May 4th and All’s Well.

Since several readers have emailed wondering if I have fallen off the edge of the earth, I thought I’d better post and relieve everyone’s collective mind. The truth is, I have a massive case of writer’s block. I did not realize how just being out in the world inspired my writing here.

I have been doing a lot of reading, but I hate for every post to be about a book. Nevertheless, I will be sharing a few more over the next few weeks.

Because of the shutdown, I missed my favorite shopping opportunity of the spring, the Liberty Antiques Festival. Actually, everyone missed it, as it didn’t happen. Maybe the situation will be different in September. I have been doing a lot of online “shopping”. Actually, I should say online looking, as I haven’t found a lot to buy. I’ll be sharing a few things in the upcoming days, or weeks, or months…

The postcard above was bought on the last real shopping trip I took before the current unpleasantness fell upon us. Such a romantic view of sailing! I know from experience that sailing is a lot of work. I once spent a week on a schooner sailing around the coast of Maine, and I had no chance to wear my Edwardian sailing suit. I’m kidding as I had no Edwardian sailing outfit, but trust me, sailing is hard work – very hard. That is unless you are rich and can pay others to do the line pulling and such.

I just read the Wall Street Journal report on how the cruise ship industry helped spread Covid-19 around the world. I had pretty much given up on the idea of cruising once the ships got so huge, and so many intestinal virus and bacteria upsets became rampant on the ships. I actually took a cruise through the Aegean in  2001, and I enjoyed it. But never again.

Fortunately, I have had the time to work on a new research project that I hope the present to the Costume Society of America next year. The topic is how pajamas were adopted by women for sleeping, and how they then became acceptable beachwear. I will, of course, post the paper here as well.

And I’m taking book recommendations.

Ad Campaign – Matson Lines, 1945

Across the blue reaches of the Pacific

Broad and unmistakable is the path beaten by Matson across the Pacific since the days of sailing ships.  Through all this time Matson’s business had been transportation, and it had been it’s purpose, with ever-improved equipment, to make even more accessible the loveliness of those Island regions.  

Would you guess from reading this add that WWII had just ended, and that the cruise line industry was still in a state of disarray?  Matson’s four ships had been turned into troop transports, and though you might not guess it from the ad, it took them two years before they could just one ship refitted and back into the touring business.

Yet, there are the hints:

And for tomorrow’s traveler in the Pacific – whether by air or by sea – Matson plans the very finest in modern and efficient transportation.

And the artist did a great job imagining the ship of tomorrow.  It is remarkable how little it looks like a ship from the 1940s, and how much it looks like a modern cruise ship.