Manners Brush Up

Vintage manners books are a great read. It's fun to read how people were expected to behave 50+ years ago. If you feel you were perhaps born in the wrong era, you will enjoy reading a vintage manners book and seeing the pictures. Or you can go to YouTube and type in "vintage manners" and watch any number of etiquette videos from the 1940-1960's. 

Vintage Manners Books

I am really enjoying re-reading some of the vintage manners and personality developement books my Grandmother left me and also ones I have found here and there. Last night I was especially amused by this excerpt from a 1939 book entitled, "Building Your Personality" by Hattie Marie Marsh.

"Diet

If the skin is to retain its flexibility and softness, a careful diet is indispensible. One doctor expressed this idea thus: "Your skin is made of absolutely nothing but what you eat". Another said, "When it comes to complexions--handsome is as handsome eats". These statements are true. For instance, in order that oil glands of the skin may function to keep the skin soft and resilent, milk and butter must be included in the diet. Every girl should eat the following foods daily, if she wishes to retain a youthful clear skin:
A glass of orange juice or tomato juice
A quart of milk
An ounce of butter
One egg
A raw vegetable
A raw or cooked fruit
Yeast
Fish liver oil"

So, the next time your friends or family say you shouldn't be eating butter...just tell them it's good for your complexion.

Youngest Manners Expert

Coaching the Sharman Explorer Scouts
December 2007

William Hanson, I believe will be one of the most influential young men of the century not only to his generation, but to older and younger alike. Keep up the good work William!


Photo Courtesy http://www.williamhanson.co.uk