THE ORGANISED YEAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21876, 11 August 1934, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ORGANISED YEAR

BY LADY ADAMS

WEEKS AND DAYS

It takes the serious Americans to map out their year into ■ fifty-two weeks, and to make every week an Uplift Week. Ido not mean, of course, that every town is being definitely uplifted every week fifty-two times in the same year, but I do mean that uplift weeks go on continuously through all tho forty-eight States. And each uplift week, in eafch town or city or village, means societies, and meetings, and speeches, and secretaries, and broadcasting, and newspaper articles. Tho larger cities have them in tho grand manner, with bands sometimes, and 'lz Hanur tho May-ur heading the procession, and tho Stars and Strifws to look at and to sing about. In California we are much in earliest over Eat More Oranges Week. That is quito a pleasant week, for of course you don't have to eat them. It just puts them on the map, so to say. But there was a Courtesy Week that I have not yet forgotten. There seemed no doubt in anybody's mind about me. I was a fitting object for their kindness; it almost looked as if they thought it was' a Bo Kind to Old Ladies Week, and took me for one. Anvhow, in a not-too-flattering way they showered mo with offers of seats in the tramcars; one horror of a boy offered to carry a bundle for me; strong, silent American businessmen motioned to mo to tako their places in post office queues; yes, CourteHV Weekbrought its own trials. Then tako Better English Week. That was a real problem. What shoulu I, a resident alien, do about it. Should I have reproved the saleswoman who said, " Oh, gee, ye mean siumberwear," when I asked for a nightgown. Ought I to have been firm with the other girl in the shop, who, when l asked for drawing-pins, replied, Say, dearie, Ah jist don't knaw a thing 'bout whut yer talkin' about" P I felt, as always, that discretion is more uplifting in the end than valour, and just explained that drawing-pins were thumb-tacks to her, and mumbled as usual at the next counter, " Wanna spoul of bleck thread," instead of instructing them into the mysteries of a reel of cotton. In fact,v I did not take Better English Week as my affair at all. When I asked a young man if he sold a certain brand of tea, and he replied, " Wo herdly don't sell nothin' else but," I replied cheerfully that 1 was glad to hear it; which, so far as tho tea was concerned, was the truth. Some Surprises Clean Speech Week is always difficult. In trams and other public places 1 observed eerie looks on the faces of some irritated fathers who were accompanied by their observant young. It, must bo a gay week, for some of those young, who find that for seven long days the boot is very comfortably on the other foot. I always hear, after Clean Speech Week, the oddest tales about some of the eager young uplifters who try to bring ice-men and newspaper boys to a senso of their moral guilt. One Humane Week was really very funny to this observer. It was so startling. Can you believe that it came out that not one in five of tho school children in Los Angeles had ever seen a cow or a calf ? At 'least that was what they wrote in their questionnaire. 1 hate to appear captious, but I do want to remark that tho questionnaire was not answered during Speak the Truth Week. All I will say is that their elders were certainly putting temptation in the way of the young. Never to have seen a cow or ft calf might quite probably mean a day in the country, motor-cars and a band, perhaps slogans on banners— We Are Going to See a Cow and a C&lf for tho First Time." In Los Angeles, you never know. Anything in or out of reason may happen. Unfortunatc-ly for the young*, an easier way was found. It was the cow and tho calf that got tho motor-car; but the diligent authorities never drew breath until the tractor had visited every school in Los Angeles and had shown all the wideeyed innocents where tho morning milk came from. Aids to Observance

As well as weeks, there are days—quite as odd. For, being British, I keep certain days —in my heart. But here there is Mother's Bay, witn-—~ you believe it? —standardised telegrams all ready for Mr. and Mrs. Babbitt to send; arranged by some genius in the telegraph company and all eet out in a littlo book, with messages "appropriate for New Year s P a ~*> Christmas Day, Valentine's Day, birthdays, weddings, births, messages or condolence, and congratulatory messages for school or college graduates and public men." I quote from the booklet. To-day I join with those who greet their mothers and send you a word of love. Away from you and the old home my heart goes back to you to-day. As the years pass, my love for you grows deeper and my debt to you more plain." Nice message, but what if three of the family send it to one mother? I prefer this one: Ihero are 365 Mother's Days for me every year, and every leap-year an extra one for good measure. And every day my lovo for you is greater than the day before." Another ruris, "I am wearing a carnation in honour of the best mother that ever lived." Thero is Arbor Day, on which every loyal citizen is expected to plant a tree somewhere; Flag Day and Decoration Day—graves, not medals; Peace Day, Columbus Day, Lincoln s .Birthday, Washington's Birthday. Onco wo were staying in a hotel and t we coind not remember whether on Lincoln s Birthday, which conies earlier in the vear than Washington's, we had had " Sundav time " breakfast. feo I asked iho table-maid whether wo would have breakfast at our usual time or would we celebrate the great mail's birth by lying in bed an hour longer. Naturally, I did not put it in theso words. She was new to tho hotel. "Ah'm nut e.xac'ly sure, but it wiz Sunday time fur tho othor gen'leman." Campaigns

Campaigns come next: Clean \our House, Dig Your Garden, Grow Your Own Vegetables; there arc anti-flv, anti-moth, anti-rat, anti-smoking, antidrinking campaigns; and there is an all-the-year-round Safety-First Campaign, though I know you won't bclievo it. In one village thero was an Honesty Campaign once; meetings, and committees, and the parson saying ho would rather keep out of it, and the schoolmaster saying it wasn<t his affair, and the banker looking grim: but that village knew its own bitteiness, and it is not for strangers to intermeddle. Soys' Week is something of a calamity, for in Los Angeles, anyhow, youth takes both the prow and tlio helin, and sits in the chairs of bank presidents and of school superintendents, and one proud lad even becomes Acting-Mayor for a boys give lectures while their masters sit at the desks, and Alice in Wonderland would feel quite at home during these weird days.