May 1945

An Unfinished Job for the Home Front

AS THE Marines raised the American flag on Iwo Jima, somebody took a picture of the event. Four men, their bodies outlined against the clear sky, strain at the staff as Old Glory rises in a broad arc, snapping in the Pacific wind. We, thrill at this picture because it expresses achievement, defiance. The battle-weary figures tell of hardship endured, of dangers sustained, and of labor accomplished. It speaks of victory against heavy odds.

Beware of Jealousy

MR. JOHNSON has just one fault as a husband-- he's jealous. Yet that one fault has wrecked his wife's happiness, has all but wrecked her, and is rapidly wrecking his marriage.

BETTER Cucumbers Melons Squash Pumpkins FROM WATER HOLES

VINE crops are notoriously greedy for food and water. But because even a few cucumbers, melons, squash, and pumpkins will ramble over considerable garden space, ordinary hose waterings or irrigation are out of the question.

I Saw My Boy at the Front

WE STOOD in the dark, snowy woods in Germany, this tall young soldier and I. Somewhere below us, out of sight beyond the naked forest, a famous American infantry regiment was jabbing at the Germans across a frozen stream.

SOLUTION

A Pleasant Center for 20 Housekeeping Activities

A Hub for Easy Housekeeping

Do Yon Really Want to Move to the Country?

WHETHER plagued by suburban claustrophobia or stampeded by the spirited bidding of land speculators, thousands of "city farmers" have already bought places in the country since the beginning of World War II. They're buying alkali, swamp, sand, barren orchards, virtually anything that looks like a farm.

Grow Better BEANS and TOMATOES

BEANS are the easiest of all vegetables to grow. The big seeds sprout in a hurry and grow into husky plants that need no coddling. In less than 60 days the delicious pods, crammed with flavor, are ready for the table. And because from vine to pot is only a matter of minutes, no beans are ever as good as those you grow outside your own kitchen door.

Article

TOMATOES grown especially for your own table and picked at their prime are something to get excited about. There are few who can't grow plenty for the family's salads, their vitamin cocktails, a fine lot of appetizing preserves-- and quarts and quarts of chilled juice both orange-colored and red.

How to Mix the New and the Old

HERE'S a poser, a paradox to attack: How are you going to make it look sensible if you build a Modern house and then fill it with furniture that's definitely not Modern?

Bulbs for Bloom This Summer

IT'LL be a red-letter day on your garden calendar when you first discover what you can get from the summer-flowering bulbs. Their bloom comes quickly. It's sure. And easy-- just take a bagful of the newer gladioli-- and the bag no bigger than 10 pounds of sugar-- plant these in clumps of three to seven, and you'll electrify a tame and familiar border.

How to Use SCATTER RUGS

Malaria Coming Home? Will You Get It?

EPIDEMICS have followed other wars. They needn't this one. Dengue, filariasis, cholera, malaria-- our Navy doctors see little chance of these becoming epidemic, if we're alert, when our South Pacific fighters come home.

Make Sheets and Towels Last Longer!

Prevent. Hems are a finish, not a handle. Don't grasp by the hem when you take sheets from the bed, lift during washing, hang on the line. Hang instead by folding sheets hem to hem, folding on line with hems 12 inches over, pinning at 12-inch intervals. (Equal care will preserve pillowcase and towel hems.) Pamper all edges by minding your bedmaking. Instead of just jabbing the sheet under the mattress, work with mattress lifted. Don't unmake with a quick jerk.

If Milk's Your Problem

How Do You Rate As Hostess?

Bach or Boogie? If records are to be the evening's entertainment, it's the cagey hostess who inquires her guests' tastes before bringing out her pet collection. A Harry James-Cab Calloway fan can go completely mad during Beethoven's slower movements; likewise a Bach-Brahms devotee during a solid evening of hot-hots like "Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar"!

Because We're Childless?

DON and I are members of a minority group; we are a married couple without a child. Our case has been ignored, and it is time that one of us should speak in our defense. We seldom hear of anyone honest enough to admit that there might be good in some of us and that we are not all entirely selfish, as seems to be the opinion of the majority of our family-style friends.

Correction, Please!

The Man Next Door

Overseas a man dreams of the sumptuous, gargantuan meals he will eat someday at home-- and meanwhile becomes accustomed, in a way that may affect his eating for the rest of his life, to such Spartan fare as K ration biscuits and black coffee!

Starter Solutions And How to Use Them

STARTER solution is the presentday term for what you use when you dissolve plant food in water and use this to settle seedlings transplanted to the garden. Any plant food may be used if it dissolves in water. However, the mixtures made up especially for this purpose are better as transplanting solutions.

Find the Triangle

What to Do About Moles

POISON-- traps-- gas-- water-- barriers at the lot lines-- and a spade have all been used successfully in ridding lawns and gardens of moles.

Do You Know These Odd Facts About Furniture?

Did you know that two- and three- tiered tables, called "tier" tables today, were once used as dining-room dumb-waiters? Modern furniture designers now make low adaptations of them for our living room, with the projecting finish at the top left off to make room for ornaments.

We Grow Sweet Potatoes Up North

EIGHTY pounds of sweet potatoes for 75 cents is a bargain any day. That's what our 1944 crop cost us in cash-- 75 cents for 100 plants of Nancy Halls. They're the yam type with moist, yellow flesh, real sweet potatoes.

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

In spite of all the terrible happening's in this wickedold world, the little yellow primroses of Maggie's still bloom again, hard by the pool. Flowering quince and Neighbor John's pear tree are out. Dwarf iris at hand. Even the dear dandelions make a brave show.

Wartime Worries Dept.

Q My husband is out of the Army now. He can't sleep. Some sudden noise like the exhaust of a motor will bring him upright in bed with a jerk that pulls the covers off me. Should he take sleeping powders, or a little whisky? And will he ever sleep naturally again?

New Chaser

Young Mothers' Exchange

THE mailman has just brought me another letter from Mrs. Lester Bush, who developed that idea sometime back for hanging up diapers quickly in order to get back in the house for a long distance call from her husband, Private Bush-- remember?

The Dining Room Is on Trial

Outdoor Gardening Guide

MAY is the key month for gardeners. In vegetables successive plantings of the early "cool crops"-- radishes, lettuce, beets, carrots, and spinach-- are continued. One planting of parsley is sufficient because as it's cut new shoots are put out. Peas and turnips deteriorate greatly in quality after the first hot weather comes. Two spring plantings are usually the limit. In average localities, snap beans and corn can be planted the first part of the month and Lima beans, potatoes, and the vine crops-- melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, and squashes-- from the middle to the last.

How to Butcher a Good House Plan

HERE is butchery carried to an extreme degree. Some homeowners have done worse; some have made only one or perhaps a couple of ill- advised changes in the architect's design; but any one of the changes shown in the illustration above is enough to spoil forever the over-all, carefully planned effect.

It's NEWS to Me!