Understanding of Fine Homemaking Values

Jerry and I were down in the basement this afternoon going through the contents of  trunks, two of his, one of mine.  His were full of family pictures and yearbooks.  In mine I found-- I kid you not--my Tiny Tears doll (c. 1957), a stuffed lamb my sister gave me when I went away to college, an ancient Raggedy Ann, old letters, and my high school scrapbook:

Musty and the Scotch tape has failed

On the last page of this musty monster,  I found a letter from Betty Crocker congratulating me for "your new title, Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow for your  high school."  With this, I  got a charm of a heart with a hearth inside it, plus the promise that I could be named Homemaker of Tomorrow for my state.  That didn't happen.  A classmate named Debbie Claire was very ticked that she didn't get this award, because she wanted to work in a test kitchen eventually.  That didn't happen, either.

According to Betty, this award represents my "outstanding qualities and understanding of fine homemaking values, which are even more important in their way than the practical skills of cooking and sewing."  I can't cook worth a damn; I do sew.  But  I won the contest because I took a written test. (Oddly, three years later, my sister won the contest for the class of 1971.)

Here's a picture of the charm, the letter, and the article in the high school newspaper.  My English teacher, on hearing the news, asked me if I'd get a great big box of Bisquick.  (No, fine homemaking values: it has transfats.)

The swag