| Show r Henry enry McLemore NEW YORK YORK Once Once upon a ame ame time me there was a woman who d didn't like her next-door next neighbors neigh neigh- 1 0 b bors s rs She he never 1 led on Jiem h m and she old ld Id her chil- chil iren n not to 11 ilay y with the next loor L She he was i t t y about ili tI i r I neigh- neigh OrS Or'S dog dig- dig g up her herl l lowers and h He was dog- dog T about the thea a act t that her went wenta qa oIa a private school n next e ext x t loor 1001 to the public school which l ier neighbors neighbor's children attended L She he put the chill on the wom- wom door whenever she could nd she put the heat on her she had the chance lie ibe was either hot or c cold 0 1 d doward oward Ward her neighbor never V rm r. r Then en lo 10 and behold One day he papers announced that there theres i ras S s a 8 gasoline shortage and hat pretty soon the good fairies r n Washington were going to tion atlon gasoline and that no one oneas V vas as s going to get more than five lr f six gallons a week The The haughty woman got to tol l about this and it both- both red her The more she thought He e more she wondered how she vas s going to get her children the eight miles mUes to their private school and back each day She wondered how she was going to todo todo todo do her marketing and how she was going to get into town to once or twice a week to attend her advanced first aid classes to get gether gether gether her hair done and to see her friends who lived right in the heart of town She got busy on the telephone and asked friends in other parts of town how they were going to solve the transportation problem when the gasoline rationing began be be- gan They told her they had worked it out with their next- next door neighbors so that one day they and their neighbors would use their car and the next day they and the neighbors would use the neighbors neighbor's car to take their husbands to work deliver the children to school do the I marketing and run all ali the other errands Suddenly the bad queen of our I story had a change of heart toward her next-door next neighbor I It was as if a magic wand had been waved She heard that her neighbor was sick and sent over a bowl of foot calf's jelly She invited Rover who was plowing under her ros rose bushes as usual to come into the kitchen for a bone The more she thought about the gasoline rationing the more she knew she had misunderstood her neighbor all along Now that Aesop McLemore has spun his fable what he really wants to say is that out of this war and the privations that hat we all will suffer will come a genuine revival of friendliness and understanding which we seemed to have grown a way away w a y from since the days when our forebears depended upon one another another another an an- other for help There were were sewing bees and corn huskings and harvesting parties Neighbors served as doctor nurse and servant in time of trouble In the early days of our country neighbors banded together in time of trouble and fought side by side In the lush lUh and soft years of this country we seemed to have pretty well gotten gotten gotten got got- ten away from this It was every man for himself and the devil tal take e the hindmost The little fable with which I started this column isn't a fable at all It is based on fact I know both the neighbors Involved in involved involved in- in and these two women have grown to like one one another genuinely after 10 years of living living liv liv- ing next door You undoubtedly undoubtedly undoubtedly edly could write your own true fable War is a high price to pay for anything but this country cant can't help being a better country when its it's over We were getting getting getting get get- ting soft smug complacent and too all mighty big headed We of the lush years are going to learn Americanism not from history history history his his- tory bo books ks or tales of what our g great grandfathers r l' e eat a t grandfathers did but through being Americans in a tough spot Americans who are learning to live not as individuals individuals individuals but as united Americans |
