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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1972-12-07, Page 4liews-Recoid, Thursday, DeCetpt)er 7, 1972 Editorial commen A helpful hand Realizing the old cliche "A friend in need is a friend indeed" is time-worn and often repeated saying, for the News- Record last week it the only way we can find to describe the kind of situation we were in. It all started out a week ago last Mon- day when our faithful computer quit. She's that mess of transistors and capacitors that takes our copy and puts it on to nice looking justified sheets of paper in columns, exactly the way you see them in the paper. She may have brains to think at an un- dreamed of high rate of speed but she couldn't talk and tell us what was wrong. Maybe she had too many volts to drink the night before. Anyway, we were in a panic, because with no justified copy there would be no paper. So .on Wednesday morning our publisher and other members of the press gang got on to the phone and within an hour we had commitment of help frOm type-setting shops throughout Ontario. Off in the cars they went to Toronto and London and Listowel. Eventually the copy was set and retur- ned to Goderich, where the News- Record Is printed, and we got the paper out on time. The real point of the computer paper is the help from everybody concerned, They helped us without hesitation or regret. Special thanks go out to Clinton Com- mercial Printers, Wenger Bros, and Photo Set and Impression, A very special thanks goes out to our rival, the London Free Press, who turned over their complete facilities to us and even delayed their own paper 20 minutes just so the News-Record could hit the streets in reasonable time. It's not often you can find people like that who are willing to give so much with a smile and a warm hand. Thanks. again. A Third—rate electors The Globe and Mail hit the nail on the head last Tuesday in an editorial on the past municipal elections, titled "The Third-rate Electors". "When representatives from three levels of government met recently, it may have encouraged the hope that, at long last, the importance of municipal government was about to be recognized. It may have had its patronizing moments, but the meeting did convey a general impression of stirring awareness that municipal problems could not be laughed off. " If any Ontario municipalities are now tempted to think that they have suddenly come of age, the state of the laws that governed yesterday's municipal elec- tions should be enough to jolt them back to reality. One would almost think that the municipal electors were a separate group entirely from that which elects provincial and federal governments. The Ontario Government fiddled around with amendments earlier this year but. after. hearing all manner of complaints,. made it quite plain that almost any old arrangement would be good enough. Let us pass over such related matters as the shambles known as a voters' list, the weaknesses in selecting and instructing district returning officers, the un- willingness to move the date out of win- ter's reach—and consider a couple of other troublesome aspects. First, the hours during which this sacred democratic right may be exer- cised. Are you one of those who labor daily in the city—and, if so, did you loaf around the house until 11 a.m. when the polling stations were willing to admit you? Or did you exercise option (b) which yesterday consisted of struggling home through the usual rush-hour mess--com- pounded by the arrival of one of the nastier days of the season—and groping your way through the dark neighborhood streets to the home of a stranger whose living room had been made into a polling station? ' Or did you fall into that dismayingly large category of people who apparently decided that if God had intended them to vote, He would have a vastly superior set of circumstances in which to do so. And, since, the subject of private living rooms has arisen, surely it is time our election procedures rraftired to the print Wmovinb public buildings, or institutional buildings, or apartment lobbies. Our out- of-date election procedures are reminiscent enough of the bad old days of patronage without this tangible remin- der, A Everybody needs it at least once EMMA MOTO. "Do you have anything for someone who's sick of all thom Christmas commercials' already?" To a cab driver we get letters False THE CLINTON NEW ERA Amalgamated Established 1865 1924 Nommosin.N111111114) 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) Published second class mail the heart registration number 0817 'SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (in advance) tanaaa, $8.00 per year; U.S.A., $9.50 JAMES E. FITZGERALD—Editor J. HOWARD AITKEN — General Manager every Thursday at of Huron County' Clinton, Ontario Population 3,475 THE HOME ' OF RADAR IN CANADA It seems to me that kids don't have much fun anymore. Today I was reading a short story with a group of eighteen-year-olds. It was about a shy, fluttery spinster out on her first public date with a widower who was courting her. They went to a dance, She tripped and fell and her man came tumbling down on top of her. It was funny, but pathetic, and the kids, who are sensitive to humiliation, exuded sym- pathy, especially the girls. We talked for a bit about the things that make people shy or awk- ward or selkonscious: acne, obesity, a colostomy. Fine, A good discussion. But then I asked if any of them had had the same ex- perience—falling flat on the dance floor, Horrors, no! Of course, the way they dance nowadays, it's almost im- possible to measure your length on the hardwood. Most of them dance by themselves, and it's pretty hard to topple unless you're blind, stoned. On slow pieces, those rare occasions, they are clutched so tightly that it would take a bulldozer to knock them down. Most of the time, in fast, they don't even dance, just listen to the clangour and thump. And it's pretty hard to fall down on a dance floor when you're not dancing. I mean, it's the sort of thing you have to work at. Anyway, 1 just sat back, looked them over, and shook my head. "You kids haven't lived. Nobody has really lived who hasn't gone sprawling on a dance floor, preferably bringing down his or her partner in the process." There's nothing like it to pare the ego clown to size. And it helps if you do it before a large and appreciative audience. 1 can recall at least two oc- casions on which it happened to. me. Once was at the Cascades, of fond memory. The second was at the Legion Hall in Tobermory. And I have living witnesses. My wife doesn't know about the second one, so keep it quiet. But I can well recall the sen- sation, One moment you are gliding about, leaping and, pirouetting, a veritable Rudolph Nureyev in Swan Lake, The next, your pas des deux somehow turns in to a pas des trois, you discover that your partner is not Margot Fonteyn, and, you're flat on your back, head spinning from the thump on the floor, and a broad who a moment ago was light as thistledown, sprawled across you like Strangler Lewis winning the deciding fall. There's only one thing to do. Leap to your feet, laughing hollowly, and so quickly that the spectators might think it was all part of the perfor- mance. They never do, of course, And it's pretty lonely out there in the middle of the floor when your partner, who has been shamed for life, gives you a look like a cold shower, and stalks away forever, "What? Don't you people ever go to a country dance and get hurled about?", I badgered my students, Nope. So 1 had to tell them what it was like. When I was their age, we used to strike off many a Friday night. Usually for Wemyss, where they had the prettiest girls (Jo and Vera Dewitt, Ursula Brady), and the best music (Lorne Consitt on the piano and Mr. Dewitt on the fiddle.) There was no question of taking girls, We couldn't afford IL But there was always the hope that you'd get to take one home, However, they always seethed to have several huge brothers or cousins lurking about, It was about $1,00 for the evening. Fifty cents for the dance, eight-five cents for a inickev of gin, split four ways, and the rest for gas for somebody's old man's car. "Have you never got into a square dance and been literally swept off your feet'?", questioned my girl students, Nope. But some of them looked as though they rather liked the idea. And I thought of those burly farm boys, getting into the spirit of things and whirling the girls around until the latter were actually flying. Oc- casionally, sweaty hands spelled disaster, and one of the girls would go flying off into the lunch the ladies were organizing. The lunch was part of the admission fee of 50c. And I thought of occasions when I had got into a doh-se- doh with a particularly en- thusiastic and buxom farm wench,*and, because I couldn't foot it like the farm boys, been swung around in circles with both feet three inches off the floor. A couple of belts of raw gin, and a couple of dances like that, and you were ready and willing to go out into the snow and gaze, palely and greenly at the moon for a half hour or so. Inside the hall, with a wood stove almost red hot, and a hundred or so bodies steaming, it was always about 130 degrees. And this was in the days before ultra-dry deodorants. But I don't remember anybody smelling anything except hot and per. fumey. Eventually, there'd be a fight, or lunch would be served, then it was into the Model A and shiver home through the winter night. No heater, Rut, oh, what a night we'd had, and oh, what stories we regaled our less venturesome schoolmates with, when we fore-gathered at the pool room on Saturday afternoon. I'oor modern kids. Do they have any fun? In the coffee break at our weekly poker session the other night, the talk turned to the perils of automation and so, by a somewhat circuitous route, I began to think again about my secret ambition to drive a taxi. Jim was telling us, you see, about a friend who had been let out from 'a mill job he'd had for 20-odd years because a new fangled machine had taken over his duties. In-desperation, unable to get other work, the mill-worker had gone commercially into the wholesaling of African Violets, a life-long hobby with him. Now he's not only doing something he thoroughly enjoys '.but making:-.more money than he made at his for- mer mundane job. We began, then, to talk of things we'd like to do if automation tossed us -on the ash heap and I seem to have startled one and all baring my secret dream of being a hack- driver. For a variety of reasons, it would appear, taxi men in these precincts do not seem to have the reputation or professional standing that they enjoy in other parts of the world. Yet, as one who travels 15 YEARS AGO Thurs., Dec 5, 1957 Bob- Allan, Brucefield, who was declared "Bean King" by judges' at this year's Royal Winter Fair, was selected new president of the Huron County Soil and Crop Improvement Association at the annual meeting held at the township hall in Londeshoto oh Thur- sday night. Donald Warner, a young flayfiold man, was the winner of $500 in Clinton Lions Club annual Grey Cup draw. The Lions realized over $1,000 from extensively by cab in conduc- ting my city business, I have encountered many who em- brace high qualities in public service and philosophical astuteness. I think it is time these at- tributes were more widely recognized, particularly if there's a chance some of us .,may be joining them, For anyone like myself who loves driving, who never tires of exploring the face of the city and who delights in meeting a Wide variety of people, par- ticularly in circumstances Where they're a captive udience, the rewards of being charge of!'a 'eab"4.rer "read'ilY,, ,• marent. More than most pursuits, it iffers _a constant opportunity to lip helpful to mankind on a 4ery direct personal level. My favourite cab driver often regales me with tales of how he has shepherded little old ladies, taken care of wayward drunks who have forgotten where they live and carried out any number of bizarre missions including coping with a distraught young lady who, in a manic gesture of protest against something, had completely disrobed in the back seat of his' this fund—raising project, all of which. will be used for welfare and Lions sponsored activities. Ernest Brown, Clinton, is second vice-president of the Huron Hereford Association, which held its annual meeting at Lucknow. 25 YEARS AGO Thurs., Dec. 4, 1947 Five of the six young ladies who came from Nova Scotia to find employment in the Clinton Hosiery Mills, are still on the job, and enjoying their life in Clinton. B.B. Pocklington has retur- ned from a visit with his father in England. A volunteer fire brigade has been formed at Hayfield, Ear- nest Hovey is president and Grant Turner, vice-president, Fire Chief is Walter Westlake, They intend to use the pumping equipment recently purchased from the Town of Goderich. A plebiscite concerning the sewage system Will go before the town of Clinton on Mon- day. The first snow of the season blocked highway 8, and airmen who live in Goderich were unable to get RCAF Station Clinton. 40 YEARS AGO Thurs., Doe. 8, 1932 Those taking part in the tum- bling display at the High School commencement were: H. Tyndall, T. Ross, S. Cook, H. Gibbs, W. Weston, E. Camp. bell, YI, Perdue, E. Neilans, Colquhoun and J. McLIveen. Miss Grace Hellyar won the cab. He has also given advice, though it was not always asked for, to .John Diefenbaker, Whip- per Bill Watson, Duke Ellington, Gene Sarazan, an evangelist named "Fire-Ball Bill", Bing Crosby and other assorted celebrities too numerous to mention. I am sure that, even unasked, it was good advice. While we do not recognize their status to the full locally, as I say, it is a well-known fact to most travellers that taxi-drivers are right up there with bartenders in being men of vast knowledge and common sense.. Very °often they are rugged incliVicitiffist'S` as Well wayfarer in New York or Paris or Buenos Aires or Tel Aviv comes to knoiv that he may sample the full, rich flavor of the local citizenry in comfort at meter rates. I suppose this is caused by the fact that cab-drivers know their cities and the inhabitants of their cities more directly than people in the immobile trades. In an article about the late J.B. McGeachy, my friend McKenzie Porter tells of a typical incident involving a taxi principal's prize for highest standing in upper school mathematics. She is now a student at Stratford Normal School. Esther McMath received a $10 award for the best essay on the history of the school during 1931-32. Mervyn Lobb is one of four chosen to represent the county on the grain judging team which will compete at OAC. Irving Tebbutt, while working on his farm, was for- tunate enough to see three deer passing by. 55 YEARS AGO Thurs., Dec. 6, 1917 An account with regard to cost of erection of the Sydney Herbert Smith fountain in Library Park, has been the news since the Byan and Sutter firm was requesting early payment by the town council. The fountain was erected with six conditions to which the council should abide, including driver. McGeachy, it seems, had been posted to Washington, D.C. by the British Broad- casting Corporation for the specific purpose of recording the United States' entry into the Second World War. McGeachy was away in the country on some naughty recreation when that event took place, but tried to cover up, as Porter puts it, by "a studious summary of American reaction to the event, based, as most such summaries are, on the viewpoint of an obliging taxi driver," Every peripatetic pewspaper- man' Will"ree&"Seme `similar circumstance for the fact is that cab-drivers are far more reliable sources than any to be found on the level of of- ficialdom. A foreign correspon- dent could, in fact, fulfill his mission by relying exclusively on bartenders and taxi-drivers, andone.don't think it hasn't been d Anyway, the job appeals to me very much, not being a grower of African Violets, and when the electronic column- writing computer is perfected I'll know where I'm going. the laying out of walks within the park. Brucefield Red Cross Society supplied 46 trench caps for the armed services in Nov. and special church services. Tom Jackson's annual free entertainment for the children of the public school and for the grandmothers of town is being planned. A contest for a pail of candy is one of the highlights. 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. Dear Editor: In the November 30th issue of the London Free Press, a pic- ture appeared with a caption which claimed that the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture staff in Clinton saved $500 by producing 500 copies of the 1972 edition of "Huron County Statement of Awards", The claim is quite false! The caption suggested that the previous printers of the book Clinton Commercial Prin- ters) made a profit of $500. How is this possible when the cost of material and labour for producing the 1971 Awards book was $394.15? In addition, an extra $25 was paid for reprinting one page which had an error in the copy submitted by the Department, and the above figures were subject to a 5% Ontario Retail Sales Tax of $20.96. As you will note from the above figures, the Department could not SAVE $500 in 1972. It should be pointed out also. that one page of this year's book could not be produced by the Department machinery, That picture page cost the Department $26,35 for 500 copies which were produced in our plant, using $20,000 worth of our equipment! The one picture page, however, does not make the 1972 edition equal to last year's quality book. Surely an Awards Book should merit keeping as a souvenir, compact and attractive. Since we have published here our 1971 figures, perhaps the Clinton staff of the Ministry of Agriculture would satisfy our and your interest by a similar publication of their ACTUAL cost of production in material, equipment and man hours. John Robinson Clinton Commercial Printers. Well versed Dear Editor: I have been following the ar- ticles written by C.F. Barney, under "Letters to the Editor" in your Clinton News-Record with much interest. He seems well versed in his knowledge of the Bible. Perhaps he would be in- terested in a recent article in The Expository Times. Theologian Vincent Taylor acknowledges: "The Gospels clearly show that the knowledge of Jesus was limited, that He asked questions for the sake of infor- mation...that He challenged the rich ruler who addressed Him as 'Good Master' with the question, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.' (Mark 10:18) These issues have constantly caused embarrassment and must con- tinue to do so if without qualification Jesus is described as God. "But they would present no problem if one rejects the trinity dogma and believes what Jesus himself said, namely, that God, the Father, is greater than Jesus Christ. (John 14:28.) Sincerely Mrs, L,G. Lewis Port Lambton, Ont. The Ontario Safety League appeals to drivers never to leave children unattended in an automatic transmission car with the engine running, even if it is in Park or Neutral position. If the parking brake is not effec- tively engaged, a small child, imitating simple actions he has seen taken by his parents, can start the car moving towards almost certain collision. 10 YEARS AGO Thurs., Dec. 6, 1962 On Tuesday evening Clinton Kinsmen hosted 25 Goderich kin at the annual joint meeting held at Hotel Clinton. President Joe Meffer of the Goderich club conducted a short business meeting with the Goderich members, Clinton President Frank Cook proceeded with the regular meeting. A party dinner for officers and executive of the Ladies Auxiliary, to the Clinton Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion was enjoyed last Wed- nesday night in Hotel Clinton in honor of their 35th anniver- sary. Guests at the dinner were provincial and zone officers, and the nine ladies who were later honoured with life mem- berships in the auxiliary. The Christmas meeting of the UCW of Ontario street United / Church will be held on Wed- nesday, December 12 at 8 p.m. A short executive meeting will be held.