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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1971-06-10, Page 4FoRisat4 FRE EDoti N 10-1 ScilooL; AA4,6016444.44. ////1/17,,,. 'I DOLLea ?... 043 40. TARTS 451.4.R qR io uA TtOIJ C LA Ss /477-c fJ*Diklc Ft Me.) coLLEqe PitkPFIRFIToRy CouRSe There's 3 choices and he likes none THE CLINTON NEW ERA Amalgamated THE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1865 1924 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 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (in advance) Canada, $6.00 'per year; U.S.A., $7.50 KEITH W, ROULSTON — Editor HOWARD AITKEN — General Manager Published every Thursday at the heart of Huron County Clinton, Ontario Population 3,475 TEE HOME Or RADAR IN CANADA Two developments in Toronto last week, may have done more to change the future of urban life in this country than any other two things in recent history. The most visible change in the city last week was the fact that a section of the city's main street, Yonge Street, in the downtown core, was blocked off to cars in favour of people. For a one-week experiment the street was shut off and benches, trees and sidewalk cafes took the place of exhaust fumes. It wasn't a new idea, yet despite the success of such predecessors as the Sparks Street Mall in Ottawa, it took a lot of fighting for the backers of the mall to get their chance to prove that people would like it. It was truly an overnight success. The street was blocked off at midnight on the Saturday night and by morning the benches and planters with trees and flowers were installed, giving the area a completely new look. By' Sunday afternoon more than 20,000 people were roaming the street. During the week, more people visited the mall than the highly-publicized Ontario Place. Suddenly people such as Toronto Mayor William Dennison, who fought the idea of the mall, are singing its praises and figuring out ways of getting permanent malls all over the downtown area (although not likely on Yonge Street). If an idea catches on in die-hard Toronto, the rest of the country can't be far behind. Perhaps man will take over the cities from machine again. But man won an even more far-reaching victory over machine last week when Premier William Davis announced that the cabinet had killed the Spadina Expressway, a controversial freeway which was cutting a wide swath through the middle of Toronto. The freeway was just part of the planned system of expressways that soon would' have had much of the city looking like the famous spaghetti junction where the Spadina now joins highway 401. The premier said that from now on, the emphasis will be on public transit facilities rather than the car. Instead of giving big grants for highways and small for subways and commuter trains, the premier says he will reverse the order. His success, of course, will depend on making public transportation attractive -enough to get people to take the subway to work rather than the car. One way of succeeding may be to ban cars entirely from the downtown areas of cities as many have already advocated, thus leaving the streets for pedestrian malls and freeing hundreds of acres of parking lots for better use. This is just one step, though, for the government in its declared review of the entire transportation picture in Ontario. Charles MacNaughton, our local Member of Parliament, is the minister in charge of the new transportation and communications department which will look into the problem. The future of the cities depends a. great deal upon their action, put perhaps even more so, the future of the small urban areas. For most of this century the majority of the municipalities in the southern part of the province have been suffering while a few have flourished. Now those that flourished are also suffering, with growing pains. There is no way to downplay the importance of cities such as Toronto, London and the Kitchener-Waterloo- Guelph area, but if the province is Ito have a healthy future, some way to help spread the wealth, and growth, around. • . That's where Mr. MacNaughton will find his challenge. The government is making some progress in the Toronto area with its Go train system from Oakville to Pikering and with its new Go buses running north of Toronto. Expansion of the system is inevitable, probably first with trains running north to Barry then west to Guelph and Kitchener and east to the Peterborough area. These commuter train systems have been in use for many years in some parts of the world. In New York, for instance, people commute all the way from Connecticut every day, 60-70 miles, on commuter trains. Such a system would allow the smaller centre some distance from the city to grow in population. These are a certainty. But what will happen to us? Well, Mr. MacNaughton may investigate (we hope) the possibility of commuter systems linking the towns of south and mid-Huron with London and east and mid-Huron with Stratford and Kitchener. Our area is in easy commuting distance of either urban area if the proper system were available. We have both road and rail connections with both areas. And our quieter, slower, cheaper way of life would be a magnet to many from the cities if they knew they could commute. The problem the government has been having trouble solving in the Toronto area is, which comes first, the chicken or the 'egg. It looks at an area (the area north of Toronto is one example) and says it doesn't have enough commuters to make a commuter system economically feasible. But at the same time, they have fdund in the case of the Oakville-Pickering Go system, the presence of the Go system has been a powerful incentive to residential ,growth in the areas near the commuter train stations. The Robarts government never seemed to feel it was willing to gamble the people would follow the commuter line and thus make the system a long range economic success. Thus it lost a powerful weapon in helping to spread the wealth of Toronto over the central Ontario region. Let's hope Mr. Davis and Mr. MacNaughton don't miss the chance. .Letters to the Editor To The Editor: The South-Western District of the Ontario Craft Foundation is endeavouring to contact area craftsmen in an effort to improve or stimulate many things — education, opportunity for improvement, promote relations among craftsmen, set up sales outlets, etc. Our prime concern at the present time is to establish a newsletter available at no charge to any craftsman residing in the district. We hope to be ready for mailing of the first issue early in June, 1971. If you • are a practising craftsman; if you are not a craftsman but are interested in crafts in general; or if you know someone who is a craftsman, we would like to have your name on our mailing list. Please write to P.O. Box 1263, Windsor, Ontario (Ontario Craft Foundatibri), telling us of your interest and which craft you are practising. If you wish, we would also like to know your prime concerns in connection with your craft so that we may be able to organize a relevant programme and help you find someone in your area who shares your concern. Yours very truly, (Mrs.) Janet Dearing Ontario Craft Foundation CFB Auxiliary donates remaining funds to hospital furnishings of the new Solarium. It is with a saddened but grateful heart the Hospital accepts the donation. The Auxiliary is losing many tireless and talented workers this summer as the C.F.B. prepares to leave Clinton. The executive of the Hospital Auxiliary would like to publicly thank these women who have helped so greatly in the past. Their absence will be greatly felt. Membership Convener, Mrs. Ted Davies reported 687 ladies on the roster. Also that monies totalling $484 had been realized from the Vanishing Parties. The Varna U.C.W. is servicing the travelling cart during June, and the Wesley-Willis U.C.W. are looking after it during July. It is difficult to find volunteer help during the warm summer months, but please remember that a sick patient appreciates that extra kindness every day of the year. The Hospital has been short of flower vases. The vase shower proved most successful; about 30 vaes in attractive shapes, sizes and colours were presented to the Superintendent of nurses, Miss K. Elliott. Mrs. D. Bartliff reported a successful Hospital Day Tea on May.12. Over 100 persons signed the guest book, reviewed the new Solarium and enjoyed tea in the Board Room. The date for the September meeting is Monday, September 13, in the Board Room at the Hospital. 4 Clinton News-136cbrd, Thursday, Jive 10, 1971 Modal comment It isn't opinion that counts. • It's the thought behind it. A changed face of the future Push dat button One of these days — maybe next Monday — we're going to have to face the fact that the Push-Button Age is finally upon us. There'll be a knock on your door some sunny morning, you'll open it, whistling a thin little tune, all unsuspecting, and there it'll be: the Fuller Brush Robot guided to your portal by rad a , speaking with a pre-recorded voice and obeying the impulse of an electronic brain. Fantastic? I thought so, too, until I began collecting the odd bits of evidence, airily treated as trivia by the daily press, which portend — as they always say in pieces of this kind — man's final mastery of — or capitulation to — The Machine. They are mostly small, one-paragraph stories tucked between the ads for bile beans and corn plasters, but they add up to a new mode of living. We are now so close to this new era that the engineers are already talking contemptuously about "the old-fashioned robot." These were the oafs of the electronic age in its Neanderthal period. Today the robot is a little black box which will operate entire factories with the assistance of the index finger of one human being. Item: Down in Charlestown, West Virginia, a "mechanical miner" operated by remote control is taking out two tons of coal a minute untouched by human hands. Item: The firm which invented a convertible top that would come up automatically at the first drop of rain has now perfected a robot which will close or open the windows of an entire office building to suit the weather. Item: A British-made jet-propelled flying robot can take off, "smell out" and destroy enemy aircraft, return to its base and land — all without a pilot. Item: Supermarkets in the United States are installing a robot which counts returned empty bottles, calculates the amount of credit and gives the customer a credit slip. Item: A robot is now on the market which will pluck chickens clean as a whistle. These items — and hardly a day passes without one or more — seem to me the brightest and most promising news in the paper. I find myself agreeing entirely with Norbert Weiner, a professor at Massachusetts Tech who spoke recently of the second industrial revolution — the revolution of the robot — and prophesied that, when the machine ultimately takes over, mankind will enter a golden age of abundance, culture and leisure. Why not? Anything a machine can do is drudgery and a waste of time and effort. Every man or woman freed from the tedium of plucking a chicken or digging coal or counting pop bottles has just that much more time for the brief adventure of living. We've come a long way already in freeing the human mind and body for something more ennobling than menial toil. The Truck-Trailer Association dramatized that the other day in an interesting new booklet. In the year 1586, it was noted, it took 900 laborers, working a 15-hour day for 91 days, to move a 350-ton Egyptian obelisk across the city of Rome. Today, with modern equipment, the associated said, it would take five men less than an hour. It is a heady thought, too, to contemplate the war of the Electronic Era, fought in the wild blue yonder between pilotless, bloodless robots produced in factories containing not a single soul, manufactured from the earth's metals, untouched by human hand. A delicious*pot-luck luncheon was enjoyed prior to the June meeting of the Auxiliary to Clinton Public Hospital. The setting was Mrs. L. P. Walden's summer home at Bayfield. The weather was perfect for an outdoor meeting on the attractive grounds. Mrs. Walden, president, welcomed members and guests, and in particular, the Chairman of District II, Mrs. Mary Hayes of Fergus, and her secretary, Mrs. Audrey Newby also of Fergus. Mrs. Hayes gave an enlightening talk on the virtues of Volunteer Service. "A volunteer has a greater sense of commitment and dedication," she said. "Volunteer work is especially important in the Hospital as it contributes to the patient's well being and takes away the feeling that the patient is only a number and a statistic." Mrs. Hayes was thanked by Mrs. E. B. Menzies and presented with a souvenir spoon of Clinton. In other business, it was suggested by Mrs. W. T. Harrett, Bursary Convener that a Graduation gift be purchased for Joanne Veldhuis, one of our Bursary winners who is graduating from St. Joseph's Regional School of Nursing in June. An invitation to the Auxiliary was extended from Joanne to attend her Graduation Ceremonies. The Women's Auxiliary of C.F.B. Clinton sent a donation of $77.59, to help towards Boy, show me a silver lining these days and I'll show you a dark cloud. It's only a couple of weeks since I was crying the blues about being stuck with a jobless child for the summer, and wishing my daughter could find work in this slim summer for students. She has a job and she likes it. It's waiting on tables in a smart hotel dining-room, overlooking the water. The pay's not much, but tips are fair. She has learned the joy of coming home with her apron pockets loaded with quarters, dimes and nickels, and arranging them in neat little piles, and counting them over and over. Anyone who has ever worked as a slavey knows the sheer, Scrooge-like delight of counting tips. But there's always a catch, and in this case, I'm the one who has been caught, and not fct the first time. The catch Is that the job is about ten miles from home, and there is no transportation to and from. 'Bus service is strictly from the stone age, and it's too far to take a cab and take any money home. I guess I don't have to draw a picture. Good Old Dad. It's not the money I mind (about $1.00 worth of gas, and five dollars depreciation on the car — most of the journey is on a highway tinder construction). It's the fact that she starts work at 7:30 in the morning. We are a one-car family. She doesn't have a driver's license, so Ws up at the crack of 6 a.m, for yours truly, I am not at my best at 6 a.m., except on those occasions when I haven't got to bed yet. Good Old Mom can also drive the car, but she always seems to have the vapours at 6 a.m. I have two alternatives. One, have Kim get her driving license, in which case I'm stuck without a car all day. Two, buy a second car, let her use it, and fork up price of the car, license and i nsuran ce. The latter, considering what she'll probably earn, would put us about $500 in 'the hole for 'her summer's work. How do you like them for alternatives? I've scrabbled desperately at other solutions. I might be able to hire a boy to take her out and pick her up for about $4.00 a day, plus gas. That doesn't seem too profitable, and he'd probably rack up 'my tired 1967 model. I could physically kick her mother out of bed and make her drive. But I haven't the guts to do this at 4 p.m., let 'alone 6 a.m, I could let her hitch-hike. But I don't like girls hiteh-hiking at 7 a.m. (That is, I don't mind the girls, bit the hitch-hiking.) Why, she might be picked up by some renegade and I'd never see her again. (That, on second thought, would solve the problem.) Ah, it's just one 'of those rotten little problems that will have to sort itself out. I've got anothcr problem today. I haven't felt so tough since the Germans beat me up about 23 years ago. Did you ever fall down a mine-shaft? I hadn't either, until a couple of nights ago. At least I thought it was a mine-shaft. Drove some people home. Into their driveway. No lights outside the house. Invited in for coffee. Stepped out the driver's side and straight into an excavation nobody had mentioned. Tore a quarter-inch of skin, tissue and muscle off my left palm, Sprained the thumbs on both hands. Raised a lump the size of a baseball on 'my left thigh. Twisted my right knee. Hit my chest on something else and have a great purple-and-gold brnise that hits me like a spear when I cough. Can barely manoeuvre a stairs, but apart from that, feel terrible. But good thing I'm a tough old nut. Scrambled out Unaided, dripping blood and bad language. It makes the transportation hang-up recede a little. THE HURON NEWS—RECORD 75 YEARS AGO JUNE 10, 1896 A pretty and interesting wedding ceremony was performed in St. James Church, Seaforth, on Tuesday morning of last week when Mr, Lewis Malone of Beechwood, married Miss Lizzie McConnel of Tuckersmith. The service was performed by Rev, Father Kennedy. There should be something done to prevent the banana fiends, those lovers of the fruit who eat it on the street and then throw the peelings on the sidewalks. There is nothing more treacherous or more certain to cause one to fall than to step on one of these peelings. The I.O.G.T.. is still progressing. A week from next Friday there will be an ice-cream social in the Oddfellowt Hall. All members are asked to come. THE CLINTON NEW—ERA 55 YEARS AGO JUNE 8, 1916 Mumps are on the go in town. Council met Monday night. Many were caught in the rain Sunday evening. The weather has been slightly chilly the last few days. June — the month of examinations in the school. High School Departmentals will be written soon. The bowling season has opened and the lawn bowlers are enjoying themselves on the greens. On Monday evening next, June 12, at 8 o'clock p.m., there will be an open meeting of the W.I. held at the home of Mrs. James Dunford. Miss T. H. Job, the Summer speaker, will give an address on "Economy In War Time". All ladies are cordially invited. Lunch will be served. 40 YEARS AGO JUNE 11, 1931 About 24 members of Rebekah Lodge motored to New Hamburg on Thursday evening last and enjoyed seeing that lodge exemplify that beautiful Rebekah degree. This was followed by refreshments and a pleasant social time, with music and dancing and happy intercourse. The vacant lot opposite the News-Record office is being levelled up in readiness for the dancing floor for Dominion Day, the day of the Firemen's Tournament. After the first open-air band concert of the season on Thursday evening last, Mayor Cooper congratulated the players and invited them to go to the restaurant and have a treat of ice cream at his expense. 25 YEARS AGO JUNE 13, 1946 A social evening was held at Benmiller United Church in honour of C. J. Walters, Frank and Benson Walters, and Mr, and Mrs. Arthur Grange and family, 'who recently left the Benmiller district for Auburn, Where they purchased the farm of Mrs. Charles M. Straughan. The Old Age Pensions and Mothers' Allowances Board for Huron County; met at the Court House, Goderich, 'Thursday afternoon, 'last, when 18 pensions were considered. Of these, 14 were recommended for a full pension; one for partial pension; and three for further investigation. Two vacancies on the High School staff have been filled with the appointment of Miss Margaret MacKenzie and Mr. Glen Needham. Miss MacKenzie will teach languages and Mr. Needham will teach Phys, Ed. and Agriculture, 15 YEARS AGO JUNE 7, 1956 At a special meeting of the Clinton Hospital Board with Architect Philip C. Johnson, London, a contract was awarded to Ellis-Don Construction and Engineering Co. Ltd., London, for the renovation of the north wing of the hospital. Work will commence on June 11 and the completion date is October 15. A display of high fidelity recording — reproducing sound handling techniques was displayed on the 10th Annual Air Force Day at R.C.A.F. Station, Clinton, Saturday. Electronic reproduction of music and sound, using the most up-to-date equipment, interested music and recorder fans at the Radar and Communications School, 10 YEARS AGO JUNE 8, 1961 At the Stanley Township council meeting on Monday night, approval was given the Roy Vodden subdivision on the Lake Road, Highway 21. Reeve Harvey Coleman presided and all councillors were present. The Rebekah Lodge held their regular meeting on Monday, June 5, with Past Grands in charge of opening and closing the meeting. Facts of every resident of Canada will be collected by census takers. Information on housing will be gathered from one household in five. Canadians abroad will also be reached by the census and agriculture and merchandising will also be surveyed. GROWING DAHLIAS Now that danger from frost is gone, dahlias can be planted outside. A bed which receives the early morning sun but has light shade for the remainder of the day is preferable, but dahlias will grow almost as well in full sun. A well-drained soil with Plenty of humus is recommended for the dahlia. Dig in some peat moss before planting if the soil is too heavy. Remember that the tubers require staking. Dig a hole six inches deep and set the tuber in it with the eyes facing up. Set a stake by the tuber and cover the bulb with two inches of soil. As the shoots grow, fill the hole until it is level with the existing earth.