Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-07-02
| lust Between
Ourselves
By Philib II. Lovs .

~e.~@S~@~~
that you can spend the Fourth Of
July-and the days immediately be-
fore and after-in comparative
peace and quiet. "shootin' crack
ers," a. the boys call them, are
banned, even in peacetime.
And If you don't think that .
good thing, you've never lived-as I
haye-in . community where the
Fourth Is just q big explosion that
begins about the middle Of June
and continues until two or three
days after the holiday. BY which
time. Of course, the supply Of fire.
crackers Is exhausted. and all low
ers Of peace and quiet are In about
the same condition.
Because Of the war, the coming
Fourth ought to be about Is quiet
Is any other Tuesday. But I can
tell from what has been going on in
my neighborhood these last few
days that 1t won't be. It's going to
be an "ah-ah-ah" day, I'm sure.
The machine gunners viii zee to
that.
The machine gunners are boys-
and girls, too, sometimes-who run.
around all day. shouting, "Ah-ah-
ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!" And In nv
neighborhood, they've been at It
from sunup to shutdown.
They're fighting some sort of war.
I understand, and there are. other
imaginary weapons besides machine
guns. There are, for instance, rifles
that cause their owners to veil,
"Bang-bang," and also artillery
pieces that require a Boom" And,
of course, there are airplanes that
call for noises approximating the
whir-r-r Of a motor.
But bangs and booms are old stun.
and aerial roars aren't much newer.
Most people have long since leerned
to take even the loudest of these
sounds without SO much as raising
an eyebrow. The same cannot be
said, however, of the ah-ah.ahs.
They are not only a relatively new
noise, but they have \ certain omin-
GUS quality that makes them a. hard
to get used to as the buzz of an
angry bee.
AT least I've never been able to
get used to them, and I've been
listening to them more or less reeu-
larry for the last two years. I
still take out running for the near
est shelter at the slightest hint Of
an ah-Ah-ah.
In my neighborhood these last
few days, life has been Just one
ah-ah-ah after another, with, of
course, the usual quota OF bangs,
booms and whir-r-rs thrown In. So
1t isn't hard to imagine what the
Fourth Is going to be like.
I'm going to be trying to sleep. It
being . holiday. And before the
sun is even . promising glow there's
going to be q terrific machine gun
battle right under my window. It
won't bother me at frst-because
nothing ever does when I'm Asleep
but the ah-ah-ahs will increase In
fury and volume and, eventually.
they'll get me. Even though / know
now exactly how it's going to be,
III be taken by surprise; I'll be
under the bed before I realize that
I'm only being ah-ah- ahed.
OF course, the battle will continue
all day and through part of the
night, up and down the street,
through the yard, behind the shrub.
berry, around the garage, into the
alley. There viii be only the slight
est pauses for lunch and dinner,
But I'm not complaining. I'll taks
any number Of ah-ah-ahs In pref.
erence to a siege of frecrackers.
And I'm determined not to make the
mistake ! made last year.
Then I pulled myself together
crawled out from under the bed,
crept to the open window, leveled
my machine gun and gave the boys
terrible burst Of ah-ah-ahs. And
for six weeks thereafter, every time
one o. them caught a glimpse of me
anywhere. he jerked his gun into
position and let me have 1t.