【正文】 he show, back in 1927, at the respective ages often and eight, in the days when the program 39。emanated39。 from one of the convention rooms of the old Murray Hill Hotel. All seven of us, from Seymour through Franny, appeared on the show under pseudonyms. Which may sound highly anomalous, considering that we39。re the children of vaudevillians, a sect not usually antipathetic to publicity, but my mother had once read a magazine article on the little crosses professional children are obliged to bear their estrangement from normal, presumably desirable society and she took an iron stand on the issue, and never, never wavered. (This is not the time at all to go into the question of whether most, or all, 39。professional39。 children ought to be outlawed, pitied, or unsentimentally executed as disturbers of the peace. For the moment, I39。ll only pass along that our bined ine on 39。It39。s a Wise Child39。 has sent six of us through college, and is now sending the seventh.) Our eldest brother, Seymour with whom I39。m all but exclusively concerned here was a corporal in what, in 1942, was still called the Air Corps. He was stationed at a B17 base in California, where, I believe, he was an acting pany clerk. I might add, not quite parenthetically, that he was by far the least prolific letter writer in the family. I don39。t think I39。ve had five letters from him in my life. On the morning of either 22 or 23 May (no one in my family has ever dated a letter), a letter from my sister Boo Boo was placed on the foot of my cot in the post hospital at Fort Benning while my 2 diaphragm was being strapped with adhesive tape (a usual medical procedure with pleurisy patients, presumably guaranteed to prevent them from coughing themselves to pieces). When the ordeal was over, I read Boo Boo39。s letter. I still have it, and it follows here verbatim: Dear Buddy, I39。m in a terrible rush to pack, so this will be short but perating. Admiral Behindpincher has decided that lie must fly to parts unknown for the war effort and has also decided to take his secretary with him if I behave myself. I39。m just sick about it. Seymour aside, it means Quonset huts in freezing air bases and boyish passes from our fighting men and those horrible paper things to get sick in on the plane. The point is, Seymour is getting married yes, married, so please pay attention. I can39。t be there. I may be gone for anywhere from six weeks to two months on this trip. I39。ve met the girl. She39。s a zero in my opinion but terrificlooking. I don39。t actually know that she39。s a zero. I mean she hardly said two words the night I met her. Just sat and smiled and smoked, so it isn39。t fair to say. I don39。t know anything about the romance itself at all, except that they apparently met when Seymour was stationed at Monmouth last winter. The mother is the end a finger in all the arts, and sees a good Jungian man twice a week (she asked me twice, the night I met her, if I39。d ever been analyzed). She told me she just wishes Seymour would relate to more people. In the same breath, said she just loves him, though, etc., etc., and that she used to listen to him religiously all the years lie was on the air. That39。s all I know except that you39。ve got to get to the wedding. I39。ll never five you if you don39。t. I mean it. Mother and Daddy can39。t get here from the Coast. Franny has the measles, for one thing. Incidentally, did you hear her last week? She went on at beautiful length about how she used to fly all around the apartment when she was four and no one was home. The new announcer is worse than Grant if possible, even worse than Sullivan in the old days. He said she surely just dreamt that she was able to fly. The baby stood her ground like an angel. She said she knew she was able to fly because when she came down she always had dust on her fingers from touching the light bulbs. I long to see her. You, too. Anyhow, you39。ve got to get to the wedding. Go . if you have to, but please go. It39。s at three o39。clock, June 4th. Very nonsectarian and Emancipated, at her grandmother39。s house on 63rd. Some judge is marrying them. I don39。t know the number of the house, but it39。s exactly two doors down from where Carl and Amy used to live in luxury. I39。m going to wire Walt, but I think he39。s been shipped out already. Please get there, Buddy. He weighs about as much as a cat and he has that ecstatic look on his face that you can39。t talk to. Maybe it39。s going to be perfectly all right, but I hate 1942. I think I39。ll hate 1942 till I die, just on general principles. All my love and see you when I get back. Boo Boo A couple of days after the letter arrived, I was discharged from the hospital, in the custody, so to speak, of about three yards of adhesive tape around my ribs. Then began a very strenuous week39。s campaign to get permission to attend the wedding. I was finally able to do it by laboriously ingratiating myself with my pany mander, a bookish man by his own confession, whose favorite author, as luck had it, happened to be my favorite author L. Manning Vines. Or Hinds. Despite this spiritual bond between us, the most I could wangle out of him was a threeday pass, which would, at best, give me just enough time to travel by train to New York, sec the wedding, bolt a dinner somewhere, and then return damply to Geia. All situp coaches on trains in 1942 were only nominally ventilated, as I remember, abounded 3 with , and smelled of orange juice, milk, and rye whiskey. I spent the night coughing and reading a copy of Ace Comics that someone was kind enough to lend me. When the train pulled into New York at ten after two on the afternoon of the wedding I was coughed out, generally exhausted, perspiring, unpressed, and my adhesive tape was itching hellishly. New York itself was indescribably hot. I had no time to go to my apartment first, so I left my luggage, which consisted of a rather oppressive