Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4-A
—Page of Opinion
Do You Remember?
You’re an old-timer if you ever:
-- Turned off the lights when you
left a room.
- Saved stale bread for stuffing
or bread pudding.
-- Darned the holes in your socks.
- Cut off the collar of a wornout
shirt and turned it over.
-- Used cotton 'lannel sheets in
the winter.
-- Had chicken for Sunday dinner.
- Buried your garbage in the
backyard (except for the cans and
bottles).
-- Ate hot oatmeal, cornmeal or
Cream of Wheat for breakfast.
- Thought of ice cream, candy,
oranges and peanuts as a special
treat.
-- Had 1 radio in the house.
-- Had 1 car in the family.
- Were at least 21 before you had
your first car, over 30 before you
ever had a new car, and over 40
before you bought a house.
-- Took a bath once a week on
Saturday night.
-- Ate potatoes twice a day.
-- Were born at home.
-- Ate at a restaurant only on
anniversaries or special occasions.
-- Did your washing on Monday
and hung it on the line, and then
iron on Tuesday.
- Cleaned your own wool
sweaters in a naphtha or white gas.
-- Used no more than 3 sheets of
toilet paper.
More Federal Waste
We applaud Arkansas Sen. David
Pryor in his crusade against
federal consulting contracts.
Certyainly there are consulting
contracts for which the taxpayer
receives full value. But too many of
them are just away of paying
generous fees to former federal
officials and private industry
experts. The bureaucrats should be
able to do the job themselves.
Pryor cites a $9,800 fee paid to
consultants by the Energy
Department to compile a list of
federal permits required to build a
power plant.
What Year Is It?
Wouldn’t you know it. Now they
tell us this is not the first year of the
decade. We’re sure it’s going to
affect the taste of your eggs all
year long, but calendar expert
Glannin Cloward says it will be
Jan. 1, 1981 before we enter the
decade of the 80s. Why? Well, if we
are to accept the notion, it’s
because decades must end in tens.
(At least that part is right.)
A few years ago they were telling
us that the Gregorian Calendar
(that’s the one we use) is actually a
few days off. So, by that bit of in
formation, we must realize this is
Those Many Billboards
Billboards have long been the
center of controversies throughout
this country, and now the state
Department of Transportation in
Georgia appears to have had its
share of complaints.
DOT is seeking remedies to
situations which cause irate
citizens to complain, as well as
cutting back on damage to state
property.
Billboards can be attractive and
informative, and can serve the
enhancement of the free enterprise
system.
But they can also be dilapidated,
obtrusive and overabundant.
DOT estimates that there are
only 3,300 legal billboards on the
slate’s primary and interstate
highways. It also estimates the
actual number of billboards on
those highways to be 31,000.
The problem is that only 5,600 of
those remaining 27,700 signs are
ruled illegal. The rest come under a
non-compliance category.
- Were nice to grandma because
she might give you a cookie, and
once in a while even a nickel for an
ice cream cone.
-- Fed the dog table scraps but
never dog food.
-- Always had at least 1 older
person living in your house
(usually a widowed grandmother,
aunt or old maid cousin).
We’ll wager nearly everyone
over 60 will say yes to 9 out of 10 of
the above statements. A generation
or two ago, that was America.
Even then, few of us considered
ourselves poor, except during the
Depression years. Wealth is a
relative thing. We’d all feel poor if
we lived across the street from
Henry Ford, or wealthy if we lived
among the Haitians.
But in America, each generation
expected to (and did) live better
than the last. Each worked fewer
hours and owned more.
Has that ended?
With population soaring and
energy dwindling, are we entering
a new age when science and hard
work will no longer guarantee a
better world? Will we be fighting to
just hold what we have?
It could well be. But should we
worry?
Nearly all of us have so much
more than we need. It’s not the
energy and money shortage that
should concern us. It’s the shortage
of plain old principles.
Another of the department’s 160
$l5O-a-day consultants last sum
mer was providing “advice and
analytic assistance in developing
methodology for connecting the
quantitative requirements to
regulatory processes.”
The House and Urban Affairs
Department paid a consultant
$1,500 - $375 a day - to stuff a
standard HUD form into a grant
application.
The federal budget is large
enough to enable the government to
stuff its own envelopes.
not really 1980 either. So, there is
no need for all this fuss over the end
of the decade.
What this all might mean is
confusing. We have no way of
knowing exactly what day and year
this is and probably never will.
After all, who was around that first
day to write it all down? One thing
we are sure of, though. No matter
what the day and year, there is no
time like the present. Or as
President Eisenhower once ob
served, “Things are more like they
are today than they have ever been
before.”
Under existing statutes in this
state, DOT officials say they
cannot regulate the billboards.
In addition, at least two cases
have been made against people
who have cut down shrubbery or
trees in front of billboards, but on
state rights-of-way.
There is legislation proposed to
strengthen the laws concerning
billboards, and generally we
support the legislation. DOT is also
asking local governments to beef
up their laws concerning billboards
to cut down on the proliferation of
illegal and non-conforming cases.
That is also something we sup
port.
Billboards can be attractive.
They can be informative and they
can certainly help a person in
business. They should not be
outlawed.
However, just as with local and
state ordinances pertaining to
business signs and the like, there
should be a better method of
regulation and enforcement.
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL. THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1980
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A FRIEND TO REMEMBER
County C^?
BY JOEL FERGUSON
Australia is playing a vital role in
world affairs today, and this point
was driven home last week when I
reviewed the monthly Australia
Bulletin, which is published by the
Australian Embassy in
Washington. The bulletin was
forwarded to me by Mrs. Beryl
Elliot of Bonaire, a former
Australian, who met and married
husband Willard when he was
stationed in Australia during WW
11.
IRAN
First of all, the bulletin states
that the Australian Government is
deeply concerned by the oc
cupation of the U.S. Embassy in
Tehran and the holding of U.S.
diplomatic personnel as hostages.
This message was relayed to
President Carter by Australian
Ambassador Nicholas Parkinson
on Nov. 28.
Ambassador Parkinson, who was
presenting his credentials, said the
humanitarian factors in this
prolonged situation were most
distressing.
“Equally, the continuing and
fundamental disregard of in
ternational law and conventions to
which Iran is a party is to be utterly
deplored,” Ambassador Parkinson
said.
“My Government has made
these views known in strong terms
to the Iranian authorities. I would
like to convey to you, Mr.
President, my sincere respect for
the firmness and integrity which
you have shown in handling this
most difficult situation.
RECLAIMED OIL
In another item in the bulletin, it
was pointed out that an oil
reclamation process developed in
Australia during WW II could play
a role in helping meet world oil
shortages.
Keith Davidson, senior engineer
with the Hydro-Electric Com
mission on the island of Tasmania,
Australia, said the process enabled
about 70 percent of old oil to be used
again.
The commission has been
operating a reclamation plant in
Hobart, Tasmania, for 33 years and
is using the processed oil for
transformers and turbines.
Davidson said the plant saved
about $120,000 worth of oil in its
first three years of operation, and
could reclaim 198 gallons daily.
The process uses high-grade
bauxite, containing up to 50 percent
alumina, to remove moisture, acid
and sludge from the old oil,
giving it new life. However, it also
removes additives from motor oil.
Representatives of VDEW Elec
trics of Frankfurt have inspected
the Hobart plant. The company
said recently that, at reasonable
cost, it could return additives to
the oil, making it suitable for motor
vehicles.
Similar plants have been
established in the Australian states
of South Australia, New South
Wales and Victoria, and in France,
Sweden, Switzerland and the
United States.
SKYLAB AFTERMATH
The U.S. National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA)
has prepared plaques for 20
Australian citizens who cooperated
in providing the agency with debris
they had gathered from the Skylab
space station, according to the
bulletin.
Skylab returned to the earth over
the Indian Ocean and Western
Australia July 11.
A fragment of the Skylab
material provided by the individual
is attached to each plaque.
Soon after Skylab fell, NASA
dispatched a small group to
Australia to interview eye
witnesses and otherwise determine
the facts of the re-entry, including
ascertaining the pattern of
dispersion of the falling pieces.
A secondary objective was to
bring back small samples of
laboratory analysis to determine
the effects of six years of space
exposure to certain materials.
Citizens who voluntarily
surrendered pieces of the debris
were assured they would be
returned.
GRANNY FLATS
Another innovative idea by the
Australians, according to the
publication, is the granny flat
housing concept, developed by the
Australian State of Victoria to
enable old people to stay close to
their families. The granny flat is a
self-contained, single-story
dwelling with a floor space of about
376 square feet, designed for easy
installation in an average - size
Australian backyard. The idea
enables old people to maintain
their independence while enjoying
the social advantages of living near
their families.
GOOD FRIEND
Australia is a wonderful country
that has been a good friend to the
United States for many years. Just
about everyone in America knows
this already, but it is worth
repealing and remembering.
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OUT ON A
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Those ‘Glory 7 Years
Are Gone Forever
As this new decade of the eighties began to
open up, I took a long, nostalgic look in my
mind’s eye at the seventies. Now, that was a
decade.
I call the seventies the “glory years” because
the early seventies shouted business and per
sonal prosperity. Inflation had not yet over
whelmed us and there was money to be made.
The “glory years” continued on through 1976
when the country was alive with the Bi
centennial fever and good, old American
patriotism at least had a spark of life.
The “glory years” are gone forever. It seems
to me we are all looking at a different and
tougher way of life throughout the eighties. That
is not an all together negative comment but just
a statement of what I believe to be fact. 1979 was
a pretty good preamble of what to expect in the
eighties with continuing inflation and serious
world and domestic problems.
What does it all mean? To me it means
essentially that it is going to be more difficult for
all of us in private business to make a buck.
1 Further, just about everyone will be altering
their lifestyles from the way they were in the
seventies. That popular song “The Way We
Were” may just make a big comeback in this
decade because it will have a lot more meaning
than it did when it became a hit in the mid
seventies.
All this does not mean the eighties will be a
grim decade. What it means is that the eighties
will be a totally different type of decade
especially for those of us who were born in good
times and have lived through nothing but good,
prosperous times. Certainly there will continue
to be prosperity in the eighties but brother it is
going to be tougher to get hold of a piece of it.
I look for people to be more aware of
everything around them in the eighties. Those
who will do well in the new times must make
themselves aware of many things they have been
taking for granted in the past.
We are all going to have to re-evaluate our
driving habits with gasoline predicted to reach $2
a gallon. We will have to put a higher priority on
the necessities of life. But all that is relatively
easy to do. We just have to make up our minds
and do it.
I am actually looking forward to the new
decade. I like a challenge and a change and
that’s what the eighties are going to be all about.
American Women
Made A Good Choice
It is a mark of the soundness of judgement on
the part of American womanhood that Good
Housekeeping magazine’s annual poll shows
Anita Bryant at the head of that publication’s
annual “most admired women” list.
A part of the choice, of course, comes from the
grace and charm of Miss Bryant herself.
Primarily, however, it is a matter of approval of
the sound moral and spiritual values which mark
her attitude toward social relations and
problems. Women - and men, we believe -- feel
that the test of centuries has established the
wisdom of civilization’s ideas.
The ten highest on the list included, as one
would expect, some performers in the acting and
singing field. It is significant, however, that they
also included religious and philanthropic leader
Mother Teresa of India, and another defender of
the family and its values - Phyllis Schlafly. Such
choices indicate judgment based on qualities
other than transient glamor..
The Houston Home Journal
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