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Instant happiness
‘The holy fools 9
SPRINGFIELD, 111. (UPI) - They’re
just a bunch of kids having fun. But when
they don their silly costumes, splash on
some greasepaint and turn themselves
loose on the community—presto! instant
happiness.
Every Saturday, about 25 Methodist
teen-agers dressed in full clown attire
invade local hospitals, nursing homes and
halfway houses. They call themselves
“The Holy Fools,” and their mission is to
make people happy.
“Our philosphy is there is so much
trouble in people’s lives today that if we
can bring a smile—even for a minute—it’s
a valid thing,” said Joey the Clown, leader
of the Fools.
Most of the time, Joey is the Rev.
William J. Peckham, 41, youth minister at
Springfield’s First United Methodist
Church. But on Saturdays, Peckham
paints on a sad clown face, slips into a
colorful costume and leads the young
people, ages 11 to 14, to the day’s target.
“We don’t perform,” Peckham said.
“And we don’t preach or pamphleteer. We
just fan out and go from room to room to
visit and bring some joy to people who
don’t have much to be joyful about,”
Farm prices
decline again
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The
prices received by farmers for
their commodities declined for
the fifth straight month, plung
ing another 2 per cent during
the month ending March 15, the
Agriculture Department report
ed Monday.
The latest figures indicate
farmers are receiving 15 per
cent less for their commodities
this year than in March, 1974.
The last time farm commodity
prices rose was in October,
1974, when they registered a 4
per cent increase.
Then the downward spiral
began —off 1.5 per cent in
November, 3 per cent in
December, 1.5 per cent in
January and 3 per cent in
February.
The Agriculture Department’s
Crop Reporting Service blamed
the price decline since mid
February on lower prices for
wheat, corn, upland cotton,
soybeans, tomatoes and milk.
Higher prices for cattle, onions
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Peckham said.
“The results are amazing,” he said.
“Even the saddest, most depressed people
light right up when a clown walks into the
room. It’s so unexpected.”
Peckham told of an 80-yearold woman in
a Lincoln nursing home who had been in
severe depression for two days, refusing to
eat, talk or see visitors.
“We sent in a 13-year-old girl, and inside
of five minutes the old lady was laughing
and giggling and talking about her
family,” Peckham said. “She snapped
right out of it. I’m not saying we’re
miracle therapists or anything like that,
but it works.”
The kids are given no formal training
when they join the group, Peckham said.
“I just tell them they must always be kind;
focus on others; and do nothing to
humiliate themselves or anyone else,” he
said.
“And they do great. At their age, you’d
think it would be very difficult for them to
do this type of thing. But when they get into
their costumes and makeup, it’s a freeing
thing. Everybody loves a clown. And to
hear the talk afterward, they’re just
tickled to death when they see someone
respond to them.”
and applies partially offset the
decline.
Corn, selling at $2.67 per
bushel, dropped 19 cents from
mid-February and was one cent
below a year ago. Oats at $1.46
were off 12 cents a bushel,
barley dropped 34 cents during
the month to $2.55, and grain
sorghum at $4.03 per hundred
weight was down 18 cents. Only
oats were selling at more this
year than in mid-March, 1974.
The feed grains index
dropped 6 per cent by mid-
March.
Wheat, at $3.65 per bushel,
was down 30 cents from mid-
Febriiary, rye dropped 26 cents
to $2.15 per bushel and rice
dropped 20 cents to $10.60 per
hundredweight. This category,
known as food grains, was 28
per cent lower on an average
than one year ago and 7 per
cent lower than last month.
Soybeans accounted for most
of the 8 per cent drop in prices
received for oil-bearing crops.
Soybean prices averaged $5.31
a bushel in mid-March, down 41
in the past month and 65 per
cent below March, 1974. Small
er declines were also recorded
for cottonseed and flaxseed.
‘Mr. Jim’ Gillis
is dead at 83
All beef cattle prices ave
raged $27.80 per hundredweight
—up 90 cents during the month
—and helped the meat animal
price increase register a slight
one per cent increase by March
15. Cow and steer prices also
increased, but hog prices
dropped 10 cents to an average
of $30.30.
Sheep and lamb prices also
increased, but the meat animal
prices still averaged some 20
per cent below the levels of
March, 1974.
Cotton prices dropped 6 per
cent, with upland cotton selling
at 30 cents a pound, down 2
cents from mid-February and
23.4 cents below March 1974.
The market prices fell an
average 5 per cent for the
farmers’ vegetables, with de
creases for tomatoes, as
paragus, lettuce and sweet
corn. Prices were higher for
cabbage, onions, snap beans
and cauliflower, the report
said.
The cauliflower prices of $25
per hundredweight for the
month ended March 15 were a
new record, and the overall
vegetable price index was still
29 per cent higher than one
year ago.
SOPERTON, Ga. (UPI) -
Funeral services for former
state Highway Director “Mr.
Jim” Gillis Sr. will be
Wednesday in the First Baptist
Church of Soperton where the
powerful politican served as a
deacon.
Burial will be at Gillis
Cemetery in Treutlen County.
Gillis, 83, who Gov. George
Busbee called “the prime
mover in building the highway
system we have today,” died
Monday at Piedmont Hospital
in Atlanta after a lengthy
illness.
“We owe to Mr. Jim a debt of
gratitude for moving Georgians
out of the mud and onto a
modern system of farm-to
market roads, federal primary
and state aid highways and
interstates,” the governor said
Monday.
“He was a master politican
with the gift of bringing
together political factions of
different persuasions. He used
this gift for the common good,
and Georgia is a better state
because of his long career of
public service,” Busbee said.
7 P.M. 2nd. Laughing Week 9 P.M.
- PARKWOOD CINEMA I
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SPRINGFIELD, Dl.—“Joey the Clown,” Rev. Bill'Peckham, the assistant pastor of
Springfield’s First United Methodist Church, appllces make up while preparing to take
“The Holy Fools,” a service ministry group of junior high school youths who don grease
paint and clown costumes, for a weekly round of visits to nursing homes and hospitals.
Peckham and his 30 young clowns take their clowning seriously and bring joy to some lonely
lives. (UPI)
Amnesty
deadline
passes
WASHINGTON (UPI) - With
the passing of the deadline for
application to President Ford’s
conditional clemency program,
draft resisters and military
deserters may have a long wait
before another amnesty offer
presents itself.
At midnight Monday, the
Justice Department, the De
fense Department and the
Presidential Clemency Board
stopped accepting applications
to the three phases of Ford’s
program.
A House Judiciary subcom
mittee is planning mid-April
hearings to look at Ford’s
program as well as bills which
would provide a broader
amnesty. But pro-amnesty
groups are not very optimistic
about such legislation emerging
from this session of Congress.
“Chances for congressional
enactment (of a universal and
unconditional amnesty) in the
immediate future are not
good,” said Henry Schwarz
schild, director of the American
Civil Liberties Union project on
amnesty.
Schwarzschild said at a
Monday news conference that
the Ford program was “a
depressing failure...punitive in
its moral and political assump
tions,” and to which “well over
80 per cent of those eligible
have not even applied.”
Final figures for applications
to the three part program are
not yet available, but they are
not expected to change
dramatically from these previ
ously announced figures:
—Clemency Board applica
tions by convicted draft evad
ers and military deserters:
between 17 and 18 per cent of a
potential 100,000 applicants.
—Military applicants to the
Defense Department’s program
for unconvicted deserters:
about 50 per cent of 10,115
eligible. This includes 563 who
were in confinement when the
program was announced Sept.
16.
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PARKWOOD CINEMA
Fire destroys
Baptist Church
at Attapulgus
ATTAPULGUS, Ga. (UPI) -
Authorities are investigating a
fire which destroyed the 46-
year-old Attapulgus Baptist
Church Monday, but the cause
of the blaze has not been
determined.
Rev. James Williams said the
sanctuary, built in 1929, and
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covered by insurance. Damage
was estimated at $150,000.
The fire was detected about 4
a.m. Monday by a passerby,
but it had partially destroyed
the church by the time the
town’s volunteer fire unit
arrived on the scene.
Page 5
— Griffin Daily News Tuesday, April 1,1975
Mrs. Eisenhower
regaining strength
FT. GORDON, Ga. (UPI) -
• Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower,
, widow of former President
|| Dwight Eisenhower, will re
main at Ft. Gordon Army
Medical Center longer than
|| expected to regain her strength,
officials said Monday.
Mrs. Eisenhower, who is
listed in “very good” condition,
was hospitalized for treatment
|| of intestinal bleeding last
Tuesday, and doctors first said
she would be released in seven
|| to 10 days.
Physicians attending the for
|| mer first lady said she is now
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eating a normal diet and
gradually increasing her ac
tivities.
“They would like to see her
remain longer than the 10 days
originally estimated,” said Maj.
George Foster of the U.S. Army
Medical Center. “Not because
of her illness, but in order to
have her gain nutritional
strength by getting her on her
normal diet.”
Mrs. Eisenhower had been
spending part of the winter at
“Mamie’s Cottage” near the
Augusta National Golf Course,
a favorite spot of her late
husband.