The Gentle Art of Loafing

            There is no question in my mind but that to loaf, and to loaf continuously, requires the patience of an ox, and is the result of diligent effort and concentration.  Loafers may be divided into two classes, the habitual loafer, and the spasmodic loafer.  You and I possibly belong to the latter class. At times I am seized with spasm of industry, usually for very short periods, and then back I go to the other extreme.  I am a spasmodic loafer.

            The habitual loafer is a person of unusual ability.  Loafing successfully is one of the hardest of tasks.  We have all seen the average types, one of America’s many cake-eaters, or the typically American country store whittler.

            Do you know I had a very unhappy vacation a few months back.  Why?  Well, I had nothing to do but loaf.  I was quarantined at home because of a small brother, slightly ill with scarlet fever.  My, but time dragged, and yet I was doing what I had always wanted to do.  I soon found myself fixing things up around home, reading books and magazines I had scorned before.  So great and consistent became my industry that I am sure mother was secretly worried.  Well, anyhow I was very glad to get back to hard work again, after two weeks in which I had little to do but loaf.

            The pleasure of loafing I found is in anticipation; realization held nothing but disappointment.  And so I insist that continuous loafing is a man-sized job – is almost an art.

Don Warner, The Freshman Scrapbook, May 1925