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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (June 24, 1956)
J(HSe& HI) Statesman, Salein, Ore., Sun., June 24, '56 Modern Cave Dweller Belies Usual Hermit Characteristics . ty BILL KAWUNS JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (iu When Bea BaOenner u 34, hit sweetheart Jilted him ind "hauled off and married a fellow with brand new Hudson." Ta ease a broken heart, he holed up In i - cave. That was nearly 17 years ago, , and he'i lived there ever since. "I've got it in my blood," he said, at he sat in hit rocker, roll kit a cigarette. "I've been told that I'm the only man in the United States who lives in a na tural cave." But for all this, the talkative Ballenger slight of build, nor' mally cleanshaven ind neat is no hermit. "When I first moved In here, I stopped shaving, and I htd a beard down to here," he said, indenting his chest with h i s gnarled hands. ."But Jt was too much trouble." Camfarta el Heme ' He welcomes visitors, knows everyone in his hollow, likes to fill mm Marhtf f"hrnk T al. , and is ready with advice for any ' ene who seeks it particularly ad vice to the lovelorn. He provides lor his wants by doing odd jobs; he's a good" carpenter and brick mason. Opening into the side of a wooded, Holston River bluff, the 40 foot cave is reached by s wooden stairway, complete with hanu-ail, which Ballenger built himself. He also fitted the arched cavern with a frame door and s wood cooking stove, and such com forts of home as a pancake turner, hung from a nail, two teaspoons and a knife and fork, a coffee pot. and several jars filled with such things as sugar and flour. He sleeps en an army cot. and keeps abreast of current events by read ing the Knoxville newspapers. These ho gets daily at the foot el his stairway in a rural mail box. When Ballenger needs sup plies, ho hitches a ride to Jeffer aoa City, about three miles to the south. Memories el Past Come spring, the cave gets a bit damp and Ballenger mrves his cot I into a tiny shack outside the cave j door using the naturally air-con- ditioned cave (with a year-round temperature of SI degrees) as a fetreat from the summer sun. He usually moves his bed back into the cave in November. In the wintertime, with a warm fire bluing ta the stove, the nar row. Jagged cave contains mem ories ot four ex-sweethearts, all of whom, says Ballenger, "let me dowa (or fellows with bigger bank rolls and cars." These include the fleSeeYwho marrtd the man with the Hudsonr-snofher who married "a fellow with a little Ford coupe," and two mora he doesn't talk abW. .,.t,-..:, "I tell people that a woman s theme song is 'how green is my billfold,"' Ballenger declared. "It s gotten so every time i m aoout unru up wiui " """ to M me down." His role as area handyman keeps him too busy to fret mucn. Helps Friends BJM "I'm a sort of jack-of:all-trades," ho explained. "I built every bouse in this hollow, I guess. And Ivc Just been down the road cutting s neighbor boy's hair, I reckon I've handled everything but confine ment cases, and if I could find some confinement cases, I'd han dle them too." , The people around here don't have too much," he said. "I get about 1300 a house. If I wanted to work for a contractor, I guess I could get about two and a hall an hour." "Born and raised up in Knox- ville," Ballenger joined the Navy when he was IS. and served a six- year hitch from 1923-29. "I'm often asked how I got the lAm lw liuimnf isa aiaiiaa ha tain iucbi bus av sis at as as "I guess It was when I was in the Navy in New York. We'ci get tod died up, and spend the night in i subway. It was warm and didn't cost anything. When I found this - cave, it was just like sleeping in the subway. May Marry Yet Thoughts of leaving can be dis polled by a 35-mile trip to Knox ville. "Whenever 1 get In one of those Knoxville traffic Jams, with " everybody in such a hurry, I get awful lonesome to get back, to my cave. When I was a kid, 1 wanted ta he richt In the middle of the loudest noise there was but not any more." Now SI. Ballcns says he's over hi, hrnkra love affairs. Asked if he might yet getnarried, a twin kle came into his blue eyes. "You can't tell," he replied, grinning. "They say that guys like me fall the hardest. But the only reason I'd want to marry now would be to raise a couple of kids." I wouldn't expect any woman tit live with me here,- ne de clared, indicating the cave, with its dirt floor, kerosene lamp, jag ged walls and ceiling just high nnueh for a man to stand erect. I 0 wam U) save up enougn iipum j ; wiin nu wiie. im-j rac a iimpm rpr g oi . to build myself a house so I could 0f kids, and they're about the only 3" Snipmenw take care of her. That's expected thing that's holing them together. I):n iritlv in "f of a man." I "1 tell people that I've sailed. "lV onauy in oo fixe of the seven seas been on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and I've settled down here to some peace and quiet. "But when any man tells you he sets shipped during the first four hates women, don't believe him, months of 1955. to sew for himself and things like because it's just not so. Look at j The figures came from the Radio- that well it just sticks with ; me. Women have let me down j Electronics-Television Manufactur-, a-piemy, ana i aon i naie em. i crs Assn. How about cooking? "I fix myself 'cave stew'-and plenty of meat (and almost any thing else at hand). When 1'nVin a regular kitchen with everything convenient, I reckon I can cook as good as any woman. But I don't do much real cooking here. Yon can buy everything you need in cans these days. "Anyway, I do most of my heavy eating with the folks I work for." His weathered face grew thought ful. "Fellow from Knoxville was up here talking the other day. He told; me he'd just had another cuss fight j MovingWoe Curtailed by School Bus RUM FORD, Maine 'jft-Malcolm D. McLean had a problem how to move inexpensively the contents of a five-room house from Mercer, Wis., to Livermore Falls, Maine a distance of some 1.600 miles. He bought an old school bus, ripped out the seats, selling them for It apiece, and loaded the fur niture with the living room sofa Must behind the driver's seat so he'd have a chance to nap on the way. McLean, 29, sent his wife and three children on ahead in the family station wagon. He left Mer cer Monday, made his vife's home in South Portland by Thursday night and came on to .visit his parents in Rumford Friday. i Cave Stew Meaa Life in the cave sometime gets lonesome, but Ballenger credits the Navy with making him self-reliant: "What the Navy teaches a man about taking care of himsclf-how WASHINGTON l-Television set shipments to dealers during the first four months of 1956 totaled 2.059,129 compared with 2,329.449 Babies Can't Eat Surplus LINCOLN, Neb. (INS) - Econo mists who place hopes of a solution to food surpluses in a rising baby population are having their dreams dampened by a dash of cold farm state facts. Two University .. of - Nebraska agricultural economists say the country just can't produce enough babies to eat up all that butter, wheat and corn. The more babies, the more pro duction, say professors Don Kanel and Howard Otteson. They cite statistics showing that as popula tion increases food production goes up even more. Otteson and Kanel say some econ omists have pinned their hopes on the post-war crop of youngsters as a ravenous solution to the stored produce. But. they say, since 1930 the population just hasn't been rising as fast as the nation's farm production. Actually, consumption increases very little once adequate diets have been achieved. Symphony Gets t Touch of Glamor LONION (INS) - Glamor has come to classical music in Britain. Those males who Invariably closed their eyes or went to sleep while listening to symphony orches tras will undoubtedly welcome the innovation and change their habits. For a new professional symphony orchestra has been formed by famed British cellist Douglas Cam eron and all his musicians are girls between 20 and 30. ' ". ' Baby Sitter Aids Writer's Problem LONDON (INS)-British Author Lelage Pulvertast was having trouble getting her second novel finished, so her publishers stepped in and solved the problem in a business-like fashion. They gave her an advance on the book to pay for a baby-sitter who watched over one year old Timothy Pulvertast while mother concentrated on her writing. Cofffe Drinking High' In Armed Services WASHINGTON (A-Memberi of the armed forces and their fam ilies drink twice as much coffee as the average civilian, reports the magazine Military . Market, an armed forces buyers guide. It calculated the Army consumes an estimated 1,559,931,160 cups per year; Air Force 1.365,228,480 cups, the Navy 968.S8t.S40 and the Ma rines 201, 280.220. These figures do not include coffee consumed off-base. Coos Bay Asks" End to Portland ER Controversy COOS BAY - The Coos Bay Chamber ot Commerce has gone on record asking the Portland Chamber to help end the Portland location controversy which has pre vented construction of an $8,000.- 000 exposition recreation center approved by voters two years ago. The Coos Bay Chamber said the center was "vital-to the economy of Oregon" because of its potential for national conventions. France, U.S. Agre To Tax Changes WASHINGTON WU-Tho United States and Franco have signed an agreement to make technical changes in their double taxation accords. Under these conventions, reached in 1939 and 1946, citizens of the two countries, when they reside in one and work in the other, are protected from paying taxes to both. Ancient Egypt produced yellow dye from the crocus and red .from the madder plant. you .h..!,l'y Polio Drop In Oregon On Forecast PORTLAND - Predictions that Oregon's 1954 paralytic polio toD may be 50 per cent below average were voiced Friday. Dr. S. Gorham Babson. chair , man of the state Polio Vaccine Aifvluu-v Committee, and Dr Harold M. Ericsson, state health officer, said their orediction was contingent , upon vaccinations of Salk anti-polio vaccine continuing at the present high levels. They said in a letter to all the state's practicing physicians: "It is our hope that if polio vaccina tinna an mrntifiiwd as raoidlv u the supply of vaccine permits, the toll ot paralytic pouo can oe re duced in 19S about 50 per cent below the average of recent years." If their prediction proves cor rect, the aiate can "expect about 140 cases of polio this year com pared to the average of 280 cases a year since 1950. The board reported 34 cases of polio through June 16 of this year in Oregon. Of these 22 cases were paralytic. Last year at this time there hod been M cases of polio, 44 of which Involved paralysis. K iimn w if a r a TiAii rnrriAir -.h If 111 tlllllt.l l Ml." I 111! 1 STa-TP ill' if aril II IIIIH mr a. 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