Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1960)
Medford Tribune Section B MEDFORD, OREGON, THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1960 Pages 1 8 UdaH Residents Forget Horror Of Tornado Udall, Kan. OJPD Twlsteri are whirling again through prairie skies and with ap proach of the peak of the tor nado season, City Marshal Hay Payne is worried - be cause Udall citizens general ly are not. Payne reported difficulty in getting sentries to man the town's tornado watch tower. In 20 minutes of terror on the night of May 25, 1955, Udall was splintered by a tornado that cut a swath 45 miles wide as it roared up out of Oklahoma. It killed 83 persons, out of Udall's population of less than 600, and injured 270. Not a single building in town was habitable when it was over and all but a very few were reduced to kindling. Proper ty damage totalled $2,225,000. Live in New Homes . In less than five years, Payne said, most survivors seem to have forgotten. They live in new homes, built on the old townslle. Their resur rected community has grown to a prosperous town of more than 700 persons. Its citizens seem more conscious of the workday problems of spring in a farming community than of the danger from a twister. When the town was rebuilt, consciousness of danger show ed in every blueprint. About 50 per cent of the homes have their own storm shelters. Beneath the grade school is a shelter which can accommodate about 250 per sons. There's room for anoth er 200 in a shelter beneath the high school. Payne said there is enough underground, tornado - proof shelter space to protect every person in Udall. Getting them there is Payne's worry. Lookout Tower Built .When rebuilding got under way almost the first structure to go up was a lookout tower, built on high ground and standing about 25 feet tall. Sentries use the tower to scan the sky whenever - weather forecasters Indicate likelihood of a tornado or when the sky grows yellow, the air still and a black thunderhead rolls up on the southwest horizon in the manner prairie dwellers recognize as a danger signal. "It's hard to get people to man the tower," Payne said. f'Some don't want to go up there when storm conditions are around. Some Just think they are too busy. "We just don't have too much luck in getting watch ers. Only a few people do the work." Udall has four sirens to sound an alarm once a funnel cloud is sighted. One stands on a pole 35 feet in the air. In combination with three smaller ones, its wail can be heard for miles. Knowing when to use them la the problem, Payne said. Comet Burnham Can Be Seen in East Washington - (Science Serv ice) - Comet Burnham can now be seen low in the east in the early morning sky just before sunrise. The comet has developed an unusual three-forked tail, but It can be seen' only with the aid of binoculars or a tele scope, as it is of the seventh magniture, Dr. Elizabeth Roe mer of the U.S. Naval observa tory, Flagstaff, Arte., told Science Service. Dr. Roemer said that the comet is not expected to get any brighter during April as it moves northward toward the North Star. When it gets there, it will be closest to earth, about 20 million miles away, and will be visible then in the evening sky. After the beginning of May, the comet will fade rapidly. They'll Do It Every Time . By Jimmy Hatlo Census Takers In Home Stretch Washington - (BID - The na tion's census takers are head ing down the home stretch in their race to count some 180 million Americans by the end of this month. The Census Bureau said 148.242.224 persons -83 per cent of the anticipated total were counted by midnight Saturday. A spokesman said that except for a few trouble spots the counting will be fin ished sometime next week. More than half of the enu merators have completed their work by counting each man, woman and child In 83,737 districts across the county. HoWCUM-THE AQUA THE DENTIST GIVES YOU TO DRlMK IS ABOUT THE TEMPERATURE OF USED BATH WATER, But the spfcAy HE SHOOTS INTO YOUR EXPOSED NERVE FEELS LIKE IT WAS PIPED DIRECT FROM GREEN- ' LAND'S ICV MOUNTAINS"" Pre-Finished Wall Panels of Plywood Cuts Decorating Costs New York (UPB A plywood maker said today he has found a multi-million dollar market In providing pre-finished wall panels so cheaply they can do away with the tedious and ex pensive chore of redecorating homes and apartments. Chairman Bernard Hewitt of Industrial Plywood Co., of Jamaica, N.Y., doesn't expect his new panels to put the plas tering and wallboard indus tries out of business. In fact. he expects many city building codes will continue for a long time to require wet plaster construction. And lots of peo ple will keep on liking wallpaper. But Hewitt says his hew laminated plywood wall pan els with the finish applied at the factory are competitive with wallboards in price and that the finish will last for years with only occasional waxing. Moreover, they can be nailed up by "do it your self homeowners. Easy To Maintain No more painting every two or three years with the labori ous sanding and spackling, says Hewitt. Hewitt's company has made a special effort to reach the low price market. Hewitt told United Press International he is making pre-finished ply wood wall panels to sell for as little as 17' 2 cents a square foot and has persuaded well over 100 lumber yards in the New York metropolitan area to stock them. That's about half the price of the cheapest pre-finished plywood panel offered and the average was well above 50 cents. County-wide Sweep That means that while most builders still figure plywood panelling a 10 by 12 room at around $750, it can be done with Hewitt's cheaper panels for $100. Even with a cherry or walnut finish, it can be done for under $200 and no more painting or papering and spackling repairs. Hewitt believes in time vir- Psychologists Study Knowledge of Sex New York - (Science Serv ice) - How much young man knows about sex and the "facts of life" la related to hit Intelligence but not to his marital status, sexual adjust ment or his age, Drs. Leo Sha tin and J. Alfred Southworth of the Albany Veterans hos pital and Albany Medical col lege told the meeting of the Eastern Psychological associ ation. The young men studied by the psychologists were all pa tients In the psychiatry serv ice of I general hospital. The average age was 33 years. They were selected for study because sexual maladjustment is sometimes a symptom of mental illness and may ag gravate or contribute to that illness. The majority of the patients (85.7 per cent) judged their own personal sexual adjust ment to be satisfactory or bet ter. Their therapists, how ever, judged 73 per cent to be unsatisfactory or worse in sexual adjustment. ou "ooor li Your Grovyl BE A K-BOY Blooper-Snooper tually every lumber yard will carry the plywood panels in the cheaper as well as some of the luxury finishes and that there will be many houses wholly done in them. He thinks the trend towards hav ing one room finished in ply wood well on the way to sweeping the country. Hewitt talked about his new wall panels in connection with the ground-breaking by his company at the site of a new "plywood city" -in Jamaica where architects and builders not only may chose from a huge variety of plywoods, but may supervise from the start the manufacture of large cus tom orders for plywood. Industrial Plywood Corp. is a leading maker of custom plywoods and a wide variety of patterns finished in exotic woods and of plywood panels with formica, metal or plastic surfaces. The company is publicly owned and its sales have mounted sharply in recent years. The new plant in Ja maica is costing $1.7 million. So far, both Hewitt's com pany and his competitors have found the best market for wall panels for homes in the luxury houses. But Hewitt says even the small $8,000 house in the cheaper construc tion areas now tends to have at least one room finished In plywood panels with a fine wood finish. Commercial use of plywood interior finish, whether with wood or plastic surface, is growing fast. Sev eral other companies are in the field and the total sales of the pre-finished panels almost reach $50 milion a year. The panels come in a great variety of finishes, are in four by eight foot size, very light in weight and have a new grooving joint that makes put ting them up almost foolproof, Hewitt said. They are so moisture resist ant, Hewitt said, they even can be , used for bathroom walls. Nuclear Progress Among Reasons for 'Watchdog' Group Portland It may not be too long, as industrial revolutions are measured, until a nuclear reactor will be installed along side the Willamette or some other Oregon river. That is only one of the rea sons why Dr. Richard H. Wil cox, state health officer, re cently appointed a continuing "watchdog" committee of ex perts to investigate steps which may be necessary to as sure that radiation will be a boon rather than a bane in this state. Routine Measure Appointment of the commit tee was termed "a routine pre cautionary measure", but It really was a realistic admis sion that the nuclear age al ready has come to Oregon, and residents must learn to live with a new neighbor whether they like it or not. Actually, however, there is nothing new about radiation. It bombarded the first human ever to appear on earth. It was in his water and food, and everything else around him. This so-called "normal back ground" radiation in Oregon today is measured at about 0.1 roentgens per year, or ap. proximately one-third of the total radiation exposure of the average resident. First widespread . use of what might be termed "artifi ficial". radiation began after discovery of x-rays in 1895. Since then, use of radioactive materials has steadily in creased, often for such every day conveniences as luminous watch dials. Despite the fears generated by such headline-producing events as the "hot rain" a couple of years ago in Califor nia, weapons testing has con tributed only a minute amount to an Oregon resi dent's current radiation expo sure. The fallout which has caused such alarm is respon sible for perhaps 0.01 of the total 0.3 roentgens per year exposure in Oregon. Not Shrugged Off Although these levels today are low, they are not being shrugged off by state health authorities. This is because radiation effects are cumula tive, and the level to which the expected large future use can safely go will depend to some extent on how much ex posure the population already has experienced, i Dr. Wilcox also wants the new watchdog committee learn as much as possible to about today's more-or-less nor mal radiation levels in food, water, air and everything else around the general popula tion, so health authorities will be able to pin-point any pos sible dangerous Increases in the future. Unfortunately, Oregon doesn't have the resources to day to do this job, so the com mittee's first task will be as sembling a list of needs and recommendations for consid eration by the 1961 Legislature. EX-PUBLISHER DIES Manning, S. C.-fllPD-Mattle B. Appelt, former co-owner and co-publisher of the Man ning Times, died Tuesday. DISASTER POTENTIAL Miami Beach, Fla.-OTD-Prot Ernest B. Bartley of the Uni versity of Florida warned Tuesday that increasing con struction of homes on water front property since Florida's last major hurricane has cre ated a "tremendous potential for disaster In many coastal regions." Ml - :' , xIl The DerWct time trr Time-perfected Be "TIME-PERFECTED" is something you can taste! It's the result of 104 years of constantly perfecting a fine beer. All the resources of the brewer's art and modern science are combined to bring you a truly perfect beer. Light and refreshing, bright and smooth a beer that measures up perfectly to modern tastes. Yes, it's taken 104 years to bring Blitz-Weinhard beer to its present perfection. Enoy it today and find the special pleasure that is yours in TIME-PERFECTED . Blitz-Weinhard beer. , . ' a - . J 7T v ML t 4t KBlitz : Weinhard BEER : S I960 Brewed lo perfection since 18S6 by int TltM 1 OHltH uimiv . . - . ., -1 BUT WEINHftRD CO., Portland. Oregon ) 7V VISITORS WELCOME l- wt Montfty - Fndiy from 12:00 lo 4.00 p m. . T f ii i ML ill ' 11 . . li, u!.. '. . ii ii ANYTIME Morning, noon or night .. . anytime, your meals become a happy adventure when you serve Williams,, the bread with that Fresh Baking Day Flavor, BAKING EDAY IF LAV
