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The world’s “oldest” dental assistant, Miss Joy Middlebrook, (1) received flowers from
Mrs. Jo Dreyer and met Griffin’s “oldest” assistant, Mrs. Alice Ball.
Dentists honor
oldest assistant
If you had a toothache around
noon yesterday and are wonder-
• ing why you couldn’t find a
Griffin dentist, all 10 of them,
along with their 28 reception
ists, assistants, and hygiepists
• were at the Holiday Inn meeting
Miss Joy Middlebrook.
Miss Middlebrook, who is 83
and a newcomer to Griffin,
• holds a world record of being
the oldest dental assistant.
She began working for Dr. C.
E. Chapman in Des Moines,
lowa, 57 years ago and stayed
with him until July of this year
when they both retired and she
, moved to Griffin.
There is no record anywhere
in the world of any other dental
assistant working for the same
• dentist for so long a period.
Miss Middlebrook is the aunt
of Mrs. Marcus Sharp and
moved here in July to be near
Weather
• ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY
67, low today 59, high yesterday
65, low yesterday 52, high
t tomorrow near 60, low tonight
near 40.
City mailing
tax notices
Some 6,000 city tax notices
have been mailed and another
2,000 are yet to be sent out.
A spokesman for city hall
today said taxpayers may elect
to pay in three installments if
they wish.
The first payment was due
Oct. 20 which already had pass
ed before the notices were
Death toll climbs in airliner crash
By JOSEPH RODRIGUEZ
NAIROBI, Kenya (UPI) - A
Lufthansa Boeing 747 airliner
with 157 persons aboard fal
tered seconds after liftoff today
and dropped tail first into a
muddy field where it exploded
into flames and burst apart,
killing many of the passengers.
Airport authorities said the
death toll was estimated at
between 60 and 70 and that
between 87 and 97 persons
GRIFFIN
Vol. 102 No. 274
the Sharp family.
Mrs. Jo Dreyer, a dental
hygienist with Dr. Bill Scott,
read an article in the Griffin
Daily News last month about
Miss Middlebrook and arranged
for yesterday’s luncheon, so
those in the Griffin dental
Senate panel
to recommend
Rockefeller
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The
chairman of the Senate Rules
Committee said today the panel
will recommend Friday that
Nelson A. Rockefeller by
confirmed as vice president.
Chairman Howard Cannon, D-
Nev., told reporters after a
brief meeting of the committee
that the panel’s vote on Friday
“will be favorable.”
But Cannon said a full Senate
vote will come after Thanksgiv
ing “to give members a chance
to read our report.” Democrat
ic Leader Mike Mansfield said
Tuesday he hoped the vote
could come before the Thanks
giving recess.
“I think the Senate will vote
to confirm Mr. Rockefeller,
based on what we know now,”
he said. “There has been
nothing new that has come up
to effect our decision.”
mailed.
The second installment is due
Dec. 20 and the third and final
one will be due Feb. 20. Taxes
not paid by then will be subject
to penalties.
The city hall spokesman said
payments of taxes at this point
were about normal.
survived.
Most of the victims were
West Germans and there were
no reports any Americans were
aboard.
It was the first crash of a 747
Jumbo Jet since they went into
service five years ago. It is
considered by pilots to be the
safest passenger plane in the
world and the cause was not
known.
There was speculation the big
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Wednesday Afternoon, November 20,1974
profession could meet her.
The luncheon set a record,
too, as it was the first time those
attending could recall having
all the local dentists and all of
their helpers together at the
same time.
Dr. Sonny Butler gave a short
welcoming address.
Miss Middlebrook said when
she first took the job, she in
tended to work about three
months, then go on to nursing
school. Instead, she ended up
staying 57 years.
Dr. Butler laughingly told her
that it wasn’t too late, she could
enroll in the nursing program at
Gordon, only 15 miles away.
Griffin’s “oldest” dental
assistant also was recognized.
Mrs. Alice Ball has been with
Dr. Tom Hopkins and his father,
the late Dr. L. B. Hopkins, a
total of 37 years. She helped in
the late Dr. Hopkins’ office for
an additional two years while
she was in high school.
Miss Middlebrooks was
presented with an arrangement
of fresh flowers and a large
vase in her favorite color, blue.
She said she will use the
flowers tonight when she enter
tains “her doctor”. He and his
wife will be dropping in on their
friend when they pass through
Griffin on their way to Florida.
JFjB
“We shouldn’t have to reward
folks for being good — if we just
wouldn’t make it so attractive
to be eviL”
jet engines lost power on
takeoff for a flight to Johannes
burg and that the pilot was
trying to make an emergency
landing.
The pilot was quoted by the
Kenyan News agency as
saying: “I was taking off
normally...the plane broke up
and was suddenly going down. I
don’t know what happened.”
An airport worker said it
appeared that the pilot tried to
Many Griffinites thought
emergency was real thing
The people responsible for
providing emergency service in
the event of a community
disaster will assess the surprise
drill they called yesterday.
A noon luncheon will be held
at the Griffin-Spalding Hospital
for officials who handle the pro
gram.
The drill yesterday was so
real that it caused alarm and
concern among many citizens.
The practice centered around
a make-believe explosion in the
boiler room of Dundee Mill in
Experiment. Very few people in
the emergency organization
knew the drill was planned.
Response to the calls for the
most part came from people
who thought they were answer-
Woodbury
tornado
injures 15
WOODBURY, Ga. (UPI) -
Fifteen persons were injured
early today and six mobile
homes destroyed near here as a
tornado raked across central
Georgia, touching down in
several places.
Six mobile homes at the Ed
Wells Trailer Park on Georgia
85S about a mile south of here
were overturned and heavily
damaged by the high winds
accompanying the twister.
Paul Fuller, a resident of the
trailer park, said he saw the
tornado approach about 7 a.m.
“It never did touch down
completely,” said Fuller, who
was thrown from his mobile
home but not seriously injured.
Mrs. Billy B. Carroll said her
12-year-old son was asleep in
their trailer when the twister
hit. She said the trailer began
shaking and then overturned,
pinning her under a wall. She
said her son freed her from the
debris and she suffered only a
scratch.
Nineteen people, including
several children, were left
homeless at the trailer park.
Earlier, a tornado reportedly
touched down in two places in
Troup County south of LaGran
ge, destroying a bam, damag
ing three houses and a mobile
home and destroying a pulp
wood truck. There were no
reports of injuries.
Upson to serve
part of Pike
with ambulances
A public ambulance service
being set up in Upson County
will serve the southern part of
Pike County.
Spalding Ambulance service
already serves the northern
part of Pike.
Upson funeral homes have
notified county commissioners
they want out of the ambulance
set the jetliner down as
smoothly as possible in an
emergency landing once he
knew he had lost power.
Nairobi hospital said 21
survivors were under treatment
there, some of them undergoing
emergency surgery. One was
reported in critical condition.
Tom Lisson, manager of the
Nairobi Hilton Hotel, said all 71
others, “a little grubby but in
pretty good condition,” had
ing a real call.
The practice drill was so real
that in some instances people
thought it was the real thing.
All Griffin ambulances
rushed to the boiler room scene
and began administering aid to
some people who had been sent
there to act as victims.
Word spread to some people
in the mill that an accident had
occurred and they thought it
was for real.
Mrs. Evelyn Shackelford of
313 C. South Hill wrote the
Griffin Daily News today she
thought the drill was the “scare
of the year.”
“I think it was handled in an
idiotic manner by un-caring
people in charge,” she wrote.
One woman got word that her
brother had been injured in the
boiler room explosion and was
at the emergency room of the
Griffin-Spalding Hospital.
She rushed there and found it
was not true and the report
resulted from the drill.
She was furious when she
learned her fear for her
brother’s safety was ground
less.
Dundee’s Volunteer firemen
responded to the drill.
The Griffin Fire Department
had been alterted to stand by if
needed but they were not called.
Gene Folds, head of the Civil
Defense organization here,
never received a notice that the
drill was under way.
Some people in the Griffin
Police Department called the
Spalding Sheriff’s office to find
out what was going on. The
Sheriff’s office told them it was
a drill.
Some traffic was clogged in
the early stages of the drill.
Kenneth Roberts who heads
the Dundee Volunteer firemen
said it looked like the drill went
smoothly.
The drill called for 14 people
to be injured in the boiler blast.
One dummy placed on top of the
boiler was pronounced “dead at
the scene” by Coroner Emmett
Chappell.
Responding to the call, too,
was Miller’s Funeral Home, the
only funeral home still offering
ambulance service here.
The Griffin-Spalding Hospital
must conduct two such drills a
year to meet certification
standards.
One pulled earlier this year
centered on a make-believe air
plane crash at the Griffin-
Spalding Airport.
service business entirely. They
would not consider convales
cent service.
The Upson funeral homes
have stipulated they will not
discontinue their service until
the public ambulance system is
working.
Upson plans to buy three
ambulances and operate them
out of the Upson hospital.
turned up at his facility.
The minister of communica
tion, Omolo Okero, had told
newsmen earlier that 97 bodies
had been taken from the
wreckage of the blue, yellow
and silver jet which was flying
from Frankfurt to Johannes
burg with German tourists and
businessmen.
Witnesses and survivors said
the aircraft took off in bright
and windless weather and had
Daily Since 1872
Santa gets lift
MINNEAPOLIS—The commercialization of Christmas has been criticized for years, but
from all indications it won’t be relaxed this year. One indicator is this mannequin, dressed
as Santa, being carried to a window display store here last week. (UPI)
Now comes season’s
first Bah! Humbug!
CHICAGO (UPI) — Santa
Claus, the kindly old dispenser
of Christmas cheer, is really a
slick huckster who has taught
greed, not love, to millions of
children, it was charged today.
“Let’s leave Santa at the
North Pole” writes Catholic
layman John Mahoney in the
December issue of U.S. Cath
olic.
“How often do you see a
Santa who is not serving as an
outright huckster?” Mahoney
asked in the Sounding Board
section of the Clarethian
Fathers monthly magazine.
“Whereas the true lesson of
Christmas is a message of
divine mercy and sacrifice,
Santa is the front man for
greedy corporations and the
tutor in greed for millions of
American children. He is the
saint of Gimme...
“A couple of generations
back Santa was a relatively
innocent imposter, but today he
has become a total sellout to
materialism and greed. He is in
the pay of the big toy
manufacturers and department
stores.”
Mahoney said he was once
shattered when told there was
no Santa Claus and vowed his
children would not have to
suffer such a blow. Later, he
said, he found better reasons
“for puncturing this over
inflated figure.”
“Young children, whose un
formulated motto in life is
‘what’s in it for me?’, can
just cleared the runway when
trouble developed. The plane
settled and the five-story tail
smashed into the ground at
around 190 miles an hour.
There were thunderous noises
as the giant plane ripped apart
and skidded hundreds of yards
through the mud, finally
bursting into flames.
Survivors said the fuselage
broke up like a gigantic
eggshell and that they escaped
®A Prize-Winning
Newspaper
1974
Better Newspaper I
Contests
scarcely overlook that, accord
ing to the information they
have received, it is the Jolly
Old Elf rather than the Babe
who delivers the tangible
goods.”
Mahoney maintains the
“Santa myth” means unhappy
children.
“A greedy child is never
appeased. A spoiled child
appreciates nothing. An over
indulged child is convinced that
the major figure of Christmas
is not Christ, but himself.”
He noted that a quarter
, century ago a movement to
“put Christ back in Christmas”
failed because “we failed to
take Santa Claus out of
Christmas.”
The magazine cautioned a
prepublication survey showed
57 per cent of readers checked
disagreed with Mahoney that
Santa teaches children to be
greedy.
A total of 60 per cent felt
Santa should be retained as a
myth and 80 per cent said they
did not believe they had
suffered any harm from believ
ing in Santa Claus.
Commented Mrs. Donald
Wenger, a reader from Bir
mingham, Mich., “Let’s not
blame childish greed on a
lovely, mythical old man who
labors year round to make
others happy. The average
adult is the ‘saint of Gimme’
and our children are astute
learners.”
Pritchett
ineligible
for pension
HIGH POINT, N.C. (UPI) -
The attorney general’s office
has ruled that High Point
Police Chief Laurie Pritchett is
ineligible for a disability
pension.
Assistant Attorney General
Keith L. Jarvis’ opinion, which
concurs with that of city
attorney Knox Walker, was sent
to city officials Tuesday.
Pritchett, who has said he
will resign from the post but
requested a disability pension,
was the subject of a recent city
investigative hearing into al
leged irregularities in the police
department.
Pritchett has been in and out
of North Carolina Baptist
Hospital in Winston-Salem, suf
fering from hypertension, since
the hearings began in late
September.
Pritchett’s attorney, John
Harworth, argues that Pritchett
suffers from hypertension be
cause of his job as police chief.
But city attorneys and Jarvis
contend the retirement benefits
are for officers injured in the
line of duty and not for officers
suffering from illness.
the broken-up airliner through
the openings and ran away.
Lisson said the ones that turned
up at his hotel “look like
they’ve come in from a hectic
safari.”
Another survivor, who de
clined to give his name, said
“there was a sudden dive soon
after the aircraft took off. The
plane hit the ground and slid
for several hundred meters...l
saw a sudden opening near my
seat and jumped out.”