Married Men Less Affected Than Single By Antarctic Winter

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28160, 26 December 1956, Page 10

Married Men Less Affected Than Single By Antarctic Winter

IFrom BRIAN O’NEILL. ‘•The Press’ correspondent with the United States Navii Task Force 43 in the Antarctic]

Aboard U.S.S. Glacier, McMurdo. December 23. Married men stand up to the rigours of the Antarctic winter better than single men. according to Commander Herbert H. Whitney, who was in charge of American south Polar bases this year. Married men comprised 60 per cent, of the 166 men wintering at the McMurdo Sound and Little America bases.

“When you are down in a place like this, away from female companionship, .you would think that married men would be missing more, but it turned out that single men were affected more.” Commander Whitney said. “On the average, married men were more stable, mav be because they were a little bit older.” he said It is noticeable that the sleeping barracks at the McMurdo base are not now sporting paintings and photographs of pin-up models, nudes and film stars to the extent they were six weeks ago. Sex has been replaced by colourful glossy advertising sheets, displaying illustrations of gleaming 1957 automobiles.

Some men have already sent orders for new models (automobiles, not new magazine tear-outs). Single men. especially with no families to support, can well afford to buy them, for with only about five dollars a month spent horn their pay on toilet articles and

a little candy in the last 14 months, they have accumulated a pile of Savings.

Some men have saved several thousand dollars, and even after posting a money order to the United States for the 1900 dollars down payment on a car to be waiting on the wharf for them when they arrive home early next year, they still have a good portion of their savings left.