Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1950)

frozen i Vesserfe f/avotf IT'S EASY and economical to keep your family refreshed with KoolAid. There's a world of cooling, satisfying goodness in frosty Kool-Aid ice box treats. Choice of 6 delicious flavors. Recipes on every package. Try them. Kool-Aid costs only 5£! GROCERS If ■ 16 WHEN A GIRL MARRIES (Continued from page 15) But under no circumstances should you sacrifice your own happiness. Marry the woman you love even if your daughter remains ob-i durate. However, give her a chance] to become her normal self again. Wait a few months so she can recover from the emotional shock and have time to talk things over and get straightened out. And here is a letter which I have chosen to answer this month, because of its general interest: Dear Joan: I have been a widow for twentysix years, my children are married and away from home, but I took a little grandson to raise when he was born, after his father and my daughter separated. The boy whom I love as my own is now fifteen years old and a very good boy, but he is my problem, too. I have found a friend, a man about my own age, who is as lonesome as I am for the companionship of someone his own age, and we wish to get married. But I want Dennis to be happy, and when he asked me where he would live after I got married, I told him with me, but he was not pleased and said he wanted to go to live with his mother, who is married again and has an idolized twelve-year-old son who might make Dennis seem left out of things. Dennis used to be a happy boy full of wit and fun; now he is silent and moody. I would not make him unhappy for anything, not for all that a marriage would give me, so here is the question I would ask you to answer for me. Will Dennis be unhappy and his life spoiled if I make this marriage, or will he become adjusted to the new life with me and a man who will love him? E. B. Dear E. B.: I think the initial steps in solving your problem lie in the direction of the man you are going to marry. What is he like, and what is his attitude toward Dennis? Have you made any effort to get this man and your grandson really to know each other? Does he like Dennis, want to know him better? Does he like the idea of having Dennis living with you after you are married? Will he be a companion to Dennis, help fill the place of the father the boy hasn't known? Will he be a good influence on Dennis — that is, is he a temperate man, with a kindly disposition? Has he ever had children around him, so he can be said to have an understanding of youngsters and their ways? If you can answer an honest "yes" to these questions, I think your problem is half-solved. The other half lies in biding your time until your grandson and your prospective husband get acquainted. Don't rush. And be sure that Dennis realizes, while you're waiting, that you love him as much as ever, want him to be with you as much as you ever did. Realizes, in other words, that he will be losing none of the love and companionship that he has known with you but will be gaining, rather than losing, when you marry. Now, here is this month's problem letter, which I ask the help of you readers in answering: Dear Joan Davis: My sister died when I was eighteen, leaving a three-year-old orphan daughter, Iris, whom I promised to look after. My mother being dead, I took care of Iris in Father's home. I loved her like a sister, and still do. When I was twenty-three and she eight, I met and married Jess. He owns a ranch in an isolated valley and loves it with all his heart, as does Jesse, our nine-year-old son, and Joyr our daughter, age four. Iris stayed on with Dad till his death three years ago, when she came to make her home with us. I loved having her with me again, and was happy when Jess would invite her to ride about the ranch with him, as I knew it was a lonely life for a young girl. Though we have been happily married for ten years, Jess recently confessed to me that Iris, now eighteen, is going to have his child. She adores him, but he says he still loves me. He is miserable but says he will do anything to right the wrong he has done Iris and me. He says he will give up the ranch and go away with Iris and marry her when I get a divorce, or if I will forgive him, he will provide for her and the child somewhere else where she will have a chance at a new, and perhaps better, life. He claims it is the result of a moment's madness, when her youth and sweetness temporarily over-powered his usual uprightness. I know it would break his heart to have to give up the ranch. And little Jesse would be inconsolable if deprived of his father and the ranch he also loves. I feel that I was extremely negligent in letting this happen and my heart bleeds for my little niece, but I had implicit trust in my husband. Whatever we do I can see only heartache for her. What shall I do? Mrs. J. B. NOTICE: Ted Malone's Between the Bookends column has been discontinued. Please direct all poems to Poetry, 205 E. 42 St., N.Y. 17, N.Y. For further details see page 75.