Evening star., 1942-09-16

Henry McLemers penter. plumber.
upholsterer. decorator and all
around repairman.
To the everlasting credit Of the
American man. let 1t be said that
he has not failed to volunteer his
services. OF course, a great many
of the volunteers do not deserve too
much credit. We refer to those
men who are naturally handy
around house. You know the
type We mean.
These men maintain small car
penter's shops in the basement.
They are familiar with the awl,
he hammer and the saw. They
have basic knowledge Of what
makes electricity work, and how to
thump wall to determine where
nail should be driven, and can look
at curtain rod and tell in second
whether or not one end of 1t Is
inches higher than the othrr.
They also have the ability to mix
paint without using their vest for
palette, and understand the mys-
teries of glue to such an extent
that they can repair broken vase
or pitcher. They can even sit down
on the floor with small boy and
show him how to put wings on an
airplane, or build a derrick out of
mysterious little blocks of wood
with holes in them.
1t is not of such men that we
want to sing today. We want to
lift our voices for those men who
can do none of those things-those
clumsy souls who, when they hang
a picture, hang it crooked and chip
great chunks of plaster from the
walls. Those 15-flngered creatures
who, when asked to replace a carpet
that has come back from the clean
ers, put it the wrong way on the
floor. Those awkward fellows who,
when asked to repair a straight
chair, fix it so that one of the
legs is shorter than the others,
causing the chair to rock.
These men are being called on
today Just as much as their talented
brothers, and they are responding
although it would perhaps be much :
better if they didn't. We belong to
this hopeless group, and at the
moment are tussling with one of the
toughest problems of all time. We
are attempting to make our house
cold-resistant in keeping with the
suggestion of the OPA and other or
garizations.
With fuel oil sure to be rationed,
we have been told that we should
employ all means of conserving
heat. We never in the world would
have known how to start had it
not been for newspaper editorial
which told of some of the devices
used by New Englanders in the
days gone by.
New Englanders sometimes used
dry seaweed packed between the
interior and the exterior walls the
editorial said.
X X X
You'd be surprised how hard dried
seaweed is to find, even In a city
the size of New York. Department.
store clerks had never heard of 1t.
The nearest we got to getting any
was at one store, where a clerk,
when we asked directions to the
dried seaweed counter, said, What
in the name of goodness do you
want that stuff for?"
They also used little thin sand
bags to lay along the window sills
and at the foot of drafty DOORS"
the editorial pointed out.
Sandbags! Well, that was diff
ferent. Here was something we
could get our teeth into. At the
moment we are making little sand
bags. Hundreds of them. You
can't get into one of the rooms, so
filed is 1t with little sandbags, all
OF which have a tendency to drip
sand from the sewn end. We have
them piled everywhere, and visitors
have frankly asked us If we thought
we were so important that enemy
bombers would make our home a
prime objective of their bombs.
The newspaper also pointed out
that storm windows on the windvard )
side OF the house would be a help. ,
Which side of house is the wind 4
ward side? Darned if we know. The
only way We have of determining
the wind Is trick we learned with
the Chipmunk Patrol, Boy Scouts
OF America, Mr.. Homer Hooster. d:
scoutmaster, back in 1915. That
trick Is to wet the finger, anv d
finger. and poke it toward the
heavens. The side that cools first is j..
the windward side. We tried that
all around our house and our finger
cooled just as well in the back yard
as 1t did In the front yard.
Oh, to be handy man around
the house!
distributed by McNaught Syndicate, Incl