HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1972-11-02, Page 4Preserving my little girl for just a little longer
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Dear Editor;
How I learned about myself
THE HURON NEWS-RECORO
Ettablished 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 RATESt (in advance)
tanaaa, $8.00 per year; U.S.A., $9.56 .
JAMES FITnEPIALD-4ditor
J. HOWAA0 AITKEN General Manager
THE CLINTON isIEW ERA Amalgamated
Established 18E5
1924
Pubiithed e very Thursday at
the heart of Huron County'
A Clinton, Ontario
Population 3,475
' Dr PADAR
IN CANADA
Burning leaves can kill
Well, the love affair between the
Canadian people and the Liberal Govern-
ment of Pierre Trudeau is over, The
beautiful romance that started in April of
1908 and flowered in the election of June
of that year with the Liberal sweep of
Canada has ended in divorce and many
bitter tears,
Court costs for the proceedings come
to a mere • $0 million dollars and it looks
as if the separated couple may have to
part with another 30 million in the next six
months to find out who the people of
Canada really love,
The Trude'au Government was turned
outfor so It would seern)on Monday night
when Canadian voters thought they had
had enough of high unemployment,
rampant inflation, foreign domination of
their economy, and a lot of welfare bums.
But as it stands now (Tuesday night),
the Liberals can still form a Government
even though they trail the ProgresSive
Conservatives by one seat. They have the
precedent for it, but knowing Trudeau, he
will not do so, His smartest move would
be to let the PC's take the government
side of the House and see if they can do
any better.
BY DR. G.F. MILLS,
Medical Officer of Health, Huron County
Every Canadian is familiar with the
beautiful autumn colors created by our
maple trees - the windswept piles of
maple leaves and the traditional smell of
burning leaves.
However, there is a segment of our
population who are afflicted by bron-
chitis, asthma and emphysema. A group
of people who greatly fear the fall season
with the swirling clouds of smoke from
burning leaves, a group of people very
sensitive to atmospheric pollution and
who literally gasp for breath in the smoke
clogged air of the fall season.
Is it really necessary that we, who do
not suffer from these diseases, should
burn our leaves, pollute our environment
and make life almost impossible for this
unfortunate group?
In this age when pollution is an "in"
word and protection and preservation of
our environment becomes so vital to both
our generation and the succeeding
generation, can we not, each of us, do
I doubt It,
Canadians, historically,. are like the
proverbial seagull and you know how that
saying goes, They cry about rampant in-
flation but don't want anyone to freeze
their wages; they cry about the unem-
ployed taking handouts instead of
working but they won't pay a decent
wage and they cry about foreign owner-
ship but continue to invest 90 percent of
their money in U,S, companies and
stocks,
The only hope Stanfield would have to
straighten up the Canadian mess would
be to rule the country like a dictator,
But then Canadians would cry that he
was too mean.
The choice, then, is in our hands, We
must elect another government next
spring that will stand up, grit its teeth,
and bring Canada back to her senses.
The leader of such a government must be
able to take severe criticisms from both
the Canadian people and people within
his own party.
Say, isn't that the same old song with a
new title?
our bit to prevent atmospheric pollution
and to show compassion for those who
suffer from chronic respiratory disease,
and rather than burn our leaves, gather
them into useful compost heaps or bag
them for pick-up by our garbage collec-
tors.
There are other reasons for not burning
our leaves, such as the protection of
pedestrians from being struck by a car in
the dense blindness of burning leaf
smoke (and often these pedestrians are
young children who play around the bur-
ning piles of leaves completely obscured
from passing traffic by the leaf smoke),
and the prevention of car accidents when
drivers find the street so thick with bur-
ning leaf smoke that neither the boun-
daries of the road or other cars are visible
on the road until it is too late.
To you, the readers of this article, I ap-
peal and recommend that you do not
burn your leaves in the interest of safety,
the prevention of accidents and preser-
vation of a pure air environment for all of
us, particularly those who suffer from
asthma, chronic bronchitis and em-
physema.
This is a story about a girl I'll
call Mary.
She is 12 years old, rather
small for her age, extremely
pretty with blue eyes and flaxen
hair bleached to the color of cor-
nsilk by the summer's sun and
eye-lashes surely three'inches in
length.
She's a doll. She is also
something of a tomboy, given to
climbing trees and batting
home-runs and, while you'd
never think it to see her
angelically asleep, she has a
fine, tough character that's both
independent and resilient.
Some weeks ago Mary and
her sister, who is two years
older, went off to a private girls'
school, a decision reached after
much soul-searching by (their
parents.
What it boils down to--and
only time will tell if they are
right--is their reluctant con-
clusion that sweet little girls
may remain sweet little girls a
good deal longer in a private
school removed from the rather
lunatic pressures put upon the
children of today.
These parents are pathetically
old-fashioned. They yearned to
have their girls playing grass
hockey, sewing hook rugs, going
on Girl Guide hikes and that
sort of thing in place of
following in the pack of the rock
'n' roll Pied Pipers of their per-
sonal radio station and reading
True Love comic books as their
own, personal literature and
being subjected to those various
manipulations of fashion and
conformity and premature
adulthood imposed by
calculating men who have
discovered that a fast buck can
be made out of adolescents in
the herd.
For the new girl the first week
at a private school is almost
always a period of intense
home-sickness until the full ac-
tivities, the comradeship and the
demands of their studies fill the
void of family life.
In Mary's case, to everyone's
surprise, it showed no signs of
letting up. While her sister set-
tled quickly into the routine of
the school and, indeed, soon
became absorbed in the
academic challenges and the
purposeful round of sports and
extracurricular interests, Mary
remained unhappy.
Her parents came to dread
the letters from her, each in-
sisting that she be allowed, in a
precocious and touching phrase
that will haunt the father for
the rest of his life, "to return to
the life I was leading."
True, the letters became less
urgent in tone, but her melan-
choly persisted. "Sometimes I
think I like it," she conceded in
one letter, "but then when we go
to bed in the dormitory I sit
looking out the window and I
know it it not the life for me."
Twice more she referred to
this time of day and the parents
had begun to think of it, pic-
turing her sitting up in her bed,
looking out into the night, as the
one insurmountable refutation
of their wistful hopes and
theories.
,They were surprised , and
refievd, 'then, on 'makih their
first Sunday visit, to find Mary
in brighter spirits, obviously
popular in her class and
prepared, at least, to do her best
for the full term.
The day went swiftly. They
drove into the nearby town and
they ordered far too many
dishes at Ming's Chinese
restaurant, laughing and
giggling, and then, at twilight,
they drove back to the school.
Mary and her sister and their
mother went to talk to some of
the teachers and the father, ac-
ting on an impulse, went up the
stairs to the still-empty dor-
mitories and to Mary's bed. He
sat for a moment on the bed,
remembering that this had been
the most difficult time of the
day for her and wondering why
that should be so.
The view from her window
was beautiful in this light. He
looked across the green playing
field and into the foliage of
great oak trees that had been
planted there in the -year of the
school's inception. The lights
were coming on in nearby
houses. The sound of traffic
came faintly from the main
highway which passes the school
grounds: •
The father had noticed the
commercial building out there
that housed, among other
tenants, the Home Bakery, but
had thought little of it.
Now, through the foliage of
the oaks, an advertising sign
erected on the roof of the
building blazed into light and in
the gathering dusk the father sat
a long time watching it blink off
and on, off and on.
"HOME," it said,
"HOME...ROME...ROME...,"
am sure the residents of
Bayfield are laughing (at least I
hope they are) at the headline
on my article about the Ed-
wards' store in the Oetober 19
issue of your paper.
Apparently, the iheadline
writer has' never been in
Bayfield, or he would know that-
the thing that makes Bayfield
unique is that the Main Street is
lined with old buildings, both
residential and commercial, that
were built in the middle 1800's.
The only claim to fame that I
was making for our building is
that the INTERIOR of the store
is original.
I hope this will clear up any
misunderstanding caused by the
headline.
Sincerely,
Mrs, Don Lance,
Bayfield
Dear Editor:
November 15th to December
31st is the Annual CANSAVE
Appeal. Each year at this time
we bring our message to the
Canadian public with special
urgency, asking for their con-
tinued support. And Canadians
have a long record of supporting
CANSAVE. Thanks to their
compassion and generosity our
agency is now in its 52nd year of
service to the world's
underprivileged children.
Children are the first and
most helpless victims of all the
ills of our world — whether it be
sudden disaster like earthquake
or war, or the long-term disaster
of malnutrition, ignorance and
poverty. CANSAVE programs
attack the root causes of these
conditions, helping the child and
strengthening his natural en-
vironment of family and com-
munity.
CANSAVE's growth is a
tribute to its donors, to its 1500
volunteers, and to you the
media — for we could not effec-
tively convey our message to the
ganasljart,.,pub,lic withont your.,
generous ,services. In an age
when appeals for your help
multiply daily, we are grateful
for your continuing support.
Last year you helped us to raise
$1,449,000 in cash and $230,000
in material aid. Our total target
for 1973 is $1,800,000.
We are enclosing a news
release, with photo attached. If
we have a volunteer Branch in
your community, the chairman
will be in touch with you, con-
cerning local angles for stories.
4- Clinton. News-Record, Illur.$00.Y., November 2, 1.972
Editorial moms:oil
the end of the Canadian Love .Storg
A couple of weeks ago, while I
was writing down the date on
my attendance pad, I got a bit
of a shock. It was Oct. 13th.
Then I realized it was Friday.
Hey, my anniversary!
On a gloomy Friday the 13th
of October, 1944, I was shot
down over Holland by German
flak, crashlanded in a plowed
field and was taken prisoner.
I've been a little leery of
Friday the 13th ever since, but
when it also falls
in October, as this year, I feel a
distinct chill and my first
thought is that I should have
stayed in bed all day, with the
covers pulled over my head, to
be safe from the searching finger
of fate.
It's ridiculous, of course. I
don't believe in black cats,
walking under ladders, broken
mirrors, the number 13, and all
those old-wives' symbols of bad
luck.
Even so, I know some of my
students wondered why I taught
all day, that day, with both
hands behind my back, What
they didn't know was that I had
my fingers crossed, both hands.
Well, now that a reasonable
time has passed and the sky
hasn't fallen in, I can look back
on that day in 1944 with no
more reaction than sangfroid,
which, as any Englishman
knows, means bloody cold, and
I have one of those, so
everything is fine.
In retrospect, that day was
not an unlucky, but a lucky one.
At the tittle I didn't think so. I
had a date that night with a
smashing blonde in Antwerp,
and I was justly annoyed that
the stupid war had interfered
With my social life.
But looking back, it was one
the the luckiest days in my life. I
still had a miserable, often wret-
ched experience to go through.
However, it was one of the most
interesting in my life, and I
made some fine friends and saw
a lot of strange things.
Also, my wing was losing
from five to a dozen pilots a
week. My own squadron of
eighteen pilots had lost Dave
Backhouse, Johnny Rook,
"Taffy" Price, '"Dingle" Bell,
and a week before I got it, one
of my tent-mates, Freddy
Wakeman was killed (A week
after I got it, my other tent-mate
went down in flames.)
I had landed once with a
bomb dangling, another time
with no flaps, no brakes and
thirty-six holes in my aircraft.
So it was just a matter of time.
I wonder how many of you
have had the same experience:
believing that the fates had
singled you out for special
punishment, and discovering,
much later, that what seemed at
the time a black cloud was
really a silver lining in disguise.
Of course, the opposite can
happen. Ask some of my friends
who thought it was the luckiest
day in their lives when they
stood in front of the preacher
with that gentle, sweet, under-
standing and voluptuous young
creature, and found themselves
twenty-five years later
manacled to a fat, nagging
shrew.
(I know girls, it works both
.ways. Don't tell nae that that
handsome, charming ,young
Adonis you stood up- with is
really the same person as that
potbellied, bald bore you're
living with now, whose idea of a
good chat is to rattle his paper
at you and grunt.)
But on the whole, life, except
for those few unfortunates, the
born losers, seems to even things
out fairly.
Twenty-eight years ago
tonight I was pretty blue and
miserable. After the most inept
escape attempt in the annals of
escape, I had been given a
thorough going over and was
lying in a box-car, tied up,
aching in every muscle and a
number of bones, including my
nose bone, and shivering like a
dog evacuating razor blades.
For some reason, the Third
Reich had neglected to install a
heating system, blankets and
mattresses. The only way I
could recreate the experience
tonight would be to go out and
try to sleep on the floor of my
garage, which is of the wooden
variety, with plenty of ven-
tilation,
Equally faulty was the
catering system. There was
nothing wrong with the waiters,
except that they carried guns
and wore big boots. But they
were the soul of courtesy, un-
tying my hands at each meal. It
was the menu that was lacking.
Not much variety. One item, arid
at some meals, not even one.
The washroom facilities were
rather inadequate, too, But how
many of you have ever been ten-
derly helped down onto a cinder
etnbankment by a paratrooper,
his arm around your waist,
yours around his shoulders, to
go to the bathroom? I was
dragging one leg.
It was a good experience. I
learned UT love black bread,
wurst and cabbage soup. I
discovered that a single boiled
potato, right out of the pot, was
a dish for the gods, I learned
how much I could take, And I
learned to be thankful for ex-
ceedingly small mercies, Well
worth it.
10 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 1, 1962
Snowploughs were called out
on Thursday night last week, to
deal with the wet, heavy snow
which continued to fall
throughout most of the evening
and on into Friday.
During the height of the storm
on Thursday about a dozen cars
left the roads, and some
motorists were forced to stay
over-night in hotels and motels
in Exeter. Provincial Police
reported that in some cases
visibility was ten feet and less.
An increase in the cost of
fluid milk to the householder,
which was to have gone into ef-
fect today, here and another
communily in Ontario, will not
take place.
15 YEARS AGO
OCTOBER 31, 1957
The annual church parade of
the Clinton Branch 140,
Canadian Legion will be held
this coming Sunday. The
veterans have accepted an in-
vitation from the Clinton Bap-
tist Church to attend the service
there,
The long suspense created
ever since the Kennedy house
was'Moved away from its site on
Mary Street next to Cantelon's
Garage is ended, Rumours that
the' lot was to be the home of a
new grocery supermarket have
been confirmed,
Building permits for the new
building, estimated to cost
$21,000, have been applied for,
and services to it granted by the
Clinton Public Utilities Cotn-
niission. Excavation has been
progressing, and the Seaforth
Concrete Company has the con.,
tract for building,
25 YEARS AGO
OCTOBER 30, 1947
Ross Marshall, Kirkton, and
Ross Trewartha, Seanforth,
received special prizes at the
Black and White Show held in
Blyth. Samuel Riddick and
Sons, Clinton, presented some of
the prizes offered.
Reeve John E. Pepper
presided for the meeting in
Stanley Township when dates
were set for nomination day,
and for elections if necessary.
Mr. Pepper has been reeve for
the past three years.
County Clerk Norman W.
Miller was presented with an
honorary officer's badge at the
meeting of Clinton Branch 140,
Canadian Legion, in recognition
of his outstanding service to the
local branch.
Nelson McLarty, inspector of
tree cutting for the Auburn sec-
tion of Huron County, has ship-
ped 69 bushels of walnuts and
76 bushels of butternuts to the
seed extracting plant.
40 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 3, 1932
A.T. Cooper has installed an
extension to his telephone ser-
vice at the store and now two
numbers will call either the
main floor, or the second floor,
Elm trees are in the news.
The editor regrets the
mutilation of a fine tree on the
property of H.C. Rorke, Orange
Street, when hydro gangs found
it necessary to trine the tree. The
editor feels that the wire should
have been taken across the
street and back again to avoid
harming the tree which after all
took 20 years to grow,
The Rev. Major X. McGoun
will deliver the address at the
rtemembrance Day service in
the town hall on Friday mor-
ning.
Bartliff and Crich offered
homemade taffy and fudge, as
well as the Saturday specials of
chocolate drops, pumpkin and
mince pies.
55 YEARS AGO
• NOVEMBER 1, 1917
The Sock Shower and Tea
was termed a huge success. All
socks handed in were carefully
counted by F. Jackson and D.L.
MacPherson, and numbered
274. These will be sent to the
soldiers overseas.
Readers are warned that
owing to expected increase in
cost of paper, owners of weekly
newspapers are refusing to ac-
cept payment for more than two
years in advance.
These were the words used to
describe a Gigantic and
Unrivalled" sale at Brown's
store: "A dazzling array of the
most fascinating value-giving of-
ferings ever presented. A gilt,
tering carnival of unprecedented
bargains, fairly gleaming with
rarest underprices,
This announcement of such
extreme radical reductions, at
the very incipiency of the winter
season on Up-to-Date Dry
Goods and House Furnishings
and on every conceivable piece
of female toggery, is certain to
create an unuaual economic
furor among thrifty shoppers.
(Reason for that sale was that
a fire starting in the back
basement of the Brown's store,
had caused some smoke and
water damage. Fire Chief Bar-
tliff and his men soon had the
fire under control.)
opinions
In order that
News—Record readers might
express their opinions on any
topic of public interest,
Letters To The Editor are
always welcome for
publication.
But the writers of such
letters, as well as all readers,
are reminded that the
opinions expressed in letters
published are not necessarily
the opinions held by The
News—Record.
Yours sincerely,
O.K. Schenk
President, ,CANSAVE
Dear Editor:
For one reason or another, 46
persons were on foot alongside
Ontario Highways during the
first half of this year when they
were struck and killed by a
moving vehicle. Last year, 140
pedestrians were killed and
another 800 were injured.
Persons who must walk along
a highway for any reason should
stay well away from the
travelled portion.
The Ontario Provincial Police
reminds all citizens that large
portions of controlled-access
highways are prohibited to
pedestrians and that persons
convicted of contravening
provisions of the Highway Traf-
fic Act regulations may be sub-
ject to a fine of not less than $20
and not more than $100.
As winter approaches, bad
weather creating slippery
walking and driving conditions,
poor visibility caused by snow,
road slush and dirt on wind,
shields, will combine with the
elements and early darkness to
make all walking and driving
more hazardous, In addition to
a general increased alertness,
pedestrians should wear
suitable clothing that will make
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