Food For Thought...

Title: Blue Camellia. Frances Parkinson Keyes. 1957
Found: Box of books - friend's move.

My imagination runs wild with this one... wedged tightly in between page 420 & page 421 (also known as the 10th to last page of the book) was a tightly folded scrap of paper that had been so pressed into it's spot I almost didn't realize it was there. As I unfolded it, I read this:

IV Girdle
Cat food
toilet paper
spam
dry milk
ham
pork & beans
baked potatos
chicken salad
pimento cheese

Hmmm...obviously someone's grocery list. But what is an iv girdle? I imagined some sort of 1950's "techno" weightloss appparatus type thing that one might wear. Something to do with tubes and stretchy fabric and blood pressure or push up bras.

I asked my husband if he might know what this iv girdle thing was. Upon his inspection of the list... he said it had to do with watching television. Hmm... interesting. An iv girdle for tv watching? Was this some sort of exercise routine...perhaps the Thigh Master of 1957? How would such a girdle work?

Easy, he said...it's called a TV Guide.

Ahhhh....

it's an honest mistake. See close-up. I am slighly disappointed though that it was not in fact an iv girdle. I was just on the verge of imagining what type of woman would buy pork & beans, cat food and a girdle all at once. But then, looking over the list again with my new not-quite-as-interesting information, I could not help but chuckle to myself that both ham and spam were on the list. Funny not only beacuse they rhyme - but funny since isn't there already ham in spam?