Thursday, January 13, 2022

1/10/1952

 

EAST FAREWELL NEWS


Thursday, January 10, 1952   Vol. C343


LOCAL NEWS


BINGO MANIA HITS TOWN


East Farewell – St. Douglas is the Catholic Church in East Farewell. It has a fairly large congregation made up of the large number of Irish descendants that moved to the town to work on the Mighty Keystone Railroad and in the Iron Works. Many of the families are now in their second and third generation and many of the children attend the St. Douglas School. It is no mystery that all churches are in constant need of funds and finding those funds is a never-ending pursuit. Fund raisers, aside from the weekly collections, come in many forms and are only limited to the creative thinking of the local monsignor or head deacon. Monsignor James, the head of St. Douglas, started a bingo game, played in the school’s cafeteria every Thursday night, about two years ago to help raise some money for his Parrish. The event started out modestly with only a handful of parishioners, mostly older woman, attending and very small wagering taking place. Over the years, though the word got out and the event has exploded in the past six months. Now, the cafeteria is packed ten minutes before the 7:30 start time with every table full and many participants wielding multiple bingo cards with special marker pens to expedite the recording of the calls. While Monsignor James is usually the main caller, the popularity of the event has led to some “Special Guest Star” callers including local “celebrities”, politicians and sports stars.

            “I have to say, the Bingo Night has certainly taken off and we at St. Douglas are very, very grateful,” said Monsignor James when interviewed for this story, “The parishioners all have a wonderful time and I have heard that we even have been attracting some folks from other parishes and even some publicans, err that’s non-Catholics, sorry. Anyway, our coffers have seen a significant increase since the Bingo Night became popular.”

            Bingo Night has indeed become an event. The only advertising is in the Parrish bulletin and word of mouth but the word seems to out all over town. People have been buying up the marker pens at the Woolworths and there have been many discussions about strategy and timing at many lunches at the counter at Doug’s Drug Store. Folks have certainly embraced the thrill of shouting “BINGO” and the excitement of actually winning a small reward.  

Bingo Night at St. Douglas’


SPORTS


WILDCATS DECLAW COUGARS


East Farewell – The Cougars stayed on the road and visited the Riverview Wildcats. This was the second pairing in three weeks due to a scheduling oddity. The two teams are fairly well matched and the Cougars won the last matchup 42-40. This game started with the Cougars coming out playing fast with lots of ball movement and well executed plays. They took a quick lead, 12-6, and it seemed they had the Wildcats on the ropes. But the Wildcats called a timeout and came back with a plan. They started to play a zone defense and kept the ball away from Cougars center, Bill Donahue effectively slowing down the Cougar running game. The first half ended with the Wildcats on top 28-26.

            In the second half saw the Wildcats move more aggressively and start even showing a press for the third quarter. They were able to increase their lead 34-26. In the fourth quarter the Cougars started to move again with the backcourt of Ted Fitzgerald and Jimmy Welch starting to drop some outside shots. They were able to close the score to 34-40 but then Fitzgerald fouled out and sophomore, Joey Fox took his place. Fox was not as hot as Fitzgerald and being a young player he was not used to the ball movement and caused a couple of turnovers. That was not the Cougars only problem, Donahue got poked in the eye on a rebound and had to sit for the middle of the fourth quarter. The Wildcats capitalized on the Cougars misfortunes and were able to pull away and end with a 49-38 victory.

            The Cougars come home next week to face the Fort Lee Captains. The Cougars will be looking to regroup and reset. The Captains are a young team and have only won two games so far so the Cougars have a good chance to get back in the win column. The game will be a Friday night game and begins at 7:00PM in the Regional High School gymnasium.


 NATIONAL NEWS


TRUMAN ASKS FOR 5 BILLION - DC-4 CRASHES IN BC – WFDR STILL ON THE AIR FOR NOW


President Truman asks Congress for roughly $5 billion in new taxes and warned that 1952 will be “a year of strain” beset by inflationary dangers as the nation forges ahead toward peak rearmament. In submitting his annual economic message to Congress, Mr. Truman declared: “it is even more true of 1952 than of 1951 that we cannot have business as usual, consumer enjoyments as usual or government programs and services as usual. If we succeed in attaining a durable peace, our expanding economy can double our standard of living within a generation…”

A crippled DC-4 transport plane, homeward bound from the Far East with 43 on board, undershoots an airport at Sandspit, BC and crashes into the sea. All were lost.

FM station WFDR New York (104.3) says it has a new budget and can operate another year – albeit with 25% less money. Last year owners the International Ladies Garment Workers Union folded two other FM stations – WVUN, Chattanooga and KFMV, Los Angeles. FM stations are finding it hard to survive. Will WFDR survive?

 


Many, many thanks to www.mrpopculture.com for contributing to this section of the East Farewell News.


 

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