Show Kathleen Norris Says Dull Days Ahead for Many Bell Syndicate Features A fI f 7 I 3 if i- i f m mEven h Even in peace time times many a pretty wife discovers that early married life is La a very serious business and that most young husbands dont don't like to fo see their wives dancing By KATHLEEN NORRIS T TS T'S ONE thing to be a war ITS IT'S I widow and be bored and lonely for three years writes Phoebe Cutter from Minneapolis but its it's another thing to have your m man n come home dissatisfied with everything everything everything every every- thing discouraged about everything unwilling to make the slightest effort to rebuild the happiness we once had e e eSam Sam and I were married five years ago the letter goes on I Iam Iam Iam am not prettier than the average run runS of girls but I am pretty 27 now and still loving to meet my friends to plan good times and to dance It seems to me hard to think that all that is out of my life lie for for- ever Im I'm a good manager and housekeeper and despite the fact that we have a daughter almost four did time part work during the war and kept our financial head above water Sam has his old job back but buthe buthe buthe he is dissatisfied with it His old boss is dead and a man Sam trained is boss and making the most of at it When I ask him to break breakaway breakaway breakaway away he says he feels too old and tired to try for a change He is 34 but seems much older than that He talks of approaching inflation and depression unemployment and hard hardtimes hardtimes hardtimes times he be thinks I have spoiled and that she doesn't like him Of course if U he will make no effort to win her affection so small a girl is not likely to give it Nothing Matters During the war my mother lived with me She is a trained nurse and andIs andis andis is now taking cases again When he be first returned she suggested that she leave us but Sam protested saying wearily to me later that it didn't matter how many persons lived with us That is his general position nothing matters He drags quietly through days of work comes home to sit silently in the sitting-room sitting until I say dinner is ready doesn't read the papers much or listen to the radio We have been once together to movies since he got home then it was a is war var film through which he trembled and muttered muttered muttered mut mut- all the time My l heart is sick with pity for him but I dont don't know what to do I consulted a psychiatrist psychiatrist psychiatrist psychia psychia- trist telling him I thought Sam was wasa a borderline case He oI only Y laughed and said it would be years before they got through the genuine cases and came to the possible ones And meanwhile men admire me and want to take me places for dinner dinner din din- ner and dancing the letter concludes concludes con con- eludes and the best years of my mylie life lie are going by and I dont don't see anything ahead except housework I baby care and the endless efforts to cheer Sam What to do e a Phoebe my dear I say in answer answer answer an an- this wont won't last This is the slow convalescence from war fever that thousands hundred of thousands thousands thousands thou thou- sands of men are arc suffering and must endure for a while To Sam civilian life lie with its vagueness its frivolities Its serene unconsciousness unconscious unconscious- ness of what he has bas been going through Is He cant can't get used to it He has been starved himself In prison camp for weary weeks and months he be has seen strong courageous young men starve to death Trivialities Madden film Dim To see you concerned about new bedcovers the cost of lamb chops L Go Co on Sunday picnics with THIS TOO WILL PASS As more more and more servicemen servicemen service service- men come home the tile number of distraught wives multiply All 1111 too often the long awaited homecoming is the prelude toa to toa toa a nightmare Husbands return changed almost beyond They are irritable restless petulant suspicious or else cold and dull Phoebe writes that her Sam Sans Samis is back but so different He got his old job agair but doesn't like it At night he sits glumly reading the paper His little daughter doesn't interest him There seems to be nothing nothing nothing noth noth- ing that he cares about deeply All this is very painful to Phoebe She had looked forward forward for for- forward ward for three years to the time when Sam would be backwith back backwith with wit her and they coult pick pickup up their former happy way of life Now it all seems blasted There seems nothing ahead but long dull years of trying to make the best of it To a pretty girl of 27 still young enough to enjoy dancing and parties it looks quite quite- drab Miss Uliss Norris replies that this sad time will pass and that gradually Sam will recover much of his old personality The dreadful experience of war must be forgotten and that takes time There are brighter days ahead for wives who patiently and loyally endure endure endure en en- dure this mental convalescence of their weary war husbands the fit of hat rouses in him emotions of such anger and despair as almost wreck his reason H He knows the world is topsy that tha the powers of good are temporarily temporarily tem tern helpless against the powers powers pow pow- ers of greed politics stupidity that tha are ruling now But gradually as order emerges emerge from chaos all aU over the world an and here and there progress is seen this thIs thi nation and that struggling back t to decent rule to new ideals of ot statehood statehood state state- hood and citizenship Sam will recover recover recover re re- re- re cover too Your good times may have to wait walt for awhile but they will come Even in peacetimes peacetime mes many a pretty young wife discovers that early married tile life is a n very serious business and that mos most young husbands dont don't like to se see their wives dancing And this is postwar postwar post post- war time Sometime well we'll learn that recovery from war is almost almos as bad as war itself It isn't th the themen men who die from a clean bullet bulle wound who pay for the war its it's th the others like your Sam who come com home sickened with the waste and suffering of the camps to find th theold the theold old life lite equally bewildering and dJs dEs appointing Take time to win him back Make Mak him Important Do the things h be likes to do Go oil off into the country with for Sunday picnics just Jus you three Read books read books read some of the thousand books that are tel telling tell tel ing tag us too late how bow this wa war migHt have been avoided Discuss Discus these books with him and let him talk With the right guidance hell bell recover from all aU this and the world worl will Meanwhile carry your tiny speck of responsibility courageously courageous courageous- ly and make your corner of the the- world as bright as you can |