February 1944

Linking the Home Front to the Fighting Front

WHEN DON Davidson left his home in Wilmette, to become a naval flier, he knew just how much he would miss the old gang-- the old high-school crowd and the teachers and the parents, too-- and how difficult it would be to keep in touch with all of them.

LATE TIPS ON Wartime Living

If you're going to need extra sugar for canning before March 1, hang onto War Ration Book 1. To get the permitted 15 pounds you must show the ration board you've not already had your additional share-- a fact which would be stamped on the cover of Ration Book 1.

BEST WAYS TO GROW ONIONS

ALONG with tomatoes, onions are the number-one crop of novice gardeners. Even those who don't like onions somehow always go out of their seed stores in spring with a bag of sets for their foods garden.

HOW TO Paint A Den

IT WAS the dancing rosebuds in my den that made me resolve to paint. The wallpaper was devoted to rows of tiny pink buds, very prim and pretty most of the time. But when I sat on the hassock-- all the chairs being occupied by other members of the family-- and watched the activities that swirled about me, the rosebud rows began to weave and sway and the first thing I knew they were galloping around so fast I couldn't concentrate on arranging my fishing tackle.

From "Just House" Into Home

IT WAS a dream of a little house from the outside looking in, and the sign said "FOR SALE, COMPLETELY FURNISHED." To busy young career-woman Natalie Visart, studio costume designer, that seemed to foot all her needs... nothing to do but see it thru and move in.

Garden on Paper First

TO William Allen White's list of things no man can do to suit another-- run a newspaper, make love, and fire a furnace-- America last year added a fourth: make a garden.

CAN OUR SCHOOLS TEACH THE G. I. WAY?

FERNANDEZ was no quiz kid. He was a shy little Mexican from one of the big sheep ranches of the Southwest. And when the Army picked him up at 18 and sent him up to Fort Riley, Kansas, for his basic training, he lay awake talking to his sheep and crying with homesickness. He couldn't write home. And when anyone sent him a letter, he couldn't read it either.

Grow Roses All Ways

As Elastic as a Rubber Band

Upholster It Yourself

SLIP-COVERS have brought fresh loveliness to so many of our furniture pieces that we're likely to forget there's an even simpler way of dressing them up. Take that chair, stool, or settee of yours with its yard or two of shabby upholstery fabric. Sturdy new material, a hammer, nails, glue, braid, and a few hours' work will have it back in place handsomer than new.

Raise Desserts on Your Own Bushes

YOU CAN GROW blackberries in any one of our 48 states. Where winters don't get colder than zero, you can also grow several close kin of theirs-- boysenberries, nectarberries, dewberries, and youngberries-- with trailing, grape-like vines. With winter covering you can grow these more tender vines as far north as the Missouri-Iowa line and still farther north along both coasts.

New Faces for Old Walls

"FIX IT UP and keep it going" is the wartime watchword for your home, until the War Savings Bonds you buy now help you build or rebuild the way you want to.

PROTECT YOUR FAMILY FROM Rheumatic Fever

IF SOMEONE asked you which childhood disease does the most damage, what would you say?

Long Life for Your Cleaner

YOU'RE jolly well right you want that vacuum cleaner of yours purring smoothly and cleaning expertly for the duration-- or longer. You'd be out on a mighty inconvenient limb if its belt or brush, its bag cord, or plug gave way or turned sulky smack in the midst of early-spring housecleaning-- or any old time, for that matter.

WHEN TOUR BABY CRIES

Young Mothers' Exchange

It's a deal, Mrs. Branson, and here in the same mail are two good replies. Says Mrs. J. Hugh Davis of Winston-Salem, N. C., "Pin the blankets to the shoulders of Baby's pajamas, and when she wiggles, the blankets will follow right along." While this is the solution of Mrs.

APRON BAR

FLAUNT pinafore furbelows for sky-high morale... look pretty on that home-front job... whisk into your perkiest apron and you're all set to go! Family gets a whee out of seeing you so gay and fashion-wise. And you can design a winner yourself.

Meet a $5 Dumpling!

ALL puffed up with pride and golden goodness is your Cooks' Contest Winner this month, bobbing about in its tomato-red sea. Sounds exciting? It's de-luscious! It's tops in our contest for Dumplings and Noodles and Winter Salads, held last July. The name is Corn Meal Dumplings.

You Being Smart?

This Piece of Paper Is Precious!

Put It Up Anywhere

40 Years Off Our Dining-Room

OUR dining-room was a middle-aged has-been. It was dark, stuffy, and most awfully bored with itself. Today it's fresh and gay-- the sort of room that helps even rationed meals taste wonderful!

... Remodel a Clothes Closet

The Man Next Door

Some of the Yanks who used to dream about lolling on a Pacific isle would swap it for a good old-fashioned American snowstorm this winter, snow shovel and all, and offer to do the dishes in the bargain.

"Stay-at-Home" House

WE'RE just about average sized as American families go-- two grown-ups, and a high-school age daughter and son. We're average, too, in the pleasure we get out of our home. You'll find us on the highest corner lot in Dellwood Park, a recent residential development in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Food for Four Family

We Took Our Old Bed Down a Notch!

GLANCE at the pictures and you'll get the idea. There was far too much head and foot, but one less board at each end promised to do the trick. The four posts were grooved on their insides, the head and foot boards tongued to fit. To separate them without danger of splitting the wood, I took a short heavy piece of pine, placed a pad of soft cloth on the posts, and knocked them free of the end boards with a hammer.

"We Eat in the Kitchen and Love It!"

"GIVE us half an excuse and here's where we'll eat!" grinned Edward G. Robinson (of the movies), whose sentiment was seconded by Mrs. Robinson.

A Blessing in Disguise...

FIVE years ago in Moline, Illinois, it was almost impossible to rent a house or apartment. We didn't want to buy a house then, but we had no choice. Our money wouldn't buy a new home, so we decided on a seventy-five-year-old house that could be remodeled as our savings would permit.

Back Talk FROM the "Help-Less"

REMEMBER that article in the October Better Homes & Gardens called "Help for the Help-Less," in which Esther Casey gave her Sis a pep talk on how to live happily without a maid?

Try Poppies From Iceland

PRETTIEST and sweetest of all poppies, according to most gardeners, are the Icelands. Their crinkly, silky flower cups of yellow, pink, white, and red, give a splash of sunshine to any garden.

The FIRE CHIEF Doesn't Live Here Anymore

HERE'S a room to live in and love. Once an old Wilmette, Illinois, firehouse, it's now the combination kitchen-dining-living-room of the Harry M. Haarmanns. It has more homey atmosphere and personality per square inch than any room I have seen. Much of its charm lies in the extensive and clever use of the old plant stand-bys any one can grow: large, small, and variegated philodendron, grape ivy, peperomia, dracaena, and Hahn's ivy

WHY AND HOW TO MAKE Your Will

IN THE Name of God, Amen. I, John Doe, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, do hereby make, publish, and declare this to be my Last...

THE DIARY of a Plain Dirt Gardener REG, U. S. PAT. OFF

Feb. 1 "Good evenin', folks. I'm glad to see so many of you out tonight. Ahead of us is another year of serious garden work. We must grow every-smidgen of food possible. The whole world needs it.

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