Amazon Northern Star Press Category:  Action/Thriller Publisher: Northern Star Press ISBN-10:  780962092947 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 358 Copyright: June 8, 2008 ISBN-13: 9780962092947 Memories of Times Past is a nostalgic journey back to a time of radio days, vinyl long-playing records, telegrams, stay-at-home moms, girdles and garters, and manual typewriters.  Here are the personal memories of the enormous changes that occurred in the 20th Century, accompanied by 250 vintage photographs. Readers will recall listening in on "party lines," sorting through card files at the library (instead of accessing Google,) getting up to turn over a record which only played one half of a symphony on each side, dragging the wash through a wringer and then hanging it out to dry on Saturday mornings, and hundreds of interesting, and sometimes unbelievable stories from a long-forgotten past. This is a trip down memory lane for the older generation and, perhaps, some surprising insights into the way life was, for those who are younger.  “I had no idea I was old enough to recognize and relish so much of the past that is recreated in this lovely, charming, worthwhile read. Those who take my advice and read it, will thank Dr. Hiatt for this relief from our troubled present.” – Ed Asner   Excerpt In her chapter on “Sex and Social Mores,” Hiatt explores the changes from Victorian prudishness to personal vibrators, and from corsets to Wonder Bras. She recalls: “The first airline stewardesses were hired in 1930 and were all registered nurses who wore uniforms that came below the knee. Their primary responsibility was the safety of the passengers in case anyone became sick. By the ‘40s stewardesses were no longer nurses, but were young and attractive, were fired if they got married, were over thirty-five, got pregnant or gained weight. They also had to wear a girdle on the plane.” Dr. Hiatt compared her childhood to life today: • You have a cell-phone, we had a party-line, and everyone on our line could listen in, usually surreptitiously. • You send email, we sent telegrams. • You play your music on a pocket-size iPod, ours came on 12-inch vinyl records. • If you want information, you just Google it, but we had to search through index cards at the library.

Memories of Times Past
This review is from: Memories of Times Past: Stories and Photos Recalling Life in the Early 20th Century (Perfect Paperback)
This is about the 20th century in America, at home, around the radio, in front of the TV, at the dinner table, in the garage, behind the wheel, in the kitchen. It's about what we ate and what we listened to and watched. What we bought, what we wore, how we behaved and what we did for a living. Marta Hiatt does an amazing job of weaving nostalgic black white photos of people, places and things with her own beguiling narrative interspersed with quotes from ordinary people who lived during these times. The result is book that I literally could not put down. In fact I put aside some other books to read it.

Remember doing the dishes with soap that wouldn't make suds in hard water? I do. The grease wouldn't get emulsified. It just got moved around. It took 10-year-old me hours to do the dishes from a big meal. Remember the washboard and the wringer that you were warned about getting your fingers caught in? Remember margarine, white like lard in a clear plastic bag, but with a little red ball that you broke and kneaded into the margarine to make it yellow? Remember corsets and garter belts and stockings that got runs in them? Leopold and Loeb, Al Capone, Patty Hearst, and Charlie Manson? Manual typewriters and the milk man? Or when the iceman did cometh and you put a square sign in the window with a chosen side up showing how much ice you needed? Popeye and spinach? Walking a mile for a Camel, and this ad on page 239: "No curative power is claimed for Philip Morris but--...An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure!...Call for Philip Morris"? The ad is from 1934. It is interesting how the tobacco companies projected their fears and revealed that even then they knew that cigarettes may cause disease.

Hiatt remembers all this and a lot more. You will find yourself turning the pages--which is to be expected since photos of those old ads, movie posters, people in quaint clothing, etc. are just so much fun to see; but what surprised me is just how readable the prose is. Hiatt's direct, unpretentious style and her knack for picking people to quote who are also straightforward make this one irresistible read. If there is any single theme that stands out, it would be the liberation of women, or truthfully, the partial liberation of women that has taken place most profoundly in the twentieth century. Hiatt does an excellent job of chronicling this momentous development and she points to some of the changes it has brought about.

The book is organized into chapters concentrating on various aspects of our lives, beginning with "Lifestyle," followed by "Sex and Social Mores," to "Household," through "That's Entertainment," "Fashion," and "Science and Technology," ending with Chapter Twelve, "A Potpourri of Changes."

Reading this is a bit like seeing the changes that have taken place in our lifetimes as in a newsreel (remember them?) sped up and vivid, perhaps like our lives passing before us... Irresistible book.
Dennis Littrell, Amazon Reviewer


Memories of Times Past
By C. A. Webb "Conversations Book Club" (Jackson, MS) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Memories of Times Past: Stories and Photos Recalling Life in the Early 20th Century (Perfect Paperback)
Marta Hiatt's book MEMORIES OF TIMES PAST is an incredible look at the progress that has been made in America, and it is a pitch-perfect way for all generations to discuss our progress and show appreciation for how far we have advanced.

Going through various facets of life, the book takes us into areas that we might not always feel comfortable discussing, but allows us to do so while comparing where we are now.
I love it and will be telling others about its worth.

Memories of Times Past
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Memories of Times Past: Stories and Photos Recalling Life in the Early 20th Century (Perfect Paperback)
The first half of the twentieth century seemed so much cleaner than the second. "Memories of Times Past: Stories and Photos Recalling Life in the Early 20th Century" looks back through the good old days, with nostalgia for what has long since passed. The rules of the past, the cars of the past, the telegram, and more are all relics; here they are presented as a trip down memory lane for the older generation, and perhaps, some surprising insights for those who are younger. "Memories of Times Past" is a good historical read or just a cure for nostalgia.