Zurich Citizens News, 1961-04-13, Page 4PAGE FOUR
SUGAR and SPICE
(By W. (BILL) L T. SMILEY)
"Golly, Dad, are you ever old!'
This was my sonts comment when
he learned the other day that Fd
been born in 1920, just a couple
of
years after World War L You'd
have thought it was immediately
following the Gay Nineties, to hear
his tone.
There is only one comfort, as the
years rush by. One's age values
change conveniently. When you
are 10, anybody over 21 is middle-
aged. By the time you are 15, you
realize that people aren't middle-
aged until they're 30 or more. When
you 'are 25, middle age begins at
40. And when you are 40, you are
serene in the knowledge that you
won't really be in middle age un-
til you are about 55.
' generation has grown up, to whom
our war is as remote as the Crim,
can War was to us, at the same age.
This disparity in point of view
is brought home to me with some
force when I'm talking to teen-
agers at school. One day we all
saw a film on the history of flight.
It contained some shots of aerial
combat in World War 1.
Later, I remarked jokingly that
I'd enjoyed seeing some of the old
aircraft I'd flown myself in those
days. They didn't get the joke.
They really thought I'd been a
World War I pilot.
This would make me at least 60.
I asked them sharply how old they
thought I was. One particularly
sweet girl in Grade 10 said: "You.
don't look it, sir.
That's why a lot of us World
War II veterans, who keep think-
ing the war was just a few years
ago, should pull our heads out of
the sand.
We may feel that we're still prac-
tically gay young blades, but we
should realize that a whole new
£1D.
PANT
SPA
USE
Just the same, it's fun to look
back. About the same day my son
was relegating me to the horseless
carriage era, my daughter, while
prowling around for something to
read, came across my old prisoner -
of -war log book, She went through
it in one sitting. From time to
time she looked at me curiously,
cocked an eyebrow, and read on.
* t t
I'd forgotten what was in that
log book, But I found out. Young
Kim went to her mother with it,
and said, "Look at this, Mom." She
was pointing at two pages of pho;
tographs of striking young ladies.
I had them in my wallet when
shot down and pasted them in the
book under the youthful, silly but
harmless heading My Comforters.
Despite the fact that some of
those girls are now doubtless on
the verge of grandmotherhood, the
Old Lady got sore. She gave the
snapshots one long, searing look,
gave me another, sneered, "Oh,
weren't you the charmer!" and
flounced off to finish her washing.
Kim looked pleased,
I decided to take a look through
the old book myself, and spent a
thoroughly enjoyable hour, like an
old maid with her faded ribbons
and her dance programs. It took
me from the dreariness of early
April, from the morass of middle-
class domesticity, back to a time
when I was young and tough, com-
pletely irresponsible, and slightly
wicked.
There were the names, many of
them forgotten, of the motley crew
in my barracks I wonder what
Jennie de Wet of South Africa
thinks of Canada these days? Is
Nils Jorgenson back on his railway
job in Oslo? How does Don Mc
Gibbon of Bulawayo feel about the
riots in his Rhodesian homeland?
What's become of Tony Frombolo
of Alameda, Cal.? Did Clancy
Cleary ever get his dairy farm go-
ing in Australia? On which side
of the Iron Curtain did Rostilov
ZurncN CITIZINS WOWS
Kenovsky, the Czech, land?
There were the crazy cartoons
by "Chuck," the mad Ukrainian,
spoofing the Germans There were
the old prison -camp recipes for tut -
jam and prune whisky and
powdered milk pie There were the
incredible stories. -like that of the
Dutch lad who was shot down and
taken prisoner while on leave
There were the excerpts from
letters - from - home. They were
horrible in their thoughtlessness,
but we thought them hilarious. For
example: "We are sending you a
five-year calendar, feeling it may
come in handy." And this one,
from a wife: "I'm afraid I'm going
to have a baby. His father is a
Canadian and very nice. He says
he is sorry for you and is sending
you some cigarettes,"
There was the long list of things
to do when I got out -- pubs, girls
and restaurants to be revisited,
places to see, gifts to buy. There
was the entire account, in tiny writ-
ing, of what had happened to me
after I was shot down -- a com-
edy of errors.
* * *
And there, right at the back of
the book, tucked into a little flap,
was something that brought me up
with a jolt. It was a head -and -
shoulder photo of a young fellow
scowling at the camera. He was
whiskery and dirty. But there
wasn't a line in his face, his eyes.
were clear and sharp, he had a
shock of thick, dark hair, and he
looked as tough as tow rope. I
looked at it for quite a while.
Then I got up and went into the
bathroom and looked in the mirror.
And I saw the deep furrows in the
face, and the bleary eyes with the
purple hammocks under them, and
the wispy, graying hair, and the
general color of a milk pudding.
I looked at it for quite a while.
And I picked up my log book,
with the photo of that young fel-
low, and I took it down cellar, and
I put it in a box, and I placed a
large trunk on top of the box. And
just before I mounted the stairs
again, I saluted—merely a casual
flip of the hand—toward that cor-
ner.
Then I squared my shoulders,
pulled in my pot, donned a pleas-
ant look, and, slightly favoring my
arthritic knee, walked up the stairs,
whistling to help with the dishes.
THURSDAY, *PML 13, 1.%1
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TERI'�
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•
BE SURE TO SEE
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AT THE
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SEE THE COMPLETE RANGE OF
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Interesting facts for both men
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