European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 1, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 columns the stars and stripes wednesday. July 1.1987 Tom mix and the Contra hearings by Russell Baker the Iran Contra hearings recall an age when Chil Dren s entertainment diff not require bucked of Gore to keep the tykes from gelling restless listening to accounts of goings on in col. Oliver Nonh j office i find my mind Drifting Back to those Golden Days when radio mattered and Buck Rogers roamed the 25lh Century. The colonel and friends sound like characters in kiddie shows brought to us by Coc Omali Ovalline and breakfast Cereal. Ever since hearing Fawn Hall and Robert Owen. 1 find my memory has been singing an old song thai begins ask your Mother in the morning to serve you up steaming Plait in i grand hot whole wheat Cere Al and the cowboys think it s  the steaming plate had to be Ralston Cereal sponsor of the Tom m in show 15 minutes of radio derring do every suppertime Tom America s no. 1 Cowboy was a straight shooter who kept Law and order on the Range with the help of his Creaky buddy the old wrangler and two terrific kids named Jane and Jimmy. See the similarity 1 did t until Fawn Han and Robert Owen Sal Down at the witness table. Fawn Hall and Robert own were Jane and Jimmy terrific kid companions to col. North s straight shooting Tom and president Reagan s old wrangler. Within two Days memory had recovered most of the Tom mix song right Down to the closing words it s really swell 10 cot. Jane nod Jimmy too say. It s Good for you Ralston Cereal can t be heat " soon though something about the analogy seemed wrong. It was the Fawn Hall problem that troubled me first. Sure Jane was Loyal to Tom. All right but suppose Tom had asked her to do something that even she innocent Lilly girl though she was. Knew to be wrong. Would Jane Nave done it and afterwards told the sheriff sometimes you have to break the Law to make the world Safe for straight shooters i could t see jail doing thai. What s More. I could t see Tom asking her to do it. Tom was the ultimate straight shooter. Asking Jane to destroy Evi Dence would have been asking her not to shoot straight but to shoot crooked. That would have been trying to corrupt a child. In Tom s Day americans did t Pul up with that Ion of thing on radio certainly not at Suppe nime. If Tom had to cd it Ralston Cereal would have bounced him Oft the air before he could shred his orphan Annie decoder containing the wrangler s secret instructions in corrupt children and shoot crooked if that s what it took to restore Law and order. Robert Owen did t quite fit As Jimmy either. He was adventurous and winsome enough to be Jimmy but would Jimmy have written a poem about Tom my guess is no. For one thing a kid capable of get the Mil Chi Ken Tike Ralston Cereal can t be beat has t a whip of poetic impulse in Hii soul and a Good thing for Jimmy too because Tom surely would have tanned his Bottom had Jimmy made the blasphemous suggestion that he Tom could do As much As god to sustain a lad s spirit. It a few Zydik tin news service Texas Prairie Home companion by Joe Murray Lufka n. Texas Why in the world Garrison Keillor would quit his Job is beyond me. As Host of radio s Prai Rie Home companion All that was required of him was losing songs and Tell stones about Lake Wobegon. The Only hard part i d imagine was pretending in was work so he could charge for it. But i could do that. My idea would be to move the program o Lufkin actually to a Cabin i have about 15 Miles on the other Side of Lufkin near the Shawnce Prairie Community. Thai Way we would hardly have to a Hanic the name of the show. If anything i think Shawnce Prairie Home com Panion would be an improvement on the original. 1 could talk about the weather my Kinfolk and what s happening in and around the Community and of course sing a few Folksy songs. So As a free Sample and introductory offt a 111 Tell you the Best Story 1 know about Shawnce Prairie. Some years Back a wild and vicious hog with razor like tusks was terrorizing the Countryside destroying crops and killing or wounding . Soil was  the Community organized a pig posse to capture the renegade Roo scr. Which hey did. And cast it into a pit. Now suffer they declared. There the wild pig remained for Days for weds for months nourished by Little More than the rain and whatever else might happen to fait into the pit. In he beginning i m told you hardly dared to show Yoursoff at the Mouth of the pit to peer into its Depths such was the wildness of the wild pig. It would Craw and climb leaping and lunging at you a mighty beast trying with All its might to escape the pit if Only for a moment for a moment would have been just Long enough to rip you asunder. But the Days and the weeks and the months fought the beast in a Way no other creature could and in the end Lime won. The beast did not die. Nor was that the intention of the Farmers. Had in been they would have killed it outright. They meant Only to kill a pan of in its heart is spirit is will. Because in the end when Lime had won and the beast was brought up from the Pil in crawled up to i hair feel whimpering and waiting to be pelted eager and anxious to become a productive creature of the Community. And the moral of this Story is writ actually i Don l suppose there is a moral. Except this perhaps Don t go hog with in Shawnee Prairie. C forr i re if Duck Ibroci. Worker?20 Pruhs or