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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1972-11-09, Page 4News tem: DOCTORS, LAWYERS Situip POST PRICES ON WALL usr , 4 • eeiXe Est , riorisos. "11•12111=10.1.114•11. 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 'SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (in advance) 'Canada, $8,00 per year; U.S.A., $9.50 JAMES E. FITZGERALD—Editor J. HOWARD AITKEN — General Manager Published every Thursday at the heart of Huron County A Clinton, Ontario Population 3,475 THE ,HOME OF RADAR IN CANADA Editorial co' lament Last call to the ball The urge to vandalism seems to be something with which many humans are born. It has been with mankind, in some degree, since the beginning of time, but it seems to be 'reaching new and more revolting heights in this present age of permissiveness and excuses for everyone who feels like doing his own thing, no matter what the cost to society generally. Every community has experienced this sort of thing in the past. It is a rare oc- casion indeed, when a new park or monument or recreation facility can sur- vive even the first few months without some sort of senseless depradation. The latest major episode of which we have heard was the destruction of dozens of new cars on a storage lot in the That time of year when everybody gets excited and the Town of Clinton and surrounding townships become hotbeds of debate is here again. It is time for the municipal elections. Nominations open today and close next Monday at 5 p.m. for all those in; terested in running for a civic post. Things are different this year because there will be no-nomination meetings and hence, no nomination speeches. All one/ has to do is find 10 (ten) bonafide citizens to sign a sheet of paper and hand it on to your respective clerk. Remember, this will be your only chance of running for office so think hard about who is running. After all, they will be spending your money and mine for the next two years and that's an important issue by itself. The last meeting of the Clinton Council will be held this Monday night, and even if you are not thinking of seeking an of- fice, now is your last chance to go down to the Town Hall at 8 p.m. and see just how your town is really run. Many of the present members would gladly welcome, 4 Clinton_ News-Record, Thursday, November 9, 1972 Guest opinion Price must be raised Toronto area last week. An estimated $200,000 damage was done by vandals who got into the cars and drove them into each other and the surrounding fences. It would seem apparent that the penalty for such willful and premeditated destruc- tion must be sharply increased. It can no longer be accepted as youthful pranks. The perpetrators should go to jail for a long time--with plenty of hard work to make the penalty memorable. What sort of idiotic society do we live in when our young people do not hesitate to smash and destroy? It doesn't matter whether the prbperty is public or private, this sort of stupidity must cease. --Wingham Advance-Times. with open arms, any observers who care to join them in debate. Not only is it of vital concern, but sometimes it's a lot of fun, Judging by the turnout at past council meetings (a grand total of five in the last six months) most people of Clinton couldn't care less what happens to their town or its money. In larger cities it's easy to see why people won't turn out to council meetings or show apathy at the polls. The amount of money required to seek a civic office in a city and the amount of red tape in- volved in running a municipal govern- ment is overwhelming to the ordinary citizen. But Clinton is just the right size. You know your mayor or reeve or councillor because he works beside you, or he is your next-door-neighbour. You can run and get elected to office for under $20. And the doors to the council chambers are always open with a receptive council inside. It's something we should cherish. See you Monday night. Armistice Day and Uncle Joe "We're having a special on heart transplants this week." Today I was discussing newspaper columnists with some of my senior students. It was a perfectly legitimate exercise in the teaching of English, but the devils know that 'if they can get me off track, bragging or reminiscing, I might get carried away and forget to give them their homework assignment. Therefore, someone craftily introduced the subject of this column. Sly questions, leading me further and further away from the original point. It worked, Most people are never happier than when they're talking about themselves or their work. I took the bait. "I suppose you write four or five ahead", suggested one lad. A lot of people have this loony idea. I tersely told the truth: that I write it right on the deadline, even though I have a whole week to work on it. I'm usually galloping to the post of- fice to catch the last possible mail. There are 168 hours in a week, and I use the last two of them. (I can hear some editors and readers sniffing and muttering, "They read like it, too".) But I've discovered that it is psychologically impossible for me to turn out a column unless the guillotine is hanging over me. I've tried it in the summer out the vote holidays, but have given up. On each occasion I'd sit there, looking and feeling stupid, tear out of the typewriter sheet after sheet, crumple it, and try again. Nothing doing. I am constantly telling bud- ding writers to establish a regular work pattern. Afraid it's a case of "do as I do." Oh, they get a lot of good ad- vice. Constantly I extoll the work habits of people like Leacock and Hemingway, who got up early and worked steadily for so many hours, Then one of my little inner voices snaps, "Why don't you do it yourself?" My other little in- ner voice snaps right back, "Hell, I'm not a writer, I'm a columnist." Saved again. When youthful writers ask me what to write about I tell them to write about what they know and do and feel. This time, I follow my own advice. If I didn't, I wouldn't have enough material to keep me going for a month. "Yah, but whut kinda stuff?", they retort in their impeccable teenage English. This is a variant on the adult query I've heard so often, "Where daya get all them ideas for your little articles?" Well, folks, I wish a butler would appear once a week with a little silver salver bearing a piece of paper, and announce, "Your idea for this week, sir." But ,he doesn't, and I probably wouldn't know what to do with it if he did. Besides, I don't have •a butler, dammit. However, I do have a wife. Occasionally, in despair, I'll say, "What in the world am I going to write about this week?" She'll say, "Write about spring" or something about as helpful. I respond, "O.K." and write a column about spring. Nothing to it, Just before the election, something came up that might have been material for a column. An old friend phoned. My wife answered. She called, "Paul wants to know if the Liberals can put a sign on our lawn", frowning and ' shaking her head at me. Airily I said, "Sure, I don't care", though I hadn't decided which way I was going to vote, Hand over the mouthpiece, she hissed at me, "No. I don't want a sign on our lawn." Even more airily, I said, "Yes, he can. Tell him. For once in your life, woman, do what you're told." She did. But her wrath mounted steadily. Five minutes later she was on the blower to N.D.P. headquarters, telling them they Armistice Day Wasn't a holiday when I went to school. At 11 o'clock the teacher would tell us it was time to stand and observe two minutes of silence in memory of the soldiers who were killed in the World War. They didn't have to say which one in those days, We would stand beside our desks, feeling solemn and strange and astonished at how long two minutes could be. In the silence, I tried to think of my Uncle Joe. He was my mother's brother, killed in ac- tion at Ypres. I'd never seen my Uncle Joe, but I always felt as if I'd known him. Relatives on my mother's side were always struck by my resemblance to him. "Why, he's the spitting image 'of Joe," they would say. This gave me a sense could put a sign on our lawn. I didn't give a diddle, A lawn is only a lawn, and a sign is only a sign. But, though I was polite, I was a little cheesed when two NDP characters showed up at the door, ostensibly to thank us. Not only did they try to see me on socialism, or at least what passes for it in this country, but they drank all my beer and ate all my cheese. Their idea of socialism, I guess. Next morning, I was a bit startled to walk out and see four signs on the lawn, two Liberal, two NDP. Right there and then, I almost decided to vote the straight Tory ticket. There were the usual needles from neighbours and colleagues. "A house divided against itself, eh, Smiley?" And "What are you tryna do, Smiley,' get out the vote?" I coolly ignored the jibes, but secretly wondered ,whether there was material for a column in it. That's the way a columnist thinks, so watch what you way when I'm around. I decided there wasn't. And, as you can see, I was right. Perhaps this column should be headed, "How Not To Write a Column". But you see, I did, and you read it. At least, I hope you did. Surely three or four of you did. If you didn't, write me and explain why. The Argyle Syndicate 01) lit ions In order 'that News—Record readers might express their opinions on any topic of public interest, Letters To The Editor are alWay, 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. of identity with him, I suppose, though I'd never seen him. These relatives always spoke of Joe with gentle, sad laughter. He had been an irrepressible personality. They'd speak of the time Joe did such and such a prank on the farm near Morden, Manitoba. There were pictures of him in my mother's snapshot album. One I remember showed him wearing a straw "boater" and grimacing at the camera in a comical way. I was pleased at our resem- blance--we both had big noses and thick .shocks of hair--and I hoped I would grow up to be as full of fun. This made my thoughts confused during the two minutes of silence. I could never think of a valiant soldier dying in battle. I thought only of a gay and laughing man---a grown-up boy, really--who had been killed in some violent, mysterious way that made no sense. In the Remembrance Days since the Second World War I've thought of another man. His name was Duke Cleroux, a French-Canadian, killed in the last winter of the war in nor- thern Holland. I knew Cleroux less than 12 hours and yet, as are my thoughts of Uncle Joe, I always felt that I knew him very well. I'd been sent, up to the platoon he commanded during a holding action south of Nijmegen. When our business was done we sat in the kitchen 10 YEARS AGO NOVEMBER 8, 1962 Most churches in Clinton have put their morning service on to 11:15 or 11:30 in order that members may attend the Remembrance Day service in Clinton Legion Hall, on Sunday, November 11. The Remembrance service is arranged for 9:45 a.m. and the public as well as all war veterans and Legionnaires in the area are invited. 15 YEARS AGO NOVEMBER 7, 1957 A meeting is being held tonight in the Legion Hall at 7:30 to get ideas and possibly organize for another minor hockey day in Clinton. For the past five years, practically the same committee have put on very successful minor hockey days in co-operation with minor hockey week in Canada. Five selections by the entire band, as well as numerous presentations as solos, duets and trios, ate being offered by the members of the Clinton Junior Boys and Girls Band next Tuesday. Some confusion seems to exist in town with regard to the November 11 holiday. Following decision of Town Council and proclaimed as such on page 12 of this issue, the official holiday will last only until noon. After a vety successful season, of a farmhouse where the platoon was quartered and talked the night away. The war was near its end that winter. We talked about the things we were going to do when we got home. We talked of Van- couver, which was my town, and Montreal, which was his, and about skiing in the Laurentians and sailing in Howe Sound and about the women who were waiting for us. I pulled out the next morning and went back to Brussels and a month later his name was in the casualty lists. I never found out how he got it. I never wanted to find out, There was always a kind of conspiracy with yourself to avoid the details, perhaps because it was easier on yourself not to know. When the war was over the Army sent me on a tour of Nor- thwest Europe. I went to several of the Canadian cemeteries of both wars, some of them within hailing distance of each other. I went to one of the 1518 cemeteries with an Army chaplain. It was early Spring. The flowe'rs were coming up. The padre said, "My! I wish all the relatives of these boys could see what a beautiful place this is." I couldn't understand that at all. It just seemed a lonely, unreal place to me. I made no effort to find the graves of my Uncle Joe or Duke Cleroux. Now we're near to another Remembrance Day. We'll hear the speeches about our glorious dead who paid the supreme sacrifice. We'll be reminded that the Bayfield-Clinton Golf Course has been closed until next spring. Fred Hulls, manager of the course, reports that many improvements have been made this fall. Several tons of fertilizer have been sown, along with many pounds of grass seed. 25 YEARS AGO NOVEMBER 6, 1947 Jane Hartley, Olive Petrie and Joyce Hawkins contributed guitar and banjo trios at the meeting of Clinton Lions Club when W.L. Whyte, Seaforth, told of experiences at the Lions International Convention in San Francisco, in July. John Brompton and W.G. Ross, both of near Londesboro, are in hospital suffering from in- juries received when working with tractors. W.S.R. Holmes, Past Wor- shipful Master of the Murphy Lodge LOL No. 710 introduced the guest speaker at the anniver- sary of Guy Fawkes Day held in Ontario Street United Church hall. 40 YEARS AGO ' NOVEMBER 10, 1932 A carload of fruit and vegetables left Huron County on Tuesday for relief distribution in Kincaid, Sask. Over 200 barrels of apples were -in the shipment, as well as beans, carrots, beets, turnips, onions; honey, maple syrup, cabbages, pumpkins and walnuts. It is they did not die in vain. 'The men will march in battle dress and with their medals on their chests, And yet, it seems to me that the real meaning of the day is never found in these ceremonials, but in the very per- sonal memory of men forever young. For Joe Lane is no older than Duke Cleroux. They weren't heroic soldiers marching valiantly into battle, as so many of the speakers will say. They were young vital men who loved life and got mixed up in some gigantic, lunatic ac- cident. The way to remember them is that way, as warm and human individuals who got trapped in a nightmare. We may find some solace in knowing they lie in pleasant fields. It would have been no comfort to Joe or Duke. We soften the sadness with pride, knowing they died for us. All Joe and Duke wanted was to live. I think if there were any way to get a message through from Joe or Duke or the millions of young men of all nations whose lives came to an end on a bat- tlefield it would bear little resemblance to the kind of Remembrance Day oratory we know so well. "Tell them," I think those voices would say, "tell them to go easy on the brass bands and the marching and the ceremony and just to make sure, for God's sake, that what happened to us doesn't happen to their children." proposed to ship another car within three weeks. 55 YEARS AGO NOVEMBER 8, 1917 Town Council of Clinton was threatened with an injunction by John Connell, farmer, whose complaint was the continued use of the Mary St. drain by householders living along, to carry off sewage. Letters to and from lawyer and contact with the Department of Health had been made. 75 YEARS AGO NOVEMBER 5, 1897 It became necessary, one day this week, to place one of the female inmates at the House of Refuge in the lock-up provided for refractory inmates. The place is secured by an iron door, held in place by a half inch iron bar. She kept shaking the door until she had broken the bar and walked out, only to be locked in an adjoining cell.' The late Mr. Biddlecombe always took a kindly interest in the Public Library. In his later hours, he did not forget it, for his will directed that a designated clock should be hand ded over to it after his death. This has been done by the executor. It is a handsome brass-cased clock and is quite an ornament on the wall above the books, Gratitude is due to the memory of the donor, and to the executors for the valuable gift. Help Dear Editor: Next year is Prince Edwarc Island's Centennial. As part o' a Centennial project I am corn piling the histories of R.C.N ships, named after P.E.I. com- munities, which served in Work War II, These were H.M.0 Ships "Charlottetown" (first and second), "Summerside" and "Ma 1peque". I am most anxious to hear from any members of these four ships' companies to query them on specific details and genera impressions. I may be reached at the address shown. All correspondence will be an- swered. Sincerely yours, Michael Hennessey 21 Greenfield Ave. Charlottetown, P.E.I. Correction Dear Editor: I was pleased to see Ro Kellestine's informative "Bit History" of Huronview in th News-Record of November 2n. However, there were one o two statements which requir correction or clarification.lt i stated that, "Since then (1961 there has been no majo building change." In fact, th North Wing of Huronview wa, built in 1966. The othe discrepancy is that we have 28 residents, rather than 186, a. stated. There is one other point would like to comment on, W do have about 180 staff mem bers. However, 122 are full-tim ,employees and 58 are part-tim only. Thank you, first for the in• terest you have shown in Huron view, and secondly for allowin me to clarify these points. Yours very truly, C.A. Archibald, Administrator Huronview Inhumane Dear Editor: It is most unfortunate that the Government of Quebec should have approved, indeed initiated, a mass attack on the wolf population in the Province of Quebec. The recent announcement that the Government proposes to sponsor a special wolf hun- ting season is bad enough, but the news that the Government plans to use cruel traps, and even more cruel poisons to eliminate these animals is almost incredible. The Department of Tourism, Fish & Game is undoubtedly concerned with attracting "spor tsmen" to the Province o Quebec and no doubt spends large amount of money trying t achieve that end. The effect o the recent announcement ha. been to bring to the Province • Quebec more bad publicity th: they have been able. to achie than by almost any oth- problem. Throughout Canada, and it deed North America, the rea tion is beginning to build t.q Canada's reputation abroa suffered badly enough throug the seal hunting controvers, but now we are being once agai reviled as cruel and backwar in our approach to wild lift Perhaps, even harder to take the very strong suggestion tha not only are we cruel and back ward but rather stupid as we since we obviously believe in th simple equation," less wolve more deer." The prime concern of th Department is to provid enough deer for people to kill i such a way that valuabl dollars are brought into Quebe and left there. This must be th case, because if not, and if th real concern is the welfare of th deer population, then the Simpi answer is to prohibit deer hur ting. If the Government of Quebe would simply suspend th killing of wolves, deer and othe animals, the natural balanc would very quickly be restored I find it very hard indeed t have any sympathy for th "bleeding heart" who cries int( his beer that the poor little dee must be protected so that he car go out and kill them when th time is ripe. Yours truly T.I. Hughel General Manage Ontario Humane Society How I helped to get