Evening star., 1946-08-18
lust Between
Ourselves
BY Philip H. Love.

I've just returned from one OF the
pleasantest vacations I've ever had
three lazy weeks on a farm beside
the ST. Marys River.
The ST. Marys, as your history
book told you long ago, Is the river
up which the Ark and the Dove
sailed in 1884. bringing Maryland
its first English colonists. 1t isn't
an important. river commercially.
because it's short and narrow. and
doesn't go anywhere But, for va
cation purposes, it's ideal.
BY vacation purposes" mean
not only boating, grabbing, fishing
and swimming, but. most important
of all, lolling.
To loll is, as the dictionary puts it.
"to lie at ease" And that. con-
tend, Is the principal purpose of
vacation.
In my coZy hideaway beside the
st. Marys, / lolled every morning
until whatever time I happened to
wake up-sometimes 10 O'Clock,
sometimes II or II. Then, after a
hearty breakfast of wholesome coun-
try food, lolled some more-until
I felt like going swimming.
Usually, felt like good swimming
sometime between 2 and pm,
Sooner or later, I'd come off second
best in an encounter with a sea-
nettle, and then I'd retire to the
sandy beach for a bit of lolling.
Sometimes, spent more time lolling
than swimming But that was all
right, because, as I've already said,
iolling is the principal purpose of a
vacation.
The combination of swimming
and lolling-or, as sometimes was
the case, lolling and swimming
continued until somewhere between
5 and 6. Then, after a hearty din
ner of wholesome country food. Id
go fishing.
One of the nice things about
fishing is that it doesn't interfere
much with ones lolline. In fact.
If you fish with fandline. as nearly
every one along the St. Marys
does, you'll slip into a sort of semi
loll almost before you know it. And
from there to full-fedged loll is
but a slight slump.
Anyway, I'd fish from. say, 6 or
u until-well, it would depend on
how enthusiastically the fish bit.
The first night, for instance, I
caught the first fish, a small trout.
My wife caught the second,
large perch. My daughter caught
the third, an even bigger trout.
My 15-year-old niece, Hope Purcell,
caught the largest hardhead I've
ever seen. I pulled up my line;
the bait was gone. I rebaited the
two hooks, and while 1 Semi-lolled
on tenterhooks for bite, my daugh-
ter, aged 16, pulled in a trout that
made mine look like something out
of sardine can. l wound in my
line and went into complete loll.
| x 4 y
After the fishing was over, we'd
! have snack-another hearty round
of wholesome country food-and
then I'd resume my lolling. Along
about 10. after my daughter and
her uncle George had fought their
nightly battles of the checkerboard,
after Hope and her brothers, Philip
and Cookie, had. read the comics,
and my wife and her sister-in-law.
Marie, had scraped the dishes and
tucked 2-year-old Shirley Ann and
Eugene, 6, into their hunks, I'd
make my way upstairs in half
loll and half-walk, step out of my
shoes and shorts, and dive into a
full loll on the bed.
| Sometimes, when the weather was
too cool for swimming, I'd do a
bit of grabbing or rowing, or per-
haps George would take us all
on motorboat ride up the river.
/ On the grabbing expeditions, Hope
caught all the crabs, so I just lolled
BY rowing out while the tide was
coming in, I was able to loll while
the boat drifted back to shore.
And in the motorboat, there was.
of course, nothing to do but loll
while George did the skippering.
! If, as I submit. the principal
| purpose of a vacation is to loll, I
| certainly had. in the slanguage of
the day, a lollapaloosa of a time.