DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Milty's Mag, July 1945

Transcribe
Translate

Milty's Mag, July 1945

Page 2

So he drifted gently along thru life, and such stuff, wondering what next thing would be on the program for him, and quite sure that it would be nothing  very important.

Paris in the Spring, Tra La.
When this Joe got to Europe, was he transferred to the infantry or sent right to the front with a rifle in one hand and a tommy gun in the other? No, of course. They sent him to Paris and made him stay in a big modern building occupied by the Signal Corps, and they told him he'd have to wait a few weeks before he had any work to do.
So after drying the tears which came when he thought that the war would be over before he started on the job, he set out to discover Paris.
It has been said that everybody has two homes -- his own and Paris. He could see why that was. Everything a person could say about Paris was true. It was comparable only to New York in that respect, and was even more colorful and less tawdry. It was modern, clean, beautiful, shabby, unpainted, crowded, cultured, vulgar, luxurious, impoverished, expensive, overflowing with art, concerts, operas, prostitutes, cognac, schools, soldiers, people, and seething with an animation that war could not destroy.
He saw places with famous names, and he did the famous things that were done in Paris. He walked in the Easter Parade along the Champs Elysses. He photographed the Eiffel Tower,. He drank champagne between the acts of Boris Godounov at the Opera. He saw the Follies Bergere. He argued with the whores who crowded the streets by the Red Cross Club, waylaying and propositioning every soldier that came along. Yea and averily, those girls did everything but knock down and drag to their rooms the poor innocent soldiers.
He had coffee at the Grand Hotel, and he played piano at the Hotel de Paris, and there was not less enjoyment because those places were now called the AEF Club and the Red Cross "Rainbow Corner". 
He studied piano in a Montmarte Studio and he listened to music in the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire and by the Hot Club of France.
And once more the world had ignored him, casting him into the backwash of events, while it went along with its wars and he sauntered by having a good time.

I NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD:
There are some aspects of Army Life in Paris which are not particularly publicized, and which make the Army a bit different from anything the Army in America ever was. The boys at the front would have their morale lowered a few notches if it were made known how good we had it in Paris.
The liquor ration is one of the bright spots in our life. In the states you go out and buy all the bottle liquor you cn afford. In the barracks it is verboten. Here, however, we can't buy bottles on the outside except in a Black Market, but at the Battalion we hold drawings to see who will have the privilege of buying what out of a number of Scotch, Cognac, Champagne and Wine. So to the unaccustomed ear it sounds a bit strange to hear Joe say, "I have to take my empty Champagne bottle back to the supply room."

Saving...

So he drifted gently along thru life, and such stuff, wondering what next thing would be on the program for him, and quite sure that it would be nothing very important. Paris in the Spring, Tra La. When this Joe got to Europe, was he transferred to the infantry or sent right to the front with a rifle in one hand and a tommy gun in the other? No, of course. They sent him to Paris and made him stay in a big modern building occupied by the Signal Corps, and they told him he'd have to wait a few weeks before he had any work to do. So after drying the tears which came when he thought that the war would be over before he started on the job, he set out to discover Paris. It has been said that everybody has two homes -- his own and Paris. He could see why that was. Everything a person could say about Paris was true. It was comparable only to New York in that respect, and was even more colorful and less tawdry. It was modern, clean, beautiful, shabby, unpainted, crowded, cultured, vulgar, luxurious, impoverished, expensive, overflowing with art, concerts, operas, prostitutes, cognac, schools, soldiers, people, and seething with an animation that war could not destroy. He saw places with famous names, and he did the famous things that were done in Paris. He walked in the Easter Parade along the Champs Elysses. He photographed the Eiffel Tower,. He drank champagne between the acts of Boris Godounov at the Opera. He saw the Follies Bergere. He argued with the whores who crowded the streets by the Red Cross Club, waylaying and propositioning every soldier that came along. Yea and averily, those girls did everything but knock down and drag to their rooms the poor innocent soldiers. He had coffee at the Grand Hotel, and he played piano at the Hotel de Paris, and there was not less enjoyment because those places were now called the AEF Club and the Red Cross "Rainbow Corner". He studied piano in a Montmarte Studio and he listened to music in the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire and by the Hot Club of France. And once more the world had ignored him, casting him into the backwash of events, while it went along with its wars and he sauntered by having a good time. I NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD: There are some aspects of Army Life in Paris which are not particularly publicized, and which make the Army a bit different from anything the Army in America ever was. The boys at the front would have their morale lowered a few notches if it were made known how good we had it in Paris. The liquor ration is one of the bright spots in our life. In the states you go out and buy all the bottle liquor you cn afford. In the barracks it is verboten. Here, however, we can't buy bottles on the outside except in a Black Market, but at the Battalion we hold drawings to see who will have the privilege of buying what out of a number of Scotch, Cognac, Champagne and Wine. So to the unaccustomed ear it sounds a bit strange to hear Joe say, "I have to take my empty Champagne bottle back to the supply room."