Buffalo Seminary - Seminaria Yearbook (Buffalo, NY)

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28 SEMINARIA 1943 Influence A heavy umbrella of smoke gathered over four men as they allowed their cigars to bum on while they played cards. Each man was in his late forties but had already made his name famous as a leader in his own particular line. Cne was an editor of a large newspaper, next was a sternfchinned Admiral, the third, a man' ager of a large steel concern, and the last, a doctor. Several years ago they had met here at the club to play cards, but since the war had broken out they had played rarely because the Admiral was so infrequently there. They talked in low voices, occasionally laughing at bygone times, and when the card game was finished they eased back in their Morris chairs and sipped their drinks. A loud knock was heard on the cardfroom door as a young boy in the Army Air Corps made his entrance and interrupted the quiet interlude with an abrupt greeting to his father, the Admiral. The boy left just as abruptly as he had come, after he had collected a few dollars. Two men smiled at the Admiral and the third one spoke, A hne thing, a son of the Admiral in the Army. The others smiled, but a grave look came over the Admiral's face, It wasn't my wish, I assure you. I have hoped ever since he was born that he would join the Navy, but it seems that some girl thinks different. Four men looked down in their glasses, each remembering the one who had influenced him. The editor was the first to speak, I guess somewhere in every man's life there is some woman who influences him, whether it be his mother, his sister, or some girl, and here a smile lit his tired face. There was in mine. The three men looked up with questioning eyes and then, little by little, they told their individual stories. The editor began. Well, it isn't a very long story and the person was a young girl, sort of a crazy kid, whom I met in New York during the last world war. She wasn't very bright, but she could make you laugh and she could dance like a fairy all night and never tire. I wrote her when I went to France and she said sheloved my letters and conf tinually she wrote me and encouraged me to continue writing, for she said I could color lifeless things with words and paint a picture clearly in a few short sentences.

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SEMINARIA IQ43 27 the newlyfstripped pillow, and grew hysterical. With a sigh of rapture I reached to my desk and pulled at a narrow blue book that had a white marker stuck in the middle. The volume of poems was nine days overdue from the library, but it was well worth the fine to be able to recite in a triumphant voice, Go, forget me! Why should sorrow O'er that brow a shadow fling? Go, forget me, and tofmorrow Brightly smile and sweetly sing! Smile-though I shall not be near theeg Sing-though I shall never hear thee! With a purely malicious purpose, I danced around the room, overturning every' thing in sight as I repeated in a singfsong refrain, Smile-though I shall not be 'near theeg Sing-though I shall never hear thee! BABETTE Bum, '43 0 CHANGES Have you ever noticed how people change- With the seasons? This summer he was warm as the burning sands where we met, He chilled with the autumn winds And now- When we meet His words are as nonchalant and cool As the feathery snowflakes That swirl about our heads And his heart- Is carved of ice. I SUZANNB MISCHKA, '44

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SEMINARIA IQ43 29 So I became a reporter and here I am. Did you ever see her after the war? No, I lost contact with her and when I went to look for her I couldn't find her. I sometimes think she is the reason I never married. The Admiral was next. It was a girl in my life too, an ambitious little, spoiled kid, who went up to the Maine coast every summer. She was like a boy, lithe and active. We used to sail on the ocean and she could climb to the topsails of our schooner as fast as any of us boys could and steer a ship straighter than Einstein could draw a line. We used to talk a lot about the Navy, but I wanted to join the tank battalion and when the war was declared she all but dragged me into the Navy recruiting oihce, regardless of my wishes. She said we belonged to the sea and at least one of us was going to command a ship and since she was a girl, I should join the Navy. I know now that she was right. And what became of her? I don't really know. You see she was more like another boy. She never needed much manly protection, so when I married Alice, I lost track of her. The influence in my life, began the manager, was an American girl I met in France after the war. She loved gaiety, clothes, and everything that was lavish and expensive. She had the beauty to go with them too. I met her at a dinner a friend gave, and I guess I was awed by her proud carriage and her sophisticated ways. I was only twentyfiive then, with no ambitiong but she put the lire and brimstone into me which has led me to the top. I often wonder what became of her and if she ever found the man she was looking for in France, a writer of some sortf Last came the doctor. We all seemed to have had a girl in our lives, for mine too was a girl. Not as vivacious as the girl in Paris or as lithe as yours, Admiral, but when she died I thought I would too. I met her twenty years ago out home. She had tuberculosis and had come west to be cured. We didn't know it though, when we gave her a job as math teacher in our school. She was quiet and domestic and it wasn't until she became really ill that we knew what was wrong with her. It was an awful