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Clinton News-Record, 1973-11-15, Page 4ive get letters The Jack Scott Column mi ON NM IN In tOrel0N N ODOCVA poe The beast is showing looking ahead Gordon Hill of Varna, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, made some pretty good sense last week when he addressed the convention of the Association of Counties and Regions of Ontario. He said that professional plan- ners have concerned themselves with the use of land for development rather than the best ultimate use of land for the benefit of the optimum number of people. His reference was aimed chiefly at the gobbling of good farm land by urban sprawl and industrial parks. "We must develop a completely new approach, study our land, assess its capabilities, decide how society can get the best use of it and plan accordingly," said Mr. Hill. "All the regional plans that have been developed or are being developed at present are not directed to planning good use of Ontario land. All of them are planning for the development of the land." The OFA president echoes a message which we have repeatedly carried in this column. One has only to look at the en- croachment upon Ontario's best land in the Niagara peninsula and in Waterloo County to realize the utter folly of development concepts. It's enough to make a conservationist weep when a bulldozer moves into a new housing site north of Waterloo and begins to scoop out all that beautiful black topsoil. The tragedy is completed in a few days' time when the concrete and the blacktop and the cement block foundations destroy for all time the arable land which will some day be desperately needed to produce food for our children's children. Governments seem to believe that there is no way on earth they can put an end to the growth of heavily populated centres. Despite the fact that every resident of this province pays ghastly bills to meet the needs of the monstrous cities, there seems to be no way of stop- ping their growth. Toronto is already so large that some means has to be found to take a large proportion of the private motor vehicles off its streets. There are simply not enough access roads and parking spaces to accommodate them. Think of the billions of dollars expended on the eight-ten and twelve-lane high- ways, the overpasses and the under- passes, the guard fences and the collec- tor lanes in the approaches to Toronto alone. This is not a new problem. It is not a situation which has appeared suddenly with 20th century technological ad- vance. It is as old as Greece and Egypt. Big cities have been a source of human misery since the earliest times. If country people can be told by the provincial government when they may and may not sell their own property it is equally right that developers should be limited in their access to new and valuable building sites. Canada, a land of vast open spaces, is suffocating itself in a narrow hem along its own skirts. —Wingham Advance-Times Sugar and Spice/By Bill Smiley Soon it will be 80 miles in 80 days From our early files . • • • • • • +CNA Mambaro Canadian Community Newsom* Misociation MeMber, Onto*, Weskit* Newapapai AaloidatIon p' ..i AN C om Clinton ews-Record Rubliihed every Thursday at Clinton, Ontario Editor - James E. Fitigerald General Manager, J. Howard Aitken &world Oleos P4011 risolstrallOn rio, 0817 HUB OP et 4111111 $16 HURON I OUNIS# -THE NOMI OW *ADA* IN CAP:ADA" NEWS-moRD, TxuRso4y, _Novgm.om,t 15, 1973 Crossing guards After three itionins of controversy, Clinton has finally acquired school crossing guards. Clinton cOuncil's decision last Mon- day night to go ahead and hlre four per- sons to ward our school children is a reversal of a deolSiOn they took last August. Council's decision demonstrates .clearly the idea of democracy at the municipal level. A 74 name petition, presented lo council 'from taxPayers In the town carried a lot of weight. Whether they agreed with the principle behind the crossing guards or not, councillors were only following the wishes of their electors, which is only the proper thing A Canadian Week There are so many "weeks" in Canada now, that we think they are becoming boring and their impact on the general public has lessened to such a great ex- tent that they have lost much of their meaning. But one week we heartly endorse every year is Young Canada's Book Week. The week, jointly sponsored by the Canadian Library Association and the Canadian Book Publishers Council is meant to focus attention on the fact there is a wide array of Canadian written and produced books available. to do. In the past year or so, Clinton council has been most responsive to citizens' groups, and in nearly every case we can think of, council has taken action on them. They don't know what you want unless you tell them, seems an apt description, The $3,000 cost of the guards will be borne by the taxpayers, and hopefully, should clear up a chronic problem at the school crossing points, but in no way should it mean the children should be complacent and forget their safety rules. There will be many other times when they will be crossing the streets without the help of the crossing guards. According to the Canadian Library Association, every year fewer Canadian children's books are published and along with this dying trend goes our distinctive Canadian culture. Because children's minds are always open, and what they read has a profound effect on what they will think for the rest of their lives, isn't it time we started sup- porting Canadian books more? After all, who wants their children to read about the adventures of a kid in Philadelphia or follow the trials of an American Marine, complete with Amer- ican flag? Ambulance Dear Editor: Re: Ryan-Spieran accident published Nov, 1/73. We have noticed in your publication that it has taken more than 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. As reported in your paper by. Constable Don Armstrong the accident was at 1.10 a.m. The call was received at Seaforth ambulance dispatch centre at 1.19 a.m, Vehicle was dispat- ched at 1,20 a,m. Enroute to scene at 1.28 a.m. Arrived at scene at 1,36 a.m. The above times are recorded in the Seaforth Hospital radio log book for your inspection. It is unfortunate there was a nine minute lapse from time of accident and. calling an am- bulance from Clinton. ' We would be pleased if the above letter and times are reported in your paper. Yours truly, R.S. Box Limited. For years Canadians in small towns have watched the drying up of passenger train services. Community after community has had its rail services cut. Passenger service in this country is now about on a par with that in Outer Mongolia. Many communities fought hard to retain the train service, but the locals were no match for the railways, with their public relations men, lawyers, experts and the inevitable figures. There is none of the romance and excitement of Canada's early railways in these figures, There is no sentiment. They show that the line is losing money, and that's all the railways care about. They don't mention that there seemed to be a deliberate plan to let the tracks and the coaches fall into such disrepair and shabbiness that even an Outer Mongolian would prefer to travel by yak. There was almost no at- tempt, except on the big tran- scontinental trains, to provide faster, more comfortable, reliable service. The railways are perfectly happy to provide good service for cattle and hogs, but they just don't want people riding On their trains. Is Our postal service going the way of our passenger train, Service? Is there a secret eon, spiracy, high in the ranks of our postal department, to discourage Canadians from communicating by mail'? Are postal authorities being bribed by the Bell Telephone, the railways' telecom. Munitations systetri, and other competitors to put the brakes on postal delivery to the point where it will diminish to a trickle, then halt completely? One would think so, on the evidence, People in business who depend on the so-called postai service in this country, must be losing their hair, their minds, and even their businesses these days. Last summer, when we were in England, I mailed two columns back to Canada. No problem. They were there right on time. My wife wrote some postcards. "Not much point", I observed. "We'll be home before the cards get there". We weren't. But have you tried the Canadian mails lately? Don't, unless there is no other way. Last night, my Wife cattle across an old love letter, from me, and read it to the accorn- panienent of my blushes arid snorts. That letter travelled More than 200 miles, and took two days to get there, and cost four cents postage. , This week, we had a letter from our daughter. She lives the vast distance of 80 miles away. You could walk itin four days, hitchhike it in two. Yet the post office, with its corn- putors, its fancy codes and its fast, modern trucks, took the grand total of four days to get the letter from there to here. That's really whippy service. Twenty miles a day. And it eost, eight cents. 'Tice the cost for lees than half the efficiency. This column is mailed from here to the city on Tuesday, for, processing. It should be delivered next morning, the people here tell me. It isn't. Sometime © it gets there Friday. Sometimes it doesn't. After some complaints from the city end, I took what I thought was drastic action. I sent the column by certified mail, That sounds impressive. It consists of putting your en- velope inside a special en- velope, and paying forty cents for the privilege. "That'll do it", I thought comfortably. It didn't. Three days later, the city was on the blower. No column. I explained what I'd done, They said they'd go to the post office. They did. Nobody knew anything about it. After eight days, the whole sordid little, unimportant story came out, Certified mail must be signed for. The elevator in the office building in the city was not working. The recipients of the column were on the third floor. No postie was going to walk up three flights of stairs. So the "certified" letter was not delivered. Worse still was the fact that it was dumped somewhere in the post office and ignored. Eight days after it was mailed, it turned up. Eight days, eighty milts, But by gosh, the price is right. Only forty cents. I've no grudge with the local people. They are helpful and obliging. But somewhere out there... Sending a letter these days is about as effective as writing a note, putting it in a bottle, and dropping it in the Pacific Ocean. Except that the latter is a lot' cheaper, if you happen .to have an empty bottle. Next year, I'm going to hire a mule train for my Mil- Sometimes, as every woman knows, the beast in a man emerges over the most trivial thing. Take, for example, the way a friend of mine reacts when his wife chews gum. You couldn't hope to find a more quiet, pleasant, even- tempered fellow than Ed. But the moment his wife's jaw starts working that way his eyes get all small and piggy and there's a deep-down meanness about him you just couldn't believe. "Looks like it's milking time again, eh, Madge?" he'll say. Or, sometimes, "How are things in the dairy?" When he first made such remarks, shortly after their marriage, Madge -would protest and say that she LIKED to chew gum, just as HE liked to smoke his stinking cigar, But nowadays—and they're en- tering their fifteenth year in the ring—it almost seems as if Madge is doing it deliberately, as if to show her independence, or maybe she just enjoys getting him mad. You never know with wives. She'll make a great show 10 YEARS AGO Nov. 21, 1963 Robert F. Love, Hensall has been awarded a Ford Foun- dation Fellowship worth $4,200, for continued study in mathematical research at Stan- ford University, California. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ross Love. Harry H. Gaetler son of Mr, and Mrs. John Gaether, Clin- ton, received his M.A. in Astronomy at a fall con- vocation at the University of Toronto on Friday. He is now working at David Dunlop Ob- servatory. Four new members were initiated into membership in Clinton Lions Club on Tuesday, The new Lions are Art Colson, William G. MacAr- thur, Alan W. Edwards and Carman MacPherson. Mr. and Mrs. Clifton MacDonald were presently sur- pised with a small party in their honor at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Moss, Auburn. It was the occasion of their silver wedding anniver- sary. William t3iggart, Cutter Street, Clinton was presented with a 60 year jewel by Clinton Oddfellows Lodge last Thur- sday evening. Misses Lucille and Kathy Shea, Rochester N.Y,, spent the weekend at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Carl MeClinchey, John E. Cunningham, Syracuse, N.Y., visited over the weekend with his parents, Mr. and Mrs, cordon W. Cun- ningham, 116 Rattenbury Street, Clinton. Mr, Roy Sdotchmer shipped some fine cattle to Toronto livestock yards last. Monday which went for the highest price that. day. 26 YEARS AGO Nov. Ht. 1940 Nice ripe red raspberries are of taking the gum out of the wrapper, very precisely and with a slight smile On her face. Then she puts it in her mouth ever so daintily. And then she starts chewing away with a languid, methodical sort of grinding motion that even gets me a little edgy, If Ed says anything she smiles and then she gets the gum sort of bunched up and chews it very rapidly with her front teeth, looking him right in the eyes, and I've seen Ed then getting red at the back of his neck and watched his fingers clenching and unclenching, There were two items in the paper the other day that got me thipking about Ed and Madge and the tiny wedges that can split a marriage as no thunder- bolt ever could. The first item noted that in the first six months of this year the divorce rate in Canada was increased 12,5 percent over the similar period of last year and is going up steadily. Something is obviously breaking up a lot of homes, The second item was about a fellow, name of Emile Scheer- still coming into the office. The latest donor is Mrs. G.E. Saville, Clinton who picked some beautiful ones Friday but others have been picking them lately. Mrs. William Higgins picked a rose from her garden yesterday, Fall plowing is almost com- pleted. Conditions have been very favourable for fall plowing and a large amount has been accomplished. Wilbert R. "Bert" Lobb, R.R. 2, Clinton, was re-elected president of Huron County Federation of Agriculture for the ensuing year at the annual meeting held in the Town Hall, Clinton, Tuesday afternoon. Completing two weeks trap- ping, Ross Taylor, Belgrave, has 69 red fox pelts for his ef- forts. He set his traps about two feet apart and caught the foxes in pairs. He had 40 traps and made a catch of 14 foxes in one day. Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Craig and grandson, Melvin, visited with Mr, and Mrs. Bert Jervis, Toronto, and also attended the Royal Winter Fair, Mrs. Jack Jowett and household moved into her home on Main St, last week for the winter months. Miss Doris McEwan, London spent the weekend with her mother, Mrs. F.W. McEwan in Bayfield. Dr, and Mrs. Lloyd Moffatt attended the football game in Toronto on last Saturday staying on as weekend guests of a cousin, Mrs. Moxon, 60 YEARS AGO Nov, 22, '1923 Mr. Snell is away to the big Chicago Winter Fair with eighteen head of Leicester sheep, The Snells got their usual amount of prizes at the Toronto Royal Winter Fair, Clinton Masonic Lodge had an official visit from the Rt, Wor. Bro. J. Stevenson maeker, down in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, who got so tired of listening to a tuneless whistling sound his wife made that he hit her on the head with a clawhammer, ran the bathtub full of water, and held her un- der until she could whistle no more ever. I found myself wondering how many of those divorces came right down to little things like the late Mrs, Scheer- maeker's tuneless whistle or ashes spilled on a carpet or the way a woman holds a cigaret. You'd be surprised at how many men seethe inside at the mannered way their wives smoke. I .haye thought :of Ate.AzIefAee when my wife is teeth-tapping. Taps her teeth with her pen when she's writing a letter. Drives me crazy. Sometimes I have to leave the room and bathe my wrists with cold water. I suppose if there's ever a divorce in our family it will be because of this teeth-tapping or the way my wife says "calf's liver" and "adhesive." I just can't understand it. representing the D.D.G.M. of South Huron District No. 4. All the members were present and Clinton gave a good showing, Eggs may reach as high as a dollar a dozen before Christ- mas. It will not be because of Chicago cornering the market on hen fruit but because, perhaps, of, an unusually late month this year in this locality. It is the hen rather than the pullet that must be looked to for another month or two for the bulk of the egg supply. A farmer, living south of Clinton, on going out to his stables to milk his cows was suprised to find three of his best milking cows lying stret- ched out in their stalls unable to get up, One he at first thought was dead, as it did not move. The farmer returned to his house to enquire of the family what the cows had eaten yester , day while he was away. He was informed that they had been in the orchard eating cull apples for an hour, He then concluded that as the apples had been frozen several times the cider in ME CLINTON NEW ERA Established 28135 She doesn't use the broad "a" in anything else. She doesn't say "lawff" for "laugh" or "bawth" for "bath," But every time we're going to have calf's liver she calls it "cawve's liver." The first time I ever heard her say it I couldn't understand my reaction. I was infuriated. I went all cold inside. "What do you mean, cawve's liver?" I said petulantly. We had a terrible fight over it, Same thing with "adhesive," She says "a-dee-sive" and I say "ad-hee-sive." I try to keep calm. I try to tell myself that I'm being unreasonable, but, like Emile Scheermaeker, I feel 119.I.e1140.4:e &PAO iiIgelACe4.. clawhammer:` a You wouldn't think that adhesive or calf's liver would come up much in the course of ordinary conversation, but there are days when I think my wife talks about nothing else, Such is the awful power of a minor irritant, About all I can do to keep from homicide is to chew mat- ches and—boy!—you should see what THAT does to HER! them had fermented and this was too strong and had gone to bossie's head, making them drunk. Mr. J.T. Reid has sold out his grocery business at the south end of Clinton to Mr. M. Jordan of Belgrave. 75 YEARS AGO Nov. 18, 1898 Robert Elliott of Goderich township, shipped two carloads of live turkeys to the old coun- try last week. One car was made up at Goderich and the other between Clinton and Blyth. All the turkeys brought 6c a pound. Mrs. W.H. Beesley left Clin- ton this week to spend a week with her sister in Listowel before continuing out west to meet Mr. Beesley, who has bought some land.' Before she left the ladies of Clinton made up a box of things she could use while living there but she is not to open it until Christmas mor- ning. Norman Brandon and sister, of the Clinton Collegiate, Amalgamatrd 104 Sidewalks Dear Editor: I am writing to try and find out who has the right of way on the sidewalks in the Town of Clinton, the pedestrian or the snowmobile. On Sunday, November 11, four adult persons were stan- ding in front of the Presbyterian Church on Rat- tenbury Street watching the Legion Parade form up in front of the Cenotaph when a snowmobile driving east, came up the middle of the sidewalk, There was no attempt on the part of the operator to avoid hitting anyone and had we not all stepped back one or all could have been knocked over. Continuing on the street at a good speed within one block a lady going in the direction of the Ontario Street Church also had to step off into the snow to arvol being hit. What happens to the minds of these operators when there is no regard whatsoever for the safety of people? Remember the lady in Bayfield who was knocked over by a bicycle? She died from the injuries sustained. Yours truly, A native Clintonian, Elva L. Mutch visited friends in Stratford on Saturday and Sunday. The thunder storm which passed over town last Friday was very severe, particularly so for the time of the year. Elea trical storms are more numerous than usual this fall and have in some places caused considerable damage, Mr. Robert Elliott of Goderich township, well known buyer of fruit, produce, etc. will be a candidate at the coming municipal election, but whether for councillor or a higher position he has not decided. That will depend on who is in the field. • News-Record readers are en- couraged to express their opinions in letters to the editor, however, such opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of. the News-Record. Pseudonyms may be used by loiter writers, but no letter will be published unless It can be verified by phone. rHE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1881