Victory Book Club: An Introduction

With so many people attracted to vintage, it’s interesting to see what vintage means to people. To some it might mean the extravagances of Downton Abbey in the First World War era or the flashy disco beats of the 1970s. I think of vintage as Mid Century or more specifically World War Two through the mid 1960s.

Finding vintage treasures at flea markets or on Etsy give us the hands on appeal to the eras we love and can give us something to collect.  We can feel like we belong to the past while literally holding onto its remnants. For me it’s vintage Pyrex. I can only imagine how the concept of a dish that you can use to prepare food, cook, serve and best of all, store your leftovers in, would have been exciting to the housewives of the day. It doesn’t hurt that the dishes are colorful and beautiful to look at when on display.

We are exceptionally lucky to be able to share our knowledge of vintage on the internet. Just Google vintage lifestyle and pages of blog addresses appear. Better yet search YouTube for tutorials on fashioning your hair after Bettie Page or even how to apply an everyday retro look of red lips and cat eyeliner. I’ve even seen blogs that feature vintage recipes where the main ingredient is gelatin to make a variety of meals just like in the 1950s.

I got to thinking about what life was really like back then. Nowadays the 1950s housewife is glamorized and the 1960s ad man made into a hero. College came to mind and when it was time to write a research paper I would sit down with library books with countless post-its sticking out the tops and learned about gothic literature, feminist writing and countless other themes. So why not apply the same to vintage?

Since you probably don’t want me to bore you with text book accounts of historical events I’ve decided to read novels; Fiction, memoirs and other exciting adventures written during or about the First World War era through the late 1960s.

Join Victory Book Club and decide which books you’d like to read yourself starting next Friday! If you have a suggestion for me, send it my way.