HomeMy WebLinkAboutHistorical Records - The Arizona Daily Star (35)Neighbors , •• J 1 ,.__ __ _, , , , t't11r · ,..\ri~ona Dailn Slur * TucsoN, THuRsoAv, JUNE 19, 19so H
Beef, brotherhood make
this company a cut above
By LAURA STONE
The Arizona Daily Star
At first it was Alex and Jack and Ruben.
Then Alex moved to California. Soon, Oscar
and Filiberto joined the team.
The five are the Islas brothers, known to
many longtime residents as proprietors of
the American Meat Co. Inc., 1435 S. Fourth
Ave.
Beef is the mainstay of the thriving retail
business. The good-natured brothers say
they sell 20,000 to 25,000 pounds a week. Add
to that another 20,000 pounds of pork,
chicken and lunch meats. Groceries -in-
cluding milk, cheese, fresh vegetables and
canned goods -round out the business' bill
of fare.
But the meat company was not always so
prosperous. When it was started in 1953, the
brothers did not have enough money to buy
meat and lacked another essential: a name
for their new enterprise.
It was Alex and Ruben, the meatcutters
in the family, who decided it was time to go
into business for themselves.
Jack, now president of the company, said
he joined his brothers even though he knew
nothing about meat: "I was a machinist. I
just wandered in here and learned the meat
business. Or tried to, anyway."
Their original investment was $4,800,
about half of which they borrowed from
their father, Alex Sr. The money was spent
on equipment and to rent a building for-
merly occupied by the American Realty Co.
in the 1200 block of South Fourth Avenue.
Ruben, 48, explained, "When we finished
buying equipment, we didn't have any
money left. So Alex hired this sign painter
for $10 who painted over 'Realty' on the
outside of the building and put 'Meat' there
instead."
And the business has been called Ameri-
cean Meat Co. ever since.
They had the store and the equipment,
but no meat. "A friend of Alex's from Saf-
ford gave us meat on credit," said Jack, 52.
He paused and wrinkled his brow: "Those
first few years were rough."
It took the brothers three years of 60-hour
weeks tu pay back their father. Then Alex,
now 61, decided in 1960 he wanted to move to
California, and he sold his interest to his
brothers.
But the remaining duo soon had some
help from their younger brothers. Oscar,
now 42, started working for the business
while he was in high school.
"It was to keep him out of trouble," Jack
said, chiding his younger brother as the four
relaxed over coffee recently.
And Filiberto, now 44, had been a welder
for 10 years when he developed a problem
with his eyes. "The doctor recommended I
give it up. The brothers asked me to join
them, and I've been here for 13 years now,"
Filiberto said.
By 1963, the business had outgrown its
first home, and the brothers moved to their
present location.
Today, shoppers make their choices from
refrigerated cases of meat and displays of
groceries and produce toward the front of
the building .
But the real action takes place in the
Work in stride Page3H
lslases all
-Say American Meat
Co. to longtime Tuc-
_sonans and it means the
Islas brothers, from left,
Ruben, Filiberto, Oscar
and Jack. And it means
Islas relatives, such as
Alex 111, below, son of an-
other brother. (Star
photos by Art Gras-
berger)
back of the store, where about a dozen
butchers chop and cut the meat. A large
freezer "hold s up to 80 head of beef," Jack
said. A second freezer is reserved for pork
and chicken.
Meat goes from freezer to cutting room
via a network of rails attached to the ceil-
(See BROTHERS', Page 12H)
Neighbors South
Quilters-
The art of quilting is
practiced for a profit by ,
from left, Viola Theobald,
Tenny Forsling, Wilma
Davis and Verna Busch•
man. The women's
church in Green Valley
reaps the benefits. (Star
photo by Carol Sowell)
Warm quilts bring cold cash for Green Valley church
By CAROL SOWELL
The Arizona Daily Star
Eight Green Valley women have been getting together
for 11 years to practice an art form that was common in their
grandmothers' day.
The women have been meeting weekly to quilt, a craft
now rare enough that their skills are in great demand .
People with stitched or embroidered tops for quilts
bring them to the women, who add the backing sheet and a
layer of cotton batting for padding.
Then, members of the group stitch by hand through the
three layers in patterns that give the quilt its three-dimen-
sional, sculptured look.
The customer is charged according to the amount of
work the job requires. For example, a recent fee for quilting
a double-bed cover was $85 . And the group charged $160 for
finishing a king-size, flower-garden quilt, made up of l¼-
inch squares that required stitching around each piece.
When they aren't quilting for somebody else, the woinen
make small, quilted lap robes, which they sell for $10 to $25.
They use the proceeds from all their work to buy items for
their church, Lutheran Church of the Risen Savior in Green
Valley.
Last year, they spent $950 earned during the last four
years to build steps to the church's social room and install
wrought-iron railings along the church entryway.
The art of quilting takes patience, which doesn't seem
to come easily to modem-day women, said Wilma Davis.
"I guess they're afraid of sticking their fingers," one
quilter quipped.
Viola Theobald remembered a group of women who met
to quilt and talk in the church basement when she was a child
in St. Louis. "That was the only activity of ladies' groups in
those days. Nowadays, women have so many activities,"
Theobald said.
Besides patience, quilting takes basic hand-sewing abil-
ity, Davis said.
But Verna Buschman added, "If you can push a needle,
it doesn't take too long to learn."
The quilters have been meeting at Davis' home almost
all day each Monday. They bring sack lunches and work
together around one or both of their two quilt frames. The
work -top, batting and backing -is rolled gradually from
Sunnyside begins search for new superintendent
The Board of Education of the Sunnyside Unified School
District has announced plans to hire a new superintendent
by the end of July.
At a special meeting Tuesday night, board members
outlined the procedure for selecting a replacement for Lewis
T. Sorensen, who resigned as of June 30 to become superin-
tendent of the Tanque Verde School District.
The district is accepting applications from district em-
ployees through June 24. It will advertise the position be-
tween June 30 and July 11.
Applications will be reviewed by a citizens' screening
committee, made up of one person appointed by each of the
five board members. Committee members must live within
the district boundaries, but may not be employed by the
district.
Board members will begin interviewing candidates July
23 and plan to name a new superintendent by July 29.
At its regular meeting last Thursday, the board adopted
a $25.4 million budget for the 1980-81 school year on a 4-1 vote.
The budget is 9 percent higher than the 1979-80 budget.
Camilo Castrillo voted against the budget, saying he feared
PAGE TWO -SECTION H *
it included relocation and reduction of staff members.
Also last week, the board hired Barbara Guyton as
administrative director of elementary curriculum effective
July 1. Guyton has been director of reading in the district for
the past five years and previously taught at Elvira Elemen-
tary School for 11 years.
The board also voted to hire the law firm of Stompoly
and Even, effective July 1. The firm will replace John Price,
who has been the board's lawyer for three years.
Car-test unit to visit Green Valley
The state's mobile emissions-testing unit will visit
Green Valley July 15-18.
The unit will test automobile emissions from 8 a.m . to
3 p.m . on the Haven Green Valley Mall.
Vehicles may be inspected up to 90 days before their_
registration expires, Arizona Vehicle Inspection Program
officials said. The vehicles should be driven at least five
miles before testing to get the engine to normal operating
temperature.
THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
one side of the frame to the next, as the quilters complete
each section.
A variety of stitches may be used on a quilt, Davis
explained. "The stitches are uniform and even," she
added.
After the stitching is completed, a strip of bias binding
is sewed around the edges and hemmed by hand.
"You can't hurry this work," Buschman said.
Those who bring their quilts to the group have to be
patient , too. Since 1974 , the women have completed about 15
quilts and 20 lap robes, Davis said, consulting a record book
she has kept since that time.
"We have a backlog of four or five quilts to do. We're
never out of work," Buschman added.
It usually takes four to six weeks to complete a quilt,
depending on how many hands are at work each week, Davis
said.
"A lot of the people have had tops (for quilts) for years,
but couldn't find anyone to do the quilting," Buschman
said .
Most of the women in the group learned to quilt when
they moved to Green Valley . But Davis was introduced to
the art by members of a longstanding quilting group at her
church in Wintersvill e, Ohio .
After 10 years with the Wintersville group, Davis moved
to Green Valley , where she looked for others to help her
continue the tradition . Davis, Buschman and Hazel Lind-
shield were among the founders of the Green Valley group
and are still active.
The founders were motivated to do something for their
fledgling Lutheran church, which didn't have a building at
the time. By the time a structure was completed in 1974,
the quilting group had earned enough money to buy dishes
and utensils for its kitchen .
"It's a good feeling to go to church on Sunday morning
and see something you've been able to contribute," Theo-
bald said.
Tenny Forsling added, "It's a great feeling of satisfac-
tion ."
Other regular quilters are Alma Kiefer, Helen Girod,
Irma Dittmar and Marvel Stout.
Members of the group are taking a rest for the summer,
but will resume meeting again in October to earn more
money for the church. The next expenditure hasn't been
determined, but "we're looking for another good project,"
said one of the members, steadily stitching away.
Neighbors
~~i , f;j I
w
~\!1
{;\w~
East Doorstop -Millie Hutchins' feet provide transportation for her job delivering advertising fliers
door-to-door. (Star photo by Art Grasberger)
Footloose 83-year-old
takes her job in stride
By SUSAN M. KNIGHT
The Arizona Dally Star
One eastside resident has found an to time, Hutchins will keep walking until
answer to the gas crunch. noon. Then, she calls it quits while the
Millie Hutchins' idea not only saves
gas mileage, but it earns her extra spend-
ing money and often brings peace of
mind, she said.
Besides, the spry 83-year..old woman
loves to walk. So she has set up a service
delivering advertising fliers door-to-
door, charging about $35 per 1,000
pieces.
Some weeks Hutchins does not have
any orders. In a typical job, she logs
about three miles and delivers about
3,000 fliers.
All types of businesses, from hair-
dressers and hobby stores to delicates-
sens and dance schools, use Hutchins'
service.
"Do you think it would turn people
off if they knew my age?" the sun-tanned
woman asked.
But Hutchins shouldn't have to
worry about stereotypes. Her enthusi-
asm for keeping active is immediately
obvious to potential clients.
And her youthful exuberance might
be familiar to the people she meets on her
rounds. Hutchins has been the star of sev-
eral television commercials, the latest
being a spot for Do-it-Yourself Pest and
Weed Control.
"They told me I photographed
well," Hutchins said.
For her more permanent employ-
ment, she rises with the sun, along with
roosters and newspaper deliverers. On a
typical morning, she sets out at about
6:30 to begin delivering the circulars to
car windshields and home doorjambs.
"One thing I like so much about this
is that I ordinarily wouldn't be apt to go
out," Hutchins said.
Taking 20-minute breaks from time
sun is at its hottest and hits the road
again about 4:30 p.m .
The business began six months ago
when Hutchins' neighbor, owner of a pub-
lic-relations firm, needed some circulars
delivered.
"I said, 'I'd Jove to be doing some-
thing like that,' and so I got started,"
Hutchins said.
"General chatter" is a welcome part
of the business, Hutchins said. "I meet
some very nice people. Some are out in
their yards. Others have dogs that warn
them, and they meet me at the door.
"I'm a cat and dog Jover, too, and I
see plenty of them," she added. How-
ever, her puppy, Whiskers, is too young
to make the treks and stays at home.
Born in Canada and raised in New-
foundland, Hutchins later settled in
Cleveland. She married there and reared
two children, but was widowed in 1935.
Hutchins always has liked keeping
busy. "My marriage was a merry-go-
round of happiness and activity,'' she
said.
She later lived in Florida, where she
modeled for dress shops and had parts in
a few commercials. Many summers she
worked as a cashier in various New En-
gland resorts. Hutchins moved to Tucson
10 years ago because she has a daughter
living here.
But wherever she has lived, "I liked
to walk for my own enjoyment. If I like it,
I may as well make it pay off," Hutchins
said.
Her secret to the fountain of youth?
Hutchins said she gets plenty of sleep and
eats properly. "I guess it's being happy
and taking my vitamins," she added .
All around town-------------
Studenf leaders, advisers heading for conference
Highland Vista Neighborhood
POOL OPENS
MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE Students and advisers from Sunnyside and Palo Verde
high schools will attend the national conference of the Na-
tional Association of Student Councils and Student Activity
Advisers beginning Saturday in Aurora, Colo.
Oro Valley hearing continues
The Oro Valley Town Council will resume a public
hearing tonight on the town's area and transportation plans
and zoning categories.
The hearing, continued from last week, will begin at 7
tonight in the Town Hall, 680 W. Calle Concordia.
The adopted area and transportation plans will be part
of the Oro Valley General Plan, which has been on the
drawing board for almost three years. The council also will
hear public comment on changes in four zoning categories:
TR (transitional), CB-1 (local business), and CR-4 and CR-5
(both multiple residence).
TUCSON,THURSDAY,JUNE19,198O
Sunnyside will be the host school for the 1981 national
conference.
Barbara Direnfeld and Janet McNally will be student-
government delegates from Palo Verde. Adviser Paula
Edgar will accompany them to the conference.
Attending from Sunnyside will be Susie Ballesteros and
Renee Domanico, student leaders of next year's conference.
Other Sunnyside students at the Colorado meeting will be
Patty Ennis, Ernie Orci, Teresa Pareses, Alex Ballesteros,
Cheryl Nelson, Lori Duffy, Eileen Nolan and Kathy Lund.
Teachers Carol Griffith and Jack Pirtle, who will be
co-leaders of the Sunnyside conference, will attend the Colo-
rado meeting. Other adult delegates from Sunnyside will be
Carl Brunenkant, Brenda Even, Irene Diaz, Ray Lopez,
Maxine Faust, Lee Gustus, Louie Sanchez and Ray For-
ster.
THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
.
UM C:TREET
~ f
-···-
1 * § HIGHLAND VISTA POOL
.,t
.)..
,q'
~
I BROADWAY I
Our pool is inexpensive, family oriented, with swim teom/
lessons. A greot place for the whole family this summer.
Located at 7th St. and Woodland Vista. Drive by and
look it over/ stop in. For mare information call evenings
7 45-1561 or 7 45-1200 or 326-1058.
Play a
• piano.
Check classification
402 in Star/Citizen
Want Ads. To place
an ad, call 889-5333.
* SECTION H -PAGE THREE
All around town Arizonans en route to Indian woman's beatification rites By LAURA ST9NE
The Arizona Daily Star
A Yaqui stole and a Papago weaving will be gifts from
Tucson-area residents to Pope John Paul II during Mass thi s
weekend in Rome. •
The offerings are being taken to the Vatican today by a
small group of Arizonans as they begin a pilgrimage that ties
a 96-year effort to canonize an Indian woman with the
American Indians' struggle for recognition within the
Roman Catholic Church.
Six Arizonans, three from the Catholic Diocese of Tuc-
son, are joining 109 other pilgrims from across the United
States for the trek to Rome to witness the beatification of
Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th-century New York Mohawk.
The delegation, made up of tribal and religious repre-
sentatives, also will be present Saturday for a special audi-
ence with the pope, which President Carter is expected to
attend . •
None of the three local representatives knows much
abou t the Indian woman, they said before leaving . But one of
the delega t-es, the Rev . Stanley Nadolny , diocesan vicar for
Native Americans , spoke for all three when he said : "This is
an acknow ledgment of the Indians and their place in the
church."
William R. An tone, a Papago from Covered Wells ,
added , "Before, it was always the missionaries who had the •
final say. Now, it is beginning to be the Indian people ."
"It's a breakthrough, said the third delegate, Dolores
Lopez, a Yaqui from Old Pascua Village . "The Vatican is
listening to the little people."
The three other Arizonans making the journey are: the
Rev . Simon F . Conrad , Fort Defiance; Sister Rosita Shiose,
St. Michaels; and the Rev. Edmund Savilla, Winslow .
During the beatification ceremony, which marks the
last step befor;e a person is declared a saint, the title
"blessed" is conferred.
Nadolny said the ceremony comes at a tinie when
"Indians are coming of age." There has been an effort by the
Indians to move from being supported by missions toward
"self-determination," he said.
Antone, chairman of the Papago Catholic Community,
remembered seeing a statue of Kateri Tekakwitha in the
front of St. John's Mission, where he went to school. "I
thought she had always been a saint," he said .
Antone related the events that le~d up to the pilgrim-
age : Several months ago, a group came from Phoenix to the
Papago reservation to explain the .canonization process for
the Indian woman, he said .
Only the highlights of the Indian woman's life are
known by the delegates. The daughter of a Mohawk chief,
Kateri Tekakwitha was born in Auriesville, N.Y., in )656 .
She was raised by an uncle after her family died in a
smallpox epidemic. The disease left her with pitted skin and
poor eyesight.
The Indian woman, known as the "Lily of the Ma-
hawks," was baptized in 1675 by Jesuit missionaries. Against
local custom, she refused to marry.
Two years later, she fled her homeland after barely
escaping death for her beliefs and walked 200 miles to Sault
St. Louis, near Montreal.
There, she devoted herself to prayer and service to the
Indian community . She died in 1680, a year after taking a
private vow of chastity. She is buried in Canawaga, On-
tario.
Her canonization process was begun in 1884. In 1943, she
was declared venerable, a recognition of her holy life by the
Vatican.
The Rev. Joseph McBride of New York, U.S. vice postu-
lator for the Indian woman's cause, said that although a •
candidate usually must have been responsible for well docu-
mented miracles before beatification, that requirement has
been wa\ved in this case.
"The beatification will be based upon the wholeness and
sanctity of the person's life," McBride said.
Antone and Lopez agreed it was an honor to make the
pilgrimage. The Diocese of Tucson provided $2,000 for the
trip, and the rest was raised during the past several
weeks .
PAGE FOUR -SECTION H *
Epilepsy society cooking up Swanway Plaza bake sale The Friend~-0f Epilepsy will hold a bake sale from 9:30 a.m . to 4 p .m. Saturday at Swanway Plaza at Broadway and Swan Road in Tucson.'-The sale is to raise money for the Epilepsy Society of Southern Arizona .
KODAK -PENTAX -NIKON
COLORBURST 250
INSTANT CAMERA
Built-in electronic flash,
motorized print ejection. No
focusing-just aim and shootl
#131-5324 Reg . $53.96
SALE 4688
SALE-
AFTER $10 MAIL-IN
REBATE FROM KOOAK
35ss
A . COLORBURST 50 INSTANT
CAMERA
Automatic motorized print ejec-
tion . No focusing. Automatic
electric eye exposure .
#131 -5241 Reg. $31.96
SALE 2696
B. C-10 INSTANT FLASH
AFTER $5 MAIL-IN
REBATE FROM KOOAK
2196
~~~ ~ I I ~ ~ ~~~~-~-get another '· ~ .. ,~·\\N •
Up to 100 flashes per set of 4
"AA" alkaline batteries .
#140-0613 [ 23~3 l
With this rebate offer, receive valuable
Cash-Back Certificates worth $10 on KODAK
Instant Color Film PR10 packs . Certificates
redeemable through July 1, 1981. Paid by
KODAK . 510back
PRICES GOOD WHILE QUANTITIES LAST OR THAU SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1980. -~11,j lg}]~~
Nikon
EM CASE
#4495
A. EM
with 50mm f/1.8
SERIES E LENS
Automatic through-the-
lens exposure . Sonic
"beep" provides under/
over exposure warning .
Interchangeable lens
capability .
#1700, 1230 Reg. $259 .80
SALE
2199~
B. SB-E AUTO
SALE THYRISTOR FLASH
Couples to EM camera for
automatic use. Automatic
up to 24 feet.80-150
K1000 with 50mm f/2.0 LENS
1 / 1000th to 1 second precision
shutter . Through -the-lens
light metering system . Inter-
changeable lens capability.
#84502 Reg. $169.96
14777
fla shes per set of 4 "AAA"
alkaline batteries.
YOUR COST #~ K1000 CASE
#32630 1898 ~
UN I TED ~l!AJJe!oA & Dutiuhu1drA
EL CON SHOPPING CENTER, 3601 E. BROADWAY
Ph: 881-3971
M0N.-FRI. 10 A.M.-9 P.M.,
SAT. 10 A.M.-6 P.M., SUN. N00N-5 P.M.
YOUR COST
25"
16-2-48
THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR TUCSON, THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1980
.,
The other side
-Preparing a tortilla takes
more than a flip of the wrist, as
demonstrated by Art Pes-
queira, above, scooping out
washed corn to be ground.
Meanwhile, Frank Pesqueira
helps Gloria Guevera put the
dough through the stretching
machine. The Pesqueira broth-
ers are owners of Grande Tor-
tilla Factory.
Star photos
by Art Grasberger
TUCSON, THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1980
Neighbors West All in the tortilla Brothers keep family plant rolling in dough
By LAURA STONE
The Arizona Daily Star
Plenty of flour, a little salt, some lard and water all go
into making a flour tortilla.
Likewise, hard work, a bit of luck and a lot of help from
the family are the main ingredients of the Grande Tortilla
Factory.
Five mornings a week, the kitchen in the back of the
building at 914 N. Grande Ave . hums with mixers and grind-
ers that chum out the makings for tortillas and a variety of
Mexican food for the takeout restaurant up front.
With a green apron tied around his waist, Frank Pes-
queira, one of the owners, grinned with pride as he talked
about the family run business: "I don't think I'd want to
change it." Frank, 34, has worked in the business since he
was a youngster.
He watched as employees in matching aprons moved
soft, white dough through machines that mixed, formed and
stretched the tortillas . With a flip of the wrist, the dough
was given one last stretch before sailing through a huge
revolving oven.
Minding the front counter was Frank's brother and
business partner, Art, busily packaging chimichanga
lunches for businessmen and tortillas for neighborhood resi-
dents .
Neatly dressed, Art, 31, demonstrates confidence that
comes from eight years in the business and a degree in
finance from the University of Arizona.
Before joining the family enterprise, Art worked for a
year with the city, but "that got to the point where I could
hardly wait for Friday and my paycheck. Here, that doesn't
happen.
"There's something about watching it grow and do well.
You work harder for yourself than you do for someone else,"
Art added .
And grow the establishment did. In 1947, the brothers'
father, Frank Sr., decided to give up a 20-year career as an
ironworker. The senior Pesqueira bought a dough mixer
from his sister and brother-in-law, Artemisa and Willie
Garcia, who own La Suprema Mexican Food Products Inc.
He also acquired a hot grill and started a tiny tortilla-making
business at the present location.
The early days were filled with seven-day weeks and
hot summer work -the building lacked cooling in those
THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
days . Frank Sr . dealt with the customers while his wife, Ar-
mida, mixed, stretched and cooked the 300 tortillas sold each
day . They later added a variety of takeout foods .
Once a year in August, the couple would close down the
store and head for a vacation in cooler country.
Those hard days paid off. Today, Frank and Art market
5,000 of the thin, unleavened discs each day, using more than
400 pounds of flour.
The brothers, who bought the business from their father
in 1975 after their mother died, are pleased with its success,
though they have made some changes.
"It was a difficult first year (1975). We had a lot of
arguments with our father because we really did things
differently," Art said .
'One point of contention was the brothers' reversing
their father's "no-checks" policy. Their father's negative
attitude toward credit extends to checks, Art explained .
Today, Frank Sr. stops by the factory for abou t an hour
each day, but basically does not interfere with the operation
of the business. He still grimaces, however, when he sees a
stack of checks going to the bank, Art said.
Another major change Art and Frank made was to cut
back on the operating hours . The business is now closed on
Sundays and Wednesdays in an effort "to improve morale,"
Art said . Regular hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p .m. the other five
days.
"We enjoy the business. We don't have to hustle as hard
as my parents did, because people know us," Art said. They
do little advertising these days because most customers
hear about them by word of mouth, he added.
Family is still an essential element. Frank's wife, Irma,
works in the kitchen, as does Irma's brother-in-law , Barney
Amparano. Frank and Irma's oldest son, also named Frank,
comes by on Saturdays to lend a hand.
And the family turns out in full force to help in Decem-
ber -tamale-making time, a Mexican tradition at
Christmas. "It gets really hectic around here then," Frank
said .
Their different but compatible skills may be the most
important mixture to their success, the brothers said:
"Frank does most of the cooking and the fixing of
equipment," Art said. And Frank said of Art: "He's more or
less the brain. He takes care of the bookkeeping."
* SECTION H -PAGE FIVE
All around town *
Home ag ain -David Sebba, 13 , de scribe s hi s exper iences
at a Denver hospital and center for asthmatic child ren to his par ents , Jon
and Carta, and hi s brother, Rafael, 8, far right.
Att acking as t hma
Adapting puts t he win d back in his sails
By JILL SCHENSUL
The Arizo na Daily Star
After si x yea rs of gasping for breath,
13-yea r-old David Sebba can breathe a sigh
of r eli ef, freely.
Not because a year's stint at the National
J ewish Hospita l/Natio na l Asthma Center in
Denver cured Da vid's asthma. It di dn't.
Asthma , a chroni c respi ratory diso rd er,
is not somethi ng that ca n be cured , but an
ast hmatic can learn. to live with it, said
David and his parent s, Carla and Jon.
And that is one of t he most valuable leS-
so ns David lea rned du ring his year in Den-
ver -he returned ho me May 23.
A year away from home, living wi t h other
asthmatic child ren a nd performing "nor-
mal" activities gave Davi d the confi dence
he needed to break the ho ld asthma had on
his life, the teen -ager said.
Although David did not have his first
asthma attack until he was 7, his parents
could not remember a time when they were
not helping their so n fight for every tortured
breath.
But Mrs. Se bba r em em bered the first
attack. She was readi ng a bedtime story to
David in their Chicago home and "he was
making these fun ny sounds." She imitated
labored, raspy breathi ng.
"It told him to stop breathing like that. I
thought he was just fooling around ." She
looked at her son, who was listeni ng soberly.
The doctors' diagnosis was asthma and
pneumonia .
David was hospi ta lized "at lea st eight .
times" during the year after his first attack.
Finally, David's lung collapsed wrule his
father was in the hospital room.
Asthma qui ckl y changed the youngste r's
life . Be fore, Dav id wo uld spend afternoons
in the street, running races with his friends.
Then, Sebba wa s watch ing ms son from the
livi ng-room window one da y .
"I saw rum out t he r e telling his fri ends he
woul d time for them whil e they raced ," he
said . "It really broke my heart to see my so n
bei ng a timer instead of a competitor ."
Sebba's voice wa s soft as he glanced at his
son.
"The emotional strain, for all of us, was
tremendous,'' Mrs. Se bba added.
The Sebbas moved to Tucson in 1975,
hoping t he cli mate woul d help. On his fifth
day of breat hing clea n , dry air, David
turned bl ue a t a restaurant and was taken to
the a ll -too-fa milia r su rroundings of a hospi-
tal eme rgency room.
Da vid's pa r ents became businesslike
about certain a spects of their son's asthma.
For example, they pl a nned trips with at
least one hosp ital en route, and ordered
enough med ici ne for an extended vacation.
But the Sebbas said they never managed
to harness their emotions.
Then one day in 1979, David collapsed on
his way into the emergency room. It was the
replay of a sce ne that had happened so many
times, his parents had lost count. Mrs. Sebba
ran for the doctor, frantically demanding
that he save her son one more time.
This time, the doctor recommended that
David be sent to the Denver facility, 00th for
the you ngster's health and for that of his
parents.
Patients at the asthma center must be
referred by a docto r , Funds from contribu-
tions are available for those who need help
with all or part of th e medical costs.
David was placed in t he hospital section
of the facility when he arrived in March last
year. There, doctors designed a medication
regjmen to control his asthma , and counsel-
ors worked with David to help him cope with
the emotional strain.
And while t he youngster sorted out his
own life, his parents we r e picking up the
threads of theirs, whi ch t hey said they had
put in a holding pattern for six years.
"We had a lot of t hings to talk about."
Mrs. Sebba said, looking at her husband .
"We learned a new ap preciation of each
ot her."
Af ter three months a t t he ho spital, do e-
tors decided to t ran sfer David to th e center,
where he li ved in a donnitory with oth er
asthmatics. About HlO children, ages 6 to 16,
are residen ts of the ce nter at any one tim e.
While David did not have m uc h to say
about his frequ ent and le ngt hy hospitaliza-
ti ons, the precocious 13-yea r-0ld be came an-
ima ted and eloquent when a sked about hi s
stay a t the cente r .
The t ransi tion was rough at fi rst, beca use
he was "picked on," David said. But, "I
know it was better for me that I wen t," he
a dded philosophically .
"Yo u learn ho w to be more ope n, more
hon est with yo ur feeli ng s. I had to be mo re
sensitive to my internal feeli ngs." David
expressed his thoughts with almost a larm-
ing seriousness, i n a tone that emphasized
his direct honesty.
His sessions with counselors and every-
day dealings with 100 peers made this sort of
directness a necessity, David said.
Living with a variety of children also
helped David to learn to get along with peo-
ple, he said. In the past, he sometimes fe lt
different because of his extensive vocabu-
lary and special health problem, David
added.
Probably the biggest surprise to both
David and his parents was the way the teen-
ager bloomed as an athlete, they said,
Aft er having given up physical activity
fo r seven years , David was sitting on the
sidelines of a football game one day, think-
ing about things. "Then 1 remembered,
'There's something to this kid,' and got up
and joi ned in," Dav id said.
After a few test runs in sports events,
David said he dec ided there really was
somethi ng to that little kid -asthma or no
asthma. Sure, he did his share of wheez ing
a nd coughi ng down the field, but it was
nothl ng an exhilarating run over the goal
li ne co ul dn 't cure.
And Da vid add ed, "The r e's just nothi ng
li ke the fee ling of s tanding on the field, a ll
a lo ne, waiting fo r your f riends to stop
wheezing a nd com e out to join you.
"It's great to be on th e in side, looki ng
out."
You're all alone with a choking feeling, but shared responsib il ity helps breath le ss to adjust
Da vid Sebba 's story was not new to re-
porter Jill Sch ensul, whose o wn chronic
asthma as a child made it n ecessary for
her to spend two yea rs at th e National
J ewi,sh H ospital/Na t ional Asthma Center
in Denver. Schensul explains th e kin ship
she fee ls with Da vid and other youngsters
who have shared their experiences .
By JILL SCH E NSUL
The Arizona Daily Star
It has been 15 years since I sat at that
little desk in that space they called my room
and beseeched my parents:
"Dear Mommy and Daddy,
I hav e plenty of time to wri te to you
now. Nobody likes me . I have no
friends. Oh please, come and get me.
Don 't you love me?"
I meant every sad word, and I would cry
onto my pink stationery and circle the tears
so they would know I meant business.
Then, I would mail my pleas 2,000 miles
away to New York-to my parents, who , in
their own ways , wer e suffe ring at lea st as
much a s I was .
Many years had gone by since I began my
two-y ear stay a t what is now the Na tional
Jewi sh Hospital/Na tional Asthma Center.
But looki ng a t David Sebba, sitting shyly in
the corner of the couch -hi s pa rents
watching him every once in a wru le with a n
intense mi xture of love, concern and a mu se-
ment -it seemed lik e just yesterday.
The fa mil y's remini scences were like
shock Waves, sending my thoughts rippling
in a ll directions :
To choking nights with my head out th e
window of the old Buick, inhaling th e ex-
haust fum es on the streets of Brooklyn for a
bit of "fresh air " before we visited the emer-
gency room once more. "Hi, Jill,'' the peo-
pl e in white would say with resign. My
blanched face was as fami1iar as Band-
Aids.
David's story was so similar . Could this
still be happening? Are parents still driving
their wheezing chHdren frantically through
the streets a t 3 d.m. in sea r ch of fresh ai r ? I
wondered a s I heard th e fa miliar episod es .
David's se ntiments about his asthma a lso
echoed my own. It was no bi g dea l, David
said . There a re worse thi ngs.
I k new t ha t. I have had ast hma a ll my life
a nd a m pre tt y bla5e a bo ut it -unl ess I'm i n
t he middle of choking.
No big deal either to li ve aw ay from
home on your own when you're just a chil d,
Davi d said simply. It's tru e -you do it
because if you don't, you just might not be
aliv e next year.
I felt in David's silence and ru s sho rt, shy
sentences a bond that explained all the
things unsaid .
We shared the feeling of all-aloneness -
t he feeling that, though doc tors and parents
looked on with love and medicine, you were
alone with that choking feeling . And, though
onlookers might argue the point, you know
in those mo ments you would rather be
dead .
But David and I s hared somethi ng be-
yond t ha t , whi ch sprang from our stays in
Denv e r.
Da vid summ ed up the experi e nce sim-
ply : "They teac h you ho w to li ve wi t h it."
My thoughts went hurtling ba ck ward. I
flashed on an inc iden t several months afte r I
a r ri ved in Denver.
I was 9 years old, trudging home from a
nearby public school through heavy snow-
d ri fts in a dirty-blue down jacket, sucki ng
in col d air wi th a fee ling of hyst e ria.
"Come on, Jill , it's not much fu rt her,"
my a sthmatic friends urg ed. Th ey took my
books and pu t my arms around their shoul -
ders . Some of them were wheezing, too.
Nobody was going to rescue us. The
thought scared me out of my wits, but I was
stuck with that fact. So I sat down periodi-
cally in the snow in vain attempts to calm
myself and catch my breath. I wanted to
cry, but had no strength.
We made it to the hos pital on the center's
camp us . The nurses too k off my dirty little
jacket, put me in bed a nd st uck me wi t h
needles.
Before t hey left me to wheeze myself to
slee p, th ey told m e I had dou ble pneumoni a
and had don e very well to wal k all tho se
bl ocks hom e from school.
We go t used to it . We all sensed we had a
bi g res ponsibili ty to each other.
So we dragged one ano t he r to wa rd help
when we were sick and flung each other
playfully into the snow when we were not.
We sneaked peanut butter into the hospital
(p ea nut butter was off-limits because so
many asthmatics a r e allergic to it) because
we could sacrifice only so much to stay
well.
The nights of telling each other ghost
stories, the days of sledding down long hill s
with a dog named Blackie and afternoons of
mora l support via crayons and ice-creani
sodas by a hospital bed created indescrib-
able bo nd s. Tho se times a re pennanent fi x-
tures in my past.
But part of them are a lways with me . And
who knows if I would have had t he chance to
be a reporter if they had not come to pa ss.
Or to have had t he experi enc e last we ek
a s dusk fell on th e Sebba home. Th ere, a n-
ot her set of feelings overpo we r ed my me mo-
ries of Denver.
As David's parents bared their hearts to
share with each othe r and me the effects of
asthma on the normal runnin g of a fa mily, I
felt something in the pit of my st omach. -
A rush of pride and a wave of -for lack
of a better word -gratitude for my own
parents filled my head. Afte r all these yea rs ,
I wa s finally beginning to understand what
was behind the simple words my parents
used to sum up their experiences with my
asthma: "You'll never know wha t we wen t
through."
I knew there was no way to thank them.
And the feeling was twice as strong because
I knew that I really didn't have to .
'
'
=J&·
~ , "
i![ ...
t 1;;;'.,;.:,10=1-, , . ...__,__
Twice-told tales -Reporter Jill Schen sul and
David Sebba wa lk David's dog, Li la, as they discuss their similar
battles wit h asthma .
Star photos by Art Gr asberger
,;,,
~
"
~-
Neighbors >) Southern Arizona
Plain planes bring
the bug for more
piloting, inventing
By ANNE HOLLIDAY-ABBOTT
The Arizona Daily Star
COOLIDGE -Mix a desire to soar though the wide-
open sky with a concern for fuel economy, and what do you
come up with?
A flying Volkswagen?
Close.
Calvin Parker is an inventor and pilot here who has
twice designed simple, all-aluminum airplanes powered by
Volkswagen engines.
He is now work,ng on modifications of his P.rototype!:, to
allow for a two-seat airplane and one powered by a 16-hor•;e-_
power garden-tractor engine
That'<. keeping •um pretty busy, makmg 11 d,fflc1..I• to
Keep up with his many other projects. He is Jn elenrician,
engineer .. nct des1grP.:r, and nis entire mobile homl' at lwy
ligh ' Tra•.ls 1s Jammed with t'1e inner wor;,;in6s Jf the
pro1ects.
ScattPn'd m vanous stages of completion in his living
room are pians for a sa·ellite television receiver ar.d an
electronic word processor. He already has completed plans
for a mini ca ·per designed for a subcompact car,
Parkers two completed auplanes, "Jeanie's Teenie"
PAGE EIGHT_:_ SECTION H *
and "Teenie 2," were featured on the cover of Popular
Mechanics magazine in 1968 and 1971.
Parker said the plans for his home-built airplanes were
innovative because he was the first to use a Volkswagen
engine to power an all-aluminum craft.
The construction of the home-built airplanes requires
no complicated equipmen t, Pa rker said . He noted that the
plane can be put together with only a hacksaw, tinsnips and
a plastic-headed hammer. Indeed, the airplane parts may be
bought from any metal -prod ucts shop, he said
Parker, who has been a pilot since 1946, said he built
several airplanes from other people's designs before
"Jeame's Teenie," but tne simple design he came up with
made his plans highly marketable.
About 7,000 plans were sold for each model, bringing
him about $200,000. He has about $40,000 invested m his new
a .rplanes, he said
At the time of the original design, Parker said, the
planes could be built for about $750. Inflation has doubled the
cost today, Parker said, but they· are still economical com-
pared to other small airplanes
"Jeanie's Teenie," named after his daughter who
THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Simple fare -Whether
it's the single-seater "Teenie 3" he's
adapting to accommodate a larger en-
gine, left, or the half-finished two-seater,
below, Calvin Parker's homemade air-
planes have one thing in common -
smallness. (Star photos by Anne Holli-
day-Abbott)
helped him with construction, will fly at about 120 mph,
Parker said .
Parker said he has landed the airplanes on "unbeliev-
ably rough terrain," and they have held up well, although
once he bounced six feet in the air. And he said he has logged
more than 250 takeoffs and landings in "Teenie 2."
Parker, 55, is a high school dropout , he said, so he has
been largely self-taught, consulting technical books when he
was stumped by a problem.
After he had developed the original "Jeanie's Teenie,"
he submitted the plans to six aviation magazines. Popular
Mechanics was the only one co respond. and he struck up a
deal with the editor ·'in three mml'tes on the telephone.'
The magazine sold the p1ans, for which Parker received
royalties. Parker still has 12 garbage cans filled with corre-
spondence concerning his airplanes that he said he cannot
find time to answer.
Detractors and imitators have plagued Parker ever
since his original plans were ~ade public, he said
He said he is bothered by people who dende his air-
planes, but not enough to stop trying to top his latest en-
deavor.
"I still have a great deal of cunos1ty about things. If a
person doesn't have curiosity, they're dead," Parker said.
TUCSON, THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1980
~
B
Old-time soldiering
soothes prison staff
By DON DALE
The Arizona Dally Star
FORT GRANT -Employees of the Fort Grant Train-
ing Center have turned the clock back 100 years to relieve
the stress of working in a prison. The results are a combina-
tion of soothed psyches and sore seats .
The re-creation of "C" Troop of the 4th U.S. Cavalry
was the brainstorm of Dave Keefer, a security sergeant at
the Arizona Department of Corrections' minimum-security
prison. The administration has supported it wholeheartedly
as a kind of play therapy .
"It's minimum security," Fort Grant Superintendent
Steve Hargett said of his prison, "but (in) any facility where
you have people confined 24 hours a day, you have a lot of
problems." Those psychological problems were unresolved
in the past, Hargett said.
"It's good to get your mind away from it," he empha-
sized. "I'm trying to develop more activities for the employ-
ees."
Keefer -a cowboy and rancher before joining the
Corrections Department three years ago -was the logical
instigator of this type of activity. With his interest and the
prison's nine horses (used to work its cattle and chase
escaped prisoners), the ingredients of a cavalry troop were
there.
"I have more fun putting this together than I do riding,"
Keefer said during a recent open house. "C" Troop re-en-
acted the old days of soldiering during the open house with
Fort Huachuca's "B" Troop and the 7th Confederate Cav-
alry from Phoenix, which also has an artillery battery.
At the re-enactment one "C" Trooper fell off his horse,
many had patchwork uniforms, and none had sabers. Keefer
said of his 13 riders he had only "two horsemen and 11
fellows that are just learning."
But you have to start someplace, and Keefer's men are
enthusiastic. He also has 35 people waiting to get on one of
TUCSON, THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1980
the two nine-man teams that eventually will constitute "C"
Troop.
"We've done a lot of scrounging," Keefer said of his
efforts to organize the troop. He said some material has been
provided by the prison (for which he said the state will be
reimbursed), and the inmates are getting into the act by
making uniforms and leather gear in their vocational
shops.
Ironically, this lends a degree of authenticity, accord-
ing to Keefer. He said the uniforms for the 19th-century
cavalry were made by federal prisoners at Fort Leaven-
worth, Kan.
"I'm a horsetrader by trade," Keefer said. He has
traded with other troops to obtain some of his gear, including
the reproduction of a breech-loading Wentworth cannon that
he obtained to provide a little firepower -nothing else
makes quite the same impression on a crowd.
Keefer would like to bring that big bang to more people.
"We're looking for engagements," he said, hoping for invi-
tations to put his troop in parades and events all over
Arizona this summer.
But even if the men practice only among themselves
they feel it is worthwhile.
"There's a lot of pressure built up on (prison employ-
ees), and they let it out in practice," said trooper Art
Ramirez, a security guard. He added that this in turn re-
lieves pressure on inmates.
"It's a stressful job," said troop commander Terry
Lawson, a lieutenant with prison security. He said that by
the time "C" Troop hits a full gallop, more than 30 men will
be directly involved, and the fact that they work together off
and on the job boosts overall mo~ale.
Apart from all the psychological talk; there are even
more important reasons for all this saber-rattling . Keefer
expressed it best: "The attraction is it's just one heck of a lot
of fun."
THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Fun, foibles and firepower -After
parading the colors, "C" Troop members get down to
the fun, a battle re-enactment, above. One rider who
lost his mount gets a lift from a fellow trooper, below.
But when the day is done, the first battle re-enactment
is a booming success. (Star photos by Don Dale)
* SECTION H -PAGE NINE
All around Southern Arizona Patter of cattle feet ruins woman's fences, quiet life By DON DALE
and JILL SCHENSUL
The Arizona Da ily Star
CASCABEL -The big-city trappings on the other side
of the Rincon Mountains seem pretty far from the quiet
ra nge land here in the San Pedro River Valley. But the city
of Tucson is nonetheless reaching out to disturb Marie
Kell y .
Since the city bought a ranch next to Kelly's property
sou th of here in August 1960, she has had problems with the
ca ttle from that ranch.
"They let them run wild," Kelly said of cattle belonging
to members of the Gallego and Santa Cruz families, who
lease the ranch that Tucson bought for the water rights.
"They break down your fences year after year," Kelly
said.
The ranch, 5,000 acres of city-Owned and 15,000 acres of
state-Owned land, is on open range, which means that any-
one who wants his property protected from cattle must fence
them out. Kelly, 80, acknowledges that fact of range life, but
said the ranchers overstock the leased land so badly that the
cattle trample her fences looking for water and greenery.
A maximum of 150 head of cattle can be run on the
ranch, said George Parker, property manager for Tucson.
The Gallegos, along with all other ranchers leasing land
from the state, were asked earlier this month to report any
excess cattle to the state and arrange for paying to graze
them on t_he land, said Wally Alexander, natural-resource
manager for the Arizona Land Department. Star photo by Don Dale
Jesus Gallego, a spokesman for the family operation,
estimated it had 125 head of cattle on the property.
Marie Kelly surveys damage at trampled section of her fence
Because the city is leasing land from the state, it is
directly responsible for ensuring that the correct number of
cattle is being grazed on the land, Alexander said. The
sublessee is also responsible, "but it falls back on the city,"
he said.
The city has received complaints about the Gallegos'
cattle from nearby residents almost since the family began
leasing the land in 1973, Parker said.
Jesus Gallego confirmed that neighbors and cit y offi-
cials have complained in the past, but said he was no t aware
of any recent complaints. Whenever they have received
complaints, the Gallegos have removed the trespassing cat-
tle, Gallego said.
"Our cattle may very well be on other people's prop-
erty, but cattle from other people's property is on our la nd,
too ," Gallego said.
Parker said, "The Gallegos have very st rong tenant
rights, and as far as the city is concerned, the neighbors'
complaints are only hearsay," Parker said.
"I don't believe it's up to the city to respond to livestock
complaints,." he added. He suggested complaints be directed
to officials at the Arizona Livestock Sanitary Board, the
agency that has the responsibility for policing cattle and
other livestock operations .
If the board finds the Gallegos' cattle on neighboring
property, the cattle can be impounded and the Gallegos
made to pay for damages, Parker said. He added that he did
not know if neighbors had been advised to call the agency .
"If they (the sanitary board) come back to us and say
we must react, then we would react," Parker said .
Kelly said members of the Gallego family , who live in
Tucson, have repaired her fence a couple of times, but not
often enough to suit her.
"I think they purposely let (the cattle) go to feed on the
neighbors' (property)," Kelly said. Her neighbor, Armand
Mattaush, supported her contention, saying the cattle break
through his fences to get at water he uses to irrigate a small
pecan orchard.
"We've been having trouble with those cattle for
years," Mattaush said. "They don 't watch their cattle very
closely ."
At lea st Mattaush is physically fi t to mend fences ; Kelly
said she tries to tie them back together with baling wire, but
the job is getting to be too much.
"It makes me kind of mad at (Tucson) Mayor (Lew)
Murphy," said Kelly, who has carried on the battle of her
husband, Pete, who died last year. She said letter writing
does no good .
"The city of Tucson, they don't care," Kelly said, of-
fended by these intruders into an idyllic existence she has
enjoyed since 1952. She said she never had trouble with cattle
belonging to any of the previous ranch owners .
Parker said, "It's a situation where we care very much ,
but it goes back to the rights of our tenants. And, in her
(Kelly's) case, it goes back to the ownership of the cat-
tle."
The house on her little homestead of 160 acres, bought
from an old gentleman named Francisco Villa in 1950, is
"more than 100 years old," Kelly said . She loves talking
about the history, people and wildlife of the area, and
resents the newcomers from Tucson who bought the prop-
erty only to take its water.
"We're not going to give them that water," Kelly in-
sisted . "I'm interested in retaining this water for th is dis-
tric t."
She said t he "foolishness" of the cattle owne r s from
Tucson , which she remembers as a "beautiful little village ,"
is depressing her. The "last straw" came when cattle en-
tered her yard and knocked over her well pump in their
search for water.
"I just figure I'll have to sell this place," she said. But
she'll retreat only a little way -she said she will keep 20
acres and build a new house, presumably with a stronger
fence.
This land under the huge mesquites along the San Pedro
River will always be a part of her. "It's a nice quiet place to
live and die in," she said.
Teacher forced to pick job or election
Star Photo by Howard Fischer
Georga Cox
PAGE TEN -SECTION H *
By DON DALE
The Arizona Daily Star
NACO -A candidate for Cochise County
school superintendent has dropped out of the
race because the Naco Elementary District
school board has said it will not release her
from her teaching contract if she wins the
election in November.
Georga Cox said she was refused permis-
sion to insert a release clause in her contract
contingent on winning the election . The Re -
publican candidate said she can't afford to
quit her job or take a year's leave of ab-
sence.
"I have to work . I can't run ," Cox said .
"It's not allowing the electoral system to
work."
Naco school board member Jack Ladd
said the board turned down the request be-
cause a teacher leaving in the middle of the
school year in such a small district would
put the school in a tough spot .
"That would leave us high and dry,"
Ladd said. "If she wanted to run for the
county school superintendent job we felt she
should make the total commitment."
Ladd said nothing in the board's bylaws
covers the situation and the board is acting
on its own judgment of what is best for the
distrct.
"I don't care if it's a Republican or Dem-
ocrat that's holding the job, it's wrong,"
county Republican Chairman Haskell Wil-
liams said of the board's decision.
Williams, speaking at a gathering of Re-
THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
publican county-0ffice seekers in Willcox
last month , said a teacher working to sup-
port a family would be excluded from run-
ning for any full-time office if all school
boards adopted this policy.
"If she breaks her contract (after win-
ning an election), they can lift her teacher's
certificate," which is a prerequisite to hold-
ing the county school superintendent's post,
Williams said.
Ladd confirmed that the board probably
would not favor granting Cox a leave of
absence if she wins the election because it
would not be an "emergency" request.
In this situation, Cox said she felt she had
no choice but to withdraw from the Republi-
can slate and sign her teaching contract by
the deadline last week.
TUCSON, THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1980
All around town-----'Talking' machines -Work-ers of the Community Outreach Program for the Deaf demonstrate two types of telecommu-nications devices. Steve Rinehart, at right, re-ceives a message on a teletypewriter. Below, Tommy Agee sends a message on a Porta-tel. (Star photos by Art Grasberger)
What deaf have
here is ability
to communicate
By CAROL SOWELL
The Arizona Dally Star
"What time does the restaurant open?" "Is your cold
any better today?" "May I change the time of my appoint-
ment?"
Telephones are wonderful tools for such things as ob-
taining infonnation, keeping up with the latest in a friend's
life and handling personal business .
But to enjoy these advantages, a telephone user must
be able to hear. For those with hearing impainnents, simple
communication can be laborious.
"For years, deaf people have depended on driving,"
said Tommy Agee, infonnation specialist with the Commu-
nity Outreach Program for the Deaf. "They would drive
over to your house and knock on the door to find out if you
were home."
But the outreach program offers a service that helps
persons with hearing problems to "talk" on the telephone.
With the aid of a third person or relay operator, a deaf
person is able to make telephone contact with a hearing
friend or a business .
Relay operators convert infonnation from a hearing
person into written messages to be read by someone who has
a telecommunications device for the deaf connected to the
telephone. The deaf person may respond with a written .
message, which will be relayed by the operator.
The telecommunications devices have been around
since 1964, outreach officials said. But the relay system,
introduced locally by the outreach program in 1978, recently
was expanded.
There is no charge for the relay service. Mountain Bell
charges customers with devices for the deaf the same rates
for local and long-distance service as it does customers who
use regular telephones.
Patterned after the telegraph system, the telecommuni-
cations devices have keyboards that produce messages and
allow people at two machines to communicate. The original
devices produce typed messages; modernized equipment
displays the messages on a screen.
The relay service makes it possible for a deaf person to
chat with a hearing friend, order a pizza, call a plumber or
do any of the "everyday things that you and I can do in a
TUCSON, THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1980
couple of seconds," said Nonna Maynard, office manager
for the outreach program.
For example, a client whose child had a problem in
school was able to talk with school officials and "get some
action immediately," Maynard said.
In another instance, out-of-town relatives used the relay
to notify a deaf person of a death in the family. "He was able
to find out right away, rather than be notified through the
mail," Maynard explained.
The outreach program, which is operated by Catholic
Community Services of Southern Arizona, last year provided
a telecommunications device to the lnfonnation and Refer-
ral Service of Tucson. The purpose was to make available
the referral service's infonnation to the deaf community.
But referral-service workers found that deaf persons
were more interested in obtaining help making personal and
business calls, said Kathy Alexander, executive director.
"We found there was a need for greater relay service," she
explained.
At first Alexander's office tried to relay emergency
calls during hours when the outreach program's relay was
not in operation. But "deaf people say any call you need to
make is an urgent call when you can't dial it yourself," she
said
So the outreach program last month expanded its relay
service to the referral office on a three-month trial basis.
The relay is available through the outreach office,
792-1437, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Volunteer operators
using outreach equipment now handle relay calls through
the referral office, 881-1797, 5 to 8 p .m. weekdays and 10 a.m.
to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
The outreach program's goal is to offer a relay service
24 hours a day, Maynard said. More personal calls are made
nights and weekends, while business calls seems to domi -
nate the daytime hours, she added.
THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The relay handles long-distance calls, either collect or
charged to the client's telephone, Maynard said. Callers also
may come to the outreach office at 268 W. Adams St. to u_se
the equipment.
She stressed that volunteers are trained to treat all
conversations confidentially.
The development of the Porta-tel, a modem telecom-
munications device that displays messages on an electronic
screen, has made it easier for deaf persons to use the
telephone service, Agee said. The instrument costs about
$.550 and is battery-powered and easy to carry, he added.
The older, more cumbersome teletypewriters are still
in use, though they are not widely marketed, Maynard
said.
The Porta-tel connects to any telephone -such as a pay
phone, in a hotel or hospital room -Agee said. It "rings" by
flashing a light signal.
A recent special grant made it possible for the outreach
program to distribute 83 Porta-tels to needy deaf Tucsonans.
The agency also provides Porta-tels on loan.
Outreach officials estimated that about 250 deaf resi-
dents (out of about 36,000 Tucsonans with hearing problems)
own Porta-tels or teletypewriters, and that another 250 are
installed in local businesses, institutions and homes of rela-
tives of deaf persons. The instruments also are helpful to
persons with limited speech ability such as those who have
had larynx surgery, Agee said.
Maynard said the outreach program welcomes addi-
tional volunteers to work with the relay service. Infonnation
may be obtained by calling 792-1906.
Connections for the deaf
Some local agencies and businesses have telephone num-
bers that can be called directly from a telecommunications
device for the deaf. The following list was provided by the
Community Outreach Program for the Deaf:
Pima County Sheriff, 24-hour emergency number, 624-6075
University Hospital Emergency Room, 626-6634
Arizona Department of Public Safety, 1-800-352-4557, toll-free
Tucson Fire and Rescue Dispatch, 326-8888
Arizona State School for the Deaf and the Blind, 882-5357
Pima Community College, 884-6001
University of Arizona, 626-2344
Department of Economic Security, 882-5731
Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, 882-5567 or 882-5132
Woods Branch of the Tucson Public Library, 791-4540
Goodwill Industries, 623-0316
St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church, 888-9319
Internal Revenue Service, 1-800-428-4732, toll-free
Armory Park Senior Citizens Center, 791-4685
Tucson Electric Power Co., 624-6124
Mountain Bell, 1-800-352-8434, toll-free
IBM, 741-4584
Jim Click Ford, 747-2000
Union Bank, 792-2358
Tucson International Airport, 294-6377
Language Enterprises, 325-2714
Associates in Human Development, 327-5209
Catalina Business Systems, 326-5314
Mike Waling-Realtor, 297-9795
Dr. Richard Sebastian, dentist, 887-4511
Some airlines and hotel chains have nationwide toll-free
lines that can be reached with a telecommunications device.
* SECTION H -PAGE ELEVEN
Brothers' only beef I I 1s 1n case (Continued From Page lH) ings throughout much of the
back shop. Hooks attach
150-pound sides of beef to
the railing for easy move -
ment.
Each brother, dressed in
white butcher's garb,
agreed they have few prob-
1 ems working together .
"Businesswise we get along
pretty good. There's noth-
ing we can't work out," Fili-
berto said.
"It's just like getting
along with your wife. You
have to learn how to com-
municate," Ruben said.
They hold frequent meet-
ings to discuss any prob-
lems.
Each brother is in charge
of an area of the business .
Filiberto supervises the
meat cutting, Ruben is in
charge of the meat counter
and deals with customers,
and Oscar is the office man-
ager . And Jack? "You
might say I'm the general
manager . Sometimes I
sweep the floor . Isn't that
what a general manager's
supposed to do?"
The four brothers, each
wi th laugh lines around his
dark eyes, said their rela-
ti onship doesn't end when
they leave work . "We go out
to dinner together and party
together ," Jack said .
"Drink a little, eat a little,"
Ruben added .
"We've always been
close . We were all born on a
ranch this side of Nogales.
When you live on a ra nch,
you grow up closer," Jack
expla i ned . The family,
which i ncludes another
brother, Eddie, and three
sisters, Mercy , Ophelie and
Emma, came to Tucson
more than 30 years ago.
The brothers said they
don't encourage their chil-
dren to follow in their foot-
steps, though they do offer
their offspring part-time
jobs while in school.
"It's better for the kids to
go their own way," Jack
said .
"I would tike to see my
son go on to something
else," Filiberto said. But he
added that his son has
learned responsibility by
work ing for the meat com-
pany .
However, two of Ruben's
son s have decided they like
the mea t cutting business
enough to make careers of
it , and many of the other
child r en have accepted
their fathers ' offers of part-
time jobs .
So the list of Islases at
American Meat Co. does not
end with Jack, Ruben, Fili-
berto and Oscar . Add to it
Ruben Jr., Bobby, Jack Jr.,
Raul, Steven, JoAnn, Fili-
berto Jr., William and Alex
III.
PAGE TWELVE -SECTION H *
IT STARTS TOMORROW! SUIT&
SPORT
COAT
SALEI
More than 75% of our entire stock
of famous brand suits and sport
coats are now on sale! Literally
hundreds of suits and sport coats
are now reduced 20% to 50% and
more. Come in this week. Shop and
save.
' \
(/f
!~ t ,I 8,
t ;
--
i ., __ ,,,:•
Famous Brand
SUITS & SPORT COATS
20% to 50% OFF
Sizes 36 to 52 , Regulars , Longs, Extra Longs , Shorts .
Not all sizes at all prices . Alterations ex t ra .
Many famous brand
suits & sport coats
Johnny Carson • Nino Cerruti • Phoenix
• Botany '500 • Brookfield • Ranter
• Clubman • Athlete • h.i.s .
• Allyn St . George
Master Charge • K-G Charge • Visa
We Welcome the American Express Card
Open Evenings .
Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sun . 12 to 5 p.m.
MEN'S STORE
PARK MALL
THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR TUCSON, THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1980