Swing (Jan-Dec 1945)

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LOCAL BOY 21 "The Sarge" is S/Sgt. Karl L. Peterson of Kansas City, New Delhi, and points Far East. He used to play baseball and swim and go to school in Kansas City. Now he's holding his own pale hands beside the Shalimar. Technically, he was a feature writer for one of the better publications to come out of this war — the CBl Roundup, published by and for the China, Burma, India Headquarters of the United States Army Forces. And as a roving reporter, Karl does get around. He got around to our office, along in December. We put him through a mild third degree and learned a lot of things that a lot of Kansas City people knew long before us. Such as: Karl went to Southwest High School and then to the Junior College when it was located downtown in that dark old building that looks dingy as a third-hand textbook. From there he went out to the University of Kansas City and graduated in 1940. He majored in history and political science. Which sounds awfully stuffy and impressive for a person who can turn right around and write of his sojourn in Kashmir: "You'll return to hear friends say enviously, 'My, how brown and dissipated-looking you are!' " But that's our Sarge for you! He's that rare combination of good student and cute kid. (And we don't mean cute kid in the sense of a child actor.) He was sports editor of the University News, also, and besides dashing about baseball diamonds and basketball courts ("blond flash" they called him in those days!) he was one of the better swimmers at the Athletic Club. In fact, he'd just come from there when he dropped in for a chat with the editorial us. We asked him about India. He told us, "It just smells bad." (Shalimar by any other name would raise as much of a stench — and we don't mean that stuff put out by Guerlain.) Calcutta and New Delhi are the best stations. Especially New Delhi, which is a planned city, very beautiful, and the cleanest.. But even there, there are drawbacks. Ice is available, but there's not much of it; light bulbs are $1.80 apiece. And all over that contradictory country you'll see such sights as streamlined locomotives and water buffaloes— all in the same glance. We were interested in the Sarge's comments on young India's passion for schoolin". He tells us they watch the papers for the published examination grades as avidly as we'd watch for football scores. That's young India, though, he reminds us . . . the rest of them spend their time trying to get enough rice. The most knocked-out piece of Baedeker this side of The 7v(eu) 'Yor\er is Sgt. Peterson's account of his visit to Kashmir. (Aforequoted several times in this same article.) It appeared last October in the CBl Roundup, and we can't resist passing along a few choice bits: "After two nights of shivering insomnia in the low mountain temperatures, you transfer to a houseboat on a conveniently located lake just two hours boat-ride from town. "Here, with five rooms, four servants, a sun deck and a well fitted little cook boat riding out back you can fairly take it on the plush. Just relax in your easy chair, gaze out at the lakes and mountains, and holler at the bearer for tea. "Houseboat bathrooms feature running water, but it's the bhisti, or water bearer, who comes running, with the stuff in a pail. Bathing in the narrow confines of a tin 'Grandma' tub in two inches of tepid water is a neat trick; the secret is not to try to immerse yourself by contortions. A friend of ours, thus engaged, got over on the back of his neck once and would have drowned but for the timely arrival of a sweeper who had come to haul another load away." He has a lot to say, too, about the boatmen who operate in more ways than one on the Kashmir lakes. Their craft have flowery names and inevitable commercials: "Garden of Heaven — best spring seats," for example. And Kashmir's wool weavers and walnut carvers do business under monickers just as startling: "Suffering Moses," or "Cheerful Chippendale." "Curio buyers are advised by the local Provost Marshal to make no deposit-down-on-future-delivery deals, as some optimists in the past who thought