♥ Arthur & Adelaide ♥ This wedding photo was submitted to The 1940s Experience by their daughter-in-law and my friend, Angela! Our 20 year-old bride came to the United States from Vienna, Austria when she was two with her brother and, like most immigrants, the family was poor. The 25 year-old groom's family was quite wealthy (like housekeeper and cook wealthy) before the Great Depression. The son of Italian immigrants, the tall, dark and handsome, Arthur DeThomas fell in lov

♥ Arthur & Marie-Reine ♥ This is such a stunning portrait! A dear reader from Canada shares the love story of her grandparents and the unusual manner in which they tied the knot. The beautiful couple is Arthur Buteau and Marie-Reine nee Desjardins and they met somewhere around 1939 or 1940 in a remote region of Northern Quebec, still undeveloped at the time. He was there working (about 900 km away from home and she was visiting family (about 400 km from home.) Arthur and Mari

♥ Lucy and Carmine ♥ Now, let me tell you about this couple. I don't know them, but I came know them after finding their wedding album in an antique shop. Of course, as a New Yorker, I just had to find out their story and thanks to the internet. I did. Lucy Corso and Carmine D'Amico grew up only a block from each other in Wyckoff Heights, Brooklyn. The son of an Italian grave digger, he was one of eight children and she was one of four. In June of 1943, Carmine enlisted in t

♥ Bud and Mary ♥ Another of Mr. Cat's patients, Mary (age 89) daily admires this stunning portrait in her bedroom. It's wedding day for her and husband Louis aka Bud. From Boston, they married in 1948 after having met during the war. No worries of wartime separation on their part - Lucky Bud was due to ship out on the day AFTER VJ Day! Aren't they a handsome couple? They look so in love! Look how proud he is! Thank you, Mary for sharing your beautiful day and lucky story wit

Hi-di-ho, friends! It's June! The traditional month for weddings, and I love celebrating romance. Last year, in honor of A Moment Forever, my publisher Vanity & Pride Press hosted a 1940s week of blog posts with giveaways and one of the topics I thoroughly enjoyed discussing was the History of 1940s Weddings. Of course, not everyone married in June, so I penned a mock newspaper announcement in honor of all those couples who said "I do" on the fly during the war. Tongue-in-Che

Hi-di-ho, friends! Today marks an important date in the history of the mighty Eighth Air Force - and as such it was a memorable date on the home front ... in the Bronx, New York City ... in my family's home. This was the Gardiner family's 1940s experience put into action on August 17, 1943 following a B-17 combat mission over Schweinfurt, Germany. In a bad-luck "jinx" Flying Fortress that had previously, yet briefly, flown with the Memphis Belle on its last mission, "Frank's

Hi-di-ho, friends! I hope you're having a wonderful summer and enjoying some vacation time. Maybe jumping into the car and taking a few day trips to destinations on a gas tank? I have one of those books "Florida Day Trips on a Tank of Gas" and have made a few fun stops, one of which I'll write about on a later date. It got me thinking about my trusty ten gallon gas tank and just how far my car could take me. Ten gallons of gasoline may not seem like a lot today, but try using

Hi-di-ho, friends! I'm back today dreaming of summer days and the sound of a baseball bat whacking the ball. The roar of the crowd and the way my thighs used to stick to the plastic seat way up in the stands! LOL Ah yes, I remember well my own enjoyment of a baseball game (of course I attended to ogle the players) but there was something special about attending, not watching on television. Was it the chocolate and vanilla ice cream? The peanuts? Cracker Jacks? Maybe it was th

Hi-di-ho, friends! I'm so excited to share this blog post with you today. Those of you who have read A Moment Forever have discovered the secret of the swans that grace the book cover. But what you don't know is what inspired them. Well, I knew that everlasting love would be the primary theme of our hero and heroine but it wasn't until this little research trip that it fell into place. Swans. Let me share with you what the Audubon Society says: Mute swan pairs reportedly stay

Hi-di-ho, my friends! Yes, we're going to talk about cookies. Why? because I'm on a diet and talking about it is the closest thing I can get to the real thing. I have a frock to fit into on Memorial Day and, well, my painstaking endeavor in finding a full slip, will be for naught if I don't slim my waist before the 30th! (As an aside ... I had to go vintage on the slip, because modern full slips, let alone cotton ones, are so darned hard to find.) Cookies = sugar, right? Ste