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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1974-01-10, Page 4The Jack Scott Column - MI OM "By the way, I'm not buying all that — I'm, just going around getting estimates." Suburb incident we get letters Snowmobiles shoulder. I had to admit to the students that this was the only good reading habit I could remember. That seemed to be the end of the speech. Then I thought, "Heck, this is no good." So I confessed that I could say, without pride, but with little fear of contradiction,. that I had the most attrocious itading habits of any male in Canada. I suggested stead about Habits. Then, carefully, and that I talk in- Bad Reading if they listened immediately af- Sugar and Spice/By Bill Smiley A flashlight under the blanket From our early files . • • • • • • A Member. Caesium Community Newspaper Association 1144044, 00120 WSsltyr Amalgamated 1924 THE CLINTON NEW ERA Established 1865 THE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1581 Clinton News-IZeconi Published every Thursday at Clinton, Ontario James E. Fitagerald General Manager, &OP J. Howard Aitken Second Class Mall HUB OF HURON. COUNTY registration no, 0817 4.-curfroN NEWS-RECORD, THURSDAY, JANUARY tC!, 1974 Editotiat. Comment 1974 could be worse 500 jobs lost in the area in the last six weeks. First, Hall Lamp of Centralia went un- der t throwing .387 people out of work. Three days before Christmas, the. Glen- dale Corporation plant at Vanastra folded, putting another 34 persons on the unemployment list. Then on the first working day of 1974, Bendix of Hensall laid off 74 workers, with the possibility of more being sent home. Those three incidents alone are enough to damage any industrial area, but with as little industrial work in Huron as there is, the bad effects are more pronounced. It is hoped that the jobs can be recovered by other industries, and they probably will, but for many, hardship will be the keynote of 1974. • It can be safely said that 1973 was a very good year for Huron County, but the hopes for 1974, at this point, don't look as bright. Last year was a good year for Huron farmers, as record prices were paid for many of their products. Beef and poultry hit all-time highs, as did beans and eggs, Pork was priced ,fairly for part of the year and even the ,grain farmers made some money for a change. But 1974 doesn't look as bright. All farm costs are up considerably, in- cluding fertilizer„ fuel, feed and machinery. Last year's high prices will become a necessity not a luxury in 1974. And on the indutrial front in Huron, the economy has gone from a near b6om to a near bust in just a little over a month, All totalled, there have been over With the increasing use of snOwmobiles in this area, it has come to the point where their freedom will have to be restricted to certain age groups and certain 'conditiOns. To, ,.begin there are few safety flatures on' rnositbf the machines, and to let a 10-yeai3Otd run a 40 horsepower snowmobile that 'is capable of speeds in excess of those of many cars, is pure lunacy. Most snowmobilers would be much better off if they joined a club where they could learn first hand, the capabilities and limits of their machines. A snowmobile is not a toy, it is a power- ful machine, quite capable of turning Here it is, .the 10th of January, and already, this writer is looking forward to .spring. The first two seed catalogues arrived last week and they sent us scampering to a warm corner to curl up with them and drool over the abundant pictures and almost edible color pictures, while a raw January wind swirls snow outside the window. - A garden addict, such as yours truly, envisions acres of ground covered in beautiful flowers and mouth-watering . . . _ vegetables. For we addicts, winter is only a palm' withdrawal period until we ter forgokeverything I had tore the flashlight out of my hot ward said, they would be well on the little hand about 2 a.m., "Billy way to acquiring, Good Reading Smiley, you'll be blind by the Habits. There 'I was general time you're fifteen if you don't agreement that tkiis was a sen- and stop reading in dark-corners g, cubbyholes." Bible approach. Well, I've been reading in I warned them of the depths egra to which a dation dark corners and bright ones, of d on planes and .trains, in the readoholic would descend to bathroom and in bed, in get his stuff. I told them that revolving doors and on an alcoholic or a drug addict escalators, ever since, and I'm would stoop pretty low to get not blind yet. I don't even wear the wherewithal for his habit. And I told them this was kid stuff compared to what the readoholic would stoop to. I gave them an example: a friend of mine during the war. He had the habit very badly. I lost track of him, but heard from friends that he had managed to kick it. Then one day, a couple of months after the war, I met him in Alexandria, North Africa. He was a handsome Sikh, with a skyblue turban and a curly, black beard. But right away, I knew from the red-rimmed eyes, the glazed look, that he was still hooked on reading. He was leading an old lady by the hand. I asked him who she was and where they were going. He had the decency to look ashamed as he answered ambiguously, "Old friend Smilee, I am knowing what you theenk, but I got to get a book", before hurrying off. I heard later that the aged lady was his mother, and he was on his way to the slave market. I understand he got $19 for her. Or, in readoholic terms, about twenty-two paper- &Wks. Oh, I put the fear into those honour students. But then I tried to soften the blow. Told them of some of the great discoveries for which readoholism had been respon- sible. Newton, reading under an apple tree. The old story is that he was sleeping, but the truth is that he had just picked up a copy of the recently published "Fanny Hill" and was definitely reading. Apple fell, hit him on the head, and we had the Law of Gravity, without which we'd be in very grave shape. And there was the Greek, Ar- chimedes. He climbed into the bath one day for a quiet read. Immediately he opened his book, he knew something was wrong. He leaped out of the tub, crying "Paprika!" Somebody had put paprika in- stead of bath salts in his water. And thus was discovered Ar- chimedes Principle, a very im- portant law in the study of physics. I don't know much about the Principle, but I think it's something like, "Half a bath is better than none." This anecdote brought me toward my peroration. It reminded me that I knew of another Good Reading Habit. This made two. A good Reading Habit is to read in the bath-tub. Someone once said that the ideal learning situation was a boy sitting on one end of a. log, and Mark Van Doren, the great U.S. educator, sitting on the other. My notion of the ideal lear- ning situation would be a classroom with thirty-five bath- tubs instead of desks. And up at the front, a super-tub, preferably in pink mother-of- pearl, for Mr. Smiley. It might be a little expensive, but think of the special effects we could get when teaching The Spanish Armada in history, or Old Man and the Sea, in English, Perhaps I should add that we'd be wearing sWitn-suits, I know you'll be glad to hear that Henry Pludge is coming along just fine. He has one of the most cheerful rooms in the clinic with a view looking out across the guards' cottages to the valley. It's convenient, too, just down the hall from the electric-shock-treatment room and the immersion tubs. I was able to get some of the story yesterday when I was up there to visit Henry, and it rather surprised me to learn it began almost exactly two years ago when he and Emily moved into their new home in the Forest View Park subdivision. It surprised me because I remember how happy and ex- cited , they'd. been about the move. Forest View Park is one of those newer real-estate developments with two! and three-bedroom homes ready for occupancy at a very low down payment and the balance spread conveniently over 60 years. The homes have picture windows and lawns exactly 14 feet square and carports. They're referred to in the ad- vertisements as "ranch-style" 10 YEARS AGO January 9, 1964 Frank Somerville Jr. didn't arrive on the scene until January 5th, but it was still soon enough to be declared first baby of 1964 at Clinton Public Hospital. Mr. and Mrs. Somer- ville reside at 12 Princess St. West and have three children at home eagerly awaiting the arrival of their brother. Ontario egg producers may face a big surplus of eggs this year with an intensification of the swing towards larger units of production, Ag. Rep. Douglas Miles indicated during a discussion of the poultry situation. Miles said hatching is up this year and there is con- siderable interest in layer units with a capacity of 5,000 and up- wards. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Elliott, 180 Buch Street, marked their 50th wedding anniversary on New Years Day. They moved to Clinton forty years ago and worked a farm and dairy on shares with the late Abe Dur- nin. Upon his death they pur- chased the farm and dairy, which still carries the same name, Fairholme Dairy. He in.. troduced pasteurized milk to Clinton and sold it to Russ ' Holmes in 1940. Kenneth Stewart won the race for reeve of McKiilop Township, Monday with almost a fiVe-to-one vote. His win was over the veteran reeve Dan Beuermann. Stewart's win was one of four changes in the 36- member county council. The other new members are Everett Mcllwain, deputy-reeve of Goderich Township, Lorne Durnin, reeve of West Wawanosh and Nelson Cardno, reeve of Seaforth. 25 YEARS AGO January J3, 1949 Mitch Shearing was able to pick a dandelion iri full bloom which means there is no up- stairs. It was the first time in 21 years of marriage that the Pludges had owned a new home of their own and I'd have given at least eight-to-five that they'd find contentment there. It was not until the second month, Henry recalled, that he began to be disturbed by the fact that all of the houses in Forest View Park were precisely alike. As Henry told me about this he began to knit very rapidly (he has progressed to wool therapy) and I could see that he still has a long way to go. One night, somewhat fatigued .by his efforts in the Accountants' Ten-Pin Bowling League, he'd got into the wrong house, had called a cheery "Hallo!" toward the kitchen and had settled himself in the living room before the television set. It had been em- barrassing all around when the proper husband arrived home. "The dreadful similarity of our lives became an obsession with me," Henry went on, his on January 9. He was staying at the Shearing summer cottage at Drysdale on Lake Huron when he found the flower. Also at the Maitland Golf Course seven members played 14 holes of golf. The course was as green as in spring while the weather was very balmy. Miss Sidney Lansing, Lon- desb.oro, received an extra special Christmas surprise this past yuletide season, although' it was a little late in arriving. The gift was a box of "chen- cherichees" or as they are com- monly called, •"South African wonder flowers". 'The flowers were a present from the father of a friend who lives in South Africa. Each stock on the flower contains a cluster of flowers and buds. The flowers have six petals and resemble a Canadian narcissus. Frank McCowan was appoin- ted chairman of the Stanley Township School Area Board for 1949 on Monday, January 10. William Caldwell is vice- chairman and George Reid, • secretary-treasurer. 50 YEARS AGO January 10, 1924 Hydro Electric Commission for January has a couple of slips of plants, started at the same time with one grown in the sun and the other in ar- tificial light, the latter having grown twice as much as the first in two months time. The geraniums in their window are indeed the best to be seen but that may be because of the war- mth given off by the light. Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Shipley of town celebrated their fifteenth wedding anniversary on last Friday evening, when they en- tertained a number of their friends. When coming up from the Piano factory on Saturday at noon, Mr. Iddo Crich and Mr. S.C. Hawke saw a robin flitting in and out among the shrubs. Robins are not usually found up here so early in January but needles flashing. "In the mor- ning when I went out to the car I'd see a dozen other men going to their cars. We'd all back out and fall into line. At the end of the day we'd all seem to arrive home together. We'd all go in, kiss our wives on the forehead and ask when dinner would be ready. "On Sundays we all mowed our identical lawns or polished our identical Datsuns or Toyotas. Our lawn-sprinklers all sprinkled in time, our lights went on together and off together, and our thermostats all gave us the exact tem- perature in unison. At dinner Emily and I would sit and look through our picture window into other picture windows framing people eating their din- ners " "Easy, boy," I cautioned and Henry sank back on his pillow. "The psychiatrist here jokingly calls it the Forest View Park Fixation," he said, "and, if you're interested, it manifests itself in a loss of identity and a compulsion for conformity. The suburban syndrome, they call it these gentlemen were quite close enough to easily distinguish this one. Clinton and vicinity had the first real old-fashioned snow storm last Saturday and Sun- day. The temperature dropped below zero on both days but Sunday was a ripper. It had the snow piled up like a March gale but a change took place this week and the sun on Wed- nesday and rain today has been/ taking away all the snow. 75 YEARS AGO January 12, 1899 Poultry pays better than the Klondike. The output of the United States for one year is $11,000,000. Statistics have been prepared as carefully as can be done and the product of farm poultry in one year throughout the American Union proved to be about $300,000,000. In view of these facts, more farmers are taking an interest in their fowl. There has even been a Huron Association formed called the in the medical journals." At the end of the first year, Henry said, he'd already begun to fear for his sanity. He had recurring dreams in which he saw all the males of Forest View Park hanging on an en- dless clothesline, each iden- tically dressed in conservative suit, white shirt and striped tie. Often, on quiet Sundays, he felt a terrible urge to take off all his clothes and run naked up and down Mulberry Avenue singing "Shortnin' Bread." "I had to find some way of re-discovering my i n - dividua lity," he said simply. I did not press Henry for the ugly details. Emily had already', told me tearfully of that scene when she came back from visiting her mother in Toronto, of the house painted in peppermint stripes of yellow and purple, the revolving searchlights on the roof. It had taken all her strength to keep Henry pinned down, so sad and ludicrous in his clown suit, until the men had come to take him away. Huron Poultry and Pet Stock Association. Miss Ella McMath, has ob- tained a position in a Toronto school. She . is an energetic teacher. and has several years experience. Miss Taylor was the first of the Goderich teachers to go to Toronto to ob- tain a school. Miss Kate Hardy, now a teacher in Toronto, was another. Some of the young men teachers are possibly working in Toronto but those are the only lady teachers from this town. News-Record readers ate 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 letter writers, but no letter will be published unless It can be verified by phone. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL RED CROSS Dear Editor: It makes one wonder these days what is right and what is wrong. Horsemen, who have been training horses at the Clinton track and maintaining it 'for several years, have been or- dered to get off the race track by the Clinton police, to allow racing machines from Goderich, where they have been banned from the local track, to roar around the Clinton, race track day and night, en- dangering the lives of children, horsemen and all people using the track and the park. digging and leveling the track so the horses can have a level racing machines are allowed on frightened by one of these noisy hours and hours of free labor, not to mention expenses, in strip to exercise on. Then these it to tear the track up. _There frightened by these machines. common sense would know that high-strung race horses and have been horses injured when high-powered noisy snowmobiles do not mix.. Saturday January 5th at ap- proximately 5:30 p.m. when a horseman was exercising his machines. The horse jumped etc. It was just a miracle that horse and the ..horse was question were racing machines the hub rail, injuring its leg, the driver of the horse was not injured 'or killed. find that the machines in from Goderich that were ban- and brought to Clinton. arrived on the scene just after were allowed on the race track, enoeigeuhditea .d .and ned from the Goderich track the accident and informed the horseman that these machines and that the horseman could not use the track at this time of n The horsemen contribute There was an incident on Anyone with an ounce of When checking into this, we One of the Clinton constables gement these, fellows Now, ,this was• all the, ,en- theY really„tore ups the track then. No doubt they will tell others that racing machines can go to Clinton and will be backed by the Clinton police, so I do not think that the race track or the park is going to be a safe place for anyone, horse or people if this is going to be allowed. In the past, the horsemen have had .very good co- operation from the local snowmobile operators. There was a mutual agreement bet- ween the horsemen and the operators. The snowmobilers would wait outside the track until the horses were finished and then use the track. This seemed to work very well. I think it is about time that all people using the park and the residents in the area that are bothered by the noise of these machines should make their views known, either by, the use of this paper or ap- proaching the Town council. Let's not leave it until a child or someone is killed. Snowmobiles can use fields, etc., horses cannot. Maybe the ,,,solution would be for the snowmobilers to do what the horseman did some 30 years ago, get together and build their own track ) and I will guarantee them that they will not be bothered by horses, For years now we have had hot rodders on Clinton streets from other towns because they were not permitted to carry on like that in their own towns. Now I guess the same thing is happening at the park. A Clinton horseman • Only two months until Spring • Last week's column men- tioned that unspeakable species, the readoholic. That reminded me of a speech I made about Good Reading Habits to a group of honour students. So I dug up the speech and propose this week to pass along some of the more worthwhile points in it. It's not primarily for students, but if you're not in- terested, you can go and cry over your post-Christmas bills. ' I became a readoholic shortly after I learned to read. My mother would , moan, as she glasses. But I don't want you to think I just ignored my mom's ad- monition, I have never since read in a cubbyhole. In fact, you can scarcely get your hands on a tubby hole these days. They seem to have gone the way of spats and straw hats. I had trouble with that speech to the kids. The prin- cipal had suggested the topic, Good Reading Habits, and who was I to tell him it was a dull and stupid topic? . When I sat down to write the speech, I could think of only one good reading habit. Many years ago, when I was in public school, they taught us in health classes that you should always read with the light coming over your left shoulder. I don't know why."They're still teaching it, This good reading habit is rather useless if your left shoulder is higher than your right one, as is sometimes the case, And of course, if yott are reading Hebrew or Persian, and read from right to lit, it seems more logical to have the light coming over your right Snowmobile restrictions necessarg • into a death trap for those misusers. Clubs also offer supervised snow recreation, where an enthusiast can sled on marked trails with experienced guides. And the now accepted habit among many snowmobilers that they can't seem to make it more than 100 yards without a snort of something is a bad one. Alcohol and cars has always been a dangerous mixture, but alcohol, snowmobiles and night are nearly a guaranteed recipe for death or dismeMberment. If more snowmobilers Used their heads before they used the accelerator, then snowmobiling would be a more en- joyable pastime. - can get a "fix" next spring. The seed, flower, and nursury catalogue people know about our weaknesses. They fill their books with bounteous descriptions of the latest tomato, or cabbage or zinnia, that sends some of us into convulsions. They splash in a liberal amount of color and for many it's too much to resist. Our guess is that the seed companies probably sell 50 per cent more than.,they would if the ; atalogue arrived any other time but in January. It's a sinister plot that someone must end! Help! Now where did I put that catalogue?