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a AN AAI NAAM ALN a ARIARHUA, EAMRANNA 3 Cas AS RE 3s "0 Ny OR 3 ay My) ab 37 abi Aaa) At Chr Se ve] BoA hICIR by PEELS 3 AG A, py ¥ DR Ef ARRAY LRAROAL aR iH BEET PR ti re IAI CARA RAUNT GES RA GY id Sir Mr AA Fa TER si bh FAT > One day's difference and this column is out of date. I had it practically written for this week but later events made it seem so out of date I tore it up. I'm telling you, this winter you can't tell in the morning what is like- ly to happen before the day is, over, Each twenty-four hour per- iod brings something new in the way of 'weather. And Saturday was no exception. During the morning we were busy with ordinary work. Then the thermometer started to climb and Partner decided he had bet- ter do a little more work on the ditches -- just in case. On and off for the last few days he had been chipping away at the ice so there would be runways for the water if, and when, a thaw should come. We got a thaw all right. The sump-pump worked like mad but that didn't stop water seeping in at the foot of the basement wall. A narrow, shallow ditch in the cement floor was supposed to take care of just such an emergency but it wasn't deep enough. So Partner kept sweeping the water along the ditch to prevent it overflow- ing. After supper it was even warmer so Partner went out to the ditches again while I car- ried on with the broom-swish- ing downstairs. And as if we hadn't enough water to contend with the toilet took that afternoon to plug up and overflow -- for the first time since we came here. Bob hap- pened to be here at the time so he went off to the hardware for a plunger and looked after that little job for us. After the floor was mopped up we resumed operations with the outside flood- Ing. Partner and I both worked until midnight, at which time I went to bed but Partner stayed up until two o'clock. Then he came to bed as I said I would go down in an hour or two and make sure the water situation wasn't completely out of hand. But I was so tired I slept until five! By that time Partner was downstairs himself. Fortunately it had started to freeze again so flooding was no longer a threat -- that is, for the time being. This morning there is more ice than ever -- all ready to thaw again once it gets the chance. We will enoy the respite while we can. Of course we were not alone in our troubles. Neighbours here and there were out running ditches, trying to divert water away from their basements. In one house the sump-pump re- Pure Flattery { bytAore Holos A superbly shaped sheath--the most elegant way to be noticed by day, at dinner, or on a date. Double-breasted buttoning curves a sleck midriff -- hip pockets give long-waisted look. Printed Pattern 4556: Misses' Bizes 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, Size 16 takes 4 yards 39-inch fabric. Printed directions on each pat- tern part. Easier, accurate. Send FIFTY CENTS (504) (stamps .cannot be accepted, use postal note for safety) for this pattern.' Please print plainly BIZE, NAME, ADDRESS, STYLE NUMBER, REN Send order to ANNE ADAMS, Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St, New yronto, Ont. ISSUE 10 -- 1959 fused to function so the plight of that family was worse. than most. This morning ice was the main problem. One man driving home couldn't make the turn into his own driveway, so there he was, straddled across the road on the ice. Art had the same. trouble with our driveway. last. . 'Friday when he and the family came in after shopping -- for us as well as themsefes. They also brought us a gorgeous bou- quet of red carnations . . . for our anniversary, But it takes more than bad driving conditions to keep some people away. One evening last week we were surprised -- and pleased -- to receive a brief visit from two readers of this column, One has recently come to live in the village. The other was visiting, They phoned first to see if we would be home, (We were not likely to be anywhere else -- not in a freezing drizzle.) So along they came and we had a very nice little get-together. Earlier in the week I had, as I expected I would, received several requests for more infor- mation about a hearing-aid, Those letters I have answered personally. So that means I am in closer touch with a few more readers of this column. Would you lik eto hear about an experiment I tried the other day that .saved us six or seven dollars? My wdrming-pad spark- ed one morning when I was straightening the cord. Was just on the point of phoning the drugstore to send up a new one when I changed my mind. De- cided first to see if I could discover what was wrong with the old one -- probably a short circut somewhere. So I took the switch apart, saw the wires were burnt, stripped back the rubber coating, twisted the fine wires tightly together, wound them around the two little screws, put the switch together. And it worked . . . just like that| Then I gave 'my sewing- -- machine the once-over. It had done a lot of sewing for me late- ly, sounded like a tractor -- and sometimes bucked like one. So I got out the instruction book, took off the front plate and thoroughly cleaned and oiled the whole works, Now it purrs like [ kitten. As I worked I remem- bered that as a girl in my teens I used to take my mother's sew- ing machine apart In just that same way. And'for some reason she was always quite content to let me do it, but would never - touch it herself. I have known women, Daughter among them, have their sewing machine seize up entirely through lint and lack of oil. It pays to find out how to do these things for yourself, And it's fun, too. Mammoth Map Takes Five: Years Work will begin soon on the construction of what will be one of the most wonderful maps ever made, a mammoth map of an area where the foot o! man has not yet trodden--the visible surface of the moon. So complicated is this task, that it will take nearly five years to complete. The work will be carried out by experts in the astronomy de- partment at Manchester Uni- versity. The United States"Alr Force is giving $80,080 to help pay for the map's construction. Maps always make news. The history of map-making goes back into the dim ages. There's a definite record o! a crude 'map of the world being brought on to the stage as long ago as 423 B.C, during a performance of the Greek poet Aristophanes' comedy, "The Clouds'. Few people realize when con- | sulting a map of Britain that the first modern map was begun from the top of St. Paul's Catnh- edral, in London, more than 170 years ago. The instrument used by these map-makers had to be hauled up to the dome and is still in existence at the Ordnance Sur- vey Office, Southampton. Way back in 1851, when Britain's first great international exhibition was held, map- makers set up an immense globe in Leicester Square, London. It was 30 feet in diameter. - Continents and oceans were depicted not on the outside of the globe but on its inner sur- face. Visitors entered by.a' door at the South Pole and climbed a circular stairway to the Nortn . , Pole. The biggest astronomical map is. the giant sky atlas of 1,758 .sections completed at Palomar laboratories, in California. : Astronomers , worked on the project for more than eight years. This unique atlas reveals stars, galaxies and systems stretching far out into space and all the sections together cover an area the size of a tennis oourt. Q. Is the bride supposed to do the cutting of the wedding cake? A. Only the first piece. Then each guest can cut his own piece, or some friend can be asked to perform this task. ; How Walt Disney Got His Start Once it was Mickey Mouse, then it was Donald Duck. After that came Snow White, Pinoe- chio, Dumbo, Bambi, Davy ,Croc- ~kett--, =, Now Walt Disney, creator of fabulous screen char- acters, has started another craze with his recently released "The Sign of Zorro", Following the example of the * film's swashbuckling her 0, youngsters have . been carving Z's all over the place! There has also been 'a brisk sale in Zorro merchandise, such as masks, pis- tols, suits, hats. Today, Walt Disney's name is is a household word all over the . world, but, like many geniuses, he has had to battle through grinding poverty, mis- ery and failure, At nine years old he was get- ting up at 3.30 am. to deliver newspapers, often fin blizzards or pouring rain, and his grand- father would whip him if he missed a customer. And when he went to Holly- wood at 21, "a nobody from Kansas City," he didn't own a complete suit of clothes, says his daughter, Diane Disney Miller in her fascinating biography, "Walt Disney", as told to Pete Martin, : - Delightfully illustrated, this book lets you peep over Disney's shoulder .as he creates some of his most famous and lovable characters. How did Mickey Mouse come to life, for instance? Several stories have been told about Disney having had a mouse which lived on his desk i HIGH FASHION -- Julie London models the very latest thing in evening gowns -- fof her, The Hollywood actress has worn the "old look" in several of her pictures. What's more, she pre- fers the '89 fashions over the ones of '59, The gowns were really glamorous then, she says. when he was drawing advertis- Ing cartoons in Kansas City, "Unlike most of the stories that have been printed that one is true," says Disney. "I do have a special feeling for mice. Mice gathered in my waste-basket when I worked late at night. | lifted them out and kept them in little cages on my desk. One of them was my particular friend. Then, before 1 left Kan- sas City, I carefully carried him out into a field and let him go." The idea of using"a mouse as chief character in a new cartoon series came to Disney after he'd been radking this "brain all through "a train journey. to, Hollywood. "I think I've got something," he told his .wife Lilly. "It's a mouse, . I'll call him" Mortime: Mouse. I like that, don't you?" But Lilly shook her 'head, "I like the mouse idea," she said, - "but Mortimer sounds 'wrong. Too sissy." "All right, said isney. "How about Mickey? Mickey Mouse?" One fact about Mickey that many folk may not know is that when the talkies came Disney became his voice, and has re- mained so ever since, The resemblance between Mic- key and his creator has been noted by at least one student ot. animated cartoons. "He has the same soulful eyes, the pointed face, and the sama gift for pantomime," he says, Lo BECAUSE IT'S THERE -- oi 2 A Mountain climber Claude Kogan runs her hand lovingly qver Asia at her home in Nice, France. She's getting ready to lead an 11-woman expedition to scale one of the world's most forbidding: peaks -- Himalayan Mt. Cho-Oyu, 26,867 feet high. Hailed as the "highest woman in world," she is only five feet, one inch tall. Is Your Child Safe On A School Bus? (Continued From Last Week) As for the actual training, the North Carolina motor vehicles branch, which has chalked up an impressive record for safe school transportation, suggests a pro- gram including both classroom work and actual bus driving. If 'necessary, - the program should go on for as long as 12 weeks, These authorities strongly. advo- |. cate that the training program should be undertaken on a state- wide (or -province-wide) . basis "Training programs left in the hands of local or régional school. boards usually don't work," they "say, "They usually don't realize the need for training, they haven't got enough money for North Carolina, with 35 full-time . instructors 'who do nothing but train and supervise school bus operators, has demonstrated that its program actually works. But no matter how competent and well-trained the driver, he can't provide safe transportation it his vehicle is in poor mechani- cal condition. Unfortunately, many school buses are of sub- standard "quality; many locali- tes lack a regular and systematic program of maintenance and in- "spection. In Nova Scotia, which is better than most provinces, every bus is carefully scrutinized every six weeks. In Ontario, un- der a law that went into effect last summer, every school bus must be inspected by a licensed mechanic at the beginning of each school year. In Alberta ve- hicles are inspected every six months; in British Columbia, once a year. A Saskatchewan ed- ucator told me, "Only six of our 86 local school units have a reg- ular program of maintenance and inspection." = Mechanical defects have al- ready been responsible for many 'accidents. In Saskatchewan, a damaged exhaust system in one vehicle allowed deadly carbon monoxide fumes-to escape, sick- ening several young passengers. The accident might have claimed several lives. A school bus car- eered off Highway 8, near Hamil- ton and jammed into a tree, in- juring one child; the steering "mechanism had jammed. When 1 asked safety authorities across Canada- to list defects found in school conveyances, they cited badly worn tires, deteriorated brake linings, smashed head- lights, broken windshield wipers, rusted emergency doors which wouldn't open, and flimsy, make- shift plywood cabooses built on light, trucks. Comments C. J. Kenway, secretary, Alberta High- way Traffic Board, "Poorly main- tained, makeshift vehicles may appear economical but they're expensive in the long run in terms of crippled bodies and loss of lives." ' How can the presence of so many sub-standard vehicles be explained? Many safety officials,' like Fred Ellis of the Ontario Safety League, argue that the "tender system," used in many parts of Canada, is fo blame. Many. school boards, instead of running their own transportation private operators In an effort to save money, school boards some- . times let their contracts not to the most reliable bidder but fo * proper training and finally, they . ~don't have qualified instructors." ~ 'service, "call for tenders "from ° the lowest ohe. "They hire trans- - portation at a price where it's impossible to provide sound ve- hicles and good quality mainten~ ance," a Saskatchewan educator declares, : This is not too difficult to un- derstand. A good school bus costs' ' 12,000 or more, Expert mechan- cs earn high wages and so do good drivers. Since school trans- portation' contraicts last for only one: year this discourages con- tractorg from making heavy in- vestments. Many competent bus operators havé been forced out of business by price-cutting com- petitors. In one province for ex- ample, one operator, after years of satisfactory service, failed to get a renewal of his contract be- cause an inexperienced new- comer had underbid him a few cents a mile. Another contractor, who had - driven children to school for over 10 years with- out 'a single 'accident, .lost his contract because he was $50 above the siiccessful bidder. Obviously, the one-year ten- der system is in need of revision." Safety, rather than price, should be the main consideration in 'granting contracts. And perhaps the contract period should be ex- tended to five years, on condition that the operator.continue to pro- vide competent drivers and main- tain his vehicles in' good shape, But low-bidding operators, too poor to acquire good equipment and maintain it, are not the only. guilty ones. W. Arch Bryce of the Canadian Highway Safety. . Conference "says, "Many rural' school boards buy school buses as cheaply as possible. Some: of them are so ramshackle that par- ents shouldn't permit their chil- dren to ride in them." Just as important: a safety fac- tor as the mechanical condition of 'the school bus is the behavior of .the students as they drive to and from their classes. The aver- age family man finds that he can't drive properly if he's dis- tracted by his two or three chil- dren squabbling in the back seat of his car. Imagine, then, the plight of the bus driver who's harrassed by 50 or 60 noisy, ac- tive children. He's a- likely can- didate for an accident. ' I recently spoke to a safety official who spent a few weeks travelling several school bus routes. On most of the trips, the children were orderly and well- behaved. But he described one trip which was different. Under the watchful eye of a teacher, the students- waited quietly for the bus doors to open. Once in- side, all hell broke loose. They fought for their favorite seats. They shouted, whistled, sang, Caps, gloves, books went 'sailing through the air. A half ddzen students roamed around, occa- sionally engaging their friends in wrestling matches. They ig- nored the driver's(pleas to keep quiet. An eight-year-old boy shoved open the emergency door at the rear of the bus and might have - gone 'sailing out onto the 'highway had not an older stu- dent grabbed him. Not long ago, near North Bay, a driver was forced to stop his bus because he was being blind- ed by flying, objects hurled by his passengers. He refused to continue until the horseplay ceased. It is too much to expect that such drivers, subject to this kind of an ordeal, will be cap- able of delivering their passen- gers to their destinations with- out a mishap, There are no sta- tistics available to show how many schodl bus aceidents have - been caused by frayed nerves. Yet order and quiet can be a a maintained by a system which is hardly being used in Canada at all. The solution lies in organiz. ing school bus safety patrols, In Wisconsin, for example, a two- man safety patrol is assigned to each bus, The patrolment are seniors students selected because of their maturity, intelligence and status in student activities One of the patrolmen is station- ed in the front of the bus. He helps the children in, then sees them safely across the highway when they alight. The inside man . makes sure that every passenger "takes his assigned seat and he maintains order while the bus is in motion. A Wisconsin schoo) official wrote me, 'The young- sters serving in the safety pa- trols have justified our faith in them. We have no disciplinary problems on our buses." There is still another way of promoting school bus safety: traffic legislation. Most provinces have laws making it obligatory for motorists to stop behind a school conveyance when it stops to take on or drop off children New Brunswick has gone a step further: motorists meeting or overtaking a standing school bus are required to come to a halt, thus allowing the youngsters to cross the highway safely. But many authorities, ~ like Walter Reynolds, commissioner of high. way safety, Department of Transport, Ontario, are opposed + to stopping oncoming traffic "It's over-protecting the child," he ar- gues. "He might get hurt when he has to cross a highway on his own." Another danger is that a motorist from another province, unfamiliar with local laws, might unwittingly run down an unwary youngster, As a further protective meas- ure, most school buses are paint. ed a bright "school bus": yellow as a caution to the motorist. It has undoubtedly already saved many lives, It will save even more as the public gets used to 'the color and respects the ordi- nance to come to a halt behind the school bus, Unfortunately, the. effectiveness of "school bus" yellow has been watered down for a number of reasons, Com- mercial bus companies who use some-of their regular vehicles for 'school transportation for a few hours daily refuse to -paint them in what they consider 'a garish color. Again, in recent ' years, thousands of buses and trucks have blossomed forth in a wide variety of bright shades and hues, thus making the yel- low school bus less conspicuous. R. P. Lawrence, manager of the. Alberta Safety League, believes that "we should go to work im- mediately to find ways of mak- Ing 'our school buses.even more distinctive than they are now." Never before have we spent so much on 'the education of our children. Never before has there been so much discussion about our schools. Millions of words are being written and spoken yearly about teachers' 'salaries and qualifications, curricula con- tent and methods of instruction. Courses have been introduced to improve the physical and méhtal health of our youngsters. But a more fundamental problem--how to safely convey 400,000 children to and from their classrooms so they can enjoy the fruits of our spending and planning--is only now beginning to 'attract the widespread attention of ' educa- tors, safety authorities and par- ents. -- By SIDNEY KATZ in Imperial Oil Review. It never occurs to a boy of 18 that some day he will be as dumb as his father. a . Modern Etiquette 'by Roberta Lee Q. Is it all .right to use one's own knife to take butter from the butter dish, or one's own wet coffee spoon to take sugar -- from the bowl? A. No. If the serving utensil is missing from 'either of these serving dishes, and your hostess hasn't noticed it, be sure to use a CLEAN knife OF spoon, and then ask later-+wWhen you need that particular 'utensil for next course--to have it replac Q. Please suggest a letter might write to a friend who was kind enough to write to me in my recent bereavement. A, "Dear Margaret, Your sweet letter gave me great comfort. Thank you so much for writing, "I shall call you as soon as I feel able. Lovingly, Susan." Q. Should the napkin be held above the edge of the table when unfolding it? A, No; the napkin should be unfolded in the lap. Q. When is the title "2nd" used after a man's name? "A. John Jones, 2nd, is usually the nephew or cousin of a man of the same name, The number cant' be written either "2nd" or "IL" and is used with the title "Mr.," as "Mr. John Jones, IL" Sm Gift-Worthy Set bor Covi Delight a friend with an attrac- tive pineapple afid shell-stitch doily. B Two sizes -- larger as center- piece, smaller as place mat or doily. Pattern 877 includes.direc- tions for 13 and 22-inch doilies in No. 30 cotton. __ Send THIRTY-FIVE CENTS (stamps cannot be accepted, use postal note for safety) for this pattern to LAURA WHEELER, Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St, New Toronto, Ont. Print plainly PAT- TERN NUMBER, your NAME and ADDRESS, Send for a'copy of 1959 Laura Wheeler Needlecraft Book. It has lovely designs to order: embroi- dery; crochet, knitting, weaving, quilting, toys. In the book, a spe- cial surprise to make a little girl happy -- a 'cut-out doll, clothes to color, Send 25. cents for this book . FIRE'S AFTERMATH -- Sheet-covered, £ ga floor of the Central Fire Station in Ashland, Ky., following a fire which brought death to 11 persons, charred bodies rest on the > Br