June Cleaver Had It Right

[ladysprite]

I am not a large person.

Aside from being slight of build, I am about 5'3" tall if I stand up straight and stretch. While this isn't abnormally small, it is below average for where and when I live. The world, in general, is not sized to be appropriate for me. In particular, the counters in my kitchen are about 2-3 inches higher than is convenient. I can work with them in general; it's not a huge problem for things like chopping vegetables, cooking, or simple baking projects. But when I'm working with, say, huge amounts of stiff, awkward dough that needs to be rolled out with a lot of effort or pressed and munged around extensively, it's a major pain.

All of this explains why I am now baking about 150 shortbread cookies while wearing high heels. All those media housewives from the 1950's weren't oppressed, they were just freaking short. Admittedly, I'm wearing jeans and a flannel top instead of a dress and pearls, and I've got a crochet hook stuck in my hair to keep it out of my face and the food, but the scene was still enough to amuse the heck out of my husband....

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I too am 5'3", and I have nerve damage of a kind that prevents me ever from wearing even very short heels. I firmly believe kitchen counters are designed by SADISTS. Newsflash, house designers! Women tend to be shorter than average!

[medeaschild.livejournal.com]

I'm 6'0" and the primary cook of my house is 6'5"... we are drooling over the thought of being able to rip out "normal" height counters and raise them by several inches.

[flaviarassen.livejournal.com]

Thank you for speaking up for our side! I'm only 5' 10" (but was supposed to be 6 feet - scoliosis. I have the legs of a six-footer, tho' & damned if I haven't hit my head on every single bus or plane I've ever been stuck in! But I digress!). I mostly want to replace the bathroom counter - and do that medicine cabinet, too, but that will be next to impossible - it's a built-in antique & I am reluctant to mess w/it. My parents had a built-in vanity in our first house - built by my mother's father, & deliberately raised ABOVE spec. Guarantee you it was one of the 2nd things those who bought our house threw out. Sigh.