[Stanley Meisler's first published article] It took 22 years, but I finally got up enough nerve to let a pretty nurse, Mary Jane Bishop of Cincinnati, draw one whole pint of dark RED blood from a bulging BLUE vein in my pale WHITE arm. Officials of the Red Cross and the American Legion trapped me yesterday during the first day of the bloodmobile's current visit to Middletown. I was snooping around the Legion Home on a routine check of Red Cross business when Mrs. Charles Fay, scheduling chairman, suggested a tour of the bloodmobile operation...

There is quiet hope and caution in the hearts of Middletown area mothers and fathers whose sons are miles but perhaps only weeks away in North Korean prison camps. There are six known prisoners of war from this area. The parents know that only a few sick and wounded prisoners are certain to be exchanged, though the latest Red proposals hint a willingness to exchange all prisoners. The missing men from this area have not been reported either sick or wounded. Yet the parents wait patiently and hopefully. MRS. ALTHA Hamilton, 1303 Woodlawn Ave., mother of Pvt. Roland A. Hamilton, 25, listened to the morning news broadcast very carefully on Wednesday last week and then said, “But they’re only going to exchange 600 prisoners. That’s an awfully small number. You’d think there’d be many more. She spoke very quietly and did not look at her listener. “I’m hopeful for his return,” she said.

Middletown will not let its more than 300 June high school graduates jump blindly into this sometimes difficult world. For years the schools, industries and employment service have been cooperating to give youngsters proper vocational and educational guidance and placement. Middletown high school offers such a program under the direction of Miss Helen Hartman. Her offices, filled with vocational pamphlets, college catalogues, and bulletins from trade, business, art. music and nursing schools, are always available to interested students...

Foolishly, I ate a full meal before Middletown Y-Teens, representing the natives of seven different world areas, shoved films, dances, exhibits, songs, records, favors and food — mostly food — at me during their World Fellowship Party Thursday night at the high school. The girls had spent a month studying the different countries and preparing the activities. They w ere directed by Miss Veda McCray, faculty advisor. Miss McCray suggested that I move through the different rooms and survey world fellowship...

Harry E. Hadley and J. Howard Stalker, candidates for positions on the Board of Education, today announced they will support the board when it asks for a tax levy in November. The board said on June 3 that it would need the additional funds to adjust wages and salaries of school personnel...

In April, 1921, a preacher, forced by illness to give up his congregation, came to Middletown High School at the request of Principal Wade E. Miller, his college roommate. The Rev. Jerome C. Schulz was to fill in for a few months, but he stayed for 32 years until the legal retirement age of 70 pushed him out of the schools this June and back into preaching...

The face of Middletown glowed under a thin veil of white this morning. Crystals of snow last night fluffed onto the city and instead of loosening into streamlets of dark, dirt-drawing water, they huddled together and clung to the rooftops, trees and the ground. It was not the first snowfall of the season, but it was the first that left some of itself behind...

Burning porch lights will signal the start tomorrow night of Middletown’s fight against muscular dystrophy. Local letter carriers, rewalking their routes at 6 p.m., will stop at all homes where porches are lighted and collect contributions for the campaign against the disease...