A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette PICKING up the thread of Phil's letters on his return to a new assignment in the Southwest Pacific, we find: "I got in this morning and sent you a...
...And this sense of the speed of time grows on one as one gets older...
...And I think, like an old fire horse, once one has become interested, that interest holds throughout...
...He is a wise man, with the wisdom that one feels, and sees too in some experienced faces...
...From all you told me about it I certainly look forward to reading it with real pleasure...
...people haven't settled in these parts...
...The place where I work and also sleep has a fairly good altitude and a great sweep of scenery and view...
...Then next morning it has all disappeared into thin air...
...War goes.on around the clock and through the days .without let-up...
...Each day is so like the other that literally the only thing that marks the difference is the calendar itself...
...And it grips one with its excitement...
...Instead of thinking of themselves as 'office workers' they felt themselves 'proper soldiers.' "It's the only plan of its kind I've run into in the Army, and I should add that in addition to the military formations, drill, etc., these men all have the same training in the care of their weapons, and in learning how to use them...
...He and Quezon were rivals, but finally made up, and he became Quezon's vice-president and succeeded Quezon on his death...
...I can enjoy it just thinking of you all...
...on one side, and a place to hang trousers and shirts on the other...
...Here one day follows another without any change whatever...
...I get the impression from your letters that you think it's 'in the bag' for F.D.R...
...I hope to get a chance to start the Breasted book tonight...
...I reported at seven, and thus have a chance to start a letter to you according to the old plan of 'a letter a day keeps the heart gay.' The more I have thought of it the more impressed I am at what our letters did for each other in bridging the gap of our long separation...
...will be left behind...
...This is just the sort of climate you'd like, hot brilliant sunshine with cool evenings and nights...
...There are excellent showers which are pretty much of a necessity in the tropics...
...Certainly it seems hard to justify, as I see it, these enormous areas that are almost barren of population, and then spots like India and China where the people scarcely have room to move...
...But I miss my contact with the correspondents who for the most part are a congenial crowd...
...The outlook is magnificent, and reminds me a lot of Christoph's Citadel...
...The radio has just announced our landing in the Philippines...
...I wouldn't be surprised if this weren't as marked a difference in thinking as anything between the States and being in a theater of operations...
...The days are hot as they are almost any place in New Guinea (except in the mountains), but there is generally a breeze, and at night it is cool...
...It sparkles...
...By now the election booths are closing in the rural sections of the Ea'stern seaboard, and within the next few hours they will have been closed all over the country and the counting will be in progress...
...I spent a couple of sweaty hours packing up some of my things, and exertion during the daytime in this climate certainly produces sweat in quantity...
...Our minds are primarily concentrated on the job at our hand, and there is generally enough fireworks so that it is not difficult to have one's attention held on that job at hand...
...Because of its nature I feel somewhat more constrained about writing about events...
...I can stand lots of heat in the day-time, if only one can get sleep at night...
...Last night I took off and accompanied a senior officer from here to have dinner at the mess of another command not so very far away...
...As it begins to get into late Fall and the beginning ere long of Winter, I think of that lovely living-room with the fireplace and the sun shining in over the snow-covered ground...
...The past two nights I have gone to bed early—around eight o'clock...
...It is commanded by a distinguished general who is picturesque, colorful, and a natural-born leader of men...
...I imagine you must have suspected something from Hutchinson's and then my hasty departure from Madison, followed by news of the attacks on Formosa and Luzon by our air force and surface craft...
...THE biography of Breasted and the book on the German Army were waiting for me...
...Having been over the state a good many times, there are few communities "I don't know, and thus generally we find common acquaintances...
...If I'd remained at my old job, I would certainly have gone, but with this new assignment I must stay behind this time...
...It has wit...
...From all accounts it is another case of 'hittin' 'em where they ain't' in the great MacArthur style There will be some hard fighting before it is won, but I'll wager no other commander in this war will win his victories with comparatively less loss of life...
...One can get awfully tired of it, though, at the end of a month of daily down-pour, especially when everything gets thoroughly damp and things begin to mould...
...I got 'off-loaded' at one spot, and held up in another on account of the weather, so it took longer than usual...
...His headquarters staff is composed of the usual quota of clerks, stenographers, etc...
...Another thing I never get over is how time never stands still for us...
...Incidentally, if this spot were nearer 'civilization' it would make quite a Winter,resort...
...I shall miss getting the election returns...
...When we arrived at his camp, here were his entire staff and headquarters complement all lined up in formation, with an improvised band of two base drums, four snare drums, and three or four bugles...
...He started out as district attorney for Cebu, and eventually became governor...
...We are all glad of course for the 'play' the Philippine landing received...
...I suppose you think it fortunate that I am out of my old job, but the very hazards of the job are what made it interesting and tended to attract the most desirable types...
...By the time this reaches you, the election will be over...
...There is an excitement, an intensity of interest about a great election contest that is more than superficial...
...And when one stops to think about it it gives one a sort of un-moored feeling, of being cut loose from a very important and stable factor in daily living...
...We lost another war correspondent, and another died from wounds received earlier...
...Even at this distance I am inclined to agree with you on the general principle that somebody can't be beaten with nobody...
...I wonder why m.ore...
...He is frail physically, but tough as they make 'em...
...Then came a splendid retreat formation and a march past the general with whom I came...
...I judge he is in his late sixties, though one of the characteristics of the Filipino is that he shows his age not at all until it comes on suddenly and completely...
...Now this doesn't mean that the days are boring:—there are many things of interest but they don't happen because it is a particular day of the week...
...Until I looked at the calendar this morning I'd have been positive that it was .Friday rather than Saturday...
...YOU would be surprised at what excellent letters I write you at night...
...I met him when he and his division (he was a division commander then) arrived in Australia...
...Now that has changed, and since I know, I must be on my guard both verbally and in writing...
...His father was an active figure in the insurgence against American occupation...
...Spent nearly the whole day riding in a jeep throwing clouds of thick, hot dust...
...Your letter of Nov...
...He had quite a row with his father over it, but his brothers and sisters were convinced of American good-will via that one soldier's apple...
...Laundry is picked up twice a week and it happens that those days are Monday and Thursday, but they might be Tuesdays and Fridays for all the difference that would mean...
...And speaking of quantity, I don't know where in the dickens I accumulate all my stuff...
...Just at the moment I have my evenings more or less to myself except that I am waked up once or twice a night to receive radios...
...For my part, I'd just as soon have the days a bit cooler, but anticipating the heat of the Philippines, I am grateful for the coolness here...
...When it comes to yours truly taking a bath every day, you will appreciate that it must be some propelling force at work to make him so cleanly...
...By 'open' I mean they are built for the tropics with screening only, and walls built up part way to allow for all the breeze that's around...
...That long plane ride takes a lot out of you, and it will take a night or two more of extra sleep to catch up...
...One day while Romulo was a small kid he came home with an apple that an American soldier had given him...
...When one is home various days have various significance, as Sunday meaning the office is closed, Monday is wash day, Friday means the week-end is approaching, etc...
...The mess is excellent, though I hasten to add nothing like that provided by the chef at 2131 Van Hise...
...He is an interesting character, part Spanish, part Filipino, and part Chinese...
...I guess there are just as many people from other states, but it happens I guess that people identify our name with the state, and that causes them to speak up...
...5 came last night', and made the best time yet, which makes me hopeful that the mail service has really gotten organized...
...I liked him from the first time I saw him, and when he took his division into combat it did an outstanding job...
...I wish I were there to take a few swings around the room with Bob's ma and sisters...
...Just before I go to sleep I often compose the letter I am going to write you in the morning...
...I can still taste that roast beef of yours...
...I missed writing you yesterday...
...His headquarters constitutes all the troops under his immediate command— that is, he has other troops but they are not under his immediate and direct control...
...But when the time comes for returning home for good, a lot of equipment like bedding rolls, jungle hammocks, rubber covers, etc...
...At least it was last night when I needed a blanket by early morning...
...So when the election results reach us, they will have come to a conclusion, i. e., some individual in some press office will have made the tabulations, and give us his idea of the trend...
...Each chap has a roomette, about 10 by 12, with a cot, a table, a chair, and a cupboard with places for one's handkerchiefs, socks, etc...
...It is enthrallingly interesting...
...I am highly resolved to keep it up and where possible to do an even better job...
...IMARVEL at your capacity...
...A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette PICKING up the thread of Phil's letters on his return to a new assignment in the Southwest Pacific, we find: "I got in this morning and sent you a radio at once...
...I started in this morning on regular schedule...
...I don't know whether you ever heard*about Romulo...
...And when I see the various spots I've been in New Guinea, New Britain, the Solomons, etc...
...Before I did not know much about details and- only had the over-all broad picture...
...I have no doubt but that in a relatively short time I'll develop a technique, just as I did after I got broken in on my previous job...
...And speaking of home, people from Wisconsin continue to show up...
...L always enjoy seeing them and talking about things of mutual interest...
...Yes, I do miss my old assignment and its excitement, though as we move forward the excitement detail is apt to be remedied...
...Water never felt better...
...It was interesting to see the effect on the morale of these men...
...But the air is cool and fresh this morning, and since I have a.good stout pair of Aussie field boots, a good GI Army rain coat, and an old flap-down sort of fishing cap, I don't mind the rain...
...I get a letter from you telling me you have no help, then followed by others where it seems you are washing, mangling, putting on storm windows, waxing floors, cleaning house, etc., etc., and then when I am fairly wilted just thinking of the load you carry, I get a letter telling me you have had 11 people to dinner and danced and talked until the small hours 1 But really of course I am delighted because it indicates that you are in your stride, and you are keeping both our ends up in our social relations...
...Naturally I was very disappointed not to go along, but I've been in five landings or engagements now and was not in a very good position to ask for a special favor...
...When I finally finished and came back to quarters, the dirt could be scraped off me with a hoe...
...My work continues to be intensely interesting...
...Am living in a low, one-storied building, with small open roomettes...
...You will be interested to know that everyone comments on how well your old man looks, and naturally and properly attribute it to having seen you and the kids...
...The past and the future both move so rapidly that one seldom gets the sense of things holding still so one can enjoy them...
...It was a wise move of the General to have President Osmena with him...
...One sweats so much that unless he watches out there is danger of various kinds of skin sores, etc...
...I remember Dad saying that time was like the telegraph polls one passes riding on a train, and that as one gets older the train's speed increases tremendously until it seems that the years are going past one at an enormous speed...
...So you needn't begin worrying now about what you are going to do with all the junk...
...He has been in Filipino politics a long time...
...They are kept very neat and spick and span...
...The Southwest Pacific area has lost over half the correspondents (Americans) killed in this war, and that doesn't count the wounded...
...THE rainy season is just beginning, and this morn-A ing we had another torrential rain that beat on the old tin roof like trip hammers...
...But we had [while flying} excellent weather, and though tiresome after hours and hours in the air, it was a very good trip...
...As I've written before, though, I apprehend that there will be considerable delay both ways from the Philippines...
...One is conscious of the fact that great masses of people are exercising their judgment, making their decision on momentous issues—or at least the issues are often momentous...
...Boy, was that good...
...It all goes back to this interesting general I noted above...
...On those matters I would normally prefer to make my own deductions, but for us, of course, the results are not as vital as when one is at home...
Vol. 8 • December 1944 • No. 50
