1963-12-26; Clare Sentinel

              The   Clare   Sentinel
Teja Cants Copy
Thursday. December 26. 1963
Established 1878
New Series. Vol. 72 No. 18
e Last Backward Look At Year's Local Events
We   like   to   remember
that  1963 was a year of
unusual   newsmaking   on
the local scene!
It is such a short look
back to the year just now
^passing—but so easily
dimmed in memories. Here is a collection of reminders of what made news
in our community, and what made pain or progress-
humor and fact in our lives.
During the year we learned about a rare sun eclipse,—and a machine for
making rain.
In the parade of 52 front
pages, (and many, many
more pages of features and
social news, and personal
mention items, and adverts tising ) we reported in The
Sentinel about local police
outwitting the "bad guys"
what goes on in the school
classroom, the government
meeting rooms,-the lodge
room,-the church worship
room.
There was sad news
about the passing of friends
and happier tones when
marriages and births were
told.
Not like any other year
•   in human history, 1963 was
at  the  same  time a year
of familiar routines.
There is a custom among
news-gathering specialists
near centers of important
n" activity,— that of judging
the most important stories
or happenings of the year
past.
We like to remember
our own local stories too,
on a little different basis
of rating, like this.-
The most fun in reporting a story.was last July
at the time of a sun eclipse over much of North
America.
We met a young man,
6-year old Steven Pudvay,
son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Pudvay who was
watching the heavenly show
with the aid of a camera
^Oivitans -
Distribute
Gift Toys
Women of Clare County
were commended by the
Clare Civitan Club, for
their wonderful response
to the doll dressing contest.
Many hours were spent in
making clothes, displaying
such excellence, that judg-"
ing for the winners was
very difficult.
Winners were Elaine
Hilyard, 1st, Drusilla Bigelow, second, Mrs. Gordon
*-' Wiley, third, Mrs. Marie
Schug, fourth, Mrs. Geral-
dine Engel, fifth, and Mrs.
D. Murphy, sixth. Judging
was by members of the XI
Gamma Chapter, of the'
Beta Sigma Phi Sorority.
Bob Giles, chairman for
the doll project, states it
was a most rewarding feeling when these 45 dolls
were distributed Tuesday
afternoon, to see the happiness of the recipients.
This is the third year for
the doll project, and the
dream for the coming year
is a doll crib for each doll. •
*■ The women that have participated in dressing the
dolls, have asked for more
time next year, and plans
are to have the dolls ready
in September.
Cal Foss, in charge of the
toy project announces that
toys were distributed to 86
children, taking in a wide
area in the surrounding
community, and city of
Clare. The workshop committee in repairing and fixing the toys, is discussing
plans to enlarge on the
proieet next year, and
make manv of their own
^toys for distribution.
Going Up
The average speed of all
vehicles on Michigan high-'
ways this year is 56.9 miles
an hour, an increase of
eight-tenths of a mile o^er
1962, according to the State
Highway Department.
The average speed on
Michigan highways has
been going up every year
since 1950 When ii was 48
miles an hour.
This year, during daylight hours, passenger car-
have been averaging 58.4
miles an hour, compared to
56J8 last year.
"telescope", made of black
paper with peephole lens
and white reflecting base.
It really worked!
We        were  so     much
impressed with his success
that we made a device like
his and had fun watching
the solar blackout too.
The most sentimental
story was one about the
birthday of 96-year-old
Mrs. Sarah Mater who
posed for a charming portrait among gift flowers
and the cards received
from friends.
Mrs. Mater did not live
to see the end of this year,
but we'll remember her
quiet spirit and the pleasant conversation of that
afternoon when the picture
was being made.
A little girl with mischief in her eyes and an
idea to enliven the business of gardening was the
inspiration for the "most
unusual" story in the year.
Jeannie Bolle, daughter of
the Walter Bolles' grew
cucumber pickles inside
pop bottles after they were
placed there while still
very tiny and connected to
the vine stem.
She and her garden made
an entertaining story and
picture.
Many local readers would agree that honors for
the most important news
story of the year could be
divided between the project of building Farwell's
new school,-and the planning amd sucessful election in favor of a new Clare County Building to contain the courts and other
government headquarters.
Area happenings in chronological order are;
In January— A deal was
completed to double the
area in downtown Clare for
auto parking with the city's
purchase of a lot on W. Fo.-
urth for two hour parking
Sales tax collections showed Clare business in a
nine percent climb during
lVw2-over 1961.
' Holley Carburetor Co. in
a 50 percent plant expansion added to facilities
here.
The Village of Rosebush
celebrated the 75th anniversary of its original platting.
County Winter Sports
Festival promoters announced that Mrs. Berly Radabaugh (Lavina) would live
in a self made camp in a
solitary eight-day survival
test immediately before the
celebration weekend and
come out of the woods to
be an honored guest at the
Festival Banquet.
Five   calls   in  the  last
week  of January kept the
Clare   Fire   Department
busy.
Ninety-eight  students
were listed on Clare Public School's first semester
• honor roll for high marks.
February headlines told
how Farwell sent Miss
Carolyn Horning to the
Michigan Winter Festival
at Grayling as a candidate
for honors there. The Clare School Board laid aside a proposal for a 45 minute lunch hour and thereby
postponed further discussion of the controversial
matter.
Circuit Judge Donald E.
Holbrook won nomination
for the Michigan Supreme
u-
2 Counties
Join 4-H
Training
A fine Christmas vacation activity for "4-H Junior leaders will be held on
Monday December 30. Clare and Gladwin counties
are combining on this event to utilize more fully
their limited personnel in
the extension offices.
All 4-H'ers 13 years of
age or over are invited to
attend for the training school to be held at Beaverton Elementary School,
. Beaverton.
The program starts at
11:30 a.m. and ends at 3:30
p.m.      Members  should
bring a sack lunch.    Milk
will be available.
Junior leaders along With
their adult leaders Will le-.
arn more about the project, their f espdhsibilities
and duties. Assisting from
Glare county Will be Mrs.
Alice Streeter, John Streeter and Sharon Gordon,
Lake, Mrs. Elmira-Fletcher • Farwell; ind Helen
Penrose, Clare. •:   ■
Court at the ballots for the
election to come in April.
On the area scene Coleman began to organize help for Detroit in that city's
campaign to bring the-International Olympic Games
to Michigan in 1968. It was
an idea that caught on all
over the.state and resulted in hundreds of petitions
being signed in support of
Detroit's bid. It ended
only when Detroit lost an
international contest to
name the Olympic city.
And in Farwell the school
board announced that Harold Elenbaas would be the
superintendent in 1963-64.
In March the national craze for hiking to emphasize the need for physical
fitness exercise caught the
fancy of two Clare youths,
Don Hemstreet and John
Shayler who hiked a day
and a night to step off 55
miles.
Clare High was eliminated by Lakeview in the
district finals of the state
basketball tournament.
Signs of coming spring
began to show in the thawing breakup of deep-frozen roads and fields, preelection activities, and migrating swans on Lake Shamrock.
In April Clare elected
Mayor Glen Cain, and Commissioners George Wisler
and Mack Thomson to succeed themselves,. and in
township elections four new
supervisors were among
others office turnovers:
Otto Sharp in Franklin,
John DeForest in Surrey,
Percy Barlow in Freeman,
and Myron Dunkle in Lincoln were all new.
In their first session, supervisors elected Louis
Becker as their chairman.
Approval of a Federal
Aid application assured the
construction of a water filtration plant to improve the
quality of Clare's city well
water. Actual building started in August. .
Clare "High's Band, and
Junior Band won firsts in
State Festival competion,
the first time in the 36-
year history of organized
school bands here.
A law suit begun by property owners near new
Lake Shamrock sought to
fix responsibility for high
underground water and
damage and the threat of
more damage from flooded
basements in the near area.
Among deaths during the
year were two promonint
residents, ,L.E. Davy, 93
who was a pioneer Clare
merchant in business here
for 70 years, and Gerald
Nivison, former mayor.
The Chamber of Commerce annual Distinguished Citizen award went to
Ben J. Burdo during Michigan Week that saw observances conducted on a salute to Dow Chemical Company theme.
Toward the end of May
a system of rainmaking devises was put into operation after forecasts of dry
conditions threatened to
lower "stream" leveis that
furnished water for Dow
Chemical operations in
Midland. One cloud seeding installation was in
Clare.
The City of Harrison was
promised a Michigan Consolidated Gas pipeline.
Farwell School Area Voters okay'd a 31/2 mill raise in operating tax and reelected Wilbur McLane on
the Board.
In July Dow announced
plans for formation of
Clare Fabricated Plastics
to locate here and produce
Saran Wrap Squares. Company officials said that
the' original employment of
about eight persons would'
probable increase and
more products might be added to the operations. Thomas C. Bliss, from near
Chicago, was later appointed operations manager here.
Supervisors told of a new
official policy of granting
Welfare aid in return for
male labor on jobs for the
county or townships.
cafe and lounge was sold
to O.D. Bayes and Dunlop* s
Restaurant and Bar passed
to the ownership of Charles
Melnek.
Micky McDonald became
the new owner of the Coney Island short order and
lunch room on W. Fourth
street and elsewhere on the
same block new businesses
were established with the
opening of Clare Motor
Parts  and  the   B  and  B
Heating Co. The latter in
the building next to Krogers
where Brewer's Hardware
ahd Implement store went
put of business.
| The unexpected resignation of High School Principal David Donovan two
vyeeks before the opening of
school in September led to
the move for Marvin Bidstrup from Elementary
Principal to the position
vacated by Donovan and the
appointment of Mrs. Leota
VanEvery to Elementary
Principal.
Two other official positions left vacant by the departure of Donovan were
filled with the appointment
of Tim Cotter to the City
Commission, and Dr. Eugene Gershon's appointment as Clare County Democratic   Party   Chairman.
Student enrollment in Clare Public    Schools    was
•". ^-*.
v r-
j.
close to 1700 for the start
of the 1963-64 year.
Area youth with ambitions to become dairy producers were encouraged by
an announcement late in
September that an interested adult group would
help launch a Junior Dairyman program that could
be joined by either FFA, or
4-H members.
Clare Chamber of Commerce  members learned
\
Billowing smoke from all sides, the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Willard Koch held a small fire in tight confinement Monday
until the superheated air inside caused damage much
greater .than the blaze itself. QTjremen who entered after the
fire was extinguished and smoke drawn clear, found blistered and warped interior rooms, cracked glass throughout
Burning furniture was tossed into t<he front yard.
Sentinel photo.
Fire Causes   ^'Christmas" Donations
Koch's Home Buy Shoes For 55 Kids
Heavy Ruin
A damaging fire at ,-the. ^othto
residence of Mr. and Mrs. money contributions made
I
3 Fifty-five youngsters
were outfitted with shoes
and boots, and some with
coats and other needed
as '_a   result   of
Willard (Bill) Koch at 424
Orchard on Monday afternoon changed gay holiday
expectations to ashes for
the family.
Clare firemen who put
out the "small" blaze in
the living room of the
home with less than 50 gallons of water and in scant
minutes of time, nevertheless found the damage
from intense heat and
smoke throughout the
house to be extremely
heavy.
It was estimated that the
loss from the fire would
total several thousand dollars.
Members of the family
were all absent from the
house when the fire started and origin of the blaze
remains undetermined.
Appearances inside the
living room suggest that
the fire started near one
end of the room and possi-
ibly ignated draperies or
furniture. The Christmas
tree was scorched, but gifts
piled under it were damaged mostly by water and
smoke stains oh the wrappings.
Throughout the .rooms it
was a different story.
Many windows and glass
objects were broken or
cracked by the heat while
tile on the walls of the
kitchen and bath was
warped and nearly melted.
Paint was stained and peel-,
ed'from walls and ceilings.
The same house has suffered two previous fires of
less serious nature..
The family, Mr. and Mrs.
Koch and two children
Tom 14, and Amy 7, were
forced to take quarters
temporarily in a motel.
Clothing, bedding aid contents of drawers, cJosets
and storage spaces all was
rushed to, be laundered or
dry cleaned.
Closets and woodwork
throughout the house had
been blistered or heavily
stained by heat.
Several articles of still-
bufning furniture from the
for this special Christmas
project.
Started with money by
the Kiwanis and Rotary
Clubs of Clare, many personal donations were also
given, and tne St. Cecilia's
Home and School Guild
contributed $50.00. In all.
around $600.00 was realized, states Tony Wedal, one
of the chairmen for the
project.
Children were brought
from schools and taken to
Green's and Alexander's
Shoe Stores, by members
of the clubs, to get their
new shoes and boots. Ice
cream treats were fnrnish-
Sentinel In
Mail Friday
Sentinel readers next
week for the second time
in succession will receive
their newspapers on Friday instead of Thursday
because of a holiday schedule.     •
With New Years Day on
Wednesday, the closed
plant will cause a delay of
ed by interested people,
and many of the children
received a free haircut at
Horn's Barber Shop.
Also working to make
Christmas'''*'happier for
those less fortunate, were
the Clare Business and
Professional Women's Club
chairmaned_ by Mrs. Doris
SCS Annual
Meeting To
Be Monday
Members and friends of
the Clare County Soil and
Water Conservation District will hold their annual
meeting Monday January 13
at 8 P.M. at Harrison High
School.
Highlights of the program will be the election
of two directors to replace
the expired terms of Tony
Boven, Marion and Robert
Clute, Clare.
An unusual program has
been secured for this year.
Robert Brouwer from Grand Rapids will present his
Travelogues in Dimension.
Brouwer is an electrician by profession but also is accompolished in color photography and high
fidelity sound. He combines these with controlled
light to produce an unusu-
that the organization was
suffering from a drop in
memberships and a low
treasury. Steps for rebuilding the group for new effectiveness were discussed. As one project,
the C of C revived the afternoon program for a Santa Claus party in Clare
early in December, and
collected cash donations to
buy candy treats for hundreds of children expected
to meet Santa.
Clare was chosen as the
site for two politics-related events when Governor George Rommey spoke
here in October in the interest of his proposed
overhaul of state finance
and .axation structure, and
on December 3 a hearing
was held here on State Apportionment revision.
Clare High dragged through a so-so- football season while J V' s built a team
with talent and experience
that promised better things
on the gridiron next year.
In November the city announced the adoption of a
pension plan for city employees.
Activities on the farm front included advice in "soils building" meetings at
Arthur town hall that productive farmlands are the
best way to increased farm
income. Lessons on how to
"wake up" unproductive
soils were included. And
a youth group of exhibitors
at the Detroit Junior Livestock Show returned to Clare
county with a record of accomplishments to be proud
of, in the words of their
adult chaperones and Extension Director George
MacQueen.
Lutherans of the Missouri Synod organized a
new church here under lea*-
dership of Pastor Charles
Smith, and began holding
Bicknell who reported that worship services in the
six familv Christmas bask- high school music room,
ets of food were packed. Expansion by Dow Chem-
which included chickens ical Company here was
for a holiday dinner, and. started with the leasing of
many items of canned the County Road Commis-
foods donated by the club sion's maintenance garage
members *n Clare that doubled, ap-
iShe also reports that the proximately the plant space
mitten project response *or . clare Fabricated
was outstanding this year. ™lastics.
one day in preparation and aj program
mailing of the paper. Door prizes of pine tra-
Deadline times for want- nsplants will be awarded
ad copy remains Tuesday along with the annual lun-
morning at ten o'clock. cheon.
The two chapters of the
Beta Sigma Phi Sorority
took care of three families
with food and clothing.
Mrs. Nick Jabour reports
that the Catholic Daughters of America, Sacred
Heart Court 1332 prepared
a basket of food, clothing
new and used, also toys
and a ton of coal for a family with seven children.
Dairy And
Beef Juniors -
Invited
Clare County 4-H and
FFA members interested
in the dairy and beef pro-
jucts should mark Tuesday
December 31 on their calendars. The junior beef
club will meet at the Grant Township Hall at 10 AM.
This group will hold its
elections and plan the coming year's program. The
junior dairy group will
meet at the same spot at
1:30 PM and bring their
'business up to date.
Youth and parents interested are invited to attend. "
Changes in personnel and living room were dragged
ownership     of businesses from the house by firemen
here included the purchase after   the   blaze   was   ex-
of the Mobil Oil products
agency   by   Ernie   Bryant
and Pure Oil by Ernie Sprague, Don Bell ind Fred
DeDolph.
The Folkert Mill End were tested for diabetes by
stores chain purchased the the Michigan Department
building and business of of Health in. 1962, with
Davy's Department Store, nearly 600 new cases of the
Barnes Town and Country disease discovered.
after   the   blaze
tihguished.
Health Tests
More than .100,000 people
Happy New Year
From
All
Of Us
At
The
Sentinel
It's big news! It's good news! Have
a happy time greeting the New Year.
Writes From
Vietnamese
News Scene
The family of Senator
Harold B. Hughes in Clare
have a prized letter from
the oldest son, David who
is stationed with the U.S
Army in Vietnam and who
observed and wrote of the
turmoil and rebellion that
ended with the overthrow
of the government of the
late President Ngo Denh
Diem.
The letter was written on
Monday following the weekend battle that ended on
Saturday with the surrender of the government
and abrupt assasination of
the president and his brother.
Equally as interestingas
the account of what was
known on the scene of the
rebellion was David's description of natives there.
Vietnamese who were
downtrodden and sober fry
so long, were joyful after
the victory over their government, and David discovered that their returning
grins displayed either gaping toothlessness, or shiny
gold in their teeth (a status symbol)* or teeth start-
ingly black from constant
chewing of beetle nuts.
He said that native dentists install the gold teeth
in curbside operations on
the . unsanitary   streets.
Those Markets
Not So Little
Those "little" mile mark*
ers along Michigan's freeways are not as little as
you may think.
Those with two digits
are a foot wide and two
feet high.
Signs with three numbers are a foot higher.
The numbers are six
inches high,
"Any smaller and motorists traveling 70 miles an
hour wouldn't be able +*
•see them",.the State H •
way Department say p.
The green aiidwh' -A-
fl_ctori_ed marker, .iOu.
the exact nu. bets <_£
miles from the jy«.c '!-4l4,
IrOWi West r -f!ta. siJ*?
south to notUi, -   V