LETTERS

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GAS FROM THE PAST What a difference in gasoline prices from when I started helping my dad at age 14 at the gasoline station he ran. Gasoline was 25.9 cents a gallon except during frequent gasoline “wars” when the price went down to 19.9 cents a gallon. There were 11 gasoline stations on Jefferson between First Street and Amos Avenue and so competition was tough. Dad was guaranteed 2 cents a gallon by his supplier, Jess Werner, when the price was 19.9 and daily sales usually ran between 500 and 700 gallons per day. A big garden and raising chickens in the back yard helped us cope. Dad also extended credit to customers and took wild game in for credit. I don’t know how he did it but all three of us boys finished college and both girls finished nurses training. Oh what a different day it is now. Tyre W. Rees Springfield

THANKS PARK TOWERS May 23 the Park Towers apartment complex (under Pacific Management) had a “fish fry” for all the residents. It was not a national holiday but it was only the opportunity for the tenants to get rid of loneliness and to socialize with the other residents of this beautiful building.

I could write the history of this facility where I have lived for 19 years. In these years0 there have been many changes but the situation has gotten better. Every day I think I am the happiest person to share my living with other seniors here.

The Park Towers staff deserves special recognition in making my home so wonderful: Shyla Lyons, manager; Jennifer Gorden, assistant manager; Joe Moore, maintenance supervisor, and Gerald Curtis, janitorial. They do their best to make living here comfortable, clean and cozy. If something is out of order, it’s enough to call the office and on the same day we have assistance. All of the staff are so friendly and ready to help.

In Russia there’s a saying, “every snipe praises its swamp,” but I have lived in many places in different cities, so I can compare: Park Towers is my real home. I feel very grateful. Galina Meklina Springfield

SMALL BUSINESS BULLIES I try to keep an open mind and look at problems outside the box to consider several ways to find amicable solutions, be it work or just thinking for personal enjoyment. As a member of the proletariat, it’s all I can affect at the risk of being “opinionated,” but untruths leave openings for others to be heard. When the governor voices his opinion that politics is a business, the misnomer is disgusting to those of us who have actually started a business from scratch with no safety net. We are not unique or lucky, just diligent.

When the many dubious tax-free corporations, adept at avoidance, call for raising taxes on the small percentage of citizens who actually pay the tax, it is insulting to those capable of free and original thought. Not unsympathetic or indifferent to the plight of the small percentage unable to care for themselves.

Lastly, for writers, cartoonists, illustrators, pressmen, editors and the like to pass their illogical beliefs as viable to the uninformed individual is cruel. To demonize inanimate objects (any weapon) as evil and the most heinous characters among us as victims of human frailties is nonsense. As an avid reader, competitive shooter and having worked in a jail after military service, I know for a fact the untruths as presented. Kevin Knox Tallula

JULIANNE OFF THIS WEEK Fans of Julianne Glatz’s food column please take note. The food column will return next week.