Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-03-23
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

The first animal friend we ever had
was q pet raccoon when We were per-
haps or years old.
Legend whispers of q striped tiger
cat. but Of him we remember nothing.
The coon, however, We can almost
see
Just how precise memory Is nobody
can say. in any individual case.
One has seen raccoons at the Ma
tional Geological Park and one has a
memory OF a pet coon of childhood
days
When one thinks he recalls the very
sight Of the animal maybe he is think
ing rather OF some fat coon he saw
asleep in a tree at the Zoo.
Our pet Of yesteryear very was kept
in a special cage, from which he in
cessantly clamored for release
One OF his specialtieS was climbing
up and down the front door screen.
1t seems that we can see him still.
clambering with vim to the top of the
door and hanging there in an effort to
get in.
This dates him as being present in
one of our Summers, for in those days
screens were not put in once and for
ever, but were solemnly taken down
when the hot weather was over.
This was necessary for two reasons,
one as good as the other. The first
was that there was no copper bronze
screening then. 1t was all painted wire,
which even then showed tendencies
toward rusting.
The second reason was the neighbors
would have thought any family crazy
which dared to fly in the face of con-
vention to tie extent Of keeping the
household screens up II months around
Not every one had screens in those
DAYS either. but no one who had them
would have been willing to irk popular
comment to the extent of failing to take
'em down when the cool days came.
How much the world was in thrall to
what people said" in those days!
Especially in the small towns OF Am
erica. which were noted for their friend
illness and their close scrutiny OF the
lives of each other.
Everybody knew an lbou, every one
else-who his father and mother were,
who their fathers and mothers were, all
the family secrets for generations, their
good points and their bad points. and
also their fair to middling" points.
What people thought meant more, in
those days, because people knew. 1t
meant more, too, because there was less
to entertain the porulace, by and large.
There were no automobiles, no radios,
no theaters. no golf courses, no base
ball or foot ball contests, and especially
no moving pictures.
Why. we can remember the first
movie" only it wasn't called that then,
which came to our home town.
There isn't any doubt about this being
real memory.
The affair was shown at the school
house and everybody in town went.
Young and old. they were all there.
The picture showed big city fire de-
partment galloping down the street.
Plenty of motion there!
Thus 1t is seen that the motion
picture, at its very inception, had the
right idea-motion and plenty of it.
This business of taking what amounts
to nothing more nor less than still
picturez" with a motion picture camera
has struck many people as rather queer,
in that 1t voluntarily foregoes the main
excuse for being of the fllm-that 1t
moves, or at least seems to move.
~
That first pet, old Tom Raccoon.
would have made a splendid subject for
film.
His climbing Of the screen door, no