’
Not so funny
50 YEARS AGO - MARCH 2, 1934
Riding on the white winds of the
winter’s deepest snowfall, sub-zero
weather swooped suddenly down on
the area, bringing temperatures
which sent the. mercury far below
the low marks already recorded
that winter.
The body of Mrs. Elizabeth Mets-
Harveys Lake. Her husband, Daniel
Metscavage, 60, was arrested by
State Police and detained in Wyo-
of her deaths.
Thwarted in his attempt to locate
permanently in Caldwell, N.J.
Swag
ing station with a check issued on
First National Bank of Dallas,
Wilson Thompson, former resident
of Noxen, was arrested by New
Jersey state police bringing to cul-
mination a long series of escapades
involving the issuance of fraudalent
You could get - Peaches, 2 cans,
29¢; bartlett pears, can, 15c;
salmon, 2 cans, 23c; pickles, 2 qt.
jars, 29c; vinegar, 2 24-0z. bottles,
15¢; Chase and Sanborn coffee, 28c
1b. can.
40 YEARS AGO - MARCH 3, 1944
Women of Dallas and surrounding
communities had the opportunity to
learn more of the functions and
work of the Women’s Army Corps
when Lieutenant Phyllis Whit-
tingham of the Wilkes-Barre
recruiting office opened a part-time
information and recruitng booth in
Dallas.
The Annual Red Cross Drive was
launched in the Back Mountain
region under the direction of Mrs.
Charles Wheaton Lee of Dallas.
John Place, 23, of Mehoopany,
was fatally injured when he fell
from a barn on the Renard farm in
Ruggles Hollow.
Deaths - Arden Husted, Idetown.
You could get - Bread, 2 1vs., 17c;
marmalade, 2 1b. jar, 25c; hams,
37c 1b.; spaghettie, 3 lbs. 20c; pan-
cake flour, 30 oz. pkg., 7c; margar-
ine, 1b. pkg. 24c.
30 YEARS AGO - MARCH 5, 1954
With the appointment of Mrs.
Charles Eberle to Kingston Town-
ship School Board, an unwritten law
was set aside. Mrs. Mary Lou
Eberle was the first woman to serve
as school director in Kingston Town-
ship.
“What is a Lutheran?’ was the
question answered in a five-page
illuminating article in an issue of
Look Magazine by Rev. Dr. G.
Elson Ruff, former pastor of St.
Paul’s Church, Shavertown.
One of the largest beavers ever
taken in this area was trapped at
Lake Catalpa by Ferris Roberts,
Red Rock, deputy game warden
who had caught his limit every
season since beaver trapping
became legal in Pennsylvania.
Deaths - Mrs. Goldie Gregory,
Trucksville; Mrs. Anna M. Lewin,
Dallas; Mrs. Elizabeth Culp, Hun-
Charles Lech, Roushey Plot.’
v You'could get = Smoked hams; 59c
Ib.;o fryers, 43¢ 1b.; Beltsville ‘tur-
keys, 59c 1b.; tuna, 3 7-0z. cans, $1;
oleo, 2 lbs., 39¢; salmon, 1 lb. can,
37c.
20 YEARS AGO - MARCH 5, 1964
Dale Oney, of Laketon, Harveys
Lake, gave in to court ruling of his
guilt on four counts of game law
violation, resulting in $600 fines and
costs. But Richard Mark Burnat,
announced he might appeal his con-
viction on six counts of deer offen-
ses to the Superior Court.
Back Mountain Protective Asso-
ciation went on record as opposed to
unsightly billboards and signs along
the new highway.
Married - Grace E. Belles, Beau-
mont, to Irvin C. Barber, Fairfax,
Va.
You could get - Boneless chuck,
57c¢ 1b.; rib roast, 59c¢ lb.; black
peepper, 4 oz. can, 39¢; hair spray,
89c; grape jelly, 12-oz. jar, 23c;
Bufferin, bottle of 36, 45c¢.
10 YEARS AGO - FEBRUARY 28,
1974
Luzerne County Planning Com-
mission approved a resolution to
alter its master sewage plan to
conform with the Dallas Area
Municipal Authority Plan.
Long lines of motorists at the few
gasoline stations remaining open for
any length of time had been ordi-
nary in Northeastern Pennsylvania
and particularly so for a month or
more in Lackawanna, Luzerne and
Wyoming Counties.
Deaths - Wilma Romanowski,
Shavertown; Wilda Luft, Sweet
Valley; Aloysius Zakjawski, Shaver-
town; Charles Fehlinger, Dallas.
Married - Patricia D. Rood,
Dallas, to Erich Heusing, West Ger-
many.
You could get - Eggs, 66c doz.; ice
cream, '» gal. 58¢; tuna, 6% oz.
can, 28c; Kraft dinner, 3 7% oz.
pkgs., 68c; oranges, 10 for 89c.
Library
grant
PottyMartin........7.......
$12. per year in Pa.
te Ed, Publisher -
Associate Publisher & Editor
Managing Editor
Associate Editor
Advertising Representative
Circulation Manager
“ee
v
is
By NANCY KOZEMCHAK
Library Correspondent ’
The Back Mountain Memorial
Library has been informed that the
application for a Library Services
and Construction Act (LSCA) Title I
grant for Collection Management
has been approved for $5,000.00.
The grant will be used to initiate a
specialized weekly story time for
two year olds and their parents and
select and acquire materials and
equipment to expand the current
story hour for three to five year
olds. The contracts from the state
will be written in late winter of 1984
and projects should be able to start
by July.
Local funds equal to 10 percent of
the total grant must be used for the
project in addition to the $5,000.
These monies are kept in a separate
account which require an audit at
the end of the project.
Elliot Shelkrot of the State
Library in Harrisburg informed the
library of the grant approval. The
application for the grant and the
paper work involved was initiated
by Marilyn Rudolph, ‘children’s
librarian.
A very good friend of the library,
Attorney Merton E. Jones, has
passed away and the library will
miss his valuable services and those
of us who were fortunate to know
him as a personal friend will miss
him also.
Mert served on the library Board
of Directors since January 28, 1971
and had been a continuing source of
help to the library on legal matters.
We have received a considerable
amount of memorial donations on
his behalf and have purchased a
series of handsome and durable
volumes on the writings of notable
American novelists, historians,
poets, philosophers and essayists.
The library of America is publish-
ing these books which is supported
by grants from the Ford Foundation
and the National Endowment for the
Humanities. Each compact, elegant
book includes several unabridged
works, and some volumes run to as
many as 1500 pages.
America, like other nations, can
now offer every reader the collected
works of its major authors in
authorative editions. An authorative
version assures the reader that only
after thorough research and study is
a text selected for this series.
The series include the works of;
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman
Melville, Henry James, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Jack London,
Mark Twain, William Dean Howells,
Washington Irving and Henry
Adams. For each volume, a distin-
guished scholar has prepared a
succinct chronology of the author's
life and career and an essay on the
choice of texts.
Guest editorial
‘By EDWIN FEULNER
hough unusually bitter
weather has had much
of America in a deep
freeze since Thanksgiving,
heating fuel continues to be
plentiful. It’s not as inexpen-
sive as we would like; but it
never will be again. That’s
wishful thinking. The best
we can hope for is price
stability and plenty, both of
which seem assured for the
immediate future.
That doesn’t mean the U.S.
should become complacent.
At their most recent meet-
ing, the OPEC oil ministers
elected again not to raise
prices. But that’s not
because they’re less greedy
than a few years ago; it’s
because there’s a lot of
excess oil in the world mar-
ketplace.
And if the U.S. is smart, it
will add to OPEC’s problems
by putting Alaskan crude oil
back on the energy market,
lessening the world’s
dependence on Persian Gulf
oil even further.
But this is not so easily
done. Federal legislation has
been blocking the free com-
mercial export of Alaskan oil
and natural gas for the past
decade.
Blocking the overseas sale
of Alaskan crude oil has
resulted in an oil glut in that
state. Because of that, half
of Alaska’s oil is being
coasts at considerble cost
(ultimately paid by us, the
consumers). The East and
Gulf coasts can purchase oil
more economically, how-
ever, from other sources.
Moreover, the glut has dis-
couraged additional domes-
tic oil exploration.
A recent study by energy
experts Milton Copulos and
S. Fred Singer shows that by
lifting the restrictions on the
export of Alaskan oil and
gas, Congress could slice
$1.5 billion from the budget
deficit, improve America’s
balance of trade with Japan
- which would be a prime
market - and make it unnec-
essary to build the proposed
$2 billion pipeline from Alas-
By putting more oil and
gas on the world market, the
analysts say, Alaskan
exports ‘‘would reduce the
need for OPEC oil, and
apply downward pressure on
the world oil price - to the
benefit of the industrialized
countries and oil-importing
developing nations alike.”
Noting that Alaskan oil
and gas reserve estimates
have grown over the past
several years, Singer and
Copulos say those who
oppose the export of Alaskan
gas and oil are at worst bull-
headed and at best inconsist-
export of refined oil prod-
ucts, such as gasoline and
fuel oil.
“It seems strange, there-
fore ,that there should be a
prohibition against exporting
crude oil.”
In the event of an oil
coupled with productions
cutbacks, ‘‘the market could
take over and adjust the
available supply...to the
demand,” they say. A pro-
duction cutback would result
“This redistribution of oil
would be entirely automatic,
acting in response to the
normal market forces, not
government policies,” Singer
and Copulos say. ;
Let’s hope Congress
learned something when
President Reagan lifted oil
price controls: that without
energy market works more
efficiently and benefits
American consumers more
than when government
bureaucrats try to manage
the world’s energy supplies
from their grey-hole offices
in Washington. If they did,
they will give OPEC another
well-deserved nudge by lift-
ing the lid on Alaskan oil.
(Edwin Feulner is presi-
dent of The Heritage Foun-
dation, a Washington-based
public policy research insti-
ute.)
Here is a summary of important
events that occurred on Capitol Hill
last week from Rep. Frank Coslett,
120th Legislative District:
PENNSYLVANIA VOTERS © will
be asked in the April primary elec-
tion to approve or reject a proposed
$190 million economic development
bond issue. The House and Senate
approved the referendum proposal
after Gov. Dick Thornburgh
announced the plan with the support
of a bipartisan coalition of legisla-
tive leaders. If the issue wins voter
approal, the funds will be allocated
to nine separate programs. The
largest single item would be $50
million for loans and grants to local
economic developmentnagencies.
equipment at vo-tech schools and
businesses, youth conservation
corps programs and minority ‘eco-
nomic development.
dards in Pennsylvania’s public
schoolls, including competency test-
ing, would be mandated under a bill
passed by the House and sent to the
Senate this week. The legislation
specifies basic courses students
must take. It also establishes com-
petency tests for second, fifth,
eighth and eleventh graders. A com-
petency test must be passed in the
11th grade in order to graduate, the
measure stipulates.
LEGISLATION REVISING the
procedure for selecting Public Util-
ity «Commission members, as well.
as ‘shortening the length of thej
terms, passed the House by a 134-647
margin. Before its passage, howyg
ever, the bill was stripped of ar
amendment to place commissioner
up for retention elecion at the end of
their term. The bill mandates that
PUC terms be shortened from 10 to
five years and that a PUC nominat-,
ing council recommend nominees to
the governor for appointment. Rep.
Jeffrey Piccola (R-Dauphin)
opposed retention elections, saying
the commissioners would employ
‘people who can...get them re-
elected, not people who know any-
thing about utility rates.”
DEAR EDITOR:
Your acceptance of advertising
for “Pregnancy Termination” up to
3% months for a fee (of course) is
reprehensible. Surely, it has no
place in a family newspaper.
In my opinion this is nothing more
than soliciting to kill by cruel
means a tiny, helpless human being.
‘‘Electrical brain waves (elec-
troencephalograph) have been
recorded as early as forty days.” H.
Hamlin, Life or Death by E.E.G.
J.AM.A., Oct. 12, 1964.
Dr. Liley, the ‘Father of Fetol-
ogy” who developed fetal blood
transfusion has said that seven days
after fertilization ‘‘the young indi-
vidual, in command of his environ-
ment and destiny with a tenacious
purpose, implants in the spongy
lining and with a display of physiol-
ogical power suppresses his
mother’s menstrual period. This is
his home for the next 270 days and
to make it habitable the embryo
develops a placenta and a protec-
tive capsule of fluid for himself. He
also solves, single-handed, the hom-
egraft problem, that dazzling feat
by which foetus and mother,
although immunological foreigners
who could not exchange skin grafts
nor safely receive blood from each
nevertheless tolerate each
other in parabiosis for nine months.
“We know that he moves with a
delightful easy grace in his buoyant
world, that foetal comfort deter-
mines foetal position. He is respon-
sive to pain and touch and cold and
sound and light. He drinks his
amniotic fluid, more if it is artifi-
cially sweetened, less if it is given
an unpleasant taste. He gets hiccups
sleeps. He gets bored with repetitive
signals but can be taught to be
alerted by a first signal for a second
different one. And finally he deter-
mines his birthday, for unquestiona-
bly the onset of labour ia a uni-
lateral decision of the foetus.”
“This then is the foetus we know
and indeed we each once were. This
is the foetus we look after in
modern obstetrics, the same baby
we are caring for before and after
birth, who before birth can be ill
and need diagnosis and treatment
just like any other patient.”” Liberal
Studies, “A Case Against Abortion,”
Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd. 1971.
F. PATRICIA BALOGA
SHAVERTOWN
DEAR EDITOR:
During the past three months, the
Chemical People Project in concert
with both the national and local
media have done a marvelous job of
heightening community awareness
of the insidious effects of alcohol
and other drug abuse.
Task forces have sprung up.
across our own Luzerne-Wyoming
Counties community, and interested
and concerned citizens are ‘‘putting
their heads together’ in the earnest
hopes of doing something about the
drug and alcohol abuse problem in
our locale.
I know that many parents, law
enforcement officials, and educa-
tors, along with other individuals
from all walks of life are searching
for ways in which they might be
part of a community solution. I
would like to take this opportunity
to offer one specific suggestion -
consider lobbying for increased
financial support to sustain publicly
funded substance abuse treatment
programs.
¥/
MS
On December 1, 1983, Representa-
tive Peter Wambach (Dauphin
County) introduced H.B. 1740, which
raised the Pennsylvania tax on alco-
hol from 18 percent to 20 percent.
nearly 12 million dollars to fund
treatment and rehabilitation, pre-
vention, education, and early inter-
vention, as well as research on
addiction. Does such a proposed
increase seem ‘‘hefty?’’ In actual-
ity, funding for drug and alcohol
programming has been consistently
reduced as a result of both inflation
and Federal Block Grant cuts.
Therefore, 12 million dollars will
simply restore the level of funding
for drug and alcohol to where it was
in 1977!
As an individual professionally
trained in human services, I. cer-
tainly support increased funding to
assorted health and human serv-
ices. However, not all health and
human service programs have been
plagued with budgetary crises to the
; fh
oy
hol Sector. By way of illustrations, I
have enclosed a graph depicting
program funding during the period
1977-1984. You will note that commu-
nity mental health services were
funded at a 112 percent increa
child welfare at 106 percent, corr
tions at 86 percent and D&A at only
25 percent. During 1977-1983, the
Consumer Price Index rose 64 per-
cent! 7
House Bill 1740 is an important
piece of legislation which will
assure the viability of the publicly
funded Drug and Alcohol Treatment
Service network. I urge members of
our community to mobilize around
this issue by contacting local State
legislators in order to solicit their
support. Alcohol and other chemi-
cals are Killing people. Those of us
who provide services need your
THOMAS E. DI MATTEO, ED.D.
CRC
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
LUZERNE-WYOMING COUNTY
A
uae