The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1955-08-12
Just Among Ourselves
Psssins Comment Considered or Ineonsidsrsts

Old Ctus Chaffnch retired soda-water jerk of
the BeAir and Sea View Fountain Bar 0ocsted
a thousand miles inland in desert town with mean
temperature of 93l dropped in the other day on his
way east to attend class reunion at his old col
lege, Wickersham L.
Times change, of course" said old Clitus, seat
ing himself close to the purring air-conditi0ner
and lighting the bulldog pipe which has been his
constant companion since he broke it during his
sophomore year Of 1906 "but il seems to me that
they change a great deal rapidly than they
used TO. And more radically foo Back In what
I'd call the old days, it was considered startling
change when s0da-water gave up first place TO
sundaes and when college boys abandoned the
undergraduate mustache and went in for raccoon
coats
But nowadays no change is startling unless il
breaks the sound barrier and sweeps into cosmic
space. The word change used to have com
Portable and cloudy meaning II might mean nov
city and il might mean the coins you get when you
break bill But change to-day is an explosive word
which means complete upheaval. II the leopard
were to change his spots in modern times, people
wouldn't call il change al all; it would just be
a new look. Change is motion, and mighty fast
motion too.
why, just to review the changes of the past
haIfcentury is to try TO look al dozen swift movie
films all at once each one with its own aecompan
ment of music, waltz, time Jazz and bebop
dizyng sight in perfect bedlam of noise. man
can't get proper hold on the situation at all.
when was small boy, my father had fast
stepping little mare which he hitched to rubber
tired buggy with striped wheels He told me he paid
something over hundred dollars for the mare, and
| recall that the buggy cost elghty-five dollars.
And let tell you, the man who could afford a
rig like that was pretty considerable member of
nIIxf rtoA
man but he was far up among the well-todo's, and
he commanded the respect Of common cltizenry.
What could man do with Sf85 today? Make a
down.payment something, and then devote the
rest of his life to clearing up the balance There's
a change for you. And remember, the little rig
served our family for fifteen years and kept us
socially prominent right along with no new models
coming out yearly, and the price of hay and oats
about one-tenth the cost of gas and oil
Well do | remember the eering cry of Get
a horse!" when the newfanged automobile would
break down; and il was always breaking down A
driver Cchauffer' used to call him) who made
a thousand miles without blowing a tire or having
engine trouble was considered wonder NO; not
wonder exactly, he was considered liar. The Tel
low who hooked, but later lost big fish, and the
fellow who made thousand miles, and the fellow
who went up half-me hill in high gear,-these
were all romancers with respect for truth.
I'm our little town, we had mile and half
of straight, brickpaved street running north and
south Of course, we had paving on other streets
too but this straight street our boast and
pride The few wealthy citizens who could afford an
Apperson or a Pierce Arrow or maybe White
steamer used to spend their summer evenings
riding back and forth back and forth, on that
fine straightaway making the tricky back k-and-turn
at each end of il, hour after hour
What mild sort of entertainment that sort OF
thing appears to-day! II sounds exactly like piece
out of the short and simple annals of the poor, Lit
tie did those twilight motorists think as they whiz
zed through long street at fifteen miles an hour
that their own offspring would one day glide over
concrete highways in hundred mile an-hour con
vertibleS which would, in many instances, prove
their flexbility by wrapping themselves around
filling station with the instant demise Of all on
board Progress is often violent thing
And now even concrete highways are becom
inE old fashioned Old Henry Ford said he put the
American people on wheels and they'd never walk
again, But they're about TO shed the wheels now,
and count no Joy complete unless it's jet propelled
The call of the wild that Jack London spilled so
many words about is only faint and unsttractive
yep; not the wild, but the wild blue yonder is the
current attraction
"We used to talk about people crying for the
moon. But now, by goy, they have left off crying,
and are going after it, What they'll do with ii when
they get il doesn't TO enter their calculations
The great thing Is to be the way to be going,
and going faster and faster. Destination doesn't
count.
'YeS, sir said Clitus Chaffnch knocking the
refuse from his pipe into crystal.gass ash.tray
with ineonsiderate thumps, times have surely
changed And yet in many respects they haven't
changed al all Here am on my way TO class
reunion, there will be after.dinner speakers lads
with long memories and love for the old school
will tell embroidered tales of lang syne we'll all
sweat and strain and keep each other up under the
impression that we're having great time This
sort of thing has been going for thousand years,
in exactly the way. with promise. hope,
of change Progress, guess. is where you find IT,"