A LESSON I LEARNED
Shortly after leaving for the front there came an order that our
section was to be inspected by one of the captains from one of the
large auto parks at the front. This meant that the general cleaning day
was at hand. Naturally, we all started brushing and polishing motors
and revolving parts to make as good a showing as possible.
When we were given our cars we were allotted certain equipment in
tools, extra tires, etc., all of which we had to inventory and sign
for, as each driver was held responsible for the equipment that was
distributed. I noticed, while taking stock of what was on our car, a
little paint brush that looked as if it had the “mange,” but I listed
one brush and threw it into the tool chest and soon forgot that I had
ever seen it.
This particular day the happy thought came to me that with the
assistance of some petrol (kerosene) and my little mangy brush I would
be able to get at some parts of my car that I could not clean or reach
by hand. After a few minutes’ search the brush was found and I began
work. I had not gone very far when I noticed that the few straggly
brisks that were in the brush when I commenced had disappeared and that
nothing remained but the handle.
In true American fashion, without any thought, I tossed the handle into
a rubbish heap and dismissed it from my mind. The boys on the next car
to me were using a brush in the same manner as I employed mine and were
getting good results. I said to one of them:
“Have you got another brush?” to which I received a negative answer,
but one of the boys said: “I saw some little brushes in the Bureau”
(office). As it was close at hand I walked over and asked one of the
sergeants on duty for a brush. He asked: “Is there not a brush on your
car?” I told him that there had been about a quarter of a brush, but
that when I used it all the brisks had come out of the handle. He then
demanded the handle.
“Oh! I threw that away,” I replied.
“Well, I’m sorry but you will have to get along without a brush,” said
he brusquely.
There before me lay a small bundle of brushes; mine was worn out, no
good for further use to anyone, and discarded, yet I could not have a
brush. I pressed my point a little farther in a most persuasive style,
but met with not the slightest encouragement, and I soon saw the reason
for the refusal.
When a new brush is issued the old one must be turned in. There is
no trouble in getting new equipment, if needed, but the old must be
exchanged for the new, even though it were just the handle of a brush.
Any part of returned equipment that can be used saves just that much
in the making over of the article. This is the thrift of the thrifty
French. What American would ever do otherwise than I did? When a thing
wears out with us it is discarded—but not with them.
Well, I set out at once for the rubbish pile to reclaim the handle that
I might get a new brush. It so happened that at the time I discarded
the handle another of our sergeants, standing close by, after I left
for the Bureau, walked over, picked it up, and put it under the
cushion on my car. Of course, when I returned the handle was gone. We
looked high and low but in vain. We finished cleaning our car minus a
brush. But a day or so later I happened to look under the cushion for
something and there was the handle. I returned it to the Bureau and the
sergeant who had picked it up was on duty.
“Well,” said he, “I thought you would be around for a new brush, and
to get it you would have to turn in the old handle, so I picked it up
after you left and put it back on the car.”
This was my lesson. Learned early, I never threw anything away after
that. This regulation held good on everything,—tires, tubes and all.
If you lost a spare tire enroute, it was your funeral when you needed
it for a change. Without some part of the old one, you could not
obtain a new one. It was amusing, in a sense, to note the effect this
regulation produced when, for example, we would change an inner tube
on the road. Before we would think of starting again, we would check
up all the lugs, valves, nuts and caps, for we knew full well we would
get no new inner tube for the old one unless we turned in all the parts
when we desired an exchange.