bygone days of disco recall a colorful expression of freedom, a musical genre whose sound captivated the world but whose bright star faded quickly.

A call to go wild

Delighting listeners with four-on-the floor rhythm (a steady beat in 4:4 time with the bass drum hit on every beat), as well as the use of electric piano, brass, horns, syncopated basslines, and synthesizers, the genre was developed in the late 1960s. It seemed to be a high-energy response to those who felt that dancing had no place in music – especially from fans of rock, which had dominated airwaves in the 1950s and ‘60s. Disco ushered in the 1970s with a flair that dismissed those naysayers, with dance as one of the pillars of its subculture.

“Disco music in the ‘70s was just a call to go wild and party and dance with no thought or conscience or regard for tomorrow,” singer Martha Reeves once said of the genre.

And the world, it seemed, answered the call, with disco clubs being erected in what seemed like every major city. There, music lovers converged in loose-fitting, colorful clothes that made it easy to dance. They danced the Hustle, the Bump, the Watergate. The speakers poured out the sounds of artists like ABBA, KC and the Sunshine Band, the Village People, Donna Summer, and Diana Ross.
The 1960s were over. The ‘Me’ Decade had arrived – and with it, so had disco.

Saving the day

Like so many other cultural trends, disco was born in New York City. It was early 1970, and a young DJ, David Mancuso, was planning to host a big party in his loft. The party – “Love Saves the Day” – was organized to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Hosted at Mancuso’s home, the venue, which quickly simply became known as ‘The Loft,’ would welcome only a select group of revelers. It was the very first underground dance party, and at its epicenter was Mancuso’s arsenal of high-tech music equipment, which, according to authors Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, had to play music that was “soulful and rhythmic … and impart words of hope, redemption, and pride.”

From its very beginnings, disco was music for the “others” of society, played in music venues for African-Americans, Latino and Hispanic-Americans, Italian-Americans (especially in New York City), and gay Americans.

“Disco gave different communities a safe space to celebrate love and liberation. It was an opportunity to find people who looked like you, thought like you and — perhaps most importantly — danced like you,” according to an article on PBS.org. “This was especially liberating for the LGBTQ+ community. Oppression came from the legal system and friends, neighbors, colleagues, and police; it was illegal for two people of the same sex to dance together, let alone have public relationships. Even when a 1971 law made same-sex dancing legal in New York City, wider society refused to tolerate it. For many, being queer became about looking out for each other — and disco was one way to do that.”

The hits keep comin’

The new sound combined elements of other music genres, from soul and funk to gospel and electronic. In disco clubs, colored tiles lit up on the dance floor to keep time with the beat of the music as mirrored balls shimmered and became physical manifestations of the upbeat tunes spun by disc jockeys night after night.

And in the span of just a few short years, the genre gave birth to some of the decade’s most memorable songs, which include:

• “Bad Girls” by Donna Summer (1979) – “An energetic ode to ladies of the night,” according to forbes.com. Toot toot, hey, beep beep!
• “The Hustle” by Van McCoy (1975) – The number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of ’75, its tune was easy to dance to and its lyrics were easy to follow.
• “Night Fever” by The Bee Gees (1977) – Made famous in “Saturday Night Fever,” it was one of the first disco songs to energize mainstream audiences.
• “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer (1977) – According to Forbes, the song “makes you feel as though you’re on a dance-floor with only the speakers. The synthesized beat contrasted with Summer’s angelic vocals have a transformative effect only love can.”

• “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor (1978) – An anthem of strength, Gaynor’s timeless classic helps you pick yourself up and move on from a bad breakup.
• “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge (1979) – An upbeat tune all about the power of community.
• “Staying Alive” by The Bee Gees (1977) – Perhaps the most well-known mainstream song, forever linked to “Saturday Night Fever.”
• “Boogie Nights” by Heatwave (1976) – With a jazzy beginning, this song had dancers tearing up the dance floor back in the day.

The common theme of these and other disco tunes – the joy found in liberation.

“The heartbeat of the genre can’t be stopped”

As the decade came to a close, so too did the heyday of disco. Long-simmering tensions between producers of rock music and producers of disco music culminated in “Disco Demolition Night” on July 12, 1979, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. There, the MLB promotion featured a crate of disco albums being blown up on the baseball field. The field itself was heavily damaged, and large groups of the more than 47,000 attendees stormed the field, sparking a riot.
The genre blazed as brightly as a mirrored ball on the dance floor – and its influence on pop culture is “staying alive” even today.

“The heartbeat of the genre can’t be stopped,” the PBS article notes. “Disco itself may not exist as it once did, but this revolution has had an evolution, and now its impacts are breaking boundaries between genres — much as its original creators did. While the so-called “end” of the era is still disputed, what matters most is that the soul of disco is still alive in speakers, earbuds and dance clubs around the world.”