I have no idea what brought this to mind, but when I was little the folks always had a beautiful bed lamp at the head of their bed. The one I remember the most was peach georgette with a gathered piece for the front that ended in a flourett. It had tiny flowers with green leaves too. As I thought about that lovely lamp, I wondered what had ever happened to such a neat bedroom accessory?
While viewing HGTv "House Hunters" I realized why they had been so popular back in the 1920's and 1930's. Bedrooms in older homes were SMALL. In fact, as I recall my parents bedroom on Belgrave Avenue in Huntington Park, California it was a tight fit with a full size bed a Dressing Table and a High Boy. The bed fit between two windows with about a foot on one side. Barely room to fit for making the bed really. On the other side there was about as much room between the bed and the Dressing Table. When the bench was pulled out you couldn't get between the bench and the bed. At the foot of the bed there was about a two foot space to walk between the bed and the High Boy. That was the path into the walk in closet. Come to think of it, it wasn't all that big a closet, but you could walk into it. Hanging clothes on one side only. I would say it might measure about 4 maybe 5 feet. Well, back then people didn't have that many clothes, and yes, Dad had room for his things as well. Hard to believe. Well concidering that, I realized that a Bed Lamp was the only lighting in the room beside the over head light.
The Bed Lamp had two, I guess you could call them hooks that clipped over the headboard and held the lamp secure. It had a small pull chain for turning it off and on. We really don't need such an accessory today because our bedrooms are usually large enough to have bedside tables or night stands on at least one side of the bed. So today we have touch lamps, usually, to give light during the night, if needed.
Bedrooms were never as much a space for decorating as they seem to be today. A bedspread that was large enough to tuck under the pillows and hang to the floor. I don't recall ever having a bed skirt on any bed in the house. Definately not extra pillows. Oh, you might see a pretty china faced doll with a flowing skirt setting in the middle of the bed for "show", but that was about it.
Times change, houses have grown bigger. In fact they have extra rooms now that we would have never thought of. Having more than one bathroom was absolutely unheard of in the average home. We didn't know anyone that had more than one. If the wealthy did, we didn't know about it. Come to think of it, having a patio would have been a real show stopper in any neighborhood that I lived in as a kid. I don't remember a Bar-B-Que either. The only time I remember us having food cooked over a fire was at the beach when we had what they called
"weiney roasts". Now that was a treat. I can't even recall when we had our first Bar-B-Que. They are so common place now, about every home has one kind or another.
At our house we ate three meals a day. There were no Fast Food places, so we had to pack a lunch for work or if we went to school. Schools had cafeterias, but a hot lunch was usually .25 cents, and that was too expensive for the average families budget. I remember having an occasional hot lunch when I went to Junior High School, but it wasn't very often. Come to think of it, there weren't a lot of choices in a sack lunch either. Amazing the amount of things that are available today to bring a smile to the face of the youngsters at lunch time.
Well I have "rambled" on from Bed Lamps to Lunches. What a trip. When the mind starts retracing memories, it is scarey to find out just how wide the space becomes when you get to be my age. Kind of nice however when I stop to think about what has faded from view. Some pretty neat things were around when I was small. I didn't realize I missed them. Those kinds of things come and go with little notice. When I was small, they were pretty impressive. Come to think of it - in my mind, they still are.
Written this 13th day of February 2010
by: Eileen C. Rosenberg
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