No personal gifts unless it’s serious

By Elizabeth Thompson, Winnipeg Free Press, Aug. 5, 1938

Dear Mrs. Thompson: I am 19 and have been going with a girl one year younger for the past year and a half. However, I am out of town quite often for months at a time, and on returning, quite naturally wish to give her something. I am completely lost about knowing what to get for her. Please give me your suggestions.

— R.M.

Age-old advice: Ruined woman learned from wrong kind of men

By George Antheil, originally published Feb. 12, 1938

Dear Mr. Antheil: Your articles and advice to girls are very amusing to me. But you write what a man expects of a girl. Supposing the women and girls tell you want we expect of the men?

I ought to know. I married a man and he started me down the road to ruin. I have had plenty of experience with men in the past 16 years. I could tell you something you don’t know nor would want to know about the male sex. Any time you want me to be of service in discussing the subject of men, get in touch with me.

Brazen borrower needs straight talk

By Elizabeth Thompson, originally published in the Winnipeg Free Press on March 9, 1944

Dear Mrs. Thompson: I have a neighbour who is continually borrowing. I would not mind so much if she would return things. The only way I can seem to get them back is by going to the house and asking for them. This often embarrasses me, for she doesn’t seem to remember or puts on a “Why, I’m sure I paid back” attitude. Half the time I forget things she has borrowed and they remain unpaid.

She has young children, and when she asks for milk and bread in the morning, I can’t refuse her, because I’d feel so badly about the children going to school doing without.

How to help home run down with kids

Helen Help Us by Helen Bottel, Winnipeg Free Press, Jan. 2, 1960

Dear Helen: I try to teach our five-year-old son to not go into other people’s houses unless he is invited by a parent. However, some days, I feel our house is Grand Central Station with the neighbour kids running in and out and remaining to play. I grew up by myself, no brothers or sisters and no near neighbours, so I don’t really know how to cope with this problem of having our house taken for granted as a playhouse.

P.S. Another problem: Recently a five-year-old boy moved into our neighbourhood. He and our son are pretty evenly matched and should get along, but they are continually wanting to do things their own way. They don’t actually fight, just get mad and stop playing together for a while. It makes it trying for us mothers who have become very good friends. How can we ease the situation?

— Just Another Puzzled Mom

Age-old advice: Couple should tread carefully before taking leap of faith

Boy Tells Girl by George Antheil, originally published May 5, 1938

Dear George: I don’t know whether to stick my nose in a column for women, but I will take a chance. I won’t throw any bricks at you. I see by your column you have been ducking enough.

I am not quite 20. I have a 1938 car and a perfect girlfriend plus a fine future. I have been going with her for three years. We are planning to be married in 1939.

Age-old advice: How to attract the boys of 1941

| Oct. 1, 1941: Some School-Days Advice for Teen-Agers

Boy Tells Girl by George Antheil

School has opened and you teenagers who attend want to have fun this year, don’t you? Well, line up and let your Uncle George give you a few lessons on how to attain it.

Big spender needs change of habit

From Dorothy Dix’s Letter Box, published in the Manitoba Free Press on Sept. 17, 1929

Dear Miss Dix: I am a very extravagant wife. My husband makes a good salary, but we cannot save. I spend it all. I have tried several times to keep the bills down, but have failed. Please advise me what to do.

— A Very Young Extravagant Wife

Answer: There is hope for you, my dear, if you recognize your fault and admit that you are extravagant. Most women who are wasters take refuge behind an alibi and refuse to admit they are to blame when they run their husbands in debt.

Age-old advice: Snooping mother may mean well

From Personal Problems by Elizabeth Thompson, published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Oct. 10, 1938

Whether or not mothers have a right to read letters received by their young daughters is a question causing trouble in many homes. One girl writes.

Dear Mrs. Thompson: What would you do if you were a girl in your middle teens and had a mother who always snooped through your belongings? My mother never asks to read my letters, but I definitely know that when my back is turned, she pries them open. If I did not prize the letters of my correspondents, two or three girls and boys, I would burn them, but when I think what best of friends we have been, I can never do so.

Age-old advice: Read strict husband the riot act

From Personal Problems by Elizabeth Thompson, published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Feb. 10, 1938Dear Mrs. Thompson: I am 20 years old and have been married two years. I have a steady position but would like to stay home. My husband is 34 and has a steady position earning $100 a month. I earn $12 a week. The plan was for me to work for the first year. Now if I mention giving up my job he gets real nasty. We have had so many quarrels about the money I earn. He sits and counts my wages before I get them. He expects me to pay food, light, stove, laundry and buy my own clothes, and if I do buy something for myself there is a big fuss. All he pays is $25 a month for the rent of the suite.

One thing I can’t understand is that he still goes to dances and won’t take me. The excuse he has is that someone might find out he was married to me, and I would lose my job. He has a very bad habit of telling me about all the girls he meets when he goes skating. That is the first thing he starts about as soon as my sister and her husband visit us, talking about all the girls that have fallen for him. It really has got on my nerves, and he sure loves to criticize me before other people. What could one do with a man like that, Mrs. Thompson? 

Answer: Well, you could leave him, and be much better off, though probably you prefer to try some reform measures before giving him up as a bad job. But first of all, reform your own attitude. By spoiling him so badly you have helped make him a bully. Start standing up for yourself without further delay.

First of all, understand a few facts about your rights as a wife. According to law, a husband has to support his wife in this province, no matter how much money of her own she has or earns, and a wife does not have to support her husband. Make up your mind to stop being a sap.

Age-old advice: Cheating father-in-law lacked wife’s support

From Mrs. Thompson Advises by Elizabeth Thompson, published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Jan. 17, 1959Dear Mrs. Thompson: I would like some advice about my in-laws. They are very incompatible, both strong-willed and stubborn, but she is more so, fearing that if she gives an inch he will take advantage of her. Now he has a girlfriend much younger who is very companionable. His wife knows about it and is very disgusted and despises him. She receives a lot of sympathy from her family and friends, and also from my husband, until I explained that his dad had been driven from his own home to a more comfortable atmosphere.

Since my husband and I have accepted the situation and have had his father and this girl visit our home, I have wondered what to say to my mother-in-law if she should ask me about it. I wondered too if you could recommend a book I could have on hand for her to read. I realize it is very late; after 35 years of marriage it would be difficult to change. But she doesn’t realize that a man needs flattery and praise. She firmly claims that grown mature men shouldn’t require this sort of thing. My father-in-law eats it up and glows on a bit of flattery. This is a big joke to his wife.

One friend with whom I’ve discussed the matter thinks I should stay out of it, and I intend to unless my mother-in-law brings up the subject. There are many magazine articles which would be helpful to her, but I don’t suppose she ever reads them. She thinks he is all wrong and she is right.

Partly because of what I have observed, I try at every opportunity to show my husband that I admire and respect him, and I encourage the children to do the same. In my husband’s home when he was a child his mother did the very opposite with these sad results. His mother is now chronically ill due to nervous tension and his father is not happy as he feels guilty.

Raising children is a job itself

From Helen Help Us by Helen Bottel, published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Aug. 21, 1959Dear Helen: My wife gets up to get my breakfast, it’s true — but it’s sure no strain: juice, two teaspoons of powder mixed up with water; coffee, one teaspoon of instant in a cup; pancakes, stir up some ready-mix in the electric mixer.  She hasn’t got to the powdered eggs stage yet, but she will once they’re offered on the market.

Breakfast over, she puts the dishes in the dishwasher, the clothes in the automatic, flips on a vacuum cleaner, and she’s through for the day.  Why shouldn’t women have outside jobs? What have they got do to at home?  -Breadwinner

Dear Breadwinner: One thing you’ve forgotten — the efficiency experts have never figured out a foolproof way to simplify children. 

Age-old advice: Teen barred from beach fears social repercussions

From Sincerely Edan Wright, published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Oct. 3, 1962Dear Miss Wright: My parents wouldn’t permit me to go to the beach during the summer without a date, and I could get very few dates because I went steady with a boy and, when I broke up, I was out of circulation. This made me mad because I had bought a new bathing suit out of my meagre allowance. Gads!

I’m not a biddy or boy-crazy girl. I am 17 and will soon be a freshman in college. Also, I didn’t intend to skip off to the beach alone, I was going with a group of five girls or more.

Now, I ask you, why did my parents think this was so dangerous? And why should they act this way when I did nothing to bring it on?

I’ve had a very dull summer and lots of ridicule from my friends. I feel that I’m going to meet a similar situation back at school, so I’ve got to find a solution.

Age-old advice: Don’t give in to blackmail

From Sincerely Edan Wright, published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Dec. 7, 1959Dear Edan Wright: I’m a 17-year-old girl who got herself in quite a mess two years ago and is being blackmailed for it. I was green about everything when I started dating and I let an impressive college guy talk me into doing things I didn’t know were wrong.

I woke up in time to save myself from ruining my life and I worked hard to regain my good name. For a long time I didn’t even date because I was afraid all boys were like the first one I had gone with. It was nearly a year later that I met a wonderful boy who was a newcomer at high school.

Right at the beginning of our dating, I came clean with all I had done. He didn’t ask me questions. I just felt I should tell him because I was fond of him. Also, I guess I was afraid he might hear about the past and I thought it would be better if he got it straight from me.

We came to love each other and our relationship has been pure as well as honest. This boy has graduated from high school (he’s two years older) and he’s been in the service now for six months. We write faithfully and our love is growing deeper.