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Fantasite, v. 2, issue 6, whole no. 12, February 1944
Page 5
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THE FANTASITE...........................................................................5 PIPEDREAMS CPL MILTON A. ROTHMAN As always, the pre-convention evening meeting turned out to be the spice of the affair. And that evening there was a special feeling in the air as we sat around the dining table at the Biltmore in Los Angeles. Finally the Pacificon! For, although the war had ended in 1944, it was 1946 before the vents had allowed a convention to be held. "A toast,! I said, "to the five years since the Denvention. Whatever took place during those five years that we may want to forget, they certainly were not boring years." The others nodded agreement, and the glasses with Scotch, wine, beer, and malted milk clinked in atonal harmony. I continued, more or less talking to myself. "At the time of the Denvention I was living in Washington, D.C. Since then I've gone from one place to another: Philadephia, New Cumberland, Aberdeen, Santa Anita, Oregon State College, OCS, a dozen places in Italy, and I got to Germany just as the German phase of the war ended." I looked at E. Everett Evans sitting opposite me and thought, "Where has he been during the past five years?" But Morojo was speaking. "What happened after you got to Germany? That was two years ago?" "Oh, I was in the army of occupation for several months. Then Then I was discharged, but stayed there to do reconstruction work as a civilian. I ended up by apparently teaching math and physics in a Heidelberg gymnasium. Actually, I was trying to beat some tolerance into the thick skulls of those Nazi brats." "You sound bitter about it," Jack Speer said. "Did you lose your own tolerance?" "Teaching is a hard racket. And you could see the spot I was in. I took the job just to see what would happen. Nearly got my own roof beat in a couple of times. But I won in the end. Or maybe Beethoven won for me. A couple of boys liked the way I played the Moonlight Sonata. Soon I had a little group working for me. Then tehre was a campaign I started to fill all the bookstores with books formerly verboten. The older people remembered them, read them agian--and, well--a good book is a good book. The younger people gradually came to read them. It spread. The peace had been won in Heidelberh, at least. How about in Washington, Jack?" Speek shook his head. "It's a gory mess. The president and Wallance are trying to make a planned economy, while congress has gone reactionary and is all for going back to letting business take care of itself. The army came back with an anti-labor feeling, and there's been trouble." Wolheim snorted. "And all cooked up by the lies in the newspapers which the soldiers read." "That's about it," I agreed. "When I was in the army, we'd often have bull-sessions, and out of a dozen or so I'd be the only one to defend the unions. I knew then that there was going to be trouble." "What a contrast to Russie," Wollheim said. "I've just been there, you know. Started out doing relief work in the Balkans, and ended up going to school in Leningrad. Every person there has one idea--build, build, build. The Ural
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THE FANTASITE...........................................................................5 PIPEDREAMS CPL MILTON A. ROTHMAN As always, the pre-convention evening meeting turned out to be the spice of the affair. And that evening there was a special feeling in the air as we sat around the dining table at the Biltmore in Los Angeles. Finally the Pacificon! For, although the war had ended in 1944, it was 1946 before the vents had allowed a convention to be held. "A toast,! I said, "to the five years since the Denvention. Whatever took place during those five years that we may want to forget, they certainly were not boring years." The others nodded agreement, and the glasses with Scotch, wine, beer, and malted milk clinked in atonal harmony. I continued, more or less talking to myself. "At the time of the Denvention I was living in Washington, D.C. Since then I've gone from one place to another: Philadephia, New Cumberland, Aberdeen, Santa Anita, Oregon State College, OCS, a dozen places in Italy, and I got to Germany just as the German phase of the war ended." I looked at E. Everett Evans sitting opposite me and thought, "Where has he been during the past five years?" But Morojo was speaking. "What happened after you got to Germany? That was two years ago?" "Oh, I was in the army of occupation for several months. Then Then I was discharged, but stayed there to do reconstruction work as a civilian. I ended up by apparently teaching math and physics in a Heidelberg gymnasium. Actually, I was trying to beat some tolerance into the thick skulls of those Nazi brats." "You sound bitter about it," Jack Speer said. "Did you lose your own tolerance?" "Teaching is a hard racket. And you could see the spot I was in. I took the job just to see what would happen. Nearly got my own roof beat in a couple of times. But I won in the end. Or maybe Beethoven won for me. A couple of boys liked the way I played the Moonlight Sonata. Soon I had a little group working for me. Then tehre was a campaign I started to fill all the bookstores with books formerly verboten. The older people remembered them, read them agian--and, well--a good book is a good book. The younger people gradually came to read them. It spread. The peace had been won in Heidelberh, at least. How about in Washington, Jack?" Speek shook his head. "It's a gory mess. The president and Wallance are trying to make a planned economy, while congress has gone reactionary and is all for going back to letting business take care of itself. The army came back with an anti-labor feeling, and there's been trouble." Wolheim snorted. "And all cooked up by the lies in the newspapers which the soldiers read." "That's about it," I agreed. "When I was in the army, we'd often have bull-sessions, and out of a dozen or so I'd be the only one to defend the unions. I knew then that there was going to be trouble." "What a contrast to Russie," Wollheim said. "I've just been there, you know. Started out doing relief work in the Balkans, and ended up going to school in Leningrad. Every person there has one idea--build, build, build. The Ural
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