Muriel Saves the Day

Muriel is unhappy with the kitchen reno. They forgot abut the old splintery floor. Mother says they have to wait, there’s no more money for a fancy new floor. This is 1934 after all, Muriel – the Depression, remember that?

Then Muriel sees an ad for Congoleum Gold Seal Rugs and Mother’s ready to whip right down to the store and shell out for a kitchen rug.  Huh? A rug? How is this going to solve any problems?

Happy ending: Muriel has the gang over for a “kitchen party” – wow, that’s some hot time they’re having. A couple of elderly F. Scott Fitzgerald clones talking about insurance over by the cupboards, Muriel sitting in a hard chair, and Muriel’s pal sitting on the table. Don’t they have more than one chair?

“Don’t bother about crumbs,” our gracious hostess tells the scintillating group. Which kind, Muriel? The cupcake bits that are being ground into the rug, or the ones wearing the Arrow collars?

The Formal Picnic

This is a little much, even for 1963. Here we have a “Theater-party Picnic” presented in Better Homes and Gardens’ Barbecues and Picnics. In the smaller photo you can see the theatre program, I couldn’t get it all into the big one. It is a program for “Ravina” - the closest thing I could find to this was the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, which features concerts and theatrical performances. (Why do they already have the program if they’re about to go to the theater?)

I can’t believe that people who are actually going to the theater, who are all dressed up (though really, they look pretty every-day by 1963 standards) are going to “take supper…and enjoy dining on the lawn.” Excuse me, but what lawn would this be? I mean, suppose you were going somewhere off-Broadway. What do you do, spread the plaid blanket out on the sidewalk?

And here’s the menu that you are going to be (a) cooking, (b) setting out on the theatre’s back forty (hah) and (c) cleaning up and stuffing back into the car before the curtain rises:

Chilled Fruit Toddy
Cold Roast Chicken
Assorted Condiments
Curried Picnic Salad
Salt Sticks
Limed Pineapple-in-the-Shell
Cheese and Cracker Tray
Hot Coffee

Oh, plus “flares for a touch of atmosphere” and a candle in a red glass like they had (in plastic netting) in ”fancy” restaurants back in the day. Trying to eat roast chicken and drink hot coffee while attempting to avoid grass stains on the theatre dress - I don’t know about this. It’s risky, is what it is.

And don’t get me started on the flares and the candle. It’s a scenario rich in the possibilities of disaster. I predict a comedy of errors: dramatic grease stains, spilled coffee, burnt fingers, messy condiments everywhere. The dénouement: a mad panic to get everything packed up in time. These people may miss the first act altogether. Which might be for the best, since the production appears to be an amateur one – most professional theatres do not sport a white picket fence.

Even if a young Henry Kissinger (or possibly it is Steve Allen, who might be more the theatre type) does seem to be enjoying the Salt Sticks there in the background. Love those light-blue shoes he has on, they match the jacket. Actually they look like running shoes, don’t they? Where’d he get them in 1963?