The Key West Citizen Newspaper, February 26, 1953, Page 3

Spring Prospects Are Bright In Eyes Of Business Exees Thursday, February 26.1953 THE KEY WEST CITIZEN Page 3) THE CONCH OBSERVES| By SAM DAWSON NEW YORK ‘#-- Bright spring Prospects are heralded today by Many business executives. The chorus has some conspicu- ously missing voices. And many business leaders are squinting nervously at the future, trying to guess if the year will end as prosperously as it has begun. But here are a few of those say- ing today that prospects for their companies just now are particular- ly bright: Sales of shoes for the spring season are running 22 per cent above those for a year ago, Edgar E. Rand, president of Internation- al Shoe Co., tells stockholders at their St. Louis annual meeting. The Tanners’ Council of Amer- ica chimes in with the estimate that shoe production by the indus- try this month will top last Feb- Tuary by nearly 5 per cent. Jan- wary output beat the year ago fig- ure by 6.5 per cent. Detroit is bursting with opti- mism, too. A Ford Motor Co. sales manager predicts the company will make—and sell—more than a million Fords this year, against 777,000 last year. Postwar peak year was 1950 with nearly 1% mil- lion cars. International Business Machines Corp. is working on the biggest backlog of orders in its history, Board Chairman Thomas J. Wat- son reports. This follows its rec- ord sales year of 1952, Highest backlog of orders since the World War II peak period is reported by | Donald W. Douglas, president ai chairman of the Douglas Aircraft Co. There are ‘enough orders to keep the plants going for two years or more, New orders booked in Novem- ber, December and January by the Carrier Corp., electric appli- ‘ance maker, ran 34 per cent above the same period the year before, President Cloud Wampler tells stockholders at their Syracuse an- nual meeting. He thinks the trend will continue with 1953 setting new high production records. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. started 1953 with 300,000 more pol- icy holders than a year ago, Pres- ident Charles G. Taylor Jr., re- Ports. Du Pont, looking farther ahead | than the others, predicts today that one of its newest synthetic fibers, orlon, will have its biggest season in the coming fall. The new orlon plant at Camden, S. C., is now operating at full capacity, and Du Pont says “120 clothing manufac- turers will use orlon in men’s and boys’ fall suits and slacks, Du Pont also says it’s so pleased with prospects for another synthet- ie, dacron, that it’s thinking of putting up another plant. A big one under way at Kingston, N. C., will be completed this fall. For an over-all picture of the economy, the Department of Com- merce reports today that 1953 started with total production of goods and services at an all-time peak. It gained 5 per cent in dol- lar volume last year. Making al- lowances for higher prices, how- ever, pares this down to a 2% per cent gain in unit volume. To- tal sales by all manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers rose to 546 billion dollars, compared with 533 billion dollars in 1951. But a peak at the future by Roy A. Foulke, vice president of Dun & Bradstreet, today brings this sobering note: “We are entering a competitive period when value and prices will again play their part after 12 years of a seller's market.” Escapee Flags Wrong Automobile TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Eu- gene Lloyd Mofrell, 18, of Water- ville, Minn., escaped from the Fed- eral Correctional Institution Tues- day. About four hours later he flagged down a car and asked for a ride. Morrell did not recognize it was a highway patrol car because of darkness and rain. Highway Pa- trolman George Manning recog- nized him, though. He got the ride promptly—right back to the fed- eral prison. ANNOUNCEMENT The Federal Communications Commission has available channels for trucks, etc.) for the general p By SID Grunts | My uncle, Professor Charles | Mendoza. parapsychologist and precognitionist, is never satisfied to discuss a subject down to the bone; he scrapes through th- bon and gets into the marrow. So it was, two evenings ago, when he invited me to a supper of fried grunts, with fried shoestrings an plantains on the .side. “Sid,” he said, ‘I’m frequently iphthyologically irritated by fel- low Conchkonians when they argue about the relative merits of our panfish. The trouble with them is they can’t pinpoint reason. Sid, Sid McPhid . my boy, you’ve heard that story about the man who bet he could eat quail on toast every day for a month, and how he cried quits on the twenty-second day? “J’'ve heard worthy friends as- sert that the moonfish is our most delicious fish fried, but the moon- fish is the quail of the sea. You couldn’t eat it every day succes- sively for a month for supper, could you, Sidonius? On the other hand, I’ll bet I can eat fried grunts every day for a month, or a year, or for a hundred years, assuming I live that long, as you say you, Swinky Swanky and Jim Koodle de Flu are going to live. Why can we eat grunts daily for so long a time? Simply because grunts is a standby, like bread, of which we never tire. “The same thing applies to a grunt boiled. You may say it doesn’t begin to compare in taste with a pompano. Certainly not, my dear Sir Sid. Pompano is a delicacy. How many successive days could you eat it? I’ve heard e extension of Radiotelephone service (phones in autos, lic of Key West, Florida. Class of service: Miscellaneous Common Carrier (Public Utility) _ Minimum investment for individual or group — $10,000 Requirements: Business experience, good character and financial stability Interested parties write American Radiotelephone Co., Inc. St. Petersburg, Florida for personal interview and details. THIS IS A NON-COMPETITIVE MARKET PROTECTED BY THE FCC LADIES NITE FRIDAY, FEB. 27th ALL LADIES WILL BE ADMITTED TO THE TRACK ABSOLUTELY FREE!! $th Feature Race ... Ladies Handicap KEY WEST KENNEL CLUB NO MINORS ADMITTED Post Time 8:15 P.M. PUBLIC TUESDAY 2 TO 5 PM 10 Races Nightly QUINIBLAS EVERY RACE DAILY DOUBLES ist & Ind RACES McPHID j stalwart Conchkonians say that pompano or kingfish two or three | times a season is as much as they | want. And I know a_ beautiful | Cochkonianess who yearns . and j yearns for the kingfish season to ome, and then, after she eats a | slice, she doesn’t want any more | till the next season rolls around. | “Son, if grunts were as scarce pompano, they’d retail for $5 |a pound, and, were they a season- able fish, like moonfish, pompano and kingfish, all Key West would | take a holiday to go fishing when grunts came into season. Grunts! [ij are always with us, like our par- | excellent climate, and for that | reason we don’t fully appreciate either them or it. “Don’t misunderstand me, dear nephew of mine. What I have said applies solamenté to Conchs, Strangers in our city, and there seems to be a couple of million of them, wouldn’t know a grunt it it grunted at them.” ‘s Fishing a Poem Unk, continuing to scrape through the bone to the marrow, said: - “Sidney, through Mrs. Margaret Fores- | man’s lines about Jim Koodle de! | Flu, but she left the kid asking, |‘Why don’t you grow whiskers so I can pull ’em?’ It struck me the poem wasn’t finished, so, when, rippling rhythm ran |} }you hit us with another column, add these stanzas to it: “Jim Koodle de Flu, What you’re going to do, In view of the way her praises you’ve sung?” “I know it, ole boy, My treasurer and joy She was till I heard her spouse- lashing tongue. Besides, there’s the kid, As I’ve told you, Sir Sid; He’s a snorting cyclone and earthquake too. While I was in a deep And most restful sleep, He smeared my hair al! over with glue. “But Koodle de Flu, What you're going to do? You sidestepped that when I asked it before.” “I’m a peace-loving man From a peace-loving clan And therefore, Sid, I don’t like to spill gore Tm getting in shape To stand at the tape, And when I’m ready to start for my goal, Ym going to run Like. a son-of-a-gun And won't let up till I reach the North Pole.” Good English Yesterday afternoon while I was conversing with Pete Roberts, 77, our piscatorial philosopher, his thoughts wandered back to the time when Key West’s sponging fleet numbered more than 100 ma- jor vessels. “Sid, in the ‘80s, the captain of one of our sponging schooners had come here from Cherokee Sound, in the Bahamas. His nickname was Me-and-Pa, and he was called that because he often bragged about the feats he and his father had done ‘back home.’ He had been here six or eight years when one of his nephews |from Cherokee Sound came here to go sponging with him. . .After | the first trip, Me-and-Pa, his ne- phew and members of his crew were standing together on John Lowe's wharf waiting for their sponge to be sold. After the sale, the nephew asked the crewmen: “Any of youmongy going up my way?” Me-and-Pa angrily shook his right forefinger at his nephew. | “Looker here, b'y! You ain’t in Cherokee Sound now, You in Key West, and we don't s: here. We say youn EXTRA, EXTRA! Yesterday my Uncle Charlie | Mendoza, while on Cow Key hunt- jing for a cow, was chased by 2 | snorting, eavorting bull. But Unk was not afriad. He has had exten-/[} sive experience bullfighting and | a bull throwing in Spain and Mexi-| Bi co, and often went bull i lin the wilds of Guatamala. | When the bull charged yester- | day, Unk gingerly sidestepped. He | took off his red sportshirt and used | it as a cape to fight the bull. After }a dozen fancy and graceful side- | steppings Unk grabbed the bull by | the tail and threw the bull, Fine Exemption | | AGED ACTOR IS ILL HOLLYWOOD @—William num, 76-yearcld movie actor, is in| Cedars of Lebanon Hospital i checkup. His condition is ous, doctors said, THE WHOLE TOWN IS TALKING ABOUT-- RAUL’S TERRIFIC DEAL and HERE’S WHY, At Different Intervals During Every Evening ‘A# Your Favorite Drink For Only 25c And Every Evening You Get The KtIst HAMBURGERS EST IN TOWN! 4 WITH PLENTY OF FRENCH FRIES For Only 35c DANCING Every Night Except Tuesday To The Outstanding Music Of LOU BREDICE and HIS INTERNATIONAL TRIO ON TUESDAY WE SHOW MODERN FULL-LENGTH MOVIES FREE All These Wonderful Altractions Start Ai 10 P.M. No Wonder The Most Talked About Place In Town Is RAUL’S >