A helmet… a gas mask bag I used to carry my school books in … a box with a Purple Heart medal in it…
To a little boy, the stuff of adventure and heroism.
“Tell me about the War,” I’d plead, but he wouldn’t. There’s nothing glorious about war, my father would say, war is not a good thing.
During World War I, he’d been drafted — a kid from Moyamensing Avenue in South Philly — and because the need for cannon fodder was so urgent, his unit underwent basic training on shipboard, en route to France.
During the Battle of the Argonne, he was hit by shrapnel in the thigh. Then, while recuperating from the wound, he was stricken with the Spanish influenza, which was ravaging multitudes that year all over the world. Soon afterward, the Armistice was signed.
When he was on a stretcher, being carried to a field hospital, a German sniper shot the watch off his wrist.
“It was a good watch,” he lamented later. Or so I’m told. I heard all this from other sources — not from him.
* * *
No need to shout
One of the biggest differences (and there are many) between newspaper journalism today and in the past is the noise level in the newsroom.
B.C. (Before Computers), the clacking of typewriters and the hum of the teletype machines was incessant. Phones were always ringing. And the most efficient way to communicate within the newsroom was to shout.
To summon a reporter rows of desks away, the editor had to holler, and the reporter, of course, hollered back. It often seemed that everyone was shouting at once.
The typewriter’s clack has been replaced by the computer keyboard’s gentle pitty-pat. Telephones still ring, but because of the Internet, not nearly as often. Teletype machines are no longer necessary.
And thanks to e-mail, there’s no need to shout.
* * *
Factual fiction
Two of last year’s major movies — each based on a best-selling novel — have remarkably similar story lines.
In Atonement and The Kite Runner, a child does something terrible and is haunted by it for life. A little girl’s accusation, in Atonement, sends her sister’s beau to prison for an offense he didn’t commit; in The Kite Runner, a boy makes a false charge against his best friend.
In each case, the victim is the son of a servant.
Each story evolves against a backdrop of cataclysmic events — in Atonement, World War II Britain (the Dunkirk scenes were memorable); in The Kite Runner, Afghanistan, during the Soviet invasion and the Taliban take-over (they’re so vile they become almost cartoonish).
As a lifelong journalist, I hate to admit this, but sometimes, insights can be lost in even the best reporting, and fiction can reflect reality more effectively than fact.
* * *
The Guy With the Pole
The guy may or may not be an auto mechanic — but to those of us whose windows overlook the gas station across the street, he plays one role only:
He’s The Guy With the Pole.
With the pole, he posts the increases in the gasoline prices.
That’s why we suspect being The Guy With the Pole is his only job. There’s not much time for anything else.
