The Jackson Sun from Jackson, Tennessee • 8

Livina 8A The Jackson Sun, Jackson, Tuesday, June 30, 1987 Sex survey reaps story on fidelity DEAR ABBY: I see that you're taking a survey to find out how many couples cheat on each other. I'm reminded of this story I've j-JOOTfD NEWiR)iMt: Soap-opera star returns to Jackson for Merry reunion known for years: A young farmer took a bride. He made one request: "Never look in the trunk of my car." She said, "OK." On their 40th wedding anniversary, the wife's curiosity got the better of her and she opened the trunk of her husband's By Abigail Van Buren Syndicated columnist car. There she found three ears of corn and $10,000 in cash! She quickly closed the trunk, went to her husband and mm igr- Alt, -T V-S i- -k By Steve Visser Sun reporter When Dwan Smith attended Merry High School, she was too busy with basketball to bother with the school's Southern Serenade. But the Hollywood actress, who stars as Dr.

Irma Foster on "General Hospital," plans to make up for her neglect. She is headlining Merry's COACH Southern Serenade revue for the Fourth of July. The show is part of "Love-Ade II, The Second Dimension A Constitutional Convention." The first Southern Serenade was in 1929, when Noble Cranberry started it to raise money for baseball uniforms at Merry High. The musical show continued as a traditional gala under the tutelage of T.R White until he retired in 1969. COACH, the Community Organization for the Awareness of Cultural Heritage, resurrected the tradition last year to help preserve the heritage of black high schools a goal Smith strongly supports.

"Had I not grown up in Jackson, the way I did, I wouldn't be where I am today," Smith says. "Jackson was segregated then and to protect us from segregation, (the black community) put such a cradle around us. There was so much love that I couldn't have gotten in New York or Chicago. It's the Southern way. "I never had the right to fail because I was given so much." It's that "Southern way" that's the basis for Love-Ade, says Brenda Moses, an organizer of the four-day fest.

Merry's COACH obviously doesn't miss segregation, but Moses emphasizes that black high schools shaped the students for the white world following inter-gration. "These schools prepared us for the challenges that we were able to accept when the opportunities became available," she says. "We're pulling out some of the positive aspects of that experience." Moses hopes that Love-Ade will establish a network of alumni from Tennessee's 53 former black high schools. She hopes this network eventually will help rejuvenate economically black communities nationwide. "Everything starts with a dream," she says.

"Our purpose is to be the catalyst to bring these people together." Smith, 43, has spent her adulthood searching out challenges inspired by her high-school teachers. She is a consummate entertainer. She started out doing commercials and moved on to television and movie roles. She started starring in "General Hospital" in February. When she isn't acting, she sings and dances.

She has entertained audiences in Japan, New Zealand and Singapore on world tours; she finished performing in Las Vegas last week with another former Jackson-ian, John Jackson, at his "Rhythm and Blues Special." "What you have to do to survive out here is do a asked him what three ears of corn and $10,000 were doing in the trunk of his car. He then confessed that every time he was unfaithful to her, he would put an ear of corn in the trunk of his car. Her immediate anger was somewhat tempered when she realized that in 40 years, he had placed only three ears of corn in the trunk. Then she asked, "What is the $10,000 for?" He replied, "Every time I got a bushel of corn, I sold it." Love, FRED DEAR FRED: I always have ears for a corny story especially one with a kernel of truth in it. DEAR ABBY: I have just received your booklet, "What Every Teen-Ager Ought to Know." I ordered it to give to my 12-year-old niece.

How I wish I had read this booklet 35 years ago. I am 44, experienced sex at 13, married at 16, had a child shortly after, and was divorced before I was 20. I am now married to a very fine man, which was lucky for me considering the way I started out. Abby, it would be ideal if all preteens, teens, and even 20- and 30-year-olds would keep this very precious loving act for marriage, but those who don't need to know how to keep teen-age sex from ruining their lives. Please keep telling young people what they ought to know.

LUCKY IN MEDFORD, ORE. DEAR LUCKY: Thanks for your kind words. The booklet can be obtained by sending a check or money order for $2.50 and a long, stamped (39 cents), self-addressed envelope to Dear Abby, Teen Booklet, The Jackson Sun, P.O. Box 1059, Jackson, 38302. DEAR ABBY: Your reply to "Denver Dilemma" was somewhat shortsighted and narrow.

I agree, to marry because you want to be a mother is a poor reason for marriage, but marriage is not required to become a mother as many foolish teens have discovered to their chagrin. You offer to "Denver" the options of single adoptive parenthood or finding a marriageable man, but why be so restrictive? I am a 32-year-old professional woman who is also aware that my biological clock is running out, and I have a dear male friend who has agreed to be a sperm donor for me if, by age 35, I haven't met someone I want to marry. If "Denver" can be a single adoptive parent, she can just as well be a single natural parent, without going through the adoption process, or "scrounging around" for a marriageable man. Having a partner to raise children with is ideal but it's not the only way. BIDING MY TIME DEAR BIDING: Having a dear male friend who has agreed to donate his sperm should you "need" it is not without its problems.

The child he has fathered biologically will be a lifelong bond between you and could conceivably (no pun intended) cause problems both legal and social later on. Think about it. DEAR ABBY: I called a plumber yesterday. As soon as I opened the door, he entered and asked, "May I use your bathroom?" This annoyed me for the following reasons: I'm sure the company would not dock him for making a "pit stop." I don't know how far this man traveled from his other job, but en route I'm sure he passed some bathrooms that were open to the public. This has been irritating me for years.

How do other readers handle this? I'd like to hear from them as well as plumbers, TV repairmen, insurance salesmen, who have asked to use the bathroom. If it's an emergency, I have no objections, but I do resent plain laziness. MRS. G.Aj, LOS ALAMITOS DEAR MRS. for one, would be hard-pressed to discern an emergency from plain laziness.

I know of no way politely to send a service person down the street to use a bathroom. Dwan Smith bit of everything," Smith says. "Everybody's performing career has its ups and downs. You have to be able to branch out and fill in the spaces." Smith was last in Jackson in 1982 for her 20-year class reunion. The class salutatorian, she spoke before the class as she had two decades earlier.

Her speech emphasized her motto: thought plus conviction equals manifestation if you believe it, you can make it happen. "There were some things she said during her speech last time that changed my life," Moses says. "She talked about success and how we measure it. Often we think about success in only monetary terms, but she said it was setting a goal and achieving it. "If she could get that message across to young people, maybe they won't fool around for 20 years uke I did trying to figure out why I'm here." The celebration this week includes: Thursday: Prayer brigade, 6:30 p.m., Lane Tabernacle CME Church, 112 Conger St.

Friday: Registration, 10 a.m., Carnegie Library; congregational song service, 5:30 p.m., Berean Missionary Baptist Church, 214 N. Royal St. gospel singing walk-a-thon from Berean Church to Carnegie Library, 6:30 p.m.; dedication ceremonies at Carnegie, 7 p.m. Saturday: Constitutional committee presentation, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Carnegie; Southern Serenade, 5:40 p.m., Twenty-First Century Youth Club, 201 E. Baltimore $2 donation; children free if accompanied by an adult.

Sunday: Smith will speak at Baptist City-County Young People's Union's Community Crusade at 3 p.m. at First Baptist Church, 433 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. irthday hoopla is hard to handle Recently, I celebrated one of those traumatic birthdays the one with an "0" at the end of it.

(I know. All birthdays ending in 0 are traumatic.) My family took a 1 1 Aft- -J retouching of all my photographs. Next year we'll be treated to a big celebration when Superman turns 50. Unbelievable! Here we have a nation with garbage barges floating up and down our rivers looking for a port, Tammy and Jim down to their last hundred thou, miniskirts invading our stores, and more bugs in our embassy in Russia than in my son's apartment, and where is the Guardian of Truth and the American Way when we need him? Planning his birthday bash, that's where. I didn't mean to get so worked up, it's just that the birthdays ending in 0 are difficult to deal with.

On Aug. 9, Smokey Bear will be 43. It isn't even an 0 and I'll bet they're planning something big! reached one of the more impressive 0's. I am still depressed. I seem to be at an awkward age of my life.

I'm too old to stay awake for a Strip-o-Gram and too young for David Wolper to stage a fireworks display in the New York Harbor. I don't understand it. Everybody else seems to have a great time when they hit those traumatic 0's. Four years ago when Donald Duck turned 50, they gave a big bash for him. Parades and TV coverage.

Lasted three months! I remember things like that. For someone who never put his pants on one leg at a time or for that matter bothered to put them on at all he sure got a lot of attention. When the Golden Gate Bridge turned 50, it got a 50-gun salute, food festivals, regattas and three minutes on "Entertainment Tonight." Hit me with a little paint every so often and I'd have Tony Bennett in my hip pocket too. There isn't a year goes by that we don't celebrate Barbie's birthday, and she's been a teen-ager for 28 years, for crying out loud. Take that rubber band off her ponytail and her chins would break both knees.

I don't care what she looks like, her time clock has not only run out, it stopped 20 years ago. And they're always making a fuss over Betty Crocker's double-digit birthdays and how ageless she is. I'd be ageless too if I had six face-lifts, moussed my hair down every five minutes and had final approval on the me iu a smuii t- restaurant, and two waiters and Bombeck a cocktail wait- Syndicated columnist ress balanced a flaming inferno in their hands and sang "Happy Birthday." One of them called me Edna. It was not the gala I had anticipated for someone who had Illness from ticks resembles arthritis THE FAR SIDE By GARY LARSON Q. My sister told me a new doctor cured her arthritis, which was actually a case of Lyme disease.

Can you please explain exactly what is Lyme disease, and how it is recognized? A. Lyme disease is a disorder affecting our immune system caused by screw-shaped bacteria known as spirochetes. The bacteria are transmitted through bites from certain species of ticks in their nit, or undeveloped. By Dr. Allan Bruckheim Gannett News Service THA cannot make the hip function "like new," nor can it withstand excessive stress.

Those whose work or hobbies require them to be physically active may prefer to endure a certain degree of pain in order to continue their chosen lifestyles. THA is the best bet for elderly patients experiencing the end stages of hip disease. Younger patients may be better off postponing THA, particularly because cementless procedures (less prone to separation and more long-lasting) are being explored. An older procedure, known as intertrochanteric osteotomy, or IO, also may be preferable for younger hip disease victims, particularly those younger than 45. Hip fusion is another alternative for younger male patients, often used as a temporary measure to postpone THA until a later date.

Because you didn't tell me too much about yourself, I will leave it to you, and your doctor, to decide if this procedure will improve your life. Thirty-six million Americans young and old suffer with arthritis. Get the latest information about diagnosis and treatment in Dr. Bruckheim's detailed new booklet, "Arthritis." To order your copy, send $2.75 to "Arthritis," P.O. Box 4406, Orlando, 32802-4406.

Make checks payable to Newspaper-books. Questions should be mailed to Dr. Allan H. Bruckheim, The Jackson Sun, P.O. Box 1059, Jackson, 38302.

within the month. Left untreated, the disease enters its second stage anywhere from a few weeks to a few months later: continued rashes, and for between 10 percent to 15 percent of sufferers, either neurological symptoms such as meningitis or facial palsy, or cardiac abnormalities of chest pains, palpitations and shortness of breath. If the disease enters its third stage, the arthritis-like symptoms develop. For some 10 percent of its victims who reach this stage, the arthritis becomes a chronic condition. Once recognized, a simple antibiotics regimen is usually effective against Lyme disease; avoiding tick bites from the late spring through the early summer is even more effective.

Q. I have heard about artificial hip replacments for arthritis victims. Do you think it's a solution for me? A. Arthritic hip disease is a serious medical condition, experienced as pain originating in the groin or buttock and traveling down the anterior thigh to the knee. Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one method for relieving this condition; it has become an accepted surgical practice in the United States today, with approximately 100,000 such procedures (in which prosthetic parts are attached via acrylic bone cement) performed annually.

THA is not for everyone, and a decision on undertaking the procedure depends on factors such as your age, weight, employment and emotional orientation. 733 VIM8HII 0 II 1 E53 II II 3 stage. The disease originally was known as Lyme arthritis, because its ultimate symptoms resemble that condition: painful, swollen joints, usually in the larger joints of the knees or elbows. (By contrast, rheumatoid arthritis usually affects the numerous smaller joints of the hands and feet in a symmetrical manner, while Lyme disease often is experienced on one side but not the other.) The condition originates in the tick's bite (usually received in the thigh, groin or armpit), resembling a pimple-like, hard bump in the center of a bright red rash. Approximately half of those bitten develop secondary lesions within a few days.

These rashes are smaller, lack the hard center and usually disappear "And you, Johnionl You stick with your man and keep that hand In hit facet".