The Key West Citizen Newspaper, August 6, 1954, Page 5

H1—Germany Family Of Five Tours Europe On $20 A Day By BILL BECKER MUNICH, Germany # — Nine years after war’s havoc, West Ger- many is a sobering study in con- trasts. The land’s beauty and the people’s industry are gaining on the ravages, but it may take an- other decade before life returns to ‘normal. Yet good and bad, Germany is worth seeing. Like other Americans, we were struck by ’round-the-clock activity. From Hamburg to Munich the jackhammer and riveter’s gun sound the dominant note. Construc- _ tion crews are out from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and later. But except in Bavaria, where easy-going friendliness is a way of life, the tourist shouldn’t count on an enthusiastic reception. Cordial, efficient and cool sums up most of the hotelmen, restaurateurs and tradesmen we met north of Munich. While most cafes will be good, there may be others like the one in Pforzheim where the waitress Drought us stale bread. When we asked for fresh, she insisted it was fresh and she had no other. But the smirk she shot a German gen- tleman at the next table gave her away. Storekeepers were generally friendly but not too tolerant of our awkward stabs at their language. Finally, the man behind the coun- ter would ask, “Do you speak En- glish?” putting a quick end to our linguistic fling. After all, we had to eat. Prices are reasonable. Some of the best cherries we’ve ever tasted were brought by the roadside, 60 Pfennigs (14 cents) for a huge bag. The best wurst dinner we've had, Plus beer for Papa, came to only $ for five in Munich. And roads are good. The splen- did system of autobahns is being steadily improved. Roadside tree trunks are painted white to guide night drivers. A typical example of Teutonic thoroughness: four men painting one tree. The good life is on its way back On a Saturday night, our first in Germany, we walked along Ham- burg’s beautiful Lake Alster, watched gaily lighted excursion launches, and stumbled over spoon- ing couples on the bank, much to the delight of our three gi “Sure are a lot of lovers in Ger- many,” snickered Marilyn, 7. t, The nation’s recovery was visible in the heavy Sunday traffic be- tween Hamburg and Hamelin. That was the day we found out about German competitiveness. Four out of five times we tried to pags a German car, the driver spot our British license plates and speed up. “Most German drivers have just gotten their first cars,” an Ameri- can friend explained later. Hamelin, the Pied Piper’s town, afforded a nice picnic place by the Wester. The only rats we found were made of bread or marzipan. We bought one of each, ate the Marzipan and saved the baked ro- dent for a rainier day. That evening in Wuppertal we ate at an outdoor cafe. Ruins gaped across the street, but the cafe was crowded with well-dressed, well- fed customers. Overhead sailed Wuppertal’s famed monorail sys- tem. We took a ride on the eight-mile- long hanging trolley over the Wup- Per River and found it fast and pleasant. ; The Rhine, with its ancient towns and castles, retains a storybook quality despite the grim memen- toes left at Remagen and Koblenz. The girls named the lofty eastle spires “Rapunzel Towers” after the fairy tale lass who let down her long golden hair for the prince to ascend. The first half of our trip had been through the British zone. War's devastation was apparent in whole blocks lying cleared in Ham- burg and\Cologne. But the worst ruins had been remoyed. The French zone was something else. Stopping at Mainz, we chose a hotel on the river. It was one of three buildings standing in a block; the rest were in ruins. The view was équally appalling for sev- eral blocks. Mains families are still living in cellars and first floors of bombed- girls. | out buildings. Faces are not happy, yet we heard a boy whistling in « rubble-strewn alley and radio mus- ie coming out of cellars. That night a jazz band kept us awake playing for dancérs in the battered au- ditorium behind the hotel. In the Americgn zone, Frankfurt and Munich are abustle with con- struction. Modern glass and con- crete buildings are replacing bombed-out Gothic. But enough old landmarks and cathedrals sur- vive to keep the ancient flavor. Boys’ Spending Spree Is Ended By Authorities NEWARK, N. J. (#—Eight boys found 4 treasure trove in a vacant lot and had a gay time until police stepped in. Like a youthful dream come true, the youngsters stumbled on séveral bags of silver and prompt- ly began to toss money around, dashing to an amusement park and to the resort town of Asbury Park. One suspicious mother yesterday said her boy seemed to have an unlimited supply of quarters. Detectives talked to the boys, who led them to four bags of silver, containing $961.65, stored between a bees’ nest and a wasps’ nest “to keep thieves away.” Police said the find apparently was part of $3,900 which disap- peared from a Trenton, N.J., vend- ing machine firm: along with one of the firm’s employes. Names and ages of the boys were not disclosed. Nor did police say how much they spent. Be EATHERZONE | portable ir Conditioner WEATHERZONE is NOT just a fan, but a new scientific discov. WEA’ that uses nature’s own system of cooling. ONE offers you cool air cireulation and con- ditioning, without drafts or sudden drops in No costly installation, no dials to set — just pl ‘qture. it in. Costs less than 2c a day on ordinary house pasa | Take WEATHERZONE with you anywhere, enjoy its cool com- fort anytime. Quantities limited. Friday, August 6, 1954 THE KEY WEST CITIZEN Page 5 Elderly Retired Persons May Be Freed Of Income Tax Worry WASHINGTON (#—Most elderly retired persons probably won't have to pay any federal income tax from now on. ‘i That is one of the far-reaching effects of the giant tax revision bill just passed by Congress. Some of its biggest benefits will go to re- tired persons. When you're 65 or over, the law already permits you to éxempt $1,200 of your income from taxes. If you’re married and file a joint return, the exemption is $2,400. From now on, in many cases, retired persons will be permitted in effect to deduct an additional $1200 of retirement income. That would be a tax cut of $240. If both husband and wife have retirement ineome, they can get an additional $2,400 deduction, or a $480 tax cut. Retirement income is defined as income from pensions, annuities, interest, rent and dividends. With other standard deductions, the new provisions boil down to this: If you and your wife both have retirement income, you can get up to $5,333 a year without paying taxes; if only one of you has in- come, you can get $4,000 tax free; if you’re a retired single person, you can get $2,666 without paying any tax. Experts believe these cutoff fig- ures will cover most retired per- sons, except a,few in upper in- come brackets. They estimate the new bill will give tax cuts to almost two mil- lion taxpayers, totaling ahout 141 million dollars the first year. The number to benefit, and the revenue reduction, will increase later as millions more retire. Technically, the new provision works like this, if you qualify: You figure your tax bill just as in the past, taking all regular ex- emptions and deductions. Then you apply the first bracket tax rate (now 20 per cent) to your retire- ment income, up to $1,200. Next you subtract that figure, say $240, directly from the tax payment you otherwise would make. But there’s one important limita- tion. If you get income that is al- Teady tax free—as from social security, railroad retirement, mil- itary or veterans’ pensions—you must subtract this from your $1,200 retirement income before you fig- ure your tax credit. In other words, you can’t exclude the same in- come twice. For example, if you get $700 a year from social secur- ity, you could count only $500 of other retirement income; and! you would get a new tax cut of only $100. However, you don’t have to subtract military or veterans’ dis- ability payments from your retire- ment income. And there are four important re- quirements to meet before you qualify for the new benefit. First, most persons must be 65 or over. But if you retire under a public pension system—if you're a retired schoolteacher, policeman or other federal, state or local gov- ernment worker—you can subtract 2 per cent of your income from that system even before you are 65. But you can’t count other re- tirement income until you are €5 or over. _Second, to be counted as a re- tired person and get the full bene- fit, you must make $900 or less from work. Any earned income above $900 must be subtracted from your $1,200 retirement in- come before figuring your tax credit. So if you make $2,100 or more from work, you are not con- sidered to have retired and you get no benefit. But at age 75 or over, you can get the full benefit re- gardless of your earnings. Third, to qualify, you also must have made as much as $600 a year in earned income, for any 10 years before you retire. The theory is that the benefit should go only to Persons retiring from active work. But note that you don’t have to earn $600 for the 10 years imme- diately before your retirement. You can count any 10 years — even those long before you retire —and they don’t have to be con- secutive. A widow can qualify un- der this so long as her husband did. Fourth, you can’t get this bene- fit if you use the short-form tax return, under which you merely list your income and exemptions and take your tax from the table on the back of the return. Only taxpayers with $5,000 or less in- come may use this return. Canada Plans Anti-Submarine Copter Squadron OTTAWA (#—Canada’s Navy plans to form an anti-submarine helicopter squadron, using ‘‘dunk- ing sonar” to track the undersea craft. Informants said the helicopters will hover close to the scean sur- face and lower the sonar listeaing ger beneath the waves. If they hear no subs, the sonar is wound up and the aircraft moves to an- other spot. So far the navy hasn’t been able to find the helicopter for the job. It needs one that can carry more equipment—depth charges as well as the sonar—and with greater en- durance than present models. The Canadians expect U.S. manu- facturers te come up with the an- swer. NARROW MARGIN SAN FRANCISCO (M—He only missed by two feet getting back on the job—but that was enough. The tug Sea Wolf was that far off Pier 25 when Seaman Alvain A. Sunberg—dashing back from shore leave—missed and landed in the bay. Police pulled him out. Do You Have A Treasured Portrait? DON RAY PORTRAIT STUDIO 705 DUVAL STREET PHONE 2-3282 Provides An Outstanding and Thrilling Tale Of Jet Pilots To Be Shown ° cidal low-level attacks on the en-| James A. Michener, who has come emy. Kennan Wynn gives one of aboard a U. S. carrier off Korea The rescue of a temporarily blinded U. S. Navy jet pilot, who is “talked down” into a perilous but successful carrier-deck landing | by. an air mate, will unfold begin-: ning on the Strand screen with tremendous dramatic impact in “Men of the Fighting Lady,” an| M-G-M picture starring Van John- son, Walter Pidgeon, Louis Cal- hern, Dewey Martin, Keenaa Wynn and Frank Lovejoy. Inspired by Navy flier Command- er Harry A. Burns’ story, “Case of the Blind Pilot,” and James A.! Michener’s widely-read magazine story “Forgotten Heroes of Ko- rea,” the M-G-M Ansco Color pho- toplay combines striking realism, emotional tension and harrowing | suspense in its psychological study | of jet heroes who risked their liv- es in phenomenal low-level raids over Korea, climaxéd by the blind- ed pilot episode. Van Johnson enacts Lt. Howard Thayer, the flier who comes to the aid of Ensign Kenneth Schechter (Dewey Martin) when the latter is wounded by a shell fragment on a Christmas Day mission and finds himself unable to see. The man-| ner in which he guides the help- less Schechter, by pleading, cajol- ery and sometimes an almost hy- pnotic command, back to the car- rier and “talks dewn” the blinded ensign and his ship onto the nar- row deck, makes for as gripping and thrilling an incident as has been séen on the screen in a long time. But there are other hard-hitting performances, as well. Frank Love- joy is impressive as Lt. Command- er Paul Gryson, the tough, courag- eous squadron leader whose “‘fol- low-me”’ orders lead to almost sui- TANKER PROGRAM WASHINGTON (# — The Senate hag sent to President Eisenhower a bill authorizing a 150-million-dol- lar tanker construction program. The compromise measure calls for private construction of 15 tankers and government construction of five. your life! ‘his finest portrayals in the role of to gather material about Navy pi- Ted Dodson, a veteran of World lots. War II, who is embittered at hav- ing to serve in the present conflict but who, nevertheless, sacrifices | his life in an attempt to locate a missing comrade. Walter Pidgeon | plays the sympathetic and under-} standing flight surgeon, Command- er Kent Dowling, and Louis Cal-| hern is excellent as the writer, TO SOLVE YOUR MONEY PROBLEMS wt TE | aT 703 DUVAL STREET PHONE 2-8555 LOANS TO $300 (24 MONTHS TO REPAY) LET FLORIDA’S FASTEST GROWING LOAN SERVICE GIVE YOU A NEW START A “MAC” Loan Will Improve Your Standard Of Living A “MAC” Loan Will Give You Freedom From Worry About Bills - Debts Necessities - Emergencies LOANS TO SERVICE PERSONNEL kk kk “PEACE OF MIND” 18 “MAC’S” PRODUCT kkKKEK M. A. ©. CREDIT Co., INC. 4 sensationa!_ yew fashion ir Applikay adds shimmering design to freshly painted Super Kem-Tone walls. It comes ready to use and less than a quart of Applikay is enough for the averageroom. 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