FOR BROKEN HEARTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 271, 26 August 1943, Page 3

FOR BROKEN HEARTS.

ORIGINAL AMERICAN CLUB.

SYMPATHY FOR THE JILTED,

SYDNEY, August 4

“Weeping Willows” among United States servicemen in the South-west Pacific are forming brush-off clubs. In American slang “weeping willows are men whose sweethearts have given them the “brush-off” (jilted them). This week’s “Yank Down Under” [South-west Pacific United States Army magazine) tells how brush-off clubs can be formed. Only servicemen whose girls have pilted them since they jointed the United States foices can become club members. Each member must have a heart which is either “broken, dented or demolished.” Under brush-off rules every man jilted in favour of a civilian is automatically n vice-president. Grounds for membership must include the following: The girl has mairied somebody else. She has begun casually to mention in her letters dates with other guys, and doesn t start out with “Dearest darling any more. She is engaged or “practically engaged” to somebody else. Servicemen who “don’t know where they stand, but the mail doesn t bring in sugar reports any longer, become prospective, or “just sweating members.” Members must sympathise with one another, and sweat (cry; with other members. They must attend a weekly meeting to initiate new followers, and offer their shoulders for crying purposes.