Tuesday, August 18, 2009

VERY VERY

CHINA

Back in Oklahoma I knew a boy who used to say everything twice. Ask Hazlitt how he was feeling, and he'd say; "I'm feeling fine. I'm feeling line."

Ask him whether it would rain, and he'd say: "If it don't rain, it'll be a long dry spell. Yes sir, if it don't rain, it'll be a long dry spell.”

"Everything Hazlitt says," Eller Ardrey used to remark, "he makes a carbon copy of it." And Ben Holland thought Hazlitt would be a successful advertising man, "because he believes in repetition.”

The other day I ran across Hazlitt out here (in China). "Hazlitt," I asked, "how are you doing?" And he said: "I am doing all right. I am doing all right.”

"Are you getting plenty to eat?" "Plenty to eat. Plenty to eat."

"How do you feel about water-buffalo meat?"

"I like it." His face blanched. His cheeks expanded. He almost exploded. But even Hazlitt couldn't say that twice.

--Pvt. Cal Tinney

YANK Field Correspondent


YANK 18 Aug 1944