It involved nearly every nation on earth, and used a bewildering array of weapons: economic warfare, diplomatic maneuvering, and endless propaganda. And though it was a “cold” war in the west, it frequently erupted into long, bloody conflicts in southeast Asia, Africa, and Central America.

Here in America, the Cold War became the real and daily threat of sudden nuclear annihilation for 42 years, which only ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union suddenly imploded.

There was no signing of a peace treaty because there had never really been a war. If the Cold War had a formal beginning, it was probably May 22, 1947. On this day, President Harry S. Truman signed into law what might be his most durable legacy: The Truman Doctrine.

At the time, the Soviet Union was actively fomenting revolution in the post-war world, and gambling that the United Nations were tired of fighting. Soviet forces had already seized control of much of eastern Europe, and begun walling off eastern Germany. It was also looking to expand into the Mediterranean, where governments were still staggering from the war.

Great Britain, financially drained from six years of war, was unable to continue its aid to democratic governments in Greece and Turkey. The United States feared these countries would fall to Russian domination without British help.

The Truman Doctrine launched America’s counter-offensive to the Soviets with a grant of $400 million in aid to stabilize the Turkish and Greek governments.

The Truman Doctrine committed America to containing communism. It was the opening of a broader initiative that eventually granted $17 billion to help war-torn Europe rebuild its economies and peoples.

The Post provided extensive coverage of these events and Americans’ attitudes about what their government’s initiatives. A short editorial article from the June 7, 1947 issue was titled “Most Americans Think the U.N. Worth Saving.”  Addressing Americans’ attitude toward the appropriation of monies to Turkey and Greece, it says:

“They accept the necessity of sending food and extending military aid to Greece and Turkey, but they have a feeling that the scheme is too much like the establishment of a military bridgehead and too little like economic reconstruction.”

The American people were also extremely concerned that the money and aid were not going to fix the “root” of the problem.  The problem at the time was perceived as:

“We have done too little to prevent Europe from rotting at the core – i.e., Germany – and, as a consequence, find ourselves trying desperately to patch her up around the edges.”

This latter statement was clearly referring to the Marshall Plan’s $17 billion in aid.

In “Why The Truman Doctrine Makes Sense,” appearing just a few weeks later, the editors state that the US had averted a disaster in the Mediterranean.

“State Department officials are certain that, if the United States had not acted promptly upon the announcement of British withdrawal, Greece would have been the victim of a coup d’etat within a few weeks.”

Later that month, the editors wondered about the proper recipients of aid under the Truman Doctrine in “Must We Lend Britain More Billions?”

“Our Truman Doctrine makes no sense at all if the United States is to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into puny countries like Greece and Turkey and Korea without simultaneously guaranteeing Britain against economic collapse.”

History has shown the wisdom of Truman’s plan. The United States pumped a fortune into Western  Europe, but it stabilized global politics enough to ensure a 44 year stalemate.

It could be argued on a much larger scale that Truman’s foreign policy have led to America’s present-day involvement around the world.

It must have been unsettling to many Americans in 1947 to hear their governments was getting ready to commit billions upon billions of dollars in aid to ensure global peace, but it proved, ultimately, to be a good investment. And it might give us reason to be hopeful for peace beyond today’s terrorism.

May 22, 1947: The Cold War Begins The Saturday Evening Post

Love and Marriage: A Cartoon Gallery The Saturday Evening Post

Click on the images for a larger view.

Zippo – 5/8/54

Courtesy of Zippo

Zippo lighters were—and still are—the definition of a quality product that will stand the test of time. However, from today’s perspective, they may seem a slightly unlikely gift for Mother’s Day. This ad is suggesting Mom might enjoy a Zippo lighter and makes a fantastic argument about why indeed it would be a great gift for her. The picture in the ad shows a devoted dad and son giving Mom breakfast in bed and a Zippo lighter, and she couldn’t be more pleased. This ad is as unique as it is classic.

Whitman’s – 5/1/54

Courtesy of Whitman's

This beautiful Whitman’s ad for a chocolate sampler is a classic! Fifty years later, many moms still get chocolates and/or flowers for Mother’s Day. It begs the question, “If it’s not broken, why fix it?” when it comes to great Mother’s Day gifts. This cute ad features bright, noticeable colors and a cute note from a child, encouraging the reader to buy Mom Whitman’s for Mother’s Day.

Pyrex – 5/6/50

Courtesy of Pyrex

This full-page Pyrex ad “hits two birds with one stone”—encouraging the purchase of Pyrex products for both Mother’s Day and summer weddings. The colors and variety of products in this ad make it quite reasonable that anyone reading it would agree that Mom would really enjoy the “perk” that perhaps she will make you that delicious cherry pie with the pie plate you bought her for Mother’s Day? It seems like a win/win situation.

Western Union – 5/8/54

Courtesy of Western Union

In today’s world of Internet, cell phones, and instant communication, it is hard to imagine a world in which someone was not reachable immediately. Western Union got in on the Mother’s Day bandwagon and encouraged people to “wire” her a Mother’s Day telegram. Note the “P.S.” at the bottom encouraging married men to “remember her mother, too.” Just like a man occasionally needs a reminder today, he needed one in 1954 as well.

Enger-Kress – 5/6/50

Courtesy of Enger-Kress

It’s interesting how this ad was laid out in the original magazine. It is a “half-page” ad, but the designers made the best use out of their space by putting the original ad “going down” the page. The reader had to physically flip the magazine to get a look. The ad promotes the purchase of billfolds, wallets, and other leather products not only for Mother’s Day, but Father’s Day, graduations, and weddings, too.

Dormeyer – 5/2/53

Courtesy of Dormeyer

This black and white double-page ad took up a lot of magazine “real estate” and advertised getting Mom any variety of Dormeyer products for Mother’s Day. The ad features numerous kitchen products including mixers, fryers, coffee makers, or a blender. However, if Mom is not a chef, perhaps a nice electric blanket for the bedroom would suit her better? No matter Mom’s tastes, Dormeyer had a product to suit her likes.

Whitman’s – 5/2/53

Courtesy of Whitman's

Another Whitman’s ad beauty was featured in this May 1953 ad. The most striking aspects of the Whitman’s ads were the bright and attractive colors. The ad was targeted to reach dads who would be doing the “purchasing” for Mother’s Day. What dad would not love to see his wife and child so pleased with his selection of Whitman’s?

Dormeyer – 5/1/54

Courtesy of Dormeyer

This is another Dormeyer ad from 1954. The “full-page” black and white ad would have been very noticeable and attention-getting for the reader going through the latest edition of The Saturday Evening Post. Also, Dormeyer was sure to feature not only a variety of products, but a variety of price ranges for potential buyers. The ad also assures that purchasing a Dormeyer will make your “Darling’s” life all the easier and lighten her meal-making efforts in the kitchen.

Mother’s Day Vintage Ad Gallery The Saturday Evening Post

They live in the midst of all of the contemporary amenities, but choose not to participate in them, or at least as little as possible. They practice gardening and grow most, if not all of their own foods. They keep animals to give them milk and eggs. Some even convert their vehicles to diesel engines and brew their own bio-diesel fuels.

In an effort to unearth the appeal of urban homesteads, we caught up with the founder of the Urban Homestead movement, Jules Dervaes. We were reminded of a very important message: Each and every one of us can help make one aspect of our life more earth-friendly with minimal effort. All it takes is the decision to make a difference!

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Before he founded the The Path to Freedom movement in Pasadena in 2000, Jules Dervaes homesteaded in the New Zealand outback and rural Florida, where he had lots of land to work with. Coming to Pasadena with his family, he had to shrink his operation from 10 acres to an area that, if you subtracted the house, was one-tenth of an acre.

In the beginning, the Dervaes family goal was simple: to survive. And within a few years, they realized their plan was working. They also saw potential to turn their homestead into an outreach program so others could benefit. They began a Web site, www.pathtofreedom.com, which expanded to include a daily blog. A revolutionary idea at the time, the blog chronicled the family’s day-to-day experiences.

Today, their homestead in Pasadena can claim some amazing stats.

The Dervaes Homestead in Pasadena boasts over 400 different kinds of produce, 1,780 chicken and duck eggs and 25 pounds of honey. In addition, they produced 1,500 gallons of bio-diesel fuel since 2004. © 1970 - 2009 Jules Dervaes.

Annually they produce around 3 tons of fruits and vegetables, 1,780 chicken and duck eggs and 25 pounds of honey.  Additionally they have produced 1,500 gallons of bio-diesel fuel since 2004 and over 11,500 kwh of solar power produced since 2003. Not too bad for one-fifth of an acre.

When the Web site began to grow, they realized the value of a social networking site just for gardeners, and www.freedomgardeners.org was born. The site has over 6,000 members from around the world and provides a forum where gardeners can help each other.

Post: What costs are involved in getting started?

Dervaes: We were on a budget and things were expensive here, so we went on the cheap. We’d collect bed frames and turn them in to trellises, and turn river rock and glass bottles into edging. I wanted to show that every family could do this, without having to be rich. We were always trying to find the least expensive way to have things done. You don’t have to be rich to take care of the environment.

Post: How can people educate themselves on gardening?

Dervaes: Pepper your local nurserymen with questions: What grows in your neighborhood? What are they selling? They’re making a business out of it. They know what works, or else you wouldn’t come back. Look around your neighborhood (to your neighbors and see what works for them.)

He also encouraged people to join the networking site. He described www.freedomgardeners.org as “a facebook for gardeners only.”

Post: You refer to the practice of “being neighbors.” What do you mean by that?

© Jules Dervaes 1970 - 2009

Dervaes: I try to think of the spirit of neighborliness, like the Amish do. Your neighbors are your extended family, and they’re there for you like you are there for them, and you can’t charge for that. We didn’t want to be a business of neighbors. We wanted to be really, truly neighbors.

He talked about modern life and its fast pace. While we can be driven by the need for instant gratification, he observed, gardening is, in many ways, the opposite of this lifestyle. It takes patience and time, but the rewards are worth it, and the changes in life it encourages are also valuable.

“Unfortunately, in America, we think you have to be big, fast,” Dervaes notes. “An instant makeover. But nature works in a different way.  It takes 500 years for nature to make an inch of soil. So you have to look at it in a slower perspective; we have to slow it down.  Slow food. Some of my food takes 30-60 days to get to the table. You have to reduce your expectations.”

Post: What do you hope your children will learn from gardening, homesteading, and the Path to Freedom?

Dervaes: What I’m doing here gives me hope. I couldn’t take the bad news in the newspapers and the Internet and everywhere, unless I could do something about it, and growing a garden gives me hope, and it gives my children hope. They have something to do. Because it’s the hopelessness and helplessness when they give you bad news and you throw up your hands and say “What can I do about it?”  This gives you a direction, and with that direction comes hope.

Who couldn’t use a little hope in this modern world?  For Jules Dervaes, gardening is a first step towards a greater step, and his life is an example of that.

For more information, visit www.pathtofreedom.com.

Urban Homesteads and Hope The Saturday Evening Post

We may see several new types of chocolate in the coming year:

• Single-origin chocolate, which is made with cacao exclusively from one region (Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, Madagascar, etc.)
• More organic chocolate, which uses beans grown to organic standards, using no pesticides or harmful toxins.
• Fair-trade chocolate, which ensures that cocoa growers get fair prices and fair treatment for their beans.
• Sustainable chocolates, which are grown with methods that ensure sustainable re-growth of cocoa beans

Finally, a responsible way to enjoy chocolate.

With so many chocolates to choose from, it’s no wonder chocolate pairings are becoming the new wine tastings. Companies are starting to test unexpected pairings of chocolate with wines, cheese, spices, exotic flavors, and fruits not used in the past.

Appealing to the students of chocolate, who are engaged in a life-long course of study, several retailers and restaurants have begun chocolate tastings and chocolate schools. Café Zooka in Hershey, Pennsylvania offers courses to educate visitors on chocolate as well as chocolate tasting. Ethel’s Chocolate Lounges (see link below) have added tastings to some of their stores in Illinois and Nevada.

Chocolate companies see a promising opportunity in this field. In the coming years, the industry is expecting an explosion of this kind of offering. For consumers, it is a fun and educational way to taste chocolate.

In 2009 the National Confectioners Association came out with a report showing that it believes future trends with chocolate will capitalize on health benefits, flavor fusions, and international influences.  Flavor fusions use ingredients that unexpectedly complement each other, such as milk chocolate, caramel, and sea salt. Another potential is the fusion of exotic spices. International recipes are experimenting with the combination of chocolate and chilis or chocolate and wasabi.

Long gone are the days when your only options for chocolate came at the vending machine. Consumers are beginning to demand more from their chocolate experience. Chocolate makers are looking to meet your needs and offer ways to make chocolate even more appealing—if that’s even possible.

For more information on the sources presented here please see:

The National Confectioners Association

http://www.candyusa.com/News/PRdetail.cfm?ItemNumber=1456

The Gourmet Retailer 2008 Trend Report

http://www.gourmetretailer.com/gourmetretailer/content_display/trends/e3ic1abd1883d2156371dc907ea114507eb

To see more about the tasting or educational opportunities listed please see:

Hershey

http://www.hersheystory.org/education/

http://www.hersheystory.org/chocolate-tasting/

Ethel’s Chocolate Lounge

http://www.ethelschocolate.com/

Your Future in Chocolate The Saturday Evening Post

The Victory Gardens idea was actually a remnant of WWI.  In 1917, the government encouraged Americans to start “War Gardens” to help feed their families and US troops. By the end of the war, Americans had begun over 3 million gardens and grown over $525,000,000 (in 1918 dollars) worth of produce .

By the time WWII came around, several advances had been made with plants, tools, and fertilizers, making the idea of gardening much more appealing, even for those who had little gardening knowledge. By 1943, school, home, and community gardens produced 40% of America’s fresh fruits and vegetables.

We have come full circle with the idea of “Modern Day Victory Gardens.”  First Lady Michelle Obama began a garden in the yard of the White House last year — the first full scale garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s own Victory Garden during WWII.

Ms. Obama uses the garden as a platform to educate children, as well as adults, about eating healthy, nutritious, and locally grown produce at a time when obesity and diabetes have become a national concern.  She has recruited local Washington DC schoolchildren to help care for the garden and experience the fruits of their labors.

The First Lady’s example is one reason that gardening is becoming attractive to a whole new group of people. Many more people are considering trying their hand at a gardening this year, due in part to Obama’s example.  Even the Food Network got in on the game and had an “Iron Chef America” episode bring the competition to the White House.  The chefs were allowed to make recipes featuring anything they could find in the garden.  She also appeared on Sesame Street to help Elmo and the other muppets plant seeds and encourage the children watching to eat their veggies.

Eating healthfully in America is a challenge today. Many Americans argue that making healthy meals is  too expensive. It’s easier and quicker to buy fast food, or the processed food in they find supermarkets. Besides, they say, they simply don’t have the time to prepare meals from scratch.

It is true: healthy eating can cost more, and it takes planning and work. But having  your own garden is a big help. It can  be quite inexpensive and yield very high rewards.  Also, the process of gardening can become a whole-family activity.  Children and adults alike will appreciate the hard work they put into getting their delicious fruits and vegetables.

Many people have been concerned about eating “locally grown” foods, wherever they live — how much more local can you get then your own yard?  Gardening also provides the benefits of exercise, fresh air, and sunlight while caring for the garden, as well as stress relief.  In our high-tech, constantly busy society, the hours spent in the garden are good, quality-quiet time, both for body and mind.

If you are a First Time Gardener but  have no idea where to begin, the Post wants to help. Over the next few months, we will offer a series of articles to help people begin gardening. We hope you’ll find these articles valuable to get a garden rolling in your own yard, window-box, or community.

Food preservation, storage, and canning will be covered, as well as tasty recipes that allow the gardener to enjoy the season’s worth of work all year long!

Bookmark www.thesaturdayeveningpost.com and follow along as we explore this topic in detail.

It’s Planning Season for Recession Gardens The Saturday Evening Post

Over a century later, chocolate is still a “hot topic.”  In recent years, chocolate as an industry has even seen a rebirth.  Instead of mass-production and affordability, chocolate has moved into niche markets as a diet and health food, a delicacy to accompany wines and cheese, and a mood-enhancer.  Mass-produced chocolates are still highly popular, but a growing number of chocolate lovers are finding pleasure in these new offerings.

Here at the Post, we have a variety of chocolate lovers.  We thought our readers would enjoy a series of postings that look at the history and the future of chocolate!

We thought we would begin with a brief introduction to the key terms:

Cacao (%): The term refers to the ingredients derived from the cocoa bean.  The source of the cacao components are “chocolate liquor” — the term used to describe the pure (nonalcoholic) chocolate in liquid form, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder.  The” % cacao” refers to the percentage of these ingredients, by weight, in the finished product.

Dark Chocolate: The term “dark chocolate” is not defined by regulation in the US.  Within the industry however, it is used to refer to both sweet and bittersweet chocolates containing high levels of chocolate liquor.  Many dark chocolates on the market today contain more than 35% chocolate liquor.  It is common to see dark chocolates containing 45-80% cacao on the market today.  Dark chocolates may contain milk fat to soften the texture, but do not generally have a milky flavor.

Milk Chocolate: The most common kind of eating chocolate; it is made by combining chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, milk or cream and, sweeteners such as sugars and flavorings.  According to the FDA regulations, all milk chocolate must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor and at least 12% milk solids.  The only fats allowed in milk chocolate are milk fat and cocoa butter.  The varieties of milk chocolates in the market are expanding.  Some high cacao % milk chocolates are essentially dark chocolates with additional dairy ingredients.

White Chocolate: White chocolate is a blend of cocoa butter, milk, sugar, and flavor.  No chocolate solids other than cocoa butter are present, which explains the lack of brown color.  According to US regulations, white chocolate needs to be at least 20% (by weight) cocoa butter, at least 14% total milk solids, and less than 55% sweeteners (such as sugar.)

Please join us over the next few Fridays as we explore chocolate. Our chocolate postings will help you determine which chocolates you like, and encourage you to try something new.

In case you haven’t done this already, this is the perfect opportunity to bookmark our website, www.thesaturdayeveningpost.com.

More chocolate information may be found at the National Confectioners Association website – www.candyusa.com

Chocolate Is Here to Stay! The Saturday Evening Post