January 1941

Is Your Home Breeding Intolerance?

TOLERANCE is taken for granted in the United States because it is a tradition. The Catholics of Maryland, the Puritans of Massachusetts, the Independents of Rhode Island, the Quakers and Mennonites of Pennsylvania, the Irish, the Jews, the Armenians-- all these and similar groups found their way to these shores in order to live in a country where they would be free to call their souls their own. Many of them were actual fugitives from the persecutions and injustices of the Old World.

Little House for the Ages

EVERY family, sociologists like to tell you, has three stages of growth, from the time young husband and wife set out together until they are once again by themselves. In between a family's youth and its old age are the tempestuous, exciting years when the children are at home, when space is something that seems to have evaporated, and when privacy is something you don't even dream of.

How to Win Friends in Latin America

IT HASN'T been long since our next door neighbors to the south, the Latin Americans, called us "The Colossus of the North." The small country's natural suspicion and fear of a large one kept our American ideals of freedom and democracy from meeting a receptive audience.

Let me Show you around the place

YOUNG and old, rich and poor, all America has taken up the tantalizing, devastating game of "Let Me Show You Around the Place." Whether you be on one side or another, defending "showee" or offending "shower," really doesn't matter, but unless you crave social ostracism, you'd better line up for the play-off.

How to Sling Mud--Constructively

I SPENT my earliest years in a little valley in San Diego County where rose from its parent earth in a grove of eucalyptus an old adobe dwelling, built by Judge Anderson, a pioneer from the north of Ireland. The turn of the wheel brought us back to our native California after an absence of more than 25 years.

One Rests and the Other

IT'S delightful that in the hills of Connecticut there's still time to be friendly and neighborly. Stone walls meander up and down across hills and valleys-- and good fences, you know, are sure signs of good neighbors. Near Darien, where the Albrechts live, charming old houses and old ways still influence new architecture and living.

Rambles, But Both Hit the Spot!

IF THIS little house had been built in California or the Mojave Desert, it undoubtedly would have adobe walls and be called a ranch house. Located in the wilds of Malverne Woods on Long Island, it still suggests the western adobes, in spite of its stones and shingles.

The Strange Case of HOUSE X CLUES

IT MIGHT be our house if we remodeled. So the whole family got out its spyglasses and turned to sleuthing-- hunting for places where we could strip off the ugly disguise from House X, which by now we were quite sure would be our own home.

IN MY HOUSE

AND would it be a bit of green you're wanting?

It Took a Lot of Panes

The House "One Man's Family" Is Building

ABOUT the time Carleton E. Morse hit on the idea for "One Man's Family" radio program, he and Patricia, his lively little blonde wife, found The Place.

Take Sticks and Glue and Look What You Can Do

ALL YOU NEED is a piece of bark, an interesting stone or tile, a pine knot, a bit of sagebrush, twisted twig, seedpods, and a 10-cent miniature figure. Put them together with a nickel's worth of plaster of paris and a little transparent glue. Presto, you'll have one of those little touches that help to make home more lovable still.

Get Those Cheater Trees

JANUARY is the time to take down that tree which cheats you of a delightful view and cheats other trees of their normal growth.

FLOOR SHOW

ONLY the very rich can afford poor construction and underflooring. Others need construction and underflooring good enough to outlast many finishes. Have joists too strong rather than too feeble. The spacing mustn't be over 16 inches apart from center to center of joists. At least every 8 feet joists need cross-bracing, as is shown at the left, to eliminate any springiness when walked on.

Five Smart Young Wives Feather Their Nests

HOW five bright young women decorators pulled a Cinderella act on a shoestring is here illustrated before your very eyes, ladies and gentlemen-- and personally, we think they've done a bang-up job of it!

Here Are Ideas!

Don't You Pull These Boners!

Bargains for Your Linen Closet

HERE they are again, those inseparable pals, January and "white sales"! It's the perfect moment to tune up your linen closet, for stores everywhere are hurrahing vociferously about the astonishing values in table linens, towels, sheets, and bedding. Seems that this annual January event is a tradition in the department store business, and you can really count on sizable savings if you do your stocking-up-on-household-linens this month.

Get More Than Water From Your Kitchen Sink

WATER is the can't-do-without-it ingredient in just about every kitchen task. Don't forget it for a minute when you scheme your new kitchen or revamp your old one.

Childhood--A Life Begins

Stuffed Pork Wins by a Grunt

WRAP your hungry eyes around that plump porker on page 51-- and doff your hats to a winner! It won by a grunt in our contest for ways with pork and tricks with canned vegetables announced last July. So to Theresa M. Lessmeister, Peru, Illinois, goes first prize of $5 for Stuffed Pork Shoulder With Savory Corn Stuffing.

Short on Cash?

To Serve When Your Club Meets

WE WOMEN adore our little clubs-- bridge, philanthropic, chatty, or whatever. But there's always that poser of what to serve. Some of "the girls" prefer a tea to a luncheon plate-- but most of us vote for 1 o'clock luncheon, simple, easy-to-serve, with enough-- but not too much-- delicious food.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

There's a special, rare, sweet flavor in our American Merry Christmases this year.... And 1941's Happy New Year has a poignant ring, as if you were saying it to a man plunging into a jungle for a twelve-month.

Article

The Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

Once upon a time when I was younger-- much younger-- one little task on the first day of the year was to write a letter to the editor of Better Homes & Gardens, asking if he wanted me to continue with this DOAPDG.