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Our Readers Write

Groucho Marx

/

Running Avalon To Thr Kditor-

'Mow can you suggest Avalon has lost its sense of humor? Avalon has always provided great laughs. Ix!t me rite a few examples Years hack, Avalon elections featured ‘ghost" voters For decades, Avalon's streets were gravel dust pits, and speed hrnils were 50 miles per hour Now the streets have finally lieeh paved and even the wide, divided highway of Dune Drive has speed limits of 2S mph (>n you say a joker is not responsible for the signs that slow traffic down from 25 m p h to25 m p h. for the school rone'’ ■ CAN aNYTHIND other than a great sense of humor be responsible for Avalon's traffic control to be painting the streets on Aug. 5° And isn't it the funniest thing that all the people who purchased expensive lots are not allowed to build on them*’ You have to be pulling my leg to tell me that the elected .officials could not anticipate that doubling or tripling the number of toilets in Avalon would not require new .sewerage treatment Droiicho Marx is alive and well and running Avalon • J It SMITH Elkins Park, Pa

Judge Defied William Band, board member of the Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) is now questioning Judge Norman I) Smith's decision for the MUA to deal fairly with the property owners in the buffer zone of the proposed landfill in Woodbine The judge gave a solid explanation to said MUA board. For Band to say "go ahead" with said landfill is in defiance of said order and should be dealt with quickly by the judge to show this authority it is not above the law. The citizens also have a right to protect their interests and rights This buffer zone was known to the MUA officials at the time of the survey. They knew these houses were in the buffer zone It looks like the MUA board did not do its homework As for Band, to try to defy a court decision by a judge, he is showing disregard for due process of law The freeholders had belter tighten their grip on the MUA, whose board members they appoint

ELMER DOYLE Eldora (F.D NOTE Doyle identifies himself as a solid waste supervisor for the city of Philadelphia for 34 years before hr retired )

Teen Dance Needed To The Editor:

opinion

Herald A Lantern 17 August *83

Other Voices

How about King Workday?

Aa Congress headed for the August recess, the House seemed more than usually manic about winning friends among the voters, at voters' expense of course, by passing out goodies Feeling of insecurity must be rampant One such effort wagdkn overwhelming vote to create another national holidayHhe third Monday in January, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. The bill now goes to the

Senate.

Holidays sure are great and we can think of hardly anyone more deserving of the honor of a commemorated birthday than Martin Luther King, who raised the national consciousness on an issue that for many years had silently mocked assertions that all Americans enjoyed equal rights. A lot of people were involved in fhe civil-rights movement and a lot of people showed courage in facing insult and violence in the early stages of this gratifyingly successful national revolution. But the Rev Mr. King in his martyrdom is clearly recognized as the leading symbol of what the achievements coat. THE QUESTION, in our view, is not whether such a man should be honored. Clearly, he should be It is how he should be honored And we are skeptical of the idea that it is appropriate to honor leaders who we admire for their perseverence, courage and hard work by giving millions of Americans an extra day of leisure. Gunman Gorman? To The Editor: People who attend Lower Township meetings should be extended the courtesy of getting a respoase from the elected officialsajjtl not their hired gun, Township Solicitor Bruoe-fJorman. The mayor and members of committee are elected to make and administer township policy. This township is being controlled by a highly paid employee. I would like tp inform the members of the committee that the township solicitor should only comment and make recommendations on legal questions When is Mayor Pessic Bieberbach going to stop playing the crowd with her rhetoric and begin governing the largest municipality in Cape May County? Perhaps the mayor doesn’t have enough time for her official duties; that's why she must rely on the township attorney who is paid many, many thousands of tax dollars for doing the mayor's bidding. I WOULD SUGGEST that the mayor and the Township Committee members attend the closed and secretive planning board meetings instead of township attorney Gorman, or is it that in Lower Township we have 55 hours of open public meetings that Gorman condoned in Middle Township which the prosecutor found fault with because it violated the spirit of the law? Many residents have been questioning recently if or whether the spirit of the Open Public Meetings Law is being adhered to in Lower Township. Many people allege that it isn't. SAMUEL M. STUBBS North Cape May (ED. NOfE: Republican Stubbs opposes Democrat Bieberbach for Lower Township Committee in the fall election.)

There already is a great deal of leisure being either enjoyed or not enjoyed in this country. Indeed, there are some 10 million eligible workers who have nothing to do at all, either because they prefer it that way or because they can't find jobs. To them, Martin Luther King Day will be just another day off idleness, except that they will be joined by federal workers and employees of other agencies and enterprises that choose to let them off Is this the kind of symbolism Martin Luther King would have preferred? WE DON'T KNOW, of course, but we doubt it. The productivity lost to the country through this additional day of idleness will be significant. By some small factor. It will mean less production and wealth this country generates, the harder it becomes for those who are at the bottom of the economic totem pole to work their way up. The blacks Mr. King so valiantly represented are, as a group, most in need of the economic opportunities increased productivity would yield. Why not honor Mr. King by designating his birthday as a day on which we all dedicate ourselves to greater effort in whatever endeavor we are pursuing? That seems to us to be a more fitting way to honor such a

man.

— Wall Street Journal Do you have an opinion on this subject? Write a letter to the editor, Herald and Lantern, P.O. Box 430, Cape May Court House, N.J. 08210.

Lookin ’ and Listenin ’ To Cape May By Steamboat By DOROTHY D. FREAS Looking at the happy crowd arriving on the Cape MayLewes, Delaware ferry, turned our thoughts around to early days almost 170 years ago—when a sailing sloop visited our cape once a week with passengers. That was in 1815. Within a year, visitors to the Cape could go from Philadelphia by steamboat to New Castle, Delaware, then cross under sail, to Cape Island. Shortly after this, several steamboat lines ran directly between Philadelphia and the Cape. Competition brought the fares down from $5 to a low of 50 cents. Cape May, as a resort, had a steady growth as the hours spent to reach it were cut from a two^ay trip by stage coach, to four hours and 55 minutes, when the "Republic" made the run. A round trip of 10 hours with a one-dollar fare was a big boost to the popularity of Cape May. .Over land, by coach, stopped being a necessary form of travel when the comfort of the steamboat arrived with its dependability. Of course, the cheaper travel by the railroads competed a short time later, and thus ending the trips on the steamboats. Now the ferries bring the visitors to our shores and automobile travel is at the top of the list.

There is no place for our teenagers to go except to the arcades / I feel that a teen dance for these young people is badly needed, a place for them to go to meet each other and have fun We have the facilities here in Sea Isle. Why do our teenagers have logo to Avalon and pay $4 admission, plus tolls, for a place to dance? I urge all parents of teenagers to write to Dominic Raffa and express their concern over this matter 4 MARYJ TAYLOR Sea Isle City

2

□ear the Beach-

Wave Destroyed Credibility

By JOE ZELNIK I rejoice in television anchorwoman Christine Craft's legal victory last week in which she won a half-million dollars because her bosses demoted her for being "too unattractive." This was a triumph for all journalists who, like race horses and chorus girls, often are hired on the basis of their physical characteristics. Take me. for example, I can now reveal that the Herald and Lantern hired me because of my silvery gray hair and quick tanning ability. That combination, they felt, made me look like a credible editor. In fact, I barely passed high school English and never took a college journalism course. I CAN'T SPELL, don’t know a gerund from a gerbil, and can never write dowp quotes because people talk too fast. As a result, I have to make 'em up. I also have a terrible memory, especially when it comes to names. For nine months now I've been saying, "Hi, Bill," to Tony Catanoso and "Hi, Tony," to Bill Sturm. And they don't resemble each other all that much. I told the paper's managers all that, but they insisted that I looked like a perfect editor. They just wanted me to sit at my typewriter and attend an occasional Kiwanis r eeling to hand out my business cards. That was okay with me. Besides, the gray hair enabled me to ride Fare Free Transportation. WHAT I DIDN'T TELL them is that my gray hair is a sham I'm all but bald on the top of my head. I compensate by letting the hair about two inches above my left ear, grow 8-10 inches long, combing it across, and, voila, silvei7 hair This is a patented process called "the Zelnik swirl." The camouflage is apparent, however, if one looks down at the top of my head. But. since I am 6-2, few people can do that. I take a number of precautions, of course. I limit rtiy friends to people no taller than 5-6,1 date cold women \y|fe

would never dream of running their fingers through my hair, and I sleep standing up. I also have never remarried because I have not been able to find a woman who didn't laugh when I came out of the shower. Do you know what that can do to the male ego? Thus the impression of a tanned, silvery-haired editor persists. , That worked fine in December, January, Februal-y. March, April, May, June. In July, I started swimming in the ocean. By that, I mean I would wade out chest deep.lean back gently on my back, and float with my head above water. People say I look like an upside down turtle. LAST WEEK, however, the image was destroyed by a sudden, unanticipated wave. My silvery mane was suddenly one soggy strand shooting off at angle from the left side of my head. As I waded out of the surf, a little child began to point at me and cry. He had seen me enter the water well-coiffed and exit bald. He thought the top of my head had been sheered off by a shark. Other small children took up his cries. Panic spread. The lifeguards whistled everybody in. I shall never return to Stone Harbor’s 100th Street beach again. The word quickly got back to my bosses. (Cape May County, I have found, is like a small town Everybody knows everything about everybody.) THEY WERE SUBTLE about it. They called me in.and seated me with, unbeknownst to me. a fan behind my head. Once I was comfortable, they flicked on the fan, which had a motor that would have carried a 747 to Miami. Not even my "New Mink Difference" hairspray could hold against that gale. While my hair blew across my nose, they nodded to each other, calculating, I could tell, what profession in which part of the country would be best for me. Christine Craft’s lawsuit has changed all that. Hair, or no hair, I’m safe. Aren’t you glad?