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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1971-02-25, Page 4FRISBEE,. vs.``FrAvVILE D L4 17 1. "(0 $ome *HERE ) SOls). Tiii/VAG Yo u.12, 13E 77--R Co 7—o 7-/-/S SToRE' 7-114 PR. /MBE A)4G.Ls coA) c A R iem 0 Tice dream worlds .... • ... Here's how fat eats get that way upholstery at will, and want out at five in the morning. If I should grow old and lonely, I would prefer a snake as a pet. Like cats, they just sleep and eat. They also eat mice, But they don't come fawning and whining and robbing fiercely against your legs when you're getting their food out. They don't want out hi the middle of the night. And they don't get - pregnant every six weeks. It's a welt-known fact that cats have no love for anybody. Not evert for other eats, A beautiful female will marry any flea-bitten, one-eyed, torn-eared philanderer -who comes along. And tom eats are just plain sex fiends. In some ways, rats are like children. When they're kittens, they're sweet and loveable and cuddly. And always making a mess. When they grow up, they mooch unashamedly, stay out half'the night, sleep half the day. And are always making a mess, My wife isn't fond of cats, and I loathe them. But we always seem to be stuck with one. Daughter Kim picks up a stray kitten and brings it home, With the deepest misgivings, we adopt the scrawny tittle wretch. They're always female, which we don't find out. until too late. Then Kim breezes off somewhere, and we're guardians and grandparents. Theres no parleying about birth control. Kim insists that het protegee must fulfil her function as female, After the drama of the delivery, and the period of nursing, we have a hysterectomy performed. And in about four months, the Mini, sleek, pretty young thing is a great fat cat, knocking off tilts end tins of cat food, and producing nothing except extreme irritation. Try to get her to put her out when you think it's "time" and she darts upstairs and under, a bed. Have you ever tried crawling under a bed to catch a cat who doesn't want to go out into the snow? It's a good way to give yourself a stroke, from sheer rage. Leave her outside and she darts between your legs when you're bringing hi armsful of groceries, and high-tails it to safety wider another bed, or down cellar the door of which your stupid wife, or husband, has left open. The solution, of course, is to have her put away. But somehow I've never been able to accept euthanasia. After all, you -don't kill your kids, or even your parents, just because they drive you wild. Many will not agree with me. But I got off to a bad start this week. All set to go to work Monday morning. Cat in back kitchen, with an odd Took on her face. Threw her out. Went into the downstairs powder room, and there was the 'evidence. Not one, but two distinct evidences of massive diarrhea. ' It's the only good thing I can say for them. At least they know enough to go to the bathroom. THE CLINTON NEW ERA Established 1865 Amalgamated 1924 THE HURON NEWS'RECORD Established 1881 Clinton News-Record A member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) second class mail registration number — 0817 SU5SCRIPTION RATES: (in advance) Canada, $6.60 per year: U.S.A., $7.:50 KEITH W. ROULSTON — 'Editor J. HOWARD AITKEN — General Manager 'Published every Thursday at the heart of Huron 'County iv Clinton, Ontario Populatibn 3,475 THE HOME OP RADAR 1N CANADA 4 Clinton News-,FlecQrci,,Thursdpy, February 26, 1971 44/(0,70.1 comoseiti A look at future trouble pockets. The regional government took over the system and would give no compensation although the residents thought there should be some. The regional government also gave the villagers a hefty water rate increase, In Beamsville, where the water system showed a profit of $12,500 in 1969, the new rate nearly doubled the old. There are a lot of other complaints. Hunting licences used to be sold in each town. Now they are sold from a central office in Beamsville where the office hours are 9-.-5 and the office is closed on Saturdays. Residents complain that working men just can't get to the office to get a licence and since they must sign personally, no one else can go for them. Recreation costs have risen because much of the work used to be done voluntarily. Now committee members get $20 per meeting. "For residents of many of the smaller communities," the article says, "regional government may ultimately bring an improvement in some services or amenities. But right now, there is a corresponding loss of many little services that often were carried out on a volunteer basis." For instance, Vineland once bought a small snowblower for $1,500 and a local man volunteered to run it without charge. Streets and sidewalks were kept clean at little cost. When the regional government took over the blower was shipped to a regional works department shop where it sat unused. It was finally suggested that it should be sent back to Vineland and it is now in action again with the volunteer driving but being paid an hourly wage. The most, troubling part of the whole article is the knowledge that the Niagara region is a relatively compact region and therefore should be fairly easy to administer. What could happen with a sprawling area like the Midwestern Region? Perish the thought. richest nations in the world with one of the sparcest populations, is overcrowded, what hope in heaven is there for the rest of the 'World. The truth is Canada can support a far larger population than it does at present. We haven't begun to use the vast areas of our country that are potential homes for millions. Our own area here in Western Ontario could support a sizably larger population than at present. The prairies are under populated and studies of the mid-Canada region are just beginning. Perhaps, with the advance of science, even the Arctic will become readily inhabitable some day. Someday our "leaders" and educated men like Mr. Chant will begin to see the fallacy of centralizing all our population in a few, huge, stinking garbage heeps called cities along the southern edge of the country and begin to move toward establishing the population of the nation in all inhabitable sectors of the country. Let's hope it's not too late when they finally come around. A disturbing look into the future was provided recently by an -article in the Toronto Globe and Mail reviewing the situation in the Niagara Peninsula after one year of regional government, To say that things are not running smoothly under the new arrangement would be the understatement Of the year. St. Catharines is threatening to secede already (one stumbling block to that is that there is no provision for secession under the provincial legislation setting up the region). A year ago the 26 municipalities and two counties in the peninsula were dissolved and formed into 12 local governments and one over-all regional government. The new giant municipality covered 719 square miles and contained 350,000 people. The region is administered by a council made up of 16 members elected directly to the council and the mayors of each of the 12 local governments. Each of these councillors 'is paid $5,000 per year. The region also has a chairman at $20,000 per year. The regional government looks after health, welfare, water, sewage, police and roads designated as regional roads. The local governments carry out the remaining municipal functions and collect taxes. Nearly every area has a beef of some sort. St. Catharines is unhappy because it has a third of the population of the area but only a quarter of the seats on the council. It also has to pay 47 per cent of the regional cost. One of the big problems was the decision to establish a regional water rate. Such a rate for instance tripled the cost of water to St. Catharines water users. In the former police village of Vineland the villagers asked their township council 19 years ago for a new water system. The township refused so the villagers raised their own money and built their own system. The plant was paid for, not by regular taxes, but out of their own Plenty of room Sometimes one has cause to wander about the intelligence of some so-called educated men. Take for instance the statement this week by a Donald Chant, chairman of the zoology department at the University of Toronto,that Canada has twice the size of the population that it should have. Chant claims that the 21 million people in Canada have the environmental impact of a population of one billion and suggested the federal government not only do away with baby bonuses but establish a system of rewarding couples who have small families. Maybe it's all that polluted air in Toronto that keeps Mr. Chant from seeing beyond the boundaries of Metro. Maybe he can't see that the United States supports ten times the population of Canada with less land and fewer natural resources or that China has over 700 million in a country smaller than ours. ' Granted, Canada isn't likely to, and probably shouldn't get to the 200 million point of the U.S. let alone that of China, but the point is, if Canada, one of the Well, I've got the snowmobilers of Canada on my back, almost unanimously, after a recent column which suggested mildly that the machines are instruments of Satan at best, the finest tool for tioise-stink pollution since the automobile took to the roads. That makes up about one4marter of my readers. This week I shell alienate another two-quarters of them by giving my unvarnished opinion of eats. Cats, like snowmobiles, have their uses. They're handy to have around a farm, where they help keep the vermin under control, They have, in the past, been just the thing for the proprietors of some chicken palaces, when the price of chickett was high. There were some in prison camp, presumably to keep sown the rat's, Their numbers were diminishing with increasing speed, until the German -catnp commandant issued the dictum: "Prisoners will cease and desist killing and eating of long-tailed rabbits." He had a sense of humour. Which is more than you can say for a tat, Then, they are useful when kittens, for putting on calendars. And finally, I'll admit they provide company of sorts for lonely people, who pamper them, stuff them with tidbits, and turn them from sleek felines into bloated, contemptuous parasites who take over the best chair in the house, shed hair over everything. claw the tug and Flying my big Boeing 747 in to the office yesterday, the morning after seeing the film Billy Liar on the late, late television movie, I found my thoughts turning to the joys and perils of fantasy, there being, I suspect, more of the latter than the former. I often fly myself in to work, especially on foul weather days, though not always in an airliner. Sometimes it is a bullet-ridden Spitfire, It's not a thing I do consciously, you understand. I just find myself in the garage, turning on the ignition key, and suddenly I'm checking the flaps and ailerons, taxiing out into the drizzle and getting airborne about half-way down the block. Some mornings I feel my eyes are the eyes of eagles. You can see how this relates to Billy Liar, a marvellous old picture having to do with a poor prune whose downfall is that he can never conic to grips with reality. The phenomenal success of the film originally was surely related to the fact that there's something of Billy Liar in us all. Fantasy, which is imagination running amok, is a subconscious SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO The Clinton New Era February 28, 1896 From Bayfield News: — The Presbyterian congregation is beginning to navigate for a new organ. We understand they will give us a high-class entertainment in the near foture. As this is a large and flourishing congregation, no doubt a new organ will soon grace the church. T. McKenzie; our popular townsman of planing mill fame, has completed a thorough change iii the building formerly occupied by Mr. Walter Coats, fitting tip the same for Messrs. Plumsteel mid Gibbings, for general dry goods, putting iii plate glass fronts, etc., and making a neat and commodious store. SEVENTY.FIVF, YEARS AGO The Huron News-Record February 26, 1896 Judged by the number of people seen skating on the new rink, the pastime is a favorite one, for in addition to the youthful ones generally seen on all rinks, there may be seen men of all ages, and the prettiest of rminak.trons gliding gracefully over the vast sheet of ice in the new The Messrs. Reynolds and Carbert had a lively time in attempting to deliver two beef cattle Monday afternoon. Both became very ugly and had to be allowed to return from whence they were brought, FIFTY-FIVE YEARS AGO The Clinton New Era February 24, 1916 The officers, band and men of Clinton's 161st Battalion left this morning for Bayfield where they will spend the day in aid of recruiting. They return on Friday. The women of Middleton Church will serve lunch on the march out today. The O.C,h is closed for two weeks on account of the device for fulfilling some psychological need. A man or woman who suffers any form of deprivation, whether it be spiritual or physical, always compensates by visions and caprices of the mind. There may be no premeditation or pattern. One man's Boeing 747 is another man's Racquel Welch. But every one of us has a secret compartment of sweet hallucination. Imagination of a conscious, controlled nature is, of course, a wonderful gift and almost essential for success of any kind, but I sometimes think that it is a curse when it goes beyond control, when the castles a man builds are only in the air. This is the way it was with Billy Fisher in the film and why the late, late viewer might identify himself with Billy. I own to that myself. As a man, no less than as a child, I spend a hellish amount of time in a golden world of heroic conquest and high adventure, entirely cerebral. It occurs to me that, like the thin man striving to get out of every fat man, there's a romantic measles. For destroying a horse without first securing a veterinary certificate that the animal was suffering, the Toronto Humane Society was ordered by court to pay the owner $25. He had sued for $60. It was the first case of the kind reported in Ontario. FORTY YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record February 26, 1931 The Chautauqua programs are starting Friday evening, February 27, and are ,of unsurpassed merit. They are presented by artists of universal distinction. Conic out and help your community support this great Canadian educational feature that is brought tight to your own homes. In Trinity Church, Bayfield, during the six Sundays in Lent, series of sermons will be given by the rector, Mr, Paull, on certain great questions of the day. Keep off gravel roads until a general thaw comes is good advice to motorists of the district — And then keep off until the toads dry up, might be added, Nothing outs up a soft, wet road so quickly as motor traffic. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record February 28,194'6 Frank J. Selke, Publicity Manager,. and David "Sweeney" Shriner, star right winger of the Toronto Maple Leafs, are expected in Clinton this afternoon and -evening as guests of Clinton Lions Club, "Sweeney" Shelties, one of modern hockey's "greats," will give a demonstration of hockey free to school children and others in Clinton arena after school is out at four o'clock this afternoon. Item from the "County News" column: SEAVORTH who is clawing for release in every drudge. In most cases it is probably just as well that this inner man so rarely escapes from his prison. I have a dear friend, for example, who, like Billy, is a compulsive liar because of letting loose his daydreams. Oh, he's harmless enough. Those who are close to him know that the colossal business deal he speaks of is non-existent, that his triumphs in assorted boudoirs are purely imaginary. But in aspiring for acclaim or notoriety by projecting his fantasies he merely becomes pathetic. I remember, myself, that afternoon when, alone in, the house, I put on some Ellington records, turned the volume up as high as it would go, and then, on a whim, conducting the band rather flamboyantly, though suavely. I was the Duke. Only to look up and see a quartet of unknown visitors standing on the porch watching me with rapt interest through the window. So a man learns, painfully, that his interior alter ego is best restricted to imagery. Trying to find a shovel or two of coal by scraping out the bins is a popular pastime in Seaforth these days. One is lucky to find that much because coal is a scarce commodity. Dealers here are spreading it out thinly, a bag or two to a customer, and still there is not enough to go around. FIFTEEN YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record February 23,1956 Fa, Laura Johnson, officer commanding the School of Food Services at R,C.A.F, Station, Clinton, entertained representatives from the Toronto daily newspapers, Kitehener T.V., a Kitchener newspaper and a Belleville newspaper and the T. Eaton Company, Toronto. The group was escorted through the school, which is the only school of its kind in Canada. Claiming the Canada Temperance Act is the best liquor law available, Huron Presbytery of the United Church of Canada last Wednesday urged Goderich Jaycees to refrain from campaigning for repeal, Another big winner was selected last Saturday afternoon, The real trouble with fantasies is that, like unpleasant dreams, they come unbidden. A man prone to them never knows when they'll strike. They emanate from some mysterious, Tibetan lost horizon of the brain, often, in my case, with stunning Cinerama color and dimensions. Thus, just as in my misspent youth when I very often drifted off into my dream world 40 seconds before being asked to stand and list the nations of Europe, even now I may become totally detached from reality when circumstances make it essential that I be all there, Lord knows what tiny heights of success I might have scaled had I not spent soinuch"titne in Tahiti on the dream-now-pay- later plan. (I often fly myself to Tahiti on nasty mornings in my 747 jet.) This explains my own strong affinity with Billy Liar just as, in earlier years, I recognized myself with terrible clarity in Thurber's Walter Mitty and, in fact, my own plane, like Walter's, always goes pock-a-ta-pock-a-ta. Does yours? at the Clinton Merchants' Appreciation Day draw, when Mrs. Robert Welch of R. R. 2, Bayfield, won $119.38 with a 20 percent coupon. TEN YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record February 23, 1961 Mrs. W. M. (Mary) Nediger has been appointed Clerk of the Third Division Court of the County of Huron. She succeeds C. ,l. Livermore, who resigned at the end of January, Mrs. Nediger is familiar with the work, having started with Tom Steepe when he was Clerk and continued through the period during which Mr. Livermore served in that capacity. Robert P. Allan earned second place for the bushel of oats class at the Western Ontario Farm Show in London this week, The variety was Russell. Robert Fotheringham, Brucefield, earned third place with his bale of first cut hay. White beans still seem to be the specialty of Huron County Growers. Top three prizes in this class were won by john McLachlan and June McLachlan, both of R. R. 3, Kippen, and Robert Fotheringham, Brucefield. Letter to the Editor The editor, We again send our sincerest congratulations to the two ladies in our town who are very intimate friends, who have the distinct honor of celebrating their birthdays on the same dates as that of the late two most prominent Presidents of the United States. Mrs. Adam Oantelon of Rattenbury Street who celebrated her 90th birthday Feb. 12 on the same date as that of Abraham. Lincoln, Mrs. A. D. McCartney, a year younger, of Frederick Street on Feb, 23 on George Washington's birthday. Mrs. John Vincent. The tough step up BY ANDRE ARCING Graduation from Grade 8 is a long sought after triumph for many a student, but the thought of going to the "big school" in only 64 more days, puts the living fear in them. Oh sure, they were the elite of the public school, they won battles and became respected, but now, their older brothers tell them, they are the lowest species of mankind, not worthy to be looked upon. "Now you're a nobody," they say, "just a grubby grade niner!" Just think of the psychological hurts and frustrations a shy young man must have in grade nine. The others may adjust by sheer bravado but not him. He dares not to raise his head, takes all the taunts and jeers from his classmates with a fearful meekness. This student gasps when the teacher asks him a question. Is life really worth it? But wait! A young girl notices him. She talks to him. She lets him know that life has a meaning; there is a future. The young man needs her like a tonic. Every day before class, if he can only say something to her, joy wells up within him. What a personality she has! Oh no, she's looking at that hockey player. But she's turning back, Oh no! Just talking to that girl across the aisie;Maybe look at me if I give her a smile Dare I? Do it! Do it! He attempts a weak smile. She smiled at me, she likes me, boy is she good looking. Well she's got a crooked nose, but she looked at me! Valentine's Day comes around! The young man doesn't expect anything from hi classmates. But maybe the gir will give ! At home, tilt night before he made a beautifu valentine. All lace and red paper for his own (sigh) love! But ht was anguished. I don't dare Somebody might find out about it. No they won't, she'll hide i i and pass a thankyou note. The next day he stood in tit doorway of the classroom trying, to summon enough strength ir his weak knees to place tla valentine on her desk. Shaking like a leaf, he quickly threw tht valentine on the desk, ran to hi and buried his head in a book Of course, she got hundred. of valentines and took the longest time in reaching his She's opening it. She's going tx love it. But look at all tit people. The young man wa. melting like a St, Bernard. She', got a smile on her face. Oh no! She's laughing pointing at me. I'm getting red. The kids are almost dying of mirth. That dumb kid! What r joke. Tears formed ie his eyes, but he brushed them away angrily. What do I care. What do they know about life. I don't care, don't! He buried his head in hh book. The only girl to show hirr kindness ever! She was just a: false, just as selfish, just at mean! But his heart hardened. Neve: again, said he. I won't be made ; fool by somebody else, caul, when I grow up I want to be Grade 13'er, 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111011111111