Evening star., 1943-09-29

hfs meIemore- working knowl-
edge of sewing before we got in the
Army.
The meeting was held on my front
porch, and the blood flowed freely as
we jabbed ourselves for the better
part of an afternoon. Each of us
was equipped with a sewing kit and
practiced nearly all of the various
types of repair work that we will
have to handle later on.
1t was amazing the progress we
made during that first meeting. We
didn't have any coaching. Woman
folks were barred. We worked every-
thing out for ourselves. In the be-
ginning there wasn't a man in tha
circle who could sew on button
satisfactorily in less than 35 min
utes. At the finish even the slowest
one of us could thread a needle and
sew on button in half an hour.
Holes Are Elusive.
Unless you have sewn a great deal,
you can't possibly appreciate how
difficult it Is to sew on button.
The holes in button are very
elusive, and it's just sheer luck If,
when you start jabbing the needle
up from under the cloth, you hit a
hole in the first so pokes. And when
you do finally hit the hole you auto
matically jab your thumb because
by this time you have put your
thumb over the holes in the button
in an effort to try to locate them.
Then, when you attempt to put the
needle back through the other hole
to anchor the button, the button
slips and slides and gets out of place,
and you find yourself sewing it on
good half inch from where you
wanted it to be.
The beginner at button -sewing-on
invariably sews the button on too
tight, so tight that it is impossible to
get the buttonhole around it. Then
he goes to the other extreme and
sews 1t on so loosely that it bangles
away from the cloth q good half
inch.
The moment We mastered, button
sewing we moved into the more
difficult task of repairing tears. A
tear is a very tricky thing. When
you tear a piece of cloth 1t would
seem that the two sides of the tear
would fit back together again. But
they don't. There is always little
of the material missing. Every
member of the circle put his mind to
this knotty problem, but we were
never able to mend tear without
leaving a big hump where we Joined
| the torn pieces together.
Invited by the President.
As We rocked and sewed we got to
reminiscing about our bus trip over
to Camp Blanding for induction.
We were riding along through the
Florida scrub country when a man
on the back seat went up to the
driver, spoke to him, and then the
driver pulled to the side of the road
and stopped. We didn't know it, but
the draftees hat had blown out of
the window. AS the man stepped
out Of the bus some boy with a
Southern drawl as thick as a Deep
dish peach pie spoke up:
MY, N.Y." he said, "the man has
changed him mind. He done decided
he don't want to go in the Army.
He's leaving us right here, boys. His
Uncle Sammy is gonna be right
provoked with him."
When we pulled up to the gates Of
Blanding and a sentry halted US,
this same boy stuck his head out OF
the window and spoke up again:
Man, what you doing? You
amt trying to stop the fresh meat
from coming in here. are you? got
letter from the President inviting
me over here. It's a friendly letter.
Starts off Greetings and here you
are trying to keep me out"
Distributed by McNaught Syndicate, Inol