S. W. A. K.



New Years Eve 1950

 

Today for the first time I tried my new bright red lipstick   

(see October postings.)  Soon as I put it on, I flashed on

the 1940s.  Am I imagining it, or did girls wear a great deal

of bright red in those days?

First, of course, we used Tangee.  That, kids, was a mild,

almost transparent beginner's lipstick that was supposed to change, after you put it on, to a shade particularly suited to your complexion.  I used other girls' Tangee at high school

(shudder) because my father wouldn’t let me wear lipstick.

Then when he finally gave in, what I bought was indeed bright red. Max Factor.                                                 

This morning that bright red looked so weird on my 2012 face that I immediately blotted my lips on a Kleenex. (Computer just corrected me by capitalizing that trademarked word).  I looked at the smudged tissue and it brought back the letters we wrote almost every day during WWII, to the millions of men – many of them teenaged boys – across the Pacific and the Atlantic.  On those envelopes -- now that's what I call an emoticon !