Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-03-19
w nth the exciting influx
w of dozens of young SOL

ILL tIle eHClIlllS ullluh
M of dozens of young SOL
W diers into so many of
our quiet small towns, many
girls are having romantic ex-
periences far beyond any
thing they ever hoped or
dreamed would happen, and
strange complications are
arising in consequence. Sud-
den marriages cram the So
cial columns of the newspa-
pers. Only this morning a
marriage is announced be-
tween a charming California
girl and young lieutenant
whom she had known exactly %
days. In another % days he will
be off for ports unknown, and the
girl-wife-widow will have months of
loneliness to face. If she mopes and
grieves at home she loses a great
deal of natural young pleasure and
amusement. and if she goes out with
other men she will quickly forget
even what David looks like. Either
way, such marriage is mistake,
and foredoomed to trouble of one
sort or another.
Another angle on this hasty-
service-marriage situation is pre-
sented to me in letter from Alicia
K, who lives in Tucson. Alicia had
a soldier-beau last June, and al
though she is barely 20, and the
man only few years older, and al
though they had known each other
only few weeks, they were eager
to be married before he sailed
away.
Alicia's stepmother prevented
them, and Alicia says she will never
forgive her. The stepmother pre-
vailed upon Alicia's father and
grandfather to forbid the match, and
the young man, resenting their att
tude, went off without saying good
by.
Tragedy of Sweethearts.
Last week he was reported miss
ing in action in the Solomons, and
Alicia feels worse than ever. Oh,
why couldn't they have had at least
a few weeks as man and wife, she
walls. By this time a baby might
have been on the way-Steve's child,
to comfort her, and take his fathers
place
Yes, that's true, Alicia. To be a
young widow, expecting a hero's
posthumous child, is role very ap-
pealing to your 20 years, and you
quite naturally feel cheated out of it.
But, if you had married your
Steve, you might find yourself with
another sort of role to play-one not
half as romantic and easy. For
Steve might have come home early
in the peace, to turn out to be quite
different from the man you remem-
Der. Indeed, you might hardly know
Steve by sight, much less be willing
to spend your whole life with him.
Or you might have met the man you
liked far more than you ever liked
Steve; you might, while Steve was
away, have discovered your true
mate, and have had in honesty to
meet Steve with the bitter news that
you and little Steve weren't ever
going back to him.
That happened in the last war,
many times. Girls who after few
dances, a few thrilling visits to the
big camp, had jumped into hasty
marriages, found the tie extremely
burdensome when the men came
home.
Another variation of this problem
comes to me in a letter from a girl
in Miami. Vera didn't marry her
young man, but their engagement
was announced and they planned a
wedding for March of this year,
when he expects to get back with his
bomber and will have a few weeks
leave. Joey writes his Vera faith
fully, and tells her that the thought
of her is like guardian angel al