The Mail-Journal, Volume 20, Number 16, Milford, Kosciusko County, 4 May 1983 — Page 4

THE MAIL-JOURNAL —Wed., May 4,1983

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Editorials

Mother's Day The observance of Mother’s Day is a recent one in the United States, having begun only in 1907. It was the suggestion of Miss Anna M. Jarvis, a Philadelphia school teacher, that at least once a year sons and daughters should pay tribute to mothers. Miss Jarvis, a native of Grafton, W.Va., arranged for special service in one of the Philadelphia churches and suggests white carnations be worn by those attending. The observance, on the second Sunday in May (this year the Bth), spread to every state in the United States in only four years. This testifies to the sentiment for such an observance in this country. In later years, the custom of wearing a white carnation on Mother’s Day was changed. Those whose mothers were still alive wore red flowers. First observed in the United States, Mother’s Day has become an international occasion: mothers in every area of the world are now honored each year on Mother’s Day. More than anyone, the mother who cares for home and her children is destined to influence the character and future of the country. This responsibility may include outside work plus a steady ordeal of sewing, washing, mending, cleaning and teaching. It is to mothers who dedicate themselves to home, family and children that the country owes such a debt of gratitude. It’s this mother who represents the finest in our civilization. Police Week This month’s message from William H. Webster, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, notes that May 1 was Law Day and this week, May 1-7 is Police Week, reminding Americans of the heritage of law as the basis of the social contact which governs our way of life. The director notes the relationship between Law Day and Police Week is of vital concern to all citizens. Police, as every modern society has agreed, are the necessary first element of an ordered system of government and police officers are the most visible symbol of our rule of law. We salute the men and women who are serving the Lakeland area as police officers at the state, county and local level. This is their week, take a minute and tell them how much you appreciate the work they are doing. Chinese gardens? If one has only limited space for planting a garden (and it’s estimated 38 million households had gardens last year), Chinese-style gardening may merit attention. As more and more Americans congregate in surburban and metropolitan areas, and the nation becomes less rural in population makeup, many families find they have only minimum space for gardens. The Chinese, now numbering about a billion, have confronted more stringent space limitations for centuries. They’ve reacted by planting raised-row gardens. The rows are four or five feet wide, raised about eight inches from ground level. Much of the dirt for this is dug or spread up from the walkways between these raised rows, to which is added mulch, fertilizer, etc. The system is to plant short rows of vegetables or flowers, not long rows. Plants can be more closely spaced because they’re heavily fertilized. They are easier to weed because they’re a foot or more above walkway level. Americans spend an estimated $2.5 billion a year on gardening supplies, to produce about $lB billion worth of food. This year will be a bumper gardening year because of untimely freezes in California, which will limit the supply of some vegetables and make many more expensive. So if one is not already using a tiller, in a sizeable garden, the Chinese method for smaller plots might be worth a try. There are also more and more roof gardens, basket plantings and even newly-developed bushes, such as a canteloupe bush, to interest those with limited planting areas. Cowboy stuff Thinking Americans have long realized that Hollywood’s portrayal of American cowboys has been an inaccurate and romantic myth. A new Libi-ary of Congress exhibit in Washington confirms this conclusion. The exhibit notes that most cowboys were unarmed, paid poorly, worked long hours (usually for eastern cattle syndicates, not ranch owners). They seldom had enough money to come to town. They ate poorly and slept in the open on long cattle drives. The best of the myth debunking, however, is assertion that cowboys could seldom sing. For all of us who liked our cowboys to be genuine, straight shooting he-men, this comes as a great relief. When the singing cowboy appeared, in the late thirties, it was a terribly painful turn. How could red-blooded youngsters sit through this? It was almost as bad as the last scene. The hero had to kiss the girl. What others say — > Visitation in a country churchyard As I sat looking at the old churchyard my thoughts ran on: Am I here to excuse myself or to justify myself? Roots are not found in the things of a lifetime. They are found in the hearts of those whom I have touched and who have touched me along the way. And my retrospection turned to my grandfathers: I remember, but fleetingly, the strange peg leg of my paternal grandfather as seen through a very small child’s eyes. He had lost his leg during the battle of Antietam when he was but seventeen. He had kept a diary of his war experiences and burned it just three days before his death as a very old man. It was not to be shared with intruders. And my maternal grandfather had served during all four years of that war and claimed to his children that he never killed a man. Yet he well remembered Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Cedar Creek and Appomatox. He rocked away his latter years in a front porch rocking chair and sometimes he silently cried to himself from the wounds of his memories. Then I thought I heard, once again, the thundering voice of Reverend Hosack in the closeby church: “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” And I whispered, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” And his voice reechoed, ‘Believe, believe, INSIDE QUT

■ST i I ■■ ■ North Webster Police Officer Judy Coleman is shown with her two sons, Aaron, six and Shane; three, as this newspaper and the Lakeland Community pauses to salute police men and women and mothers this week.

Court news

COUNTY COURT The following area residents of Kosciusko County have had fines assessed and have paid those fines in Kosciusko County Court. Jim Jarrett, judge: Speeding — Julia A. Rhodes, 21, Milford, SSO; Glen L. Knisley, 28, Syracuse, SSO; Clarence D. Brannum, 56, Syracuse, S6O; Henry McCray, 30, North Webster, SSO; Joseph L. Thornburg, 32, Syracuse. SSO; Jeffrey R. Morgan, 17, Syracuse. SSO

Unsung hero —

i b W 4 Ji £ y V \ Eg,-: Ag: ■ -. W . —— ■ JOHN MURPHY

John Murphy is president of Milford Emergency unit

For Milford Emergency Medical Service president John Murphy, commitment to the cause is simply part of the plan. The Fort Wayne native says he first got interested with EMS work while attending high school at Wawasee Prep. Tom Kitch, then a town marshal, was talking to a group of students about community service. “I asked him why he would come back to a ’berg like this after living in Fort Wayne,” explained Murphy, “He told me about how he enjoyed doing something worthwhile.” After arriving at Milford, the need for volunteers was expressed and his earlier experience convinced him how a project it would be to volunteer. “Kitch started it and Milford finished it,” Murphy said. “It’s a very good, good cause,” he says. But the work is “definitely not for everybody. No two runs are the same. I don’t care if all you do is go on traffic accidents for a year, not one will be exactly like the other. Some people just cannot handle certain things,” he said. His need for serving the community is not without its* cost. “Doing something for the community takes away time with the family,” he admitted. “That’s something you really never get used to.” Employed at Serenade Foods for three years, he and his wife Vicki have two young children, Dana and Darcy. Because being on duty means less time with the

Disregarding automatic signal — Roger K. Purnell, 23, North Webster, SSO No operator’s license — Debra K. Hummitch, 28, Leesburg, SSO Bumber height — James A. Reinholt, 16, Syracuse. S4O Failure to stop — Thomas E. Barner, 27, Syracuse Public intoxication — Wayne L. Roose, Plymouth, $56 Failure to stop — Thomas E. Barner, 27, Syracuse, SSO« Battery — Carol Coleman, no address given, SSO

family, he believes people must be committed to the cause. “You’ve got to want to do it,” said Murphy. “You must list your priorities,” before getting involved, Murphy said. Murphy. 30, is in charge of the regular monthly meeting of the all-volunteer group. “It’s more of a figure head position,” he said. “I help with the relations with the town board, and the township trustee. I help with decision making for purchasing radios, and I deal with different suppliers.” “I try to keep the PR going,” he said. Murphy will end his first year as president soon, but if asked, he’ll do it again. “I probably won’t have much of a choice. We usually just draft people.” THE MAIL-JOURNAL tUSPS 325 8401 Published by The Mail Journal every Wednesday and entered as Second Class matter at the Post Office at Syracuse, Indiana 4*547. Second class postage paid at 103 E. Main Street, Syracuse, Indiana 44547 and at additional entry offices. Subscription: *l4 per year in Kosciusko County; sl4.sooutside county. POSTMASTERS: Send change o» address forms to The Mail-Journal, P.O. Box IN, Milford, Indiana 44542. ’’ IT

"CRUZIN AROUND 'CUSE"

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THERE ARE unmistakable signs that things are beginning to hop around the Lakeland area. One for sure sign is the confidence Paul and Jan Gilson have shown in the area by expanding their pizza operation to include the town of North Webster They own P-J’s Pizza in Wawasee Village, and. in fact, will mark the fourth anniversary of owning that business the first week in May. Pert Susan Gardner has been their manager there while they sparred around for other ventures in the area. They soon found operating the service station across SR 13 from Wawasee Bowl was not for them. Then they took an option on a tract of land on the southeast corner of SR 13 and the Armstrong Road, about a mile south of North Webster. At the present time. Bill Eggleston and Associates, Mishawaka contractors, are building the Gilsons a modernistic pizza parlor on that site. It’s name: P-J’s Too. And they’re looking for someone to manage it. Eggleston, the contractor, incidentally, built the fashionable Emporium, located on the St. Joseph River in downtown South Bend. And the Gilson’s came here four years ago from what Jan calls “the tiny town of Van Buren, 0., near Bowling Green.’’ _ —nniHaiiiußi HELP WANTED! experienced , FULL TIME I APPLY MAIN OFFICE 801 EAST CHICA6O ST. J AND THERE are further signs of the good times ahead, as witness the above photo of the sign in front of the Sea Nymph plant No. 4, at 601 South Huntington Street. It’s almost a novelty to see a Help Wanted sign in our community — or for that matter in most any other community. “But it’s true,” says Dean Flowers, assistant plant manager and personnel manager at Sea Nymph, “we are hiring.” Flowers said the boat building company has had what he called “a good sale of their product for the last three months,” noting they are starting a fifth production line at the South Huntington Street plant. Sea Nymph now employs 175 people in their Syracuse operation, manufacturing ail aluminum boats from canoes to their new, fast-moving 19-foot boats. They are a leading aluminum boat manufacturer in the United States. Flowers said they hope to employ from 10 to 15 more people as soon as applications can be processed. THINGS ARE also looking up at Dana Corporation’s Syracuse plant, located on Railroad Street, according to Bill Sanders, who became personnel manager at Dana just last month. Dana (formerly the Weatherhead Co.) has long been a leading employer in the Lakeland area, and has been a barometer of the area’s economic health. Sanders said this week Dana is now operating two full time shifts and a small third shift, employing about 230 people, and manufacturing front end and rear end axles for Ford. General Motors, Chrysler and American Motors. He anticipates some additional employment the remainder of the year, but noted this is tied directly to automotive sales in the country. ALL OF the above only confirms what local realtors have been saying for the past several months, that business in the Lakeland area is picking up. All realtors we have spoken to have expressed optimism of a return to “the good old days” when real estate was moving and everyone was happy. TOWNSMAN MERL Smith took a negative view to all this employment and progress taking place in our midst. He’s afraid the community will grow too fast and lose all its small town flavor. “1 like to come up here (to the Syracuse Case) and have coffee with you fellows. If all this keeps up, I’ll get squeezed out of my place at this table,” Smith joked. LEO DRUCKAMILLER, a resident of 95 East Shore Drive, seemed a little overwhelmed at “making the news” last week when he was prominently mentioned in this column on the bank robbery story. Leo is a quiet fellow, not at all the type who would be front and center in an uptown robbery that was to shake the community 50 years ago.

Leo was the 26-year-oH fellow leaning against a utility pole in front of the old Grand Hotel across from the bank when the robbery was taking place. Someone was having a little fun with Leo when they joshed him about having to wait 50 years to get his name in the paper. AND THIS column had to take its share of the joshing about only printing the “bad news.” Our only come-back was that Syracuse doesn’t have much “bad news.” In fact, we had to go back 50 years to resurrect the old bank robbery story to get anything “bad” to write about. WE’RE MOVING into the computer age . . . rapidly. Three people that are eminently sure of this are Joel Robbins and Mike Neff, Wawasee High School teachers, working under the direction of Dick Wysong, director of vocational and adult education at the high school, and Rich Taylor of the Commodore Corporation. These men provide the impetus for the innovative data processing class, just concluded. The class had completed an eight-week computer course which attracted 18 students per class for nine classes, and was made up of students from the school cooperative: Wawasee, Fairfield and West Noble Higlr Schools. Last Tuesday, as sort of a windup, the teachers and Wysong held an open house for manufacturers of computer hardware and software and had representatives for Apple, Atari, IBM, Franklin, Tele-vidio and Heath display their latest wares and explain their product. And would you believe it. 150 students and others interested in what’s new in computer technology showed up for the open house. According to Wysong, everyone was jumping for joy with the success of the program and the public interest it has attracted. You’d better believe we’re moving into the computer age ... and very rapidly? ALSO AT the high school, and almost overlooked by us, was the recent (30th) birthday of tall and handsome principal Howard J. Hull. It wasn’t overlooked, however, by the corps of loyal teachers who work with Dr. Hull, for they took the occasion to stuff his mail box at the school with individual birthday cards. Birth date: February 24. A SIGHT to behold Saturday night was the big school gymnasium, bedecked with streamers and unusual art that pointed up the theme of this year’s senior prom — Jungle Love! The seniors had a festive time, so the report went, dancing to the tune of an excellent band. The seniors dined out at a place of their own choice, then came to the prom, and the following day (Sunday) many of them went to King’s Island, just outside Cincinnati. 0., as part of the memorable week end. One enterprising senior came to the prom with his lady fair in an 1838 Landau Brewster carriage, valued at $30,000, and was a spectacle to behold. Sean Shanahan and Emily Katsanis, a junior, made the grand entrance, with Sean’s dad Richard as footman and his grandfather as the carriage driver. Sean and friend made the carriage trip from the John Glon residence. He was out to outdo Shad Hunter who made a similar grand entrance to the prom last year in a rented chauffeur-driven limousine. (Note: More on this in another column.) JERRY ZEHR of Topeka is a dedicated collector of old picture postal cards and boasts of a collection of from 800 to 900, all encased in plastic folders. Those we were privy to see appeared in mint condition, but Zehr allows he collects them in all conditions. His cards are principally from the LaGrange. Noble and Elkhart Counties, with a few from the Syracuse-Milford areas. He has been collecting cards as a hobby for 12 to 14 years, and visits flea markets, postal card exhibits at shopping centers and public sales in pursuit of his hobby. Zehr is employed as a service man for Becker & Sons, a Ligonier plumbing, heating and electrical firm. 808 AND Pam Westfall — he’s the new NIPSCo man in Syracuse — are spending their week ends and other spare time as they find it doing such things as tearing wallpaper off their new home in Hunnicutt Addition, readying the house for occupancy as quickly as possible, so they can move into the community from their present Fort Wayne address. Th' house is remembered as the Cynthia Fry home. JUDGE JOHN C. Hagen has let it be known that his son Steve, currently mayor of Ligonier, is not and will not be a candidate for U.S. Congress from Indiana’s Fourth Congressional District. Steve, one of the bright ones of the area, was elected mayor of Ligonier at 28, is now 32, afid hopes to devote full time to his Ligonier and Syracuse law offices. His dad comments, “Steve just can’t afford to be mayor any longer.” (Continued on page 5)