A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette DEAR READERS, will you bear with me while I "scream, yell, and howl," as we say in our family when we want to "let off steam"? I have just undergone,...
...Oh, I'm going over and say goodbye to school and some of the teachers^ then I'm going hunting several days...
...Why, we were coming anyway...
...But his spirits were high with the adventure ahead...
...We had agreed that Bob should quit the university when his summons came, and do some odd jobs for mother such as knocking down his owl cage and packing up his equipment, etc...
...When he came down he grinned, "Lucky the Army doesn't depend on me alone!'' He demolished two eggs, • two large bacon sandwiches on toast, and a quart of milk, and we started off in the black dawn...
...What's your program...
...then the letter telling me that when I received it you would be on shipboard...
...but that otherwise he should spend his 10 days enjoying his freedom...
...I have just undergone, along with several million other mothers, the delightful experience of waving our only son off to the wars...
...As I wrote to his father in the Southwest Pacific, "I have begun on the first step of the course I went through with you...
...This he did, with the exception of the first three days after the tragic death of a class-mate on the football field...
...One of the guests came into the living-room to inform us that eight-year-old Sherry, in true hostess spirit, had offered him a piece of gum with the words, "And it hasn't been used, either...
...For some weeks I had kept the living-room floor bare, since Bob and Judy are dance-crazy and danced every night after dinner, each coming home with new steps learned at the latest dance to show the other...
...He remarked* "The unpleasant thought occurred to me this morning that I'm going to miss this place...
...I told him that the parents of boys who are gone love to see their son's friends, which was borne out by the first mother I asked...
...Bob had planned to get up at the same hour, but boy-like had automatically leaned over and turned the alarm off without waking up...
...Bob gathered together the few belongings he planned to take with him and as I dropped asleep I heard him moving about his room, oiling his shot-gun, putting trees in his "good" shoes, and generally looking after last details...
...The first arrived at ten minutes after one, and from then on the fun began...
...But pride goeth before a fall—Bob had just complimented me on being able to follow his twirls better than "the girls" when I suddenly found myself flat on the middle of the floor...
...From then on the ups and downs of the mail service are the relief and the bane of our existence, and will be until the war ends...
...My alarm clock went off at five a. m. and down I went to prepare a hearty breakfast...
...What A Week For Americans there is something emotionally new about the Government remorselessly laying its hand on your shoulder with no if, and, or but...
...As he kissed his sisters and me goodbye, he called back lustily, "Hey, Sergeant, here comes Private Hargrove the Second...
...then the long wait for mail...
...First, the departure for service...
...As we drew up to the meeting-place we found a beehive of activity with cars coming and going, disgorging 18-year-olds from miles around...
...Don't worry, however, dear reader...
...By four the dining-room and kitchen were filled with 'teen-age youth drinking "cokes" and munching cakes and cookies...
...He was enthusiastic about having the young people but questioned, "The grown-ups wouldn't care about coming, would they...
...and I'm going to take a different girl out every night to tell them all goodbye...
...But when the draft greetings come even though awaited, there is an inevitability, a finality that is breath-taking...
...My husband said just last night, 'We must stop in and say goodbye to Bob and find out about his plans.' " So to make things as easy and informal as youth likes, I suggested Bob ask his friends to drop in between four and six on his last Sunday afternoon, and that he ask a couple of them to "assist" him...
...But the resiliency of youth aftd his own delicious sense of humor triumphed, and what a week we had...
...Even mother wormed her way in, although the speed of the modern steps is a strain on my aged bones...
...The "grown-ups" with the coffee in the living-room had an orgy of swapping details about their absent sons, and feasted on the laughter and high school humor that reverberated from the other rooms...
...I asked him...
...As individuals we make mistakes, have bad luck, lay blame as we see fit, yet always at the back of our minds is the sense that there are alternatives...
...I kept myself well in hand those last days while Bob was here, and I am sure he had a thoroughly good time...
...Private Hargrove The Second By seven-thirty when the last guest departed we were-so exhausted that all we wanted to do was have a bowl of hot soup and tumble into bed...
...he drawled as he sprawled across the davenport...
...1 Toward the end of the week I broached the subject of asking in his few friends still out of service, as Well as some of the parents of those who have gone...
...With that bouy-ancy of youth he took everything in his stride from the time when he opened his draft notice and a broad grin spread oyer his face as he remarked, "They can't do this to me...
...next, the news that you were alerted for overseas...
Vol. 8 • December 1944 • No. 49
