HOW MANY MILES DO HOUSEWIVES WALK?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23489, 28 October 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

HOW MANY MILES DO HOUSEWIVES WALK?

TTAVE you ever wondered how many miles a housewife covers during the day—trotting backwards and forwards in the kitchen, from the kitchen to the dining room, up and down stairs, to tho front door, to the back door, in and out of the garden, down to the shops; in short, tho ordinary everyday routine .of an averago housewife? Often have I thought about It and wondered, and now J. know, savs. an overseas correspondent. My son brought home a pedometer last week, and I wore it for just such nn ordinary day. At the end of i<t the thing registered over six miles. It sounds incredible, doesn't it? I decided that bed au hour earlier was the place for ma I

inntion corps, special police, nnd all the thousands of messengers and helpers required to supplement the official bodies. Down in the City, workmen were filling sand-hags and piling them against such Vulnerable buildings as the Guildhall, St. Paul's, the Uo.val Academy, the central Are stations, the banks and police stations. The usual crowd of spectators looked on, but they were few compared to those of the September crisis, partly because the novelty had worn off, but mainly because they were too busily occupied themselves. In Australia House a great thick sheet hung across the middle of the basement. I asked its purpose. "Decontamination in case of raids." 1 was told. In many public buildings shrapnel-proof sheets of iron were fastened against the windows. In others the panes were covered with black paint in readiness for the "blackout." Traffic signals were covered so