October brings that bright blue weather poets sing about and it also brings that traditional
night of nights when witches, bats, owls, black cats and goblins are on the prowl in step with the moaning wind in ghostly tree tops.

What could be more perfect on such a night than to have the High School gang in for a Halloween party. No other party is such fun to give with all of spook Dom ready to do your bidding to add to the party atmosphere. And if you make your party a "superstitious" party you can give your games that different touch that will make your party the talk of the crowd for many a day to come. It will start the social season off with a bang.

Trim your house from top to bottom with black cut-outs of witches riding the broomstick, black cats, owls, and grinning jack-o-lanterns. Add to this usual decoration plenty of superstitious symbols to carry your party theme. Cardboard horseshoes can grace the doorways and huge four-leaf clovers decorate the drapes. In one corner suspend an open black umbrella decorated with bright orange streamers that reach to the floor. This colorful canopy will house your gypsy queen when she tells the fortunes of the willing guests.

Set the pitch for your party with invitations inscribed in white ink on black cut-out skull and cross bones:
BEWARE!
Bring your luck with you
Friday night, October 31
To Bob Wyman’s at
8.00 P.M. YOU’LL NEED IT!
Be a black cat when you greet your guests at the door and hand each one a rabbit’s foot to guard him well as he walks under the tall stepladder arching the doorway. Your black-cat costume need be no more than a black-cat mask and a black rope tail fastened under your belt. If the rest of your clothes are dark it will carry the catty illusion.

Usher the girls into a room so dimly lighted they’ll not loiter long to primp. A long, jagged, black crayon mark drawn diagonally across the mirror will remind them that bad luck is loose in the house tonight.

A huge number 13 over the door of the boys’ room will warn them of the peril of the night as well as huge black-cat cut-outs taped to the walls.

Before the party type a list of Bad Omens or Superstitions, one to a card. Then cut each card into several pieces. Scramble them and place several pieces in each envelope. Hand an envelope to each guest as he enters. By exchanging pieces with the other guests he can get the right pieces to formulate one complete superstition. Here are some familiar superstitions to use:
1. A broken mirror will bring you seven years of bad luck.
2. If you sing before breakfast you will cry before night.
3. If a black cat crosses your path you will have bad luck.
4. To walk under a ladder is extremely bad luck.
5. You’ll never finish anything started on Friday.
6. If you put on a garment wrong side out it’s bad luck to change.
7. It’s bad luck to sneeze before breakfast.
8. It’s bad luck to rock an empty chair.
This mixer will give the guests something to do immediately upon arrival and avoid any stilted, awkward moments.

Next seat the guests on the floor in two lines facing each other. Appoint the first man of each line captain. Give each captain a double handful of Bad-Luck Corn. Instruct him to lay his Bad Luck (Corn) in a pile in front of his neighbor.

The object of the game is to see which team can first pass the corn down the line and back. Any spilled corn must be gathered up and passed along. It’s quite a trick to pass this much corn fast without dropping kernels.

The spirit of the day is an excuse (if you ever need one) for a party. It is bound to be fun because everyone is specially geared for fun on that day. Let your youngsters invite in their friends for a dinner party it wont be formal, but we will guarantee it will be exciting.

Written invitations seem to whet the edge of anticipation. For such invitations our youngsters used small white cards on which they wrote:

Dinner at Six on April fools Day After which comes an evening of play. Come be amazed and curious for fun will grow fast and furious.

Promptly at six o’clock all the guests arrived in their best "bib and tucker". We had gone all out to make the dinner table look as pretty and partyish as any grown-ups party with lace tablecloth, best china and gleaming silver. Spring colors, pink, lavender and green were in evidence in candles and the sweet-pea centerpiece. Paper drinking-cups and paper napkins in the same soft pastel colors added to the beauty of the table without striking an odd note. It was lovely to look at and there was nothing to indicate that things were not what they seemed.

Mary was the first guest to run into trouble. She took a drink of water, and immediately with a chagrined look around dabbed at the water on her chin. Teddy wasn’t so reticent. After a couple of drinks he burst out, "What is the matter with me tonight? I can’t drink without spilling".

Hey, there is something the matter with these cups. "On the quiet Johnny had been looking his cup over. Examination proved that every third or fourth cup was a dribble cup. (A dribble cup is one with small holes about an inch from the top out of which water leaks when the cup is put to the lips.)"

Now the youngsters were on the alert for April fool tricks, but it did not lessen their appetites. Chicken and dumplings, fruit salad, and new peas disappeared like magic, but not without a hitch or two. Sally was embarrassed when her fork broke just above the tines as she tried to spear a bit of chicken. With many cautions about care of silver she was given another which broke in the same way. Then someone tumbled that these were trick forks.

"The guy’s think I’ve holes in my head, if I ask them over for an Easter Egg Hunt." Sandy brushed a lock of his stubborn red hair back with grimy ringers.

I sighed as I watched him. He certainly had outgrown the adorable stage when he delighted to celebrate his April birthday by having his friends over for an Easter Egg Hunt. But in spite of his long legs and grimy appearance he still wanted a birthday party.

"Can’t we think up something to do, Mom that big fellows my age would like?"
I kept to myself the thought that eleven wasn’t exactly old age. "Maybe we could have an Easter party and plan some different games."

"I know, Mom! Let’s have an egg party. Egg eats, egg games, egg stunts, egg everything."
"Eggs, son? That sounds awfully well eggy. But make your plans and I’ll help."
When he first outlined his ideas to me, I thought, "That party will take so many eggs it may be rather expensive." But when I realized that the only expense for the games and decorations would be the cost of the eggs used, I decided that it would really be an inexpensive party. Thus it came about that Sandy gave an egg party on Easter Monday, his birthday.

He cut the egg-shaped invitations from colored construction paper. The invitations read, "Come to Sandy’s house on Monday at eggctly 3 P.M. for an eggciting afternoon." Then off he dashed on his bicycle to deliver his invitations.

Promptly on the hour eleven well-scrubbed boys arrived, eager for anything that sounded like fun. Just in case an April shower might chase us into the house later in the afternoon we staged our egg-catching contest first. That was the only one of our planned games that could not be played in the house.

The game goes this way: Six boys, each with a raw egg, line up faced by a partner. Each of the six boys on one side tosses the egg in his possession to the boy facing him who stands three feet from him. If this boy catches the egg without breaking it, each boy takes a big step backwards. If the egg is not caught but smashes to the ground that couple is eliminated. After each throw each partner moves backward one step. You’ll be surprised at what an exciting game this is, and how adept eleven-year-olds are at tossing and catching raw eggs. The two boys who finally won were made leaders in the "Egg Relay Race."

Two hard-boiled eggs were used for the relay. The two leaders took turns choosing team mates. The lads then formed two lines, the one boy directly behind the other. Every lad was given a teaspoon with instructions to hold the handle between his teeth. A hard-boiled egg was placed in the bowl of the spoon of each of the two leaders. At a signal the leaders, with their hands behind them, ran to a goal across the lawn without dropping the eggs. If the lad accomplished it he grabbed the spoon in his hand, ran back to the line and placed the egg in the spoon of the boy who stood just back of him in line.

If the egg was dropped in transit the boy carrying it picked it up, placed it back on the spoon before advancing farther. The team completing the race first was declared "Eggsperts."

This party is a great fun for the kids of eleven. Thought it need quite a big number of eggs but is not worth then the joy it can give to your young kids.

This question clinches it all because in most cases, that is where all the time goes. I do not mean that you should behave like a hermit and stay away from people. But ask yourself if you really talk too much.
Or a better way would be to try and remember everything you say the next time you talk to somebody. You could even try carrying a voice recorder in your pocket and press the record button the moment you start speaking.

And once you get back to your own ground, replay the tape and hear what you said. What you have to do is find out if there is a shorter and faster way of saying what you did. If there is a shorter way, then certainly you do spend a lot of time talking.

Work on that and try to bring down the time you spend talking because that is where all our time goes. We have absolutely no idea how much time is lost by mere parleying.

Such a self analysis is certainly a positive step towards effective time management.

Saying No

The idea might sound strange but being able to say no is fundamental to any scheme of Time Management.

Yes you have the master plan for time management, you have everything worked out, you have a time table which you stick to religiously, and you have a to do list as well. But just when things are beginning to work out fine, a colleague or friend comes your way and asks you to help them out by doing certain jobs which are really their jobs.

The person smiles very sweetly at you and showers sugar coated words on you, and before you even know what hit you, you have said yes and agreed to do the work for the person. Now what is the relevance of your well thought out timetable? Where is your scheme for time management? Your work is waiting in the pantry while you are sweating over somebody else work. And it is because of the simple reason that you could not say no to the person. How many times have you had a similar experience?

I am not saying that you should not be civil. If you find a colleague in distress and have the time to spare, by all means help the person. Who knows, tomorrow you might be in that persons position and you may need somebody help.

But that does not mean that you should let yourself be taken for a ride. If you are going to help a person at the expense of your work and schedule, then you are going to end up in hot water. It is human nature to shirk work and if word gets around that you are a very helpful guy (read that as s-u-c-k-e-r) then before you know it, requests for help will be coming from all sides.

Analyst yourself on how much time you need when you are talking to somebody else or when you are giving an order, find the way to get over it, it will save so much of your time. When you are stick to your schedule, and you know that you have only limited time to complete it, learn to say no if somebody else ask your favor to do their work.

Now that we have a slight understanding of the basic principles of deer hunting, and some of its many problems, why don’t you, in fancy, come along up to the Maine wilderness-where the bucks are big and the bears are black-on a little deer hunting trip? I will be your guide-the best guide in six-teen counties-but don’t let it get around ’cause if you do I will be so busy guiding that I will have no time for hunting, and I like to hunt. We will have to hoof it into camp from the highway. It’s just a little hike, but we had better hurry to make it before dark. Not that there is anything to worry about, but the steaks will be cold unless we’re there to eat them. Hear that noise in the distance?

Another of those bobcats starting out for his evening hunting. We may hear an owl before dark, but they usually keep quiet until later. Hold it! See that bull moose? No, not there. Over there by those willows down by the edge of the bog. Big one, ain’t he? Don’t try to shoot one of those fellows. They’re protected, but I am afraid that it will not do much good. They’ve got moose sickness and until the biologists can find some way to prevent that, the moose haven’t much chance of making a comeback here in Maine.

Well! There’s the camp. And there’s our host, waiting to greet us. You know what he will say? "Welcome to the camp. You should have been here last week. The conditions were perfect then and the deer were everywhere. Now it’s not so good." That’s the standard approach. It sets up an alibi. If you don’t get a deer, that lets him out. It ain’t his fault, but the weather’s. All of you who have ever hunted or fished or are married men, know the value of a good reason for not bringing home the bacon, or delivering the goods. He happens to be right this time and conditions don’t look good for tomorrow. But never mind, conditions can change overnight here in Maine.

Well, here we are back in camp. No deer today. That dry, hard, frozen ground, covered with frozen leaves and sticks, was so noisy that we spooked every deer within miles of camp and when we tried to drive one to a stand, they all ran the wrong way. We all feel better now as we gather in the living room with our bellies full of steaks cut from the deer I killed a week ago. Sure it’s illegal to eat it, but who is there among us who doesn’t think forbidden fruit the sweetest, and besides, the game warden is quite a ways from
here.

Things look better for tomorrow. There was a circle around the moon last night. A snow bank in the south west this afternoon. The scent of snow has been in my nose for the last two hours and the wind is beginning to act kind of shifty. Hear that owl? Notice how hollow he sounds? Yep! Snow before morning and that means a deer before night. So drag your chairs up to the fireplace, see that there’s a full bottle on the table-remember that now is the only time that a bottle has any place on a hunting trip-and I will tell you of a hunt that occurred a while back.

It is always better for hunters to check which animal which is protected and which one that they can shoot.

DISCOLORED OR STAINED SHIRTS or blouses of Da-cron, or Dacron and cotton blends, that are not satisfactorily clean after washing, can be given the following treatment: dissolve one cup of Calgonite or Electrasol (detergents used in electric dishwashers) in one gallon of water, using an enameled container. Submerge the garment completely and let it soak overnight, then wash it by the method given. Care must be taken not to expose the skin long to the Electrasol or Calgonite solution, or to get it in the eyes. If it should get into the eyes, wash them thoroughly with water.

WASH-AND-WEAR MEN’S SUITS. Hand washing is preferred for these, but they can also be done by machine. In either case it is important that the water not be hot nor the washing action vigorous, if the easy-care properties are to be maintained. And remember to pretreat badly solied areas and spots.

FOR HAND WASHING use warm water, a strong detergent, or soap and a water softener, and a container large enough to give space without crowding. No wringing or twisting, and be sure to rinse thoroughly.

FOR MACHINE WASHING, using the same materials, give the suit a five minute wash and remove it before the spin dry cycle starts. If your machine has a special fabric cycle, that is the one to use. The preferred drying method for these suits, whether laundered by hand or machine, is the drip dry. Put the coats soaking wet on non-staining hangers. Suspend the trousers by their cuffs on pants hangers with the creases carefully aligned.

MACHINE DRYING. If it is necessary, or seems desirable, to use a tumble dryer for your wash-and-wear suit, allow it to go through the complete washing cycle. Then place it in the tumble dryer and allow it to dry for about twenty minutes at the low temperature setting. Top results in machine drying these suits, according to the most recent studies, are achieved if a drying temperature of 170° F. is used, followed by five to ten minutes of tumbling without any heat at all. Take the suit out of the dryer immediately and hang it as described for drip drying. If it needs a little pressing use a steam iron, or a dry iron set for rayon, and a dampened press cloth. These suits may also be dry cleaned.

THE "AUTOMATIC" WASH-AND-WEAR SUITS, which are newer and are made of specially engineered Dacron or Orion textiles and sewn under closely controlled conditions, will stand the most vigorous washing and drying. Only occasionally will they need light ironing. These are the laundering procedures that have been developed, after many tests, for washing "Automatic" suits: after pretreating oil and grease stains with a solvent, and applying detergent paste to especially soiled areas, put the suit into the washing machine and wash it for five minutes in warm water (100° F.) with a strong detergent or soap, and a water softener. Use the special fabric cycle if there is one, otherwise use the regular machine cycle. Run the washer through the complete cycle of spins and rinses. A fabric softener such as Sta-Puf or Nu-Soft in the final rinse will improve the drying performance of the suit and minimize static. Use one-fifth of the amount of softener usually recommended by the manufacturers of these products.

Prefer hand wash the suits by using warm water with detergent or soap plus softener. And use tumble dryer to dry the suits. With this way, the suits will be last longer.