Bo halfway round the world By HIX It had looked like a solid idea the night before, just after the escape from the steaming air terminal. An early morning trip on the canal at Bangkok might be very interesting, and the staff at the hotel produced a hard sell. You simply mustn’t miss the floating market or the Buddhist temples, or the house boats. You'd never for- give yourself if you went back hog without riding in a sam- pan. And that early in the morning, it would be cool. That's when the sampan popu- lation did its marketing. And there would be curios to buy along the way. Be in the lobby at seven sharp. Leave a call with the desk for six a.m. to allow time for breakfast. The sampan, in imagination, would be wide and luxurious, sailing serely over the canal to the strains of stringed instru- ments. The sampan was narrow, tilted up at either end so that one sampan could ride up on the back of another sampan without dealing it a mortal b8w. There was a horrifying expanse of canal between the sampan and the wharf, and the. expanse did not stay put. It leaped up and down, the sam- pan corkscrewing wildly in the wash. from other sampans. Bgatmen jockeying for position at the landing stage expressed doubt upon the ancestry of other boatmen. It was a crowded moment. The boatman was encouraging. He said he wouldn’t let me fall in, but it looked like a gamble. The time is past when Hix can make a successful broad jump, and the canal looked a little unsavory, what with floating. debris lapping the. pilings. “If you fall in, you ridiculous old fool,” I told myself sternly, ‘‘and swallow any of that water, you'll sink like a ton of bricks. Watch it.” And about then there came a brief lull, the sampan stopped, corckscrewing and the inter- vening space grew miracu- lously calm. The guide got a firm grip, the boatman pushed from the rear, and the perilous passage was accomplished. The guide (he’d been a Budd- hist priest for ia brief spell) folded - his hands’ ‘in silent prayer, and the boat was under way, drag-racing with two AN we RIL There is chly one WELCOME WAGON 80 years of experience fostering good will in bustoess asd samumnity e. For information on elcome Wagon, phone . 00000000000000000000000000000Q00000000000 MRS. FRANCES IVES Phone 287-4467 MRS. MARY HOFFECKER Phone 675-1471 other sampans while speed boats tore past at an amazing rate, and sampans coming downstream cutacrossthebows, creating a ‘wake that sprayed the passengers. But the hotel manager was right. It was cool, there was a wonderful breeze, and the fierce tropical sun was not yet too high for comfort. There was a woman bathing a baby in a white enamel dish- pan on a landing stage. There was another woman shampoo- ing her little boy, working up a magnificent lather, crouching on the bottom step. Glistening little brown satin bodies gam- bolled like porpoises, hitching spare found that they had two inches leeway under the mount- ing pressure, and there was the sampan, its nose riding up over the edge of the landing stage, and there was the trans- fer again of one large and. re- sisting body to the steep stone stairway. When a sampan tugs in one direction, the cur- rent. and backwash thrash in another, and a passenger takes an involuntary third direction, - it poses a pretty problem for a guide and a boatman working in close harmony. Getting out - is easier than getting back in again. The guide perspired freely, and so did the passen- ger. It was a tense moment. One of the party came back to the sampan with a lone banana in a netting sack. “Gave all the rest to the ele- phant,”” he explained, ‘but there’s one left. Want it?” “You've gotta be kidding. What elephant?” “The elephant out back of. the shops. Quite a sight. You toss him a banana, and he ups with his trunk, and it’s gone before you can sneeze. The he waves his trunk around for more.” “And NOW he tells us!” We surged on down the canal, past the Thailand navy, the royal palace and the royal barge. Dripping brown heads appeared above the flood, one hand churning the water with practiced ease, the other hold- ing aloft a pair of brass temple bells, for the assault on the sampan. Temple, bells erupted all along the coaming, and ~ eight-year-olds in the scantiest" ““clambered of 'sWwim-trunks’ over the ‘edge, to drop before the passengers, extending the temple bells in one hand and holding out the other hand for baht. (Not a typographical error. Bahts are the coin of the realm.) “Look at the boats. They're made of teakwood by hand, and they cost $3,000 American money,” the guide instructed, pointing to a boatyard where matronly looking craft, broad of beam, were taking shape under the skilled hands of the craftsmen. Teakwood. We'd always ,thought of teakwood as some- thing rare and beautiful, some- thing that cost a mint when exhibited as a large camphor- line teakwood chest in the exclusive shops specializing in Oriental imports. Coffin Cor- ner, where the canal made an abrupt right-angle turn, had a grim display of teakwood caskets, brass bound, and suitable for a last journey. And on a landing stage were stacks of firewood, cheap stuff, only mahogany. Monks were constructing a dormitory out of rosewood, a glut on the mar- ket, and Thailand stake trucks had polished mahogany siding. As the canal narrowed, small boys in the altogether swarmed about the sampan, and plump babies, sitting on little enamel potties,” were being toilet trained on the overhanging front porches of SUNDAY ‘ROUTE 6 Shaffer's Pink Apple fRestaurant and Gift Shop OPEN EVERY DAY EXCEPT MONDAY 11:00 A. M. to 11:00 P. M. SERVED FROM 11:30 to 3:00 Complete Dinners only — $2.00 Delicious Fresh-Baked Pie TAKE TIME TO BROWSE IN OUR 'NEWLY-ENLARGED GIFT SHOP New Merchandise Arriving Daily DINNERS TUNKHMANNOCK . 836-2071 J SS the crowded houses. The guide threw in a lot of information for free. Yes, Thailand’ had indeed been Siam Before its name was chapgéd . thirty years ago. ives still thought of it" as Siam. Young men, when they reached the age of twenty, were obligated to become monks for three months. At the expiration of this period, they could make . a career of being a monk. Dur- ing the three months, they were obliged to beg for their breakfast, rice and a little fruit. That was their only meal. The rest of the day was spent in meditation and prayer. He explained that if you were hungry enough you didn’t waste time thinking of other bodily pleasures, it was only the well fed who became strong and virile and able to indulge in imagination. When you were planning on how _tp get the next breakfast without hitting ip folks who had provided it the day before, and casting about in your mind to deter- mine how much rice you could cadge, and where that next cocoanut was coming from, you had little time to think unworthy thoughts. Also, during that period of three months, you were not permitted to tell a lie. This, he said with an earnest sigh, was a very great difficulty. There had been a prolonged drought in Thailand, but on Saturday night it rained, and the water jars were brimming. Every house has huge pottery water jars ranged under the eaves to catch the rain water as it cascades from the stream- ing easvespouts. Every drop is precious for drinking and a happy splash after a swim in the canal. Little boys ladled the rainwater over each other, head and all, prancing about in the sunshine afterward to dry off. It was a relaxing sort of a morning after experiencing the cold chill ef flying over Viet- nam the day before on the trip from Manila, viewing that for- bidding land from six miles up, with a temperature of forty degrees below zero in that vast emptiness above the jungles where boys from home were fighting. ‘Small puffs of smoke were plainly ‘visible as” the plane steadily bore toward the border of Cambodia, and the Mekong River snaked its tor- tuous way toward the sea, a mere thread on the map, a mighty force on the land when monsoons send the water over its banks to feed the delta. The Bridge on the River Kwai is an easy driving dis- tance from Bangkok. The sound of temple bells is everywhere. There are golden carp in shal- low pools, hiding from the mid- day sun, swimming out in the evening, waving languid tails. Equatorial heat can be en- dured if there is water and a breeze. We are halfway around the world. ls [UE va hI DEX AL Fo It took six hours to erect two of the above signs by the Dallas Lions Club and probably only a few minutes by -vandals to steal one of them. The signs were put up Tuesday and by Thursday one sign, erected near the Yalick Farm on 118 and Obituaries HARVEY KITCHEN Harvey Kitchen had been ill for a long time, in and out of Nesbitt Hospital. June 20 he died. A Golden Wedding anniver- sary a few days before his death was observed quietly. Mr. Kitchen was born at Alderson, son of the late Wil- liam and = Adaline Davis Kitchen. While living at Alder- son he was active in Alderson Methodist Church, superinten- dent of its Sunday School, a trustee for forty years, and a Boy Scout leader. In 1958, Mr. and Mrs. Kitchen moved to Idetown, and at that time transferred membership to the Dallas Methodist Church. Mr. Kitchen served on the Dallas Township School Board, and was a stalwart of the Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction. In 1907 he started work with the Lehigh Valley Railroad, where he was maintenance and way department manager. > He. leaves his widow, the former Clara Searfoss of Alder- son; a daughter, Mrs. Donald D. Smith of West Dallas; and a granddaughter Donna. There are four sisters: Mrs. Ruth Avery of Alderson; Mrs. Mary Bigelow of Oneonta, N.Y. ; Mrs. Gertrude Williams of Kingston; ‘and Miss Edna Kitchen, Wilkes- Barre. Burial was in Kocher Ceme- tery at Ruggles, following ser- vices held Monday morning from the Nulton Funeral Home in Beaumont. Officiating min- isters were the Rev. Robert Sheehan, Dallas United Metho- dist Church and the Rev. Rus- sell Lawry, a former pastor in Dallas, now of Scranton. AAA RSI III O000000000 BE SNP NPAPAPRON Be DON AAAI AANA LIC IOIOIUIT IC Ey CNN 'S TS fe) NglO13 INE CENTER AAI TTI I AA Ad DO0000000000000C PEE SEEN PANN EERE EE EE RY Ql ‘$0 finely balanced are the Apothecaty’s scales, i has been said they can measure the weight of a signature on a slip of paper. This accuracy . .-. this pinpoint precision . . . typifies every step in the filling of prescriptions by our Pharma- cists. Let them serve your health needs best when you have a prescription te be filled. ATI Al % 2 (a CNN ANS NAN ANAC TANS ETN ANNAESSN NSS Pr THE feral! STORE HH PHONE 675-114! AT THE {IGHT iN DALLAS Ra (Sar C. J. DRESS C. J. (Ned) Dress, resident of Beaumont for the past 42 years, died in Nesbitt Hospital June 21. He was a former store-keeper in Wilkes-Barre, and a manager of American Stores Company in Kingston. Residents of the Beaumont area remember him as the manager of the home cannery which for a time op- erated in Beaumont, when people were asked to increase the food supply of the nation by canning fresh fruit and garden vegetables. He belonged to Our Lady of Victory parish and its Holy Name Society. He leaves his widow, the former Verna Murphy of Wilkes-Barre; two sons: Ed- ward, of Big Stone Gap, Va.; and Lanning, of DuQuoin, Ill; ‘six * grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren; sisters: Mrs./Marie Bonner, Mrs: Caro- line Stoeckly, and a brother Joseph Reiss, all of: Wilkes- Barre. A son Hillman died four "years ago. Services were held Wednes- day morning from the Nulton Funeral Home, followed by a Mass of Requiem celebrated by Msgr. Francis A. Kane at Gate of Heaven Church. Fellow ushers of Our Lady of Victory Chapel acted as pall- bearers. Burial was in St. Mary’s Cemetery. i Va 415, was stolen. On Wednesday it was noted that sign had been punctured with bullet holes. The above sign stands on Memorial Highway coming into Dallas near Elston & Gould Tire Shop. at Pensacola Naval Aviation Officer Can- didate Lawrence G. Stets, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard A. Stets of Pole 26, Harveys Lake, has reported to the Aviation Officer Candidate School at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Fla. While at Pensacola he will begin his training under the Naval Aviation Program. Men will receive Military and Phy- sical Fitness training as well as classroom instruction leading to their commissioning . as Ensigns in the U.S. Naval Re- serve. receives degree Miss Jo Ann Ruckno, daugh- ter of Mr. and Mrs. George L. Ruckno of Crestview Drive, Dallas, received the degree of Bachelor of Arts at the com- mencement ceremonies of Man- hattanville College, Purchase, N.Y., recently. A graduate of West Side Cen- tral Catholic High School, Miss Ruckno - majored in political science. While a student at Man- hattanville she was treasurer for the International Relations Club during her junior year and ‘the chapter director of the Pro- ject of the Americas. Miss Ruckno plans to be mar- ried July 19 to Michael Allen Jones, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Jones of Memorial Highway, Shavertown. Commendation Medal Mrs. John M. Twardowski , of Dallas has received word that her husband, S. Sgt. Twardowski, has received the Commendation Medal given by the Navy for heroic action while fighting with the Marines near DaNang Feb. 24, 1969. At the risk of his life and regardless of personal safety, he led an operation to extin- guish a flare fire which threat- ened to become a major dis- aster at an ammunition dump. Five other Marines participated at great peril to themselves. Mrs. Twardowski is the former Ann McAvoy, who has been staying with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles McAvoy during her husband’s nine- month tour of duty in Vietnam. Jackson Twp. Democrats form club The newly formed Jackson Township Democrats’ Club elected officers at a meeting held earlier this month. Of- ficers inducted were President Frank Schultz, Vice President William Harebin, Secretary Eleanor Ivan and Treasurer Lois Malak. Details of the August outing were discussed. The next meeting will be held Tuesday, Aug. 15, at the Farmers Inn. PAGE THREE Wilkes to offer Masters Department of Public In- struction, Harrisburg, has approved two new master's degree programs for Wilkes College, according to Dr. Ralph Rozell, head of the graduate division. One program be- gins this summer and the second in the Fall. One of the announced pro- grams leads to a Master of Business Administration de- gree. It is designed to develop professional managers with emphasis on the foundation, organization, operation and control of business enterprises, to develop individuals trained in research and constructive business leadership; and to enable individuals to create and evaluate alternative courses of action. During the past year, gradu- ate courses in business admin- istration have been included in the curriculum in conjunction with Lehigh University. Be- ginning with the Fall semester, they will be offered for Wilkes College credit. Courses are available in the evening for the convenience of those who are actually engaged in business and government. A second new graduate pro- gram leads to a Master of Science degree in education with emphasis on the cecondary and elementary areas. Sec- ondary program will embrace work in biology, chemistry, English, history, mathematics, or physics, along with edu- cation credits. The program is designed to strengthen the academic background of school classroom teachers. Program in elementary edu- cation will include workshops in language, arts, science, mathematics, and social studies, emphasizing background pre- paration and the tools for dis- semination of subject matter in the elementary classroom. With the addition of the Master of Science Degree in Education and the Master of Business Administration De- gree, Wilkes now offers five graduate degrees. Added to the programs announced are Master of Science degrees in biology, chemistry and physics. in Vietham Marine Sergeant James M. Edgerton, son of Mr. and Mrs. Mills Edgerton of Route 1, Noxen, and husband of the former Miss Sonia S. Smith of Pine Drive, El Cajon, Calif., is serving with the First Marine Aircraft Wing in Vietnam. ACE
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers