The Good Wife's Guide

This past week, I found a flyer with a supposed excerpt from Housekeeping Monthly, the May 13, 1955 edition in my mailbox at one of the schools where I teach. I'm not sure whether or not it is legitimate, but it is quite interesting. Although some of the ideas are quite biblical in the section entitled, "The Good Wife's Guide," some of them are also a bit silly sounding, not to mention impossible sounding. Here are just a few out of about 15 that refer to when your husband comes home from work.

*Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so that you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair, and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

*Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

*Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.

*Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of arrival is not the time. Let him talk first- remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.

*Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.

*Don't complain if he's late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.

*A good wife always knows her place.