Gibson City Courier from Gibson City, Illinois • 14

1 'ir en raff Cl City, Courier, Th-- -y, Jyt 1972-cX ill finally showsi up." Now we always close foe door, 'I The Democrats era holding convention in Miami Baach, and tht Republican! will follow next month, It may item as; ij have mlsleblcd them, though. So often In the past forty years tht Republicans have fought It out for nomlnat ton, while the Democrats have had the Incumbent and fought only over the platform. Of course the Democratic platform battles have been colossal, often divisive and The Republicans traditionally don't-get excited over platforms, but rip each other up In the struggle for the presidential nomination. Who will ever forget Everett McKlnley Dlrksen's bitter denunciation of Thomas E. Dewey from the convention podium, as Dewey's forces beat Dlrksen's and Dwlght Elsenhower won the nomination In 1952 over Robert Teft? And the Republicans' conservative and liberal wings have been bitter foes, probably more.hosltle toward each other than either faction Is toward the Democrats.

This year, though, President Richard M. Nixon Is right on course unopposed in his bid for another nomination, and even If Splro Agnew Is contested for rumination as Vice President, Republicans won't wv Vup much of a sweat ever It. nearly split on, the Vietnam plank In their' 1968 platform. This year It may be over the report of the credentials committee In respect to the big California delegation and the 59-member Chicago A large variety of dissents wijl be fought out over the platform, with Senator George AAcGovern and Governor George Wallace contending from opposite polls on many of them, and other candidates somewhere In the middle. The wounds from the convention could be fatal to the Democratic party, and certainly it will never again be quite the same.

The Republican party's wounds have healed, at least temporarily, as Mr. Nixon has walked a neat path down the middle between the two extremes of his party. Party conventions are held every four years to pick a candidate, write a platform, recognize elder statesmen of the party, and to generate enthusiasm for the campaign ahead. This year the Democrats might add a post-convention first aid station to heal wounds. In Illinois the Democratic party may take a different course than ever before.

With Mayor Richard Daley's recent losses the Daley-endorsed gubernatorial candidate, It. Gov. Paul Simon, lost In the primary election to Independent Dan Walker, and his There Is nothing quite like an office cat feline variety to keep things unbalanced. Ours Is slightly unbalanced, It seems to me, but then cats Is one of the subjects on which I'm not only not an expert, but Inept. As a boy growing up we had a succession of family dogs, but no cats.

It was probably lustas well. Since we've had kids we've also had two dogs, beagle Roxle, the victim of a hit-and-run auto driver, and the venerable poodle, Tlnkertoy Pierre. Tinker has some age on him and shows It with his ailing back and cataracts, but a "dog's life" Isn't bad at all, and he's doing quite well. Tinker can put up with any animal as long as It doesn't push him around, and cats were never a mortal enemy, only i something that made him curious. His curiosity got him a few scratches from cats that considered him an enemy a sort of unilateral malevolence but his reflexes were always too quick for the cats.

How well, also, I remember a strutting bantam rooster that the Dr. Norm Picks had at their home and office. It would alternately try to peck and spur him, with a whoosh of feathers and frustrated cackles, after he had made a quick retreat. Then he would wet on a shrub and come back to sniff and examine at close range this strange thing, and the banty would repeat his attacks and Tinker would wet another bush, and so on. Both Tlnkertoy and Mr, Banty Rooster were candidates for the psychiatrist's couch at the end of a session.

Then one morning we heard, Tinker and I did, on one of our early morning strolls, the mewing of a kitten from a window well. I wrote about that before, but I'll sum it up briefly. I fished him out from under the iron-slatted grill which covers the window well openings, and hoped he would go home. Each morning for a time it was the same, until he got large enough that he couldn't slip through. We finally started to feed him so he stuck around, and took to earlier they had until July 15 to prepare their case for the Federal Communications Commission.

A couple weeks ago we had trouble with tht Xerox copying machine which we lease, and I got down and dug Into It. I pulled out the chrome cylinder, and didn't think about the cat at all. He saw his Image In tht highly polished mlrrorllkt surface, and pounced. I knocked him away, but had a feeling ht got In a couple good swipes with his bared claws. Sure enough, he had scratched It up good.

I decided, fin-, ally, that we would just have to pay for tht damage, and had Brenda call Xerox and tell them It was scratched by tht cat. Brenda said, "You really want mt to tell them that? They'll never believe Itl" I said yes, to tell 'em the truth. It would probably be a first. She was laughing when she hung up said tht lady in Springfield hollered over her shoulder, "Here's a good one, a cat scratched their drum Tht serviceman who showed up said he had heard of al I kinds of reasons the drums were damaged, but never by a cat. He managed to buff off tht scratches and saved us a $100 bill.

Our front window Is a sight. Inky likes to sleep jn one of the plastic stack trays we display, 'or somewhere else In the front window. Kids like to tap on the window, then run their finger along It as they walk, and Inky bounds along after It, knocking down cardboard display cards and the like. We have to pick up every morning, but after all that's show business. At this moment, on a Sunday afternoon, Inky is asleep behind my thank goodness I feeling fine, I'm sure, after a cup of milk and a trip to the lltterbox.

If he comes out of It before I'm through, he will come up over the back of the typewriter like a leopard on the trail of a choice piece of living meat, then pounce on the typewriter keys. Then, If we follow form, I will bat him aside and he will watch from the side, ready to leap again. Sometimes when he isn't careful hewlll be too close to the carriage, and when I throw it back he may catch it in the puss no pun intended. He will then shake his head and move very slightly. He will move around toying with this and that, climbing on my chair and up my back and I will put him down.

On about the third put-down he will have reached the limit, and out he goes and I close the door. Inky is still a kitten, well fed and well cared for, but weekends must be terrible after all the activity around here for five busy days. I guess that's why he is so frisky and needing attention when I come in awhile Saturday and again Sunday. In spite of myself I hate to put him down too often, even when I've got a mountain of work to wade through. Some day suppose he wilt adopt that behavior that I think is typical of cats, where he will merely tolerate humans as the lord of the manor puts up with peasants a necessity to his well-being, although terribly inferior -and I'll wish he was still a kitten.

Maybe. We're not sure he's a mouser, the reason we got him in the first place, but then we haven't seen any mice, either. Maybe that indicates he has (a) killed all he has seen, (b) scared them off, or (c) played with them so much he wore 'em to a frazzle and they escaped. Take your pick. I'm waiting for further evidence.

But Inky has been nice to have around. He doesn't meow like a cat should, and I don't quite know how to describe the sound he makes. It's fust different, and varies only In Intensity you should hear him when I move off and he suddenly doesn't find me on a weekend, when the shop is quiet. I'll hear him coming, repeating his version of a meow loudly, over and over, and each time ending as If with a question mark. It has a different tone when he scolds you for being late with his food.

When we first got him we used to get calls at home "Did you know there's a cat in your window?" "There's a cat trying to get out the front door," and things like that but now he's a little better known and some of the shock value is gone. "When I am playing with my cat, who knows whether she have more sport in dallying with me than I have in gaming with her?" Montaigne. "Nothing's more playful than a young cat, nor more grave than an old one." Thomas Fuller. FIVE YEARS AGO July 13, 1967: Sam Barrow, longtime American Legion leader in Gibson City was installed as commander of the Ford County Council of the Legion at Kempton Wednesday night. A fellow Lee Lowery post member, Charles Schutte is the new county hdjutant.

The city council was informed Tuesday that Mrs. Elizabeth Elkin intended to turn over some spending nights in the top of our Washington hawthornes, so loaded with thorns that humans and birds consider them to be catproof. He hadn't heard that, so he would gingerly very carefully crawl up through and past all those needle-sharp thorns, and back down in the morning when he heard Tinker and me come outside. We decided he needed a home, and Beth Shields took him to Foosland where he became one of the standouts of The Wilfard Shields wildlife contingent. was named Herman, but In due course he had a litter of kittens.

Herman stuck as her name, though. TWENTY YEARS AGO July 10, 1952: The Goben Bakery which gives up its lease in August will cease to exist. Mr. Goben has sold part' of (he equipment and is offering the remainder for sale. Lester Pinfl Sr.

has rented the i mAirA nia him nm urn. me-iana uonaiea wmw. omyioB-a tne Lester Mooay Diuicung on by Mrs. Elkin is a lot (75' 160') west 8th street. Well, we had seen evidence that we had mice around the office, and when I found abundant evidence in drawers, It seemed time to get a good mouser.

We subsequently gota little black kitten from another of the Shieldses' cats, and It has become the office pet and mouser. Inky" seemed ah appropriate name because of his color, and prophetic because he gets in the ink occasionally. It's tough to have a really clean floor in a newspaper shop, but it doesn't bother Inky, who runs, rolls and sleeps anywhere he takes a notion. Often, at the peak of our efforts Tuesday and Wednesday, he will lie In the middle of a very busy aisle, narrow anyway, In which up to seven or eight people are moving around. We've become used to him, though, and as we slide or crowd by each other, we just naturally step over Inky, sprawled out taking his nap.

Occasionally he gets stepped on (could you call that a catnap cat-nipped?) and he arises In a bit of temper. One of his other bad, and dangerous, habits Is to cut in front of you when you're walkingSeveral times I've been in a hurry and didn't know he was around, and he darted in front of me. He has survived some pretty good licks, but still hasn't learned anything from it. If is our custom once a month to buy a birthday cake for all the people here who have birthdays that month, and we cut it up and all have a piece. One day a couple months ago Inky got down into our coffee shop all by himself, ripped a hole in the plastic top of the box, and was gorging himself when someone slate of delegates was tossed out in favor of an opposition group the regular party may well take no active part In the campaigns for president and governor.

That is probably true In the case of Walker, ard also If McGovern becomes the party's candidate against such an event Daley's organ Izat Ion Wourd'xon centrate Its money and energy on the election of loyalists In other state races. At any rate, the Democratic convention Is of par-tidier interest to the nation this week, and one wonders how the Republicans will fill the five days of their convention next month. BMy Fischer is no sportsman The cheap trick Bobby Fischer pulled on the International Chess Federation and the Iceland chess organization, and particularly on world chess champion Boris Spassky, Is something we always expected to get from Russia. It was hardly the attitude one' would expect from an American challenger. Fischer played at gamesmanship to blackmail tourney sponsors into putting up more prize money, by staying In New York City while Spassky was ready and waiting In Reykjavik to play( him.

We've always wondered wh chess was considered a and If behavior is typical, we question It even more. But, of course, It Isn't -Tlscher Is "different." If that sort of thing happened In football or tennis or any other sport It wouldn't be tolerated, but the international chess group let off the hook. And his trick did work, because a British a chess bff, upped the prize money with a $125,000 donation. Put chess on the entertainment pages, or In the business section, but take it off the sports pages if such behavior continues. Bobby Fischer has damaged the reputations of American sportsmen, and made us all appear to the world as petulant money-grabbers.

Other opinions Thank you, Mr: President White House official John D. Erlichman said the reason President Nixon doesn't have more press conferences is that "he gets a lot of dumb and flabby questions." Whereupon, tht President promptly held a press conference (his first in three months, to be sure) and repudiated Erlichman's statement. He also said there would be another conference a week later, which might indicate some future improvement in his conference track record. The President, In answer to a question, said "you are not dumb and flabby In looking over the transcripts of various press conferences, I have not seen many softballsand I don want any because it is only the hardball that you can hit or strike out on." The President did make a distinction between the mob-scene televised conferences, where there is no pportanity for follow-up questions, and the smaller meetings in his office which he held last He said he preferred the latter. So do the White House reporters.

An analysis of the 17 questions asked June 22 shows there wasn't a dum or flabby question the lot. -Editor Publisher. The Gibson City Courier Entered at second class matter at the Post Office of Gibson City, Illinois, under the Act of March 3, 1945. Subscription Rates SS.00 per year within 25 miles of Gibson S6.00 per year Published Every Thursday by Kramer Publishing David B. Kramer, Mrs.

Verle Kramer Mrs. Norma Kramer. Business Manager Mra. Valeria Hunt, Editor Ray Petersen, Advertising Manager located between 9th and 10th streets Just off of West street, south of Stokely Van Camp's parking lot. One of the Tjardes famous prize bulls was the center of attention during a Polled Hereford tour last Friday.

Illinois and Wisconsin combined this year to tour many Polled Hereford farms in the two states. Approximately 150 people were guests at the Tjardes farm north of Gibson City. Gear Co. is entering the grain drying market this year with a new dryer using concurrent airflow. The first dryers to be shipped by rail went to New York late last week.

TEN YEARS AGO July 12, 1962: Lutherans in Gibson City approved the pur of a large block-square luci of land on which to build a tiev, church, a new parsonage and to have adequate parking area. The 'American Evangelical' Lutheran Church now located at the corner of 8th and Melvin will eventually move to the Rasnjussen subdivision southeast of the city, Jess Taylor, Mahomet, is the new operator of the Texaco service station on Route 54, at 10th street on the east edge of the city. i BoniU Leenerman of Sibley was crowned queen of the Ford County Fair of 1962 Saturday right at Melvin. A rather small new machine recently bought at the Gibson Community Hospital may well be the difference between life or death to one or many persons in future years The machine the defibrillator was bought jointly by the medical staff and the hospital. It costs $975 and all agreed that its potential life saving value is worth much more than the purchase price.

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO July 1, 1957: Miss Elizabeth Noble of Los Angeles, Jbecame the bride of Dale Harper of Glendale on July 5 the Welshire Methodist Church in Los Angeles. Five lifeguards were on duty during the peak Sunday afternoon hours in the Gibson City swimming pool. A total of 844 entered the books, the highest number in any day this year. Karen Nally, head cheerleader at GCHS recently attended a cheerleading clinic on the campus at I.S.N.U. The County Board of School trustees Monday night denied the petition of Harm D.

and Charine Saathoff to transfer land to the Gibson School district. The vote was 4 to 3. John Coleman and other representatives of WCIA tv, channel 3. were, Gibson City Saturday for the second time. The management had David Stoker left Monday noon to attend the Republican National -Convention in Chicago.

i Mrs. A.J. McKinney wife bf the high school principal at Gibson City has been employed by the board of education to teach vocal music in the grade school. A Texaco Company truck owned by Warren Nally with Charles Johnson driving went out of control Saturday on Route 9 about 5 miles west of Paxton. The tank was filled with gas.

Mr. Foster, a farmer nearby, notified the Paxton Fire Department which put out the fire before the gas blew up. No one was hurt. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO July 17, 1947: Carl Jones' pony, Jo Ann Hager as rider and driver, won first prizes in the Onarga Horse Show July 6. John H.

Carson was awarded 'the. official for sports at Illinois Wesleyan. A youth for Christ rally will be held in the Gibson City park Saturday with Rev. Rheinhold Barth as guest speaker. The Green Diamond will stop in Gibson City in the evenings beginning July 15 to receive passengers for St.

Louis. Mrs. Janie Ayresman celebrated her 91st birthday July THIRTY YEARS AGO July 9, 1942: Owens "Sonny" McCall Jr. and Bill Zook of Paxton left Sunday for 1 West Point. The remodeled National Food Store will open Friday afternoon.

The Gibson City Boy Scout camp will be held at Heisers Grove. About 32 boys will attend for a week. Henry Green was badly injured when a car hit his horse drawn mower, north of Fisher. Mr. and Mrs.

Kenneth Karr are the parents of a son born June 28. FORTY YEARS AGO July 14, 1932: Gill's Drug Store is having a new ten foot Russ moaWtiistic victro-light soda fountain installed this week, which is the latest design in fountains. It has been placed in the front of the drug store. It is of black and white glass, containing 7 syrup pumps. The annual harvest of wheat and oats in the Gibson City area has commenced.

Local elevators have taken in a few toads of new wheat at 37 cents a bushel. In accordance with the economy measures of the U.S. government, employees of the Gibson City Post Office will have to Vdo without their summer vacation with pay this year. They were to have had 16 days this year with pay. Instead they will take.

24 working days off during the year without pay. Postmaster P. Roy Main states that this will (Continued on page 7) tad i rein "sentence until recovery, then be electrocuted." Last year cases of the elderly inmates of the prison were reviewed and found 35 that clearly didn't seem to belong in prison. Most have been paroled but a few were fearful of life on the outside. Shanks' case surfaced earlier this year and Gov.

Ogilvie commuted the death sentence as "an act of compassion." Shanks is now eligible for parole and will be placed in a nursing home in the Chicago area. State aid will pay for his care and it will cost less than maintaining Shanks in prison. XXXXX 1 How would you like to purchase land at 25 cents an acre? asks the Daily Iroquois County Times. Eli Webb did in 1812. His purchase was from the federal government, and today his great-grandson, Grover C.

Webb, of rural Ewing. owns the oldest family farm in the state entered in the Illinois Centennial Farm Program. Webb's great-grandfather purchased 80 acres, and today Webb farms 490 acres. Casey, Metropolis, doesn't let the big ones get away. One of the area's most avid anglers, he fishesdaily in the pond near his home, and one day recently he hauled in a three and one-half pound bass, tells the Metropolis Planet.

XXXXX It took eight boxes of cake mix, seven cans of frosting, 960 pieces of candy, plus miscellaneous other ingredients, to create a spectacular grand prize winning entry in the third annual father daughter baking contest sponsored recently by Oak Lawn Girl Scout troops. Sandy Peters and her dad Charles, were the team whose efforts won not only the grand prize of a Betty Crocker Outdoor Cookbook but also a blue ribbon for first The Worth-Palos Reporter. XXXXX David Shanks lived under the death sentence for 44 years, but escaped electrocution becuase he was called a "lunatic." He'll soon be paroled from Menard State Prison and the first thing he wants to do is get some Kentucky fried chicken. Shanks is 72. Last year his left leg was amputated because of diabetes.

All he does now is watch tv. He was convicted the murder of a female school teacher In him cl I i The Galva News tells of Miss Grace, pet pig at the Joe Collinson home in Galva who goes for a walk and follows Collinson better than many dogs follow on a leash. She likes to play with the leash and grunts and squeals just like Arnold of TV fame whenever attention is paid to her. xxxxx Scott has a decision to make writes the Pana News-Palladium. An Oconee farm lad who says he now can't decide whether to become an artist or a farmer, has one of his pictures on display in the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Bakalis.

Scott Vandenbergh is 9 years old and is a third grade student of Pana Sacred Heart School. A letter from Superintendent Bakalis to Scott says: "I want to congratulate you on your fine piece of art which was submitted to me by your art instructor and your county superintendent to be displayed in my offices. Your work is now in the process of being mounted and matted so that it may be placed in one of my office buildings in Chicago. Springfield or Mt. Vernon.

I am very proud to be the recipient of your work and compliment you for your creative ability. I encourage you to continue to produce such fine work. Sincerely yours. Michael J. Scott's picture was a mosaic made of bits of colored paper, depicting a ship.

XXXXX Five 14' fisherman Matthew Terrell Casey: sort" of Mr. and Mrs. Bob XXXXX The Pana News-Palladium reports that the landing of a glider plane in a plowed field southeast of the Pana golf course one Tuesday afternoon attrartprt miirh ail viucago iu one was mi un ine neau with a pipe. When he got to the prisumJifeTJ- tentwvn from local residents Dr Raymond papers carried a medical-legardescrtptiori Gray of Webster Groves. Mo pilot of the commonly used at the time lunatic.

It cratt. said he was participating in a saved his life but the death threat contest and said ho simplv ran out of hot remained with these words in Shank's filer over Pana..