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The Huron Expositor, 1973-11-01, Page 2E $tron (Naar Since 1860, Serving the Community First PutokWised) at S,EAFORTIC ONTARIO, every Thursday miming by MEAN BROS., rUbijOhem libd• ANDREW Y. MeLEAN, 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 Nurm4er 0696 Teleiphone 527-0240 SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, November 1, 1973 Shop in town! Bayfield 014SNVOSeekeNeeeee.0.******44,4.00.14******* In the Years Asone Sugar and Spice By Bill Smiley t the gateway. The argument most naturally expressed by these taxpayers is that it is simply not safe for their children to 'walk on a busy highway at a busy hour. In towns and cities all over this pro- vince, howeVer, children from kinder- garten through Grade. 13 brave the elements and the traffic to walk to and from school. Many of them walk a mile or so more. Many of them must cross dangerous roads and intersections. Some must trudge along heavilytravelled streets without. the benefit of sidewalks. Theirs is a daily problem . . and they learn to cope because there Ss simply no other way to get to school. There should be some real con- sideration given by school boards across the province to the possibility of limiting the number of stops any school bus makes on a busy highway. Secondary roads may be treated in a. different manner, but on main thoroughfares, some special legis- lation must be enacted to •protect the- motorist as well as the school children. perhapg there could be specified stops along. the route - no more than one every mile - with signs clearly indicating to the motorists that this is a pick up and drop off area for school children. Maybe these school bus stops could 'have a bench fOr waiting and a portable shelter for winter months. Maybe footpaths could be constructed at the side of the road- ways to accommodate not only, pedestrian traffic but bicycles as well. Or ,maybe the best answer is to build sideroads along main highways for school bus travel in the morning- and evening hours during the school year . . . and slow movinvvehicle' traffic as well as bitycles in the off hours and during the summer months. All I'm saying is that school buses are here to stay and there must be some provision made in the future to ensure that as roads become more jammed with traffic, the school buses will create less and less problems., That would .be costly, you moan. Of course it would be. Who ever said that safety .came cheap! For that matter, who ever said that we should put a price limit on that which would make.highway travel pleasant and almost hazard-free? It is pretty hard to imagine Seaforth witho t a drug store -- there as been one here for. more than 100 years and Keat ing's Drug Store, orig- inally under J.E.Keating and more recently under his daughter, M.E.Hoover, celebrates its fiftieth anniversary op Main St. this fall. But we will have to get used to Seaforth without a drug store soon,, for Keatings is closing on Saturday. It seems that the drug store on Main St. is closing and we are los- ing the only pharmacist in town because it is no -longer economically pos- sible to run the business in Seaforth. Small town stores, drug stores inclbded,•find it increasingly difficult to face competition from large city' stores, from chain discount stores, from,qj1 order chains and in the case of drug stores from clinics who dispense their own prescriptions. As a result of these pres- sures, senior citizens, and other Seaforth people .who need prescriptions now not longer will have an indepandent, knowledge able pharmacfst, a per-, sonal friend. The question which the situation poses is this: In small towns we want.all the `amenities of the lar- ger centres, a. drtig store good grocery stores, fash 4nnable clothing stores, but in order. to keep them in town, are we willing to patronize them? The problem is two sided. 'Merchants in turn have to work at gettilig and 'keeping local custom ers. The patronage of Seaforth and district people at Main Street stores is no longer auto matic, as it may have been in horse and buggy days. They have cars and lots of leisure to drive to other centres. They have eyes and will read. the ads in neighbouring daily newspapers. In a nostalgic mood today, I've been thinking that, with the onslaught of the Speed Age, many of our fine old Canadian traditions have fallen by the wayside, died on the vine, or simply lain down and curled up their toes. One of the first to go, of course, was the blacksmith. It hurts the to face the truth:- that most people today under thirty have never known the sensory joys of a blacksmith's shop. At this time of year, small boys used to squeeze through the ramshackle door, and edge as close as they could to the fire, freezing their bums and roasting their cheecks. There was a fine acid stench of horse Manure and scorched hooves. There was the leaping flame as the bellows blew. There was the ring- ing clang as the smith beat out the white- hot metal between hammer and anvil, and the satisfying hiss when the hot metal was plunged into the cold water. •• At a certain age most male kids would have settled happily for the life of a blacksmith, a free soul who spenthis days doing the most fascinating work 'in the world. Merchants in a small town have a responsibility to make a profit without profiteering, to advertise, to have friendly, efficient clerks and pay them decently to provide service and to deliver when delivery is promised; not when they get around to, lt, Our businesses can have a lot going for themselves in a small town if they keep their standards high. If -they don't, and in many cases even if they do, people can, and apparently do shop elsewhere. But we local people who want amenities like drug store in town and don't want to see.other Main Street businesses close down also have a responsibility and-that is to dO our shopping in town,. In the end, it all -comes down to priorities, Given that Seaforth mer 7 chants do everything in their power to keep prices competitive and their ser- vice as good and in most cases better than that.of ,city,opposition, do we' give them a vote of con- fidence and help keep Sea- forth alive 'by spending 1511r- inn 4y- ttrre—cirn"M, first priority'the plea- sure of a shopping trip to a nearby city? Unless we value the convenience of having a variety of stores and - Services in Seaforth and the of dealing with businesses who know us and are part of the community more than we value the chance to save an often illusionary buck by grabbing at outside 'bargains;, more of. our stores may go the route of Keating's Drug Store and have no economic choice 'but to clOse down. We can't have' it both ways. If-we want a va'r- iety of stores, we have to patronize thenL If local people do not shop in Seaforth,.eventually there may be few stores, left downtown to shop at. It's up „to us-. The decline of the smith, of course, was brought about by the gradual phasing out of, another tradition - the horse- drawn vehicle. I wonder how many kids of this gener- ation have ever spent a winter Saturday "catching bobs". This was our term for jumping on the backs of farmers' sleighs. All day long the farmers came and anent to and from town. And all day long we hopped on behind a •load of grain, left that for a load of supplies going the other way, picked up a sleigh piled with logs for the return trip, and shivered with delighted fear as the fartners shouted at us, and even flourished their whips at us, and even sometimes flourished their whips in our direction. As 'we grew a little older, about 12, we graduated to catching qn the wing of a cutter. This was more daring and more dangerous because they could really fly, the runner was much smaller, and the farther could turn around and belt you one, on the ear. Most of them, of course, were pretty decent.1,know now that they were more worried about us gettihg hurt in a fall During recent weeks there has been a growing controversy in' my area about school buses and school bus drivers. For a.•good many years now, school buses have been a bone of contention for me, for when my children were younger and we• lived in a rural community they rode to and' from- school each day on one of the big yellow monsters of the highWay. Now that my children 'no longer depend on school buses to get them back and forth to school, school buses still present a problem to me for they are on the high- way many times when,I want to travel . . and they .present areal safety hazard not only for the children who are riding in them, but for the drivers who must share the road with them. Let me first off say that school buses appear to be a necessary evil in these • modern days in which we •live. Consoli- dated schools mean children haVe much' longer distances to travel to classes and . they,haveno alternative but to ride to and fro in some motorized conveyance or another. But it must soon be. recognized that school buses stopping and starting on heavily-travelled provincial highways are not only 'a -nuisance but the makings of many accidents - major and minor which leaves motorists disgruntled and disgusted , every school day from about 7:30 to 9 a.m. and 3:30 to 5 P.M. There is a common assumption among rural people that because their child- ren Must travel to school by bus, it just naturally follows that they must be picked up at their homes. That's why school buses seem to stop at every gateway no matter how close those laneways are .. . and why some buses are even expected to make dangerous turn-archnds on busy roads just to give at-the-gate service to some able bodied student whq could easily • have walked the' quarter-mile to a safer stopping point. School boards all over the province have endeavoured to provide this tre- mendous at-the-gate service for every child. - and many school board members haue taken severe tongue lashings from irate parents who want to know why their' children must walk 200 feet while the neighbor's kids are picked up right at than they were about the extra weight their-horses had to pull. Then there were the butchers' cutters. These consisted of a sort of box with runners beneath, and a step at the back for the driver to stand on. The horses were not plugs, but real road-runners that went like a bat out of hell. They were every bit as exciting as a Roman chariot, and the drivers w re the envy of every'boy, in fur caps, reins tn. one ,and, whip in the other, as they -3 through the town like furies. , And I wonder how many boys have played hockey all day on a frozen river, when a hard shot the goalie missed might slide for a quarter of a mile. We never had to worry about ice-time, or chang- lines. We could play 'until we were pooped, then sit by the bonfire until rested, and have another go. And there were always twenty or thirty playing at once, so everybody got a whack at the puck. Some great stick-handlers tattle out of that era. Think of the depths to which we have sunk. The smithy, with its light and shadows, its reds and blacks, its earthy NOVEMBER 4 3 1898 H. willert of Dashwood, went to Dakota with a carload of apples. The smoking concert under the aus- pices of the Beaver Lacrosse Club; held in the Town Hall, was well attended. President Baker was in the chair and a good programme was rendered, Songs by W. McLeod, "W. Moran and Geo. McRae, were appreciated, while the music by an orchestra composed of L.T.De Lacey, J. Daly, and W. McLeod kept things lively. A ateple of well contended boxing bouts brpught a pleasant evening to a close. A. G. Ardagh of Barrie and E.J. Checkley of Toronto, were id town, spying out the land, with a view of starting an establishment for the preparation of peat for fuel. John Stogdill of town has gone to Exeter, where he has started in business. Alex MdKenzie of the 2nd of Tucker- smith, is the possessor of a very fine Arabian pony. He ,was used in the great P.T.Barnum show as a parade horse. The new Presbyterian Church build- ing will be opened for divine service on the 20th when Rev. R. P. Mackay,Toronto will preach in the morning and Rev. Neil Shaw of Egmondville in the evening. Geo. Ingram of Tuckersmith has sold his fine farm east of Hensall to John Caldwell of Tuckersmith. The price paid was in the neighborhood of $6000. The members of the Methodist Church choir drove to Clinton to attend the Croseey - Hunter, revival services there. , We were visited by a thunder storm and later by a northwestern blizzard. The shop boys had to shovel the snow, off the sidewalk for the first time this season. On Saturday morning, the firemen were called out to a chimney fire at the home of Mrs. Wm. Spain of Jarvis,,St. NOVEMBER 9, 1923. John Cameron and Percy webster of Bayfield, left for Los Angeles,'Calif. where they intend to spend the winter. John Scott, of Cromarty, has in his garden a rose bush which has 'roses in full bloom, also many buds which are ready to open. Lorne Speir of Cromarty, who has spent the past two years in the west returned home and has taken a position in Harriston. Win. Fasken, who for some years has been the station agent at Kippen, intends to take a well earned rest and left for London ' where he 'intends to stay with his sons. Miss Emma Dickson of Hensall has taken a position in the Hensall post - Office. Owing to ill health J. A. Williams has resigned the position of P oS t- master of Seaforth. He was first ap- pointed in 1913, coming here from Zurich. The inaugural meeting of the officers and committee of the Old Boys Reunion was attended by a bumper crowd. President Wm. Ament occupied the chair. Many friends 'in this district and all readers of the Expositor will sincerely regret to learn of .the death of James •• Laidlaw which occurred at his home ih Sacremento, Calif. He was a brother of Mrs. John Smith of Hullett TWP. Mr. Harry "Hinckley who was engaged by the Saskatchewan Government in dairy work in Lloydminster,• returned to his home here this week. J. Balfour, who has taken a position with C. G. Thompsons in the oatmeal mill, has moved his family into the Royal Apartment. On Wednesday a mass meeting of the pupils of the Collegiate was held in the assembly room for 'the purpose of form- ing a Literary Society. The following officers were elected: Hon. 'Pres,. Miss Amy L. Odell, President, John Archi- bald; vice Pres. Miss raelma Johnston; secretary-treasurer C. J. Merrier.' Miss Beatrice Seip . and Miss Gladys Holland of town attended the Epworth League Convention in Goderich last week. NOVEMBER 12', 1948: Lawrence P. Plumsteel took over his duties as principal of Seaforth District High School. Born in Clinton, he came here from New Hamburg. Armand Bedard, son-in-law of .Mrs. Teresa Maloney of town was badly burned about .the face and neck while working with hot tar on a district road. A large crowd attended the Fire- men's euchre in Cardno's Hall, when players competed for $100.00 in prizes. The winners were Men's first, Ralph Mc-, Fadden; Gordon Muir; lone hands, Lorne • Dale Jr; Consolation, Gus Boussey and Frank Lee; Lucky , door prize M.Mc- Kellar. Mr. and Mrs. John M. Govenlock were married 64 years ago and marked the occasion by a family dinar at the home of Mrs. Mae Dorrance. While selling tickets at the Hospital Radio Circus show in the rink, R.S.' • McDonald hung his overcoat beside the ' ticket booth: When he Went to get it after the show was over he found that someone else had gotten there first. ' The Community Hall, Walton, was filled to capacity when the neighbors and friends of Mr. and Mrs. Doug. Fraser, newly-weds, gathered to honor them. Jack Bryanrea an address and Bobbie Hou- ston presented ,them with a purse of money. About 50 neighbori and friends ga- thered at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kale to honor Joseph Lane who is leaving the community. Lou O'Reilly read an address and Thos. Kale pre- sented him with a travelling bag. Geo. Taylor, Ronald Bennett, Nelson Marks, Lawrence Marks, Hugh Campbll and Percy Dalton left for northern Ontario where they will hunt deer. There passed away in Scott Memorial Hospital, William M. Reid, in his 79th ,year. Born in Kilburnie, Scotland, he came to this country in 1871. He was a finisher of furniture by trade which he learned in Bfeadfnot and Box factory. Mayor M. A. Reid, Dr. E.A.McMaster and,Meesrs. w.T.Teall, James M. Scott and rm. D. MacDonald, left a hunting trip to the Parry Sound district. smells, its sense of We t has been re- placed by the garage, a sterile thing with its cement floor, its reek of,gas and oil , and its unspoken assurance that this-is-gonna-cost-you-plenty-buddy,. The cutter, swift and light as a bird, no longer skims the snow. It has been replaced by a stinking, snarling, skid- ding beast that only modern man could abide - the snowmobile. No more meat-cutters, careening ar- ound the corners on one runner, deliver- ,, t ing fh any weather. Now, we plod like zombies through the supermarket, 'to moronic piped-in music, and pick up the odourless, antiseptic, cellophaned packages the great gods Dominion, Lob- laws or Safeway have assigned to us, and *carry them humbly to our cars,' three blocks away. Our kids have to get up at five a.m. to play hockey, and if they're not real "killers", get about tout minutes ice- time. Ah, those were the daysi And I haven't even begun on the most vital of all winter equipment - the puck consisting of a frozen horse-bun. 1•• a AP.