February 1939

Tattle Tales

ELMER T. Peterson, who visits with Bob Burns on page 13, is, as you know, former editor of BH&G and native Iowan (also claimed by the sunflower-lush plains of Kansas). But he had become a confirmed and, we were afraid, chronic Californian in a single year.

ACROSS THE Editor's Desk

The Picture on the Cover: The story about the cover picture is not the one we originally intended to tell. For, when the picture was taken, the attractive young lady was Diane Davis of Des Moines. But shortly afterward, along came a romantic young man who'd just been three years sailing around the world in a 45-foot ketch-- and made her Mrs. Ray Kauffman before there was hardly time to have the boat's sails trimmed. Maybe calling it a Honeymoon Cover isn't quite appropriate, yet instead of just a pretty girl and flowers, we bring you a bride this month.

THE DIARY of a Plain Dirt Gardener

Maybe it was the sliver of light I saw in the east as my alarm went off... anyhow I had more than ordinary vim as I swung arms and pounded chest and did jump up and down with rhythmic syncopation ere I jumped under the morning shower.

IT'S NEWS TO ME!

Random-width oak-plank flooring, so distinctive and true to period for the Colonial and popular French Provincial interior, now comes from the factory as pre-finished flooring. It's even waxed and polished. Thus, you're sure of high quality in the materials and workmanship of the finish, you're spared the dust and inconvenience of having wood sanded and finished on the job, and the floor can be laid, for moving in on it, within a few hours' time! [E. L. Bruce Co., Memphis, Tenn.]

Bob Burns Real Human Being

FROM now on, whether I hear him on a radio broadcast or see him in pictures, Bob Burns to me will always be a regular human being rather than a comedian --a human being with a serious philosophy of life, a love for his home and his garden, and a kindly regard for all other human beings.

Arranged for Living

REMEMBER the parlors we grew up in-- center table with fringed cloth and reading lamp, on one side Father with his paper, on the other Mother with her mending? Those old rooms were well named. We called them "settin'" rooms.

These Are Outstanding, Experts Say

In A DOZEN trial gardens scattered well over the country last summer, 1 6 flower judges periodically cocked expert eyes on the new plants seedsmen were to introduce to flower- lovers in 1939. Reason: to select the 1939 All- America Flower Winners --the outstanding debutantes of the year.

Article

SLAVE labor helped build the Fortier family home, pictured above, some 81 years ago. That was two years before fanatic John Brown got hanged for his raid on Harper's Ferry. One Fortier or another has owned it ever since. Last summer, after Rivers Fortier had remodeled it for his family, a Kansas publisher came along and wanted to photograph it for a book he was getting out, "New Small Homes."

RESCUED REAL ESTATE

RIDE YOUR HOBBY ON Treasure Island

WITH vacationtime but three or four calendar pages away, the question before every house is where to go this year.

Books for Looks

THE youngster's definition "Books are to read" would have been pretty pat a few years back when the average binding was an eyesore and the family's "library" huddled austere and uninviting in some dim corner.

Cleanliness on Tap

In A WAY, a running stream thru your home would be the ideal plumbing system. Nothing would go wrong with it. It would supply an abundance of water and carry away all wastes --and these are the basic functions of any plumbing system, however advanced.

FEBRUARY Indoor Gardening Guide

I EMPHATICALLY mean it when I say let your houseplants go hang. Hardly anything can do more to give your home a cheerful lift than these vibrant, living pictures silhouetted in windows or against the wall.

FEBRUARY Outdoor Gardening Guide

WHETHER you're in Kentucky or Missouri looking for snowdrops and winter-aconites, or still snowed under in Minnesota and Maine, the returning sun, lengthening days, and arriving catalogs will start your attack of garden fever.

Radios in Disguise

THERE'S a new thrill in radios today! They've had their faces lifted --been transformed inside and out. They've shaken off the ugly chrysalis of misshapen box-like housing that obscured them so long and are stepping out in exciting new guises-- as authentically styled, quality built, purposeful pieces of furniture that offer not just entertainment but a wealth of new beauty and comfort.

Cook's Eye View of Pots and Pans

WHAT a hodgepodge of pots and pans most of us possess! Few are blood relatives. We've bought them as we needed them, with little thought to the harum-scarum look they'd give our cupboards. Too often we've three pans for one job --none at all for another. Or we've a great flock of single-duty antiques instead of the modern, many-duty utensils.

"So Long Folks-- I've a Date"

SHALL boys and girls of high-school age be chaperoned? Now there's a question to start fireworks. Say "chaperon" to most parents and they look at you as tho you were proposing to abolish central heating and revert to water clocks and rush lamps.

Cinderella House

SOME people would go a hundred miles for a movie. Me, I'd go a hundred miles to see a new house like the one Coleman Moser recently did for Miss Marguerite Jordan, North Stamford, Connecticut.

Comes the Crocheting Season

"CHAIN 3, double in 1st, chain 5" --we're all at it again this winter, just as intrigued with hooking one thread loop into another as were our mothers and grandmothers before us. All the old patterns have been rounded up and new ones are constantly being devised by modern stylists

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

"It takes a man about four years," says Les Gowan, "to find out that a wife's intelligence is more important than her good looks."

Flowers That Turn Winter Into Spring

IN MANY sections of the country we may now, paradoxically, have plum blossoms and snow at the same time. It's a revelation to realize that such splendor may be had right at home.

When "Bad" Could Be Still Worse

LOOK over the nine-months record of one of the largest life-insurance companies and you'll find that 13,819 of its policyholders died in less than a year after their insurance went into force. In five years this firm has paid 84,275 such claims.

The QUESTION Before the House

The former paint job was probably also cracked considerably, and the latter paint probably contained too much drier. The only remedy is to remove all paint down to the wood, prime with a high-grade primer, and paint again. Use quality paints.

Seven Little Spices Turned the Trick

THAT'S all the Moy family remembered about the lucious meat loaf their mother used to make-- that seven spices were the secret of its goodness. So when our Cooks' Contest, announced last August, called for tangy meat loaves and tempting ways with potatoes, Mrs. Edward J. Moy, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, attacked her spice shelf. Finally she had it --a flavor and texture so super-super that it's a delight to announce her "Twin Meat Loaves" as Dish of the Month for February, winner of first prize of $5. Its picture and recipe you'll find on page 35.

Whims & Hobbies

For 32 years Mrs. Annie Robinson, of Bonne Terre, Missouri, has owned a lounge comforter made by the grandmother of Mary Todd Lincoln long before the Civil War. Originally of alltaffeta silk, the year Mary Todd married Abraham Lincoln (1842) a patchwork center was added in which are pieces from lier trousseau, marked for identification. After emancipation, it was given to a faithful housekeeper, and was handed down succeeding generations to Mrs. Robinson, a descendant of the housekeeper.

How Does Your House Sit?

IN PENNSYLVANIA one night last week a fellow named Richards stepped out of his neighbor's front door, took a couple of steps in the dark, stumbled, rolled 20 feet down a bank to the front walk, and bounced.

A SYMPHONY OF CONTRAST

Sage of the Desert

JUST east of Tuscon, Arizona, is a sixty-thousand-acre national forest with scarcely an ordinary tree anywhere in it.

Along with the Garden Path WITH THE WEEK-END GARDENER

A GARDEN, thoughtfully planted but weak in the art of design, is like a pretty woman with her petticoat showing. She's attractive, all right. At the same time, she doesn't do full justice to her charms.