Dorothy Dix Says...

The most popular advice columnist of the 1940s was Dorothy Dix, pen name for Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (1861-1951). At her height in popularity, Ms. Dix had a syndicated column which reached approximately 60 million readers around the world. In 1940 alone, she received some 100,000 letters --- many of which were written by American housewives. I think it's high time we bring some of these voices back to life, so Wednesdays will now be dedicated to these vintage advice columns.

What were housewives thinking about? What kinds of concerns did they have when it came to life, love, children, and other relationships? Do these letters fit the picture you have of the '40s housewife? Is Dorothy Dix's advice sound - or does she miss the boat completely?

DEAR DOROTHY DIX - I have been married 15 years. Am still young and enjoy living. My husband is a good provider. We have a beautiful home and two lovely youngsters. I do all of my own sewing and housework. My husband tells me that I would be an ideal wife if I didn't care to smoke or play bridge. Now I only play bridge once a week and I do not smoke excessively.

I have waited on my husband hand and foot all these years and have endeavored to do everything possible to make him happy and comfortable, but I am not going to give up my bridge, which is my only outside pleasure. I love my husband, but I cannot permit him to take away every scintilla of my personal liberty. After all, I never tell him what he can or cannot do.

Just what is your opinion of a man who will let a little innocent game of bridge and an occasional cigaret separate him from an otherwise ideal wife?

INDIGNANT WIFE.

Answer - No man ever makes a bigger mistake than when he deprives his wife of any innocent amusement and tries to keep her shut up inside of the four walls of her home. Yet many husbands do this because they are the victims of the old superstition that a woman should be like the turtle and carry her house on her back, though why, goodness only knows. Turtles don't get very far. Nor are they interesting and amusing as household pets.

Still the idea prevails among old fashioned husbands that there is something meritorious in a woman being a stay-at-home and never going places or seeing things and having no conversational range beyond the children and the next door neighbors and the price of pork chops.

Now men have the wrong angle on this subject, and if they realized what was good for them, instead of trying to keep their wives locked up in the house all the time and objecting to their belonging to clubs and having their little games of bridge they would encourage them in it. For it would be money in their pockets and peace and happiness in their homes.

To begin with, it would save husbands a lot of doctor's bills for their wives to get around a little. Half of the neurotic women who are being treated for mysterious ailments are just simply bored.

They have no interest outside of their homes, meet few strangers, get no new ideas and they get so fed up on doing the same dull, monotonous round of chores, day after day and year after year, that they devise symptoms just to get something they can get a kick out of.

And, furthermore, the wife who belongs to clubs makes many friends who are valuable assets to her husband and children in a business and social way.

Kitchen Mathematics + Ash Tray Etiquette

Does my oven run a little hot or is it just better insulated than ovens were 60 years ago?

Grapefruit Juice
Corn-meal Muffins, Jelly

I made Corn-meal Muffins for breakfast this morning, and they were well done several minutes early. Tough and dry in such a short time. Maybe it's not my oven. Maybe it's just a sign how radically our tastes have changed in 60 years. Of course, it could also be that I'm not a good cook - but I've been trying very hard to stick carefully to the directions. None of the baked goods I've made so far have been light or fluffy or flavorful. Did people in the '40s just not know how lovely pancakes or muffins could taste, or have we developed greater expectations of our food? Have our recipes for pancakes and muffins evolved? Just a little something to mull over the next time I have some baking to do for breakfast.

It's kinda tricky to work baking into your morning routine. In fact, the whole process in making breakfast still feels very mathematical. "Let's see, if the Stewed Prunes are going to take 45-50 minutes, but the Oatmeal only 5 minutes plus another 5 minutes to bring the water to boil..." You get the idea.

Moving my chores in the living room to the evenings instead of the mornings has worked out pretty well for now. I may have to move 'em on back to the mornings once I'm ready to start doing some heavy-duty housework at night, but I'll take this one week at a time.

Gather up on tray to take out: used ash trays, articles belonging in other rooms, plants or flowers to be tended.

Now here's one item I don't have to worry about when I'm straightening up the living room. There aren't any ash trays to take up and bring into the kitchen for cleaning. That's got to be a messy job. Smoking was h.o.t. during the WWII era. Especially cigarettes. Lily Haxworth Wallace dedicates an entire chapter to chewing gum and smoking in New American Etiquette (1941). In this passage, she firmly explains how important it is that houseguests use ash trays:

You should be very careful of ashes from cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. Do not let them carelessly fall on the floor or table in your own or your hostess' home. If there is no ash tray close by, ask for one and use it frequently. Do not forget the length of ashes on your cigarette. Never flick ashes into a plate at the dinner table and never let them drop into a wastebasket.