proper size, along with such insignia as would be nec- essary to identify her as a captain, and loaded them in the Buick. She drove to the building and took over her apartment. Later she shopped for such civilian clothes as she thought she might need.

Charlene decided not to place a permanent tenant in No. 3 apartment. She'd reserve it for use by any feminine character she might desire to play for a day or so. At various times she played an airline steward- a beauty operator (in this impersonation she dress- ed the wigs for the other tenants), a chorus girl, a visiting teacher from the Mid-West. By playing Annette, Flo, Capt. Draper, Mrs. Ackerman, Lucille, and these others, she passed the time pleasantly.

ess,

One day she discovered a store that specialized in imports from Japan, including Japanese clothing. Нар- pily she dressed herself as a Japanese girl. This gave her the idea of impersonating the girls of other count- ries, so she used the phonebook to find stores that im- ported such clothing. The magnitude of her success amazed her. She found sufficient clothing in such places to impersonate girls from France, England, Ger- many, Russia, Italy, China, India, Egypt and Mexico.

So the summer months passed pleasantly enough, and then fall had passed, she had an enormous amount of food stored in the various kitchens, enough clothing to keep her happy with many changes, and gasoline for the generator engine so she would have plenty of elec- tricity. She considered herself all set for the winter.

About the middle of March something happened to the electric generator, and Mrs. Ackerman could never get it to produce any more electricity. This cut off all light, heat and water. She toiled long hours break- ing up the furniture in the apartments and carrying it up the stairs to burn in her fireplace.

She became so weary she quit trying to play even Annette. She was content to be plain Charlene Newman a young woman all alone in the world. She continued to take care of her skin, hair and nails as well as she could. She was compelled to melt snow for water to drink, bathe and cook with. She cooked in the fire-

42.