June 1955

WHAT'S NEW in home furnishings

You'll really be floating on air with an air-filled, foam-rubber mattress. The firmness in this one-piece unit can be regulated to any degree, from soft to very firm, by adjusting the air pressure in a series of rubber pockets like inner tubes. A special pump is provided with each mattress. The double size has a separate control valve for each side so that Mr. and Mrs. can suit their personal tastes.

How to talk to the person you married

My mother and father enjoyed each other's company more than any two people I've ever known. What did they talk about? That's unimportant. Only that they were conversationally mated. Which is, I believe, quite as vital to married happiness as being mated in a number of other respects.

Latest Garden News

Photographs a friend took in Japan recently show Japanese gardeners applying plastic coverings to beds of newly transplanted vegetables.

Be prepared to save a life

Detroit looks ahead

In the opinion of many automobile experts, no-shift driving has been the greatest single contribution in more than a decade to passenger-car driving comfort and ease of operation. Even more responsive, fully automatic transmissions will be available in several of the new cars to be introduced this fall.

Mums from cuttings

Growing plants in boxes

A boy's room is his castle

News in dishes: NEUTRALS

The plump and the padded

When you overeat, one result is inevitable: You get fat. Foods supply heat energy measured in calories. Breathing, winking, twitching your muscles burn up calories.

Little gardens are now the thing

How would you raise a first lady?

American parents may dream of their sons becoming president. But do you ever consider the possibility of a daughter being first lady?

Article

A cruise on the Great Lakes

Just for a change, maybe you'd like to get out from behind the steering wheel this summer and really relax. From comfortable deck chairs aboard a great steamship, you can watch an ever-changing, 2,200-mile scenic panorama pass in review. You can plan on three superb, hotel-style meals each day, count on sleeping in the same comfortable bed each night and returning to it as often as you like for a quiet siesta during the day.

The best summer-home buy yet!

It's a home you can build yourself or have a builder complete for you from a preassembled, basic package. The exterior shell-- walls, window frames, roof-- costs $1,350, by putting in your own foundation and floor. The completed house (with interior partitions, glass, hardware, fireplace) is about $2,500.

Color-bold and bright

Are you ready for summer?

It can make you want a new house!

A really good small house (like this one) is worth studying whether you plan to build or not! You can buy complete plans, but you can also find ideas aplenty for improving the house you now own.

Flowers set your table theme

See what you can do with pictures!

The new kitchen center

Article

Build your own car-top carrier

Low in cost, high in ideas

You're braver than you think

Two men climbing a wooden stairway leading to a second-floor factory room passed a pail of naphtha which someone had left uncovered. Thinking it water, one man flipped his lighted cigarette toward it. There was a flash of flame. The one man turned and ran down the stairs and into the street. The other ran up the stairs to warn the workers.

Cleaner house in half the time

For any bedroom... a versatile storage wall

Rooms to rate with the young set

More use from your guest room

When your pet travels

My dog is terribly shy. He has never been beaten or tormented, but he is afraid of strangers or loud noises. How can we get him to overcome this?-- Mr. F. E., Wisconsin.

The boat trip up the Rogue River Rapids

Our vacation schedule never allowed for side trips until young Tony learned to read signs. He spotted one at Gold Beach, Oregon, which led to our most memorable side trip.

Fire building

Take a lesson in small-house planning

When you think of split-level houses, do you picture three- and four-level buildings on a hillside? Here's one on a perfectly level 50-foot lot, compactly small with only 772 square feet of living space. But it has three bedrooms.

Article

The machine that pumps perfect weather!

There's an amazing machine on the market that you're going to hear a lot about-- a machine to build perfect weather into your home, winter and summer!

You and your TEMPER!

How to hang pictures

Jobs that jigs help you do better

Are summer jobs hard to find?

This month, approximately 11,000,000 boys and girls throughout the nation will be looking for part- or full-time employment this school vacation.

Let your kitchen be fresh--with a kitchen ventilator

A way with cabbage, onion, and fishy odors in your home! No more musty, smoky draperies and upholstery, or greasy walls and ceilings. Count on a kitchen ventilator to get rid of cooking smoke, grease, and odors before they get a chance to settle. While recommended for all homes, a ventilator is a "must" in a home where the kitchen opens into the living area or where there's an activity/eating area in the kitchen.

Problem solvers for storage-shy homes

How to put youth into a 50-year-old house was the problem of Architect Walter H. Sobel, A.I.A., when he and his family decided to move. For one thing, he needed to update the background to make it blend with Contemporary furnishings.

Personal help in home building, remodeling, and decorating

When you're looking for ways to make your home more comfortable and attractive, look for this seal. It identifies the Better Homes & Gardens Home Planning Center, where you can get personal counsel on your home-planning problems.

Give your doorway a personality

Does your doorway have personality? Does it beam a "welcome" to visitors, or does it seem to shrink back-- too shy to admit that it's the front entrance of a lovely home that houses a wonderful family?

Now's the time to . . .

Keep spring-planted shrubs and trees growing through first summer by soaking soil around their roots. Feed lawn with a complete plant food, such as 6-10-4.

Summer care of ROSES

Six plants you ought to know

The diary of a Plain dirt gardener

June 1 Iris still holds on, with the late-blooming Extravaganza out today. Oriental poppies flaunt their splendor. Roses are coming slowly because that freeze last month set them back.

Handy hamper

Three shoe racks yon can build

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Every year on our wedding anniversary, I talk my head lady into getting out her wedding dress and putting it on. Then, summoning our three young fry to gaze upon her, I make the following triumphant speech: "There is a tendency on the part of growing children to challenge the statement 'Father knows best.'