Evening star., 1940-02-08
War Zone Motorists
Forget Cold Feet
On Straight Roads
Menace Of AirpIones
Makes Drivers Speed
To Reuch Curves
BY WILLIAM L. WHITE.

HELSINKI.-A few notes on mo-
toring in the war zones: First, the
car is probably a good one. Fin
land, being a small country, does
not try to subsidize domestic auto
industry by a high tariff. So the
country is full of American cars
(Which are the best and cheapest
in the world as all Europe would
be were 1t not for tariff walls.
The car was confiscated, or COM
wandered, or what you like, from a
middle-class Finnish family for use
of the army during the first week
of the war. 1t has since been cam
ouflaged cleaning white and is
hard to see on the road, although
they say that when the sun is out
its Shadow is clear on the snow
from a plane, so this is why you
must stop the car when planes come
over, get out and hide under trees,
while the driver goes on down ahead
looking for a side road where he
can get the car under trees, and all
this normally happens about three
times a day. And when the planes
float of and get lost in the horizon
haze, then you get back in the car.
The next item to remember is that
there Is nothing funny about cold
feet, and the most earnest topic OF
serious discussion among correspond
ents in the war zone is not tactical
strategy but how best to keep your
feet warm.
Beware That "Warm" Feeling.
Because, in spite of a thick pair
of ski boots, two pairs of thick white
regulation Swedish Army wool
socks. two suits of wool underwear
and a pair Of blue wool ski pants,
when you are riding in car in
this weather your feet lose their
body warmth and feel first chilly
and then cold, and then they ache
and you wriggle around and try to
open and close your toes to warm
them, but you never can, and then
they ache, but you are still all right.
However, when quite suddenly
they quit aching, and feel almost
warm and light and soft like cheese,
then you are not all right, because
they are starting to freeze and you
must, right away, Immediately, get
out of the car and run for quarter
of mile through the snow to warm
them up, and this happens about
every two hours.
Then there is the road itself. In
times of peace you get irritated by
road which winds and turns and
bends and wanders this way and
that, like a grazing horse, when you
are in a hurry to get somewhere.
But, although you are always IN a
hurry in war zones, you never like
to leave q cute little winding road,
for if a plane spots you 1t cannot
hope to follow all those turns,
travelling 200 miles an hour.
But when you hit a straight
stretch the driver speeds up as fast
as possible and the back end skids
around over the ice and back the
other way like pendulum, but no
one says anything, because it is on
these straight stretches that they
get you-fying low, so you cannot
see or hear them till they are on
you, and you hear the machine gun
rafting from behind about the
same time you hear the motor.
Talking Resumes on Curves.
And there you are trapped, with
bitches on either side and no cover
and, if you do get out of the car
no place to go. So when the ca,
is over the straight stretch. wher
the driver can slow down, anc
every one lights cigarettes and be.
gins talking again, and you car
again begin to worry about your feet
and to marvel that, in spite of all
you have on and two thick WOO
lap robes wrapped about them, the
bottom of the car is still so cole
that the snow on the rug neve,
melts.
But give me this instead of thai
cold feeling you get in the back Of
your neck on a straight stretch o.
road, when there is not such a bae
chance that the Russkis will star
pumping slugs at you through the
rear window oval.
1t has changed my point of view
entirely about straightaways. anc
I will never feel again as I did ever
about the long stretch SIS on U
S. 40, crossing Indiana. I know
the old neck will start tingline
just for auld lang syne.