What is a Clean Home?

[Miss Neecerie]

this is from the April 1922 Issue of Modern Priscilla, a 'house and ladies' magazine of the time.

Its interesting to see that even then there was some idea of the underlying causes of disease and not just a 'no visible dirt' sort of clean.


If this is unreadable...I will type it out..just comment.

 

[desi_de_lu_lu]

This article seems well ahead of its time.....suprisingly.

 

[LizzieMaine]

What's especially interesting is when this article was published -- just four years after the worst epidemic in modern history, the Spanish Flu scourge of 1918, which killed up to 675,000 people in the US alone, and possibly as many as 100 million around the world. People in the early twenties were *extremely* germ conscious, and when you look at the household magazines of the era, you're struck by the near-fanatical belief in the importance of sanitation. Anyone who grew up during that era is likely to have been obsessive about personal cleanliness.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Wow...see I knew about the focus on -clean-...but didn't know 'why' or that it was as germ focused as well.

This is part of why bathrooms and kitchens were all white still....you could -see- the dirt and white surfaces help give that almost medically clean appearance.


Learn stuff every day..hehe

 

[Fletch]

Similarly, when the first hamburger chains began around 1920, they were white inside and out, right down to white-uniformed cooks. White Castle, White Tower, etc., were the first "scientific" food chains, promoted as standardized and sanitary in an era when road food was chancey at best.

These chains also helped rehabilitate ground beef (aka the Hamburg steak). Once a butcher's way of moving scraps and trimmings, it was soon a staple of the American diet.

 

[Bill Taylor]

What's especially interesting is when this article was published -- just four years after the worst epidemic in modern history, the Spanish Flu scourge of 1918, which killed up to 675,000 people in the US alone, and possibly as many as 100 million around the world. People in the early twenties were *extremely* germ conscious, and when you look at the household magazines of the era, you're struck by the near-fanatical belief in the importance of sanitation. Anyone who grew up during that era is likely to have been obsessive about personal cleanliness.

Those beliefs during that period gave rise to the "sleeping porch". It was considered more healthy to sleep out doors, so many houses of the period included at least one sleeping porch, sometimes several. In smaller bungalows, often a screened porch was added along the back of the house to be used as a sleeping porch. And of course, in hot summer months, it was much cooler being in the open. Home air conditioning didn't exist. As youngsters during the 30's, my two brothers and I never got to sleep on the sleeping porches - that was reserved for our parents and two sisters. In the summer, my brothers and I slept in the back yard, on canvas and wood folding army (camp) cots. Didn't hurt us one bit.

Bill Taylor

 

[Rachael]

Similarly, when the first hamburger chains began around 1920, they were white inside and out, right down to white-uniformed cooks. White Castle, White Tower, etc., were the first "scientific" food chains, promoted as standardized and sanitary in an era when road food was chancey at best.

When I lived in North Carolina, there was a restaurant dating from the 20's called The Sanitary Restaurant. I would imagine its origins came from this movement.

 

[Fletch]

I have made an avatar of sorts out of a cut from Neece's article. I hope that's all right. It had kind of a cynical post-modernist ring, I thought.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Its only ok if you send it to me so i can use it in other places.

 

[Fletch]

<sings> Everything I have is yoooours...</sings>...check your PMbox.

 

[Forgotten Man]

Howard Hughes was a germ freak… and it stemmed from his early years! There were some real nasty epidemics back before the 20s… After the General Electric refrigerator came out in 1927, they sold many due to the idea food is kept safer and longer in an electric refrigerator! Also, the electric vacuum cleaner that came out earlier had come a long way since the teens. By the late 20s there were many companies that made house hold vacuums.

Also, showers and baths were now being pushed to happen daily when before it was a once a week practice.

The 20s were really a turning point in home health that set the standard for the next 80 years.