Take a Break from Today's Madness With Author’s Collection of Fond Memories of Times Past

Marta Hiatt would like to take you on a sentimental journey back to a time of Model-T Fords, telegrams, stay-at-home moms, girdles and garters, radio days and manual typewriters. Her book is a nostalgic collection of stories and photographs recalling the way life was in the early part of the Twentieth Century, which provides a sharp contrast to our frenzied modern world. Hiatt has compiled hundreds of personal stories of “the good old days,” in her new book, vividly illustrated with 250 photographs that bring the stories to life. “Remembrances of Times Past” (Northern Star Press, $15.95) is available on line, including www.northernstarpress.com.

“After my sister reminded me of the hours we once spent helping mom pull the laundry through a wringer,” Hiatt says, “ I spent five years collecting stories from friends and relatives and, as a practicing psychotherapist, acquired many stories about my client’s childhoods.”

Hiatt relates this story about her own childhood:

“When the phone rang everyone stopped what they were doing, and listened. But they weren’t listening to the answering machine to hear who was calling, they were listening to the number and sound of the rings. Were they long or short? How many were there? Back in the forties many people had a party-line, so there were usually other families sharing a line with you. We used a hand-crank to call someone, and each home had its own ring made up of one or more short or long turns of the crank, so every time the phone rang everyone had to listen to the ring to distinguish if it was for them. It sounds very primitive today, but we didn’t even have phone books then, we got the number from the operator, and not everybody had a telephone. A long-distance call was so rare the whole family would usually gather excitedly around the phone when one came in. Then we would talk very quickly because the calls were enormously expensive.”

In discussing “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 beautiful, 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. Their sexuality was promoted in ads such Continental’s “We Really Move Our Tails For You.”

Comparing her childhood to life today Hiatt says:
•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 that had to be turned over to hear the other side.
•If you want information, you just Google it, but we had to search through index cards at the local library.

“Life was harsher in the 20th Century,” Hiatt says, “but, if you think it was simpler, you would be right.”

This “trip down memory lane” is unique in that it provides an interesting review of some significant events of the last century in a lighthearted, personal and entertaining way. The stories are supplemented and enhanced by over 200 black and white photographs from the past, and also the author’s own thoughtful commentary on our enormously-changed world.

On the book’s cover Art Linkletter says: “Remembrances of Times Past” will appeal to both a younger audience who will sometimes be amazed at the way things were, and older people whose own memories will be stimulated by reading these interesting stories, and viewing the photographs about the past. It’s a great book!”