February 1941

Does the World Really Need YOU?

TO EVERY AMERICAN, February is the month in which we celebrate the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln. "It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this." To no other two do we owe so much as to the father and the savior of our country.

IRON FIREMAN

When a Cellar Needs a Friend

EVERY time the Tweets invite us over to their house to spend the evening, Phoebe always lays in an extra supply of aspirin-- for she knows that I'll wake up next morning with a thumping headache.

$15 Makes This Jak-of-All-Work Garden Bench

WALTER SPRAGUE is a Los Angeles attorney. He has an attorney's abhorrence for inefficiency.

I'll take the Porch!

SO THE house you've bought has a porch! Congratulations, the heartiest. Let them call you old-fashioned-- you have comfort and a utility that taunters will never know!

GLORIFYING A GREAT AMERICAN TRADITION

RIGHT now I'd like a great big, rambling porch to sit on. I want a lazy, old- fashioned one, the kind that you and I and all America have grown up with.

Grow Orchids in Your Own Living-Room

YOU MAY have a passion for begonias or a hobby of rare iris. You may think no flower is more beautiful than a rose. Yet you speak of orchids with reverence and approach them with awe. You are certain their culture is hazardous, the expense tremendous.

Have You Heard...

VALENTINES all, these ideas fellow indoor gardeners are passing along. Some are shiny new, others are beginners' versions of age-old practices. Here we go!

Plant Champs You'll Want

NOW IN THE CALM of a winter's evening I'd like you to sit with me at the corner of my drawing board and select what I believe are outstanding plants to go into your 1941 planting.

TRY A DIET OF BEAUTY

THE man who confronted me was not old, but he looked it. Nor was he physically ill, despite his sallow complexion and sad, harassed-looking eyes.

What's There to This

WE MODERNS are an informal lot! You'll find us calling our bosses by first names more often than by Mister. You'll find we like the freedom to live as we please. That's why we like Modern homes. For freedom is the word for Modern!

GAWKY MODERN COMES OF AGE

IF YOU'D ask visitors to Modern homes what they like most about them, you'd hear "their individuality," just as they like the charm and hominess of a Cape Cod cottage.

Let Your Rock Garden Go Native

I MET Lee looking at it and he said, "How do you like it?" "Punk," I said. "That's no rock garden; that's just the same old garden with a pile of rocks in it."

little house went on a Color Spree!

"I WANT a basement workshop!" the Skipper (my husband) suddenly announced one night around a large mouthful of his favorite potatoes-scalloped-with-cheese.

We're Deeorating Our Home With Light

"WE'RE decorating our home with light --and it's going to be lovely!" How odd that still sounds, but what a wealth of exciting possibilities it suggests!

We Banish Temper-Rufflers and Time-Takers

WHAT a whale of a lot of energy we waste getting mad at the same cussed little household irritations every day! Silly, too, when a spot of reorganization or a simple carpentry job could so often rout them completely.

WHAT'S THE LATEST ON ROOFS?

SELECTING a roof is like buying a hat. You've got to get one that fits, or you'll go bareheaded. A simple red feather and a mere 3/8-inch oversize aren't trifling matters when the hat's down around your own ears. Roofs, too, must be faithfully in step with the general architecture of a house. But how can you be certain you're getting the right one?

ARE OUR HIGH-SCHOOLERS Snobs?

WHAT'S your demure high-school lassie thinking about, as she toots from one class to another, or pores over her books in the study hall? What goes on behind the eyes of your high-school son, fixed so studiously on his teacher? If you could listen in on a girl or boy "jam session" in which these youngsters really let down their hair and talk, you'd be all but bowled over!

A Salute of Cakes to Our Great Americans

A gay month is February-- packed with invitations to grand good times, rich with the memories of highly honored and greatly loved Americans. So a salute to these men and women-- these Americans-- who have built for us our gracious, goodly heritage. And-- across the way --a salute to the fine traditional American foods which proudly bear their names!

Pick Yourself a Flower Kitchen

WHAT'S the most exciting fashion news for kitchens this spring? FLOWERS!

Judges Go Overboard for Chocolate-Chip Torte

HERE'S positively the yummiest bit of deliciousness that's yet come out of our Cooks' Contest! It's Chocolate-Chip Torte, straight from the kitchen of Norma Hardwick of Rochester, New York, who becomes first-prize $5 winner in our double- barreled contest for Meat Stews and Chocolate Desserts announced last August. Don't miss it on page 47.

AMONG OURSELVES

Dear Editor: My sister in London, England, gets your magazine regularly, and in her last letter she says,

COLOR-SCHEME Your Home to Flatter YOU

Had you thought of it? You'd never dream of buying a dress that didn't "do something" for your own personal coloring-- that failed to flatter your hair, your skin, and your eyes. Yet the colors you choose for your rooms can do as much-- or as little-- for your own good looks and distinction as can any frock you wear.

Along the Garden Path

TO SHIELD FOXGLOVE, coralbells, small evergreens, and the like from late winter sun, I made a portable screen by tacking chicken wire to a board frame and weaving strips of cloth across it. Use 3-inch-wide strips for 2-inch mesh and fasten the edges of the strips together at intervals.

Porch ABC's for Looks and Living

A PORCH is part house and part garden, but increases the value of both. It's rightly held in high esteem when it's well planned, properly located, and suitably furnished.

The Man Next Door

Well, the folks in our block who seem to enjoy the deep snows the most happen to be the same ones who are planning to spend a few weeks in Florida.

Now There's a Thrifty Nifty Bildcost!

DON'T think for a single minute that you're the only family that's been scratching its head over the buy, build, or remodel problem! Thousands just like you are counting and recounting their incomes, measuring their budgets, and scheming.

Grow Your Own Colors!

Make Your Own Sundial

YEARS AGO I gave my father a sundial, and it kept him, my uncles, and most of the shore enthusiastically occupied all summer. The men would come to stand around it with their watches out, squinting at the dial and up at the sun. I wondered at the time what lure the dial held, but today I check my own watch by it before catching the boat for town.

Remodeling Inside or Out? Here's Money for Your Pictures

The Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

Feb. 3 Down town this Saturday morning with the boys on errands, and when we came home about noon we found Maggie in a terrible state. It all came about when she decided that the ashes in the living-room fireplace should be cleaned out.