My research project has taken me to the microfilm at the central library, where I have unearthed many important facts. All of these are actual headlines from the Times or P-I:
* “Man should always order for woman,” P-I 21 Oct 1959. “In a group the men still give the orders, but if the party is large, sometimes the waiter goes to each person in turn to avoid confusion. This is the only time when a woman accompanied by a man should give her order directly to the waiter.” Damn straight the men give the orders. Where’s my martini, woman?
* “Provolone like cheddar,” P-I 21 Oct 1959. “Provolone is an Italian cheese, somewhat similar to cheddar, used after dinner and for snacks.”
* An ad from the same issue. “YOU LIKEE TERYAKI? Velee tastee! We marinate big soft steak with shoyu, flesh ginga, garlic, shuga, Chinee wine, broil on fire, make plentee good kau kau.” The fifties were awesome! You didn’t have to worry about offending dames or Chinamen–or cheese, which was all basically like cheddar. Hey, wait, isn’t teriyaki Japanese? I guess you didn’t have to worry about choosing the right ethnic stereotypes, either.
* “Handy hint for sandwich,” P-I 21 Oct 1959. “One gallon of most any sandwich filling will spread 100 sandwiches, if approximately 2-1/2 tablespoons is used per sandwich.” All of these citations are from a P-I dining special section, in which nearly all of the remaining articles are reprints of restaurant press releases.
* Finally, something from the Times. “Seattle Restaurant Scene Is Changing–for the Better,” Seattle Times 30 Apr 1967. “Even in our own Seattle Times’ neighborhood, The 13 Coins, a new and elegant dining room that opened recently in the Furniture Mart Building, is operating 24 hours a day[.]” In the same article, reporter John J. Reddin refers to Seattle as an “overgrown but lovable kite-factory town.” I have no idea what this means.
* From the same column: “To check on the action, I visited Sam and Mike Akrish, operators of Market House Meats, 1124 Howell St., long the major supplier of kosher-style corned beef in this area.” Awesomely enough, Market House Meats (which opened in 1948) is still in the same location, still run by the Akrish family, and their corned beef is still great. But what, no Jewish stereotypes? Clearly the 60s really did ruin America.
Kite-factory = Boeing? Dunno, just a guess.
Me likee.
Oh, that makes sense!
Because I have an insatiable thirst for knowledge…I looked for an actual kite factory in Seattle’s history somewhere. There are, in fact kite manufacturers in Seattle, but nothing to justify the term “kite factory town.” I suspect Anita is right about Boeing. However, I did “uncover” the following interesting facts…which perhaps everyone except me already knows.
The original main industry of Seattle was a sawmill
In 1880, Seattle was the second largest town in Washington Territory. Second to Walla Walla.
I got this astounding information from a lovely slideshow at historylink.org.
Kathleen
Historylink is great. I’ve been using them too.
Hmm. I can’t think of any examples in what I often loftily call my “primary sources” (that is, girls’ fiction about going steady published from 1940-1965) in which a man orders for a woman at a restaurant, unless the author is trying to make a point about what a jerk the man is. Conclusion: in the 1950s, Seattle men were kite-making jerks.
At our bookgroup weekend away, we took an etiquette quiz from the 50’s. It was really easy to see how the 60’s became the age of women’s lib!