The Capital Times from Madison, Wisconsin • 35

THE CRPITRLTIITIES 36 PDQ Bach review 40 Recovering alcoholic's tale arts, comics Madison, Wisconsin Friday, Oct. 16, 1987 35 3 Farmer, 72, 'if -a serves HMD 1 '-)K V6 UA'-T. special fare "-1 A 0n W- jf jf. 'S? -v- Up Close By RobZaleskl CapMTfenM Staff Vtttttr r-- I I i y.L tSs Mi I i I r.v' His blood pressure is up, his arthritis is bothering him and he's got this nagging case of bronchitis. But as Paul Dates hands me a slice of watermelon "Now tell me, ever tasted melon that good this late in the year?" he wants me to know that retirement is out of the question.

These people depend on me," he says, tucking his calloused hands into his bib overalls. They're always sayin', 'Now dont let us down. WeH be looking for you again next year. We're Paul Dates cant resist a smile. "Of course, most of 'em dont realize rm 72, either," he adds.

"I got into an argument with a guy the other day who said, 'Why, you aint even I had to pull out my driver's license to prove it." Dates, who refers to himself as a simple truck farmer from Pardee ville, is also a man of great pride. He is proud of his longevity, which he credits to a strong faith in God. He is proud of the quality produce that he has been peddling for 23 years from his curbskle stand on Commercial Avenue just across from Hartmeyer Ice Arena (he also shows up regularly in Watertown and Jefferson). And he's proud of the friendships he has developed over that period customers who range from elderly women in babushkas to business execs who pull up in rose-colored Cadillac Eldorados. During the best of times which, in Dates' case, was the mid-1970s he could earn as much as $300 a day.

But competition from supermarket chains and other truck farmers has whittled away at his profit margin. Now, he says, anything over $100 is a good day. And, quite frankly, he says, there are some days especially once the temperature dtps below SO when he's lucky to cover gas expenses for the 80-mile round trip from his farm (his truck, a 1976 International, has 234,000 miles on it). But that's OK, Dates says. He has never considered money all that important Besides, his kids are gone, he gets Social Security and he makes enough to scrape by.

"I could have gone into a factory and made lots of money," he says, "but I never liked that kind of work. I like being outside, being with people. Ill tell ya, happiness aint money. That much I know. I've talked to people who have an the money in the world but they aint had half the happiness that Pve had." And yet, Dates says, he has endured some hardships, too.

More than he cares to admit During his teen years, he says, he had to drop out of Portage High School to help out on his family's farm, which the family eventually lost during the Depression. Undaunted, Dates saved up enough money to buy another farm in 1945 and has been there ever since. But there were other problems as well His father was a heavy drinker. His grandmother was blind. His wife, Audrey, suffered from polio and then developed heart problems.

She died eight years ago. His brother was sick for much of life and died at age 28. Most painful of an, he says, one of his seven children a boy, 15 choked to death one night when his windpipe collapsed. That was a tough one," Dates says, misty-eyed at the memory. "It happened in 54 Caused me to have a nervous breakdown." Dates, however, does not dwen on such adversities.

In balance, he thinks life has treated him wen. Besides his six adult children, he has 24 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren some of whom lend a hand on his 78-acre farm and assist at his produce stand during the summer. And, unlike most people, he has never had to Museum a devil of an idea House in Lithuania filled with demons By WILLIAM J.EATON Los Angeles rime Newt Service KAUNAS, Soviet Union What may be the world's only museum devoted to the devil takes a rather light-hearted view of its subject The museum, here in the early capital of Lithuania, has 800 devils, shown in a variety of roles: leading a marching band of little devils, playing basketball, drinking vodka, trapped inside a glass bottle, decorating a set of dinnerware. "Have a helluva nice day," says the inscription on a devil paperweight from the United States. There are devil pipes, devil candles, devil bookplates and devil masks.

They are carved out of wood, molded of clay, blown from glass and woven into tapestries. In ancient Lithuania, the devil was taken far more seriously. The pagan inhabitants regarded him as a god with powers over the Earth, fertility and animals. Since this was then a farming country, the devil played a principal role in the everyday thinking of Lithuanians. Even with the arrival of Christianity in the 14th century, the devil survived but gradually became known as the symbol of darkness and eviL "People here still say the devil is coming at twilight, when night begins to fall," a resident said.

Every year on Shrove Tuesday, boys put on devil masks and go door-to-door singing songs. They are invariably offered pancakes, the traditional meal for that day. The Lithuanian Ministry of Culture sponsors the museum, which covers three floors in what used to be the residence of a well-known artist, An-tanas Zhmudzvicius. His collection of 260 devils, given to the state when he died in 1966 at the age of 90, forms the core of the exhibition. Many countries have sent their versions of this evil spirit Rasa Kondroitaite, a museum guide, said that Zhmudzvicius was not a churchgoer and that a priest, who was one of his best friends, once told him, "Since you dont beueve in God, collect devils and maybe they win help you." The artist took the advice, and soon his friends began to send him dozens of objects with horns, a tail and a pitchfork.

One of the devils he received held a paint brush and palette, the equipment he himself used. Zhmudzvicius, with his devil-may-care attitude about superstition, was a subject of considerable gossip. Friends gave him a set of chinaware with devils dancing on the plates, cups and saucers, suggesting that he might have a personal link with Lucifer. Yet in his artistic life, he specialized in landscapes and never painted a single devil After his death, it was not so much his paintings as his collection of devils that made him famous. More than 1 million people visit the museum every year, paying 40 kopecks (about 65 cents) for admission.

The officials who preside over the museum make fun of the Lithuanian legends about the power of the devil I. A v. DAVID SANDELlThe Capital Times In spite of considerable hardship, Paul Dates has persevered. worry about someone breathing down supermarkets," he says, "and I sup-hisneck, telling him what to do. pose they cant I cant, either, but I do If he wants to offer a juicy Cort- it anyway.

Makes me feel good inland apple to a passerby, he just does side." it It also makes him happy, Dates "You dont see that too often in the says, when customers ten him that his produce is equal to anything around. Oh, he may have a bad melon now and then, he says. But the simple fact is, he wont sen unk." (See FARMER, Page 40) Hanson takes Vegas job 4J If 1 4 lot of stupidity here, but there's not much corruption." The Channel 15 boss said she would fiU Hanson's position "eventually." WMTV's newscasts have been sliding in the ratings of late, with WISC-TVChannel 3 having gradually moved into a clear position as local leader. Over the last two years, Leonard has made a number of newsroom cutbacks. This summer, the station has been further hampered by the frequent absence of her husband, 10 p.m.

news anchor Dave Crawley, who has been hit with a mysterious viral illness. The Las Vegas station Hansen is joining, KTNV, is the same one that has lured away two other Channel 15 staffers in recent times. Former weekend anchor Paula Dilworth took a job there in 1985, and reporter Sarah Hoeveler moved in 1986. ened Hanson to "electricity. That's part of the reason I respect her work, and part of the reason I dont like to be the brunt of it" Hanson, who is a New York City native, said she wanted to move to a bigger city.

"There's just more of it there crime and corruptioa" In an interview this spring, she said she enjoyed "getting to the bottom of things." Madison government is relatively clean, she noted, adding: "I could have a field day in Chicago." Laurie Leonard, Channel 15's general manager, said she made Hanson "a comparable counteroffer, but she wanted to go. It's sad, because she's so good." Leonard said Hanson was especially excited about the chance to cover Las Vegas organized-crime underworld. "That was something I couldnt do anything about," she said. There may be a By BROOKS EGERTON Capital Times Staff Writer Cathy Hanson, one of the area's best known and most-feared TV reporters, is swapping Mad City for Sin City. She has quit WMTVChannel 15 and accepted a similar position with a Las Vegas station.

Her resignation, which takes effect in two weeks, comes as a big blow to Channel 15's already strapped news crew. Hanson, who covers cops, courts and City Han, commands respect on her beat "She's not a person you can set aside," said Madison Police representative Mary Anne Thurber in a Capital Times interview earlier this year. "She goes further than we would wish at times" in revealing information, "but she certainly operates within the confines of her authority." Mayoral aide Michael Williamson lik RICH RYCHThe Capital Times Cathy Hanson has earned a reputation as one of Madison's best television reporters. Jamas and Faces From Newj Services 1 11 I i I i -yy i I X. I I jLkL Arthur C.

Clarke, the science-fiction writer who proposed in 1945 that a chain of satellites could provide worldwide communications, has been inducted with six other space pioneers into a Satellite Hall of Fame. Clarke, a prolific author of scientific books as wen as fiction, suggested that satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of 42,000 kilometers would appear to remain stationary over a spot on the ground below. Such "geostationary" satellites now are common at almost that altitude. The awards were presented at a banquet Thursday by the Society of Satellite Professionals at its two-day Great International Celebration of Satellites in Space. The conference marks the 30-year milestone since the Soviet Union launched the space era with Sputnik and the United States followed with Explorer Clarke, whose works include "2001 A Space Odyssey," wrote at the end of World War II that German V2 rockets could be used as artificial satellites and, if put th a proper orbit, could give television and microwave coverage to the entire planet Ronald Reagan Jr.

said in an interview with a Moscow paper published Thursday he does not always agree with his father, President Reagan, particularly when it comes to pontics. Reagan, 29, fuming in the Soviet Union for ABC, told the Mos-cowskie Novosti newspaper, "Pere-stroika (restructuring) and the increased freedom of the press that goes with it are a good thing. Keep at it" Asked what his father told him before the trip, Reagan reminded the Soviets he had been to the Soviet Union two years ago as correspondent for Playboy magazine, "so it was me who told him interesting things rather than vice-versa. And believe me, he paid a lot of attention to what I said." Asked what be would do if he were elected president, he said be would try to alleviate the plight of homeless people in the United States. "And, of course, I would hold disar-mament'talks with the Soviet Union." the disabled have been treated with little sensitivity or dignity.

Ferdinand Marcos says he. has finished writing a book but is not having it published immediately because the revelations would affect not only Hawaii pontics but national pontics. The deposed Philippine leader, in an interview with a Honolulu radio station Thursday, repeated earner remarks that be was taken from Manila and brought to Hawaii against his wUl when his administration was toppled in a people's revolution in February 1986. He said a Hawaii political connection was involved in bringing him here, but he would not elaborate. Marcos was released Wednesday from St Francis Hospital where he underwent surgery a day earlier for removal of a benign tumor from a parathyroid gland in his neck.

Bruce Willis, Emmy award-winning co-star of "Moonlighting," says he's tiring of doing the ABC-TV series, buta spokesman said the star Deng Pufang may be wheelchair bound, but rather than letting it be an impediment, it is the purpose for a three-week trip to America by the son of China's leader, Deng Xiaoping. On Thursday, Deng, 43, who visited President Reagan and leading members of Congress last week, met at a luncheon with members of the Hollywood community for a discussion on the impact of the arts on society's image and understanding of the disabled. Both in China and the United States, Deng and other speakers said, recent film and stage productions have increased public consciousness about the problems of the disabled, while portraying them In a sympathetic, dignified light Deng has been paralyzed from the waist down since 1968, when he was thrown out of a fourth-floor window at Beijing University by Red Guards during the violent Cultural Revolution. In recent years, be has emerged as a national spokesman for disabled rights In China, where for centuries Bruce Willis Willis spokesman Paul Block said Willis comments do not mean he is leaving "Moonlighting" He said the interview with "Us" took place about 10 weeks ago. Since then, Block said, Willis has told reporters at the Emmy Awards: "I'm honoring my contract I'm staying for the Ronald Reagan Jr.

had no intention of quitting Television is over for me now," Willis says in the Nov. 2 issue of Us magazine. "It's been three seasons. I'm reaching the point where I have to really pun. I mean, how many times can I make this face, this smirk.

I was hoping wouWnt go that long.".