Then and Now As for back as I can remember, about the time this picture was taken I would watch my Dad get up every morning and like religion he would do two things, wash his false teeth with a large toothbrush and a bar of Ivory soap, and shave. His shave was the same routine every morning, run hot water, soak his Eveready Brush, lather his face with Williams Mug Soap, and shave with his old opened comb Gillette. For my 15th birthday I received a new Gillette, Eveready Brush, and a puck of Williams Shave Soap. I felt I was becoming an equal with my Dad. Little did I know. Now neither my Dad nor myself did anything fancy when it came to a mug, we just used some old chipped heavy walled coffee mug my Mom had in the cabinet. Now, we lived in a small modest house with three bedrooms and one extremely small bathroom, no shower, just a tub. Sometime around 1965 when it started taking my sister longer to get ready than it did my Dad, Mom, and myself, my Dad gave up on trying to get a good mornings shave, and he committed the cardinal sin, he bought a Remington Electric Razor and a bottle of Williams Lectric Shave. In our small den where my Dad would take naps on the old sofa sat an old end table that belonged to my Grandmother. My Dad set up his “shave den” right there on that table. One Remington Electric Razor, one bottle of Williams Lectric Shave, one double-sided mirror, and the same three bottles of after shave he had used for years. Now, back then all these goodies came from one of four places, Rexall Drug Store, Safeway Grocery Store, Montgomery Wards, or Sears & Roebuck. “For all you youngsters, there use to be a Roebuck.” Today, if you want to attempt to drive somewhere to purchase these types of items, you more than likely have to drive to one of these locations or maybe all of them to find what you want. Welcome to 2012. We now have hundred’s (maybe thousand’s) of wonderful items to choose from. Never in my lifetime has there been a better choice for razors, blades, soaps/creams, and after shaves. I can look better, feel better, and smell better than I ever have before. The great part about all of this is we don’t have to burn one gallon of high dollar gasoline to get it. That’s right; let the Postman or UPS man bring it to you. There are many great vendors that stock these wonderful goodies we all love to use, including our own THE SHAVE DEN STORE Could you imagine what our Fathers and Grandfathers would have thought about this Internet and one button shopping? I loved the 50’s and 60’s, but as for as shaving goes, we are now living in "THE GOOD OLD DAYS."
Well done Johnny and you're so right about this being the Good Old Days. It might be too good as sometimes it's hard to make up my mind about the products I want to use for that week.
I enjoyed reading this, Johnny - my experience was close - except that my dad used Palmolive in the tube. And he and my uncles thought the Gillette TTO razors were cheap and shoddy, manufactured only because the war effort required that machinists produce armaments, not 3-piece razors! They were all Italian immigrants, and we had a few barbers in the family. We're contemporaries - except that my dad gave me a Gillette 3-piece and a brush when I was 13 because that's when my beard sprouted! Since I was born and raised in NYC, it wasn't long before I found Caswell-Massey and their selection of English creams and Merkur razors! Thanks for the story, Johnny!
Now that's something I don't know or don't remember. 90% of the time my Dad smelled like Mennen Skin Bracer and Prince Albert Pipe Tobacco.
Sounds like a "Victor mug", made by the Victor Insulator Company and THE classic diner coffee mug. My very favorite. Guaranteed to take 400,000 volts and almost any abuse you can dish out. A perfect shaving mug. There is one on Ralphie's Dad's shelf in the Christmas story bathroom with a brush in it. Yeah you are right I don't have a life. Great story, brings back my own memories. Thanks!
absolutly awesome! very clean and simple read, yet so enjoyable...thanks johnny my hat goes off to ya!
Nice article. Sent me off on a string of memories of my own dad, how he shaved, and other things about him. Dad did get on the Internet late in life. I'm sure he didn't buy any shaving stuff off of there, but he did order things for my mom that he couldn't have found elsewhere.
Another great read, Johnny! I too, remember my Dads shaving and false teeth routine. With a couple of exceptions. I don't know what my Dad used for his teeth and he used Gillette Foamy shave cream out of the can. Then he would fire up his Fatboy, on which setting, I don't know. He only made one pass, but on the difficult areas, he would go against the grain and then return to WTG. A quick splash of Old Spice on the face and Vitalis rubbed in to his Jet black hair, and a quick comb, and viola, done! I'm sure that he and my grand fathers would be shaking their heads with the internet and the home delivery of shave gear that was readily available to them at most any drug store or super market that Mom/Grandma would frequent weekly. But, this biggest guffaw and minor cursings would be the prices that we pay. Figure they could buy a Fatboy for around $2.00! They would all get a good laugh at the fact that we gather here and talk about shaving with such passion.
Johnny, we are spoiled these days yet we still complain we can't get soaps like the vintage era ones; irony haha.
Awesome article-thanks for sharing! I remember my dad using his Fatboy and some kind of canned goo. I was so obsessed he got me a plastic razor and let me use his cream to pretend shave. He would have absolutely been blown away by the internet.
Thanks Johnny...I too was inspired to reminise....My Dad was a Schick injector man all the way...One day I picked up a new late 60's SS...and he picked it up and shook it...It rattled like a maraca..He said "Good Luck...I wouldn't want to mount a sharp blade in anything that rattled like that, and put it to my face...You're a braver man than me...ha,ha"...man, took the wind out of my sails...then he offered me his old Eversharp-Schick I2, which I jumped for and never looked back...lol. He did start going to the library and teaching himself about computers and the web late in life, and never got the chance to have one at home...He did impress upon me the importance of taking that me time in the morning and enjoying quality soaps and a brush and the morning ritual.... He would have enjoyed the hang here at the Den...