EAST FAREWELL NEWS
Thursday, January
31, 1952 Vol. C346
LOCAL
NEWS
PARTY LINE PARTY CANCELLED
East
Farewell – The local phone company ran phone lines about 35 years ago
throughout town and connected almost everyone in town as well as all the
businesses and all the local government offices. The standard wiring layout was
broken down into groups of 8 homes per line. This is the typical blueprint for
almost every rural and semi-rural area in the state. This grouping made for
what is called “party lines” a well-known configuration and has been accepted
by most customers.
As coincidence would have it, it
seems that 6 of eight of one phone bank in town had a teenage girl living in
the house. They all were seniors attending Regional High School. One quirk
about party lines is that if you dial your own number it will cause all the
other lines to ring. All young people were aware of that. It seems the girls
all realized, whether through random interruption or social networking, that
they were all connected. The girls, being high school girls, started ringing up
the group and talking for hours. This all would have probably gone unnoticed
except by the participating households but there were two lines that were out
of the loop, so to speak, and once the girls got talking the line was unavailable
for anyone else.
Edna Wahltrope has a home along Lakeshore Drive
and is connected to the same phone group. She is not a teenage girl. About two
weeks ago Mrs. Wahltrope complained to the police that the girls were “hogging”
the line and had refused to relinquish use of the line so she could make an
allegedly important call to her sister in Slate Mountain. The police said they
had no control over the phone system or any misuse of it, there is no law
against talking on the phone for an extended period of time. They referred her
to the phone company. The phone company said while there wasn’t a policy in
this region restricting phone time they did put out a regional notice to all
customers that common courtesy and community understanding is essential for the
use of the system due to the current limitations. At the end of the statement
they implied that if there are continued complaints they had the right and
technical ability to impose a ten minute limit on any phone call. They also put
in additional information about the availability of “private lines” (no party
line) for an additional cost.
“My daughter, Natalie,
is one of the girls in the group and they have all said they will respect the
requests from other line holders when they are asked and they said they would
try to limit their conversations but, they are teenage girls after all,” said Mrs. Mallard,
local boarding house owner and one of the party line holders.
Local switchboard operators
SPORTS
COUGARS LOSE A HEARTBREAKER
Slate Mountain – The Cougars came into Slate
Mountain after losing a tough game to the Southport Hawks, 32-28. The Miners
were riding a four game winning streak including a big win against the defending
champs. The Cougars were hoping for an upset. The Cougars came out playing a
fast, running game with a quick pass and shot offense. They started fast with
the backcourt of Fitzgerald and Welch directing the show. Together they took
control of the game and were able to get some great outside shooting in and drive
the Cougars into a 12-8 lead in the first six minutes. The Miners called a
timeout and put in a different defense and were able to close the score to a
tie at the half 16 all.
The
second half saw the Cougars change up their offense again and go to a more
deliberate, designed play offense. But that did not work out very well. They
fell behind in the third quarter, 26-24. After a Cougars timeout they came back
with their speeded up offense and quickly tied the score. The game went back
and forth in the fourth quarter and with only one minute left Cougars center,
Bill Donahue, fouled out and the ensuing foul short by Miners forward, Albert
Gains, made the score 33-32, Miners. After Donahue fouled our forward Franny
Warner took over at center and Billy O’Donnell took his spot at forward. The
Cougars brought the ball in and quickly got the ball to a very hot Fitzgerald
who drained a beauty from outside giving the Cougars a 34-33 lead with only 10
seconds left. Slate Mountain had been in this position before having won two
games earlier in the season with less than a minute left. The Miners lined up
for the inbounds play with their tall forward, Ben Steele, throwing it in. All
the other Miners lined up in a line and when signaled they all broke in
different directions with their speedy guard Isiah Fennimore who was darting
down the court. Steele picked up Fennimore and threw a long bomb down the court
as Fennimore outran Welch. The throw looked like a long football pass and
landed right in Fennimore’s arms. He took one dribble in stride and laid the
ball in with 3 seconds left on the clock. The Cougars tried a similar inbounds
play but the inbounds pass was taken by Fitzgerald who threw up a half court
try that bounced off the backboard and fell to the side. The Miners ended
winning 35-34. It was a bitter loss for the Cougars who had lead for most of
the game.
The
Cougars come home next week the host the Central Bears. The game is a Friday
afternoon game beginning a 4:00PM In the Regional High School Gym.
NATIONAL NEWS
TRUMAN LAYS DOWN “ROAD TO SECURITY” WITH NEW
BUDGET – TIERNEY FILES FOR DIVORCE FROM CASSINI – PHILADELPHIA TV TO GET
REPULIC PICTURES LIBRARY
President Truman lays down a “road to security” and a spending program of $85.4 billion for 1952-1953. It’s the largest proposed federal budget since World War II and the largest in history (so far). The President declared that an “enormously expensive’ build-up of strength at home and abroad is needed to check the threat of Communist aggression.
Actress Gene Tierney files suit for divorce against Oleg Cassini, onetime Russian count and studio designer who she married in 1941. She asks for custody of their two daughters.
Philadelphia
TV viewers will get a treat as WPTZ-TV (channel 3) signs a new contract with
Republic Pictures which will give the station exclusive TV showing of 101
Westerns and features never before shown on television. The contract was made
to insure a fresh flow of films for WPTZ’s “Frontier Playhouse” – the show
credited with blazing the way for daily cowboy pictures on television. It’s the
highest rated daily show in Philadelphia. WPTZ gets exclusive rights to such
Republic stars as Johnny Mack Brown,
Sunset Carson, Don Barry, Smiley Burnette, Bob Steele and Duncan Renaldo. A similar
contract was signed with Monogram earlier last year Harold Fellows
Many, many
thanks to www.mrpopculture.com for
contributing to this section of the East Farewell News.
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