The Key West citizen., 1954-12-14
The
World
Today
BY DON WHITEHEAD
fEor lanes Msrlowl

WASHINGTON R-Behind the
Bamboo Curtain of Red China TO-
day there is an American boy who
can't forget his home and those ha
loves.
Richard Tenneson turned his
back on his own country, his family
and his friends when he walked in
to the world of the Communists
rather than accept repatriation in
the exchange of Korean War pris-
oners.
But the memories still are there.
Even now he's haunted by memo.
rieS of the music of America -
melodies which will tear at his
heart and conscience as long as hs
lives, so help him God.
Recently Tenneson wrote his
mother in Minnesota asking her to
send him sheet music of such SEN
timentaf songs as white Christ
mas" and Dear Hearts and Gen.
tie People"
Richard Tenneson is cropping for
Solace in music as our people
have for centuries, and as they
always will.
Even in war, they found comfort
In music
In North Africa, soldiers gain
cred around their radios at night
and searched the wavelengths until
they found the music they wanted.
Always it was music. Perhaps IT
was a French song or an American
dance band or their favorite, "Llh
Marlene," the German ballad.
Across Italy and France and
Germany the soldiers paused 10
play the pianos in the battered
houses. Sometimes the notes could
be heard above the rattle of gun
fire in the streets outside.
, In Liege, Belgium, the Germans
had retreated. The little night club
i opened its doors for the first time
in months. A makeshift Belgian
band was trying hard but it was
pretty dismal effort until the
blackout curtains parted and six
: GIs strobe into the room.
. The six Americans had the CRIME
Il of the infantry on them. You knew
| they were combat men by their
, yOung-old faces. They stacked their
, carbines and went to the band
stand and the Belgians handed
them the musical instruments.
, They poured out their hearts in
music that night, those GIs. They
, exulted in the wild freedom of jazz
. and washed away their loneliness
q in the blues from the bayou coun.
! try. Then they laid down the instru-
, ments, picked up their carbines,
and walked into the night where
the darkness was broken by the
, flashes of artillery fire.
I'm sure they were happier be.
cause the music had brought them
, nearer home and the things they
would return to in a few more
months.
Off the coast of Sicily, the troops
fled into the black hold of an in.
vasion ship and clambered into the
amphibious trucks which would
carry them ashore behind the Ger.
: man lines.
! We sat in the blackness, tense
, and afraid, waiting for H-hour. And
then came the thin notes of a har.
, monica, rising and falling with the
bittersweet melody, Might and
Day"
Somewhere in the darkness 4
youth was voicing all the .oneIi.
ness, yearning and hope that was
inside him. The music made you
think of those you loved and u
what you would return to someday
when this thing was ended.
It seemed as if hundreds of men
were holding their breath so they
wouldn't miss a single note of the
music that came out of the dark
ness. For a fleeting time they re.
membered another and better
world.
Richard Tenneson viii remem
Der too when he hears the music
he asked his mother to send him
! But if Richard Tenneson has begur
to understand the music of Ameri
d ca - it won't bring him the solact
, that came to the men in the inva
! sion ship that night. There will b.
only emptiness in his heart.