The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-11-09

where l would spend rainy
afternoons going through these
little volumes thst J hn5 been
through already a hundred
times. And I could even re-
member TO some degree what
the great wide world seemed
like to the mind of a child
of five or six.
There was one of a series of
books about a family of travel
ing bears. called The Three
Bears in Ireland" which was
more appealing than all the
rest. because il was more mYs-
ferrous. I had il figured out
that Ireland was some sort of
country up around Meridian.
Miss. because the only place
I had ever travelled TO was
Meridian. II seemed strange
and wonderful that a mother
and fafh,sr bear and their child
could dress up in top-hat.
welking stick and bonnet and
the like and 90 riding on rail-
road trains-but there il was.
right in the book. There was
the picture. and what pictures
said we're true. / used TO think
how strange il would be--but
in a good and exciting way
TO be sitting around in a group
of the grown folks. listening
10 their talk and laughter. and
TO have some one of the family
come in. with the gentleman
bear and Introduce him as a
friend he had met on the train.
II would be a little frightening
to meet him and shake his
kland. but il would be very
interesting to see a bear sit
down and talk with the grown
folks.
Well, that kind of imagination
and that world of fancy are al
far away and long ago now. The
mind of maturity, dealing with
so many cold and contentious
realities of our time, and with
so many delusions that get BY
as realities, can only dimly re.
member that world of childhood
and the days of soaring magma.
ton, when so many things were
being seen and heard and learn
ed for the first time. And YET
so much or what we are today
so much of what we believe
of what we love, and of what
we fear, has its roots in those
early days of childhood. Atti-
tudes are formed then which in.
fluence the entire life of the in
dividual. And that is why, I'M
doubleday, it is the most i'm.
portant period in the life of man
and why the education and in.
fluence of young children is the
most important influence in de-
termining not only the life o
the individual, but the condition
of the society in which he will
later live and help to make, the
condition of his nation, and the
course of history.
We want 10 set down here
a touching little story of the
war. A friend tells If of her
little niece, age about three.
who has not yet seen her sol
der father. To her he is only
a photograph IN uniform. with
soldier blouse. an open smile.
regimenfal insignia and CAM
paisn hat.
She knows approximately
what "daddies" are. because
she knows other little girls
whose fathers are real life men
and not photographs. But
somehow sra has the impress
sion that-just as policemen
wear caps. and firemen wear
heImets-male parents also
dress like the smiling man in
uniform on the mantlepiece.
But no one had quite real
lied how the whole confused
business of the war looked 10
this little three-Years-old mind
until she was standing one day
at the railway platform with
her mother. and q troop train
went by filled with smiling
young men in uniform with
overseas caps.
All the child could do in her
excitement was TO turn 10 her
mother and exclaim over and
over:
Mama. marna. look at all
the daddiesl"
Canada was 4 French COLONY