Imperial Valley press., 1944-08-29
GET WILD GREETING

AS our jeep eased through the
crowds, thousands of people crowd
ed up, leaving only a narrow cor
ridor, and frantic men, women and
children grabbed US and kissed us
and shook our hands and beat on
our shoulders and slapped our backs
and shouted their joy as We passed
I was in a ieep with Henry Cor
rell of the United Press, Captain
Carl Pergler of Washington. D. c..
and Corporal Alexander Belon of
Amherst, Massachusetts,. We all got
kissed until We were literally red
in the face, and I must say we en-
joyed it.
Once when the jeep was simply
sWamped in human traffic and had
to stop, We were swarmed over and
Rugged and kissed and torn at. Ey-
erybody. even beautiful girls. insist
ed on kissing you on both cheeks.
Somehow I got started kissing ba-
bies that were held up by their par
ents, and for a while il looked like
a baby-kis sing politician going down
the street. The fact that I hadn't
shaved for days, and was gray
bearded as we'll as bald-headed,
made no difference Once when We
came to a stop some Frenchman
told US there were still snipers
shooting, SO We put our steel helmets
back on.
PEOPLE LOOK WELL
The people certainly looked we'll
fed and well dressed. The streets
were lined with green trees and
modern buildings. All the stores
were closed in holiday Bicycles
were so thick I have an idea there
have been plenty of accidents with
tanks and jeeps overrunning the
populace.
We entered Paris via Rue AriStide
BRAND and Rue D'Orleans. We were
slightly apprehensive. but decided
it was all right to keep going as
long as there were crowds. But fl
nally We were stymied by the peo-
ple in the streets, and then above
the din we heard some not-too-diS-
tant eXplosions-th Germans try
ing to destroy bridges across the
Seine. And then the rattling of
machine guns up the street, and
that old battlefield whine of high
velocity shells just overhead. Some
of us veterans ducked. but the
Parisians just laughed and con-
tinued to carry on.
There came running over to our
jeep a tall, thin. happy woman in
light brown dress, who spoke per-
feet American.
She was Mrs. Helen Carbon, who
lived in Paris q years and has not
been home TO America since 1885.
Her husband is an officer in the
French army headquarters and
home now after two and half
years as a German prisoner. He was
with her. in civilian clothes.
SISTER IN NEW YORK
Mrs. Carbon has a sister. Mrs.
George SWikart. of 20l West Seven
ty-second street, New York, and l
can say here to her relatives in
America that she is well and happy.
incidentally, her two children, Ed
gar and Peter. are the only two
American children, she says, who
have been in Paris throughout the
entire war.
We entered Paris frcm due south
and the Germans were still battling
in the heart of the city along the
Seine when We arrived. but they
were doomed. There was full
French armored division in the city,
plus American troops entering con-
stantly.
The farthest we got in our first
hour in Paris was near the Senate
building, where some Germans were
hcled up and firing desperately. So
we took a hctel room nearby and
decided to write while the others
fought BY the time you read this
I'm sure Paris once again will be
free for Frenchmen. and I'll be out
all over town getting my bald head
kissed. OF all the days of national
Joy I've ever witnessed, this is the.
biggest