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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1973-08-09, Page 2Since 1860, serving the Community trot Pub110144 at 6EAFORTH, ONTARIO, every rmrSday morning lior MCLEAN BROS., Pttbashens Lotd• ANDREW Y. McLEAN, Editor Member Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and Audit Bureau of Circulation Newspapers Subscription Rates: Canada (in advance) $8.00 a Year Outside Canada (in advance) $10.00 a Year SINGLE COPIES — 20 CENTS EACH Second Class Mail Registration, Number 0696 Telephone 527-0240 SEAEORT11, ONTARIO, August 9, 1973 Food prices- whose fault? From My Window By Shirley J. Keller nr Food prices are sky- rocketing. Appliance stores are fast running out of freezers, because consumers are trying to make sure that they can afford to eat this winter. They are buying now in bulk and freezing a good food supply, especially' of meat, before-prices rise even higher, as they seem likely to do. Consumers are angry and bewildered and are looking for a scapegoat. Some blame the farmers, seeing them, as modern day --profiteers. This is, un- , fair and just not borne out by the facts. The prices which farmers are getting,now represeht the first equitable return on labour, and capital in- vestment that many farmers have seen in many years. As -Murray Gaunt, M.P. for Huron Bruce said in. the Legislature recently "farmers have a lot of catching up to do ..,.. A look -at income tax returns in recent years shows that except for pensioners, farmers. have the lowest average income". Some commentators put the0:01ANA,-forge Qd pride Ver superMe'rk-ets--Ind''prbtes.1-'' sing companies. Certainly there is no excuse for the apparently common practtse in many Toronto • stores of making excesT profits by marking up several-times food pro- ducts which are already in the store and were purchased at an earlier lower price. CBC radio carried an item the other night about an editor who was selecting a T-V din- ner at a Toronto super- market When the dinner was snatched out of his hands and marked with a higher price by an indus- trious sales clerk! Of course the food ,industry as well as agriculture has a right to a legitimate profit and to increased prices as a consequence of their increased costs. But fast buck artists should be clamped down on and prevented by strict ,government regulation and control. Frankly, a ly, we have t there is no c just ,as there goat we can b prices that a .us pff":, We have 'ha More gradual other essenti ties in the p Remember when dress cost $1 two bedroom a ted for $25 a 'was not very -c pace 0 s. of other necessities and . ,we are paying for many years of "cheap" food now. There.-may be an element - of panic in food purchas- ing. today' that is artific- ially pushing up prices. But even when things settle down, the days of the 89¢ a ppund steak probably are long gone. Today is my day to go shopping for the family's groceries and you ladies will appreciate my sentiments when I tell you I'm not looking forward to it, Shopping has always been one of the banes of my life, but for the last few months shopping - particularly grocery shopping - is enough to make me weep. I should tell you, first of all, that my family does not live extravagantly. In C. fact, we eat much less extravagantly to- day than we did 10 years ago. We use staples mostly. Breakfast isn't /big hassle at our house, nothing more than cereal (often times oatmeal) toast and coffee, tea or milk. Occas- ionally we have eggs. Rarely do we have bacon - the older kids ,Flor.t eat fried foods frAlietp'comple 4 Mr fv„, • d:O'n't,,pat ectuse of the cho Lunch is equally simple. Soup and a sandwich . . or if We've missed break- fast, a breakfast menu. Dinner is more elaborate. We -always have meat, potatoes, veg,table and salad. Dessert is nothing more than some fresh fruit or, for those who aren't counting calories, ice cream. Baked goods are restricted only to company affairs. And that's about it. If we snack, it is biscuits and cheese or more fruit. What I'm saying is our regular diet consists of just plain, ordinary nutritious food. Nothing fancy. Nothing imported. Just Canada's Food Rules over and over. So what's so expensive? What is it that runs the grocery bill sky high? I guess it is nothing more than rising costs across the, board. It is a frighten- ing experience to go to the grocery store with your regular grocery money and find it Just won't stretch to buy all the necessities . . never mind much left ovei• for extras. I have a regular routi in the groCery store. I buy almost the exact same .things from week to week and I just naturally move in the course I've bec le accus- tomed to at the store in which I shop. But every single week. one or two - maybe more - items haVe gone up in -price from the previous week. I find I need at. least one dollar more per week now over one month ago to buy almost the exact same supply of groceries. It has been going this way for several months now . . and I'm getting worried. One day I was buying wieners. From one week to' the next the price had in- creased by 14 cents per pound. (Since that fateful day they've gone up another five cents per pound, too.) As I was looking into the wiener coun- ter, I felt a little sick to my stomach. I held ontoN the side of the counter to steady myself. Another shopper hap- pened by and noticed my paleness. "Can I help you?" she asked politely. ,esas.,..1t4tAtre yell -all rightT ' I a,eStriip:d heri. I'd been fine until I looked' intX the meat counter at the price of wieners. ' "Have you seen the prices this week?" I asked her. "Yes," she told me. • "But what can I do? only praying I Can raise my " kids decently. No frills. Just decently." I think that kind of sums up the attitude of most of us . and while I Would be the last one in the world to find fault with the food producers, across the nation, I run a little scared about' what will happen to us all if something isn't done to curb prices. • I've .heard all kinds of theories in the past few weeks, but the one that sounds the most practical to me is the one which states that although prices remain high and are oing higher, people continue to buy, la , buy. There's no stopping them, y may complain, but still they buy. And how do /you 'stop people from buying steak, for instance, when fish is cheaper? How do you convince people to eat cabbage when lettuce is out of • reach? People like the way they've become accustomed to living and they aren't ready to give it up, no matter what the price. It is supply and demand, all right ... and if we demand it the supply will be there though it could be expensive. av There's no place like home, as some wise man or woman once said, I think moat likely It was a Man. For a woman, home means washing clothes and dishes eternally, scrubbing dirt, making beds, and all those other rottenv;od. jobsr that make "home-making" a' • y For a man, it means a good, hot cup of tea instead of lukewarm coffee, „a meal that tastes like food Instead of wet itreenex, - clean sheets smelling, of .suh, and going around in his underwear and bare feet If he jolly well feels like it. That's exactly what I'm enjoying to-day, after four days in The City. I've just had decent cup. Of, tea, a great, slurpy bacon and tomato sandwich, and I'm !rimy shorts and bare feet. We've just had our annual splurge in The City, and even my wife gave a groan of pure pleasure as we pulled into our driveway last night and the cat came run- ning to greet us, flinging herself on her back and rolling her belly ecstatically. That's the cat, not my wife. I haven't the slightest idea why, but every summer, when sensible people are fleeing like lemmings from The City, the old girl and I take off from our sylvan retreat in the heart of tourist land and 'head for the concrete canyons of that same City, There's no intelligence, let alone com- mon sense in it. We can't afford it. we don't even like it. But we go. Don't ask me for a logical explanation. It would be like asking a caribou why he runs back and forth, with-wolves snapping at his heels. And the wolves are there. in The City. Just waiting for us caribou. Unfortunately, they don't look like wolves, so you don't know what's happening' to you until you're hamstrung. They look like cab-drivers and waiters and bartenders. But one can't blame the wolves, can One? That's what they 'are for; to weed oul, the cripples. Well, I can tell you that If yeti 'are not crippledr-- at least financially, after a few days in The City, you've been stay- ing with your relatives.' For some reason, we 'always stay in the best hotel. fter all, It c‘sts only about three days pay for each night in the swank joint. This is part of the whole midsummer madness. And, what the heck, It's only three dollars each to see a movie. And what the shoot,. room service charges only 41.50 for a pot of coffee, and, a meagre $140 for a sandwich. And, of course, you can't take it with you, so spread it around a little. And then there's the swimming. The big hotels have a swimming pool. Of course, only the common people swim in the pool. That's what we tell ourselves every time we remember we've forgotten our swim suits. ' This is • about 6he point where I start to pound my heu,, thinking of the mile- -111 ,, long,strptch of,clean ,white,sagdAnd cl fr.f blue water back homy ut,„ But there's one th say abouV %"4';‘ °4' 4141 i r .1 City in -summer. It's cool. ph, not out 'with the rabble on the streets. They, I understand, sweat just like the rest of us. But in the big hotels and the bars and the restaurants, air-conditioning has worked a miracle. or something. You can almost go into some of them without an overcoat. Some of the bars are so un-cool the waiters don't even have -blue lips. But ,in most of them, the cus- tomers ate siting around racked with pneumonia and arthritis, I don't know why I'm complaining. Nobody forced me to go to The City. And if anyone tried, it would be like attempting to force a mule to walk back- ward. I wouldn't go there if you paid me. Especially in the summer. But I went. I guess it- was for my wife's sake. She loves a few days in a big hotel. No laundry. No meals to cook. No brains. Howeverillie" annual stupidity is over again, and, as. I said,.it's greatto be home. No more of that ridiculous wasting of money on things priced seven times too • high. No. problems like that at home. Noth- ing here but, the old cat and the new woodpiles. Let's open the mall. Might be a nice fan letter. Yikel Town taxes, $484.00. Fuel bill from last winter, $130.00. Bank manager wants to see me. I guess it's back to The City. .09 nd depressing o admit that ure ..a n 'sight, is no scape- lame for food ppear to "rip d huge, but incpeases in al commodi- ast few years a love,ly 5.00 and a partment ren- month? It long ago in L_Ji= Nvl 1--< 1--‹ E. -7 -Your pot roast or your life..' C In the Years Agone AUGUST 12, )898 Mrs. Ashley' of Londesboro left for Staceyville, Maine where she expects to be engaged in mission work. She is employed under the direction of a BostonMissionary Society. Shortly after commencing work to thresh at the farm of Robert Elliott, Hay- field, an accident happened to w m. Higgins. He was sliding down a stack when the handle of a fork leaning against it pene- trated his body about eight inches. While fishing in the river at Bayfleld, Geo. Stanbury daught a rare fish known as a carp. While returning from the Varna garden party, Isaac Hudson met with what might have been a serious accident. In trying, to pass another rig, his rig was upset, throwing him into the ditch. However, no serious injuries resulted. Messrs. Tyerman & Sparling have commenced work at Dr. Burrows' new residence on Goderich Street. Mrs. John Grieve Sr. of McKillop was in town and she is 90 years of age, and is still hale and hearty and to possession of all her faculties. Thos. Stephens has removed his family here from Berlin and is once more land- lord of the Queen's Hotel. W. D. McLean of town and James Swan of Brucefield left here for Galt, to attend the annual meeting of the Odd- felloWS Grand Lodge as delegates from Seaforth and Brucefield. A good manor wells are giving out at BrtiCefleldi OWIng to, a dry spell. Roots are !wetting' igh badly and pasture's are ti *bleb Makes it .bad for stock. Vie sheep dogg tateorriplished Senile of their destructive work. Geo. Baird of Brucefield again was the loser of three valuable thoroughbreds, killed outright and six others were worried so much as to render them useless. Milford Haist of Zurich has taken a position in his uncle's store and In- tends learnifig the Mercantile business. S. Merner of Zurich before he left for the west, sold hi s „pacer to Ed. Bossenberry. Ed. always has an eye for something good in the horse ine. W. J. Shannon, secretary and t ea- Surer of the McKillop Fire Insu nce Company left for Saulte Ste Marie Charlie Stewart, of New rk, son of James Stewart, is spending his holi- days at his home here. . A couple of bicyclists were up be- fore Magistrate Beattie for riding on the sidewalk. AUGUST 17 1323 J. Hey, Jr. of Zurich disposed of his handsome pacing horse, Little Hall to Mervyn Durnin of Goderich and re- ceived the handsome value of $500. A most successful sale of horses was held on the 13th concession of Hulled at the farm of G.D.Ellsworth. The prices ranged from $115.00 to $280. Large schools of minnows have been invading the beaches at Bayileld. Coinci- dent with this, many of the campers, particularly the children have been gut- fering from skin eruptions. The Ladies Aid of Cavan Church, Winthrop, quilted four quilts. Solos were given by Mrs. Wm. Grieve, Florence Saunders and Misses Marian and Grace Scarlett. W. McSpadden, Winthrop, has bought a new high-powered International trac- tor and is busy threshing. John Buqhinan, Walton, has pur- chased a threshing outfit and has started 1,ifork!' Messrs. R. Hoy and S. Forbes of Walton were among those who went west on the harvester's excursion. The choral society at Brucefield, is progressing very favourably, under the efficient leadership of Prof. A. W. Anderton of Goderich. Dr. A. R. Campbell, V.S., of Hensall, while treating a sick horse, had the misfortune to get kicked on the arm, breaking a small bone. The following graduates froth the Sea- forth Collegiate Institute have succes- sfully passed the summer course for teachers at Toronto University. Evelyn Adams, Elizabeth Keating, Malcolm J. Armstrong, Melvin S. Blanchard, Geo. F. Coates and James L. Kerr. The frame garage of W. E. Kerslake on Church Street was burned to the ground together with a McLaughlin car. Mrs. win. Berry of Bruce' aid brought into the Expositor office a Pretty boil- 41,0,44 yr. quet of flowers she picked in the garden on the E„ P Ranch in Alberta, owned by the Prince of Wales. Mrs. R. E. Cooper, who for 28 years has been a well known and greatly res- pected resident of Seaforth, passed away at her home on Adam St. J. R. Scott, whose farm adjoins Sea- forth on the north, was the first in this district to complete the harvest. Frank Lee, who has been the oper- ator at the station here for many years has been promoted to be station agent at Thorndale. Reid Edmonds of town has accepted a position on the staff of the West Lorne Continuation School. AUGUST 20, 1948 H. Glenn Hays has been appointed crown attorney to succeed D. E. Holmes who has been appointed magistrate. for Huron County succeeding the late J.W. Morley K.C., Exeter. A crowd of 2500 people gathered at Brucefield to enjoy the frolic sponsored by the• Brucefield Firemen. A dance was held with the Murdock Orchestra furnishing the music. Those winning prizes were, Mrs. Hurdge, Harry Dal- rymple, Mrs. G. Kirk, Jean Agar, Capt. Cook. Announcement was made this week that Miss Jean Mills, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Mills of Walton had been awarded the 15th annual Seaforth Collegiate Ingitute alumni memorial scholarship, valued at $25.00. A survey made by the bus committee for the bus routes for Seaforth High School indicated a considerable increase in the attendance of rural pupils at the fall term. It is anticipated that there will be at least 120. The first gathering of the descendants of Robert and Frank coleman was held at the Lions Park, with 75 persons pres- ent. It is 97, years since the brothers came to this country from Yorkshire, England. The oldest person was Geo. Coleman of Egmondville and the youngest was Glenda, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Johnson of Varna. Harry Parnell, defier of _Paxnell's Tire and Battery Shop, Mitchell, has bought a similar business in Seaforth, formerly managed by the late Jack Kel- land. • - . The grain harvest is over and it has been gathered under conditionsthat were nearly perfect. The hay weather was a little catchy, but most of it was housed in good condition and it was a good crop. Miss M. Marks, of Brucefield, sus- tained a cracked hip in a fall at the home of her niece, Mrs. Ross Scott. The mother bear and her four 'cubs which have been the object of several searches in the Hensall district lately were sighted by a posse of .15 meh.and two provincial constables. They were seen east of Hensall by Keith McLean, but before they could be nabbed or shot, they scampered into Win. Pepper's busl. Leading the- posse was Constables Hel- Mar Snell and Tack Ferguson. .11x milict.4.41:dliknescoarack441.