To do that, to recapture the sense of living in the “jet age,” we must recall life before a flood of new technologies. We must recall how we lived when television was limited to three channels on a small, grainy, black-and-white screen. But we should also recollect how it felt to live before air conditioning, when we longed to get outside to catch any tiny breeze, when we slept on fire escapes, or hammocks, or down at the beach — anywhere but in the oven that was our bedroom.

The Post was there at the start, as air conditioning grew from a luxury to a necessity for every American house, store, and office building. In “They’re Trying To Make Summer Extinct” [June 6, 1953, PDF download], Rufus Harman predicts the coming summer will mark the beginning of The Great Era of Air Conditioning, which could mean

anything from room coolers becoming as common in homes as refrigerators are now, to a fantastic future when practically all indoor spaces and limited parts of the great outdoors, including streets of cities, will be given year-round “perfect climate” by artificial means.

Financiers of the day predicted air conditioning was about to become “America’s next great industry.”

When the Carrier Corporation, largest in the field, announced last fall, gross business totaling $107,700,702 for twelve months, not only was Wall Street impressed but old-timers in the industry could scarcely believe it. Four years before, when President Cloud Wampler, of Carrier, had predicted a $100,000,000 gross by 1955, some company officials said such wild talk might cause him to lose the employees’ confidence.

Up to now, less than 1 per cent of United States homes have air conditioning in any form. No large New York hotel is fully air conditioned; few apartment buildings are, and only lately have office-building owners decided they must have it to keep tenants.

Two years earlier, Americans had purchased 237,000 single-room air conditioners. In 1951, sales reached 400,000 coolers, and would have sold more if the supply hadn’t run out. The success of these window-mounted, single-room coolers led the industry to think on a larger scale.

Some thinkers believe the important field in residential air conditioning is not room coolers, but central units providing year-long perfect climate for the whole house. A St. Louis builder has scheduled this year 400 such houses to sell at $12,000.

A recent poll, by the National Association of Home Builders, of 255 representative firms indicated that about 40 per cent of home-building companies will offer air conditioning in new houses this year. Last year almost none of the 104 companies in the poll that said they now plan to air-condition new homes were considering the matter seriously.

Many home-owners were early adopters of the new cooling technology, and paid to have central air conditioning installed. But most Americans were reluctant to go beyond one window-mounted, single-room cooler.

The industry expects that more than a quarter millions new car buyers will go for cooling this year [1956]. One hundred and eighty-four thousand did in 1955. By contrast, only 65,000 new homes equipped with central air conditioning were sold last year. An equal numbers of installations were made in old houses. This relatively meager acceptance of complete cooling homes puzzles a great many people. The builders, who turned out 1,330,000 houses last year, are particularly concerned.

“The air-condition equipment in an automobile,” they point out, “has more than enough capacity to cool a small house. The car needs this excess capacity because it soaks up heat through metal and glass. What we’d like to unravel, they say, is why the public will buy air-conditioned cars, patronize air-cooled theaters, restaurants and motels, invest in room air conditioners every time there’s a heat wave, but stay away in droves when a builder tries to sell a house with summer cooling to match winter warmth.” ["They Lock Hot Weather Out," Arnold Nicolson, June 16, 1956]

One reason they hesitated  was the cost. As long as whole-house air conditioning was viewed as a luxury, it would remain beyond the budget of most households. But in time, Americans began to regard the idea of being comfortable in summer as a justifiable necessity. By 1957, over half a million homes in America had central air conditioning.

Secretary of Commerce Frederick H. Mueller has said: “It’s hard to explain the wide acceptance of air conditioning on its money values alone, I think people have just decided that it’s part of the American standard of living, something we’re all entitled to, just as we’re entitled to heat in the winter and food on the table.”

Business owners realized that air conditioning might make their offices and factories more profitable. According to a 1960 article, researchers had been studying the effect of air conditioning on worker productivity.

In every case, output goes up—from 22 to 28 per cent for factory labor, and from 20 to 50 per cent for office help… An across-the-board rise of 10 per cent in productivity would be something of an industrial revolution, so it’s obvious that air conditioning is going to produce some amazing changes in our efficiency and work habits.

Sociologists are just beginning to appraise the effects that air conditioning may have on our civilization, but the omens are highly visible. Ten years from now [i.e., 1970], when all major office buildings and department stores, half of all factories, and around 30,000,000 dwelling units have “controlled summer environment” as the air-conditioning salesmen new call it, the American way of life may be quite different from what it is today.

Some rather remarkable modifications will be wrought in our home life, too, according to Professor Watt. He studied a community of twenty-two air-conditioned homes near Austin, Texas, comparing them with a similar but non-air-conditioned neighborhood of about the same size. In the air-conditioned homes the wives spent less time at housework because, with doors and windows closed, less dust and dirt got into the house. Colds decreased among the air-conditioned families. Family life — the total hours the family spent together at home — increased. And so, in a way, did family productivity. The rate of pregnancy in the air-conditioned homes showed a significant increase above that in the non air-conditioned. The professor can’t say whether this particular result was due to better health, more relaxed home atmosphere or what. “But it happened,” he declared.

There would be other effects, which would only become apparent over time. Some would be subtle, like the disappearance of distinctive smells inside stores. With their air continually filtered and re-filtered, grocery stores became as scentless as department stores. The unique aroma of the old-fashioned drug store — a rich bouquet of oils and ointments, lunch counter, soaps, and candy — was replaced with odorless, sanitized, empty air.

The Post observed another change: Air conditioning was eroding the sense of community. With Americans remaining close to their air vents, the streets of their neighborhood emptied. The only sound in the summer night was the hum of air conditioning compressors, crickets, and passing cars. Few people strolled the sidewalks at night to cool off before bed, and the front porch was disappearing from the American home.

Jack Toon shows Mrs. Jim Faulkner, of North Hollywood, how to adjust her new air conditioner.

This homely American institution—often more elegantly called “veranda” or “piazza”—belonged to a more expansive generation and had qualities that today’s “patios,” “breezeways,” “terraces” or back-yard “fireplace areas” can’t approach. For one thing, it was “out front” instead of “out back,” far enough removed from the social current that flowed along the sidewalk for privacy, but available for informal neighborhood sociability… There was a largeness and easiness around the old front porch. Times and tastes — and costs, of course — are bound to change, but older generations have a right to keep a warm spot in their hearts for this old-time summer haven. ["What Has Happened To The Front Porch?" Oct. 22, 1955]

Yes, television certainly changed our lives. But when your power fails on a hot summer night, what technology do you miss the most? It’s probably not your television.

Read “They’re Trying To Make Summer Extinct” [June 6, 1953, PDF download].

Air Conditioning: From Luxury to Necessity The Saturday Evening Post

It’s a question many Americans ask themselves every day. Thanks to an abundance of cheap goods, instant credit, and constant exposure to the persuasive powers of advertising, acquiring has in itself become a national pastime. And a national problem, as our closets, attics, and lives become overwhelmed in an epidemic of uncontrolled clutter.

“We’ve begun to buy and hold on to so many items that we’re 
now having to acquire more and more space to accommodate our clutter,” says Dr. David Kantra, a psychologist in Fairhope, Alabama who studies the clutter problem.

Birth of an Obsession

Paper Chase
One of the biggest sources of clutter in our lives is paper—bills, receipts, or the instruction manuals from all the stuff we’ve bought.

Here’s how to tame it:
• Gather supplies. You’ll need a recycling bin, garbage bags, file folders, a pen, and a shredder.
• Establish a sorting area. Set up a folding table or quadrant of the floor—you’ll need room to spread out.
• Ditch the obvious. Long-expired coupons or instructions for products you no longer have can lurk in a desk for years. Pitch ’em.
• Create four paper management systems for:
1. Action items—bills, timely paperwork
2. Essential paperwork not needed on a daily basis, such as bank or insurance statements
3. Vital records—birth certificates, Social Security information, various account numbers
4. Archives for tax returns, legal papers, and/or family memorabilia
• Maintain the system by scheduling time to file papers. Organization is an ongoing process.

The ready availability of merchandise of every stripe was something that didn’t exist throughout most of American history, but the problem of clutter traces its origins back further than you might think—all the way to the 19th century. The rise of industrialization and the mass production of products created a cult of desire that has survived the decades, through economic booms and busts, where accumulating goods was viewed as the road to happiness.

That idea became more pronounced in the 20th century, as the power of advertising linked products to a lifestyle. “The message became ‘you are what you own,’ ” says Dr. Lorrin Koran, professor emeritus of psychiatry at Stanford University Center. Retailers responded to that insatiable desire for ownership. Remember the general store? It used to stock about 1,000 items in three or four aisles with one lane for checkout: That was all we needed. Today, you could fit almost the entire contents of that old store into one aisle of a huge discount chain that sells everything from hamburger meat to motor oil to flat-screen TVs. The average super retail center carries more than 100,000 products in mega-stores that stretch the equivalent of nearly five football fields. Shopping malls have become veritable mini cities containing hundreds of stores, food courts, ice skating rinks, movie theaters, even hotels.

And there’s always the Internet. Last year, online shoppers spent $204 billion on merchandise: The auction site eBay alone reported sales of $59.7 billion on merchandise ranging from brand-new cars and homes to vintage collectibles and antiques.

Retailers aren’t the only ones who have catered to this acquisitional trend; the housing industry has, too. 
In the past 30 years, the size of the average American home has grown 
53 percent, from 1,500 square feet 
to a little more than 2,300 square 
feet. That’s an extra 800 square feet 
for stuff. But instead of becoming 
more organized with this space, homeowners have filled it up, rather than outsource to storage facilities.

“We’re at a point where people don’t know how to make decisions about quantities of things and whether items serve a purpose,” says Laura Leist, president of the 4,200-member National Association of Professional Organizers and the voice of a service industry that has sprung up to help people clear the chaos from their homes. They aren’t the only ones: More than 20 states have chapters of Clutterers Anonymous for clutterers in crisis.

Back to Basics

I wasn’t ready for a 12-step program yet, but it was clear I needed some help. So I consulted a local professional organizer, who helped me sort through my junk and discard what 
no longer had value. One of the first rules many organizers instill in chronic clutterers is: make the time. Just as someone trying to lose weight needs to set aside time for exercise, someone trying to shed stuff needs to commit to at least 30 to 60 minutes a week sorting through closets, files, and storage areas. Mark the time on your calendar and treat it as a standing appointment.

I learned other tips to help whittle away the clutter in my house and control what I brought in so that new junk wasn’t replacing the old.

I’m still working on the rest of the house, but I eventually got rid of that stuff I’d brought home from the office. Now, the only garbage bags on my floor are the ones that are on their way to the trash.

Curing the Clutter Epidemic The Saturday Evening Post

Today homeowners are rediscovering the advantages of a backyard pool. While a pool can cost anywhere from $100 to $3,500 or more depending on materials and plants, a small water garden can still come in under $100. Follow these 10 simple steps and create your own sensory experience that only water can bestow.

1 – Decide on the type of water garden you want

With flexible liners, you choose the dimensions that suit your needs, then cut the liner to fit. Liners made of PVC or EPDM rubber are more durable than polyethylene. You can find them at home-improvement stores and garden centers.

2 – Determine the location and size:

The best spot is one that is fairly level, somewhat open, and receives at least five hours of direct sun. Choose an area away from trees and any runoff from rain that might affect the pool’s ecosystem. Select a site near the house for easy access to an electrical outlet equipped with a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI). Most backyard pools range in depth from 8 inches to 3 feet. Plan on 3 to 4 feet deep in colder regions of the country. Deeper pools also stand up to summer heat and winter freezes.

3 – Dig in:

Using a garden hose or rope, mark the outline of your pond on the ground, then excavate the site to the desired shape. Slightly slope the sides inward to the desired depth, or dig a shelf (about 12 inches wide by 8 to 12 inches deep) around the inside perimeter to accommodate potted water plants. Check to confirm that the outer edges are level.

4 – Prep the space:

Remove any rocks or tree roots from the sides and bottom of the hole so they won’t puncture the liner, then rake the area smooth and tamp the soil firmly in place. Cover the bottom and sides of the excavated area with an underlayment such as a commercial underliner or 2 to 3 inches of damp sand. This will help cushion and further protect the pond liner.

5 – Install the pond liner:

To determine the size liner 
you’ll need, measure the pool’s length and width, then add twice the maximum depth plus 2 feet. For example, a pool that is 10 feet long by 7 feet wide and 2 feet deep will need a 16 x 13-foot liner (length is 10 + 4 + 2 = 16; width is 
7 + 4 + 2 = 13). This will allow for a 12-inch overlap around the pool’s perimeter. Center your liner loosely over the hole and unfold it, leaving an even overlap around the pool’s perimeter. Stretch out and smooth the liner into place so 
that it fits snugly on the bottom and up the sides. Minimize the wrinkles, but leave a few folds where the sides curve to allow for slack.

6 – Cover up:

Cover the pond liner with a 2- to 3-inch layer of pea gravel, or use smooth rocks with pea gravel poured in-between. This will lengthen the life of the liner and give your water garden a more natural appearance.

7 – Finish edges:

Place stones or boulders around the outer edge to hold the liner in place. For a more natural appearance, strategically graduate the stones up to and over the rim of the pool. Trim any excess liner around the edge so that a 12-inch overlap remains.

8 – Fill with water:

Place a garden hose in the center of the pool and fill with water to within a few inches from the top. As water flows in, smooth out the liner by folding and pleating portions of the material.

9 – Add plants:

Tuck in moisture-loving plants (see sidebar for suggestions) around the outer edges to soften the rocks, then add any aquatic plants to help filter the water and keep algae under control. Water lilies and other floating aquatic blooms should ideally cover 50 percent to 65 percent of the pool surface. Want to add a little life to your project? Goldfish are most suited to a small pool. A koi pool, however, needs to be larger in size—at least 10 feet by 10 feet and ideally 3 to 4 feet deep.

10 – Create a balance:

Maintenance is minimal if you establish a balance of plants, fish, and other aquatic life. In addition to floating plants, each square foot of water surface should support one bunch of submerged (oxygenating) plants, small fish (about two inches in length), and one pond scavenger, such as snails and tadpoles. Add water during summer as needed to maintain the proper level.

Don’t have the time or space to build an outdoor water feature? Bring it indoors with a tabletop fountain. These self-contained fountains come in a variety of soothing designs, and many 
include space for plants. Prices start at under $100. Available at home-improvement and garden-supply centers or online at sites such as amazon.com or simplyfountains.com.

Just Add Water The Saturday Evening Post

Phlox, pansies, and bulbs like tulips and daffodils are sure bets for spring. Annuals like zinnia, cosmos, and moss rose and heat-tolerant perennials—blanket flower, coreopsis—are standouts in summer. In fall, try purple aster, ornamental kale, and sedum. And don’t forget about winter, when there are a plethora of show-stoppers, including Harry Lauder’s walking stick, hellebore, evergreens, and berry-producing shrubs (which bring colorful birds flocking).

2: Look beyond the living. Garden structures and ornaments are critical to a garden that sparkles year-round. Gazing globes, statuary, and other garden décor work wonders in adding color and interest in dark or sparse parts of the landscape.

3: Containers are key. Express your creative side with planters that celebrate the seasons. Stick to pastel palettes and cold-tolerant plants in spring. In summer, take inspiration from the tropics and switch out tulips and pansies with lush, colorful foliage like canna, tufted hairgrass, and Persian shield. Maple Sugar hibiscus, strawflower, and dwarf grasses are fall favorites, while dogwood twigs and evergreen boughs ring in the holidays.

4: Plant annuals. Most gardens experience lean months, when the landscape transitions from one season to the next. Achieve continuous color with annuals. For the biggest impact, plant en masse. Large, thickly planted beds of annuals provide swaths of color that everyone will notice.

5: Evergreens and conifers are critical. Evergreens, such as boxwood, holly, arborvitae, and junipers look great throughout the year. During the growing season, they provide a backdrop for colorful annuals and perennials. But when the garden quiets in winter, they provide both structure and color. The same goes for conifers. Who can resist the graceful, snow-laden branches of a pine or spruce? And with so many colorful cultivars and dwarf varieties available today, there’s one for any yard.

6: Don’t forget about foliage. Ornamental grasses (fountain grass, blue fescue), dogwood, burning bush, deciduous trees like maples and white ash—all feature dazzling foliage that spans the seasons.

7: Provide good care. Continue to keep plants pest- and disease-free for a colorful show well past the growing season. Cut back spent foliage and deadhead spent blooms. The flush of color that most often follows is well worth it.

7 Secrets to Season-Long Color The Saturday Evening Post

Several years ago my wife and I rented a house that had, attached to its hindquarters, a screened-in back porch. Though it was our vacation and we had made ambitious plans for the week, the pull of the screened porch proved too great, causing us to scrap our agenda and spend our days reclining in twin hammocks, reading, beyond the reach of the horseflies and mosquitoes.

Over the next few years, I revisited that pleasant porch many times in my memory, recalling the cool breeze circulating around me, the gentle throb of the evening crickets, the sweet iced tea within arm’s reach, the book tented upon my chest as I slid into a nap.

Winters rolled into springs and springs into summers. I turned 48 and felt the press of time, my life half spent without a screened porch to show for it. Then last spring, I phoned a builder, who walked around the house with me, studying it, looking for the obvious place to attach a porch.

“How about we build on a front porch?” he said.

“Wouldn’t work,” I told him. “We’d have to chop down my wife’s magnolias. She’d skin us alive.”

“We could always come off the kitchen,” the builder said. “Tear out this wall here, put a door there, move the garage over there.”

He stretched out his tape measure, punched some numbers into his calculator, and quoted a figure that was more than we’d paid for the house. Why is it that whenever I hire a builder, no matter how small or large the project, it inevitably involves the depletion of my entire savings?

By then, I had painted myself into a corner. Believing the porch’s cost would be modest, I had begun buying porch furniture and stacking it in our garage—a rocker, couch, swing, tables, chairs, a fan, a lamp by which to read, one sign forbidding the use of cell phones, and another sign prohibiting the use of dirty words, such as Congress, incumbent, Republican, Democrat, or Tea Party.

I’m a simple Quaker minister and have to watch my expenditures, lest I become the subject of gossip and speculation. Quaker ministers are granted wide latitude in theological matters, but have to toe the line when it comes to simplicity. There are Quaker porches and Episcopalian porches, and I am expected to know the difference. I thanked the builder, an Episcopalian, and sent him on his way.

Later that evening, my wife and I were discussing our prospective porch, and she suggested I build it. There was a time I would have tackled a job like that with confident enthusiasm, but that was several explosions ago, and I’ve grown more timid over the years. The phrase, “I’ll build it myself” has become codespeak for “How about I screw it up so bad we’ll spend twice as much paying someone else to fix it?”

A few days later my friend Dave Helton came to visit. Dave is a human encyclopedia, able to dredge up, sort out, and spew forth arcane bits of data on any topic related to the home.

“Why don’t you just hang mosquito curtains on your breezeway?” he asked. “People down South use ’em all the time. You put ’em up in the spring, take ’em down in the fall. Cost you a couple hundred bucks.”

I went online, entered the words “mosquito curtains,” and landed on a company in Georgia, owned by a man named Kurt, who, despite once having a job on Wall Street, looked reasonably trustworthy. I phoned Kurt, told him the dimensions of our breezeway, read him the numbers on our credit card, and four days later the UPS man delivered our mosquito curtains. Kurt had predicted it would take two hours to hang the curtains and thoughtfully included directions, which I ignored, adding several hours to the installation time. After hanging the curtains, I transferred the rockers, couch, swing, tables, chairs, fan, lamp, and signs from the garage to our breezeway. It was a tight squeeze, but I shoehorned them in.

There is much concern in our country these days about our national debt, climate change, and health care. My plan of action is to sit many hours on my porch this summer, drinking sweet iced tea and not thinking about them.

My Porch Plan The Saturday Evening Post

1. Start at home. The best source about your home is the building itself, and everyone in the family can join in this part of the investigation. Look at the separate parts of the building—roof, walls, chimneys, doors, windows, and foundation. Note what materials they are made of and how the different parts are joined to one another. Try to distinguish original materials from later additions.

Look at the style of the house, too, inside and out (and use the books listed on the back panel of this brochure to help identify building styles and materials). The style of a building is a clue to its age—but not proof. In some parts of the country, a building style stays popular longer than in others. Keep careful notes and take pictures. The clues you record will be useful later on in your investigation.

2. Go to the courthouse, or wherever deed records are kept in your community. Using deed records, you can create a chronological list of all of the owners of a piece of property. The list you compile will be the backbone of your home’s history.

Ask for the index to deeds by buyer. Start with the deed to the present owner. Note the seller’s name and the legal description of the property. Then use the index to find the seller’s deed to the same piece of property and note whom the seller bought it from. Work your way back through the deeds to the original owner, make a copy of each deed, and keep track of the page and volume numbers. A sharp increase in the value of the property could mean a building was added to it.

3. Look at other public records, especially if you find gaps in the deed records. Sometimes property passes from one owner to another through a mortgage or a will, and these documents will probably be wherever you found the deeds (or at least nearby).

Mortgage records often contain detailed descriptions of buildings. Wills and other probate records may list one or more of the previous owners, and you can examine the records filed under their names to see if there are any mentions of the property. Local tax records may reveal the dates of additions and improvements to property by a change in its valuation, and maps of property made by surveyors can show a tool shed or a well that no longer exists. Be sure to make photocopies of all the records that you think will be helpful.

A glance at public records could reveal your home's rich history.
Photo courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

City directories often list people’s occupations as well as addresses and can help to establish the dates that a person lived at a particular address. A librarian can also direct you to federal and state census records. They can contain vast amounts of information about households.

A good library or Internet project for children is to create a timeline of American history starting with the approximate construction date of your building. When the kids have completed a simple timeline for the nation, the family can work together to combine it with the timeline for your home and look for connections. You might find a
link between a big event in American history and a small event in your home’s history.

5. Read a map. Your librarian can guide you to city and county maps that may show your building with the owner’s or resident’s name written beside it. Such maps often show the location of old roads and other landmarks that may have disappeared. Insurance maps, especially those produced by the Sanborn Map Co., contain a wealth of information about individual structures, including the materials from which they were built.

6. Look at a picture. Your local library or historical society may have old photographs of your building, or there may be some in your neighbors’ attics. Postcards can be helpful, too. Many towns are represented in nineteenth-century lithographs called “bird’s-eye views,” which sometimes provide an accurate picture of every residence in town. Don’t forget to take a few photographs of your home for the project, or better yet, have children in the family take the photographs or draw pictures of your building.

7. Talk to people. Try to track down former residents or their children. They may be able to help you date changes or tell you stories about their lives in your home. Neighbors can be helpful, too, if they have lived in the neighborhood a long time. The whole family can put together a list of questions to ask the neighbors about your home and neighborhood. While you are talking to them, ask if they have any family pictures that might show your building in the background.

8. Put it all together. When you have finished your research, you will have a stack of written notes, photocopies of documents and maps, and photographs. These are like the pieces of a puzzle. Use them to create a timeline of your home’s past and to write a narrative history. Enlist everyone in the family to help create a scrapbook that weaves together the narrative history, photocopies, drawings, and photographs, and then make enough copies to give your family and friends. Be sure to place a copy in your local historical society or library, so that your home will have a place in history.

9. Is the building you’re living in brand new? Then start your own history of your home. Using some of the steps outlined above, find out what was there before your building was built and why the neighborhood changed. Then take photos of your home and write about your experiences living in it. You will be making history for your family and community.

Further reading. These books to may help in your research:

Barbara J. Howe. Houses and Homes: Exploring Their History.
Nashville, Tennessee: American Association
for State and Local History, 1987.

Howard Hugh. How Old Is This House?
New York: Noonday Press, 1989.

Sally Light. House Histories: A Guide
to Tracing the Genealogy of Your Home.
Spencertown, New York: Golden Hill Press, 1997.

Virginia and Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

Visit the “Within These Walls…” website at
http://americanhistory.si.edu/house.

House Detective: Finding History in Your Home The Saturday Evening Post

Every time I think things have gone as far as they can, I remember the song from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Oklahoma that proclaimed, “Everything’s up to date in Kansas City. … I counted 20 gas buggies goin’ by theirselves.

Almost every time I took a walk,” the singer reports. “An’ then I put my ear to a Bell telephone, an’ a strange woman started in to talk … they’ve gone about as fer as they can go.”

Hardly. Obviously, they’ve gone a heck of a lot “ferer.” Some “buggies” no longer need gas. They run on electricity. And no woman, strange or otherwise, talks to you when you pick up a telephone, Bell or not. At least not a live one. Most likely you’ll hear a recorded voice — not necessarily female. And that phone probably doesn’t even have a wire; but it does play music and take pictures and has a global positioning system and Internet access — and, who knows, soon maybe the ability to sprout wings and fly you to Mars.

The song continues: “They went an’ built a skyscraper seven stories high, about as high as a buildin’ otta grow …” Of course, today skyscrapers actually do scrape the sky, while back in Kansas City of yore, “With every kind of comfort every house is all complete. You can walk to privies in the rain and never wet your feet! They’ve gone about as fer as they can go …” Not quite. Indoor privies have since morphed into luxury spas, with giant Jacuzzis, tanning beds, toilets that flush automatically, and showers for two (or more) with dozens of power jets to spray.

All well and good, but I wish the brainiacs who developed these wonders would turn their attention to more practical areas — like designing a fitted sheet that will fold itself. I still have not figured out how to do it manually.

Also, how about a shopping cart that will survey your fridge and pantry, print out a shopping list of what you need, and maybe even roll
itself to the supermarket and collect your groceries. OK, so that may be a bit unreasonable. Actually, I would settle for a cart with wheels that all go in the same direction.

And I would really appreciate a dishwasher that loads and unloads itself and stows all the clean dishes, glasses, flatware, and pots and pans in their designated places.
Again, if that’s too much to ask, how about one that actually delivers on its promise to clean those pots and pans of burnt-on food without any help from me?

I do have a robotic vacuum cleaner, but I don’t know why. I don’t really trust it, so I go over all the rugs with my electric manual vac anyway. And I still have to dust. Will someone please design a feather duster that can flutter around on its own, cleaning every surface, nook, and cranny, including the ones I usually miss?

Oh, and you know what else would be great — houseplants with feet that could walk over to the kitchen sink and water themselves when they’re thirsty. All that droopy, dried foliage perched on various surfaces in my home does nothing to enhance its décor.

A self-balancing checkbook would be another dream come true. Sure, there are computer programs that are supposed to achieve this result, but not independently — you have to help it by activating the program and entering numbers and hoping the computer won’t crash before you’ve finished. Much too stressful. (Come to think of it, a crash-proof computer would be nice, too.)

And, yes, they’ve invented a car that can parallel park itself, but when will they give us one that will drive itself down the highway so I can concentrate on my cell phone calls, answer my e-mails on my laptop, and use both hands to eat my sandwich … without worrying that a cop is going to pull me over?

I know they’ve also developed a windproof umbrella that will not blow inside out, even in a hurricane. But better yet would be a sunshine bubble that would encase you and your car wherever you go so you’d never need an umbrella (or a coat or boots for that matter). A blizzard is raging, and you need milk and pork chops? No problem. Just activate your sunshine bubble, slip on your flip-flops, and you’re set to go.

Also near the top of my wish list is a magic wand that I can wave over my lasagna and hot fudge sundae to absorb all the calories. In the meantime, I’d like a scale that will lie and tell me I’ve finally lost those 20 pounds. And until someone develops a wrinkle cream that really works, how about a mirror that lies, too?

Actually, that calorie-absorbing magic wand is second on my fantasy list. I just decided that something else deserves the No. 1 position: You know how some TV shows pluck a plain “before” Jane from the audience and turn her into a gorgeous “after” by the end of the show? Well, I’d like a makeover booth that would do the same thing. I’d step inside, push a button, and out would pop robotic makeup brushes, hair styling tools, and Botox-loaded syringes that would whip around and do their magic while I took a 10-minute nap. Then, voilà! Me, “after”! At least I think it’s me — I really don’t recognize myself.

But back to more mundane matters: I’d really appreciate drawers and cupboards that organize themselves and closets that vaporize anything I haven’t worn in two years, as well as file cabinets that automatically shred contents I will never need again.

And is there a botanist out there who can develop grass that grows only a couple of inches high and never needs mowing or watering, but stays lush and green all summer? Oh, what the heck, all winter, too, while we’re at it.

Speaking of winter, will some climatologist please find a way to direct all snow only to the mountains to keep the skiers happy and off the walks and roadways to keep me happy?

The pundits say that a sure way to wealth is to find a need and fill it. There you go! I’ve identified lots of needs. The rest is up to you.

I’ll trust you to split the profits with me when they start rolling in.

Rose Madeline Mula does her thinking about new gadgets in Methuen, Massachusetts. Her latest book, The Beautiful People and Other Aggravations, is published by Pelican Publishing Company.

What Will They Think of Next The Saturday Evening Post

The biggest mistake people make when they put their home up for sale is doing “nothing at all!” says the home staging expert and designer for HGTV’s hit show Designed to Sell. “People tend to let their egos get in the way with the notion that, ‘If it’s good enough for me, it’s good enough.’ ” Yet LaPorta is quick to point out that people stop noticing things in their home that send up red flags to an objective eye. She recommends asking a friend (or former friend) to do a walk-through as if they were the potential buyer. “You know that person you no longer talk to because they’re too blunt? Invite them over for a fresh set of eyes.”

When it comes to staging your home in a competative market, design expert Lisa LaPorta stresses the importance of removing personal clutter for a fresh and modern look. Before (above), after (top image).

Next, make a list of obvious maintenance needs, including rooms that will require special attention, keeping in mind that “curb appeal, kitchens, and baths are what sell a home,” LaPorta explains. But before tackling the wear and tear items, give your home a good bath-from the outside, in. Power spraying walkways, windows, patios, or porches can make big impact on curb appeal. Dress up the front door (and shutters) with a fresh coat of paint-a bold accent color perhaps-and some shiny new hardware, taking into consideration the overall style and architecture of the home. Accessorize the entrance with simple oversized pots planters. For the porch and patio, the designer offers this cleaning mantra: “Never underestimate the power of vinegar and water for cleaning outdoor furniture.”

Inside, clear out the clutter and neutralize your personal style as much as possible. “Most people have too much furniture-lots of little tables, accent pieces, inherited furniture,” she notes. “Pack it up and store it away. Clean out the closets, too. Overstuffed closets are an indication to buyers that there is not enough storage space in the home.” If it’s not practical for you to rent a storage unit, designate one area (or the garage) for storage.

Revive kitchen and bathroom cabinets with a colored stain. Although the idea is to use neutral tones, a wide assortment of attractive stain colors are often overlooked. “It doesn’t always have to be brown, oak, or cherry; you can get some beautiful reds, sage greens, blue-greys, or oyster.”

Kitchen before

As with any new do-it-yourself project, it’s advisable to begin in a less noticeable area. For example, stain the inside of a cabinet first to practice your technique and see how it’s going to look.

“Next, clean, clean, clean!” LaPorta is quick to repeat. People tend not to notice the filth and dust in their own homes, so pay close atention to the dirty details.

Once your home is spotless, look at the arrangement of the furniture. People are often guilty of pushing their furniture up against the walls. “For some reason, they think this makes a room look bigger, when in fact, it draws attention to the boundaries of the space,” the designer says. “Try floating sofas across from one another in such a way as to create inviting viewpoints.”

But be cautious when moving heavy furniture. A petite home stager herself, LaPorta uses furniture discs to position heavy furniture.

If you’re new to do-it-yourself projects such as staining, painting, or tiling, many big name hardware stores offer workshops and classes for beginners. Even on a budget, with a little labor and a strong will, you can set the stage for a show-stopping performance.

Kitchen after. This opaque stain in Winter White applies like normal paint but is technically a stain. Using a semi-transparent stain allows some of the wood grain to still show, whereas painting hides wood grain.

Six Secret Solutions

Fresh Floors: Peel-and-stick vinyl tile is an affordable way to modernize an outdated floor. When placing the tile, make sure to switch up the direction and placement of the tiles to mix the tones.

Shower Power: Instead of replacing a grimy glass shower door, clean it by mixing one part muriatic acid and about 10 parts water. Scrub it with steel wool and wipe it down for a door that sines.

Fired Up: Scrub the fireplace with soap and water. Polish bricks with a tone color enhancer to make them shine. To update the screen, remove and dust it thoroughly. Mask off the windows and use a can of heat-resistant spray paint to give the screen a fresh look. Hold the can about 18 inches away and use long strokes.

Top It Off: Granite countertops, although expensive, are a good investment. Save money by requesting a 9- or 12-inch squares. Easier to install than running-foot slabs, they often cost less.

Kitchen Update: Resurface old appliances for under $20 by removing the front panels and cleaning them. Then, apply a stainless-steel stick-on covering and cut it to fit.

Creative Curtains: Dress up a window for $12 with this easy trick using place mats: Apply a hook-and-loop fastener to each place mat; attach them in a row to a basic curtain rod; and pin them together at the bottom for a stylish valance.

Setting the Stage The Saturday Evening Post

In her 90-year-old, colonial-style Indianapolis home, Sara Snow easily rattles off how she religiously follows the tenets of green living. Dressed in pants made of wood pulp and an organic cotton shirt, this up-and-coming eco-friendly expert is among the true tree-huggers, “greenies” —her words—who do everything they can to live lightly.

All the food she and Ryan, her husband, buy is organic or natural, including the herbal tea she’s sipping. She uses cloth bags for purchases. Their German shepherd, Makana, eats natural dog food. Their bath towels, bed sheets, and bathrobes are made from organic cotton. She points out pieces of second-hand furniture —a small table, decorative tubs made of recycled tires. The natural living advocate advises shopping at local farmers’ markets for fresh produce or joining a community supported agriculture (CSA) group for a regular share of local, healthy crops.

They use natural cleansers—such as baking soda and vinegar—non-toxic shampoo and soap, and energy-efficient light bulbs. Behind the garage are two compost bins for tea bags, banana peels, and the like. Around front are curb-side recycling bins they regularly fill up. Her “green” list could go on, but the picture is clear.

This outgoing 32-year-old TV series creator and host on Discovery Networks, columnist, and new book author embodies the essence of what it means to live naturally, in tune with nature and the environment.

Her life is focused on spreading the “green living” gospel, ingrained in her as a child, to help other people make simple life changes she hopes will contribute to a sea change in their own health and the well-being of the environment.

“My mission is not to become some massive superstar and to have this whole empire built around me,” she said. “My mission is being on the ground and helping people find ways to live more naturally, so they can have healthier bodies, healthier children, and healthier homes. It’s so immensely important.”

Snow’s new book outlines a room-by-room guide to a more environmentally friendly home. Yet what we all need to do, she says, isn’t remarkably new. And it doesn’t have to be all that hard.

“We’re not inventing a new way of doing things. We’re really going back to the way we used to do things less than a 100 years ago. That’s why sometimes I call it simple living.

“We didn’t used to spray our crops with so many chemicals; we didn’t used to abuse our resources the way we do now; we didn’t used to view everything as being so disposable as it is now,” says Snow. Her first book, Sara Snow’s Fresh Living: The Essential Room-by-Room Guide to a Greener, Healthier Family and Home, comes out in March. Snow wants people to know that green living doesn’t have to be all or nothing. That’s a mistake a lot of people make, she says. They can take small steps, get comfortable with them, and move on to others. Living greener can be as simple as starting to cook at home more often, rather than going out so much, because you’ll likely eat healthier, she says, also adding to remember how your grandmother or mother made dishes, the food they cooked. Do some of those things. Buy locally grown foods and grow some of your own. Also, be intentional about not overbuying in general. Buying secondhand goods also helps cut down on needless waste, Snow says.

To make the biggest impact, Snow advises taking steps in three areas: eating less processed food and more organic food; cutting back on your home energy usage; and improving your transportation methods so you’re using less energy.

Organic products are still between 10 percent and 20 percent more expensive than nonorganic food, although in-season, local organic produce may not be any more expensive. If you can’t afford to buy all organic, Snow suggests at least buying organic milk (easy to find) and buying meat that’s hormone- and antibiotic-free.

Sara Snow’s Green Living Tips for the Home

In the kitchen

• Shop often to avoid overbuying of processed foods and to keep a steady amount of fresh foods on hand.
• Buy organic to avoid pesticide exposure and increase your antioxidant intake.

In the bathroom

• Buy recycled-content paper products like tissues and toilet paper.
• Take shorter showers and save up to five gallons of water per minute.

In the bedroom

• Try organic cotton sheets for a comfy and healthy, natural bed.
• Look for eco-friendly materials like organic wool and sustainable bamboo.

In the nursery

• Simplify and avoid overbuying for a clutter-free and environmentally sound nursery.
• Seek out natural body products for your baby’s sensitive skin.

In the living room

• Place energy-efficient CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) in your most commonly used fixtures.
• Make use of secondhand furniture for a more eco-friendly choice.

In the laundry

• Avoid cleaning products with synthetic fragrances.
• Line dry your clothes, either inside or outside, for an energy-efficient laundry room.

In the office

• Avoid getting excess mail by asking catalog companies to take you off their lists.
• Unplug electronics like computers, printers, and televisions when not in use so they don’t waste power.

Throughout the home

• Use common plants to clear the indoor air, which is often more polluted than the air outside. Plants like gerbera daisy, English ivy, and bamboo palm are effective at helping to clean the air.

Outdoors

• Try composting as a way of recycling kitchen scraps into free fertilizer for your home gardens.
• Get a tune-up on your car to get the best gas mileage possible, no matter what kind of vehicle you drive.
• Install a rain barrel on a downspout of your home and make use of what comes down naturally to water your plants and gardens. The barrel can be store-bought or simply a recycled old barrel with a spigot installed toward the bottom.
• Become a member of a community supported agriculture (CSA) group for a weekly share of a local farm’s fresh and healthy crops. If you don’t have CSAs in your area, shop at a local farmers’ market for the best seasonal, fresh, and local foods.

Even though her life was quite different from her public school classmates’, she never felt deprived, nor did she envy the more typical foods they ate while she drank soy milk and munched on carob bars. Her parents taught her food can be used as medicine to make your body well, or it can do some serious harm.

“We felt like we were really a part of something big. At least there was a purpose behind it all, and my dad was helping to save the world through food,” recalls Snow, chuckling fondly. The knowledge she gained while growing up shaped her career. Snow is a graduate of Butler University in Indianapolis in telecommunications and theater performance. She worked as a television producer for ESPN’s SportsCentury series and then as a morning news reporter/ anchor for the Indianapolis Fox affiliate. But the lifestyle didn’t suit her, so after seven years she left to blend her life’s work with her life’s passion—green living.

In 2005 and 2007, Snow created and hosted two eco-lifestyle series, now shown in reruns on Discovery Health and FitTV. They’re called Living Fresh and Get Fresh With Sara Snow. Segments profile how companies and real people are living greener lifestyles. She also has regular segments on CNN.com LIVE; has her own Web site, sarasnow.com; is developing another TV series; and hopes to write another book. With all the attention on green living in the country, what’s holding people back? “Sometimes I think the hardest thing is just the first change, breaking the mold and changing your habits,” says Snow, an advisory board member for Discovery’s Planet Green, the first-ever, 24-hour green television network. “Once you’ve made that one change, the rest are much easier.” Snow is optimistic about the future of the green movement 10 or more years down the road. “At the very least, we will have slowed the rate at which we are destroying this very fragile planet.”

Snow is impressed by the environmental awareness of college-age Americans and even more by younger children. She believes that by the time they are running companies and households, if we aren’t already seeing serious changes, we will by then.

“My hope beyond that is we will start to live less as little selfish individuals in our own little bubbles,” she says. “We don’t interact with our neighbors; we don’t spend time outside interacting with the natural world.”

As for herself, Snow would like to recreate that idyllic time when her family members relied on each other, supported each other, and lived close together.

“My personal hope is that I’ll be back on a little family community, and all of my family will be living in a plot of land together. It’s such a perfect way to live.” From Sara’s Kitchen:

Going Green with Sara Snow The Saturday Evening Post

Here are some of the best new varieties for 2009 picked by the National Garden Bureau, a nonprofit organization of growers and horticultural companies from around the world.

Brave New World of Vegetables for 2009 The Saturday Evening Post