Page 6b/The Battalion/Thursday, September 5,1985
jMilisi.
Finger Lickin’ Good p^k^h^s
This squirrel enjoys a treat specially prepared by Mother Nature near Texas A&M’s Le K eet Hall. For
more another squirrel shot, see page 6.
Today's social concerns influence
revolutionary investment decisions
Dowser finds wells
with wood, metal
and inheritance
Mornings
hectic for
family of 12
Associated Press
SACHSE — After a dozen show
ers, two dozen eggs and a vat-full of
orange juice, the McCauley house
hold was almost ready for the day
kids dread and some parents live
for.
“We’ve got to get cracking here,”
Mike McCauley, 41, urged his family
of 12 as the first day of school
dawned Tuesday.
Mike, 17, a high school senior,
gulped down his juice as he waited
for 12-year-old David, a 7th grader,
to finish dressing. They were head
ing to school early for football prac
tice, and Tami, a 16-year-old sopho
more, was riding with them so she
could visit with friends before
school.
In the kitchen, Meagan, 7, and
Shannan, 10, quietly argued over
who was going to stir the scrambled
eggs-
In addition to eight schoql-aged
children, the McCauleys have two
pre-schoolers, Meredith, 18 months,
and Jonathan, 4. The family lives in
a six-bedroom house near Dallas and
keeps one horse and a very large dog
in the back yard.
Prepping all the kids ready for
school requires a well-tested and
tightly woven schedule, said Linda
McCauley, who ferries the kids to
jobs and assorted practices.
“The kids make the lunches the
night before and they shower in the
morning. We hjive a shower sched
ule. They each know just how long
they have and that’s it, because Mike
(her husband, a lawyer) is the last to
shower and he better have hot wa
ter,” Mrs. McCauley said.
The first morning of the school
year usually goes well, Mrs. McCau
ley said. It is the preceding weeks
that are hectic.
Friday, for example, the last busi
ness day before the start of school,
was filled with errands. Mrs. McCau
ley packed nine of the 10 kids into
the family van and zoomed off to a
plethora of destinations.
By 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, all eight of
the school-age children had either
driven to school or climbed on the
bus.
Associated Press
NEW YORK — As they choose in
vestments these days, more and
more people are thinking about the
social, political and ethical issues in
volved.
“Investing with a conscience” is by
no means a new idea. But circum
stances like the turmoil over apart
heid in South Africa, concern over
the international arms race and con
troversy over nuclear power plants
have given it fresh impetus in the
past few years.
One trade group, the Boston-
based Social Investment Forum, has
said that as of the end of 1984 about
$40 billion was invested in profes
sionally managed portfolios operat
ing with social as well as financial
standards.
Several mutual funds are available
to the public that pick stocks and
other investments according to a set
of political and social criteria.
The Dreyfus Third Century
Fund, for example, looks at compa
nies’ records in protecting conlsum-
ers and the environment and in pro
viding for equality in employment
and health and safety on the job.
Others shun companies that make
weapons, alcoholic beverages or to
bacco products, businesses that op
erate in “socially repressive” coun
tries, or those that are involved in
the casino gambling industry. A new
fund has been organized to invest
under the tenets of the Moslem
faith.
This kind of approach is widely
regarded as revolutionary in the
supposedly amoral world of interest,
dividends and capital gains.
When you stop to think about it,
however, most of us manage our
money with an active conscience.
Associated Press
SAN ANGELO — Each time wa
ter witch Barbara Leathers finds wa
ter, she feels a charge of excitement.
“I love to find water for people,”
she says. “Water in West Texas is so
rare. When that pole pulls down,
there’s no way you can stop it. Can
you imagine all that magnetism?”
Leathers has been finding water
for customers of water well driller
Henry Curtis, friends and neighbors
for a year and a half. She has found,
with 100 percent success, more than
a dozen wells.
Unlike some dowsers, Leathers
cares little about what kind of wood
or metal she uses to find water deep
in the ground.
“I use mesquite, a peach branch
or a coat hanger,” she says. “It
doesn’t matter.”
Indeed, there seems to be no pref
erence in Leathers’ case.
In her back yard in Grape Creek,
Leathers approaches a peach tree
with a pair of pruning shears.
“This thing needs trimming any
way,” she says as she snips off a slim,
forked branch. "A peach branch is
easier than a mesquite. I don’t have
to cut the thorns off.”
Leathers walks deliberately to
ward a vein of water she knows was
flowing underground through her
back yard. Her steps are slow and
measured. Her expression is intent
as she concentrates on the ground.
The point of the peach fork be
gins to move in a barely discernible
downward progression. Leathers
walks a little further and stops.
The peach fork continues in a
downward arc. Incredibly, after it
reaches the low point, it turns up
ward on itself, the point moves to
ward Leathers’ waist. Leathers hangs
onto the branch, refusing to allow it
to turn in her hand.
“Sometimes it will turn completely
over,” she says softly. “There is a lot
of water down there.”
Leathers backs away from the site
and begins again. As the peach fork
bends once again, she stops.
“This is where the well should be
dug,” she says. “It is so much
stronger here than my first well. We I
will put a well here someday.” I
Leathers says her father dowsed |
for water for his neighbors. She I
learned to look for certain signs be- [;
fore she began dowsing.
“You need a horse or a pickup to 1
ride around in,” she says. “You find |
the largest healthy trees, eithermes |
quite or oak. Their roots godeepto I
find water.
“Near the trees, look forthelarj 1
est red ant hill. They always makei I
bed not far from water.”
After squaring off the area in I
about an acre, Leathers says she be
gins walking with her stick, crossing
the area several times.
When the stick Iregins its pull,sht
walks until it stops pulling. Then sht
walks slowly backwards and begins
again. She marks the spot wheretht
pull is strongest.
On either side of that marl
Leathers finds an area of strong pul
to establish the flow direction of tht
underground stream.
Finally, she walks along tht
stream until she finds the strongot
pull and says "drill here.”
Although she does not remembe
having dowsed as a child. Leathern
certain she inherited the ability froit 1
her father.
She believes the trait is passed |
from father to daughter or froi I
mother to son. Of her five children |
only her son Bill Leathers can finl I
water with a divining rod.
Ten years ago, Leathers dowsed |
water for the first time on propetn 1
she and her husband purchased.
She did not witch for water agaii I
until about a year and a half ago.
One day Leathers looked out the |
window and saw a drilling compi 1
dig for water on her neighoor's land |
The hole was dry.
“I went over and told them 1 wasi 1
witcher and I would find water f« |
them,” she says. "I found a spotand I
the next day the driller found waU |
at 80 feet running 55 gallons a min [
ute. The word spread. Next, 1 found F
water for another neighbor at 851
feet with 65 gallons per minute."
Since then, Leathers has worked l
in Carlsbad, Spring Creek, Wall and j,
Robert Lee, finding water each time I
< T6e *W&rd
is getting
around...
CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST
A dynamic opportunity to
grow in your Christian faith.
MEETS
, f-CO
VMV&E*- IE.COM
lot
‘Help spread c W&rd
CALL-AMERICA
No installation fee.
30 minutes free.
Your first 30 minutes of long distance calls on Call-America are
free! Plus no installation fee. That’s over $20 in savings Call-
America is giving you to sign up today.
Call-America saves you up to 50% on every long distance call. With
better listening quality you can hear. Call-America uses the latest
computer technology to pick the least expensive route for every call
you make. While improving the quality of your telephone signal.
So you hear what you’re paying for.
30 minutes free. Plus no initial fee. Only for new residential
customers signing up before September 30, 1985. Only from
Call-America.
call America
106 E. 26th /Bryan, TX
779-1707
Slid
still
in l\
CHIHU
sands of
strike in
at the i
Chihuah
demand:
tion. Bui
of major
Gov. (
arrange
morning
and the
• council i
but repr
tions saic
in sight.
About
6,000 stu
Monday,
until uni'
reform c
limiting i
term.
By Ian
mous, in
financing
ence, anc
universit;
ulty, alun
lives.
Currei
de las Ca
elected t
state uni\
by the lav
News i
groups o
number
virtually
tation in
with som
sacking st
Excelsi
tional me
front-pag
dents set
and “do
sacked bti
with auth
them.”
In a tel
day, Orn
Ochoa b
“dozens”
seized by
there was
property.
Alfred
strike lea
terview tl
the pres:
which he
mands a
morning.
MS
Bro
hou
Tin
J
M:
name
tamu
addk
city/e
PHor^