LADYBUG: GARDENS, FARMERS KEEP CLOSE EYE ON CHANCE OF EARLY FROST

That button-up-your-overcoat weather we had in September's declining days may or may not have set a record for so early in the season, but it surely received a lot of attention from gardeners and farmers.

In the early morning hours of Sept. 23 the temperature dropped to a chilling 37 degrees, and even lower on various thermometers over the area.

If it wasn't a record, it certainly was close. Rarely has this area had such a sharp downturn this early in the fall season. It came on the wings of the vernal equinox, when day and night are the same length the world over as the sun crosses the equator.

Although the frost was heavy on rooftops and fields, it was not a killing frost. Dr. Al Robertson, professor of earth science at Southeast Missouri State University, who keeps the official weather records, said the average date of the first killing frost here is Oct. 30. His records show the earliest came on Oct. 6, 1964. The next was Oct. 12, 1987.

On the other end of the table, the latest recorded killing frost of the autumn season, setting the pace for winter, was on Nov. 30, 1972. Next was on Nov. 23 last year.

Growing seasons vary as much as the dates of the frosts. In 1985 the latest frost was on March 6 and the first killing frost was on Nov. 20. Farmers must really have loved that growing season, a record 260 days.

The last frost of spring on Robertson's records was on April 27, 1961, closely followed by April 26, 1989. The average date for the last frost of spring is April 3.

These records cover back to 1960, a 35-year span. Searched back further, no doubt the figures recorded would be somewhat different, but not by much.

Over the years Cape Girardeau weather records have been kept by several sources. For a time the former Marquette Cement Manufacturing Co. kept the temperature records. Then they were taken by personnel in the science department at the university.

For a number of years up to the present, they have been provided by the Federal Aviation Agency at the Regional Airport, to the chagrin of many who see a station five miles from the city proper too far removed to give accurate readings for Cape Girardeau. Robertson receives the readings from the FAA and maintains the local accords.

The early frost was no help to crops or flowers, but did little damage to vegetable gardens.

Early soybeans, one grower reports, were probably not hurt, or if so, only slightly. Not so, late planted beans. The cold weather hastened maturity. The beans were small at that point and will show little, if any more development. This will mean substantially shorter yields.

Temperature probably had a greater effect on early planted beans than the frost. When the temperature hits 96 degrees blooms fall off. There were several days at or higher than this reading during the summer. Those fields in bloom at those particular times will show reduced yields.

Corn fared better. The drop to near freezing appeared not to have caused any damage.

Some house plants were affected by the drop in temperatures. Many were moved inside or to a protected area for the cold nights, but here (with no place to go) we simply huddled them together on the back porch and covered them with old sheets. On the garden plots up near Chateau Girardeau the Inca marigolds that had been blooming for quite some time showed evidence of the frost.

The neighboring gardeners have a small plot of autumn blooming crocus, which has attracted much attention by the walkers as they pass by. This plant is colchicum, sometimes called meadow saffron, the plant from which the spice saffron is obtained.

Colchiums are rosy-lilac flowers rising from the soil without foliage. Although the flower is crocus like, they are members of the lily family while true crocus belong to the iris family of plants.

Foliage of the colchicums is produced after the flowering has been completed. A wonderful addition to the autumn garden.

~Mary Blue is a resident of Cape Girardeau and an avid gardener.

Tuesday evening's first of 15 Vision 2000 meetings on the future of Cape Girardeau's public schools was a success for those of us who turned out at Franklin School. A good exchange of ideas was offered by the several dozen who took the time to attend. The format involves breaking up into small focus groups, or listening sessions, where a facilitator stimulates discussion. It wasn't that time-consuming either, as we departed a meeting that began at 7 well before 8 p.m.

Future meetings will focus on: Educational Directions -- Oct. 10, Schultz, and Oct. 12, Alma Schrader, both at 7 p.m.; Educational Facilities -- Washington, Oct. 14, 9 a.m. and at May Greene Oct. 17 and Junior High Oct. 19, both at 7 p.m.; and finally, School Finances -- at Jefferson, Oct. 21, 9 a.m., at the Vo-Tech School, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 28 at Clippard, 9 a.m. Topping off the whole effort will be a Town Hall meeting at 7 p.m. Nov. 7 at Central High auditorium.

This is an absolutely sincere effort by new leadership on the Cape Girardeau School Board to reach out to a community yearning to improve our school system. Take the time to attend at least one of these meetings so you can support positive changes to strengthen our public schools.

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One item over the last few months that hasn't received nearly enough attention or media coverage is a resolution of the National Education Association. Meeting this past July in Minneapolis, a majority of the 8,700 delegates to the NEA national convention voted to support designating October as Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual History Month in our nation's schools. I haven't seen any news on the subject here in the greater Cape Girardeau-Jackson area, but the thing sort of hit the fan in Poplar Bluff.

"There is no educational value of having this type of thing in our schools," declared Danny Whiteley, a respected businessman and president of the Poplar Bluff R-1 Board of Education. "I can't be emphatic enough. There is no educational or moral value, period," Whiteley told the Daily American Republic newspaper.

Superintendent Mike Johnson agrees. "As long as I'm here we will not be observing this month," said Dr. Johnson. "I'm not asking people to be disrespectful or not to be compassionate. But we will not be promoting this type of lifestyle."

The NEA resolution, which local members tend to prefer not to discuss, is telling as to the true NEA agenda. It is also of a piece with other radical political statements the organization takes that have little, if anything, to do with educating our young people. Other resolutions approved at the convention promoted abortion on demand, for instance.

Someone needs to take the NEA on and face down these radicals, who constantly demand more money as they fiercely oppose real school reforms -- such as charter schools and parental freedom, or school choice in education. NEA union lobbyists also fight in the halls of your state capitol against any measure that would seek to identify truly excellent teachers and pay them more, as well as against any measure that attempts to compare the job one school is doing with another so that parents can be informed.

Each year sees the NEA crowd fighting for collective bargaining for public employees, which would effectively unionize our schools and open us up to divisive annual strikes of the kind we see across the river in Illinois. Think for a minute of what this would mean. The NEA is actually seeking the status of double monopolists: a monopoly provider of labor within a monopoly system of public education. Can you say "education cartel?" In this they are opposed by the sound thinking and the good people of Missouri's largest teachers' organization, the Missouri State Teachers Association. Thank God for the MSTA.

A good place for citizens to start informing themselves about the true nature of these keepers of the education cartel in the NEA would be the library. Go there and make yourself some copies of the devastating cover story on the NEA -- aka the National Extortion Association -- published in June 1993 by Forbes magazine.

Peter Kinder is the associate publisher of the Southeast Missourian and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.

There are few people who aren't at least a little disenchanted with the state of politics in America today.

The popularity of campaign finance reform proposals, anti-establishment outsider politicians and throw-the-bums-out sentiment points to the public's dissatisfaction with our political system.

For many people, disgust with the established political order -- four decades of Democratic Party rule -- was as much responsible for giving Republicans control of the House and Senate in 1994 as was political ideology.

But a recent poll showed 54 percent of the public favors neither the leadership of the Democratic nor Republican party and desires a viable third-party candidate in next year's presidential contest. Whether the poll accurately reflects the public mood, it seems obvious many people have a bipartisan contempt for the status quo.

Voters impatiently demand the changes and dramatic cuts in government waste promised by the victors in last November's election, and for good reason. Consider the bitter debate raging in Washington over whether balancing the budget -- not next year, but in seven years -- will be too painful.

Thus the appeal of, and the media fascination with, independent presidential candidates. In 1992 there was Ross Perot. This year, Colin Powell has commanded the attention of political observers.

Apparently unable to abide the spotlight of attention shining elsewhere, Perot has thrust himself into the fray to say he will help form a third political party.

Perot's wouldn't really be a third party. Candidates from the Libertarian and other fringe parties have placed presidential candidates on the ballot for years. But those parties didn't have the erratic Texan's blessing.

Perot and his third-party advocates will start in California, where the deadline for qualifying a new party for the 1996 ballot expires this month, and plan to expand the effort to all the states. But a new party won't cure America's political ills. For one thing, a third party is a loser party.

That a third-party candidate has little chance to win the White House is the best indication that Powell won't go that route if he decides to run.

But like a losing baseball squad that upsets the team vying for a shot at the pennant, third-party or independent candidate can influence the outcome of elections. In 1992 President Bill Clinton won with a mere 43 percent of the vote, thanks to Perot.

Clinton's often ineffectual leadership is what results when a president is elected without the benefit of majority public support. Now imagine a third-party president without even the support of other party members in Congress.

Proponents contend that only someone without ties to the traditional two-party establishment is free to govern as a true outsider, with fresh ideas unfettered by the partisan party line. But a lack of fresh ideas isn't the problem. Since last year's Republican sweep, many reform proposals have come to the table only to be debated and either watered down or defeated.

There is nothing inherent to a third party that would change that. It is democracy. A major third party, although in vogue, could do little to improve the system. And, to the extent it splits voters and enables an unpopular candidate to win the presidency, it will weaken the system.

Operation Lifesaver is one of those projects that ought to be superfluous. The program is intended to promote safety at railroad crossings.

Too many people ignore warning signs and signals and risk injury and death by challenging trains for the right of way at crossings. Not only is it against the law, it is pretty silly. Through either carelessness or to avoid a brief delay, Missouri motorists last year were involved in 118 accidents with trains. Stoddard County leads the Southeast Missouri area in train-vehicle accidents, with three accidents and one death reported last year.

Sometimes the most good comes from stressing the obvious. Operation Lifesaver does that by making motorists more aware of railroad safety.