Life, 1929-07-19 · page 20 of 36
Life — July 19, 1929 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous diary entry satirizing upper-middle-class domestic life. The main cartoon shows a woman relaxing while her husband works, captioned "At Ocean Crest" with Mother saying "I know it's miserable, children, but just think of poor papa!"—mocking the disparity between leisured wives and hardworking husbands. The lower cartoon depicts people at what appears to be an amusement park or public venue, with a child saying "Oh, mother, let's go home! I saw this in the movies"—satirizing how ordinary outings now seem mundane compared to cinema entertainment. The diary text discusses mundane domestic tasks (sewing, organizing shelves) and social observations, with sardonic commentary on contemporary issues like transit problems and social hierarchies, typical of Life magazine's satirical commentary on modern life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
At Ocean Crest. Motuer: I know it's miserable, children, but just think of poor papal “Oh, mother, let's go home! I saw this in the movies.” June 27—All the morning by gone in straightening out Baird cupboard shelves, sewing Leonard baskets, etc, having reached the point where I could give proper attention neither to beautiful music nor the comforts of philosophy through consciousness of the state the mending-drawer was in. A. great struggle with myself to cast off passé darning-silk, defunct corsage ribbons, and remnants of material for which reason assures me I shall have no future use, but I did weakly re- tain two sprays of paradise whose ex- istence I had forgotten, and also my college diploma, discovered in a con- signment of Sam’s abandoned sox. To Manie Howland’s for a luncheon of salmon .fresh from Canada and a fine slaw dressed in sour cream, and af- terwards by motor to Jane and Fenby Bausman’s at Cresskill, where we fell at once to cards, and when I had held four Aces thrice before tea time, they did tell me that I belonged on a steam- boat instead of on a screened verandah. In mention of the transit problem, Fenby’s solution of it was the require- ment of the Mayor, aldermen, and In- terborough officers to ride daily in the subway, and a good one, too, methinks, for I do hold that the French Revo- lution was fought for far less than the indignities of the rush hours, in especial since bread, albeit the prover- bial staff of life, is now known to be dangerously surcharged with carbohy- drate. F. did also reveal that plus- fours derive their name from the hand- icap with which English scratch golfers are saddled, which did again provoke my strictly femi- nine resentment against the hand- icap system, which reduces the prowess of experts and fre- quently permits boobies to go (Continued on Page 29) comicbooks.com