A Little American History

I found this gem in one of my favorite little charity stores a while back.

I quit breathing a little when I saw it.  I also can't find another one on the internet at the moment, either currently for sale or having sold recently.  John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy will be listed on my Etsy or eBay soon.

I like souvenir kitchen stuff, and I collect things from places I've been- but primarily just old things from before I existed.  This glass is a souvenir from Seawolf Park in Galveston.  The park is named for a lost submarine, and has the sub USS Cavalla and the Destroyer Escort USS Stewart, as well as the remains of the merchant ship SS Selma.

And of course, all history has fashion history.  World War II changed women's lives in many ways.  Rosie the Riveter was an encouraging visual representation of the many women who wrapped up their hair, rolled up their sleeves, and went to work for the war effort.  Still, ladies liked to be glamorous outside of their jobs.  Stockings, however were a rare luxury since nylon was rationed.  My grandmother used to tell me stories about going out with her friends at night, and how they would use their makeup pencils to draw lines up the backs of each other's legs to create the look of the stockings they weren't wearing.  Then there was Victory Lace:

 With everything focused on supporting the war effort, all things were for victory.  It wouldn't be very patriotic to use nylon for stockings when the military needed it for so many supplies.  Victory Lace was the alternative when one could afford stockings.

 The fishnet-look lace is all cotton, and the foot is rayon.  I have 2 pairs, and one of them may be on loan to the  National World War II Museum in the future.