January 1948

It's NEWS to Me!

Highways--welcome mat to your town

We have a basement playground

OUR basement is not one of those luscious creations complete with tiled floors and knotty-pine walls. Ours is just a basement: whitewashed cement walls, furnace, coalbin, concrete floor, and all.

Home full of ideas

KIMSUL INSULATION

This handy kitchen is a beauty

THIS gracious kitchen was modernized and decorated by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Smith in their home on Silver Lake, near Salem, Wisconsin. It's the kind of thing any family could do. "We would not enjoy it half as much if we hadn't done practically all the work ourselves," declares Mrs. Smith. All the painting and even the installation of cabinets and wall tile board were Mr. and Mrs. jobs.

THE DIARY OF A Plain Dirt Gardener

Jan. 1 Plans for the year-- garden speaking-- are to proceed as normal. I'll keep on with the old routine of perennials, annuals, roses, with special emphasis on trying out new things. In the back part, vegetables will be grown, along with sundry rows of mums, glads, and what not for cutting.

Is your number up?

When a daughter asks a dad

"DADDY," said she, "I got kissed. Was it all right?" Judy, my 17-year-old daughter, wasn't joking. She stood before me innocent, intent. Her brown eyes are--I think-- the largest and most beautiful in Christendom, and quite a few young men seem to share that opinion. When I sat there staring up into them, the burden of parenthood settled on me anew. Here, tho she had caught me unprepared, I must not be flippant, must not tease, must not belittle or show scorn.

For four 1948 garden

Here's help for your color schemes

WHETHER you need one new chair, slipcovers, or a roomful of furniture, this new getting together by manufacturers makes it easier for you to come out with an attractive, up-to-date decorating scheme. The manufacturers have developed three different wood finishes and 27 different fabrics which go together in harmonious color schemes.

Prettiest place on Cape Cod

This plan works like a wheel

Wouldn't yon like country privacy in town?

WOULDN'T you like to shut out the noises of the street, but keep all the conveniences of the city? Dr. Anders Peterson is another man who wanted exactly that. And when he built, he got just what he ordered-- quiet-- his favorite flowers-- fruit-- plenty of outdoor living coupled with privacy, so he dresses as he pleases. But he has little work at upkeep and no grass to mow.

The surest cure for CANCER

THE frightened woman with stomach cancer looked up at the surgeon poised for the most difficult operation of his career. "My children," she said and paused, then continued, "there are eight. Perhaps you remember."

Minimum changes solve two common Remodeling problems

Let's have a cup of coffee

COFFEE is correct any time. At a formal dinner in demitasses, at a barbecue in man-sized mugs. And it's always welcome. Share it with a neighbor mid-morning, or with the bridge club. Best of all, brew a pot of coffee for that chilled visitor who drops into your home this winter. A few cookies, cakes, or sandwiches are accompaniment enough.

How to get the most out of your lot

YOU'LL live better if you have a good lot plan. You'll get more out of owning your own home. Planning can get you room for many extras. It can help cut your maintenance drastically.

Storage miracle

Remodel to suit the setting

HAVE you ever found a beautiful view and shuddered at the house that stood in the way? It's only natural for that house to be there. Years ago someone else saw that same view, and built a home where he could look at it always.

It was a laundry

It was a garage

Glue it together again

THERE'S nothing complicated about gluing, but like most jobs, there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. Naturally the right way is by far the easiest.

What about spaying?

IT'S really surprising the number of people who get the spaying bug. The minute they get a cute female dog, they write and ask (1) "What is your opinion of spaying?" (2) "At what age should my female be spayed?" (3) "Does spaying hurt a dog?" And so on.

How to make a sandwich wheel for your party

JANUARY GARDEN GUIDE

JANUARY provides a chance to do fix-it jobs and to make plans for the year's garden. Have everything in readiness so that you can take advantage of each good day. Sharpen your pruning shears and loppers by taking them apart and then using a whetstone to get just the right angle. A blade ground too thin nicks easily; one too blunt doesn't cut readily. If twigs tend to slip out of your shears, the edge of the blade is too thin.

Favorite garden tools: what's yours?

MY PRIDE and joy is "the man- killer," an extra-heavy, oversized, long-handled cultivator, with five stout, steel prongs. Their spread is over 10 inches. They bite 4 to 6 inches into the soil. When you sock that tool into the ground and rip up the soil, that ground is cultivated-- no doubt of it.

GARDEN CLINIC

I HAVE two small children, also a middle-size dog. Next door there are three little girls, and an old sheep dog. But I've found that planting the right plants in the right places lets me have plenty of flowers, and I never have to refuse a child's request for a flower.

Thru the Shops

How to grow orchid cacti

ALL who eye with envy Doctor Peterson's dramatic and colorful orchid cacti (page 43) will do well to remember: orchid cacti should be treated as begonias and ferns are. Give them a loose, gritty soil, plenty of water thru the summer, good drainage, and light shade. They will not stand freezing.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

My neighbor across the street says her egg-and-chicken woman is worried about a personal problem: She wonders how her farm friends would take it if her husband bought her a mink coat.