The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1946-11-15

uIiVIIs WIFI,
a few miles north of Luceda,e,
the water pump began to grind
with a terrible clatter, and we
knew that the trip was over, at
least temporarily. The town of
McLain was about five miles
down the road, where the near
est mechanic would be, SO we
set forth at very low speed in
that direction.
At McLain the garage man
told US that the poor old water
pump was shot beyond repair.
II did not surprise us. A week
earlier the car had passed the
5000 mile mark. And when
a Chevrolet water pump or any
other sort has pumped a cooling
torrent Of water through an en-
CINE Cor 1901 miles Of driv-
ing, it has done its job. Par
ticular,y if the owner has been
lax in keeping the rust and
grit cleaned out of the water
system And this owner had
been lax, and SO had the boy
who owned her in her younger
days.
II va late in the morning
when we reached McLain. The
garage man ordered a new water
pump TO be sent out from Hat
tiesburg by bus and said it
would arrive in mid afternoon.
That left US facing three or
four hours of enforced idle
ness.
Enforced idleness" is always
a nice position to be int least
for Or own tastes. The idle
ness is not your own fault. SO
you can enjoy il without any
pangs Of conscience. OF course
we are talking now of enforced
idleness which lasts only for a
few hours, or at most for a day
or so. The enforced idleness
of months, or even years, such
as thousands saw during the
last depression, becomes a vast
ing and dreary experience to
60 through.
But 20 be forced to idle about
a small town in South Missis-
sippi for three hours is some
thing else. To q business man
on a hurried trip such a dc.ay
might be a bother and a bore;
to a doctor on a call, it might
be a very serious mishap. A
travelint salesman might view
such a delay in terms of lost
working TIME. A politician
might seize upon it as an OPP
porturity to stand before the
post office and shake a few
hands. For ourselves, it was the
opportunity to spend three
hours in this tremendous and in
exhaust'hle park which is Amer
ict--a park too vast for any
one man ever to know all of it;
a park too various and beauti-
full for any nature lover ever to
tire of it, and always exciting
and mysterious for those who
wonder constantly at the faith
omless mysteries of nature.
There are many travellers in
America who consider the end
less miles of the South's cut
over p:nelands only a depress-
ing and ugly spectacle of
waste and lack of foresight. In
n sense they are right-our
sterile fields of stumps and sage
and hsambles are a monument
to economic follies of an earlier
generation. But for US those
cut-over fields are beautiful.
They ale beautiful no less than
the runs of a great medieval
cathedral are beautiful to those
who catch from them the mean
ing of the past. And there was
indeed a cathedral quality in
the long leaf pine fo~rests-a
hushed air, and the smell of
pine needles like incense. and
the soft light which filtered
through the leaves was like
the light in old c~athedrals.
We were fortunate enough
as a boy to wander through
some of the last pine forests,
and SHALL not forget the spell.
And even the eGt-over land to-
day IS beautiful to US. Seen
from a distance il appears bar
rem indeed. But if one will
only open their ewes to the
small temples of life hat ma
ture erects at the grass levels
of even barren fields, the cut
over lands too become a part
of the great park of America.
= .
While our car was waiting
to be fixed we set out for a
walk down an overgrown log
ging soad behind the town.
The road led through the
stumps and broom sage grass
to a vsmpy creek, A board
walk aid upon stakes crossed
the shallow little swamp and
creek. Small scarlet wild flow
ers were poisoning in the dark