The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 2

Pantagraph A-2 Bleomlngton-Nermal, III. July 5, 1971 I fl 17 1. i i rd. 1 Dale Township "firemen" Rene Glass, left, and Kay Kirkpatrick show their grit Catching up to Grove Street Parade 1 A park celebration of the Fourth of July It their summer clothes and guys in their summer clothes. At noon the fishing derby ended, just in time for the Gong Show to begin.

Margo Kelch, 1301 W. Grove had the biggest fish, a 12-pound, 29-inch carp, and Eric Teatheos, Danvers, caught the most fish. Teatheos, a 14-year-old, caught 42. A man with a fake arrow in his head wandered over to the bandstand where a crowd had gathered to wait for the beginning of the Gong Show. He introduced himself as Al Lundy and said he would be "MC-ing" the show.

Lundy explained to the crowd his presence would add "a little class." Some of the crowd booed him. The second act took the microphone away from Lundy. By Curt Hendrlcki Pantograph intern Fourth of July in the park. It was and always will be an American tradition. It happens all over the country.

It happened in Miller Park Tuesday under a sky so sunny and blue it could have been part of a Norman Rockwell painting. An "average crowd" with "more cars than people," according to police, rolled into the park, beginning at 6 a.m., for the fishing derby. No one was willing to estimate the number of people there. There were Softball games, Frisbees, carloads of good food and picnics and barbecues everywhere. There were families and more families, kids and kids and kids and kids, dogs, bicycles, music playing, girls in A i Carlo Quinn, 11, of 623 E.

Locust St. fights watermelon McLean County Fair Dance floor, cases new highlights The show went smoothly after that. Two little, blond-haired boys calling themselves "Ricky and Robbie" came on stage. They had announced their act as "A Joke by a Drunk." When asked which of them was going to tell the joke, the two boys began arguing and hitting each other. They were gonged before they got the joke out.

Eventually, Jim Williams took first prize with a religious song called "Rise Again." People continued streaming into the park. By 2 p.m., one of the parking attendants just shrugged when asked if there were spaces to put all the cars. An antique-auto display was set up beside the pavilion, as well as art and cooking exibits. There were sack races, wheelbarrow races, three-legged races and horseshoe pitching. On the west lawn of the pavilion the Flying Corderos, a trapeze act, began performing for the crowd at 2:30 p.m.

Several times aeralists missed and fell into the safety net to the oohs and aahs of the crowd. Despite the falls, the crowd applauded loudly for them. One of the performers remarked he felt bad about missing a couple times, and said he had been so nervous and had so much energy he just "overdid it." Across the lake from the pavilion area, fire departments gathered for a water fight. The object of the fight was to push a metal barrel on a rope toward the other team by squirting it with a hose, while the other team did the same thing. A student photographer who got too close got doused.

Minier Township eventually won the fight. In the women's division, Minier Township also won. There were paddleboat races, a preschoolers' penny hunt, a watermelon-eating contest, a pie-eating contest, a bubblegum-blowing contest and a watermelon seed-spitting contest, during which one of the contestants spit out his false teeth rather than his watermelon seeds. It all ended with fireworks Tuesday night. i i A blacktop dance floor and new display cases highlight facilities added at Farm Bureau Field for the 1978 McLean County Fair.

The new floor and display cases were built in the fair's garden building for 4-H crop, vegetable and flower garden exhibits, according to CD. "Dale" Per-ring, McLean County Fair Board president. The 4-H fair will run Aug. 1-5. Farm Man, 36, faces intimidation charge Floyd N.

McWhorter, 36, no address listed, was arrested Sunday by Bloom-ington police on an intimidation charge, signed Friday by Doris Reany, 509 W. Grove St. McWhorter posted a $1,000 personal-recognizance bond for a July 26 court appearance. Bureau Field is south of Illinois 9, east of Belt Line Road. Space has been added this year for poultry and rabbit exhibits, and additional bleachers are being installed for spectators at the judging of those exhibits, Perring said.

Permanent stalls and a wash rack are being constructed for horse and pony exhibits. Beef exhibitors also will have additional space. Iron gates will replace wooden gates used as tie stalls in the beef barn. The blacktop area, adjoining the carnival site, will be used for dances each night. Bands will be brought in for those events, said Ron Hofbauer, general manager of the fair.

Season tickets for the fair are being sold by 4-H members and at the fair office, 202 E. Locust St. Season tickets are $6.50 for adults and $3.50 for children. Daily admission fees will be $2 for adults and $1 for children. Jim Sherer catches Shane Sherer of the Flying Corderos Pantagraph photos by Marc Featherly Several undesirable ways to mark Fourth Guide bedroom to see who it was, and one of the men walked toward him and hit him on top of his head with a tire iron.

He told police he didn't know who the men were. I The 44-year-old Carter was treated and released from St. Joseph's Hospital Medical Center, a 2-inch gash on his head. He was admitted to Brokaw Hospi- tal later Tuesday and released Wednesday. And somebody ran off with Ronald Dreyer's fireworks.

Dreyer, 406 N. Oak found out the stuff he'd planned to celebrate Independence Day with was ripped off on the Fourth. Dreyer told police he had about $300 worth of noisemakers and pretty flaming gizmos in the crawlspace beneath his house and when he went to fetch them, -the stuff was gone. By Rick Baker Steven Charles West apparently wanted to go to jail real bad. That's kind of funny because jail is a stinking place to be.

In fact, being in jail probably stinks more than staring at an electric typewriter on the Fourth of July when everybody else in the world is out having fun and throwing firecrackers at stray dogs. But Steven Charles West wanted a jail cell on the Fourth. Police said they tried to give the guy a break, but then, they said, West punched out a police car and they couldn't let him get away with that. At 1:39 a.m.. Bloomington police were called to 808 Mi N.

Madison St. because somebody called them and said somebody was trying to break down a door on the house. moving, he said he found Watson nodded off at the wheel. The transmission of the vehicle was in "drive," the ignition was on, but Watson's foot was on the brake, the officer said. When the officer reached in and shoved the transmission in "park," Watson woke up.

After Watson woke up, he was charged with improper parking and driving without a valid license. He posted $35 for a July 15 court date and went home for the Fourth. Independence Day was just an hour old when somebody started celebrating it by hitting Elmer Carter over the head with a tire iron, Elmer Carter told police. Carter said he was at his home at 805 S. Wright St.

at 1:10 a.m. when one of his daughters opened the front door and two men entered the house. Carter said he came out of his hood of the car, and hard enough to be charged with criminal damage to a vehicle and be thrown in jail. He posted $100 for a Friday court appearance. Alan Watson, 27, of 216 Prospect Ave.

was tired at 5 a.m. on the Fourth of July. So, police said, he went to sleep a natural enough reaction when one is very tired on the Fourth of July. Police said they found Watson asleep in the southbound lane of Belt Line Road where it intersects with Vernon Avenue. Police didn't originally know Watson was asleep.

But an officer got kind of suspicious when the van Watson was driving move forward at the intersection when a traffic signal turned green. Police surmised that Watson had fallen asleep at the wheel during a red light. When an officer went to investigate the reason the van wasn't thrown in jail. Inside the house, attached to the door West was beating up, was West's estranged wife, police said. Police asked her if she wanted to sign a complaint against West for beating up her door.

She said she didn't. Police then informed West he wouldn't be put in jail and that he could go home. But police said West didn't want to go home. He wanted to go to jail. "He kept saying, 'what the hell does it take to get thrown in a Bloomington police officer said.

"Then he found out what it took to get thrown in jail." After finding his estranged wife would not press charges against him, police said, West walked to a police squad car and started punching it. Police said he punched it real hard-hard enough to leave several dents in the Here's a selected bunch of stories from the Bloomington police docket on Independence Day which could help you determine how not to spend your Fourth of July. AU right, so it's July 5 already. Cut it out and tape it to your refrigerator and read it next July 3. Actually, you could use it as a guide on how not to spend any holiday, or non-holiday for that matter.

Police said that when they arrived, West, 25, of 711 N. Lee St. was beating up a door. He'd broken a pane of glass in the door. Police said West announced he'd broken the glass and should be.