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CBs raise $5,700 for little Robbie
ATLANTA (UPI) — Citizens Band
radio operators collected more than
$5,700 during the weekend for a little
north Georgia boy stricken with bone
cancer, and rounded up hundreds of
food, clothing and toy donations for
needy families.
“A CB radio to me is like the world’s
largest party line, you never can tell
First Baptist
votes Sunday
on purchase
The congregation of First Baptist
Church will vote Sunday on whether to
purchase some additional property in
the block on which it is located.
A study committee, the finance
committee and the board of deacons all
have approved the purchase and will
recommend that the congregation
approve it.
Lee Roy Claxton, chairman of the
board of deacons, said much study,
work and planning have gone into the
proposal.
He said if the congregation can
acquire the property, it would go a long
way toward solving growth and ex
pansion problems the church faces.
The proposed purchase will be from
Will Hill Newton, Jr., and will cover the
property from Record Heaven to the
comer of Meriwether and Eighth
streets and to the Hunt property which
the church already owns.
The price will be $90,000.
Should the congregation approve the
recommendation, the businesses that
would be left on the block would be a
service station, a tire company, a loan
company, a flower shop and a television
business.
‘Tm pretty sure some of our
problems are the result of
giving more attention to science
than to people.”
They’ll help Georgia family move
WICHITA, Kan. (UPI) - A year ago
fire destroyed Russ Fitzgerald’s home
in Georgia. Then Fitzgerald faced a
stadc of medical bills for his wife and
daughter. And finally he lost his job and
had to leave his family while he
• searched for work in another state.
But now Fitzgerald says for the first
time in years he believes in the spirit of
, Christmas.
The Wichita electrician, with the help
of area residents, will be reunited with
Will George, the squirrel, spend Christmas at White House?
By RICHARD H. GROWALD
UPI Senior Editor
WASHINGTON (UPI) - George the squirrel may have
come home to the White House for Christmas.
George left the White House about two years ago, at the
height of the Watergate scandal.
But post-Watergate inhabitants of the White House have
noticed a gray squirrel doing odd things in the elm trees
on the front lawn between the West Wing executive offices
and Pennsylvania Avenue.
“It could be George," said Irvin Williams, White House
horticulturalist. “It is weird enough for George.” ,
The inhabitants have noticed a middle-aged squirrel
scurrying up the elm tree nearest the front door of
President Ford’s office area. It bounds up the tree, makes
for the second highest branch and scurries out to the
farthest end of a limb.
He pauses. Then he swings. And swings and swings.
The limbs goes up and down. The branch sways.
who’s listening,” said Charles Burks,
who with Lanny Ross organized the
Christmas “coffee break” at the Six
Flags Over Georgia parking lot for
seven-year-old Robbie Bryan of Jasper.
Burks and Ross, known to each other
respectively as “Charlie Tuna” and
“Always High” on the CB airwaves,
GRIFFIN
Daily Since 1872
m hi
Jon Davis of the Salvation Army Post here rings bell for kettle contributions
in front of the Griffin Post Office. Donations will go to help needy families
have a happy holiday.
his wife and six children for the
holidays. Residents learned of the Fitz
gerald’s misfortune and donated the
money to help him move his family to
Wichita from Acworth, Ga..
“I can’t believe it,” Fitzgerald said.
“I never thought anything like this
would ever happen to us. I thought the
Christmas spirit was dead, but I was
wrong. It still may not exist in other
parts of the country, but let me tell you
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Monday Afternoon, December 22,1975
Helping out
Then the squirrel leaps.
To the next elm tree.
He pauses on a limb of the second elm, as if in triumph.
He looks down, as if to receive the cheers of a crowd. The
squirrel then gallops down the limb, over the branch and
descends the second elm tree trunk to the ground.
The rodent returns to the first elm, and he does it all
over again.
And again. And again.
Someone suggested to Williams it might be an insane
squirrel.
“Well, it might be George, by George,” said Williams.
The White House does miss George. He was the pet
squirrel. The rest of the White House squirrels shy as
much from human beings as they do from Liberty, the
President’s dog.
Not George. He would allow human beings — uniformed
police, Secret Servicemen, reporters, even politicians —
to approach him.
were talking about Christmas projects
last Monday when another CB operator
told them of the child’s plight.
Burks explained Sunday night that
CB operators often schedule “coffee
breaks” to meet the people they talk to
with code names, so it was decided to
schedule “the world’s largest coffee
break” this weekend for Robbie Bryan.
it really exists here in Wichita. Thank
God for these people.”
Fire destroyed Fitzgerald’s former
home in Georgia two days before
Christmas last year and the family was
left with nothing more than the clothes
on their back.
Then, Fitzgerald found out his wife
had toxemia and a minor heart
condition and one of his daughters
needed an operation for a cleft palate.
And finally, Fitzgerald lost his job
He said the boy’s hospital bills had
topped $5,000.
The word spread on the CB “party
line,” and donations were pledged from
as far away as Oregon. Hundreds of
Atlanta-area CB enthusiasts and other
residents who heard of the fund-raising
drive went to the Six Flags parking lot
All on plane
survive crash
MILAN, Italy (UPI) - A Trans
World Airlines jetliner carrying 122
persons crashlanded in heavy fog today
and broke apart at Milan’s interna
tional airport. All aboard survived.
Nine persons were hospitalized with
injuries—one with a broken back—and
17 others were treated and released.
Many of the 113 passengers on TWA
Flight 842 from New York to Milan
were Italians or Italo-Americans
coming to Italy for Christmas. The
Boeing 707 carried a crew of nine.
Agent shot
near Newnan
NEWNAN, Ga. (UPI) - A Georgia
Bureau of Investigation agent was shot
and wounded today by a prisoner who
apparently escaped from his custody,
authorities said.
The agent, who was not identified,
was reported to have been shot in the
arm and was not believed to be
seriously hurt.
The prisoner, described as a black
male, about 5-10 in height and weighing
140 pounds, was being sought in an area
behind a motel on 1-85 south of Newnan.
He was said to be armed with one or
possibly two guns.
Additional law enforcement officers,
helicopters and bloodhounds were
rushed to the area to aid in the hunt.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY 48, low
today 22, high yesterday 40, low
yesterday 25, high tomorrow in mid 40s,
low tonight in low 20s.
and had to leave his family to find
employment in another city. Fitzgerald
found a job in Wichta after an eight
month search. He has been separated
from his family for the last four and a
half months.
When Wichita residents heard of his
plight they raised about SBOO to help
move his family, and supplied him with
food, clothing and furnishings for a
home he has finally been able to rent.
George liked to spend some of the more wintry days
inside one of the White House fence sentry boxes. He
would enjoy perching on the shoulder of a policeman. He
would scamper up their legs.
George, like all White House squirrels, enjoyed the
peanuts the National Park Service sets out for them daily.
The peanuts are in the shell, the better for squirreling
away.
It’s not a bad life for a squirrel. There is no squirrel
hunting on the White House grounds. The last big bad
episode came in the Eisenhower Administration when
overzealous aides acted upon the President’s curse on
squirrels for holing out his golf putting green.
Ike stopped the Great Squirrel Hunt, however. Still,
they do flee their happy hunting ground. George was no
exception. According to Williams, some squirrels brave it
across the Pennsylvania Avenue traffic to Lafayette
Park.
Other squirrels, hearing other drums, go east to the
Vol. 103 No. 302
Officials at Milan’s Malpensa
international airport said the TWA
plane, flying on instruments,
apparently came in too low and landed
short of the runway. It skidded nose
down on the grassy earth, the fuselage
cracking open like an egg, and finally
halted about 100 yards from the
tarmac.
It did not catch fire and passengers
scrambled to safety through the
rupture and emergency exits.
Heavy fog which reduced visibility to
between 50 and 100 yards had closed the
airport earlier in the day and the TWA
flight was the first to attempt to land,
officials said.
The flight was scheduled to land at
Malpensa at 9:35 a.m. (3:35 a.m. EST).
The accident occurred at 11:29 a.m.
(5:29 a.m. EST). TWA officials said 107
passengers were in tourist class and six
in first class.
Winter here
with 22 mark
Today is the first day of winter and it
wasn’t hard to tell it.
Winter checked in with a 22 degree
reading this morning and the mercury
is not expected to climb above 48 this
afternoon.
New Englanders had no trouble
telling it was winter, either.
Snow covers much of the Northeast
with accumulations of as much as 16
inches in southern New Hampshire.
Snow also fell on the metropolitan New
York City, raising hopes of a white
Christmas.
Boston’s Logan International Airport
was temporarily closed when up to 14
inches of snow fell in that city. Schools
were closed.
Fitzgerald left Wichita during the
weekend to make the drive to Georgia
to move his family. He plans to have
them all back to their new home by
Tuesday.
“I told my wife we wouldn’t have the
money to be together this Christmas,”
he said. “But then this came right out of
left field. Everything that we thought
was not going to happen, has happened.
We all just feel great.”
for coffee and donuts, contributing to
the Robbie Bryan fund and leaving
donations for the poor.
“It was beautiful, just beautiful. We
had $5,700 at last count,” Burks said.
“One of the Shriners came by and
donated SIOO and said he had lost a son
several years ago to cancer,” he said.
“On the way out, his motorcycle got
IVews
summary
By United Press International
U.S. drops to third
WASHINGTON (UPI) - For the first
time in the 10 years figures have been
kept, the United States does not have
the highest per capita wealth among
industrialized nations.
The World Bank Atlas Saturday
showed Sweden and Switzerland moved
ahead in 1974, dropping the United
States to third.
The World Bank bases its conclusions
on each nation’s gross national product
divided by its population. The figures
are adjusted over three years ending
1974 to avoid yearly aberrations.
Struggle pledged
NICOSIA, Cyprus (UPI) -
Representatives of about 200,000 Greek
Cypriot refugees who fled to the south
of Cyprus following the Turkish
invasion 17 months ago have pledged to
“continue the struggle until we return
to our homes and lands”.
President Archbishop Makarios told
them again the settlement of the
refugee problem is the key to solving
the Cyprus crisis.
Upturn forecast
PHILADELPHIA (UPI) - The world
economy has come through a “severe
recession,” but will recover by 1978
because the real gross product will
increase in the next two years, an
international economic forecasting
group predicts.
Project LINK said in a report
released Sunday the real gross product
— the total goods and services
produced worldwide — is expected to
increase by 5 per cent in 1976 and by 6.2
per cent in 1977.
Rites for leader
HONG KONG (UPI) - The Chinese
Communist party paid its last respects
Sunday to vice chairman Kang Sheng in
one of the biggest funeral ceremonies
since the Communists came to power
more than 26 years ago.
More than 5,000 persons attended the
ceremony and another 15,000 turned out
for memorial services Friday and
Saturday. Kang died Tuesday at the
age of 77 after a “prolonged illness.”
Return battle flag
MIAMI (UPI) — Veterans of the 1962
Bay of Pigs invasion have agreed to
government terms for return of their
battle flag from the Kennedy Library at
Waltham, Mass.
The Cuban invasion veteran’s group
Sunday began polling the 1,500
survivors and families of the 500 dead
for permission to move the flag.
The Bay of Pigs Veterans Association
filed suit in April, charging the United
States had failed to make good on the
pledge of the late President John
Kennedy that Communist control over
the island republic would be ended.
Treasury Building. More go south, into the Ellipse Park
where little peanut boxes also are set out by the Park
Service.
The White House squirrel population changes. There is
no such careful count made of squirrels as there is of
White House birds — the Audubon Society bird census
taker is due at the White House any day now for the 1975
counting. But Williams estimates there are some 50
squirrels sharing the White House with the Fords.
Most of the 50 are what Williams calls “plain old gray
squirrels.” He said the Park Service tried importing some
rather flashier black and white squirrels from the Middle
West but they deserted the Executive Mansion.
“We’re not sure where George went two years ago. He
just disappeared,” said Williams.
“But now it’s Christmas, the peanut boxes are filled to
overflowing, Liberty is indoors, and well, George might be
back,” he said.
sideswiped by a car.”
Burks said the man was apparently
not injured.
Burks said he and Ross hit upon the
“coffee break” idea while talking by
radio at 3 a.m. last Monday, “and by
noon, the word had reached California
and Oregon.”