Box Socials. W. Kinsella P.

with him. They’d drive up to New Oslo and buy gas, then head over to Doreen Beach, where the brick general store with glass windows had an ice house attached and, for about two hours twice a week had ice-cream cones available, the two hours being right after Curly McClintock had unloaded from his dump truck the grocery order from the wholesale in Edmonton, which included a gallon tub of ice cream.

      Once word got around about the Lakustas by the lake having acquired their very own American soldier, they had an inordinate number of visitors, including my daddy and me, who just happened to drive four miles out of our way after a trip in our horse and cart, to Fark General Store of a Saturday afternoon. It was, my daddy said, about as crowded at the Lakustas by the lake, as it had been years before when we acquired our very own radio, for the widow, Mrs. Beatrice Ann Stevenson, was there, as were just about every family in the Six Towns area who had an eligible daughter.

      The Little American Soldier, and Victor Lakusta, Lavonia’s youngest brother, demonstrated to me how to fold a khaki handkerchief the way a parachute was supposed to be folded, how to put a stone in the middle, how to toss the handkerchief and the stone into the air, how to duck the stone and watch the parachute float to earth just like dandelion fluff. I never did master folding the handkerchief, and after I got home I folded one of Daddy’s red bandannas like I thought a parachute should be folded, put a stone in the middle and tossed it in the air, where the stone came out but the still-wadded bandanna dropped straight down in a soft lump. The stone hit me on the top of the head causing a small hard lump and severely damaged pride. After that I remembered to duck the stone but the parachute never opened properly even once.

      When it became apparent to the families with eligible daughters, that the Little American Soldier was smitten by Lavonia Lakusta, the discovery unleashed a certain amount of jealousy. Folks in the Six Towns area, not only those with eligible daughters, for the widow, Mrs. Beatrice Ann Stevenson, who had no daughters, or children at all for that matter, and Mrs. Edytha Rasmussen Bozniak, whose daughter, Velvet, wouldn’t be eligible for five or six years, depending on what age one considered a daughter eligible, were jealous that it was Lavonia Lakusta who landed the Little American Soldier, and in their jealousy began asking themselves philosophical questions like, Why couldn’t the Little American Soldier’s camouflage-brindle, two-ton truck have broken down a mile from their house, instead of over by Bjornsen’s Corner? Or, Why couldn’t the Bjornsens have steered the Little American Soldier their way, instead of arranging for him to board and room with the Lakustas by the lake?

      The more outspoken asked questions like, How come the Bjornsens, who were Norwegians through and through, didn’t steer the most eligible bachelor to hit the Six Towns area in ten years to a Norwegian family with an eligible daughter, instead of to a Ukrainian family with two eligible daughters? That question got asked philosophically, then got asked out loud, then got asked directly to the Bjornsens, and got asked so loudly on a couple of occasions that a shoving match ensued, though it was broken up before it progressed to an altercation, a fist fight, or a genuine brouhaha, and before any blood was drawn on either side.