proms to the ROTC and the draft and lend-lease. More and more college boys were appearing in army and navy uniforms.
One day Susie Roberts, a classmate from Senn, stopped Catherine in the corridor. “I want to say good-bye, Cathy. I’m leaving.”
“Where are you going?”
“The Klondike.”
“The Klondike? ”
“Washington, D.C. All the girls are striking gold there. They say for every girl there are at least a hundred men. I like those odds.” She looked at Catherine. “What do you want to stick around this place for? School’s a drag. There’s a whole big world waiting out there.”
“I can’t leave just now,” Catherine said. She was not sure why: She had no real ties in Chicago. She corresponded regularly with her father in Omaha and talked to him on the telephone once or twice a month and each time he sounded as though he were in prison.
Catherine was on her own now. The more she thought about Washington, the more exciting it seemed. That evening she phoned her father and told him she wanted to quit school and go to work in Washington. He asked her if she would like to come to Omaha, but Catherine could sense the reluctance in his voice. He did not want her to be trapped, as he had been.
The next morning Catherine went to the dean of women and informed her she was quitting school. Catherine sent a telegram to Susie Roberts and the next day she was on a train to Washington, D.C.
NOELLE
Paris: 1940
4
On Saturday, June 14, 1940, the German Fifth Army marched into a stunned Paris. The Maginot Line had turned out to be the biggest fiasco in the history of warfare and France lay defenseless before one of the most powerful military machines the world had ever known.
The day had begun with a strange gray pall that lay over the city, a terrifying cloud of unknown origin. For the last forty-eight hours sounds of intermittent gunfire had broken the unnatural, frightened silence of Paris. The roar of the cannons was outside the city, but the echoes reverberated into the heart of Paris. There had been a flood of rumors carried like a tidal wave over the radio, in newspapers and by word of mouth. The Boche were invading the French coast…London had been destroyed…Hitler had reached an accord with the British government…The Germans were going to wipe out Paris with a deadly new bomb. At first each rumor had been taken as gospel, creating its own panic, but constant crises finally exert a soporific effect, as though the mind and body, unable to absorb any further terror, retreat into a protective shell of apathy. Now the rumor mills had ground to a complete halt, newspaper presses had stopped printing and radio stations had stopped broadcasting. Human instinct had taken over from the machines, and the Parisians sensed that this was a day of decision. The gray cloud was an omen.
And then the German locusts began to swarm in.
Suddenly Paris was a city filled with foreign uniforms and alien people, speaking a strange, guttural tongue, speeding down the wide, tree-lined avenues in large Mercedes limousines flying Nazi flags or pushing their way along the sidewalks that now belonged to them. They were truly the über Mensch , and it was their destiny to conquer and rule the world.
Within two weeks an amazing transformation had taken place. Signs in German appeared everywhere. Statues of French heroes had been knocked down and the swastika flew from all state buildings. German efforts to eradicate everything Gallic reached ridiculous proportions. The markings on hot and cold water taps were changed from chaud and froid to heiss and kalt . The place de Broglie in Strasbourg became Adolf Hitler Platz. Statues of Lafayette, Ney and Kleber were dynamited by squadrons of Nazis. Inscriptions on the monuments for the dead were replaced by “GEFALLEN FUR DEUTSCHLAND.”
The German occupation troops were enjoying themselves. While French food was too rich and covered with too many sauces, it was still a pleasant
One day Susie Roberts, a classmate from Senn, stopped Catherine in the corridor. “I want to say good-bye, Cathy. I’m leaving.”
“Where are you going?”
“The Klondike.”
“The Klondike? ”
“Washington, D.C. All the girls are striking gold there. They say for every girl there are at least a hundred men. I like those odds.” She looked at Catherine. “What do you want to stick around this place for? School’s a drag. There’s a whole big world waiting out there.”
“I can’t leave just now,” Catherine said. She was not sure why: She had no real ties in Chicago. She corresponded regularly with her father in Omaha and talked to him on the telephone once or twice a month and each time he sounded as though he were in prison.
Catherine was on her own now. The more she thought about Washington, the more exciting it seemed. That evening she phoned her father and told him she wanted to quit school and go to work in Washington. He asked her if she would like to come to Omaha, but Catherine could sense the reluctance in his voice. He did not want her to be trapped, as he had been.
The next morning Catherine went to the dean of women and informed her she was quitting school. Catherine sent a telegram to Susie Roberts and the next day she was on a train to Washington, D.C.
NOELLE
Paris: 1940
4
On Saturday, June 14, 1940, the German Fifth Army marched into a stunned Paris. The Maginot Line had turned out to be the biggest fiasco in the history of warfare and France lay defenseless before one of the most powerful military machines the world had ever known.
The day had begun with a strange gray pall that lay over the city, a terrifying cloud of unknown origin. For the last forty-eight hours sounds of intermittent gunfire had broken the unnatural, frightened silence of Paris. The roar of the cannons was outside the city, but the echoes reverberated into the heart of Paris. There had been a flood of rumors carried like a tidal wave over the radio, in newspapers and by word of mouth. The Boche were invading the French coast…London had been destroyed…Hitler had reached an accord with the British government…The Germans were going to wipe out Paris with a deadly new bomb. At first each rumor had been taken as gospel, creating its own panic, but constant crises finally exert a soporific effect, as though the mind and body, unable to absorb any further terror, retreat into a protective shell of apathy. Now the rumor mills had ground to a complete halt, newspaper presses had stopped printing and radio stations had stopped broadcasting. Human instinct had taken over from the machines, and the Parisians sensed that this was a day of decision. The gray cloud was an omen.
And then the German locusts began to swarm in.
Suddenly Paris was a city filled with foreign uniforms and alien people, speaking a strange, guttural tongue, speeding down the wide, tree-lined avenues in large Mercedes limousines flying Nazi flags or pushing their way along the sidewalks that now belonged to them. They were truly the über Mensch , and it was their destiny to conquer and rule the world.
Within two weeks an amazing transformation had taken place. Signs in German appeared everywhere. Statues of French heroes had been knocked down and the swastika flew from all state buildings. German efforts to eradicate everything Gallic reached ridiculous proportions. The markings on hot and cold water taps were changed from chaud and froid to heiss and kalt . The place de Broglie in Strasbourg became Adolf Hitler Platz. Statues of Lafayette, Ney and Kleber were dynamited by squadrons of Nazis. Inscriptions on the monuments for the dead were replaced by “GEFALLEN FUR DEUTSCHLAND.”
The German occupation troops were enjoying themselves. While French food was too rich and covered with too many sauces, it was still a pleasant
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