The Mail-Journal, Volume 19, Number 24, Milford, Kosciusko County, 30 June 1982 — Page 4

Editorials

America the Beautiful Two important events will take place on Sunday, July 4, both, we hope will be blessed by perfect weather — the Columbia is once again scheduled to land in the California dessert and the annual Wawasee F otilla Festival will be held with all of the fun and excitement that goes with it. This year’s theme is “America the Beautiful.” The committee has worked hard and the fruits of its labors will be seen throughout the week end. A first this year is the fact a woman has been chosen to serve as commodore — we join the flotilla committee in saluting Mrs. Charles (Jane) Nearing who has been given this honor. Events begin on Friday with a bicycle race and will conclude on Sunday with the flotilla around the lake. In honor of the Fourth of July\ fireworks will be held on both Saturday and Sunday nights — on Saturday at the fish hatchery and on Sunday at Syracuse’s Lakeside Park. And, of course, we could not conclude this editorial without mentioning the annual Mail-Journal Road Race slated for Saturday morning. , . . All in all, it promises to be a fun-filled week end giving praise and glory to this great nation for truly America is beautiful! Faith of our forefathers What faith our forefathers must have had in America when they struck out against the British back in the 17705. That faith must have grown by leaps and bounds to enable them to have Thomas Jefferson draw up the Declaration of Independence and sign their names to it knowing that if they were caught by the British it would mean sure death. u On Sunday the people of this country will observe the anniversary of the signing o( the Declaration of Independence, one of the most important documents of history. They will take time to remember that on July 4,1776, it was rumored around Philadeiphia that the delegates in session there would risk all and sign the declaration. If it was signed they had agreed to ring the bell in the belfrey of the old state house as a signal to the city that a new country — the United States of America — had been created. All of a sudden on that hot summer afternoon in 1776 the bell did ring and soon the people began to cheer and riders were sent to tell the rest of the nation the good news. Those cheering people, too had faith in what the delegates had done. With the signing of the Declaration of Independence America came into being and war became a real thing as Americans, not British subjects, wedefighting for their country and the future they had in store for her soon maay took up the fight... a flag was made ... a new nation had been t od This historic Fourth has become identified as a day of leisure, marked by fireworks, accidents, games and amusements. There are also, appropriately, programs which point out the significance of the Declaration and the principles it expresses, which should not be forgotten. As we celebrate the 4th of July on Sunday let us remember what it stands for ... let us issue our own declaration — one in the cause of faith. Faith that we can and will do our part to help right the mess America seems to have gotten herself into, faith that we will instruct our children to respect this great nation, faith that we will continue to be a free nation ... a nation under God, with liberty and justice for all. Well deserved honors Congratulations go to David Blackwell and the Wawasee High School marching band for taking first place honors at the Mermaid Festival last week in bands with enrollments under 900. This is a first first place honor for WHS and one well deserved. Giving service In recent years, some have lost sight of quality of service. Sloppy work is all toe often seen. The high standards of skilled craftsmen, of individuals who take great pride in their work, is not seen enough. There is a need for a pride in workmanship and manual skill today. We need the pride of artists in the service trades. We need, in a growing competitive world, the kind of workers in trades and manufacturing who will be interested in doing the job right, not just in getting their pay and benefits.

What others say— Orr's recession maneuvers The lot of Indiana state employees who’ve had raises canceled isn’t made any better by comparing Indiana with the situation in Michigan. But it does help put things in perspective. Michigan has just laid off 1,200 workers in the latest in a series of severe retrenchments, trying to cope wi£h that state’s money shortage ~ . In Indiana, Gov. Robert Orr hasn’t been forced to go as far as layoffs. He has ordered a hiring freeze, delayed tax refunds until July and canceled scheduled raises, because state revenue through June 30 is some SBS million short of projections. The shortfall doesn’t compare in size with Michigan’s deficits, and the required belt-tightening in Indiana is less severe. But finance problems in both states trace to the same source: a slow economy, felt more intensely because of unemployment concentrated in auto-related industries. Unless there is a remarkable recovery in the second half of the year, the steps Gov. Orr is taking may not be enough to keep Indiana’s books in balance. Some sort of tax increase is a growing possibility. Some of Orr’s critics are quick to say the shortfall shows the governor used overoptimistic projections in putting together the current budget. Perhaps so, but the delayed recovery in the economy almost surely would have left the state in the same position no matter what. Suppose, for instance, that Gov. Orr had put through a tax increase last January. Does anybody really believe the state would have been allowed to keep a surplus in the treasury, just in case projections for the economy proved wrong? Think again. Pent-up demand for spending on schools, prisons, and every other part of state government that could get a piece of the pie would have gobbled any new revenue at hand, leaving things in June more or less where they are now. The same pressures will bear on the legislature next January, along with the effects of the current shortfall, for these are only delayed by the steps Orr is taking now. All things considered, the state has not done badly at maneuvering through the straits of recession. But the options for putting off a revenue increase are being used up. Orr will have to think more than before on the forbidden subject of a tax increase. - The Elkhart Truth

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Jane Nearing will serve as the first woman commodore at the 1982 Wawasee Flotilla slated for Sunday, July 4.

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Blizzard prompts Biesemeyer to join Webster firemen

North Webster Volunteer Fireman David Biesemeyer has always been interested in fire fighting and emergency work, but it was the Blizzard of 1978 that prompted him to join the department •'I spent most of my time during the blizzard in at the department doing what I could." Biesemeyer said. "That’s when 1 really became interested Now a co-captain for the North Webster Fire Department. Biesemeyer is responsible for the upkeep and general maintenance of all of the North Webster emergency vehicles While on emergency runs, he usually functions as a truck operator. Biesemeyer pointed out that much of the time donated by many of the volunteers m the department consists of keeping all of the equipment and vehicles in good working order, in addition to any time spent out on actual emergency runs. Biesemeyer said no one fire stood out as the worst he has taken part in battling. “In most cases, one is just as bad as the

DAVID BIESEMEYER

other," he said The chief reward of being a fire fighter, Biesemeyer said, is the feeling of serving the people. ’ ’ Biesemeyer lives at r 1 North Webster with his wife. Dorothy, and daughters, Patty and Jennifer. He is the proprietor of Barbee Marina;

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"CRUZIN AROUND 'CUSE"

THE MORE information that reaches the public's ear concerning the plan of the Syracuse Town Board to tear down the old building on South Huntington Street, used for some time now for a town hall and police headquarters, the more bits of historical information about the old building continues to surface. About as good a source of information in this regard is townsman Ken Harkless. a resident of 3M East Main St., in a house located on the site where he grew up as a young man. If any contemporary knows Syracuse “like the back of his hand,** as he would put it, it would be Harkless himself, for he has lived all of his 85 years in this community except for a brief trial residence in Florida as a young man. Ken recalls when a tent was located on the corner of Huntington and Henry Streets where chataquas were held. At that time chataquas were big things in small and medium sized towns, and traveling groups constantly drew capacity crowds It was later that a permanent building was erected on that site. Harkless recalls, used as a tabernacle for religious services. Harkless said it was a cheap, temporary building, and he can’t recall what denomination religion was practiced there. He did remember when the late Charles Searfoss built a structure on the south end of that lot in which he had the Searfoss Auto and Trim Shop. Searfoss, father of Bob and Charles Searfoss of this community and Sam Ed of California, was an expert woodworker. His son Bob said his father built the building in 1929, and it was eventually incorporated into the Syracuse Rubber Company complex of buildings that made up the package sold to the town of Syracuse. Some time later Guy Bushong built a building between the tabernacle and the Searfoss building, in which he at one time housed a laundry and later with one Glen Gordy manufactured a machine to fabricate paper dry cleaning bags. Bob Searfoss was our source of information for this fact. A number of people owned and operated businesses in the corner building, but it was the Syracuse Rubber Co. that eventually (about 1946) purchased the existing buildings and joined them together. The free-standing south building, along the channel, is not a town building, but is occupied by Hugh Dunithan where he operates a small manufacturing firm. The late Ross Osborn, who had a retail hardware in uptown Syracuse (in the building where the Syracuse Hardware is now located), used the South Huntington Street building as a display, sales and mechanical area for farm implements. Bob Searfoss recalls this inasmuch as he is Osborn’s son-in-law and had a growing interest in the Osborn family at that time. When Osborn and Ralph Disher got into the beer distributing business in 1933, they installed big coolers in that part of the building recently used to house city police cars, for cooling kegs of beer. It was in the mid- and late-1930s that the late Fred Hoopingarner operated a Dodge automobile agency in the building. Hoopengarner moved his auto agency to the South Main Street building later used as a city fire station until it burned down in a fateful and almost unique fire, destroying all the town's and township's firefighting equipment. At a later date Rolland Byler, now a resident of Clearwater. Fla., operated a Dodge auto agency at the South Huntington Street location and others occupied it for brief periods, including the late Lyle Kell. But the buildings were brought under one umbrella in 1946 by four Goshen men who first founded a dye cutting operation in the old Sinclair Service Station on the corner of South Huntington and Car roll Streets, now used by the Saint Andrew’s United Methodist Chtirch ladies as a thrift center. The men were the late Paul Lantz, Charles Snyder, Elmo Niccum and Charles Snyder. Several of these men also had an interest in the Goshen Rubber Co., and when that firm had orders for several rubber products they didn’t care to fill, these men decided to expand their operation in Syracuse into the rubber molding line, and purchased the buildings we speak of for their new enterprise. Hubert Anglemeyer, a resident of North Shore Drive, came with th- new local rubber company in 1947 following a brief stint in a Dayton, Ohio firm, and he remained active here until 1985 when he retired. The history of the Syracuse Rubber Co. has been one of growth, and as the years went by they found the facilities here inadequate for their needs. And it was then that a decision was made to build a new modern rubber manufacturing facility on Sycamore Street in the Village which it now operates as a flourishing business. And. so, the old South Huntington Street building was sold to the town of Syracuse. The town board approved a motion at its meeting last Tuesday night to have the land cleared to make way for a new city building in which It hopes to consolidate most if not all of the town-township services. Just thought our readers would want to know. A MOST unusual 50th wedding anniversary will be observed by Rev. Steven Kiplinger and his wife Mary, of r 5 Syracuse (tyiaker Haven, Dewart Lake) on or about July 18. It seems the lively couple was married July 18,1932, in the heart of the Great Depression, and, with little cash on hand, took their through the west on a Henderson 4-cyiinder motorcycle. They remember visiting Colorado, Kansas and a Wyoming rodeo. ! And now they insist on having their 500 motorcycle the centerpiece of their 50th wedding anniversary. Unusual? You het. More on this z later. V The Kiplingers have two daughters all tied into the ministryijuiQe fowfToranotfier

WARREN BENSON, owner of the Syracuse Dry Cleaners in uptown Syracuse, is real proud of an old quart milk bottle that came into his possession recently. It is complete with cardboard cap. Engraved on the glass bottle is W. A. Jones & Son Dairy. The dairy was located on the Jones farm southeast of Syracuse and is well remembered by many. Warren is proud of the bottle and recalls the days when local dairies delivered milk by the ‘ quart, pint and half pint in this type of glass bottle to one’s porch step each morning. “IT ISN’T true, I’m not closing shop and moving to Florida.” This from Joe Todd, owner of Todd Realty in the Village. Joe says he wants to stop a rumor that he is closing his local realtors* office. “It’s not good for business. ’’ he adds. Actually, he did apply for a Florida real estate license and has put his North Shore Drive home on the market, but all this for other reasons. He didn’t deny, however, that he might at one time open a Florida office in the Fort Myers area, and operate it in conjunction with the Syracuse office. SUSIE AND Jake Kern, for years the owners of Wawasee Bowl in the Village, and a resident of Cadillac. Mich., since they sold the Bowl just over a year ago. have moved back to the Syracuse community. Their son David, 21). has chosen to remain in the Cadillac area. At the present time the well known Kerns are making their home in their Fifth Wheel, temporarily located near the Bowl in the Village, but hope to find permanent employment in the area and re-establish their home here. THE ATTENTION of President Reagan was called to a new Wawasee High School vocabulary building program called “Better Citizens Through Better Vocabulary,*’ and he responded to it with a congratulatory letter. The program will have all 930 students responsible for certain new words each week, in a four-year program designed to increase literacy for all students at a time when the better a person can express himself, the greater opportunity he or she has to get good grades and advance himself after graduation. The president's letter follows: Dear Students: I was pleased to learn about the program which will be put into operation in September and appropriately will be called. “Better Citizens Through Better Vocabulary.** It is my pleasure to extend my enthusiastic support for this kind of program. In my personal career the proper use of the English language has been important. Indeed, those citizens who have acquired an extensive vocabulary will always have the advantage of being able to communicate effectively. I share the opinion of your principal that learning to use our language well is of vital importance to your future success as citizens. Your efforts today are a solid start on the path toward responsible citizenship in the future. Good luck to all the Warriors at Wawasee High School. You have my be*» wishes for a rewarding school year. Sincerely.

- lACtf Lev mPvr HOMER SHOOP AND J ACK UNDERWOOD A# SURPRISE visitor at the Mermaid Festival’s Saturday parade was J. Homer Shoop, former Counting House president and originator of the Festival. He said he has seen the fruits of his labors continue on in good hands. He was given a moment at the “mike” by MC Jack Underwood. Homer praised the great Midwest, saying someone had told him if the Midwest were to be wiped out, there wouldn’t be much left of our country. Much credit should go to Chuck and Susanne Parker for making the Festival a success. It was their first year, and at that, Susanne complimented all the committees for their working together, stating. "They were just super.** Something between 30,000 and 40,000 spectators lined the highway to watch the two-hour parade Saturday afternoon, drawing entries from as far as 100 miles away. There wasn’t an empty seat along the mile-long parade route. And while it was hot only one person, an East Chicago Roosevelt band member, was taken to the relief center at the fire station where cots were set up and Red Cross personnel were on hand. On Sunday and Monday clean-up crews were busy “putting the town back in shape.” But it was all worth it, so state the Parkers and others who were responsible for the success of the 37th Annual Mermaid Festival. I (Continued on page 5)