North Carolina Newspapers

I 1 ! ,4' THE WAYNESVILLE MOUNTAINEER (One Day Nearer Victory) THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER !3, 191 Page 8 ! f.r by Marion Hargrove SYNOPSIS CHAPTER I Edward Thomas Marion Lawton Hargrove, feature KriveSnmitadr board that he is to be inducted into the army. Before he begins an editor of the Charlotte (N. C.) accounting of his actual experiences in training camp he issues his quota of free advice to prospective in-, ductees. After his induction Har- crove. with his new buddies, leaves for Fort Bragg, where he is to re- j ceive his basic training. n i T 6 t?i tells of the physical exam, the first ! few days of army, how he was out- I fitted with his uniform, and how on the sixth day he received his first I KP duty. He is classified as a semi-. skilled cook. CHAPTFR ill-Harerove relat- r. a -Hargrove rem es his conversation with his ser- . . c j ...v. geant who is trying to find out why i he spends so much time on KP ; dutv. He also reports on the ses-, sion the trainees are put through bv the exercise sergeant He has trouble earn nl LT to handle his I rifle and is given plenty of special attention by the sergeant and cor- c ... Permanent Posi tions Available At Once for MALE AND FEMALE WORKERS White Over 16 as Sales Clerks, Store Man agers and Assistant Managers in Post Exchange Experience desired but not re quired, as short training period will be given. Salary, $1,080 to $2,160 per annum, plus time and half for over 40 hours per week, Comfortable living quarters available. Chance for rapid advancement. Representatives of POST EXCHANGE Will Interview Applicants At U. S. Employment Service Office 86 Patton Avenue, Ashe ville, N. C. On Sept. 30, 1943, and Oct. 1, 1943 Report to your nearest U. S. Employment Service Office for referral to these representatives. Persons Now Engaged In Essential War Work Will Not Be Considered. See Here, Private Hargrove! Poral. LH Al Tc.K IV rrivaie nar- nve relates some of the incidents; surrounding new . rank of some of his friends. Whyj.n the cool dining rooms and I yell he fails to so advance is a puzzle ; back orders for the cooks to yell at to his sergeant, who inquires about the student cooks to yell at the il- ( HAPTER V "Me?" The idea had never oc- curred to me. "I'm just not the ex- ecutive type, I suppose. Back at the News, the boss told me that if I stayed there sixty years, I'd never Ket promoted. I'm just not the f . . t io tvPe that ets Pted. "Let's look at the record, said the sergeant. He pulled his little black notebook from his pocket, "On the drill field Saturday morn- in. vou fulIed forty-eight boners marching commands, "u- ' & ..,.. Everything vou did was backwards, - J "Friday morning you fell out for reveilee without your leggins. sac unlay you had your leggins bu no field hat. Monday morning neither of your shoes was tied and none of ...... L..H i your shu t nuttons were ouaoneu. , fuesday morning it was without leggins again." "I'm nevi r really awake I pro- tested, "until ten o'clock. "You ain't awake then,' he Monduy morning scoffed. "Every without fail I have to wake you up at least a dozen times. I have to look behind all the posts around here to see which one you're sleep ing against. You snore and dis turb your classes, too!" He was exaggerating there, I told him, I don't snore. 'And I'm sleepy only on Monday morning. The rest of the time I'm alert and energetic. "You're too energetic some-j i times!" he roared. "Just this morn ' ing, when the lieutenant was coach ing the platoon in rifle sighting and you were on fatigue duty as usual! That was a pretty one! You ran up and down the battery street twenty-two times in thirty minutes and you saluted the lieutenant every time you passed him! Do you think he ain't got a thing to do but re turn your salutes all morning?" This was evidently a rhetorical question, so I didn't answer it. "You don't salute an officer every time you see him when you're right there at his side practically all day. You salute him the first time you see him and the last time you're going to see him. "And then when the lieutenant explains that to you," he sighed, "then what do you do! The next time you see him, you salute him again and then ask him was you; supposed to salute him that time!" He put his head in his hands and drummid sadly on the toe of his foot locker. He raised his head after a time and looked into the notebook again. I knew what was coming next and I edged toward the door. "And then you low-rated the mess sergeant's recipe for creamed beef on toast and told him his chow was the worst in the Army. And you said you was going to start eating in the next battery. That hurt his feelings so bad that he burned the potatoes for the next three meals!" I promised to apologize to the mess sergeant. The sergeant read out of his notebook for five or six minutes more, enumerating the things I had consistently done wrong. "Now, do you know," he asked wearily, "why you don't get the red stripes when they give them out?" "I suppose I'm just not the execu tive type," I told him. A mess sergeant, according to military legend, is a cook whose brains have been baked out. This does not apply to the mess sergeant in our battery, whose feelings are easily hurt by cruel remarks and who weeps tears into the mashed potatoes when he's picked on. This is simply the old Army definition of a mess sergeant. I All of us rising student cooks SPECDAL COFCFEE a v i c i. are eligiDie to Decome mess ser- geum., aun ohBul n. """idoor as you should have done in us in our first cooking class yester-jthe first Dlacei and try try again. ;( " " kaypees. This is not the beautiful gold bricking life that it seems, though. The mess sergeant has to make requisitions and keep records on all the rations, he has to make out the menus, see that the food is pre pared properly and supervise the work of the cooks, the student cooks, and the kaypees. Besides this, he must listen to all the gripes about his food and to the thread bare jokes about cooks who get drunk from lemon and vanilla ex tract. i All this he must do, with his brains baked out. The cook, lucky little rascal that he is, also leads an ideal life. He - " ta the mess m about cooking man tnt mess --nt will ever know; although ,, i sergeant that he does. He works one day and sleeps the next two. in. i nnr r nn s m ic I nt mnss If the cook is not leeling cheer- ful, he can pick on at least one stu- dent cook and at least five kaypees. On the battli field, he is in the saf - est position oenimi uu- nm-, ";raaeic pitcher in the old Ureek leg- the food is endowed with moreu the more you take out the sentimental value than the top sergeant. The jokes about Army cooks being shot at from both sides are nui based nnon fact. However, friend cook has to greet the morn before the morn gets there. On the days when he works, ho has to get up between 3:00 and .3:30 o'clock in order to prepare a substantial breakfast for about two hundred healthy, growing boys whose appetites are exceeded only by the size of their mouths and the power of their lungs. Yesterday we started to school, with cookbooks and manuals and loose-leaf notebooks for our home work. The only way in which it differed from public schools was that the naughty boys didn't have to go and sit with the girls. Also, the dunce seat, instead of being in the corner of the classroom, was said to be behind a large sack of potatoes in the battery kitchen. 'The only hope for an easy time in class was gone in this school. There's no percentage in bringing a shiny red apple to the teacher who has the key to at least one well-stocked pantry. Tomorrow, after lunch, each of us will be taken to one of the sixty- four Replacement Center kitchens There we will presmt ourselves to the mess sergeant, who will sigh wearily at the sight of us and show us where to change our uniforms. Then we will proceed to prove, in our respective kitchens, the old saw about too many cooks. We will be railed at by the mess sergeant and the first cook and, if we want to and know how to, we can rail at the kapyees in turn. When the boys in line make sneer ing remarks about having spinach again already, we can jaw back at them. It will be wonderful to be able to jaw at someone again. Life has loveliness to sell. In the kitchen, they tell us, all the cleaning-up work is to be done by the kaypees, so that the cook may be doing more important things. This, unfortunately, doesn't apply to the daily task of cleaning the stoves thoroughly. The stoves, it says hi re in the books, are the cook's tools and he must do his own grinding. It isn't worth the time to wait for the stoves to get comfortably cool before you begin the twilight beutification of these overgrown infernos. In order to avoid the rush at the theatre, and to let the kaypees off early, start work now. The stoves must be cleaned in side and out thoroughly. First, shake down the fire. All the live coals must go into the ashpan un der the grate. That much is sim ple. Then remove the ashpan, red coals and all. It must be dumped into the ash can out on the gar bage rack. .This entire procedure should be simple, too, it says here. All you have to do is catch the front handle with a heavy glove and catch the little hook in the rear with the far end of your cap lifter. Here we go! Carry the ashpan well in front of you. Ain't it hot! When you get to the door, simply open it with the toe of your shoe. Like this. Like Doesn t seem to work. Try again. Try pushing the right screen so that the left one will swing slightly toward you. Ready? Slightly push the right screen. Something seems to be wrong here. . During this time, you will be come increasingly aware that tlia glove over the ashpan handle is be coming hotter and hotter. Just as you get your toe into the door, the heat penetrates the glove and you decide very suddenly that per haps it's best to I drop the whole matter. Drop it slowly, carefully, tenderly if you can. Do not drop it upon the wooden floor. Look around, if you think you have time, and locate an overturned boiler on which to set it. Whew, that hand's hot! No boiler? Then drop it any way! You will nnd that dropping the ashpan, even though you did it gen tly, has released a small amount of floating ash, all of which v. ill be absorbed into your mouth and nose. Patience, brother. See that the ash pan isn't lying where it will burn anything, such as a perfectly good wooden floor. Pour cold water on the glove, wait for the resulting st to b, ow away, prop open the This time you will almost reach the garbage rack before the glove again gets hot. Slide, Kdley, slide! You won't get there without drop ping the whole pan into the clean road, but at least you tried. Beat the pan against the ash can several times for sound effect. Re turn to the kitchen, where the mess sergeant, who Vas watching you through the window all the time, will direct you to return and clean it up. When the job is completed, take hope and courage. You have only two more ashpans to empty. Then you may get to work clean ing out all the soot which has gath ered above and below the ovens. In this procedure, a small, solid-surface rake is inserted through a tiny door in front. Using the door as a base of operations, wiggle that pesky little thing around inside the long, wide, low space, pulling out load after load of soot. The work i will teach you muscular co-oruina- I manual (lext(,,.it ,he art of , C(mto,.u humility aml seVeral . . i. (izen m,w cuss words you didn't j (,v,,n now you knew. Rake. rake. rake. Time marches ()n still more raking. Like the i more there is inside. The soot from all three oven jackets will fill one large ashpan, at a double-table-spoonful the rake. By the time you have finished and look about you, the kaypees have finished their work and are sitting around gaping at you as if you were a steam shovel. A very, very black steam shovel. Isn't gas a wonderful fuel? REDDY KILOWATT emijp 1JL IIP J YOUR POWER-FUL SERVANT In Norfolk CLMJE BUKCHM LI), Sea man, Third Class, son of Mr. and Mrs. L. Buichfield, of Waynesville, route 1, is now stationed in Nor folk, Va. He volunteered in the service for naval duty on June 25 of tW ; year and was inducted at Camp Croft. Seaman Buichfield received his boot training at Bainbridge, Mil., and from there was sent to Nor folk, lie expects to be sent from Norfolk to Boston, Mass., where he will be assigned to his ship. Prior to entering the service he was employed at the North Caro lina Shipyards at Wilmington. Private Sher and I wer sitting out on the back steps to dodge the cleaning work going on inside when we saw the sergeant bearing down on us from the other end of the bat tery street. "It's no use scooting inside, Har grove," said Shir. "He's already seen us. Look tired, as if you'd aliaily done your part of the work." Private Sher is the gold bricking champion of Battery A and always knows what to do in such an emergency. We both draped expressions of fatigue over our faces and the serg:ant skidded to a halt before us. He reached into nis nip pocK- et for the little black book and aimed a' finger at both of us. ptmYOf mcmmi -- n fr! ISTl n IHillln BB1 a 1 I V NCLE SAM ASKS EVERYBODY TO CONSERVE! 4 Fuel t Man-power Vital Materials Transportation All these things are needed to make electricity! Electricity itself cannot be saved or stored away. But any reduction you can safely make in your use of it, will reduce the amount of fuel burned to make it. That will mean fewer freight cars to haul it and fewer man hours to handle it. More cars and more meh will be available for the war effort. Each little bit that you save, multiplied by thousands of other Americans, will be an important contribution to the Voluntary Conservation Program. Help Win the War by Saving More! If you have any questions, telephone or write us. 'There is no shortage of electric power. . . and there will be none . . . for war and essential civilian requirements." J. A. KRUG, Director Office of War Utilities Carolina POWER In cooperation with the War Production "Bums!" he shouted. "Bums! I worked my fingers to the bone yes terday morning getting this pla toon to pretty up the barracks for ! inspection. Comes inspection and it ..;.Tnfio kiva livfr atinoa 1 ir in c LWU piivtu-to j nvc iiu lueil 01 tactics T sprawifa n "va xivi. uuci j ij liic wniuow anu w their bunks! Private Hargrove and,rades drill. There MISTER Private Sher! Report to .stirring in the sight -f Corporal Farmer in latigue cloth- men p' ' ' es." I ing order." We reported to Corporal Farmer,' While we who looked at his list of jobs. "As ni, stirred. much as you don't deserve it," he turbed us. He '.van-, said, "you two goldbricks are in with him to haul ru-.i line for canteen police." Mr. Private Sher and I walked up the battery street toward the can teen. "Is this canteen police business good or bad?" I asked. "Oh, so-so," he said. You have to clean up the papers and ciga rette butts around the post exchan. ; ge first thing in the morning. Then lyou come around and check up three or four times during tne day." I stopped, aghast. "What do you do between times?" "Just be inconspicious," said Sher. That's all there is to it. Please pick up that candy wrap per over there. My back aches." We cleaned up the grounds ar ound the post exchange and sat for a while in the shade, watching a battery going through calisthen ics. With beautiful precision, the soldiers swung their rifles up, down, to the right, to the left. They went through the quarter, half, and full knee bends and the shoulder exer cises and the rest of the routine. "Those boys seem to be Improv ing, Mr. Sher," I said. "Result of hard work," said Maury. "Personally, I get awfully tired watching this. We'll wear our selves out. Let's go over to my j kitchen and handshake for a bottle of milk." ' "No,'' I protested. "We must go to my kitchen. "To avoid a tiring argument," suggested Private Sher, "we will go to both our kitchens. We can't be thrown out of both of them." After successful forays on both kitchens, Priva'e Sher began to yawn with boredom. "My dear Har grove," he said, "we must stimu late our minds. Let us adjourn to my place for a game of checkers." i Private Sher's "place" was only 'one flight of stairs removed from & LIGHT Company Board's Voluntary Conservation Program. my squadroom, so w 'irnl -"r iwo games of Private Sher u: Lue' is folderol," he said 'vJ heritor Tr J tl t fojci, nar. f nave iiu iuea oi t Xfcut: jt hi "Much as we would you naui coal, my gu ,,i n "i-a a ,, ..v .c nra ;,.-.;Ve J e,"f, in me wun hi po.f r the post exchange. Fn 1 fr.eV upon us at any other t.nu " The corporal placed his r nis nips ana stared at us. "Y Deing punisneu," he- asktd canteen duty?" TI - i nicies no need t,i tie VijL said Sher. "If you will excj it- ia tiv t ,,c ior cigarette Dutts around the exenange. Doming Mr. Hanm worming, ivir. Sher. nd day to you, corporal!" (To be continued) One of the strangest facts f man is mat he knows practi noining aDout his pa: Modern U- with i irreKular hahilH, in drinking its risk ,,f tion throws hni y of the kidneys. 1'tu over-taxed and t and other impum u s bood. You may snlT. r r, headache, dizz.in, ss. ( leg pains, awrlliii tired, nervous, all w of kidney or hlatiti, r ,1 times burning. amy ur t.jo (n urination. Try Doan's Pdls. ),,,,n' bl kidneys to pass ell h.irrniul i ineys to pass oil harmful i irtaia iste. They have had m.Te tiiacfc ntury of public approval. Are rti mded by grateful uatru every tjc your neighbor! waste. I hey have h;i cent mend Atk 7 lr'i;Jrr'V '''' i. vr ..n4 - " up m "riier arc J