Evening star., 1942-02-16
By MIRIAM GUTENBERG.

lStl dtOL LcOll I1ciiioi Soai AoiiiAiy 40
feeling the pinch Of rationing just
as much as anybody else.
Being in the know as far as short
ages are concerned hasn't helped a
bit. The tires on MI. Henderson s
car are slick and there's no sugar
in the kitchen of the Henderson
home on Bancroft street.
Like every other housewife, Mr..
Henderson's attractive young wife
one day discovered that the neigh
borhood grocer was out of sugar
Sugar shortage. rumors started a
run on Washington stores more than
month ago.
And like other housewives, she
aired her complaint to her husband.
Finally" she smiled. he broke
down and said, Yes, there was q
shortage of sugar.
She gets no preferred treatment at
the grocery store. When she was
marketing the other day, she said,
the grocer told her regretfully, You
should have been in an hour ago,
Mrs. Henderson. We had some
sugar"
Now She Uses "Grapevine."
She's now in on the grapevine
technique. News that the neigh
borhood grocer has gotten in a sup
ply of sugar is the principal item of
gossip among the women on her
block.
While she was explaining that,
her 4-year-old son, Leon, strolled
into the big living room to an
nounce:
I'm going to buy two boxes Of
sugar in the store for my horse"
He hasn't really got a horse"
Mrs. Henderson explained. Hes
had cowboy suit for some time and
the other day he discovered that
cowboys ride horses"
When she had led her son from
the room-he returned a few min
utes later to grin I'm in again
Mrs. Henderson said she had prom
ised to show him horse when the
family moves to its summer place
near Annapolis.
That led to talk about tires. Mrs
Henderson is riding the streetcar
these days.
The tires on my car are pretty
good, but I want to save them for
country travel. It's awful II you
get a blowout on one of those
country roads"
His Tires Are Terrible"
The tires on MIR. Henderson's car,
it seems, are terrible" His wife
told him to do something about
them last summer. but he kept put
ting 1t off and later he felt he
shouldn't buy new ones"
Mr. Henderson's job has had other
effects on the Henderson home.
Their telephone number is now I'M
listed. From $50 in the morning
until long past midnight the phone
used to ring. People had ideas
about saving the world and couldn't
wait to tell Mr.. Henderson about
them. That unlisted telephone has
been hardship on out-of- town
friends, but nothing to what tits
been to the Leon c. Henderson"
who is listed in the phone book.
Then, the Hendersons don't go
out "just for fun the way we used
to-" Mr.. Henderson tries to get
home for dinner with his family,
usually goes back to work after
ward. If he hasn't brought some
one with him to talk business, he
discusses current events with his
two young daughter, Beebe, II, and
Lyn, 9, who 60 to John Quincy
Adams School and have to keep up
with the news for their classwork.
Mrs. Henderson thinks Lyn is in
clined to quote her father, but not
Beebe, who declared with some firm
ness the other day, II think there's
too much publicity about daddy"
That was after Mr.. Henderson ap-
peared in the newsreels on a BIZ
cycle.
She Is Air-Raid Warden.
When Mr.. Henderson is working
which is almost every night-his
wife has her job, too. She's the
afraid warden for her block.
Tall and slim, Mrs. Henderson
likes color in her dresses. She wore
a red, white and blue ribbon in her
brown hair when she was inter-
viewed.
She was born and brought up in
Harrisburg, Pa, where, she said,
there were few opportunities In
those days for young women to get
jobs outside the State government
or on the society pages Of the local
newspapers. Her daughters, she
said, will have careers.
She attended Barnard College and
met Mr.. Henderson when he was
deputy secretary of State under Gov.
Pinchot They were married. after a
short courtship, in 1925 and came
to Washington with the N. r. A.
The only servants in the Hender-