Show KATHLEEN KATHLEE N NORRIS dont don lose happy middle years ube ARE IN A RUT and its WE getting on our nerves lee as kind to me as he used to be I 1 bore him ile he seems tired and quiet all the time if I 1 start a subject he may say wearily lets not talk about it sometimes he says please dont use that word often he hardly seems to hear me we are run of the mill people continues the letter of mildred miller of new york city lees salary Is a week wo we pay 85 rent for five rooms in the west sixties lee is 52 I 1 am 47 we lost our one son in 1915 1045 and his widow has remarried and lives with our grandson in los angeles our daughter died as a baby so we have weathered two great sorrows but until now I 1 always felt that while lee needed me I 1 had reason for living now there any question that he feels himself tied to a woman who moans means nothing to him I 1 security enough 1 I am a good cook I 1 keep the house going weve never been in debt we have abood a good nest egg in government bonds and insurance all that but that enough Is it if ones heart Is restless and unsatisfied and life has grown duller and quieter day by day there is no other woman in the case I 1 know although lee is at the age when men sometimes tall fill for flattery and interest and physically we are both well sleep and eat like the tha normal human animals we are and feel bewildered at this apathy that has fallen upon us As tor for amusements lee has a cocker he adores he works on the window garden which Is quite a success ho he likes walking bridge and a few special movies I 1 like movies am taking a weekly lesson in interior decoration and love to 11 IV 3 ap a I 1 OM fm 4 good WUN cook lu fuss ss with curtains and flower arrangements arlu range ments 1 I want to save our marriage 1 I want to go into the fifties busy happy and useful thousands of persons live as we do on less money and seem content neither lee nor I 1 had any religious training when young but we both believe in god and sometimes go to church mysterious element this Is an ordinary enough story and yet it has one mysterious element why is it one asks that what makes certain couples absolutely sol content with a nice home adequate income health companionship ion lon ship enough for other couples well the answer is that one couple has found what it wants and the other one ona the very tact fact that mildred considers hersell herself and lee to be in a rut shows that the she belong there that reaching out for or interests hla his fusing with window boxes her patient attention lon while professional decorators decorator lecture to her shows that both are unsatisfied has it occurred to mildred and lee le to move out of the city the rent they are paying would more than cover the monthly payments on a small farm within well not an hour of the city but an hod hour and 20 minutes buying a mall neglected farm sephere lome se where give him a chance of garden gardening ng on a larger scale give her a real chance at interior decoration and give the cocker an allday all day run instead of a few moments ot freedom morning and night mildred mention lees job Is it a job that could be transferred to a smaller city more accessible to suburban farms there is no joy in the world like feeling the ground under your feet to be your own like feeling that every faucet every picket every shingle you add to it Is making it more yours you dont ha have ve to do without hot water electric light and power radio gas stove as your grandmother did when she mo moved ved into the country you can still get your consomme conned canned and your peas picked but hear the logs crackle in your own fire winter nights see the moonlight whitewash your own roofs and fences in summer to say we raised that rooster when you serve the fried chicken to send people home carrying a armstal r rn 9 f u I 1 of huckleberry a and nd bunches of long legged w white hi te v violets 10 to hang your monday wash out in blazing sunshine and eat your sunday breakfast under your own grape arbor this Is to find youth and life and de delight 11 a again ga in peaceful b busy u a y healthy unworried age Is it a goal worth working toward it has to be achieved according to pattern and with intelligent tell igent effort dont lose these au all important middle years |