September 1943

Well-Paid Work ON THE HOME-FRONT

BALBOA, on a peak in Darien, felt no greater thrill as he gazed on the Pacific than a friend of mine experienced when he discovered the other day that one can make a first-class door knob from a turned piece of hard wood. And at the least show of interest he will describe how he French-polished that knob so that it is more attractive than the obstructing metal knob that it replaced.

LATE TIPS ON Wartime Living

There's ammonium sulphate available now for producing commercial weed -killers. This chemical will kill poison-ivy plants on which it is sprayed during the active growing season, which includes September.

HOW TO GET What You Want

We have plans for making our home better. Our third bedroom is gradually filling with recreation- room furniture-- sectional bookcases, couch, etc. that we're making ourselves.

the man next door

These days the b. w. reports there are more and more people in the neighborhood waiting at the front door for the postman. He's the final link in a long chain that connects our block with the whole world.

Do You Know What Vitamins Do--and Don't?

OF COURSE vitamins really do work miracles, but there are some wonders that even a vitamin can't reasonably be expected to perform. This little quiz isn't intended to trip you up, but to help you play fair with your vitamins. Check "Yes" or "No" and compare your answers with those on page 74.

RIGHT OUT OF MY OWN GARDEN

YOU see this cabbage I'm holding here in my hand? I raised it myself. It is the product of my garden. In fact, it is the only product. And when I compute the number of manhours I spent digging and planting and hoeing and weeding and spraying that garden of mine, just to raise one cabbage, it seems a shame to cook it and eat it.

How Leak-tight Is Your Roof?

"BOY-- solid comfort!" There's Willie tucked cosily in bed with his nose in the latest whodunit and the rain banging chummily overhead.

Your Family Plane of Tomorrow

THE real question is, will you and I, a couple of ordinary guys who work for a living, be flying our families around in planes in a few years? And your wife, a pretty good driver if you overlook that smashed fender-- will she be a pilot, too?

Don't Be a Bruiser

LET "handle with care" run thru the back of your mind like a tune this fall all the time you're digging your carrots, potatoes, and rutabagas. Remember it when you're packing away your sweet potatoes, onions, squashes, and cabbages. Microscopic decay organisms are always about and ready to attack where there's a crack or a bruise to give them entrance.

Strawberries

DID you ever grow strawberries? Did you grow the kind that taste even better than they look and smell? Do you know what it is to go out to the patch, push back the leaves, and help yourself to all you can eat of brilliant, perfectly ripened blobs of sweetness with that heavenly perfume?

Must Yon Garden on the Level?

HENRY VIII roared from a raised throne, II Duce from a balcony. Helen Morgan climbed atop the piano. Why?

We Did It Ourselves on So Little!

"WHAT" inquired my practically brand new husband, "are you dreaming about?" "It's white, I think, and small," I admitted.

EIGHT RECIPES THAT Save Your Furniture

ROOMS TIRED?

Double Your Living Space

ON A PLEASANT, tree-arched street in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is a house of mellow old barn red. It's a satisfying house, and yet it might have been just another nice house on a 75-x-l 25-foot lot if it weren't that it's literally one hundred percent gardened.

Five Rooms Plus!

SMALL-HOUSE PLANS are a dime a dozen-- that is, ordinary plans. So one young family discovered when they set their hearts on finding a little home with livability and charm; one which would fit neatly into a restricted budget without straining the seams. It took a crackerjack architect like Bertram Weber to figure out details which would make the house-critical Ulanders exclaim "That's the one we want!" the instant they saw the plans.

Canning Step by Step

Do Dishes the Quick Way

How to Keep Your Baby Well

WHO could have guessed that an attack upon the far islands of the Pacific would upset the relationship between American babies and their doctor friends!

Young Mothers' Exchange

Reception Room Hints. So often nowadays long waits are involved at the doctor's office and other places where you have to take Baby with you. Stick in your bag a small thermos with hot water to heat Baby's bottle. Dress so he or she can be quickly peeled or more warmly clothed to meet the existing temperature.

Can't Get That? Use This

THAT'S no Pollyanna pep talk, that's plain common war-sense. If you and the rest of us American meal generals waste our energies lamenting the foods we can't buy iny more, we're simply dropping dcious little monkey wrenches into Jncle Sam's assembly line.

Meat Stretchers AND Cabbages Cash In

HOW are those precious meat stamps holding out? Getting scarcer than hen's teeth at the period's end? Then here's a friendly boost from other BH&G's families-- prize winners all, from our Cooks' Contest for Meat Flavor Stretchers and Cabbage Specials run last February.

Vegetables for Exhibit

IF YOU'RE proud of the fine carrots, beets, onions, and other vegetables you've grown, why not show samples in the fall school exhibits or your community harvest festival?

Need More Help From Your Children?

LOADED down with Civilian Defense, Red Cross and what not, perhaps carrying double duty on the job, just when household help is unobtainable and the neighborhood handyman something to dream about?

These ways have worked! "Wash, Wipe, Sweep"

Squabbling over the housework ended at our home when we divided up the duties by weeks and then passed them around. My girls, 13, 15, and 16, easily remember whose turn it is by "wash, wipe, sweep."

"I Strong-arm Old Derelict Furniture Into Modern"

BEATS all what you can do with a forlorn old piece of derelict furniture if you've odd moments here and there, elbow grease, and a need!

BRING IN THOSE Last Blooms

Shift Shrubs and Flowers Now

EARLY-SPRING PERENNIALS can be divided this month. The large bleedingheart may be divided down to one eye to a root. Use them to fill in holes in a border that is shady or to make accent clumps in the spring border. If Anchusa mysotidiflora is divided you can have lots of new plants.

THE DIARY of a Plain Dirt Gardener

Sept. 1 Find that cantaloupes are ripening so fast that we can have them every meal. Grapes are ripe and Maggie is kneedeep in canning juice. She put up the third batch today. We have lots of sweet corn, and an abundance of all sorts of other vegetables from, spring plantings to fall garden sowings.

It's News to Me!