Whenever zoo’s tried to put lions and tigers in the same enclosures, the tiger would eventually try to groom the lioness and play constantly. The lioness would lose patience and snaps at them

So basically what I’m saying is that you have a regal and refined gf who stands at the edge of a balcony during parties, sipping champagne

First, you had a lot of commercially prepared products like Jello and Spam (Spam, Spam, Spam …) and things like that being available to the general public for the first time.  A lot of these recipes come from ads for processed foods; they’re “serving suggestions” writ fancy.

Second, the Jello molds in particular are a democratization of an old-fashioned and very upper-class way of preserving perishable foods, which was to encase them in a meat jelly called aspic.  The aspic would preserve the food by preventing bacteria from getting at it.  It took time and effort to make an aspic, so it was rich-people food, prepared by cooks in big houses.  Jello (in its more savory flavors) could do the exact same thing, except that one lone housewife could make a Jello mold cheaply and easily.  I’m not saying that aspic was necessarily the most appealing food out there, but it was high-status because it was associated with Fancy European Aristocrats.

Third, more people had refrigerators, not just iceboxes.  A lot of these dishes need to be chilled, so here’s a way to use one of your fancy new kitchen appliances.

Fourth, this is not everyday food, for which we are all grateful.  It’s Fancy Food, meant to show off.  You’d serve it at a party (and then, presumably, your friends would retaliate by holding another party and serving something else equally revolting).  So this is food that takes careful preparation, lots of time, and lots of effort.  You, as the Middle-Class Fifties Housewife, are showing off your new postwar prosperity.  You have the skill to make food look … um, “attractive,” you have the money to buy all these ingredients, you have the kitchen equipment and appliances to prepare them, and because your husband works a comfortable middle-class job, you have the time to stay at home all day and construct something like this.  This kind of food is the physical manifestation of Thorstein Veblen’s theory of Conspicuous Consumption.

Fifth, if you’re a housewife making this in the 50s and 60s and even into the 70s, there’s a good chance that you were born in the 20s or 30s, and that you grew up during the Depression and WWII.  You might have grown up poor, not having access to a wide variety of food, or not having time or a place to prepare it.  You might have seen fancy food in magazines, but not a chance that that kind of eating would ever trickle down to you!  And then … voila, it did!  I think a lot of this sort of thing is just a grownup way to play with food, to experiment with all the neat new things that technology, processing, and a new tax bracket could bring you.  These are adult mud pies; who cares how it tastes?  We can make it look Really Cool!  We don’t care all that much about specific nutritional value; we’re just so happy to have all this food, and sufficient calories, that we’ll just play with it and try it in weird combinations and enjoy it.  (Or, I suspect, “enjoy” it.)

At the end of our hour, she told me that although I’ve been hurt and broken badly, she can see I still have parts that aren’t shattered.  I laughed lightly and I said “Yeah, one day that will be all of me, no parts shattered anymore”, And she said “No, it won’t.”

Hi househunting, this is not a house but it’s related to old people who often live in cool old houses i know it’s a reach please deal with me and hear me out for two seconds. 

I saw this gif on reddit and at first I thought it was cute but then it made me sad. Something as simple as a complimentary piece of cake on her birthday made this lady so happy. I started googling senior citizen statistics and found that 1/3 of US senior citizens live alone, and more than half of them are women. More than one in five elderly people in the US are “elder orphans” - old people without any family at all. That breaks my fucking heart !!!!!!!!! Imagine that everyone you know is dead or gone, you don’t use technology so you can’t connect via the internet with anyone else, and you have health problems so you cannot get out to do social things in public, even shopping. It would be so painfully isolating. 

Old people are actually the best (if they aren’t the asshole racist kind). They have great stories, cool antiques, and probably have better hobbies than you. When I was in preschool we used to make holiday gifts and walk to the nursing home and sing the old people songs and give them gifts and it made them so happy. I really wanted to get involved and do something about feeling so shitty about this so I just signed up to volunteer with Full Life Care here in Seattle, an organization that pairs a young person with an elder orphan to hang out with them, help them with errands, and give them gifts throughout the year.  I encourage you to do the same!!!! Google things like “adopt a senior citizen” or “elderly partner program” to find one in your area. I think this is a great way to volunteer and help someone who really needs it!!