Norge Village

[retromania]

Alex....

Thanks for all your GREAT photo posts. They're fabulous!!!!!!

The Norge sign here in my town was mounted on a pole near the street and it did not rotate. When Norge left, so did the sign.

 

[retromania]

I forgot how busy or cluttered a busness could look from the street with the big cars, power lines, window ac units hanging out of windows and billboards everywhere.  To a small child like me way back in the day it was facinating.  When a business or strip mall goes up now it certainly looks a lot neater.  Lines are underground.  There's central heat and AC and the units are usually on the roof or behind the building out of sight.  Ordinances exist now about billboarsd and business signs, the location, height, etc.  Of course cars are much smaller.

 

Glad a few of the Norge balls survived.        

 

[whirlcool]

I always liked how the Norge brochures always showed people dressed in a more upscale style. You really never saw people dressed like that in Norge Villages. Usually the people were wearing sweat shirts and shorts or "house dresses" which a lot of housewives wore during the day before their husbands came home. When I mentioned these to Karen she laughed and said she hasn't seen anyone in anything like this since the 70's and even then it was the older housewives who wore them.

http://fashion-incubator.com/archive/homage-to-the-humble-house-dress/

 

[launderess]

AKA The "Schmatta" Dress

No self respecting *real* housewife from about the 1040's through late as the 1970's, did her house cleaning dressed like June Cleaver (starched shirtwaist, pearls, high heels, nylons and probably a girdle on), it just wasn't practical.

Enter a comfy easy on and off dress with pockets that one could move about in easily and get "down and dirty" with housework with or without an apron/pinny over the whole thing. There were also smocks made along similar lines one could wear with slacks.

Of course by the 1960's you had young housewives like Mrs. Darrin Stephens who preferred "petal pushers", jeans or slacks along with a simple top for housework instead of the housedress their mother's wore.

In case anyone hadn't noticed before, guess who wears a housedress? In a tasteful print mind you, along with with pearls and kitten heels.

Because of women's fashions especially undergarments tended to be rather restrictive until the 1960's or so (the dreaded girdle that no self respecting female over puberty would leave her home without) comes to mind, women who had to do housework (that is they lacked servants) perferred a simple and loose dress that "let things all hang out" as it were, rather than be confined.

Lucy and Ethel wore various house dresses, as did Edith Bunker, and other television wives who had to do their own housework. OTHO Mrs.Brady amoung others of her class wouldn't have been caught dead in such a garment.

Finally as Whirlcool stated one was supposed to "freshen-up" and put on one's afternoon face before hubby got home at six for gin and tonics! Also if one had to run out to the market, pick up the children from school, etc... you didn't DARE go downtown in a housedress. Your front yard to pick up the newspaper, or maybe to gossip with the girls was far as decent women went.

 

[polkanut]

Both grandmothers practically lived in their housedresses unless like Launderess said, they had to run errands or whatnot.  Mom ditched the housedress when she reentered the workforce in 1978.  After that it was slacks and a loose fitting top.

 

[retromania]

In myneck of the woods....

My dad came home between 5:30 and 6pm.  My mother about 5-5:15 would go 'pretty up' as she called it.  It usually consisted of washing her face.  Brush through her hair.  Powder and lipstick.  Mom always was dressed nice.  Slacks and blouse.  Sometimes she would change her blouse.  The first thing my father wanted when he got home was a cocktail and a little peace and quiet before dinner.  Mom said he had to fix his own cocktail and he would fix one for my mother also.   

 

[mrsalvo]

I liked the Norge Villages as well. Does anyone remember the Duds-N-Suds? I'm not sure how popular they were in different parts of the country, but in Missouri there were just a few. They were very nice, very clean, and well attended. When you first entered there was a deli like lunch counter with tables and chairs and a tv, lounge area. You could even get a beer if you wished with your sandwich. From there, you entered the laundrymat and if my memory serves correctly there was even an in-wall fold down ironing board. All the equipment was new Maytags, I remember they were soooo quiet that you could watch the tv and actually hear the show.
This was many years ago, 1988-89, when I first moved out on my own. Money was tight, worked very long hours, but I remember how that laundrymat made life a little more bearable and pleasant. This was in a college town, and many students and young professionals made it the 'place to go.'

 

[retromania]

When I was in college !980-84...

There was a Duds 'n Suds at the Beach.  Don't remember the sandwich counter.  A group of us rented a house that spring break.  It was an ole-timey beach house on stilts with a tin roof.  It was off season and we got it at a good price.  The house I remember had an old gas stove (Magic Chef) that was fueled with bottled gas.  It had an old BF Goodrich refrigerator.  That was the one and only time I have EVER seen or heard of a BF Goodrich appliance.  Both stove and fridge had a healthy crop of rust growing on the outside.  The fridge would shock you if you touched the handle and the metal stripping on the counter at the same time.  I ran out of clean clothes and went searching for a laundromat and a Duds 'n Suds is what I found.  It was run down and dirty.  Nothing like what you described.  The place was so dirty in fact that I was reluctant to use the machines and started to go in search of another coin laundry.  I decided I didn't have time and would make do.  I remember it was really cheap to wash and dry.  The dryers got really hot.  So it turned out ok.  

 

[cehalstead]

We had a couple of them here in WV.....late 60's........

 

[tomturbomatic]

I don't know if it was just women of a certain age in the South who used the term, but from them I heard "wash dress" for the house dress. I watched one being finished with buttonholes being made down the front. These dresses were not worn beyond the end of the driveway, though.

 

[joelippard]

My grandmother wore those dresses all the time around the house, but that was the only place.  She wouldn't even go up to the local store for a few items without changing.

 

[cehalstead]

My mom wore "pedal pushers" (so named because they were designed to be worn while riding a bicycle and "pushing the pedal" and wouldn't get caught in the chain if there was no chain guard) around the house all the time, but wouldn't wear them anywhere "important". That called for a dress.

 

[retromania]

The Lucy Show

Lucy & Viv wore pedal pushers and flat leather shoes with pointed toe!  

 

[revvinkevin]

 

 

Hey Alex, where did you find this ad??   This was in my "stomping grounds" just 5.5 miles from where I grew up!

 

Kevin

 

[philr]

There's a group about Norge Balls on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/groups/norgeball/

 

[retromania]

Phil,

Thanks for that link. In one photo the Norge Orb had holes in it and you can see the lighting. Never knew they lit up, but makes sense since their hours included after hours.

 

[franksdad]

There was a "sewing hall" in the 60's and 70's in Easley, SC named Swirl.  Along with children's wear, they made these same type of housedresses.  Their brand name for these housedresses was "Model's Coats."  My Mama had several of these when I was just a small child.  Everyone around here knew what a Model's Coat was.  In some of the locally owned department stores they would have a whole display dedicated to these Model's Coats.  When my sister, Betty, was married in 1964, an older lady from the church gave her a "Model's Coat" for shower gift.  This made Betty mad as heck!  Mama tried to explain this wasn't meant as an insult but as a nice jesture.  I don't know what ever happed to that model's coat!  In the early 70's my Mama discovered pants and both her girdle and all of her Model's Coats went into the rummage bin!   It was unusually hot in 1981 when my Mama retired from work.  My father refused to let her turn on the AC as he said it hurt this rhumatoid arthritis too much.  Anyway, Mama went to the new Wal-Mart store in Easley and bought up a bunch of beautifully printed cotton fabric and began making her own housedresses on her new Singer Athena sewing machine (she bought for herself as a retirement present).  Once again Mama began wearing housedresses around the house that summer and several seasons afterward.  But God forbid!  If Mama was going anywhere or if anyone was coming over to the house Mama would yank that dress off and put her pants and blouse back on!        Although the Easley Swirl plant closed many years ago you can still purchase Swirl Model's Coats.  I guess, like everything else, they are made in China or somewhere else.  Click on the picture for more model's coats.

 

[retromania]

Jimmy

Man, did that bring back memories! I remember that sewing plant!! Mama never wore a model's coat or any type of house dress. She said that was for older women even though two of her older sisters wore them who weren't that much older than she was. But yes, I remember the changeing of clothes. Mom might have on slacks and a sweat shirt and the phone would ring. Someone from the church was coming over. To the back. Change clothes. Person leaves. Back to the back and back into her work clothes. And then before Dad came home, it was once again, change clothes. Makes me tired thinking about it.

 

[garyl]

Went to one as a kid

Near where we lived in San Diego was a Norge Village. They had a bank of dry cleaners, and an attendant who would press the clothes. My mom always went there when we had a lot of wash to do because the washers were so big. She said that she would rather spend the money at the laundry rather than spend all day and part of the evening running loads at home.

 

[launderess]

Final Hijack Of This Thread For "House Dresses"

My all time favourite NYC housewife in her housedress! *LOL*

Reminds me of some of the women in our area when I would either go over to play or see if so and so was ready to leave for school.

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[retromania]

You're Fine....

...because you're a great contributor!  You seem to possess a lot of knowledge about many topics.  If I knew you and you were sitting right here, I would get you to show me how to upload a photo to my AW profile.  Our webmaster informed me it must be in JPEG format.  I am trying to determine if I can re-format the photo.  

 

See,  I hijacked my own thread.

 

Have a great day!

 

[retromania]

Ah - ha!

I googled it and found out what I need to do.........

 

[drewz]

Love those old ads, we only had Norge Villages never had any RCA Whirlpool Polly Clean Centers, or was that Poly? Anyway those print ads for both are funny when you see them, don't know about the rest of you but growing up I never saw any women or men dressed in suits in a laundromat (oops that's Westinghouse?)