Ottawa County news. (Port Clinton, Ohio) 1931-1956, 1956-02-17

Did you read the article aDou'
"Botched Baking" in the Feb. 5th
issue of the Sunday Toledo Blade
in the "Our Readers Write About
section of that paper? 1t was one
of those literary efforts that Mrs.
Mary Jane Smidutz writes, and ii
was really clever In her article
Mrs. Smiducz talked about the pit.
falls that can occur when a harass.
ed mother is trying to bake cake
for bake sale, she wants it to be
the ultimate in beauty and texture,
so that anyone who sees this crea-
tion on display will Immediately
want to buy it. Well, if you've ever
tried to bake a cake for any spe-
cial occasion, you know that nine
times out of ten something hap
pens before its completion, and if
you read this rather woeful ac-
count of hers, you could chuckle
to yourself and decide that there
are lot of (or is it we) mothers
in the same boat"
don't suppose there's any of us
who don't have hobby of some
kind, we might even like to work
at some certain thing without con-
sidering it as hobby. If we're
normal, we can get pretty enthused
about a particular hobby, but
chances are we might grow tired
of it pretty quickly and not even
finish what we started.
An example of person and his
hobby that's exactly the opposite
is Mr.. Alfred Wendt, of rural Oak
Harbor, and his African Violets.
He's pursued the hobby of growing
these flowers to such an extent
that he has a small greenhouse
wherein he has such a number and
variety of violets that | can't see
how he can remember all the
names of the varieties. He thinks
a lot of these flowers, and gives
them the best of care. / got dis
tinct feeling of inferiority when he
showed me the contents of his
greenhouse the other day, and
saw how his plants were flourish
ing. Usually anything of that ma
ture that might have in the house
grows in spite of the care l give
it, not because of it.
The Allen Township Community
Institute was a tremendous success,
and those farm people who were
concerned enough about their well
fare to spend a few hours at the
Allen school to listen to all of the
statements and ideas presented will
sure agree that it was worth it in
every sense of the word. In my
opinion, one of the most important
and significant indications to come
from this meeting was the fact
that this particular group of peo-
pie were thinking hard, weighing
the statements that had been made
by these farm organization leaders
and Riley Daugan.
The discussions were so lively,
and the questions so many, not
only in the group as a whole, but
in the small discussion groups,
that the folks were loathe to stop.
1t was wonderful meeting, it was
good to see and hear the many in
dications of concern these farm
people showed by their questions
and their presentation of ideas. The
meeting made an impression on
these visiting "big wheel" guests,
too, one of them remarked that
had there been more such meetings
years ago, we might not have all
the problems we're having now.
1t stands to reason that in order
for anyone to express an opinion
about anything, he must first be
informed, and informed we were
today. This meeting also proved
that the idea of discussions or
question and answer periods not
being successful just isn't true. It's
much better and more stimulating,
too, than to just sit and listen to