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En Garde, whole no. 7, September 1943
Page 2
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page 2. Locating a hotel room didn't prove as difficult as we expected. We got two nice double rooms at the Book-Cadillac for only five bucks each. It being Sunday night, the town was rather quiet. We went out and roamed about for about an hour, had some spareribs, barbecued over a hickory fire, and then retired. Came the dawn. Came nine o'clock. Se we headed for the secondhand book stores. Jack has a brother living in Detroit. He called him the night before and told him of our general plans of spending the day in the book stores. We had just entered the first store we had found---when in walked Jack's brother. He said, "Oh, here you are." Just like that. And Detroit is the fourth largest city in the U.S. He stayed to talk for five or ten minutes, then had to get back to his job. We proceeded to go through the fifty-some-thousand volumes with a fine tooth comb. It was virgin territory for a buyer of fantasy. We discovered a couple dozen choice tomes. The prices on them were very low, but we put on an act anyway. Made a great to do about going through them in a final sifting to find just what few we would actually purchase. Pretended an amazing lack of enthusiasm about it all. Whereupon the proprietor offered to discount all we would purchase. He cut the prices on all of them, aome as much as 33%. Naturally we took them all, and everybody was happy. And so it went, one book-store after another. Then we went in Hudson's, Detroit's biggest department store, looking for remnant books. While there, it occurred to us that finding a rest-room might be a good idea. Floorwalkers pointed the way, signs directed the seeker, and we walked what must have been miles. But the dang thing certainly was elusive. Abby Lu and I lost track of Walt and Jack, but we kept looking and finally found it---only to discover it was only for the ladies. Well, I waited outside for Abby Lu. Who should come out a few minutes later out Walt and Jack. They were kinda half-running, and looked decidedly sheepish. It developed that they had finished resting and were combing their hair before new arrivals pointed out the error of their ways. We stopped someplace for lunch, Walt ordered some fancy-name salad. It was served in a sorta small-sized dishpan, and consisted of an unbelievable mound of coarsely-chopped foliage. An incipient composte heap, as it were. But Walt devoured it all with apparent relish. The rest of us munched our human fare, and by watching closely, discovered the sideways jaw-motion we deduced that Walt should exhibit. We have since decided that, when Walt gets a little older, we'll buy a farm and turn himcut to pasture. There has been some talk of calling the farm "Wise Acres". We decided to take No. 45 home. It would get into B.C. about one o'clock Tuesday morning. And the way we figured it wouldn't be too crowded. Somebody else musta figured different though. There just weren't any seats left. Finally some kind-hearted gent gave his to Abby Lu, and Walt, by some means we are still unable to fathom, managed to get some soldier to give up his seat to him (Walt). But Jack and I had to stand halfway to Battle Creek. By two in the morning we were settled for slumber. But suddenly I came wide awake again, laughing. It had just occurred to me that Walt had only four hours until he had to get up and go to work. The rest of us could sleep till noon. That ol' last laugh!
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page 2. Locating a hotel room didn't prove as difficult as we expected. We got two nice double rooms at the Book-Cadillac for only five bucks each. It being Sunday night, the town was rather quiet. We went out and roamed about for about an hour, had some spareribs, barbecued over a hickory fire, and then retired. Came the dawn. Came nine o'clock. Se we headed for the secondhand book stores. Jack has a brother living in Detroit. He called him the night before and told him of our general plans of spending the day in the book stores. We had just entered the first store we had found---when in walked Jack's brother. He said, "Oh, here you are." Just like that. And Detroit is the fourth largest city in the U.S. He stayed to talk for five or ten minutes, then had to get back to his job. We proceeded to go through the fifty-some-thousand volumes with a fine tooth comb. It was virgin territory for a buyer of fantasy. We discovered a couple dozen choice tomes. The prices on them were very low, but we put on an act anyway. Made a great to do about going through them in a final sifting to find just what few we would actually purchase. Pretended an amazing lack of enthusiasm about it all. Whereupon the proprietor offered to discount all we would purchase. He cut the prices on all of them, aome as much as 33%. Naturally we took them all, and everybody was happy. And so it went, one book-store after another. Then we went in Hudson's, Detroit's biggest department store, looking for remnant books. While there, it occurred to us that finding a rest-room might be a good idea. Floorwalkers pointed the way, signs directed the seeker, and we walked what must have been miles. But the dang thing certainly was elusive. Abby Lu and I lost track of Walt and Jack, but we kept looking and finally found it---only to discover it was only for the ladies. Well, I waited outside for Abby Lu. Who should come out a few minutes later out Walt and Jack. They were kinda half-running, and looked decidedly sheepish. It developed that they had finished resting and were combing their hair before new arrivals pointed out the error of their ways. We stopped someplace for lunch, Walt ordered some fancy-name salad. It was served in a sorta small-sized dishpan, and consisted of an unbelievable mound of coarsely-chopped foliage. An incipient composte heap, as it were. But Walt devoured it all with apparent relish. The rest of us munched our human fare, and by watching closely, discovered the sideways jaw-motion we deduced that Walt should exhibit. We have since decided that, when Walt gets a little older, we'll buy a farm and turn himcut to pasture. There has been some talk of calling the farm "Wise Acres". We decided to take No. 45 home. It would get into B.C. about one o'clock Tuesday morning. And the way we figured it wouldn't be too crowded. Somebody else musta figured different though. There just weren't any seats left. Finally some kind-hearted gent gave his to Abby Lu, and Walt, by some means we are still unable to fathom, managed to get some soldier to give up his seat to him (Walt). But Jack and I had to stand halfway to Battle Creek. By two in the morning we were settled for slumber. But suddenly I came wide awake again, laughing. It had just occurred to me that Walt had only four hours until he had to get up and go to work. The rest of us could sleep till noon. That ol' last laugh!
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