The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1941-01-30

I walked down the street.-the same street
continually course past George Fish, Ed Fett-
gathers, Frank Bonaimes and I turned the corner
to strike Main Street. And curious thoughts be-
gan rafting around, and looked about at that
street I thought of other Main Streets in London
Coventry in Antwerp, Amsterdam in Hamburg
Main Streets of Europe. sensed In my own
street stability; the street looked at was fairly
static knew well as we as we can know
any Of these things, that the next day COULD walk
down there and the Vandesteegs the Mulens, the
Frank OGaras the Rev. Thorley Johnsons, the
Frank Gettys houses would be there STILL I knew
that those sleeping drifts would not suddenly
awake in a surging puff of white, followed by the
groanng EARTH to settle again in a change of the
scape. knew that boulevard, with it's line of
light posts, would not be SCARED by morning.
sssS
tried to conjure up the opposing vision. The
vision against which I was comparing. My own
personal life in a slim balances my daily pursuits
disorganzed. The wrenching sight of half-families
with few belongings seeking some other shelter
Gaping, grinning half houses. Stark, staring
holes in the street. Fearful, quakng creatures
who men that once walked upright. But 1t
didn't easily. 1t too strangely out of gear
knew that the swish of those tires the pave
ment was usual sound didn't throw myself
PROSTATE on the ground knew as ate dinner
that noon the vegetables weren't rationed save by
my capacity. The chunks Of butter lavished
white bread would not turn to mere sivers OF
yelowed fat more precious than gold by the morrow
knew the siren that screamed at midday
denoted the end of the first lap of the workaday
world. Or that If it whined at other hours it was
fre-but by accident This street would not De
wounded and SCARED. The First State Bank, the
Waldorf, the National Tea, the Main Street Theatre
would not appear in grotesque shapes in the morn
ing-with their fronts cloven like some gigantic
scissors had ripped off sample. And the people
I met today would be back tomorrow. Bill Otto,
Harold Gray, Ben Dubois, Clyde Biedleman, s. p
Hansen, Allan Meigs-all the others-as well as we
can know these things would be in familiar spots
The screams I hear those of excited fans
at sports contests. Not the air-splittng cries of
AS returned that night from work and dark
ness had crept in quiet tptoe knew again that
I wouldn't have to stumble half-blindedly about
debris, bomb craters. knew that the lights OF
the town had swung on sent their glow against the
sky, enfeebling the stab of darkness, pocking the
black with hasty flashes. The only lights saw
in the sky were the winking stars and the cold,
fixed gaze of the visible planets. The lights
Of planes might that went streaking in quiet
rhythm the sky the ploughshares Of this
world-not its swords. Their roaring hum that rose
and fell like the great heartbeat of giant didn't
send me skittish to the underground shelters
When had done with my workday, had no need
to spend the night in searching out time bombs,
quelling ruinous, ill-planned fires. No, could
sleep when the evening was done could sleep in
the second story of fragile (paperlike against
modern bombs) house. Man doesn't melt fear
fully and protectively into the dark here Some
how it seemed evident that the seventy-five years
that have gone into this community to build and
wrest from a fertile prairie and woodland a town
with culture, economy and home life would quite en-
dure =. Those past seventy-five would last; an
other seventy-five would probably be piled proudly
on. knew as well as we can know those things
thought how thankful. thought but how
beatedy discover and only in the press Of others
woe, the thanks for the veal we have SO long en-
joyed.