Town Shows That It Gives a Toot

Residents of Cedar Springs, Mich., piped up when the City Council voted July 10 to silence the city’s noon whistle. Business people had complained that the piercing 25-second blast was too loud, so the council decided to do away with it. But residents who didn’t like the idea of someone’s horning in on their traditions responded with phone calls and petitions with 624 signatures seeking to save the whistle, which also alerts residents to fires and tornadoes. The whistle “is a tradition of this community--a little bit of Americana, one of the few things we have going for us,” said Pat Capek. The council finally reached a compromise. The whistle will sound for 10 to 12 seconds--rising to peak volume and falling--but not full blast for the entire time, the council decided. “This is democracy in action,” said Dorothy Bishop, a leader of the petition drive.

--There was a lot of horsing around as about 5,000 people crowded the carnival grounds at Chincoteague, Va., to bid for young ponies herded from nearby Assateague Island. People came from across the country to attend the annual auction, made famous in the children’s novel “Misty of Chincoteague” by Marguerite Henry. The sale, sponsored by the Chincoteague Fire Department, raised $13,600 to finance department operations and feed the wild ponies of Assateague during the winter, said Ben Bowden, a town firefighter. Perennial auctioneer Bernie Pleasants spat out rapid-fire prices as the crowd bid on the diminutive ponies. One colt brought as much as $825, but the average sale price was $222, Bowden said. The colts were among about 125 ponies herded at low tide across a narrow channel from Assateague to Chincoteague. About 35,000 spectators watched as the ponies swam the channel. The remaining ponies will be returned to their island home. The animals are believed to be descendants of ponies that swam ashore in the 16th Century from a wrecked Spanish galleon. The Fire Department, which took possession of the herd when the government acquired Assateague in 1924, organizes the annual swim and auction.

--Mother Teresa inaugurated a center for poor elderly people in Madrid, Spain, built with donations to her group, Missionaries of Charity. Queen Sofia attended the ceremony. The center will provide room and board for 40 men and 40 women and feed 250 people daily. “We want to permit that no man, woman or child dies without being loved,” Mother Teresa, the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner from Calcutta, India, told about 300 people who attended the ceremony. After the ceremony, Mother Teresa attended Mass with the queen.