Newspaper Page Text
Griffin Daily News Thursday, September 22, 1977
Page 28
Dear Abby
Dad accepts son’s
right to be gay
By Abigail Van Buren
' 1977 by The Chicago Tfibune-N.Y News Synd Inc.
DEAR ABBY: This is to thank you for your enlightened
attitude about homosexuals.
I am the father of two sons and a daughter. My youngest
son is gay, and when 1 first learned of it, I spent a lot of
time worrying and wondering why. His mother died when
he was 7, and his older brother and sister and I might have
overprotected him, but I doubt if that was the cause. I
think the pattern was set much earlier.
Whatever the reason, he was my son with his first
breath, and he will be my son until his last. I am as caring
and proud of him as I am of my other children. With
minimal effort, I soon became as comfortable with his
friends as with those of my other children. We all live some
distance apart, but there is warmth and affection
whenever the family is together.
My second grandson is named for him—and this was
done after we learned the news.
Just as his brother, sister and I take for granted his
standing by one of us if the need arose, so can he be certain
we will stand by him. We are a family. What a wonderful
feeling.
SIGNED, BUT NAME WITHHELD
DEAR SIGNED: Your youngest son is fortunate to have
a family such as yours. What a pity there aren’t more
people with your understanding and compassion.
DEAR ABBY: Junior has been living at home since he
was graduated from college three years ago. (He’s 25.)
He works for me (I’m his father) and makes excellent
wages. The problem is how to get rid of him.
He’s practically engaged to a very nice girl who lives 300
miles from here, but we’re afraid hell never marry her as
long as he has all the comforts of home. We don’t charge
him room or board.
It’s not the money: it's the fact that he doesn’t want the
responsibility of taking care of himself. Several times in
the last two years, he has talked about taking an
apartment with another fellow, but he’s always backed out
at the last minute.
We’ve dropped subtle hints, but to no avail. His mother
and I agree that if Junior moved, it would be better for him
and better for us.
How can we tell him (politely) to move?
FT. WAYNE FATHER
DEAR FATHER: Talk turkey! Tell him he has until
Thanksgiving to find another pad. And say, “Please.”
DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have been married for
18 years and have six wonderful children.
I have never been the suspicious type, but something
has really got me thinking lately. About four months ago,
my husband went on a business trip and stayed five days
when he was supposed to be gone only three days. He
E honed me from out of town and said he would be detained,
ut didn’t explain why.
Well, ever since that trip, he has gone to confession
every week! Before the trip he went to confession only
twice a year. I am going crazy wondering what he has to
confess.
Do you think that something happened on that trip that
is sending him to confession? How should I handle it?
Should I ask him? Or should I let the matter ride?
GOING CRAZY
DEAR GOING: Let the matter ride, and pray that he
only cheated on his income tax.
CATFISH
CABIN
Highway 16 East
Jackson Raod
Griffin. Ga.
228-7620
12 PM HI 3 PM
SUNDAY
Along wHh oar Regular
Sunday Luncheon Special
HOME COOKER
VEGETABLE DINNERS
FROM THE FARMER S
MARKET $A7 _
CHOICE OF 5 2 75
2 meats p er Plate
3 vegetables (Drinks extra)
bread, dessert
All You Can Eat
Monday Night
FROGLEGS
(Reg. 2 Prs. $4.25)
Wednesday
Night
Reg. $3.50
FLOUNDER
Friday Night
FRIED SHRIMP
Reg. 5.50
$425
Saturday Night
BOILER SHRIMP
(Net. W-95)
Hour.:
SuarUy HN<x»-ier.M.
Singer takes
jazz group
to Africa
By MAUREEN JOHNSON
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP)
— Drums roll, lights flash and
on to the stage in a glittering
suit bounds the star of the
show.
For Alain Bongo, 18, son of
Organization of African Unity
(OAU) head and Gabon presi
dent Oinar Bongo, it’s an ex
pensive dream come true.
Alain, who has long wanted
to be a singing star, hired his
own 30-piece American jazz or
chestra, and traveled with six
U.S. sound technicians to back
him during a six-week West Af
rican tour.
The manager, Charles Bob
bitt, of Atlanta, Ga„ is the for
mer manager of American
singer James Brown.
They started out playing for
the heads of state gathered in
Libreville, capital of oil-rich
Gabon, during the OAU sum
mit. The group, billed here sim
ply as “Alain Bongo and his
American Orchestra,” are
giving admission-free shows in
three other West African
capitals before Alain, a
business administration student
in Paris, returns to Europe.
Unofficial estimates put the
tour cost at more than $150,000.
But Bobbitt, 47, refuses to give
a figure.
“But it’s not as high as it
looks,” says Bobbitt. “And it’s
not the president (Bongo) who’s
paying. The son has his own
money.”
Bobbitt adds: “Always before
it has been Americans coming
to Africa. He is going to show
that a young African can go to
America and do pop music as
well as anyone else.”
First night in this Ivory Coast
capital was comfortably full,
with state president Felix Hou
phouet-Boigny among the au
dience as Alain belted out a
series of British and American
favorites, interspersed with his
own compositions.
Says Bobbitt: “Alain is ex
tremely talented. Os course he
needs practice. He has never
had much practice opportunity
or a teacher.”
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Registration time
It’s registration time at Griffin Tech and Jimmy McElroy signs up for the new quarter.
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"First in Fashions”
Record*
Steeleye uses oldie lyrics
By MARY CAMPBELL
AP Newsfeatures Writer
The English group Steeleye
Span considers that it plays
popular music. Os course it
may have been popular in 1730.
Steeleye Span takes poetry
which may not have been writ
ten to be sung and folk song
lyrics from the British past and
writes contemporary music for
it. There are six people in
Steeleye Span and guitarist Bob
Johnson says, “We’re all in
spired by the poetry of those
past years. We all play modern
music.
“The history of the band be
gins in 1969 and the concept is
still the same as at the begin
ning, to take the traditional
music of England and present
it in away more acceptable to
a general listener. It’s for
people who don’t want to go as
deeply into the music as to
know where it was found —
stuff that the band finds terrib
ly interesting and does know
about. We put it in a form that
people can enjoy without hav
ing an intellectual evening.’’
Folk-rock isn’t big right now,
but in England Steeleye Span
has been selling out its concerts
for the past four or five years.
A year-and-a-half ago, its al
bums started selling well in
England. Drummer Nigel Pegr
um says, “ ‘All Around my
Hat’ went to No. 2 on the Eng
lish best-selling charts. It made
us, I suppose, a household word
Layer up....
It’s the year
of the
SWEATER!
Layer over layer of sweaters in dif
ferent textures and knits... Sweaters
take on a new importance this Fall.
They're a big part of the soft story.
Wrap style cardigan that double as
jackets. Cowls and turtles. Big tops,
tunics and Shetlands. Blousons, hoods
and vests.
1 Colors and patterns that run the gamut
L in the newest fashion looks.
j S I2 OO <• S SO OO
Jr. World Shop.... Second Floor
Ready To Wear.... Third Floor
t
k
I
Winners of $50.00 Gift Certificates
in our Anniversary Celebration Drawing:
Annie Clowers Blanche Gregory
Phyllis Greenway Mavis Mobley
Mrs. Joe Bennett
in England. It was played four
or five times a day on the one
radio station. I suppose 80 per
cent of the population listens to
the radio.”
In 1976, Steeleye Span toured
successfully in Scandinavia and
Holland and, late in the year,
sold out 2,000-seat halls in
America, where the group
would like to be still better
known.
The name, Steeleye Span,
comes from an old Lincolnshire
ballad, “Horkstow Grange.”
Johnson says, “There’s a char
acter in it, John ‘Steeleye’
Span. Steeleye is a nickname
for a miser. The song is incred
ibly stupid. Somebody punches
him in the first verse and he
punches them back in the sec
ond. The chorus is, ‘Pity them
what has to suffer, pity poor
old Steeleye Span.’ ”
Steeleye Span put out a two-
LP set of best-loved songs, in
June, called “Original Mas
ters.” Chrysalis Records also
put out in June an LP, “The
King of Elfland’s Daughter,”
which is written and performed
by two members of Steeleye
Span, Johnson and fiddler Pe
ter Knight. It tells the story of
a book of the same name by
Lord Dunsany of County Meath,
Ireland, published in 1924.
The group started when Ty
ger Hutchings left Fairport
Convention with the idea of
forming a group to do tradition
al British songs in a modern
style. He put together two folk
singing duos to do it, Maddy
Prior and Tim Hart, who had
started in 1967, and Gay and
Terry Woods. They made one
LP with spare amplification,
then personnel changed. Two
more LPs, then personnel
changed again, with Hutchings
leaving. He has formed a num
ber of groups and left them
once they were established.
The next two LPs had more
aggressive rock music and
more elaborate harmony sing
ing backing Miss Prior as lead
singer. The sixth LP, in 1974,
saw the addition of a drummer.
Showtime
7:29 and 9:00 P.M.
Ruby
® COLOR
Iris Drive In
8:00 PAI.
ra Whiskey Mountain
P B COLOR
Blue cfttt
■lira 111 1 ■II