The Ville:

The Ville, as it was, thrived on the money of soldiers, alcohol, and lots of beautiful yet impoverished women, so the youngest and most naïve of soldiers soon discovered their advantage: they had the money, so they made the rules. They knew it was fleeting, so they enjoyed it. The Ville was therefore an actualized state of mind wherein shameless revelry led the way. Career soldiers have even more advantage in every way. They have more experience and intimate knowledge, having encountered the Ville before, and are not at all beyond temptation. This includes even the most senior field-grade officers, although the latter were certainly more discreet. No matter, boys will be boys, and “a great many of those who talk most eloquently…about decency and self-restraint…live in pursuit of every sort of lust.” Indeed, licentiousness dates from time immemorial; witness the birth in ancient Greek poetry of the f-word, dating from the sixth-century BC, 2,600 years before it entered our language through By Love Possessed. It has since achieved the singular distinction of becoming the most hackneyed English term in usage today.

As to alcohol, Ogden Nash got it right when he penned his insightful truth on breaking ice: “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.” And so it is that booze energized the Ville and gave it life. For some, however, this all led to ruin; for others, near ruin. I witnessed this more often than I would care to report, yet as that is the purpose of this chapter; I will do so after making a definition from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED): “transcribe… 1. a. trans. To make a copy of (something) in writing; to copy out from an original [my italics]; to write (a copy).”

In that regard, what follows is an honest and faithful effort to transcribe original events without modification, literary license, or untruth.

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