Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1944)

Dear Miss Colbert; I hope you don’t think I’m telling you a sob story, but I hope you can help me. I’m a girl going on fourteen. My mother has often told me that she hates me and that she wishes I didn’t live in her house. My father is serving overseas. One night a lady brought over a package for my mother. When the lady arrived, I invited her in, but she said, “No, thank you, I’m in a hurry.” She had just left when my mother came from the other room and began to holler at me, wanting to know why I didn’t ask the lady in. I tried to explain, but she slapped my face and hit me so many times that she broke my glasses. Since my mother hates me and doesn’t want me, isn’t there some school or home where I might go? Please, won’t you help me? Wilma V. Dear Miss V: Yours is so serious a problem that no one. could intelligently give you longdistance advice. Someone reliable, in your home town, should he consulted. If you like and respect your highschool sponsor, you might go to her anti explain the exact truth of your home life. Be very careful not to overdramatize yourself or your suffering, and don’t exaggerate your mother’s behavior. After you have told your story, ask your sponsor what to do. In case you have no sponsor in your school, you might discuss your problem with your favorite teacher, or with the principal of the high school, with the pastor of your church, or with your doctor. Any one of these persons would have the maturity and the judgment to advise you. I wouldn’t, if I were you, discuss the situation with girl friends at school. Your mother may possibly be ill. Claudette Colbert Dear Miss Colbert: I am nineteen years old and have been married a little over a year. My husband is in the Navy and will be sent to sea shortly. When we were first married, my fatherin-law suggested that he keep our money in his safe deposit box in the bank. My husband and I agreed, although I didn’t care too much for the idea. Each time an allotment came, it went straight into that box for which only my father-in-law has the key. Now, since my husband has gone to the Coast, I have moved out here with my sisters. And I have begun to think about my allotments, of sending them home every month, and it seems to me to be silly. I could just as well deposit them each month in a bank account here as I have secured a good job and will probably be here for the duration. Several days ago I wrote my husband how I felt about the money situation. He wrote back that he didn’t think I trusted his father with our money (this is perfectly ridiculous) and that it was foolish of me to want to change the situation. He told me I could send half of the check home and keep the other half here. I see no reason for this. The money should not be divided up. It’s ours together and should be kept together, in my opinion. Other women don’t send their allotments home to be kept by their fathers-in-law. 1 leel that 1 am perfectly able to take care of our financial problems, and our savings, myself. Do you think I have a right to feel this way? Mrs. Damion C. Dear Mrs. C.: I will be quite frank and admit that I believe your father-in-law is wrong to a certain extent. When a son marries, he and his wife should certainly handle their otvn financial arrangements. However, to be entirely practical in a case like this, one must admit that you don’t need the money, since you are working. If you tvere ill, or if you were supporting a child, the problem ivould be quite different. You can stand on your rights, of course, and insist upon keeping the check. However, I believe that by so doing you might antagonize your husband to the point where a serious breach might occur. Certainly your stand would annoy your father-in-law, and his letters to your husband might be trouble-making. On the other hand, if you continue to send the checks to your father-in-laic, he should not keep the cash in a safe deposit box. That is one of the practices against tvhich the Government has repeatedly preached. Why don’t you suggest, in a letter to your husband, that your fatherin-law buy Bonds with all the money you have saved to date, and that the checks you continue to send him be applied to Bonds as rapidly as possible. These Bonds, of course, should be made out in the names of yourself and your husband jointly, and could be safely and happily held in the vault. Claudette Colbert Back a fighting man — give to the R. C. W. F. by midiicii authbrities PROVED ie^irritating to nose ond throat 'tst HERE’S the proof— from clinical tests with mei and women smokers. The findings by distfli guished doctors — reported in an authorital^yj medical {oumol —show that: :every case op irritation of nose THROAT^DUE TO SMOKtNO-EITHER CEI^