THOSE DAYS WERE..."SWELL"

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ALL AMERICA WAS "SWELL!"
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We've watched the classic WWII movie about PT boats,
"They Were Expendable" ---many times! John Wayne was
 never better and Robert Montgomery was very believable in
his role as "Brickley," the commander who spirited MacArthur
out of the Phillippines, before the surrender at Corregidor. (The
 real name of the PT commander was Lt. John D. Bulkeley.  He
was given the Medal of Honor for this feat.)

In real life, Montgomery was actually a naval officer. This movie
was made by John Ford in 1945; he became ill during the filming
and turned the directing over to Montgomery, who did such a fine
job hat he later directed movies.

There is a scene, late in this movie which is unforgettable; at this

 unfortunate time in American history, when our personnel were far
 from home, lonely,  and beset by the Japanese,  John Wayne invites
beautiful Donna Reed, a Corregidor Tunnel nurse, to dine at the PT
boat base at Sisiman Cove with him, Brickley, and the several other
officers of Motor Torpedo Squadron Three.

At the little command shack, a table is set up and the best possible
dinner is provided under the wartime conditions. Donna is serenaded
outside by an enlisted men's quartet, singing with their hats off, and from
 their hearts: "Dear old girl, the robin sings above you.. dear old girl, it
speaks of how I love you!"

At the end of this wonderful evening..."American girl---American boy...
" ten thousand miles from home... and in sad and perilous times...Donna
Reed says to John: "This evening was SWELL."

The Beloved Editor and I never watch that movie that we don't comment
on that long-lost word of mid-twentieth century America---"SWELL." Think
back on it yourself---remember---almost all things were "SWELL."

To us today, the term maybe sounds a bit archaic and out-of- date. There are
 likely many young people who've never heard it--- at least not as a praise
 adjective.

But make no mistake, it was a good word---a good mid-twentieth century
 American word! In many ways, it was a  term that, though it sounds dated,
epitomized the simpler times of the period---good "American" times---"swell
times."

"Swell" I guess, meant something like "nice," "good," "okay," "pleasant,"
"desirable..."

I must have been some of those things because yesterday while searching
for an old photo in the CHS 1951 Yearbook, I got to reading through the
 inscriptions, and my annual was full of the word "SWELL!" (Check yours.)
Everything... was swell---"swell game," "swell time," "swell play," "swell
musical," "swell party," and me---"swell guy!"

While leafing through the old annual, I came across the cheerleaders: "My
they look 'swell' in their nice uniforms," I thought. I could almost see them,
down front, at the old Wildcat Stadium, leading the cheers.

I ran across all kinds of memories from those times---the football, basketball
teams---the pictures of various clubs, the staff of high school teachers, the
school plays, musicals, and on and on...these people were all swell to me.

Looking at a cast of Mr. Barton's students, standing onstage at the end of
one of our musicals, I thought of a favorite song that we used, from "The
Student Prince," one that I never forgot;

"Golden days, in the sunshine of our happy youth
Golden days, full of innocence and full of truth,
In our hearts we remember them all else above...
Golden days, full of youth and love.

How we laughed, with the joy that only love can bring
Looking back through memories haze...
We would know life has nothing sweeter than its springtime,
Golden days, when we're young,
Golden Days!".     
.........Dorothy Donelly

We could go on recalling all the good things of those days, and we have
enumerated them in other posts,  but I think the song, above, kind of 
expresses it for all of us.

Those Golden Days of our youth and mid-century America...

Were "SWELL!"

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BY MIL
7-11-13