You have to remember, this is before widespread plastic, television, jet airplanes, the Beatles, Johnny Cash, synthetic fabrics, etc.

Look at it from that perspective and you’ll understand why a celophane dress would have been really neat, why people would build an electro plater by hand (the one in the diagram is obviously hand-made), and so on.

It surprises me how little people know of the way life was just 80 years ago. Talk to your grandparents folks, they’ll tell you all about it. Talk to them now before they pass away.

Web zen: making stuff zen…

money making hobbies box rivets paint chip card holders block posters cheap screen printing compound microscope drawbot Web Zen Home, Store (Thanks Frank!). Image: Aqua Teen Bomber Force t-shirt: Link…….

YES.

I find the charm of this book both fascinating and just a bit…depressing, which has nothing to do with the Great Depression. I wonder how much of this was directed towards people who already had the hobby listed, or if the book was encouraging people to pick up particular hobbies. I mean, how many people had a printing press hanging around, or something to bind the printed recipes into a book to make it “look interesting”? How many people had an electroplater, a ventriloquist’s dummy, or a harp?

I bet if you played the harp wearing a cellophane dress, you’d make millions.

Oh, the humanity!

[...] Money-Making Hobbies (from 1938) JD highlights hobbies from 1938. I would have been a puppeteer in those times. (tags: money finance hobbies) [...]

I figure if I’m going to be spending huge chunks of time doing something, it might as well be self-supporting!

So my guess would be that a Manon Lescaut doll might be a form on which someone could paint a face, hair, etc. to his or her liking.

It is, however, just a guess.

It’s funny, I’ve always had “hobbies that pay,” although I’ve learned that focusing on the “pay” part makes them seem too much like work. When I was a kid I was into woodcarving and sold my carvings at a local craft shop. It was my first experience of being paid for something I loved to do. I was also into nature writing and sold a few articles to magazines (writing eventually became my vocation). Music is my paying hobby now — I’ve been playing traditional Irish music for 30 years and bring in a surprising amount of money each year through gigs and teaching. As I commented here before, I use my income from music to pay for my music expenses, mainly instruments and CDs, but also music-related travel (such as going to festivals in the US and Ireland). That way I can keep my hobby self-sustaining. Some years I spend more than I earn, but other years I earn more than I spend so it roughly balances out.