The Mercury from Pottstown, Pennsylvania • Page 6

Don MacLean The Pennsylvania Story Campaign Gimmicks are Big This Year By MASON DENISON Press agents hired by lawmakers to make the lawmaker in question look good to (voting) folks back home are trying to hit full stride in this legislative election year 1968. Grandoise pronunciamentos issued in the name of lawmakers seeking re-election, the sole purpose being to get the name before his voting public, are being issued with increasing frequency, detailing this or that stand on a given piece of legislation (which amount to a pimple puff of dust) or vigorously for this or that action on a long ago land locked piece of legislation which again amount to a puff of dust but sounds great perhaps on the home voting front. Or, there may be appointment to some sort of tive committee, task force or what-not which by sheer coincidence, of course, comes at this strategic campaign time rather than the past year and a half that the Legislature has been in continuing session! Such quite naturally provides open opportunity for praise of the return- seeking lawmaker, as for example this sentence from one such praise-bit quoting the islative leader making the appointment of a legislator of political faith: experience has shown that he is one of our most knowledgeable members in the field of taxation and finance. I am certain that he will represent both his county and his party well on this important committee All of which leaves the poor chap trying to get in a word edgewise and unseat the incumbent, in left field as well as right field! Fortunately most editors are well aware of the efforts, with the clap-trap winding up in the partisan political wastebasket. One For The Road Any idea how many school children ride school buses? A look at statistics compiled by the State Department of Public Instruction might prove interesting.

During the past 1966-67 school year 1,189,250 elementary and secondary pupils were transported at public expense to and from their schools, and when the final figures are in for the 1967-68 school year it is estimated the figure will increase to 1,241,473. Incidentally, of this number, 86,721 last year were classified as nonpublic school pupils (basically private and parochial school children), with the number projected to increase for the current school year to 91,968. What has been the factor, as DPI refers to it? For the past 1966-67 school year it cost $50,124,395 in transportation costs, of which amount $2,892,478 is chalked up as the cost of transporting pupils attending nonpublic schools. This is expected to increase to an overall total of $54,633,769 for the 1967-68 school year of which amount $3,219,791 will be for nonpublic school pupil transportation. In-Depth Statistics the State Elections Bureau of the Department of State issues a registration break- down by county, by party and by sex for each primary and each general election.

This year the bureau strained itself and for the first time has come up with a half inch thick 200-page plus compiliation giving not only the previous registration data but alas, breakdown for each voting precinct within a county during the past April 23 primary! For example, if you want to know how many are registered in the south district of Foster Township in Luzerne county, simply turn to Luzerne county and find the registration to be 19 Republicans, 80 Democrats (no such as independents, Socialists, etc.) for a grand total for the district of 99. And then there is the district of Mount Pocono Annex in Monroe county which has a total of one registered voter (a Republican)! mm Pottstown Mercury FOCUS Friday, May 24, 1968 Page 6 Mary McGrath Girls Should Learn Their Full Potential Before a girl tries to be wife or mother, she should first try to be somebody. the kind of advice a girl should get, not at graduation, but from the day she first starts to school, if not from the day she is born. what she should hear from her mother, her counselors, her teachers and her advisors. But she seldom docs.

She is prepared to be cither a or a with no suggestion made that being a woman is not a matter of simple choice, simply made. a is knowing herself, realizing her fullest potential, exploring her own mind, and expanding it with knovvl- edge and self-confidence. It is having a talent and honing it to a degree of competence, then having the confidence to use it in only homely ways while devoting herself to motherhood. Opportunity comes on the other side of that limited life span that Is being a practicing mother. After all, talent is all in the mind in the truest sense of the word.

The ability to write, to paint, to plan, to complete scientific projects, to direct the activities of others, is an action of the brain. The hand that car- these things out merely does the work the brain directs. These talents are never wasted in parenthood. They are kept sharp by use through those when no can be held. The artist decorates the with imagination and verve.

The writer encourages the young to read and write beyond the requirements of the grade level and store up experience and knowledge against the day that knowledge can be used again in comfort and freedom. The scientific The Short Side The magnetic pole has moved some 4oo miles north since the early Winder what's attracting it? mind goes to work on menus, household layouts, and neighborhood projects to keep her hand in. The trained director of others plans scout activities, whips the PTA into flurries of activity, and directs the school volunteer programs. The problem with women today is not in wanting a career, as so many men insist, but in wondering if they could possibly have managed one at all. Those girls who have been trained to be somebody first do not have to wonder, or live in frustration that they will never find out.

They know that they are capable of being anything they want, and what they wanted most was to marry and raise a family while they still had the time. They are content because they know that they are ready for the best-of-all possible lives being a wife and a woman at the very same time. 5) Internal Disorders Jack O'Brian: The Voice of Broadway Barbara Howar Seeks Comeback Barbara Howar who social- climbcd the LBJs but lost her brass alpenstock, slipped and told and fell from the limelight, is trying again; auditioning for a Washington tv job. New N.Y. Archbishop Terence Cooke almost never forgets a name, never forgets a face; has a memory better than Jim Farley's.

newest nightclub is The Launching Pad, specializing in unknowns with talent; at 44th and the Big Apple, Zeckendorf date at the Game in premiere uas a 20ish blonde vuth miniskirt aud a Shoiley Temple-curled coiffure. Larcbmont Lodge was sold by Harry Schiffman for to Kobert Small, 31; bauking the half-mill and Prints Charming ha! do you say, If we Just bang afound this week rai" becomes general manager at the Royal Caribbean in Jamaica. The jazz pianist Ramsey Lewises welcomed their sixth son; keep right on trying for the girl they also yearn tunesmith Gladys Shelley heard Pablo Casals say speak better English than I so of (MW Glady is turning that comment into a song. Daniels heard that Bobby Kennedy (in Africa) told his native audiences so the Old Black Magician just recorded a song of the same title, Village hippies tote signs Down With the Draft! Melt llersh- Ex-champ Tony Zale is the new greeter at Gallagher's 33 uear the new Madison Square Garden; among stars he greeted was his old great garden violence Koeky Graziano his film Jackie Gleason escapes prison in a balloon but a redundancy. Cannon must work to add to Cary alimouy so star in Wednesday" at the Cape Cod Playhouse in July; with Bob Alda aud Vivian Blame.

20th Fox bought Irviug Wallace's novel without eu-n knowing the plot of uptown toughs wander Greenwich Village weekends aud terrorize elderly people. America Debra Dene Barnes will tour Vietnam this Summer with six of her loveliest runners-up. Permanent official chaperone ior all Misses America now is Mrs, Irene Bryant, mother of Miss America Debbie Bryant. Finest unanimous applause for any new girl in town went to Lynn Kellogg of so lovely not even the scruffy real aud stage-dialogue smut of that revolting (but not shockiug) musical chould hide her shining attributes; so why some tv show invited her to prove drama critics hive taste Piel (who had au early-tv show) will get rich with hit bon for model railroads. Visiting ootsy-poo film tctms gets loaded here nightly in the expensive saloons, statistically are greater than ever your car will be stolen this year.

For Social is a lOOOdoctor group seeking peaceful solutions to the conflicts; how about first getting them to make house calls, like nights II. Houston Merritt of College of Physicians and Surgeons joined the board of directors of Chock Full O'Nuts. try to sandwich in a few house calls. new Riverboat dance bill sounds like someone found a 1940 calendar: The Three Suns and Johnny bands are the midde-age-set's lure to the basement of the Empire State Building (anyone for the Shag, The Dip?) Theodora Van Runkel who designed the clumsy-lengths for Faye 4 costumes will fashion duds again for "A Place For (with Marcello Mastroianni); aiming at more fashion news but not dowdy-length Bonnie-styles. The Assassination film features Diana Riggs wearing 1906-style already caught on in Loudou Carnaby St.

for boys; who simply adore tlu- waspwaisted Edwardiau look Dionne Warwick's Copa costumes aren't kuiky; very stylish, from better couturiers, Have a rumor: The N.Y. jet airport so badly needed may be in Putnam County with a direct shuttle train hooked into the Manhattan subway sys- tcm, Name of the at Broadhurst theatre surprised most first mghters by arriving as a strangely taining play. D. slightly bitter little comedy aimed at Broadway last year and closed on the road; whereupon Barry Nelson took over the direction, rounded out its trio-cast with Tammy Grimes and Leo Genn and author Gilroy started all over. Its slender story concerns a Las Vegas chorus girl with an aging married lover (Leo Genn) who gets tangled sexually if unromantically with a musician of passable talents while she waits for her rich lover to unload a wife and family and marry her, he does finally, chorus kid discovers her own loves the pianist with the slight touch of gambling degeneracy; and the whole plot, flimsy but able to sustain a great many desperate little wise-guy- isms which hide the rudder- IHI emptiness of both lives; and shomehow it hangs together, not with the grandeur that once was drama nor even the rich jokes of Neil Simon in but still with a sense of frequent integrity and understanding of the shallow, sordid dejectedness of the city built on sand and greed and the monotony of its lesser paid prisoners.

Soliloquy PUT TCXiETHER MJTTIE GROUP THAT SOME PEOPLE CALL mtfNATHrS RAGTIME "THETUNE THEY'RE PLAYlNGr SEEMS 10 BE CATCHING ON, Girls are Too Much For Guys on Curves We took time off recently from advising the President to interview a woman driver. Even the finely-tuned mind of a mast columnist occasionally needs respite from the complexities of life. It came in the form(36-24-36) of Liane Engeman, who passed through Washington on the way back to her native Holland after competing against men in a Sebring, automobile race. At least one of the male drivers was not thrilled about having her on the same track. was coming around a turn, going Paul Hawkins is quoted as saying in a Miami newspaper, all of a sudden these girls in a Javelin bump the Porsche in front of them.

I geared down, but still hit the Although other male drivers agree with him, he claims the accident crippled his car. girls in a race i he said. had one girl, believe this now, pass me on the infield grass one Miss Engeman told us Hawkins is just a bad sport and had to blame somebody for his poor showing. She said male racing drivers will have to get used to competing with women, just as the male motorist became accustomed to women drivers on the highways. compete in sports such as football, certain- Helen Help Us! lv she said, the male ego is safe there.

But we can and will compete sports as auto racing, which require nerve and skill rather than burliness. 1 wasn chosen foi Ring-Free racing team for my looks, you know. Perhaps not, but I should say the executives of Ye Olde Ring- Free exactly blind to her physical attributes. Miss father is a taxi driver in Holland and he taught her to drive. For anyone who has ridden a cab in Europe, this might explain her daredevil talents.

went into racing because it is ever so much more exciting than street she said. In case this may be so, although I must say I find the average street driving fairly exciting. My wife, for instance, can talk and check her make-up in the rear-view mirror while driving 55 m.p.h. through an alley. My knuckles are still white from the time she made a U-turn in heavy traffic on the Lincoln Memorial bridge.

We have a girl reporter in the office who drives a sports car and complains that it burns a lot of gas. Possibly this is because she pulls out the choke knob to have something on which to hang her pocketbook. But get me wrong, I love women drivers. JustTwoandOneHalf Big Happy Families BY HELEN BOTTEL Dear Helen: I loved my husband, but thought I loved this married man more, so I got a divorce. Shortly afterwards, my husband married a friend of mine.

We all get along well. They took the children because I was single and working, but 1 can have them to visit any time I wish. The problem is, been drifting along for six years now, waiting for Ken (the married man) to get a divorce as he promised. Several times he has left Myra, his wife, and moved in with me, but she is so kind and he moves back. I get tough, because Myra and I are good friends too.

Whenever a crisis with their children, she calls me first. She mind sharing him with me, and often she seems acceptable to the divorce, but somehow it just never happens. All of us arc in the same crowd and get together quite often, to play poker. being very modern and sensible, but where docs this leave me? AMIABLE DIVORCEE Dear A.D.: Up a creek with no husband! And liable to stay that way unless you pull out of this friendly frivesome and develop some old- fashioned sense. A good poker player should know that with two pairs, one YOU! -11.

Dear Helen: My cousin has six of the most undisciplined kids ever seen. If treats are set out, they will stand over the dish, eating so fast they slobber. When full, they sling the rest at each other, or rub it into the furniture. They open the refrig door every few minutes and poke dirty fingers into everything they see. They dig into tap boards, climb all over sofas and beds with their muddy feet, demand food that is out of reach and scream if they get it.

What they eat, they break. I don't blame the kids as much as I do their parents. We visit their house because of its sour milk smells and messiness. But the problem: I guess I must have shown my displeasure, for now my cousins hardly ever come over and, when they do, things aae strained. Why do I feel so gudty when 1 used to dread their constant visits? Should I apologize for scold ing the children aud risk tug them back three or four times a week, or pretend I haven't noticed the freeze? -GUILTY BUT GLAD by Hugo ITS THE PEOPLE Dear but ruin a good thing: Pretend you noticed, and let guilt rest on the guilty.

Dear Helen: As a woman in her 50s and rather proud of it, 1 have one complaint: Why do young salesmen address us older gals as We obviously so it is flattery, not a compliment. You never hear a salesman say, I help you, young to a gray-haired gent. Are we females supposed to turn to mush and buy everything in sight, just because someone calls us 50 Dear 50: Simmer down. Would you rather the salesman called you Granted, the lady" approach is obvious flattery, but harmless. If it really bugs you, give the poor fellow a on the smile and call him This column is dedicated to family living, so if having trouble, let Helen help you.

She will also welcome your own amusing experiences. Address Helen Bottel in care of The Mercury. Try and Stop Me By BENNETT CERF The party ruling a country in Easter Europe decided that one way to lure American tourists was to open a strip-tease establishment. One was duly established, and extensively advertised, but the tourists soon stopped coming. Summoned to account for his failure, the manager wailed, We put our finger on wrong.

We serve fine food, the liquor is the best, and our service ii something wrong with your he was told. protested the manager. one of them has oeen a model Party member since A new drama had died a hor- nble death in its Philadelphia tryout and a well-known play doctor was summoned to effect emergency repairs. After suf- fertng through the performance that night, he reported, wily change I can suggest is having the star shoot himself instead of taking poiSon in the good wiu that grumbled the pro- doctor explain, There one chance in ten would wake up the A few pointers from D. 1 Miking a teen age daughter solely responsible for wash- mg the dishes is an excellent her the reiponsd- bilities of life.

On the other hand, its a terrible wav get the dishes done It is better to wear out than ot rust out, J. lf overburdened with conceit, try walking through a cemetery. 4. Drive carefully- iQi avoid the mourning after..