The Coral Gables Times

Suburbia Today THE MAGAZINE OF PLEASANT PLACES Published Monthly

In This Issue ...

Step, Step, Together Step ... page 7 ANYBODY CAN LEARN TO DANCE, says Amy Vanderbilt. She didn't know a cha cha from a waltz till, after years of "sitting this one out," she determined to learn, and now she steps right along with the best of them. How did she do it? This month she explains and adds a dozen valuable pointers for others who have more than one left foot. Ouch, Ouch, "Say Uncle" ... page 10 Eric Nicol and Peter Whalley are two bright, new, and brash talents from Canada who have just written a hilarious history of the United States for people who are not going back to school. Here is a sampling of Mr. Whalley's cartoon low-down on what was obviously left out of authorized versions of the lives of Lincoln and Ponce De Leon and the Pilgrims and other Founding Fathers. A Den Mother's Lament ... page 14 There are 310,298 Den Mothers in this country. They are dedicated; hard-working women, but sometimes even their best efforts fall on the deaf ears of boys who are bored, tired, restless, and just plain not interested in repeating the same handicrafts that took up a lot of their time during the school day. Out of harried experience, one thoughtful mother tells how she would improve Cub Scouting. Par Excellence ... page 18 World Champion Louise Suggs (twice winner of the U. S. Women's Open) believes that short-course or par-three golf will become the nation's top sports attraction some day. She reports the story of this new sports boom to date, with notes on its great appeal for older people, for beginners, for mixed games, or for any good golfer with limited time.

Homer Hill

It's the first day of school, so, while the eager scholars are debarking from busses and cars, says our famous cover artist, Mrs. Suzanne Gold (room 1-C), is waiting with everything ready on her desk—dictionary, calendar, globe, ruler, pen, ink, paper, and the pretty flowers one early arrival brought her.

LEONARD S. DAVIDOW Publisher ERNEST V. HEYN Editor-In-Chief MARION LOWNDES Editor DELMAR LIPP Managing Editor CHRISTINA PAPPAS Associate Editor PHILLIP DYKSTRA Art Director JOHN BAILEY Humor Editor SUBURBIA TODAY is distributed nationally with newspapers in selected suburban communities. Editorial offices at 60 East 56th St., New York 22, N. Y. Advertising offices at 575 Lexington Ave., New York 22, N. Y. Business offices at 153 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 1, Ill. Walter C. Dreyfus, Vice President. Patrick O'Rourke, Advertising Director. Ford King, Advertising Manager. Morton Frank, Director of Publisher Relations. © 1961, Suburbia Publishing Corporation, 153 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 1, Ill. All rights reserved.

GETTING AROUND ... to Our Pleasant Places and People

HERE ARE A COUPLE of firsthand reports on the activities of brand-new five-year-old scholars: the first, from Elsa Badger, is about little Martha Drummond, of Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, who was looking forward to her first day in school. When the great morning came, she bounced out of bed, got ready, and thoroughly enjoyed being taken there with all the responsibility of being left alone and of taking the school bus home by herself. The next morning, when her mother went to wake her up, Martha protested, "What? Again?" The other story comes from Mrs. Hy Rosenthal, in Millburn, New Jersey. It's about a five-year-old boy who had just started school. Every day, when he returned from the morning kindergarten session, his mother would ask him what he had made in school. One day the little fellow, in answer to the standard query, just looked up at her and said, "I made two new friends, Mommy." America is still the land of unlimited opportunity for those who know where to look for it. Take the young man Mrs. Irene Rawson of Normandy, Missouri, told us about. He found out that there was a city law which prohibits dogs from the beaches, so he went into the business of taking dogs swimming. Three times a week he makes his rounds, picks up his charges, and takes them to a sheltered breakwater where they can swim, romp, and exercise to their hearts' content. The dogs love it, their owners are delighted, and the entrepreneur is making a neat profit running his own unusual business. Imagine the plight of maintenance man James Graves, who was faced with the monumental task of removing 100,000 flowers that had been specially put in as decorations during the grand opening of a shopping center near Oak Grove, Oregon, a few weeks back. The flowers were still fresh enough, but there were so many of them to dispose of. Well, canny Jim, remembering his Tom Sawyer, went out and got the biggest, flattest box he could find. He began to put the flowers out on the box, and in a few minutes a crowd of shoppers had gathered. One lady asked Jim what was going to happen to the flowers, and he graciously replied that they could all help themselves. Soon, everyone who passed by was going home with armfuls of lovely blooms and Jim went ahead with the rest of his cleaning job, free of at least one big, beautiful headache. Forrest and Bernice Miller, who own a lodge and restaurant in Poncha Springs, Colorado, have their own novel way of contributing to charity. On Sundays, customers are invited to write the name and address of the church of their choice on the back of their dinner [?check?], and the Millers then forward 10% of the tab. A sign on the back of a car in North Hollywood, California, read: "Just Divorced." Continued on page 4

"En garde. She wants the compost pile turned over."