Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 May 1952 — Page 19
1, 1952
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~ Inside Indianapolis
By Ed Sovola
THERE'S a song in my heart today and it's going to remain until next Sunday. You probably won't believe it, but the music is a result of
Boing to a Parent-Teacher Association meeting
“at Arsenal Tech High School, The highlight of the last meeting of the year was the Tech Choir. PTA President Virgil Sheppard and possibly some of thé members of the association might ‘disagree since the 1951-52 accomplishments, as revealed in the business part of the megting, were many. o From a financial point of view, the Tech Hi PTA is loadéd. And the association increased its membership from 1250 to 3300. Fifteen more items of success could be men- in tioned. Takes too long. Let's get to the Tech Choir We can use the excuse that this is Mother's Day and the mothers of those 65 youngsters should he proud of their singers. 0» FRANKLY, ths seat in Stuart Hall was getting a2 bit hard before the choir made its appearance, Some day perhaps the business end of a PTA meeting will be interesting. At the present time * can take it or leave it alone. Members of the choir, dressed in their green and white robes, took their places on the stage. J. Russell Paxton, conductor and head of the Tech music department, announced the choir would begin the program with two religious hymns, “Be Still and Know That I Am God,” and “0, God Our Help in Ages Past.” After two passages of the opening number, even an ungchooled lover of music knew he was listening to an unusual choral group. The precision with which the chnir sang equaled the attention it gave to every note, every gesture of the conductor,
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PAST EXPERIENCE and-participation with ginging groups made a man slink lower in his seat. Strangely enough, the seat was getting more comfortable with every musical passage. The third number, “All Through the Night” left the auglience breathless and there was a noticeable lapse of time before the listeners came
It Happened Last Night BR HORE WEIRD. ......c.coc.cooncnoscniniisctsasracartinsos
“SOMETIMES I can't keep my mouth shut,” Laraine Day said. “I get into trouble by asking questions that I probably shouldn’t, but I mustn't do that any more.” : Mrs. Leo Durocher was in her Park Ave. apartment, attired in wine-colored slacks, sitting back easily on a divan, discussing the somewhat remarkable fact that she’s soon to become a midnight-to-3 a. m., disc jockey. It’s remarkable because Laraine has always been what Broadway: calls “an early bedder.” “I've usually read till about 1 and then gone to sleep,” said the wife of the manager of the Giants, “I didnt know about people staying up late like they do. I was surprised to learn about it. And now I'm going to be one of them. I hope I'm all right. “Maybe I'll be back -again next year,” she added. “If people like me and I don’t make too many mistakes.” “Will you engage in controversies?” I asked. “No, because I'm not pro or con about anything. Except the Giants and the Dodgers.” > 4 “1 SUPPOSE Leo will be around with you sometimes. Can he stay out that late?” “Oh, he has to stay home with Chris,” she answered. “Are you a liberal! or a conservative?” “I don’t consider myself either.” And then, looking at me directly, with a smile of innocence, she said, “When we talk about politics, ‘I'll learn more about it than the audience. Because I've been locked up in the sports pages. I felt that with elections coming on, I ought to know whom to vote for.” She added, I'll probably vote a straight Giant ticket.” For all her determination not to get into scraps, this reporter suspects she will—for she's already done s0 on her TV shows. “It was one of those cases of not keeping my mouth shut,” she explained. “I said they shouldn't play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ before every game. It made it too common, I thought. *
“A LOT OF people thought I should be thrown out of the country. “Then there was the talk about forming a players’ union, “I just asked what could a union do for ball players? 2 “The things they said about me for that. “Then, of course, I got into one over Jackie
Miss Day
Americana By Robert C. Ruark
HOUSTON, Tex., May 10—One of the things the politicos had better realize in a hurry is that this .is no ordinary election year nor is it an election year remotely comparable to any other that I can recall.” . Politics suddenly have become very fashionable, especially among the ladies out: this way, and if Texas is any mirror of the land, there will be a record vote this fall to surpass all record votes. You know, of course, that we are very style-conscious in America, and if you set a cute little old trend everybody leaps after it. You know about fads and fashions, about Yo-Yos and Handies and the Music Goes Down and Round. This year it is politics. Madame is considered unchic unless she is so politically aware that you can’t stand it much longer. I am so sick of making party talk out of Bob Taft and Dwight David Eisenhower and Brother Kefauver that I hope they all lose. My new answer for “What do you think dbout the presidential prospect?” is simply “nothing.”
®» % .%
IN THE PRECINCT conventions in Texas there has been pandemonium. These things have been going on for years, and if five professional politicos showed up it was regarded as successful. Now they are attended by the thousands and people push people down hills, and the ladies geratch and bite, and .brother assaults brother. An Eisenhower button can buy you a belt in the eye from your hest friend if he is still holding out for Mr. Taft or Mr. Kefauver or the beamish boy, Dick Russell. I always thought that most people were bored by politics, but it's suddenly caught on like Canasta. Dames who don’t know a caucus from a referendum corner you at the cocktail riots and beat you over the head with expert opinion. I am much afraid of this distaff intentness on the political scene. Just as sure as you are sitting there, they will take it away from us soon, and every potential housewife will be a Clare Boothe Luce or a Margaret Smith. You will mutter tender talk into thé ear of your beloved and she will answer with: “Yeah, that’s all very fine, but where do vou stand on the FEPC?” The female influence on the coming elections is sure to be felt in the male vote, because you know how mama is when she sets her head to something. I don't know who will make it this
~ fall, but I Know this: The dames will elect him,
they will prod papa to go out to those polls and do ‘what mama says to do, or there will be no 9 Ba .
FS
| es -
r Tech Choir Shows
Unusual Talent.
te and hegan applauding. Seniors Steven: Dil. linger, Rudy Mayes, Jim Parris and Virgil Alexander sang the solo parts. Beautiful music has ‘a way of inspiring the truly permanent and pleasant experiences a human being learns. 1 sat there and felt an ine tense pride for the youngsters, because they were fn my town; hecause they had learned to do something ‘well; because the singers enjoyed themselves in their efforts for someone else; heeause, and this isn't intended to be corny, this was America; because right then youth presented a picture of stability, refinement, wholesomeness. i" de “ON THE YOKE,” a Russian song hy M, Nikolajevsky, "was the fourth selection. Musie, beyond politics, intrigue and ideology. ‘Citizens congregate in an auditorium, their sons and daughters sing a song of a people that have heen shrouded in mystery. A song of a counfry whose leaders are unfriendly. It seems unfortunate that you even have to think that the absence of police, or any supervision, special dispensation to sing a Russian song was a blessing. Pretty song. “On the yoke the hells are ringing clear, o'er the steppe while the moon is gleaming bright: Lad and maiden are driving without fear. See, their steeds gallop through the night. Safely here in my arms, my dearest one, I'll protect you from every harm.” . & & SENIOR PATTI JETT sang “Golden Days” and Victor Herbert's “Mascot of the Troop.” Patti should know that a kiss was thrown from the front row and it should have landed on her cheek; Pianist John Schlenck really showed his skill when the choir sang its own arrangement of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a Tech Choir standard for years. I had a chance to talk to Steve Dillinger, treasurer of the choir, Marlene O'Dell, co-presi-dent, Bill Norris, president, and Mr. Paxton. The Impression was that making beautiful music was a privilege. Fspecially so for Mr. Paxton who considers every year a challenge as youngsters leave the choir and others take their places. Next Sunday the 15th Annual Tech Spring Concert will be sung at the War Memorial. Time,
3:30 p.m. It will be a privilege to hear the choir again,
Laraine (0. Try
Robinson. He was hit by a pitched ball. he acted like a crybaby. “I heard from the entire Borough of Brooklyn, including those who can't write.” “Did you accomplish anything?” “lI haven't seen Jackie Robinson to know whether he still acts like a crybaby. The ball players haven't formed a union yet. “They're still playing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’—and I've been asked to stay off touchy subjects.”
1 said
> > LEO DUROCHER didn’t stick his famous kisser into our interview—although little Chris, 6, did—just long enough to say good night, “You're not taking any cars to bed with you, are you?” Laraine asked. He promised he wasn’t, “He takes little automobiles, trains, anything, to bed,” she said. Miss Day will do her show from Hutton’s Restaurant, and she imagines that occasionally the Giants will be dropping in—especially after night games—to have supper. “They have to eat with somebody. They might as well eat with me.” “What about their bedtime?” I asked, “There's a standing rule that they're to be in bed at midnight,” she said. “But, they get permission to stay out later if they ask the manager. “And,” she concluded, “I know the manager pretty well.” ¢ * 2»
WISH I'D SAID THAT: “No one can hold liquor so well as a bottle.”—Tony Bennett. “® "a a TODAY'S SILLY: Jack Carson says: “Some girls are easy to see through because they make specthcles of themselves.” \ ¢ * &
TODAY'S WORST PUN: A hog raiser, claims Dorothy Shay, is one who wants to put his business over in a pig way. Frankie Laine notified police to look for an employee who disappeared with Laine’s car and $10,000 worth of his clothes and arrangements « « » Gloria Swanson’s leaving for Mexico to make TV films . .. A $2 million administration building’s slated for Newark Airport. *>
TODAY'S MEDICALTIP: “Haw to keep worms from spreading: Make 'ém wear girdles’—Seaman Jacobs. & & EARL’S PEARLS . . . Ethel Smith saw a new movie so bad that even the couples in the balcony walked out. Some TV mystery shows have great suspense, says Jimmy Nelson. You keep wondering what's at the movies, . . « That's Earl, brother.
Yo-Yo Out—=New Fad In U. S. Is Polities
living with mama for a long spell. This paints a rather fresh complexion on the whole political picture. “» & 4 THE LADIES being what they are, I do not even wish to contemplate what it will need to elect a man or woman to office in the future, Maybe they will go for the hair, or lack of it, on the candidate's head. Maybe Ike's cuteness will get him in, or a belated mother complex will make capital of Mr. Taft's baby tace. On that premise, Herbert Hoover would be a cinch today. We are dead sure, eventually, to be voting for a female candidate for the leadership of the land, and I can’t expert that one, either. But this is for sure: No pretty woman will ever be elected. The catty ones would scratch out her personality and her eyes when it came up ballot. time. On the plane the other day, I had some talk with the stewardess, a very handsome creature, indeed. When I got off she said: “I'll see you in Chicago this summer.” “That's nice,” sezzi. “How come?” “I am one of the Republican delegates to the convention,” said she. That's when I knew they had us. Madame President of Tomorrow, I salute you. I might as well do it now as later.
Dishing the Dirt By Marguerite Smith
Q—Have you any information on culture of glads. I've read everything I've seen in catalogs, magazines, and articles but nearly every one is different and your information I have found practical for the average home gardener, Mrs. Charles Brown, 5652 Central Ave.
A—Thanks, Mrs. Brown, for just about the -
nicest comment I've ever had on my efforts. As I've said before about these contradictory cultural directions from different sources, different conditions of soil, drainage and whatever make. different cultural practices necessary. But bac to glads in the home garden. Leo Matthews, one of our local .experts who is nationally respected, once said the best advice on how to raise glads is to raise them just as you do corn. That means plenty of plant food for one thing. Use
‘high phosphate chemical fertilizer mixed in soil
under the rows at planting time, Give them plenty of sun. Water as they need it, soaking the ground but not sprinkling leaves and flowers: You will gdéd to start with top quality corms if you want topbquality flowers. And dust &ither old or newly bought bulbs with a combination DDT-fungicide dust before planting.
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ALL ABOARD==Darlene, on its short track. By-LLOYD- WALTON
» ROKOMO, May 10-287.
and Mrs. James Albert Dillon boast they own the
“shortest railroad line in the world.” And it's right in their backyard at 1105 N. Wabash Ave,
“It comes from nowhere and it’s goin’ nowhere,” Mr. Dillon said. “But it's traveled thousands of miles since I built it in 1897.”
The little engine was built for the Dillon's son, Jack, when he was 3 years old. Jack is now 5 and has two grown children of his own. But all the neighborhood %ids still like to go visit “Morn ‘and Pop” Dillon and play on the miniature dinky type train.
“We lived over in Anderson when I built the train,” Mr. Dillon said. “We lived right in between two railroad tracks— the Midland and the Big 4. Jack liked to climb up on the picket fence in back and watch the trains go by. “One day he fell off the fance and like to broke his neck. I decided right then 1 would have to build him a train.” - » .
THE FIRST train he made had wooden wheels and had to be pulled with a rope. All the neighborhood children started
playing with it, and the wooden
«Wheels. couldn't... stand. ...the-
strain. That was when the present engine was designed. A burned down sawmill provided the steel wheels and the 18-in. gauge track. The smoke stack traces its ancestry to a corner downspout. A 13-gallon molasses can with the top off became a headlight. And the driving gear was fashioned from two chain gear wheels from an old binder.
“Why, he even used my water dipper to make the first bell for that engine,” Mrs. Dillon said. .
The engine is 64 feet long, near 4 feet high and it weighs about 500 pounds, It originally ran on a circular track 60 feet in diameter, but now it chugs along on a 24 foot track extending across the Dillons’ back yard, Its “home station” has moved several times since it was christened in Anderson. Mr. and Mrs. Dillon have lived in Indianapolis, Dayton, O., and Illinois—but “Ol' 99” has always gone with them. 3
THE ENGINE, a coal car, flat car, canopied observation ear and a caboose made up the original train. However, the engine is all that has survived the thousands of miles of hauling laughing and shriking chil-
Hay Grows By
SHERIDAN, May 10— Kenneth Biddle is typical of the more than 2500 “fly-
ing farmers” in Indiana. He has forsaken the automobile for the airplane in most of his business traveling and finds it “adds hours” to his working day. “I was scared to death when I first started learning to fly,” he said. “But now I would rather fly from here to Los Angeles than drive to Noblesville.”
Mr. Biddle owns a 480 acre farm north of Sheridan, the Sheridan Airport, and the Biddle Screw Products Co. on 8. Main St. The manufacturing business keeps him so busy he has a tenant farmer, Halfred Quigg, taking care of the farm while Bob Apple and his wife, Marie, look after the airport. Equipment breakdowns in the factory or on the farm don't tie things up anymore like they did in the days ‘before Ken started flying. And there is no
‘longer a serious delay on check-
ing new items with out-of-state
. customers before production is
started, LJ ” »
“CHICAGO ls only 50 mjn-
: utes from Sheridan in
. ” goo
Navion,” he said. “Cincinnati is about 45 minutes, and I can go to Cleveland or St. Louis in an hour and a half.” “About 75 per cent of the
work done in my factory is for
out-of-state customers,” he continued. “Sometimes they send specifications for a small part to be produced in quantity, We used to waste several days waiting for the samples to reach the customer by mail and his answer to be returned. Now I take a couple of sample parts, climb into the plane and within an hour or two the customer has put his OK on it. Then I call the shop, and they start the production rolling.” The airport is located on the
Biddle farm and is a masterpiece of efficiency. Although the entire airfield covers R9 acres there is onlysabout 20 acres of the field out of actual crop production, Short crops, such as alfalfa, are planted between'the runways. , = There are three runways, one 2600 feet long, one 2400 feet and the other 1850 feet. And there are open fields over every fence
Beverly and Billy are all set for an hour of “piloting” the little engine
dren 16H 14 “HaFrow steel
“I never had to worry about my kids running away. from home,” Mrs. Dillon laughed. “Jack and his sisters, Beatrice and Mabel, were usually in the backyard charging the other kids a couple of straight pins a ride to go on the train.” During the early '20s they moved to Indianapolis. Their house, in the 500 block of N. Keystone Ave, had a high board fence around the backyard. AT “That didn't stop the kids from coming in to ride, though," Mr. Dillon said. “Nearly every morning I would find a couple of the boards pried loose where sqmeone had sneaked in to take a ride on the train.” Several times the engine has been borrowed from Mr. Dillon for exhibitions,. It was displayed once at the theater in Kokomo. and again in Alexandria. » » . SHORTLY after Mr. Dillon had finished building the train he was visited by a reporter from the Chicago Tribune. “Reporters didn't have cars to travel in then like you guys do,” Mr. Dillon laughed. pulled up in front of our house in his horse and buggy, tied his
bie
The Landing Strip :
WAM
COMING IN—Mr, Biddle banks his Navion and prepares to land on Sheridan Airport. .
in the event a pilot has engine trouble and can't gain altitude. J ro. “THE AIRFIELD is situated right in the middle of the largest area in. this part of the country without a woods,” Mr. Biddle said. “I have been able to spot the area from as far away as 50 miles when I was coming home.” During the summer months the 50 members of Hamilton County's Flying Farmers hold thei meetings in the main hangar at the airport. Nearly nine-tenths of the members already hold private pilots’ Ilicenses, and about half of them have planes of their own. Twelve of the farmers keep their planes at the airport while the others land on their own farms and have conconstructed sheds to hangar their planes. : At present the farmers use their planes mostly for pleasure jaunts, hurry-up trips for spare parts and to attend agricultural
meetings in distant cities. How-
ever, they are constantly in search of new applications for their airborne Crop
dusting as it is now done re-
“He .
of “or 9" horse to the hitching post and carried a big camera in with him.” :
After the article appeared in the Chicago paper the Dillons had several letters, mostly from boys who wanted to ask more questions about the train, One boy in Chicago asked them to send him a photograph of it and said he would send them one of himself in return. Mrs. Dillon still has the picture the boy sent her, Mr. Dillon is 82 years old and still likes to putter around in
_his workshop and build things.
“And if the Good Lord let's me live that long, I'll be 83 on Nov. 30,” he said. “If you'd see him around here sometimes, you'd never think he was nearly 83,” Mrs. Dillon said. "He gets a good, fast dance number on the *adio and starts jigging all around the house.” » . » MR. DILLON'S handiwork has not been limited to building
SER
FLYING FARME "flying machine." but the most experienced fliers to attempt, but some of the farmers are investigating the
possibility of seeding from the air.
x wm
- » . { KEN BIDDLE and the rest of the Hamilton County Flying Farmers are looking forward to July 4. That's the day set. for a get-together of members
of the organization from all. over the state, wi. LR SR
, OLD TIMER==James Albert Dillon fondly checks the headlight
Hl RO BE
‘trains. He bullt the house He now ‘lives {n. All the lawn chairs .in his backyard came from his workshop. And he takes special pide in his weather vanes built like airplanes. ia - & In 1934, while they were live i ing in Dayton, he made a soap : box racer for his grandson; James Richard Lynch, to enter in the first Soap Box Derby, James finished in second place, “And if it hadn't been for another boy getting in his way, 3 Jim would have won that race,” a Mr. Dillon said. 6s ! The elderly couple are both fond of children. During the summertime Mr. Dillon gets the. train out for the neighborhood
children to ride. And Mrs, Dil 5 lon bakes cookies for them. . i “And I'd just, love to have ol material enough to build another whole train outfit,” Mr, $
Dillon sighed as he gazed fondly ' at the little engine basking in’ the last rays of the setting sun.
Biddle surveys his farm from his. selected for the meeting place, » and ‘a “Fly-in Barbecue” and. “Kiddie Lift” will be the fea= ture attractions of the day,’ The cooking chores will be’ handled by the Hamilton: County farm wives. Their hus
bands will direct tr; for the t