September 1947

Topics to Talk About

Food Shortage-- It is reported that the hips of the average American woman have increased two inches since 1941.

Among Ourselves

THIS is Volume 26, Number 1 in BH&G annals... and quite a package to mark the occasion. New furniture that almost stands up and does tricks... anniversary recipes to make your mouth water... a model house with a million dollars worth of ideas.

It's NEWS to Me!

Tumble-Twirl Rug. There's a luxurious feel to the long wool loops in this rug, and the shag texture adds interest to any room. Available in eight pastel colors; $13.75 per square yard; higher pile Tumble-Wool, $24.75; in stores only. Libertyville Textiles Company, Libertyville, Illinois.

GENERAL ELECTRIC

Up the Coast From Cape Cod

DISTINCTLY New England, this rambling, shuttered home in Hingham, Massachusetts, is filled with ideas you can use in any part of the country.

New Under the Sun

Plants make food fastest in foggy weather, contrary to popular belief. Test plants grow three times faster during fogs than on sunny days, reports Botanist C. C. Wilson, of the University of Georgia.

A Creek

EVERY child should know and love a little, winding creek. Whether it lies in the heart of a busy city, or ripples thru a quiet countryside, a creek is a thing especially fashioned for a child's delight.

We're Making Our Mistakes BEFORE We Build

YES, we're waiting to build, too-- but patiently. In the meantime we've turned our old house into a guinea pig. One by one the ideas we've planned for our new home must pass the test of everyday living.

Your home is where our heart is

THIS month is Better Homes & Gardens' twenty-fifth anniversary as a magazine, and it puts us in mind to tell you what we've been up to. Sometimes, in so muddled a world, we get upset, just talking quietly of houses and roses and family things as we do. Sometimes we itch to breathe fire and throw our weight around, predict doom the way some others do.

Thanks for being patient

Door Does Double Duty

New Furniture of Many Uses

Sex Goes to School in Oregon

AS THE bell rang, the rush in the halls quieted to the few hurried footsteps of latecomers hurrying to their classes. Then the door to Miss Dorothea Parker's room clicked shut, and there were only the sounds of whispering and of rustling papers as 30 senior girls settled themselves for a questionbox discussion of family relations.

Add Your Terrace NOW!

Here's Your 1937 Favorite And Here's How We'd Build It Today

HOME design has changed greatly in 10 years. New materials and new techniques have freed the hands of architects.

Atmosphere

Guilt!

FROM that prophetic time when Adam and Eve bit into a sour apple representing knowledge of good and evil and promptly discovered their nakedness, all of us have been pretty busy feeling guilty about one thing or another. It makes you wonder if we really know our own minds; we spend so much time finding fault with ourselves.

Indiana Home, 1947

"TOO many people still think of a home as something to show off," Charles Ward said. "It's time we begin regarding it as a place for family living."

Informal Buffet

THE buffet way is an easy, relaxed kind of serving that everyone enjoys, even the hostess. Altho buffet service is usually informal, it can be quite elegant-- it's all in the way you do it.

We Try This House on Five Lots

More for Your Money

HOUSE-MOVING is easy-- on paper. Shoving yours a few feet to one side may give you just the shade you want from your best large tree. Or room for an attached garage and a screen of shrubs alongside your terrace. It's paper work that can pay off in years of satisfaction and better living.

Is an Old Farmhouse a Good Remodeling Bet?

MOST farmhouses as they stand are hardly beautiful. They were built with an eye to durability and use by large families. Beauty came from the setting.

FOOD NEWS

Salad and Dessert Molds

Best Way to Freeze Apples

$70 for Your Recipes

NEW recipe contest open now awards $70 to you for Special Sponge Cakes and Favorite Style Hash recipes. Top prize of $10 goes to Dish-of- the-Month cook, plus special tribute in next April's Cooks' Round Table. Twenty more of you contributing cooks will receive $3 each. If you are one of the 21 winners, you'll also receive six certified copies of your recipe.

ADD MAYONNAISE and food that tastes good will taste delicious

How to Start a New Lawn

YOU know what you want-- a thick turf, no weeds, green all summer. You can have all this and more if you build right.

Colorful Kitchens

More Space Adds Spire to Our Living

GROWING PAINS

Our oldest daughter, aged 12, is very critical of her small sister, who is only 4. One evening recently we were enthusiastically engaged in eating a beautiful steak at our evening meal.

Where There's a Job There's a Short Cut

Save Time With Trays

SPEAKING for women, I'd pin the medal on the tray. I kept house for years without a tray to my name. Now if I keep finding new uses for trays and adding to my supply, I'll need a butler's pantry to store them.

Plywood Shelf Protects Our House Plants From Radiator Heat

Her Home Is a Setting for Her Handicraft

STELLA LaMOND likes to create beautiful things. As chairman of the art department at Southern Methodist University, she has had wide experience with the loveliness possible in a painting, a chair, or a piece of pottery.

How to Fix a Leaky Roof

ROOF repair isn't too tough a job, even for an amateur. Unless, your roof is steeply pitched, a dry surface and composition soles on your shoes will give ample traction.

Obeying Made Easy

WHEN your one-year-old poises his bowl of cereal ready for the throw, do you shout "No! No! Butchie! Don't throw that cereal on the floor"? And does Butchie meditate a moment, surveying you and then his breakfast, before proceeding to pitch the cereal on the nice, clean linoleum?

How to Dry Hydrangeas

Do you savvy signs and signals?

THE man at the driving school said that most people the police sent him were pretty dumb. They didn't know you could tell what a highway sign meant by its shape. He said it was no wonder they had accidents when they didn't know what a sign was telling them before they got close enough to read it.

FRONT-YARD KITCHEN

Sidestep Those Eating Problems!

THE eager little eater who accepts everything placed before him at mealtime is a joy to his mother's heart. The best way to achieve this happy attitude toward food is to begin building good eating habits while the child is still a baby.

Easy-to-Clean Headboard

THE headboard of your bed gets a lot of wear and tear-- especially if you like to read in bed. Try protecting it with a slipcover of plastic film or plastic-coated fabric. This material will be always crisp and fresh because it sheds grime, may be wiped clean in a jiffy.

GARDEN CLINIC He Wants Rhododendrons

Everyone can grow rhododendrons and azaleas. But these plants will never be common. The soil must be acid and the winter not too cold. For those willing to supply these needs, the plants will blaze with color, reds and oranges, or be sheets of rose or white, each spring.

Let's Eat in the Kitchen!

Bambi's in Our Basement

Hints for the Handy Man

This Is Victorian

We Were Tired of City Living

WE WERE tired of living in a dirty city. So tired, in fact, that almost anything beyond the city limits looked good to us.

Desert Penthouse

Let simplicity be your guide

IF HOMES could talk, they'd probably be making under-the-eaves remarks like that. They should worry. But what about you?

Midwestern house--with furnishings from all over

Are you getting the most out of your automatic washer?

MANY automatic washer users say yes, they do prefer to spread washday over the week instead of concentrating on Monday. The day you change the beds, for instance, gather up all the sheets and pillowcases, toss in the bathroom towels for good measure, and take the whole lot directly to the washer. This saves stuffing the soiled linens into the already crowded clothes hamper.

They Remodeled a New House

THE home the Frank Sheldons bought was a good one. It was one of 200 homes built by Operative Builder Fritz Burns in Los Angeles. Like all of these homes, it was sold in shell form-- finished inside and out, but not landscaped or fitted to a personal way of living.

How's Your Plumbing?

WHEN you plan your postwar kitchen and bathroom, consider the piping that serves them. Then you won't have the experience I had while visiting friends recently.

They Can Take It With Them

NONE of this camping out for Dr. and Mrs. Harry Lehrer. Temporary can be a long, long time when you're waiting to build.

ADOBE KINGDOM

Put Your Two Weeks on Wings

LIKE to spend a couple of days in Florida-- a week in Mexico-- a fortnight in Havana or Honolulu? Oh, yes you can-- this fall and winter-- even if your total vacation time runs to only two weeks or less. Perhaps you haven't heard about the new packaged air tours that whisk you in a matter of hours to romantic places that used to be a week away, plunk you down for a full quota of tropic sun and atmosphere, and breeze you home again --all in time limits of an average vacation.

Handy Paraffin

PARAFFIN is one of the most widely used products of our modern petroleum industry. Yet we seldom think of it as companion to fuel oil, gasoline and such. To so many it is only "the stuff on jelly glasses."

SEPTEMBER GARDEN GUIDE

SEPTEMBER is a grand planting month. W. Elbridge Freeborn says, "I've always thought of September as the first gardening month of the year. Spend a day in your garden with notebook and pencil. Don't remember your successes, but recall instead the failures and the reasons for them. Write each one down. Then set up your program for the new year."

Ideas From New England Gardens

GARDEN CLINIC

Gourds are easy to harvest and cure if you treat them like ripe fruit. Don't pinch, squeeze, or treat them roughly. Cut them off the vine instead of yanking them off. I find it best to leave about three inches of stem attached to each fruit.

THE DIARY OF A Plain Dirt Gardener

Sent. 2 Labor day and knowing that some of my brother dirt gardeners would be at home and at work, I dedicated the forepart of it to visiting. First, over to see how the glads were doing at garden of the Plummers.

How to Get Rid of City Eyesores

EYESORES, no matter where in town, make your home worth less, breed disease, and keep alive rats, mosquitoes, and other pests.

Braid a Bath Mat

WHEN you find yourself looking longingly at your friends' towels and thinking "that one looks nearly worn out ... I'll bet she'll give it to me," then you're a convert to the school of braiding bath mats.

Bridging the Gap From

BOBBIE and Bill are both going to school for the first time! Bobbie is 3 and will attend nursery school. Bill is 5 and making his bow in kindergarten. Tho Bill at 5 is much more self-reliant than 3-year-old Bobbie, both need help and thoughtful introduction to this new life they are entering.

Home to School

Thru the Shops

Magic wand with no hocus-pocus about it. Magnet imbedded in the base of this desk set holds metal ball at the end of penholder, lets it tilt at any angle, or be entirely removed and replaced at a touch. Holder is scoop-shaped to guide pen gently into it without damage to point.

Article

Article

Your Dog Deserves An Education

WHY is it so many people give a dog credit for being a mind reader? Why do they believe a dog is gifted with some strange power that enables him to penetrate the inner recesses of his master's mind to learn exactly what is expected?

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Wéll, our neighbors who paid fantastic prices for houses last year are better off in one way than our other neighbors who sold their houses at fantastic prices. At least they have houses.