The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-10

from
Indiana
ERNIE PYLE

ORLANDO, Fla, March i0.-My
" friend is overseer of an orange
grove at the edge of town here.
The oranges don't take much Of
his time, so he sits in a boat out on
the lake all day long, fishing.
My friend and I were buddies
from the time we were years old.
We lived about a mile apart. on
farms back home in Indiana. There
was a time when We thought the
world would end if we didn't see
each other every day.
We went through the giggly
stage. 1t got so we couldn't SIT
down at the table, either at his
house or mine. without choking
from the giggles. Our mothers would
want to know what we were gig
Cling about, and of course we
weren't giggling about anything,
and our mothers would get pre-
Voked and make us leave the table.
went to see my old friend yes
terday. have seen him only three
times now in II years. We talked
for about an hour.
WTHEN we were little, my friend
w had a black and white Shet-
land pony. I had a small sorrel
Indian horse.
For quite while we were knights
in Sir Arthur''s round table. We
took the lids off our mothers wash
boilers for shields, and made dag
gers out of pieces of lath, and took
long rug poles for spears.
We graduated from that to be-
come great trappers of the north
woods.
My friend and I finally got to
the girl stage. Neither of us was
very crazy about the girls, and L
think we started just because it
was expected of us.
He had more nerve than I. so he
made dates with a couple of girls
for one Sunday night. I worried
about it all week, and would have
backed out but my mother made
me go.
1t took me all Sunday afternoon
to get dressed. 1 had on a Charlie
Dawes hard collar and new brown
suit. About dark went over to his
house. 1t started pouring rain.
WE went out to the barn and
w hitched up his little Shetland
pony to huge old phaeton. The
pony only came to the level of the
shafts, and when hitched up was
at least five feet from the DASH
board. 1t looked comlcal even
to us.
We drove five miles to the girls
house. They were as scared as
we were. We took them to church,
all four of us riding in the phaeton,
and got stuck in the mud, and had
to get out and lift.
When we got back to the girls
house, we played Authors" for a
while. After that the whole thing
sort of begged down, and we
couldn't think of anything to say,
and we wanted to go home, but
didn't know how to get started.
Finally, along about midnight, we
heard motherly voice from the
| other room. One Of the girls went
in, was gone for a minute, we could
hear whispers, and then she came
out, shyly holding up an alarm
| clock. She didn't say a word, lust
sort of giggled. We said something
about not knowing it was SO late,
and rushed out.
MY friend was almost a year
Iva older than I, so he left for the
Army in 1918. He sent me postcards
from Texas. At commencement
exercises that spring, there was an
empty f1ag-draped chair on the
stage for him. I could hardly bear
to go to commencement, u was so
ashamed that wasn't in the Army
too. Boz.
My friend spent a year in an
Army hospital in New Mexico.
Later went away too, and when we
both came back, we went one day to
visit our high school. Our former
Latin teacher was a little thing who
liked both of us, and while my
friend and were visiting her class.
we got our old-time giggles and
couldn't stop. She got the giggles
too, and finally had to dismiss class,
and the three of us sat and talked.
That episode was the end of our
youth together. We went separate
paths, and the water began to flow
swiftly under the bridge.
r. II ~
CEVENTEEN years later, I pulled
- up in front of his cottage un-
der the orange trees. He was glad
to see me, and was glad to see him.
We don't know each other so we'll
any more, but we are still friends,
and I expect we always will be. As
1 drove away, 1 was wondering why
there isn't anything any more for
us to giggle about.
~