Evening star., 1940-06-30
lag Drawn Student Artists Adopted Anacoa High School Emblem
| Just
Between
Yourselves
BY PHILIP H. LOVE.
Junior Star Editor.


There seems to be no limit to the
variety of pets adopted by readers
of The Junior Star
Letters to the editor, as well as
stories by young correspondents,
have told of many different kinds
of pets-cats, chameleons, chickens,
dogs, mice, rabbits, squirrels. I
thought we had presented just about
the last word in unusual pets when
we published the story of North
east Washington boy who had
tarantula.
Now, however, comes a report of
two Odenton (Md) girls who are
the proud owners of five goslings.
A gosling, in case you don't know, is
a young goose. And a goose, young
or old, is about as difficult to make
a pet of as any creature you can
name.
Why geese are SO disagreeable,
don't pretend to know. I know only
that, as a boy, I never came face
to face with a flock of geese that
they didn't chase me. Once won
a 100-yard dash as a member of my
high school track team, and I have
always attributed that success to the
fact that I spent my summers on
the farm Of an aunt who raised
geese for the market. And from the
time school closed in June to the
time 1t reopened in September those
geese gave me about as much rest
as an ambitious horsefiy gives a
horse on hot day in mid-July. It
seemed that, no matter where I
went on the farm, no matter how
careful I was to cover my trail,
those geese would track me down.
Then I would have to run for it
with the geese dashing along behind
me, stretching their necks to un-
believable lengths and kissing like
so many snakes. But this daily
running hardened my legs and
strengthened my wind, so that WIN
ming race in high school track
meet was as easy as walking across
Pennsylvania avenue-easier, in fact,
because there were neither traffic
lights to watch nor automobiles to
dodge.
All of which should make it clear
why am so strongly impressed by
this brief note from Frances and
Betty Olson, aged 13 and 9, respec-
lively:
"We have five tame goslings. They
follow us on the porch and they
follow us all over. When we want
to lock them up, they sauce us. When
we are going to feed them, they
stand in front Of us"
Could it be that I have been wrong
all these years about geese? Is it
possible that my aunt's geese, in
stead of chasing me, as I thought,
were merely following me around in a
friendly way? Were their Kisses
nothing more meaningful than what
Frances and Betty describe as
sauce? And was all their run
ming after me simply an effort to
stand in front of me, in the hope
that I would feed them?
It's worth thinking about, anyway.
And the next time 1 come face to
face with a goose-or even a flock
of them-I am going to stand my
ground, even if it takes every ounce
of courage that I can muster.
y
Junior jottings:
Speaking of pets, Pauline White,
IA, Norbeck, Md, writes that it
made her very sad" when her cat,
Bobby, was killed by an automobile.
He was a great friend of mine" !"
she says. 1--WE played hide-and-go-
seek and tag. I even gave him a
bottle to drink his milk from before
going to bed" -. Writing poems
in a scrapbook is the hobby of Mary
Jane Main, IA, Frederick, Md. THE
scrapbook is so large that I am sure
I cannot lose or misplace it, says
she, adding: Some day I hope to
write beautiful, soul-stirring poetry
like that of Edgar Allan Poe. I
know it takes time and patience to
become world-renowned poet like
Poe, but, as they say, Where there's
a will, there's way" Writing
humorously, Robert Pearson, Is,
Newington, Va, reports that he has
invented a painless tooth-puller." :"
It's tough, gummy candy" he ex-
plains, and he used it to dispose
of three loose teeth. . Helen Nor
gan, IS, who finished at Paul
Junior High School this year and
plans to enter Roosevelt High
School in the fall, collects scrap
books containing photographs of
movie stars. I've seen AZ movies
so far this year, and hope to see 100
before the year is out" she says.