March 1953

How to worry-proof your debts

You can "worry-proof" your loans or time-payment purchases, today, with consumer credit insurance.

Let's combine the old and new

What's wrong with this family?

Marjorie Turner is right. It's hard for any parent to be both "father and mother." Prolonged absences from the home by either parent put a special strain on all family members.

Cut "gingerbread" and you cut cost

Pictures yon can make

Have you heard the Latest Garden News?

There's a new answer for homemakers and amateur hybridizers who want a "real" red African-violet rather than the elusive "near" reds produced up to now.

Drawers you can build yourself

A split-level plan gives you . . .

Planting did it!

Today's house makes good sense

The best houses today are built to satisfy people, not trends. For this good reason, no single house pieces together the whole evolution of home building. And Five Star No. 2303 makes no such claims. It simply meets realities-- most wonderful, but some stern-- about you who are after a place and a way to live in the year 1953.

IRIS

YOU have everything to gain if you make out your iris list when iris are in full bloom. By seeing as many as possible, and rechecking with your catalogs, you'll end with your very favorites.

PEONIES

YOU'LL have to know your peonies and do a bit of planning to equal this armful grown and shown by Elmer A. Claar of Northfield, Illinois.

Why not enjoy a southern exposure?

A custom-made look at a budget price

How to have a better lawn

THICK, beautiful grass-- a really green lawn. That's what we want, and are willing to pay for with time, money, and effort. But we often settle for a lot less, don't consider the fundamentals involved. The growing of healthy plants isn't complicated.

Ever try a dude-ranch vacation?

Maybe you've had the idea that all dude ranches are a clever tourist promotion; that they're an artificial, Hollywood setting, an attempt to re-create a way of life that no longer exists. Maybe you think "the old corral'' went out when barbed-wire fencing and the station wagon came in.

Dress-ups for your springtime tables

Keeps pretty all year

There's space for living

If it's arm-stretching space you want --inside and out-- don't overlook a large, old house. First, you have to determine if the house is structurally sound. But even if it is, most of these old places are as outdated as Grandmother's sadiron.

Build your own home

When you see a new home, shiny and smug in its completeness, it's difficult to appreciate what the owners mean when they say, "We did it ourselves because we had to." Just those words, somehow, don't mean much. You don't get the feeling of the miracle of their accomplishment. The callouses have smoothed on their hands and the tiredness has gone from their faces. It's just another new house, and you aren't especially impressed.

Royledge

Plan a kitchen playroom

Use driftwood for smart decoration

HEINZ VINEGARS

Your floor covering

Make this super-top for your card table

Card tables are big enough for card games. But by the time you add refreshments, cigarette packs, ashtrays, and other accessories, there isn't room left for cards.

Tricks for using worn linens

Don't let a good idea pass you by! Take advantage of the dozens of possibilities offered by linens that may seem past their prime. Really they can serve you well-- dozens of ways. How? In new roles.

The Family Car It takes more than a tank of gas

You can have a tank full of gasoline, but it won't do you any good if it isn't reaching your motor. The price you have to pay for dependable starting is periodic maintenance. And, that must include the fuel system.

Ideas for your porch

Guest room used every day

Basic furniture measurements

When are children Old enough to stay alone?

I'm the envy of practically every mother in the neighborhood. Not because I have the whitest wash-- I haven't --or because I have a fur coat-- it's 12 years old-- but because I've raised my own baby sitter.

BEN-HUR FREEZERS

Perky ruffles in a jiffy

You can get yards of ruffles, wide and full, narrow and dainty, without mechanical know-how. The handy little gadget that does the job is the ever-so-complicated-looking, but ever-so-simple-to-operate ruffling attachment that is included in the box of attachments with almost every brand of sewing machine.

How to keep your head from splitting

If you have trouble with frequent headaches, you're one of the countless millions of Americans who do. No other source of human distress is as common.

What you can learn from preschools

As a nursery-school teacher, I'm often asked, "How do you get the children to be good? My Jackie behaves so much better at nursery school than he does at home." Working as I do with some 15 preschool children at a time, I should indeed be able to help parents help their children to be good and happy.

Head start in business for your youngster

"How do you get experience to get a business job, when it takes a job to get experience?" One of the soundest answers to that question is being provided in some 50 cities throughout the country, large and small, by an expanding organization known as Junior Achievement, Incorporated.

Answers to your decorating questions

Question: Our stairs run under the window on one side. Is there any way we can use floor-length draw draperies without their bunching up on stairs?-- Mrs. J. H., Ohio.

You don't have to start with a house

How do you rate as a neighbor?

You probably have your neighbors sized up pretty accurately. But, how do they rate you? If you'd like to know your popularity, run through this check list and add up your own score. In doing this, try to score yourself as your neighbors see you-- without alibis!

How to start an ivy

Try a new furniture arrangement

Put snap in snapshot albums

magee

Never too old for new tricks

How to keep a sick child happy

Keeping your child in bed, on doctor's orders, can be a trying experience for you and your young patient whether the confinement period is short or long. Children at such times may become little tyrants, demanding every moment of your time.

Luxurious storage space

Staged for the kids

Foundation plantings

Your pet and mine

Teaching your child the simple rudiments of consideration, patience, and kindness toward a puppy should be at the top of your list in promoting a happy relationship between the two. Some children mistreat dogs. Even when tormented, the average dog will go a long way before he'll bite a child.

Grow perennials from seed

Big returns for little outlay! That's your advantage in growing perennial flowers from seed. From a packet that costs you 25 cents, you can grow 3 or 4 dozen plants at home-- even if you're a beginner!

Soil-cement garden paving

Unless you're a civil engineer, you've probably never heard of soil-cement, much less considered its possibilities for low-cost, all-weather garden paving.

MARCH GARDEN REMINDERS: Now's the time to...

Scratch mulch from spring bulbs and roses when snow is gone and it's mild. Remove soil mounds from roses later on in the month.

The diary of a Plain dirt gardener

March 1 Now what do you think? When I peered out the window and over our landscape early this morning, it was all white.

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THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Bill Norman, the happy guy, has this inscription from an ancient Egyptian tomb stuck under the glass top of his desk: "Youth is corrupt, lacking in respect for elders, impatient of restraint. Age-old truth is doubted and the teaching of the fathers questioned. The signs of the time forecast the destruction of the world at an early date, and the end of time."