The Mail-Journal, Volume 26, Number 25, Milford, Kosciusko County, 5 August 1987 — Page 16

THE MAIL-JOURNAL —Wed., August 5,1987

16

Vl ' u a ” U ■F _JAk /*•" rA W i -iXi ‘ > ■Z I irll *X, , ** KOSCIUSKO COUNTY FAIR CUTIES — Kosciusko County Fair Cuties for 1987 were chosen Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. in the activities tent at the fairgrounds. Cuties from left are: king runner-up. David Honnerffer; cutie king, Austin Hoover: cutie queen, Jessica Ditoro; and queen runner-up Blaire Cote. (Photoby Carla Gaff)

Cutie king and queen crowned at county fair

I By CARLA GAFF I Staff Writer . \ ,y ‘ The activities tent at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds was crowded Tuesday evening with parents and friends of the 42 contestants in this year’s Kosciusko County Cutie King and Queen Contest The winners of the second annual event are Austin Hoover and Jessica Ditoro. Austin is the four-year-old son of Kristy and Noble Hoover of r 5 Syracuse. He was also crowned cutie king in June of this year during the Mermaid Festival in North Webster.' Jessica is also four years old and the daughter of Debbie and Nick Ditoro of r 6 Box 430 Warsaw. Runners-up for the event were also named. The honors went to David Honnerffer and Blaire Cote. David is the five-year-old son of Robert and Linda Honnerffer of Warsaw, while Blaire is also five years old and the daughter of Phil and Beth Cote of Warsaw.

• - LOOKING THS MAIL JOURNAL ? If you can’t visit our offices in Milford and Syracuse, we should have papers at these locations on Wednesday afternoon. MAIL-JOURNAL OUTLETS: ★ Barbee Lake Area ★ Milford ★ Oswe 9° Staley’s Hilltop Grocery Campbell’s IGA The Villager Market Walter Drugs, Inc. ★ Cromwell Cromwell Grocery ★ Syracuse Augsburger’s Super Valu r n< .h on ★ Nappanee Bales’Butcher Shop ★ Tu P a r!rn- nw Dunham Rexall Drugs Ben Franklin Store the PAPER Office Thornburg Drugs Hooks Drug Store Thornburg Drugs ★ Lake Wawasee pace^Sn Mart Waterson’s Grocery * L a _ c ® r ★ North Webster Xe Butche" shoo ★ Lppqhnrn Augsburger’s Super Valu Village Butcher Shop ★ Leesourg Crystal Flash Waterson’s Grocery Mike’s Soda Shop • (Summer Only) WarS3W ★ Lj 9° nier ‘the PAPER’Office Family Fare Thornburg Drugs Milford Office Syracuse Office 206 South Main f rtfi f/)ff f 103 East Main Phone 658-4111 f f f frfCfff UUUI IfUf Phone 457-3666

There were 30 girls and 12 boys in the contest, all between the ages of four and six. Because there was no specific rules governing dress code, the children were dressed in attire ranging from long dresses and carrying frilly umbrellas, to shorts outfits and sun dresses. The king and queen each received a SSO saving bond, a crown and a trophy. Runners-up received a trophy and a crown.

Home receives over $ 10,000 in damages

A home owned by Darrell Stahley in Meadow View Addition, Milford, received between SIO,OOO-$15,000 in damage when a fire broke out in the bedroom. The Milford Fire Department received the call around 4:45 am. Saturday, Aug. 1. Darrell Gals, roommate of Stahley’s, told Assistant Fire Chief Jim Amsden, that he arrived home around 4 a m. and was in the living room when he smelled smoke. He tried to extinguish the

All contestants were awarded a small “children’s book’’ for participating. The event was sponsored by the Double “H" Home Extension Club. Club members were responsible for getting savings bonds, crowns, trophies and books, as well as getting contestants registered and numbers securely on them for the event The club was assisted by the fair board. ii

fire with a garden hose. Stahley was asleep when the fire started. It took the fire department approximately 30 minutes to have the fire under control. The blaze was contaiifed to the bedroom although rrißst of the house sustained smoke damage. A According to Amsden, the cause of the fire is unknown. The department responded with 15 men and four pieces of equipment.

Ancient adobe offers hope

I By MERCER CROSS National Geographic News Service Brick by adobe brick, Acoma Indian workmen are rebuilding 400-year-old apartments in their ancestral pueblo atop an isolated 367-foot mesa. Since the work began in 1982, about 100 units have been completed. says supervisor Dennis Vallo. He hopes the restored twoand three-story buildings will induce more Acoma to return to Sky City. All roots of the word acoma denote “a place that always was,” writes historian Alan Minge. The people claim that their mesa-top home about 60 miles west of Albuquerque, N.M., is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States. Minge says they've been there for a least 1,000 years — possibly much longer — and archeologists agree that Acoma Pueblo has been occupied at least since AD 1200. Learned From Spanish The enduring technique of making adobe bricks in molds was introduced to the Acoma by Spanish conquistadores in the mid-1500s. Only 50 or so Acoma now live year-round in the pueblo. Their determination to preserve their ancient traditions means that they lack such amenities as electricity and running water. Their adviser on the restoration is a white man from Albuquerque, Paul Graham McHenry. Jr,, an architect and builder who specializes in adobe construction and sees adobe as a solution to many of the Third World’s increasingly urgent housing problems. “The worldwide energy crisis, particularly in developing nations, must lead to the utilization of earth as a building material to meet ever-increasing needs,” McHenry wrote in a paper presented in Ankara, Turkey, last summer. "We have no other choice." McHenry, author of several books on adobe and other earthen buildings, notes that more than half of the world's people live in houses made of earth. He traces their early development to the Middle East, where he says such structures were built as early as 8000 BC in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the International

Foundation for Earth Constrifey tion, a three-year-old organization committed to helping solve global housing problems. An estimated 800 million units are needed to house the world’s poor. Foundation president is Eric Carlson of Closter, N.J., former chief of housing for the United Nations. “Our main interest,” he says, “is in how to transfer some of this relatively simple technology to countries where there are serious housing problems.” The UN General Assembly has designated 1987 the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. The foundation’s activities are linked to that theme. Examples Worldwide The well-traveled Carlson lists widespread examples of earthen building: Grenoble, France, site of active training and'research in such construction; China, where more than 30 million people dwell in caves; Colombia, where volcanic soil is proving to be an ideal material for pressed brick; and numerous other areas. Carlson pegs much of his hope to a 55-year-old process, developed in California, to massproduce “stabilized” bricks, waterproof and erosion-resistant, by mixing mud with an asphalt emulsion. Building with earth "has the potential for catching on, " he says. McHenry views it as “an uphill battle,” partly because of adobe's “split image’of either poverty or great affluence.” Traditionally, earthen buildings have provided shelter for the world‘s neediest people. In the southwestern United States, adobe provided an inexpensive answer to housing needs for generations. Only in the past few decades has it become, in Carlson’s words, a "chic and aesthetic building material.” 1 President Reagan lives in an

And then there were seven

I By MARGARET FOTH I wonder if “Miss Manners” would have any etiquette tips for this situation: What do you say when introduced to a 15-year-old girl you’re planning to adopt? Twila Jean Charles of Williamsport, Pa., faced that question a number of years ago when she met the first of six daughters she would eventually adopt. I think it’s significant that Twila is single, and has still chosen to take on this responsibility. When Twila went to pick up her first daughter-to-be, Christy, she remembers being very nervous. “What do- you say to a fifteen-year-old that you’re going to have a mother-daughter relationship with? How do you treat her?” After some difficult first months, Twila and Christy adjusted to each other to the point of wanting to expand their family. Christy wanted a sister, and Twila said she couldn’t blame her because its difficult for any teenager and a parent without someone to bounce against. So Patty joined the family about a year later. Maryann, April, Michele and Brittany complete the family — for now. Why would a single woman adopt six children? Twila says she was in her mid-twenties and had been working in a treatment center for emotionally troubled teenagers, and very much enjoyed her interaction with them. When it didn’t seem as though marriage was in the picture, a

PHOTOGRAPHY fir North Webster, IN 46555 fl MT 834-2361 W mil OrfK** v 11l Tiny Tot’s r Contest Winners 111 < From left to right: Ist place, 5-year-old Jessica Messer, whose parents are Jeff 111 and Linda Messer of Warsaw. 2nd place, 5-year-old Eric Miller whose parents are Randy and Deb Miller of Warsaw. 3rd place, 4-year-old Kim Miller whose parents are ■ Tony and Cathy Miller also from Warsaw. I ~ Standing in back is Bob Bosstick who was the judge for the contest and Julie 111 Dußois of Sunrise. II Julie Dußois C.P.P.

old adobe house, stucco-faced and white-painted, when he goes home to Rancho Cielo in California. US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor used to live in an adobe house in Phoenix. McHenry and his sons design and build everything from expensive adobe homes to shopping centers in the Albuquerque area. Adobe dominates many of the richest suburbs in New Mexico, Arizona and California. McHenry emphasizes its simplicity and universality. With very little experience and equipment, anyone can make his own bricks. If he has sufficient skill and diligence, he can build a comfortable home. Thick adobe walls ensure coolness in the summer and warmth in the winter — and they are almost soundproof. Do-It-Yourself Adobe In a homemade adobe house in a suburb of Santa Fe live a writer-photographer, David Noble, and his artist wife, Ruth Meria They are members of a legion of erstwhile easterners who have fallen in love with the southwest and moved there Unless they’d built it themselves, they couldn't have afforded the snug house With a lot of trial and error along the way, they've been building it for 12 years. It began with a single room and gradually expanded to include a bedroom, a darkroom for David, a studio for Ruth, and an office, now under construction. Last winter, the couple’s only heating expense was a cord and a half of wood for their living-room stove. "it s very straightforward and simple," Noble, a Yale-educated former French teacher, says of the adobe-building process. “It's very creative and satisfying. It feels very much like home when you build it yourself.”

friend asked, “Well, why don’t you adopt?” It was a new thought for Twila because she hadn’t heard much about single-parent adoptions at that point. But she began to explore it. She came to believe that her desire to be a parent was a call to adopt. But at one point she needed to say, “God, if it’s just a selfish desire that I have, to be a parent, I want no part of it.” One day she was in tears and feeling pretty desperate about what to do. Several days later the adoption agency got back to her about five children that she had indicated an interest in. While only one of those children eventually came, “I felt that was a confirmation from God that I was to go that route.” Twila has a wonderful network for support for her large family. She lives in a double house with her sister, husband and family, and looks to her church for encouragement and practical things like supervision of the children when she needs to be gone. “It gives the children a chance to be a part of a twoparent family and see the interaction between Mom and Dad and the kids in a biological family. I think sometimes my kids feel like, ‘This only happens in our family because we’re adopted.' But they go into a biological family and see everybody hollering at each other or having their rough times with each other and say, ‘Oh, it happens there too! ’” Professionally she’s employed half time as a family counselor, and also does part-time work as a therapist for adoptive families.

——*to* fry ~ i* -•** ■ PC u •■ ■F \ ijf . J* ..JW '' /' ' k

AN 01,1) Bl 11. DING MATERIAL — Holding an adobe brick, Dennis Vallo stands next to one of the 400-year-old apartments being rebuilt at Sky City, N.J., ancient pueblo home of the Acoma Indians. Although adobe is one of the oldest building materials, dating back 10,000 years, it still houses more than half of the world’s people. < Photo by Rick Cooke — 1986 National Geographic Society)

■So I get the picture of a VERY busy working mother. One of her daughters, Michele said that Twila sometimes arranges “breakfast dates” in order to have one-on-one time. Michele adds that she enjoys having Sisters so there is always someone to talk to, even if Mom is too busy. ' What would Twila say to others wondering whether they should adopt? “Adopt!” she laughs. "I'm addicted toadopting.” Her sister Linda adds “When you are familiar with the kind of kids who really need homes and

uUa/tiettct’g A fat JlAemos

What is the oven of the future

I By MARIETTA F. HENRY Extension Home Economist An article in the June, 1987, Food Technology Journal discussed the response of food industry to consumer demands for

see the need, it’s just a growing thing. ‘I can help one more. I can help one more.’” This calling isn’t for everyone, but perhaps you’d like to consider adopting children in hard-to-place circumstances. Short of that, we can all be supportive of these blended families. I admire persons like Twila, but is there something more 1 can do? Invite the family for a meal? Offer child care for a weekend? Go on a picnic together? I hope you’ll think of your own possibilities. For a free leaflet entitled "Alternative Families" write to Margaret Foth, P.O Box 22, Harrisonburg, Va 22801.

convenience in food preparation. The key word in this article is microwave. According to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers in 1987, 12.4 million microwave ovens were shipped from factories to retailers in 1986, up from 314,000 in 1972 and 3.6 million in 1982. According to Campbell Microwave Institute in 1987, 55 percent of American households have microwave ovens, making the microwave oven a more popular household item than video cassette recorders at 36 percent, food processors at 33 percent and toaster ovens at 51 percent. Based on this data, the consumer microwave oven is no longer the luxury item it was when introduced in 1967, but rather has become a standard household appliance. Driven by the dramatic increase in microwave oven owners and changes in consumer lifestyles and attitudes, food processors are targeting their product development toward microwavable foods. The food industry has taken giant steps in the last years to produce frozen convenience foods that can be cooked by conventional ovens and microwave ovens (dual-ovenable). The trend today is for microwavable only convenience foods in response to demand and the number of homes equipped with microwavable ovens. Technology has advanced, also to provide shelf stable products requiring no refrigeration for transport or home storage. These products can be cooked in a microwave oven directly from the shelf in their own container. The container is a product of recent advancements in packaging technology.