The Coral Gables Times

2 THE CORAL GABLES TIMES Thursday, June 1, 1961

'Dear John' or White Mice, They're All in Ferne's Day

Ferne Alter was beginning her day. In one hand was a fistful of protein pills; in the other, a cup of hot coffee. She's a "second mother" to 200 college boys as manager of San Sebastian Men's Residence Hall at the University of Miami. The dorm is at Le Jeune Road and University Drive. As Ferne Alter stepped behind her desk the other morning she was asked what it's like to run a men's dorm. She thought for a moment. "Each day is different," she said. "A few years ago, Mrs. Nowlin, the housekeeper, reported she found an alligator in the bathtub. "The boys were feeding it meat. The gator was eating the lean. The fat was going down the drain, clogging it." Mrs. Alter, who has been dorm manager since 1949, smiled. "And we always have a few snakes and white mice." She paused. "And- oh, yes- one of our tennis players sometime back, Orlando Garrido, a young Cuban boy. "Well, Mrs. Nowlin was checking the rooms one day; it was just a few days until June (semester's end). "And she heard a 'cheep, cheep, cheep.' "She asked him what it was. He told her it was the wind. "But later, the maid went in to clean up and found two drawers full of baby chicks! "We let him keep them those THE UNEXPECTED is all in a day's work for this woman. She's Mrs. Ferne Alter, manager of San Sebastian Men's Residence Hall at the University of Miami. She is making a room reservation for Phimphone Sakdavong, a student from Laos. last few days," Mrs. Alter said. "Then he put them in a crate and took them back to Cuba." Mrs. Alter and her family live on the second floor of the dorm. Her husband, Ben, and daughter, Louise Lee, who is in the sixth-grade at Coral Gables Elementary, came to the Gables from Chicago in the late 40's. Mrs. Alter pointed out that there is, of course, a more serious side to her work. She receives room reservations, assigns rooms and sees that the boys are "reasonably happy." She checks with the maids to make sure the boys keep their room neat. She confers with the maintenance man. But Mrs. Alter often finds her work spiced with the interesting. "Occasionally, a boy will come in with a problem and we'll work it out. A 'Dear John' letter or phone call," she said. "San Sebastian is kind of an international hall. We have two Buddhist monks and four students from India, some from Latin America and one from Hong Kong." One of the Indian students is of the Siek religion, Mrs. Alter said. "And the other day he came in wearing a beautiful purple turban - and wrapped around it was a big white handkerchief. "'Aneja! What are you doing?' I asked. He had a toothache. "I asked him what he was doing for it and he said he had taken some herbs. Later that day, the swelling had gone down and he took the bandages off." Mrs. Alter had finished her coffee. She smiled warmly. "Oh, I could think of no end of stories."

Three Girls Win Awards

For excellence in English composition, three local high school girls won dictionaries from Barnard Woman's Club of South Florida. The winners are Ruth Javenoff, a junior at Coral Gables High; Karen Bobkoff, junior at South Miami high, and Gwendolyn Grizzle, at Palmetto Junior High School.

DEED CHANGES

The following information is taken from deed changes recorded for Coral Gables property in the last few days. Where prices are indicated, they are taken from the official tax stamps on the documents: From Castle to H. Hugh and June Lauder, 541 Alcazar Ave., $24,500. From Felsted to Francis P. and Frances M. Delaney, 400 Alcazar Ave., $23,500. From H. I. Holding Co. to Frank Klebba, 2570 Battersea Rd., $69,600. From Kern to Stanley E. and Jane Ross, 3610 Alhambra Ct. From Selig to Fred and Barbera Limmiatis, 1262 Algardi, $32,500. From Waxin to Belle C. Mathers, 3900-04 Ponce de Leon Blvd., $30,500. From Marks to Gables-By-The-Sea, Inc., 1358 Lugo Ave. From Levine to D. J. Napoli, 25-35 Ponce de Leon Blvd. From Elliott to George J. Moore, 2916 Douglas Rd. From Elliott to George J. Moore, 2916 Douglas Rd. From Vasilaski to Kathryn L. Evans, 27 Sidonia Ave. From Jackson to Edwin E. Becker, 1416 Serolla Ave. From Webster to Temazine Scott, 200 Florida Ave., $15,000. Reilly to Edwin S. and Jane Iverson, 422 Warren Lane. Hoffman to Charles F. and Katherine Clevelte, 1709 Granada Blvd., $42,500. Flagler to Theodore A. and Ellen J. Kibby, 430 San Servando Ave., $43,500. Cone to Louise G. Cone, 4144 Palzo Ct. Phillips to Laurence F. DeWitt, 711 University Dr. Look to Joseph and Josephine Baratta, $5,800. Hernandez to Clara M. Gleason, 628 Zamora Ave., $11,000. Higgins Homes, Inc., to W. L. Tanner, 808 Catalina Pl., $22,500. Meyers to Irving and Esther Perlman, 241-245 University Dr. Brown to Charles E. and Marjorie Mayer, 1240 Obispo Ave., $14,700. Kelly to Lewis Jackson and Jeanette V. Jackson, 1228 Alhambra Circle. Gleason to James and Norma Acullar, 904 Milan Ave., $5,400. Gallagher to Hector and Dora S. Parente, 1245 Ortega Ave. Coral Gables Corp., to Marie-Laure Felten, lot 18, block 3, Section L, $4,500. Allu, Inc., to Leon L. and Phyllis Rosenberg and Samuel S. Rosenberg, 2317-19 Ponce de Leon Blvd., $25,000. Armstrong to M. L. and Geraldine Martin, 522 San Esteban Ave., $25,000. Park to Gus and Lola Efthimiou, Jr., 6640 Santona St., $5,600. Collins to Charles E. and Ida Nally, 1025 E. Sunset Rd. Ponso to Marina Ponso Ponso Cruz, 917 El Rado St. Ponso to Marina Ponso Cruz, 1200 El Rado St. O&R Investments, Inc., to Michael P. and Hazel R. Flacco, 1116 Manati Ave.

- Raises -

(Continued from page 1) year as a cost of living measure. A police sergeant will go from $438 to $483; a fire lieutenant from $438 to $507; and a police lieutenant from $483 to $559. Clerk typists will increase from $221 to $232; administrative assistant from $362 to $399; general secretary from $296 to $327; and laborers will stay at $212, but receive a 15 per cent cut in hours from 48 to 421⁄2.

Beauty in the Gables

CAROL LARKINS, a teller at Coral Gables Federal Savings and Loan Association, is a blue-eyed blonde, loves to go fishing and water skiing with her husband Carl, who is on the South Miami police force. From Elmhurst, Long Island, Carol was graduated in '56 from Coral Gables High. The mother of a three-year-old girl, Denise, Carol and her husband live at 9401 SW 47th St.

CG Elementary Teachers Retiring From Classrooms

(Continued from Page 1) wearing a red coat should have better sense than to sit in the first row at a bull fight." MRS. LORD Starting next September, teachers, messenger boys, and pupils will still be running through the office of the registrar but they won't find Mrs. Mabel Lord sitting behind her desk. Mrs. Lord, like Mrs. Webb, will be leaving Coral Gables Elementary School, after 13 years, to spend more time with her retired husband, Capt. Robert Lord, and with her grandchildren. Thousands of children have passed through the doors of the first grade since 1928. Thousands more will pass through this same door in the next 33 years but they won't be taught by Miss Rebecca Thomson. After 33 years of helping children on the road to knowledge, Miss Thomson has decided to retire. Rather than spend her time reading the first grade reader to the class, Miss Thomson plans on catching up on some of her own readings. Best sellers and current novels will be the mainstay of her reading. Total the years that each of these three women have given to the Coral Gables Elementary School and you get one lifetime of teaching, leadership and never-ending service to the children of the Gables and to the community.

His Daddy Had Him Arrested Military Life Was Nearly His Fate

By RAMOND LANG Times Staffer Georges Milenoff, a Coral Gables ballet teacher, was bow-legged as a youth from riding with the Cossacks in his native Russia. "So my mother started teaching me ballet when I was five and told me it would straighten my legs. "But my father wanted me to be a military man, not a dancer," Milenoff said, with a deep accent. The early conflict arose because his mother was a French prima ballerina and his father a Russian general stationed in Sofia, Bulgaria. His father sent Milenoff to military school in Petrograd (now Leningrad). But Milenoff, instead, registered in a ballet school. His father found out. "So I was arrested by the police - under his orders - and put in chains of rope - and brought back to Bulgaria. "So one day," Milenoff mused, "I skipped Bulgaria with 60 cents in my pocket and went to Sevastopol. "And it took me four months (sailors smuggled me) to reach Moscow." It was 1911. He registered in the Imperial School of Ballet. Milenoff now was a subject of the Czar; his father could not touch him, he said. "But after I was graduated at 15 and was no longer under the Czar, my father arrested me again." This time, however, Milenoff's father obtained a contract for him with the National Opera of Bulgaria as a ballet dancer. Milenoff has toured the world as a ballet dancer and agent for ballet troupes. Home to him has been the stages of Europe, the United States and South America. It was in Peru in 1929 that Milenoff was ordered out within 24 hours by a dictator who didn't want the troupe performing, he said. He came to the U.S. in the 30's and started 12 ballet schools in Southern California. In 1947 he became an American citizen. It was also in 1947 that Milenoff built his ballet school at its present site, 251 Palermo Ave. But that year's hurricane knocked it flat. Milenoff started again, constructing the building with his own hands. Now he is trying to sell his property by June 15, Milenoff said, in order to get funds for a ballet foundation. If he doesn't, he will convert it into an auditorium and present ballet, concerts and other artistic affairs. Life has dealt Milenoff several hard blows. How does he feel about it? "What?" he laughed. "I've had very good luck. "I've been around the world 32 times, a millionaire several times, lived in the best hotels. "What more do you want?" GEORGES MILENOFF