Dishmaster M48

 

Now before you get caught up in my home-made shirt with defunct railroad logos, my striped socks and two-toned shoes or my belt with the pearl-handled revolver I want you to take a look around this kitchen for a minute.  There are some classic examples of 1950’s Americana on display. 

Let’s start in the upper-left corner with the metal wall-hung match dispenser.  Designed to hold a whole box of wooden matches its front tray allowed easy access to one match at a time while a side slot exposed the striking emery of the matchbox.  That kitchen accessory was critical in order for you to light the oven or stove-top burners.  Yep, when it came time to thaw and heat up that scrumptious frozen asparagus you had to be able to light the stove.  

Directly below that you can see the wall-mounted Swing Away can opener that came onto the market in 1938.  The Swing Away and its imitators were the height of kitchen convenience plus the sign of a discerning and thoroughly modern cook.  As I recall there was a Swing Away in every house my parents lived in.  In spite of the fact that the Swing Away had been on the market for 17 years my Dad must have felt that they were not to be trusted as his belt-and-suspenders approach to life required that a time-tested manual “butterfly style” hang beneath it in reserve.  Time-tested indeed as that butterfly is the basis of most can openers today and is my go-to whenever access to the contents of a can is needed at my house.

Observe the set of shiny metal kitchen canisters nestled in the corner.  White cannisters with a tasteful daisy design topped with yellow lids.  Very attractive in 1955 and pretty embarrassing for me to admit that I still have one of those in my garage that is used to store wire connectors.  My God!  That thing has followed me for at least 65 years. 

Above the sink is a lovely round mirror with a tasteful design around the outside edge.  I’m not sure if the design is a poor attempt at Maple leaves or English Ivy.  English Ivy is an invasive species throughout North America, though, so let’s go for Maple leaves as that wouldn’t depict us as such environmental rubes.  Either way it is a pretty ugly mirror and is mounted in an odd place. 

The cheese grater confuses me.  I mean, I have one of those things in a kitchen drawer that still gets used.  What confuses me is that we never ate any cheese other than Velveeta back then and do you even grate Velveeta of just carve a slab off and melt it?  Since it is made of whey protein concentrate, milk protein concentrate, fat and preservatives the FDA forced Kraft to change its label from “cheese spread” to “cheese product”.  Yuck!

The real piece de resistance is the Mansville Dishmaster Model M48 faucet set with brush.  Dishmaster is still selling a similar.  Those faucets were sold door-to-door and that one went for $49.50 in the early 1950’s.  An exorbitant amount of money at the time and heavily marketed as the perfect Mother’s Day or Christmas gift for the busy housewife.  My Mother must have felt like a queen washing dishes with that. 

OK.  Now about my belt.  I wore that belt all the time and I don’t recall ever needing it to hold my pants up.  The shiny pearl handled revolver buckle made me feel pretty special and every morning that I woke up and buckled that belt was a gift.  It was a sad day when I outgrew it.  Interesting that I still have that damned thing.  It ain’t shiny anymore and the pearl handle is gone.

I sure wish I had a pair of those two-toned shoes that fit me.  Imagine the figure I would cut today grocery shopping while wearing those shoes and socks, shorts, my “Old Guys Rule” t-shirt and a surgical mask.  I’m pretty sure that Jean would have the locks changed while I was gone.