1969-12-29; Saline Reporter

              The Saline
Vol. 21, No. 17 — Tues., Dec. 29, 1969
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$&'   10c COPY - S5 YEAR
ecade Brought
any Changes Here
People who have moved to Saline "S. F. P." (Since
Ford Plant) probably don't realize how many changes
the decade of  the  60's  wrought  here.
If you think it's a "quiet little town" now, you should
have seen it 10 years ago. For instance:
Late in 1959, the Community Chest drive "(which
joined the United Fund some years later) went $10
over its goal: $8,687. "Scotty" Wilson was drive chairman and Gordon Esch was president of the board.
"Most Valuable Players" on the Hornet football
were Bill Taylor and Neil Tracy. Bill is now with the
Saline Police Department and Neil was for a while;
now he's in security at the Ford plant. Sheriff Harvey should  have  enlisted   'em for the  Pigball  game.
The Chamber of Commerce (which died this year) -
and civic - minded individuals got together to create
the Saline Industrial Development Corp., to locate
industrial sites around the city and make them attractive enough to bring industry here: The Industrial
Development Corp. is now defunct, too; but it did its
work well, and there sits the Ford plant to prove it.
Council asked for bids on a new police car after a
news story in The Reporter revealed that the city's
only police car was unsafe at 50 mph \ (foreshadowing Ralph Nader), unmanageable at 60, undriveable
at 65 . . . and when you got it up to 70 mph, the
doors flew open from vibration. One miscreant had
left the scene of an accident and escaped capture just
by driving away at the legal speed limit.
It was discovered that, because the bars in Ypsilanti, Milan, and Ann Arbor all closed at midnight,
many revellers then piled into cars and drove to wide-
open Saline, where the bars stayed open until 2 a.m.
This problem settled itself when bars in other communities  also were  granted  2  a.m.   closing hours. •
In January of 1960, Councilman Frank Deede was
elected mayor by the new council. In those days,
Saline had a five - member council who elected one
of their own number as mayor. After voters approved a charter amendment for a seven - man council
(including an elected mayor) a charter study committee was appointed; and extensive charter revision
followed, a couple of years later.
In early 1960, police and sheriff's deputies were looking for the thief who, in two trips, swiped 6,800 feet
of telegraph wire from the New York Central Railroad right - of - way . . . right off the Utility poles,
followed,  a couple  of  years  later.
The old water tower, "which was located on N. Ann
Arbor St., overflowed and iced up the road, just
north of the railroad tracks. It was later inVhe decade that the city"acquired "the more pdpftpiqys, spif-
fy blue water- tqwer in the center of town ... but
even that wasn't without incident. One summer day
while it was under construction, it fell down with a
thump that joggled U-M seismographs.
A local grocery ad offered sirloin steak for 95 cents
a lb.; T - bones for 99 cents; and a nine - pound
ham for $7.77.
Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County held
its first annual dinner meeting. Saline Social Services
held its first annual meeting one year later..
One issue of   The   Reporter listed four houses, fbr "
rent  ("five - room modern house,  unfurn.,  iri  Saline
School Dist.,  $65  per mo.")    and   seven   apartments.
Today, you can't ever rent a house for love nor money .. . well,  hardly ever.
A new, modern postoffice building was authorized
for Bridgewater.
Former City Attorney Stanton Roesch slapped a
lien on the city's legal library (total: three books)
pending payment of his final bill,, with the comment,
"We will not express' a confidence in the present
council that we do not feel." s
Hornet cagers won the league crown and the first
district game.
Julie Rapp (who is now the city clerk) was crew
leader for Saline and environs for the i960' Census.
Her work was less complex than the 1970 census
chief will contend with: there were then no Rolling
Meadows subdivision, no MEHA, no Crestwood Knolls,
no Old Creek Farms, no Saline Heights addition, and
no apartment complexes on Clark St. and Mill Valley. There, were exactly 759 dwellings in the City of
Saline, including houses, . apartments, trailers, and
what - have - you. The hospital and the present High
School were both brand new. .
Teachers cancelled their March meeting — traditionally devoted "to salary problems - because "there
weren't enough problems left to have a meeting about."
Members of the Saline Teachers' Club voted unanimously to send a letter of appreciation to the School
Board with regard to the new salary schedule, which
was provided for the 62 teachers in the system without a millage increase. The schedule was worked "out
after months of conferences among a school board
committee - Bess Tefft, Ray Girbach, and Supt. Leo
Jensen - and a teachers' committee headed by. Dpm-
iniek Pellegreno (whose wife, Ann, flew around the -
world in 1967).
The schedule paid "a $4000 minimum for a BA and
54200 to those with masters* degrees, with merit
raises of $100 to $400 annually up to the $4700 mark
and then "professional status'' raises of $300 a year
to $6900. There was no tenure ih those days. Art Kat-
terohn was president of "the Teacher's Club.
Police Chief Earl Kirby was presented with a
"thank you" booklet,, signed by elementary schopl
children of both the intermediate and elementary
schools, in their own writing, "for outstanding service
to the school children and citizens of Saline."
John Mader, who was  then director of the special
(Continued on page 6)
BOY SCOUT PAPER DRIVE SET
Boy Scouts of Saline will* holii one of their quarterly
Paper drives in Saline area on -Saturday, Jan. 3-
They will call at each house in the city. Residents outside of "town may call, for pick-up, Harold West, 429-
9853, or Harold Fritts, 971-4578.
Rachel Gives More Hope to Blind Children
Happy Pictures Recall Service
ONE OF RACHEL WOODS' BLIND FILIPINO.STU-        Embassy Women's Group in Manila. Her proud teach-
DENTS, Regina Coprada, 18, receives a Braille wrist-        er, a Peace Corps volunteer worker from Saline, smiles
watch as a token of her achievement, from the U. S.      happily, second from left.
CLIMAXING HER TWO. YEARS' SERVICE, Rachel
receives a certificate headed, "In appreciation of your
work in..behalf of . . . . " but possibly Rachel will get
Rubella Clinics Scheduled
A campaign to immunize over 16,000 children in kindergarten through the third grade in Washtenaw County against rubella (German measles) • will begin in the
third week of January. The drive is being sponsored by
the Washtenaw County Health Department, the schools,
the local March of Dimes and the County Medical So-
. ciety. -
The drive will involve 50 elementary schools throughout the county and the vaccine will be given to youngsters at no charge. Vaccination clinics will be conducted
at Jensen and Houghton schools on Wednesday, Feb. 4.
Dr, Otto K. Engelke, County Health Director, said that
the parents or guardians of the children.in the kindergarten through the third grade age must give written
authorization to have their children participate in the
clinic.
her greatest satisfaction from memories such as that
in the photo below .
COUNCIL MEET, ZONING HEARING SET
The next regular meeting of City Council will convene
at 7:30 p.m! Monday, Jan. 5, in the council chamber. At
8 pjn., a zoning hearing is scheduled on the proposed
change^ from single-family residential to two-family zoning, fof property at 105 N.. Lewis St.
TINDO, 7^ TOMAS, 9, both of them blind students
of Rachel Woods during her Peace Corps hitch in the
Philippine Islands, grin their appreciation of her help.
Jaycees to Pick up Yule Trees
Jaycees will conduct their annual pick-up of discarded
Christmas trees, as a community service, on Saturday,
Jan. 3.
- Householders are asked to place the trees at the curb
by -1 p.m. for pick-up, throughout the city, Ron Finkbeiner is chairman.
The accumulated trees will be burned, under supervision of the fife department, in the open field behind Curtiss Park, at 6 p.m.
RECEIVES BUSINESS DEGREE
Doftald Paul Mann, son of Mrs. Earl Mann and the late
Mr. Mann of Bridgewater, graduated this month with" a
bachelor of' science degree in business administration,
from Ferris State College".
He was cited on the Dean's XJst and was a Delta Sigma
Phi fraternity, and the Society for the Advancement of
Management, *
Christmas Decorations Cited
Jaycees have announced the winners in their annual
selection of the most outstanding Christmas decora-"
tions in the city.       -
First place for home decoration, on the religious
theme, went to the Charles Marstbns, of 201 W. Henry St., with honorable mention to the \Varren Martin
home' at 302 E. Henry, and the Bob Hulls of 224 'RusseU St. \ ,■'■■-
First place, on a non - religious theme, was -awarded to the John Wilson home at 380 Hollywood Dr.'
Cited for the best all - around decorative effort was
the George Drake home at 611 Saline - Milan Rd.
No awards were,-given this year for decorations at
apartments. V . .   :
For commercial decoration, first place went to Community Ford Sales,  owned by Dave Potter,   and the
Salirie   High   Art   Club  whose = members  painted the
Community Ford  windows.   Ford   Motor   Co.   Saline'
plant received honorable mention.
... but Mavbe the Program
Wasn't Verv "Realistic"
The girl who traveled the greatest distance to return
home to Saline for Christmas is undoubtedly Rachel
Woods, daughter of Mrs. Mary Woods, of Clark St. Rachel came all the way from the Philippines, arriving in time
to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with her family and friends.
It was a joyous week for them all, for Rachel had been
gone from the family circle for more than two years . . .
and during most of that time she'd been about as far as
you can possibly get from Saline, both in terms of physical distance and ways of life.
Rachel, a graduate of Saline High School and Eastern
Michigan University, spent those two years as a Peace
Corps volunteer, working with the blind, in the Philippine Islands.
Her training and her experience made her unusually
well qualified for the work she was assigned. After graduating from Saline High in 1960, Rachel went on to
E.M.U., majoring in special education for the blind. She
got her diploma and her degree in 1964 . . . then she
spent three years working in the special education department of the Toledo Public Schooljs.
"There was a lot of satisfaction to be had from working with blind children," Rachel recalls. "But I had been
interested in the Peace Corps ever since it was first organized, and when I- had an opportunity to volunteer,
I didn't take long deciding."
THREE MONTHS OF CRAM COURSES
With all her background, Rachel still had much to
learn before she was qualified for work in the Philippines . . . and the Peace Corps proceeded to cram her full
of the required information in a three-month period of
, concentrated study. She took the first two months at
Stanford University . . . then she moved on by air to the
scene of her Peace Corps assignment, in the Philippine
Islands. During the three months, she somehow managed
to work up a good speaking acquaintance with Tagalog,
the language of the Filipinos, and learned how to overcome some of the misconceptions about Americans which
are common throughout the South Pacific.
Rachel, even without her three months training, could
set many of these misunderstandings straight . . . just
be being the same Rachel that so many Salinians had
learned to love and admire. The Peace Corps manual, for
instance, warns volunteers of these stereotypes which
the Filipinos believe true: "An American is rich beyond
the wildest expectations of the average Filipino. American girls are somewhat promiscuous. All Americans feel
superior to; Fiiipfrios."-     '*"""■" '    r ■■•■ ■     ••
That's not the way Rachel is-. . . and her 'effectiveness
in proving that the stereotype is wrong, throughout her
stay in the islands, was probably one of her major successes.
WONDERS ABOUT VALUE OF PROGRAM
She has a hard time trying to appraise the practical
value of her teaching, 'though. She went to the Philippines to teach the .blind . . . and before many months
had passed, she began to feel doubts about the wisdom'of
the teaching program.
"The first problem we had was in trying to overcome
the Filipinos' attitude toward their handicapped children. They simply hid them away ... so before we could
teach the blind children, we had to find them. Usually,
though, when parents and children understood what we
were trying to do, they would bring the blind ones out
of hiding, enroll them for training, and become very cooperative and appreciative.
"Most of the children we worked with were teen-agers
who had never attended school at all. We taught them
the Braille system of reading and writing, a little English, and a little math. Our teaching was very basic . . .
designed to qualify these blind teen-agers for admittance
to kindergarten! From that point, it was theoretically
possible., for them to continue their schooling right on
through college . . . but here's where the system seemed
a bit impractical.
"Assuming a very bright, ambitious blind youngster
could do this . . . could somehow battle up through college.. In all the Islands, there would be only six professional jobs which someday might be open to him . . .
when the present job-holders either die or move on. So
all the academic training of the Filipino blind children
. . . thousands of them ... seems to be somewhat unrealistic.
NOT A CHANCE FOR BLIND
"I remember going to an oil company executive to see
if his company couldn't be persuaded to hire some blind
people. His answer shows the enormity of the problem.
He told me that he couldn't hire any blind because it
- wouldn't be in the best interest of the company. "There
are many unemployed here,' he said. 'We can hire only a
very few. We hire the able-bodied because they're the
ones who can do us the greatest damage as unemployed
revolutionaries. The blind can't harm .us, so there's no
need to hire them,"
"There's ho vocational training for the blind at all. -
Everything is geared to college entrance. And, making
things even more difficult, the,schools in the Philippines-
are overcrowded .. . there's a great lack of teaching materials . . . a sho'rtage of teachers. The educators feel
that they're overloaded with just the job of r teaching
normal children, and they don't want to add to the load
by taking on the teaching'1 of the blind, even after we've
qualified them for entry, into, classes.
It's just possible that for the present, at least, the parents who hid their blind children away from the World
may have had-the kindest; most practical solution, Rach-
. el may reflect now.' -"
"The experience I had during my two years in the
Peace Corps was worth any amount of money I could
(Continued on page 2)
Dimes march dinner scheduled
A number of local campaigners will attend the 1970
March of Dimes kick-off dinner at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Jan. 7, at the Moose Lodge in Ann Arbor. Dr. James
Higgins, professor in the department'of human development at Michigan State University, will he the speaker. .