"We cut the deck and drew an ace, '42 will set
--University of Pennsylvania Class of
1942 cheer

THE JUBAL EARLY HOMES, govermnent-rented to veterans
only, was a dilapidated set of jerry-built barracks situated
in a near-swamp on the outskirts of Alexandria, Virginia,
and here, in the mud and in the smell of sour milk and dirty
diapers, lived John and Mary Drone with their two infant
children. Through their fiberboard walls they could easily
hear the racket of near-by National Airport and the constant
roar of trucks on Route One. These sounds came through
as a sort of background to the lighter, more immediate tones
of their neighbors' radios, cursing, love-making and crying
babies. It wasn't precisely Heaven, but the Drones at first
were glad to have one of the apartments and Mary bravely
tried to make theirs into something resembling a home.

She fought her losing battle for nearly a year, but the end
came the day she saw a roach grazing on her baby's face.
With a little cry of horror, Mary snatched up the sleeping
child, and as she did so, other roaches scuttered deeper
into the folds of the crib blankets. Mary was still crying

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