Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-02-17
CHEER UP THE KITCHEN

There probably isn't a woman in a million who loves to do
Homework, no matter how good a sport she is about pretending
she likes 1t. Homework is desirable to professional house
workers only because it is a welLpaid occupation for COM
paratvely unskined labor. To the housewife it is valuable
because it is really good exercise, and also because it keeps her
wings clipped, so to speak. A woman with the dinner to get or
the washing and ironing to do can't soar very far on the
wings of adventure or romance! That's one of the devices of
Nature fold schemer that she is), aided and abetted by Gus
tom and Tradition, to keep up the human race.
So, granted that most women do homework because they
have to, and not because they. choose, what's to be done
about it?
Cheer up the kitchenl If it is sunny, you are much to the
good. If there is a pretty view from the window Il hope there
is more than one window, better and betterl Then when you
wash dishes, or clean vegetables, you can enjoy the view. It
helps along the dishwashing especially. Parenthetically, l
might say that half the curse is taken out Of dishwashing if
you don't feel that you must use cheap, coarse soap, which
leaves your hands red, rough, and chapped, with a perpetual
smell Of dishwater, which is. enough in itself to fill your soul
with loathing. Use some Of these flaked soaps that are adver-
tised widely as not injurious to the most delicate fabrics!
The texture of your skin deserves as kind and humane treat
ment as Fathers golf socks, or Billy,s flannel shirts! And 1t
is much harder to replace! I'll
Keep the cold cream tube up on the shelf with. the steel
wool and the box Of securing powder. q am having a hard
time to avoid giving free advertising to certain pet necessities
in the dishwashing paraphernalia)
i The main thing is the attractiveness of the kitchen itself.
If ii is sunless, and you are a daring soul, and young and able
bodied, get orange colored paint for the walls, black for the
woodwork, and paint the table tops and the chair seats orange,
with the legs thereof black. Hang the plalnest of4whlte sash
curtains at the windows.
with two coats of good white house paint, and make the third
coat white enamel. Don't do the painting yourself unless you
are strong. Ceilings have a way OF surprising your Will
horrid fatigue! But probably George will help you. Any
way it can be done most economically. I've done: lots OF 1t
myself, and am still going strong! @5l
With a khite kitchen, ~gingham curtains IN red-and-whlte
checks, or green.and-white checks, with the furniture painted
to harmonize, make a charming little room. Ifyou have a city
back yard, hang up a gay little geranium or a pot OF some
thing colorful in the window.
In such a kitchen, you won't mind at all sitting WIN inc
mending basket while the bread is baking. Here you can let
George, Jr, and Sister sit with their cut-outs, OF their paper
dolls. 1t is easy to brush up the scraps from the kitchen floor,
and the children love the coZlness OF the kitchen.
If you are lucky enough to have a cook, don't think
that this isn't for you! I never knew a cook yet5-and I've
known a good many !-whose tenure of office was shortened
by an attractive kitchen to work in. Did you?