Evening Star Newspaper, November 29, 1931, Page 55

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. NOVEMBER 29, 1931—PART THREE. P o 13 “Mother, May We Go Up to Fly?” BY-KATHLEENEIERIS It isn't always the troublesome, wild, wasteful sons who break their mother’s hearts. All children, good and bad, dull and smart, seem to have a genius for doirg that. How many American mothers have thcught about Mrs. Herndon and Mrs. Pangborn? These are the two mothers of the boys who hopped off from New York in the very last days of last July, for a round-the-world air record. ‘These two lcne flyers successfully crossed the ocean, and landed in Moscow. They flew on to Siberia, and came down with a broken wing Knowing that they were down on the earth, and whole, probably gave the distraught mothers a_few nights of sleep, before these enterprising gentlemen were arrested in Japan charged with taking photographs of fortiffeatioris and thus delayed in the execution of a fresh plan——merely to try for a record non-stop flight from Tokio to the State of Washington. ‘The chances of this flight succeeding were estimated at about 40 to 1. Minus their landing apparatus, down they came safely, with only a record smashed. They had won. But it makes one wonder. Just how much may children ask of their mothers, anyway? We talk a good deal of what mothers may demard of their children, and we are whittling it down year after year, we are taking it further and.further away from the old Oriental idea that the parents are semi-divine, that sons and daughter: s, and sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, too—owe the old people complete fealty. are to be d}l‘xflrfi(;d and controlied by them, as long as these same old persons B ive. We know, however much we hate to admit it. that we mean less to our children than they do to us. It's a sad truth, but it's truth ncne the leSs. They want to get away from us, and lead their own lives. They love us, but loving us doesn't mean they want to spoil us, to linger about us. We put our parents over every and any hurdle that came along, when we were ycung, and we have to take our own medicine now, and like it. But one wonders if boys know what they ask, when they demand mother's permission to take 40-to-1 risks in the air. The question is, Do we owe our sons anything, where their ambitions are concerned, or do they owe us anything? In the case of Hugh Hern- don’s mother, what would you do? HE newspapers were headlining Irishwoman to me years ago, “they the superhuman courage of two (make youre arrms ache. But it's no young fiyers, who broke a world | time at all before they get around to Tecord when they landed in the | yure hear'rt!" State of Washington recently.| How many American mothers have One wonders what their mothers | thought about Mrs. Herndon and Mrs. thought about, from the time they flew | Pangborn? These are the two mothers @way from America until they landed |of the boys who hopped off from New s2ifcly in Wenatchee, Wash | York in the very last days of last July It 4sn't always the troublesome, wild for a round-the-world air record. wasteful sons who break their mothers’ | Think of it, your own flesh and hearts. All children, good and bad, |blood, the boy whose every grin and dull and smart, seem to have a genius | freckle, whose voice and whose good- for doing that. night kiss have made your world for “Whin they're small,” said a fine old you, ever since the docior observed to eart to Heart Talk 1 you with epoch-making stmplicity, “sou | sign a statement that she consented to | have a little boy"—think of him, up in | and approved of the venture. the cold, merciless, indifferent air, de- | fying the very first law of physical | matter, the law that heavythings must | come down to earth again: think of him, your own bo; he dark rushing by, the dangerou¢ ma- chinery roaring in his ears, death all | about him. death below him, storm and fire and imflammable ofls and iron_and | steel and wood incompassing him; | think of yourself, watching the news- | papers for news of him, and wonder what we mothers are made of, that we can live through such crises at all! * ok ok ok { 'THOSE two lone fivers successfully crossed the ocean in July and [1anded in Moscow; but they weren't happy. They hadn't broken any rec- |ord there. They flew on to Siberia & few days later and came down with a broken wing Knowing that they were down on the earth, and whole, probably gave the | distraught mothers a few ‘nights of eep, before these enterprising gentle- | men ' were arrested in Japan charged | with taking photographs of fortifica- tions and thus delayed the execution of a fresh plan—merely to try for a record non-stop flight from Tokio to the State of Washington. | Meanwhile they had to settle & fine |of some $2,000 and, like all explorers, | they had no money, they did what all | boys do, they wrote heme for the folks to help 'them out |~ And that put this problem before the charming lady who is Hugh Herndon’s mother. What would you have done about it? Her name is Mrs, Boardman and she is one of the many gentlewomen who e managing small shops. Two thou- sand dollars is a good deal of money | for a woman managing one | spare, * especially | giving her adored child a_fresh op- portunity to risk his life. of this flight succeeding were estimated at about 40 to 1. Forty chances to |one that you never will feel that big| month night. | boy's arms about vou again, or have a lonelier country still; | him take you to a foot ball game at|dangers that made even the Aleutians | jaws blown away or their splendid deep which you have to pretend that you are tremendously excited, when your com- panion is really the only thing you see, 40 chances to 1 vou will have to change the proud “T I "'to a quieter “I. had,” when a one asks you if you have a child UT this woman the necessary State Department ds. she secured permis- with the fog and | | | | d more than raise | Prize 3 Through the | Circles as “twenty-five grand x | sion from the Japanese government for | the flight, and to do that she had to She did all this after having written to try to dissuade him; suggesting that they put the plane on a boat and come | home. But their hearts were set on the further venture, and mother-like, when she realized that, she gave in. On October 3 these two men left Samushiro Beach, near Tokio, and up into the unknown and uncharted air they buzzed, casting off their landing gear as they started, to lighten the airship. Lighten it they unquestionably did, but they thereby added to all the| dangers they were already facing, the terrible one of a bad landing. They knew, during those 41 hours, that they might indeed break a record, that they | might indeed reach Wenatchee, Wash., safely, only to come down to the ground in a’mass of crushed wings, smashed | engines, and what Kipling eloquently describes as ‘“red waste.” This probably occurred to the moth- ers, too. ok % JELL, it is all air history now, that glorious history that the younger generations take so cheerfully for granted at the breakfast table. Pang- | born and Herndon zummed steadily on, | through empty space, snatching naps, | eating _ sandwiches, ' watching _dials. Once their engine went dead, and for | & long time the airship was weighted with that_horror of the air, ice filming | and packing on the wings. To me the most thrilling moment in therr flight, more exciting than the start from Tokio at 2 o'clock on a Sat- urday afternoon, or the triumphant landing at Wenatchee, Wash, in the United States of America, at 7:15 on the Monday morning following, was the newspaper report on Sunday that down to the lonely, fog-wrapped, storm- shrouded Aleutian Islands, up in the Bering Sea, had dropped the throbbing of them to | beat of that steadily pulsing airplane, for the purpose of |fighting its way onward to its goal. | | The Aleutian Islands, and the Bering The chances | S¢a sound des they suggest notl pemmican, bergs, ice-packs and a si But these boys were in theirs were seem cosy and homelike. Minus their landing apparatus, down they came safely, with only a record smashed, and forward rmed _the uproarious crowd, the bands and ban- ners, the reporters and the photog- raphers, and the representative of a Japanese newspaper with the promised of what is known in sporting % > 'HEY had won. And my congratu- lations to them upon their achieve- ' About Gifts A =i GAIN Christmas approaches! You will want the gift you give to be sensible—to please —ahove all, to reflect your good taste. It does, then, make a difference what you choose and where you choose it. gift conference tonight. Have you thought of furniture? Hold a family It is much more satisfac- tory to give one large thing instead of a lot of use- less little things. At Mayer & Co. you can happily choose a gift of Lifetime Furniture and make it a gift from all the family to all the family Why not do it tomorrow? Parking Service—Drive to Our Rear Entrance—Your Car Will Be Parked No Interest Charge for Deferred Payments at Mayer & Co. =Y MAYER & CO. Seventh Street [EETIME FURNITURE Between D and E | admit it, that we mean less to our chil- | night, always to ask moher about the ment, and to their mothers upon the possibility of a few nights’ sleep again But it makes one wonder. Just how much may children ask of their moth- ers, anyway? We talk a good deal of what mothers may demand of their children, and we are whittling it down vear after year; we are taking it farther and farther away from the old Oriental idea that the parents are semi-divine, that sons and daughters—yes, and sons- | in-law and daughters-in-law, too—owe the old people complete feaity, are to be directed and controlled by them, as long as these same old persons shall live, and, in extreme cases, may legitimately killed by their fathers and mothers for disobedience and disloyalty. We know, however much we hate to dren that they do to us. It's a sad truth, but it's truth none the less. They want' to get away from us and_lead their own lives; we want them always with us, always to be tucked up at| day’'s plans. They love us, of course, truly and deeply, but loving us doesn't mean qu‘\' want to spoil us, to linger gbout us. to pick up our old toys or ou¥ discarded sweaters and press them to their hard young cheeks with that ache of pas- sionate devotion that _only mothers know: to open old desk drawers and study pictures of us as we were 20 years ago, with tears in their eyes. R INO: we put our parents over every | and any hurdle thet came almml when we were young, and we have to take our own medicine now and like it. | But one wonders if boys know what they ask when they demand mother’s | permission to take 40 to 1 risks in the air. When they say casually to a friend in an amused undertone, “That was awful stuff we were drinking last night. ‘Where d'you suppose he got it? Bob was all but laid out.” When they report that the new car ‘goes up to 70" without any trouble at all. When the war talk starts and they joyfully enlist to have their adored lungs shriveled and numbed for life. When_they shriek triumphantly, “I EMBROIDERING HANDKER- CHIEFS FOR CHRISTMAS. Modest ze only if handkerc from us. : Guest Towels, lunch- eon sets, etc. very reasonable. The EMBROIDERY SHOP 827-20 11th N.W. | way. made the team!” from downstairs, and before the eyes of the mother who comes down to congratulate them there rises a vision of shoulders wrenched out of place, teeth knocked in, and broken ‘nose bones. When they—but there's no end to it, and all_ mothers know this litany an: ‘The question is, Do we owe our sons anything, where their ambitions are concerned, or do they owe us any thing? In the case of Hugh Herndon mother, what would you do? (Copyright, 1931.) | Mss: Pacdito Lécrure | House at a tea and reception this art- | ernoon, fl:euguenflpnlker of the Ameri- ¥ = P e can Association of University Women at While Visiting C’P"“Ija tea tomorrow, Monday, afternogn: Mrs, Daniel Melroy Paul of Pitts-| the guest of the Women's City Club burgh, Pa., is the house guest of Miss| Wednesday evening the guest E. Agnes Dillon and Miss Junetta S.| SPeaker at the Covenant-Pirst Presby- . o.| terian Church Friday evening, when she Dillon in their home on Woodley place. | {crian Church Friday evening, whe Mrs. Paul, & noted writer and lec- turer, who with her husband, the Rev. | . Dr. Daniel Melroy Paul, has just re-| : turned from an extensive trip in the| A recent census showed that 75 per | Orient, will be the guest of the Na-|cent of the judges in Scotland are tional Women's Party at Alva Belmont golfers. lFURNITURé Buy Your Favorite RADIO from Mayer & Co. Standard Makes at Standard Prices With NO Interest for Deferred Payments Parking Service—Drive to Rear Entrance. Your Car Will Be Parked N W PHILCO MODELS Highboy Model 70 Complete with 7 Tubes 6575 Here is a Radio yan will like and enjoy! Tt is an exquisitely done cabinet ir. walnut principally. This Philco has tone control, new Electric Dynamic Speaker and seven tubes, in- cluding new Pentode Power Tube. Let us demonstrate this Philco today. No obligation on your part. OTHER PHILCO RADIOS Mulos- $89175 MM Te1G0M7S Model 90— $69-50 Model lll—s]69.50 $49.95 Yewiu-g149 50 Baby Grand Highboy. .. Model 70— Baby Grand ATEST BOSCH MODELS Console Model 20-L Complete with 8 Tubes $139:50 An 8tube Superheterodyne of impressive grace and dignity. Sliding doors, height 4415 inches, width 257 inches, depth 1412 inches, with superior Bosch tone quality. OTHER BOSCH MODELS Model 5-A—Compact Type Model 20-J—Console T\pe$89 50 » ATWATER KENT MODELS Console Model 83 Complete with 6 Tubes #89 Lowboy—SuYerhnerod)na—V-ri-bls Mu-tubes and Pentode. Tone control. Electric Dynamic Speaker of advanced design. Quiek- See this and t:a other Atwater Kents at Mayer & Co. Model 80—Compact Style. Model 82—Compact th$69'80 Model 89—Highboy Style. 8132 . o Custom-Buir MopeLs General Motors Radios At Standard Prices STROMBERG-CARLSON I R. C. A. VICTOR No Interest Charge for Deferred Payments MAYER & CO. Seventh Street Between D and E