The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1946-05-03

| nome on ledNe, linen oDout q
year ago | got a letter from him
| from New York, saying he had
leave there and was surely wish
ing there were some old friends
around to enjoy it with him. He
said he was just about to get
transferred to another base, and
sent me his address at a camp
in Texas. | meant TO write him
Immediately, but ! put it off so
long that | put it off altogether.
And then ! did not know where
to write him, or whether he was
still in the army or motor
whether we would eve meet
again, for that matter. Hsl
Last night, just after we had
gotten scrubbed and polished at
the hotel and we're going out
TO the automat for dinner, the
wife and | were walking down
Broadway, rubber-necking at the
lights and the traffic and the
crowds and all the things that
make up Broadway and Times
| Square We had just moved on
| from an interesting show win.
dow, and were looking up at
the moving signboard on a huge
| building across Times Square.
| Someone fell in step with us
from behind and caught our
arms, and said matter of-factly,
"well, where do we go?" We
turned around, and there, sure
| enough, was Dick Written, now
a captain, and still in uniform.
He too had just arrived in New
York that day. We had both
gotten off trains from far ends
of the country only a few hours
earlier. He did us the compli-
ment (and probably committed
the venial sin Of telling a tall
tale) of declaring that he had
gotten to feeling so homesick and
lonely while he was dressing in
his hotel room that the idea even
occurred to him to telephone us
long distance tc Pascagoula. Old
Dick probably made that part
of ii up. But the rest was coin
cidence enough without it. This
Was our third meeting in New
York over a period of seven
Years, and two o. these meetings
were of an uncanly and extraor-
binary nature. This is especially
true when | consider that dur
ing the time l worked for the
Associated Press up here, | ran
into only three other people from
back home-a young doctor l
knew only slightly who was a
medical student when / knew
him, Cliff Suffer, the tennis
player; and a girl l had known
who had just conle up on her
honeymoon. But this latter meet
ing was also somewhat extraor-
binary. For l was walking down
Sixth Avenue one day on my
way to work, and a girl passed
by whose face seemed very ia
miliar to me. And | thought to
myself, Il know its not, but that
girl looks very much like So
and-So." But | had not seer So
an-So in five or six years, had
no idea where she was, but knew
it was unlikely she would be in
New York.
But | walked another block and
yes, reader. you have guessed
i'll ran into So-and- So herself,
with a brand new husband on
her arm. They were walking
along in a kind of pink cloud
and probably would not have
seen me if | had not startled
them out of their wits by doing
what Dick Written did us last
night walked up behind them
and called their namess
Sometime ago we decided that
of all the spots on the globe that
were unfit for human habitation
New York City was the fore
most. 1t is simply too crowded.
There is too much of every thing
here, except trees and fresh air.
Even so. it was an exciting thing
to come back after an absence
of several years and e it as
a tourist. 1t is a world of its
own. Ii is as far from Pasea-
goula and the Mississippi coast,
as from the earth to the sun.
New Orleans has characteristics
similar to New York, but only
in a very limited way. New Or
leans, big as it is, is still a lei
zurely Southern town compared
to the rush. hustle, hustle and
scurry of the Big Town. 1t is
still a wonderful place to visit.
And it is still, so far as we are
concerned, a heck of a place to
live.
On Fifty-First street, next to
Radio CITY and next to the As
Sociated Press office where We
once worked, they have torn
down a group of buildings to
make another s~kyscrapper, They
are first blasting out of the solid
rock Gall Manhattan Island is