Banner Graphic, Volume 14, Number 154, Greencastle, Putnam County, 6 March 1984 — Page 4

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The Putnam County Banner-Graphic, March 6,1984

Dear Abby Time running out for grandparents against adoption

DEAR ABBY: Our 17-year-old son and his 16-year-old girlfriend have gotten themselves in trouble. The baby is due next month, and we are frantic! They have decided not to get married and are putting the baby up for adoption instead. The girl’s parents wholeheartedly support this decision, and to our sorrow, so does our son. We, as the child’s grandparents, are opposed to this adoption idea. Because our son is a minor, he needs our signature on the adoption papers along with his own. The girl s parents must also sign the adoption papers, and, of course, they will. Our son, who will be 18 in November, says if we refuse to sign, the baby will go from the hospital to a foster home and stay there until our son turns 18 and can sign without us. Do we have any rights in this matter? Hurry, please. Time is running out. CARING PARENTS DEAR PARENTS: The laws relating to adoption and minors differ drastically from state to state, so it’s not possible to tell you what your rights are, if indeed you have any concerning the future of your soon-to-be-born grandchild. The physically ill lose no time in consulting physicians whom they gladly pay for their services.

Hints from Heloise Sharpening steel trick to keeping knives in sharp condition

DEAR HELOISE; I was recently married and one of the gifts I received was a set of very good knives. I have never sharpened knives or otherwise cared for them, so I need help. Could you tell me what to do? Margie IJttle ★ ★ ★ One of the first rules you should learn is this: Never just throw knives into a drawer that contains a hodgepodge of assorted cutlery. Instead, if you don’t already have one, invest in a good wooden knife holder to protect the sharp edge of the blade. Another wise investment is buying a good sharpening steel one with a medium grain for sharpening the knife

Sticker shock Consumers foot bill for Chrysler # s health care

c. 1984 N.Y. Times News Service NEW YORK - Many American employers say the cost of medical care, which has risen more than tenfold in the last two decades, has become an oppressive burden to their businesses. Lee A. lacocca, chairman of the Chrysler Corp., one of the companies hardest hit by workers’ growing medical bills, said that if the nation’s system of health care is not revamped, “You’ll see a lot of broke companies.” The Reagan administration has tried to cope with the in-

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and a fine grain for putting on the finishing touches. To keep the knife in a perfectly sharp condition at all times, follow directions and use the fine grain side of the steel to retouch the blade as you work, then use the coarser steel when you need to resharpen the knife. (Always clean off the knife after using the steel, being very careful to avoid cutting yourself.) If you find the steel difficult to use at first, don't give up. With a little practice you’ll learn to do a first-class job of sharpening those indispensable knives. Heloise POLYESTER BLOUSE Dear Heloise: Is there any hope for a polyester permanent-press blouse that was put into the dryer and now

flation in health-care costs by imposing limits on federal Medicare payments. Several other large corporations, including General Motors, Ford, Citibank, and W.R. Grace, are trying to limit their health costs by pressing workers to pay a larger share of their own medical bills. The workers are resisting, arguing that health benefits are a right they won in collective bargaining. An examination of Chrysler’s problems offers insights into why medical costs have exploded, how they can affect a company and its workers, how

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Why, then, do so many people who need legal services hesitate to consult a lawyer? Please see one. Time is indeed running out. * * * DEAR ABBY: I had plans to get married in June and I need your advice. My future husband is now unemployed, but I have a job. I told him that we could manage on what I make, but he wants to call off the wedding. He says he doesn’t want a woman supporting him. I tried to tell him that a lot of women are working because their husbands are unemployed, but he doesn’t believe me. Please help me change his mind, Abby. I love him and I know we could make it on my job if we are careful. B. IN KENTUCKY DEAR B.: It’s true, in some families the wife is the only one bringing in a paycheck, and it works out fine. But if a man (or woman) does not want to get married—regardless of the reason—l would not try to change his (or her) mind. * * * DEAR ABBY: My husband and I travel a lot by auto-

has permanantly pressed wrinkles? I have rewashed it and hung it up to damp dry, even steamironed it, but it’s still a mess! Anne C. * * ★ While it may be a bit unconventional, I have had success with fabrics (not silks) that were wrinkled by a toohot dryer by spraying them with spray starch, then ironing as usual with the iron turned to the proper setting for the fabric. If there is a danger of the fabric taking on a shine from ironing, use a pressing cloth over the garment. I then rewash the article if necessary. So far, the wrinkles haven’t returned in any of them. Don’t ask me

doctors and hospitals exploit the system, and how intractable the problem appears to be. But Chrysler is also a special case, for these reasons : —Three members of the Chrysler board, lacocca, Douglas A. Fraser, and Joseph A. Califano Jr., consider themselves in many respects responsible for the expensive way the nation’s health care system evolved and are discussing changes. —Chrysler’s medical costs are much greater than those of most other companies. Health insurance premiums alone last year amounted to $6,000 for each employee, double the rate as recently as 1979 and, by one calculation, four times the national average. —Chrysler officials are focusing on their health costs more closely than are officials of most other corporations. Despite its record profits last year, the company’s executives are mindful of the fact that they

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why this works I just know that it has in practically every case. I have used this starch-and-iron method on most all types of fabrics, including acrylics. Heloise WARMING CLOTHES Dear Heloise: With the cool

were recently on the edge of bankruptcy. —The United Automobile Workers fought in vain for years to change the country’s health care system, while Chrysler and the other auto makers sat on their hands. Now the roles are reversed. While the union officially supports national health insurance and other alterations to the system, it is most interested in keeping the health benefits it has won in negotiations over the years. lacocca, Fraser, and Califano meet monthly to discuss the company’s health-cost problem. For years lacocca, who was president of the Ford Motor Co. before he joined Chrysler, and Fraser, the retired president of the UAW, were on opposite sides of the table negotiating contracts that gave the auto workers lifetime health insurance and set the standard for many companies and unions. Califano, as President Johnson’s chief adviser on domestic

mobile, and we listen to the radio for company and weather reports. It is really frustrating when the radio announcer says, “This is Station XYZ and we have tornado warnings out for Windsor County,” with no mention that the station is in River City, Okla.! The tornado could be right next to us, or 300 miles away because radio stations have such a long range now. The FCC should require that stations give their city and state with the station’s call letters. We live in Vermont and used to hear Bob Steel in Hartford, Conn., and Mr. Steel is the only announcer we have ever heard give the city and state with the call letters. Thank you, Bob Steel. TICKED-OFF TRAVELERS DEAR TICKED: Thanks for a sensible suggestion. Are you listening, FCC? * * * (Problems? What’s bugging you? Unload on Abby, P.O. Box 38923, Hollywood, Calif. 90038. For a personal reply, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope.)

weather still with us and since our furnace is still on, I hang my slacks and blouses for the next day on the windowsill which is over the heat registers. The heat from the registers takes the chill off the clothes

policy, helped write the Medicare and Medicaid laws that set in motion the inflation of medical costs. As secretary of health, education, and welfare under President Carter, he was unsuccessful in reining in those costs. “Fraser and Califano and I know where all the skeletons are buried,” lacocca said in an interview in his 38th-floor suite at the Waldorf Towers. “We created the problem in the first place.” Shortly after World War 11, Fraser recalled, his union had to fight merely to get the companies to deduct health insurance premiums from workers’ paychecks. But with each new contract, the union won better health benefits. The companies went along, lacocca said, because “we were a golden goose business.” “We were rich and fat and sloppy and lazy,” he said. “The costs weren’t so great then, and, as long as I was making a ton of money, it didn’t matter to me.” By the end of the 19705, Chrysler, like the other major car companies, was paying all the insurance premiums for its workers and retirees, and for their dependents and survivors. The policy covers the entire cost of their hospitalizations and medical tests, and almost all of the cost of outpatient dental, psychiatric, vision, and hearing care. For retired workers and their surviving spouses, the insurance pays nearly everything that Medicare does not. The policy pays for up to two

HEALTH INSURANCE | Does your health insurance plan help protect against large medical expenses from long term illness? Check with State Farm for one that does Call: MIKE W. ROKICKI 802 E. Washington Greencastle, Ind. ‘ Like a good :rl“JSgL neighbor, '©>!&> state 'arm Is there. INSURANCK mmmmmmwJ State farm Mutual Autdr.ioDHe insurance Company Home o*f‘Cc Bloomington iiltnon

and the heat isn’t blocked from coming up through the registers. Also, if you have heat deflectors you can drape socks over them without interfering with the heat flow. Diane Cavalli

years of convalescent care in a nursing home, and it picks up all charges above $3 a prescription for drugs. Workers who are laid off get full benefits for a year at Chrysler and for two years at the other automobile companies, one of the few instances where the policies differ from company to company. “We have the best coverage in the country except maybe for the U.S. Congress,” Fraser said. Chrysler’s costs are unusually high not only because the concern’s medical insurance plan is so generous, but also because it is paying premiums for many no longer active workers. Chryslers’s work force is so much smaller than it used to be that nearly half the people who benefit from its policy are retirees or their spouses or survivors. According to Harry Spring, a corporate benefits expert at Coopers & Lybrand, the accounting firm, the ratio of workers to retirees at companies he surveyed is about 9-to-l. Spring calculated that, on average, those companies paid ab Ait $1,250 in health insurance premiums for each active worker in 1982. At Chrysler in 1983, the figure was $6,000. Adding in the Medicare payroll taxes it pays and the health insurance premiums paid by its suppliers, the company calculates that nearly S6OO of the price of every Chrysler car and truck is directly attributable to medical costs. That is about 10 percent of the sticker price of a Plymouth Horizon.

Calendar of events Tuesday Delta Theta Tau of Bainbridge will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 6 at the home of Mrs. Pat Jones. Members are asked to remember to bring food pantry items Altzheimer Support Group will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 6 at the Putnam County Mental Health office, 7 N. Vine St., Greencastle. Beta Psi chapter of Kappa Kappa Kappa will meet at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 6 at the home of Sandy Train, 527 Anderson St., Greencastle. Parents Anonymous, a self-help group for parents under stress, will meet 7-8:30 p.m. every Tuesday at the First Christian Church, corner of Indiana and Poplar streets. For transportation and babysitting, call 653-2645. Tuesday, March 6 is Hooks Night at the Ice Capades at Market Square Arena. Putnam County Singles have coupons so tickets can be purchased. It takes three days to get the tickets by mail. Several members of the club have $3 discount coupons. Find out by coming to the meetings. Erwin Neier, 795-4575 and Faye Crawford are on the committee. Theta Chapter of Delta Theta Tau sorority will meet at the home of Mrs. Starlet Folck, 113 Hilltop Lane, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 6. In case of bad weather, the meeting will be at Ella Marie’s Fabric Shop. Dues and fines should be paid prior to the business meeting. Greencastle Morning Musicale will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 6 at the home of Mrs. Gwen Crawley. Wednesday The Greencastle Chapter No. 255 Order of Eastern Star will meet at the Masonic Temple at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 7. Annual reports will be given. All members are welcome. The Crescent Club will meet at 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 7 at the home of Madge Smythe, Fern Larkin will have the program. Associate Tri Kappa will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 7 at the home of Mrs. Frederick Sanders. The Women’s Club will meet at 112 Northwood Blvd. at 2 p.m. with Mrs. Cornelius Van Zwoll Wednesday, March 7. Mrs. Hugh Henry will assist. Mrs. Daniel L. Smith will present the program. League of Women Voters will have an open meeting on hazardous waste at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 7 in the Roy 0. West Library auditorium. “The Ticking Time Bomb,” a 28minute documentary, will be shown. The public is invited. Even parents need time off. Wednesday mornings can be yours if you bring your pre-schooler or infant to Tots Time, located in the First Baptist Church on Judson Drive (in back, of Marsh). You can take care of business, shop or just relax while your child plays with others and learns to cope with the outside world. Starting Friday, Feb. 3, Tots Time will offer its services 1-3 p.m. Fridays in addition to their Wednesday morning service. Thursday Omnes Chapter, Order of DeMolay will hold its stated meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 8 at the Greencastle Masonic Temple. New officers will be elected and final plans will be announced for the all-night party at the Terre Haute YMCA on March 10, for area degrees in Terre Haute on March 17 and for DeMolay Week, March 18-25. Master Councilor Nick App invites all DeMolays and interested Master Masons to attend. A practice for the DeMolay degree will precede the meetingat6:3op.m. The men’s interdenominational prayer breakfast is held at 6:30 a.m. Thursday’s at the Double Decker Restaurant. Order from the menu. The Beech Grove Ladies Aid will meet all day Thursday, March 8 at the church. A pot luck dinner will be served. Putnam County REACT will meet at the Public Service Building at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 8. A weight control and exercise group will start at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, March 8 at the 4-H Community Building and will continue for four Thursdays. It is open to anyone interested free of charge. For details, call Betty H. Sendmeyer, county extension agent, at 653-8411. LWML will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 8 at the home of Marilyn Taylor, West Walnut Street. All women from Peace Lutheran Church are invited. The Clinton-Madison Friendly Club will meet at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, March 8 at the home of Daitha Bettis. The roll call is one thing I would like to accomplish. Friday A euchre party will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, March 9 at the Moose Lodge for members only. The Women’s Study Club will meet at 2 p.m. Friday, March 9 at the home of Mrs. Howard Youse. Mrs. Gerald Warren will have the program. Century Club will meet at the home of Mrs. Cornelius Van Zwoll Friday, March 9. There will be a bingo party every Friday night at the Senior Citizens Center, 9 West Franklin St., Greencastle. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. All senior citizens are welcome. Monday Putnam County Singles will have the last skating party of the season 7-9:30 p.m. Monday, March 12 at the Skate Place, Greencastle. All are welcome. The price is $1 for observers, $2 for skaters and $1.50 for those with skates. Nadine Burks, 653-9635, is the hostess. A wedding workshop will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 12 and Tuesday, March 13 at the Posey Patch. Silk, accessories and bridal helps will be on the agenda. Admission is free of charge. Call 653-5113 for more information. Roachdale OES No. 247 will have a stated meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 12. Installation of officers will follow. Visitors are welcome. The annual meeting of the members of the 240 Water Corp. will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 12 at the home of Sanford Siddons, 1024 S. College Ave., Greencastle. Tuesday The Four Leaf Clover Home Economics Club will meet at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 13 at the Public Service Indiana building. Flossie Hatcher is the hostess. Pat Sheldon will give the devotions. Rose Schlatter will give the lesson on ceramics.

Old Topper Annex Wednesday Special 5 until 9 Italian Spaghetti ALL YOU CAN EAT Toasted garlic bread # ~ Tossed salad with our "J § 5 homemade dressing.