MARCH - APRIL, 1943
AUTOMATIC AGE, $1.00 per year. Published bi-monthly by Automatic Age, Inc.
second class matter February 20, 1943, at the Post Office at Chicago. 111., under the
U N T IL I C O M E B A C K . ~
We’re over 20,000 feet now
(the coffee’s frozen in the ther
mos) and that’s the Zuyder
Zee below. We must be half
way across Holland.
Funny thing what happens
to a fellow.....
Those are the same old stars
and the same old moon that
the girl and I were looking at
last Christmas.
And here I am— flying 300
miles an hour in a bubble of
glass, with ten tons of T. N. T.
Somehow— this isn’t the way
I imagined it at all, the day I
enlisted. Don’t get me wrong—
sure I was sore at the Japs and
the Nazis— but mostly, it was
the thrill of the Great Adven
ture.
Well, I know now— the real
reasons— why I ’m up here pay
ing my first call on Hitler.
It’s only when you get away
from the U. S. A. that you find
out what the s’nootin’s really
about and what you’re fighting
for.
I learned from that Czech
chap in London. The refugee,
the n i c e o l d fellow who re
minded me of Dad except for
the maimed hands. I was dumb
enough to ask about it. “I got
that,” he said, “for writing a
book the Nazis didn’t like....”
Then there was the captured
German pilot who screamed
and spit when Izzy Jacobs of
fered him a cigarette....how do
fellows get that way?
And that crazy Polish pilot,
the fellow who rammed the
Messerschmitt. After the funer
al I learned what was eating
him. Seems as how he has a
sister in Warsaw who had been
sent to a German Officers Club.
I hope to hell Hitler’s home
tonight....... light and wind are
perfect.
Yes, sir, I ’ve met ’em by the
dozens over here— guys warp
ed by hate— guys who have
had the ambition beaten out of
them— guys who look at you
as if you were crazy when you
tell ’em what America is like.
They say America will be a
lot different after this war.
Well, maybe so.
But as for me, I know the
score..you learn fast over here.
I know now there’s only o n e
decent way to live in this world
— the way my folks lived and
the way I want to live.
When you find a thing that
works as good as that—brother,
be careful with that monkey-
wrench.
And there’s one little spot—
well, if t h e y do as much as
© International Arcade Museum
change the smell of the corner
drug store— I will murder the
guy.
I want my girl back, just as
she is, and that bungalow on
Maple Avenue.......
I want that old roll-top desk
of mine at the electric com
pany, with a chance to move
upstairs, or quit if I want to.
I
want to see that old school
of mine, and our church, just
as they are— because I want
my kids to go there.
That’s m y hom e to w n ........
Keep it for me the way I re
member it, just the way I see
it now— until I come back.
21,701 MACHINES
IN VIRGINIA
The state of Virginia’s tax
report for the year ending June
20, 1942 shows that 21,701 ma
chines of all types were regist
ered by 71 operators who took
out licenses. They paid the
state fees amounting to $237,
308, which represents a little
more than $10 per machine.
“He is doing literary work.”
“Literary work?”
“Yeah. He takes young lady
authors around and gives them
experience for their confession
stories.”
http://www.arcade-museum.com/