The prize of this month’s trip to the Sacramento Antique Faire was a vintage beauty book: Edyth Thornton McLeod’s Beauty After 40, published in 1949. While some of the advice is charmingly out-of-date, the author has a very upbeat and pragmatic attitude about the ‟Fourth Period″ of life.
A few fun passages and photos (click for a closer look):
❦ “The idea of women losing their looks, their sex life, and the ability to lead a full life when they reach the menopause is an old wives’ tale and has no place in modern thinking and achievement.”
❦ “Those of you who have not fully understood the menopause, and have secretly thought that you would have no further interest in sexual relations, must banish this thought at once. During the menopause and after, there is no lessening of your desire to enter into the normal sexual relations which you have always enjoyed — or endured!”
She’s holding up so well, people give her flowers.
❦ “Silver hair is an asset to smartness and to charm.”
❦ “Forty is a state of mind! Dramatize your GRAY HAIR and capitalize on your GRAY MATTER!”
She’s a “silver siren.”
❦ “Don’t, don’t dare go about the house without a corset and a bra — that’s the Road to Ruin!”
Corsets are good for you.
❦ “Plastic surgery is here to stay. I feel that it is a part of the modern approach to beauty or beautification of both face and figure.”
❦ “If you have been married and divorced several times, why should I give you advice? You’ve had variety, and they do say that variety is the spice of life! If it’s spice you want, go ahead and say, ‘I do,’ again and again!”
She’s ready to marry again.
❦ “After Forty you can laugh at tragedies because you know that they so often turn out to be comedies.”
That last quote is a serious piece of wisdom, my Friends.
Jeanne Marie’s Sewing Studio 
interesting perspective! in many ways we have evolved surely, but the basic insecurities of aging are really still there for most ladies. My current big question of life is…how to deal with the gray. Continue the very expensive color or give in????
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Ha! Good question. My “platinum highlights” are really starting to show. So far, I am determined to let nature take its course. How come men with gray are distinguished, but women with gray are just old and MUST dye it? Who makes these rules? So I’m keeping the gray — for now, but I may cave as they get worse!
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