75 



just as long as we want to; and everybody talks. Sometimes we sit an 

 hour our record is four and a quarter hours. That was the day we started 

 in at breakfast, forgetting to go to church, and the next thing we knew it 

 was a quarter past one. 



And what do we talk about? What would you suppose? We talk about 

 everything under the sun, from Babe Ruth to international politics, and all 

 the way up and down the line. We are very fond of baseball. We have 

 two daughters who are bigger than I am, one is a very good third baser 

 nd the other is a short stop. They both have very good batting records. 

 Their father is very fond of baseball too, so baseball is a prime topic of con- 

 versation. I am not supposed to know anything about it. As a matter of 

 fact I do, but I keep my knowledge a secret, because it is very much more 

 fun for three people who do know a lot about it to have an ignoramus to 

 enlighten. So I pose as an ignorant mother and ask what batting averages 

 mean. They do not notice that I ask the same questions season after season. 

 They do not think that I might sometimes- get educated, because it is so 

 much fun to instruct me. So we talk baseball, we talk politics, college 

 education, religion, dietetics, clothes, dressing and Sunday School, and any- 

 thing under the shining sun that anybody wants to talk about, with every- 

 body having a chance to say whatever they want to say, and if we don't 

 agree with the person who sits next to us that makes it so much more 

 interesting, because if every one in the family agreed', what a bore that 

 family would be. It is so much fun to debate. Disagreements in the family 

 are so satisfying because they never end. You can't convince a person to 

 change his mind so you have the fun of hunting new arguments till suddenly 

 you discover that that topic is forgotten and a new one is under discus- 

 sion. Talking about big things, if it is entered into with the right spirit, 

 and by the scheme of -one meal a week, is very stimulating in family life. 

 Dishes can wait and by the way, did you ever know anything that could 

 be so safely and comfortably allowed to wait as dishes? I have heard 

 women say they never went away from home and left dishes. (I hasten 

 to explain that mine are all washed before I left home this morning! ) I 

 have tried the experiment sometimes of going away and leaving dishes 

 and have come back hopeful that something might have happened, but 

 nothing ever did. The dishes were right there when I came back, just the 

 same as when I left. [Laughter.] I discovered if we wanted to sit at a 

 table and talk and leave the dishes for an hour or two not a single thing 

 happens to them. They are there quite comfortably. You can wash them 

 at the end of the four hours and a quarter just the same as at the end of 

 fifteen minutes. They won't run away! So forget the dishes and work 

 just one meal out of twenty-one and see what good fun you can have when 

 everybody lingers around the table for talk. 



IMPROVE OUR LEISURE EVENINGS. 



Then there are evenings. What do we do with our evenings? You 

 who have heard my talk about planning the spending of our money won't 

 be very much surprised to hear me say that we should plan the spending 

 of our leisure. Perhaps that is a funny sounding phrase. But ask your- 

 self, "what do I want to get out of my evenings?" Did you ever take pencil 

 and paper and put your aims down in black and white? If you have, 

 doubtless you have had the experience of discovering that you do not do all 

 the things you intend. Never mind! You can keep on aiming high just 

 the same! 



Let us see what sort of things we would like to get from our evenings. 

 We would like to acquire more social development. I like to see a man 

 or woman who can have a good time alone. I would be rather suspicious 

 of the person who never could take a walk or do a job alone and have a 

 good time at it, because if there is one person on the face of the earth 

 that ought to interest you is yourself. Maybe we really are worth getting 

 acquainted with if we give ourselves a chance. But we want to know other 

 folks too; we want to develop some social graces. For we live in a world 



