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Clinton News-Record, 1974-02-07, Page 4The• action by the Clinton Town Coun- cil last Monday night in passing a by-law to regulate and govern the use of bicycles in Clinton will be met with some opposition in the next month or so, but generally speaking, the by-law was long overdue. The new law will enable the police to keep track of all lost and stolen bicycles, which before licensing, were nearly impossible to identify. The $1 fee will not cover the ad- ministration costs, but it will add to the safety measures of many of Clinton pedestrians by banning the bicycles from sidewalks and pathways and it gives the police.some credence when they catch someone riding across your favorite ,geranium bed. The new law will make it unlawful for two or more people to ride on a bicycle built for one, a dangerous situation. The law, because it will take the bicycle riders off of the sidewalks and put them on the roads, will mean that' motorists as well as the children who are the predominant riders will have to be more wary in the future. On newspaper errors ' Recently, a university professor had a few unkind words to say about newspaper writing and errors. To an- swer these charges, we relate to a pen- ned version of the late Thomas Richard Henry of the old Toronto Telegram, who wrote: "The newspaperman writes his story in a rush, just one step ahead of the deadline for the edition. He always does this, even when he could have written it three days before. If he didn't wait for the last minute to write it, he wouldn't-be a newspaperman. And for pie, story he must rely on sources of l'nfOrrhatiOn from those in volved; changing of minds by infor- mants; not to mention the "no com- ments" from doctors, police or political figures. "Steaming with the speed with which it has been handled, the story stands before the reader in cold print, a half= hour after it was just a nebulous theory in the mind of some reporter. "Then the university profess& chor- tles with glee, because he finds a present and a past tense playing hide- and-seek with each other in the same paragraph. "But, let's look at the university professor. "When he sets out to write anything, he takes six weeks to write one short chapter of a book. "The printer reads it, then the proofs come back to the professor. "He readS-:,then:, •rtr "His secretary 'reads' them. "His married daughter reads them. "Then he gets an expert to read them. "Six years later the book is printed with an extra page enumerating the mistakes that have been missed." (Pt. Elgin Times) Sugar and Spice/By Bill Smiley "A rose by' any other name" 4—QWIT,ON NEWS--RECORD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 197.4, There's .no business like snow business .;:,,There can be no doubt that Clinton kind area has the weatherman on their side, , After high temperatures that broke records in' the area for two weeks, the cold returned again just one day before the Clinton and. District Winter Carnival was to start and judging by the success oft all the events, it put everyone in the mood, The Sixth Annual Carnival had something for everyone again this year and judging by the reports received in these quarters, most of the people who attended one or more of the events went home happy. The Carnival comes every year during a very dull, period. The excitement and rush of Christmas is, past, and everyone seems to settle into a stupor until Spring arrives to reawaken them. The Carnival offers a nice break and also gives many Persons a chance to participate, whether it's building a float, mixing pancake bat- ter or playing In a novelty hockey game, Many hundreds of people spend hun- dreds of hours behind the scenes preparing for the event. Their efforts are and will be" appreciated by many. There always those who put In extra effort putting everything together and although they produce no tangible results, their organization provides the glue to cement the pieces into a co- ordinated project. Special mention should go to Carnival Chairman Don Armstrong, vice-chairman Mary Divok, secretary Ruth Lombardo, and parade marshall John Lawson, who all carried the bulk of the load. Having worked closely with the Carnival com- mittee this year, I know how difficult things can get at times. With still four days yet to go in this year's Carnival, we could use some more snow, not enough to block the roads or close the schools, mind you, just enough to put the icing on a beautiful cake. A bicgcle built for one The Jack Scott Column - OM MI NMI "I'm worried about Melvin his snow-blower came back without him." we get letters Appreciate From our early files . • • • • • • A Member, Canadian Caraway Newspaper ) Asseclatkie TILE CLINTON NEW ERA Established 180 Amalgamated 1924 THE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1881 % •Ift Moneta! Mansger, J. Howard Aitken ‘IP_ vjp.6 -1:-.-- ----''' 'Wend Class Mall , flUb OF 'HURON COUNTY re,istrallon no. 0017 'Published every Thursday at Clinton, Ontario Editor - Jamas E. Fitzgerald Mewket, COMeile IWO* What's in a name? Quite a bit, if you're going to be stuck with it for the rest of your life. When the young people were trying to think of a name for my' new grandson, I started pondering on this whole business of Christian monikers. Naming of children seems to go in cycles. And the names in one generation seem either ugly or affected to the people of the next generation, There was a time when girls were quite happy to be called Pearl or Ruby, Mabel or Myrtle or Elsie. If a girl were given a name like that today, she'd run away from home at the age of five. The same period produced boys' names like Elmer, Horace, Marvin, not to mention those two great poets, one Greek, one Latin: Homer and Virgil, That was known as the bad. period to be tagged. Before that was the romantic period. In my mother's family, the boys were dubbed things like Drayton, Emerson, Lionel, Ivan. On my wife's side, her mother was Sophia, and her mother's sisters were Charlotte and Esther. Those ladies wound up as Sophie, Lottie and Acey, but the damage was done. My wife's mother named her Ivy and her sister Iris, but they didn't turn out to be a couple of clinging vines,,, My wife hates her name so I call her Suse, which seem to suit her. My own mother was on the ebb-tide of the romantic period, but she did name her daughters Florence arid Norrna. They wound up as Floss and The Brat, so it wasn't too bad. With the boys' tittnieS, my ma wasn't too bad, but my brothers are Byron Arnott Keith and Donald, Allan Blake, and I'm William Bryant Thotri, son, Not too awful, really, but my brothers emerged as Blake and Arnott. I have been called Billy, Bill, Willie and Will, among other things, but have never been known as William, except in legal documents. I was the lucky one. I grew up in an age of Jacks and Bobs and Bills and Joes and Toms. A Gordon was suspect, and a Homer was hooted out of the gang, unless ,he could find a nick-name like Stink or Piggy or Greaseball or some such af- fectionate nomenclature. In my group, there was a Harold, and Arnold and a Clayton. They were tolerated because they became Stookey Oakes, Goon Imeson and Peppy Warren. After my generation, a new wave of snobbery set in, as women started calling their kids after heroes in the Ladies Home Journal and British novels. There sprouted a whole crop of Peters and Stevens and Michaels and Jeffreys and Christophers and Marks and Matthews and Nicholases and Davids and Ian& There wasn't a George or a John in the lot. And the girls got it too, There were Samanthas and ' Natalies and Sonyas and Patrices and ,Lises and Pamelas and Elizabeth Janes and Rhon- das and Deborahs. My god, were there Deborahs! I have five of them this year in a class with twelve girls in it, Finding a girl called Mary these days is just as tough as finding a boy called John. Oh, I'm not blaming the parents all that much, It's no joke, choosing a name, We were going to call our first-born Judy, because it was to be a girl, It didn't have the right plumbing, so we named it Hugh, after a Sir Hugh Smiley in Ireland, And do you know, the old skinflint didn't even put our boy in his will? Second time around, we took no chances. The kid was to be called Kim, which would suit either sex. We thought it was different. The only Kim around was Kim Novak. A dozen years later, there was a Kim on every street-corner. Well, like all grand- parents, not wanting to inter- fere, just trying to be helpful, we tried to ram a name down my daughter's throat for her in- fant. But most 'of the good ones were gone. In her own family connection, there are already: a Peter and a Paul; a David and a Hugh; a Steven and a Patrick; a Matthew and a Darcy. All the good ones were gobbled up. We suggested Geoffrey and Mark and Michael and others, and at each, she'd say, "Echhhh, that reminds me of..." The kid was a week old. I was getting desperate. I asked my students to help me. They really tried. They came up with Charley and Cool-hand Luke and Jim and Oscar. Big help. Well, I know the suspense is killing you, so I'll tell. They named the poor little kid Nicove Chen. Nicove (pronounced Kneecove) is a character in a Dostoievski novel. Chen (pronounced Shen) means in Chinese "first-born". Her mother's face didn't fall more than a foot. My blood- pressure went up only twenty points. However, he said smilingly, it's kinda cute when you get used to it. 'Russian, Chinese, and his last name is Sieber, which is German. A real conglomerate, As soon as he's up to mine; I'm going to call him Kneecap, . A simple life We spent the last week-end in the two-room cottage which bears the name "Rainbow's End," roughing it with none of the amenities of city life, and I am wondering, as I always do after these adventures, why we can't adapt some of this way of life to a suburban existence. There's an odd riddle here. In our city home we've most of the accoutrements of modern living. We've an electric stove and an electric refrigerator, a telephone and. a ,television set, a vacuum cleaner, a washer and drier, automatic hot-water heater, automatic oil furnace, the works. • Now consider the cottage. The place is heated with an iron stove, a Climax which I bough ',Se:Cent:I.:hand for 20.. dollars .:and whiCh 'gives off a' rosy, million-dollar glow. We cook on a two-burner Coleman, keep our perishables in a deep, cool hole dug into the earth. We light the place with candles or, if we're reading, a gas lan- tern. Sweep it out with a broom. Keep a big pot. of hot water on top of the Climax for doing the dishes or for washing. 10 YEARS AGO February 6, 1964 The area's "Marching Mothers" collected $831.37 in their canvass for funds for The March of Dimes Monday. Moit of the money was collec- ted by the mothers in town but some was contributed in a can- vass of Adastral Park. Mrs. Clifford Epps reported she had caught a 49 and one half pound sailfish last week. Although the fish is over average size in the Lake Worth, Florida region, Mrs. Epps is going after a bigger one. The soot problem caused by the Sherlock-Manning Piano Co.Ltd. has been solved. The company bought the best equip- ment they could buy and have done everything to..-end the problem. The new method has many advantages but the main one is a hotter fire which burns the smoke and soot before it goes up the smoke stack as before. About 40 relatives and friends surprised Mr. and Mrs. Alf F. Scotchmer at their home on Saturday evening in We. get letters, Dear Editor: Mr. Rand's "Do you Remem- ber?" column has made me think of memories I share with quite a few Clintonians and former Clintonians, Do they remember: scary treks through the condemned "old show" across from the old Post Office? the wonderful hours spent climbing the old rink roof and sliding down? (forget the torn snowsuital) hitching rides on the sleighs bound for the feedmill? (Satur- day mornings passed quickly!) skating on CardWell'S pond? swimming at Brickie's and the Deep Hole, scantily clad? Mr. Fines' oft repeated stale jokes? the feat We had of Mr, Jeffer- And what baffles me is that life at the cottage, without a single labor-saving device or luxury, is every bit as comfor- table and four times as easy on My wife as life in town. Needless to say, my wife thinks I'm nuts, but I crave to write to the hydro people and 'tell them that the Scotts will be needing no more of their juice. I crave to write to the telephone people and ask them to remove their infernal machine. I crave to auction off all the accumulated appliances which, far from making my wife's life easier, have made her a slave to electronics. Away with the electric stove! Bring on that cheerful old wood-burner that could feed forever off the free fuel that's 41146'10 the &Wilk. Let's 'rid ' ourselves` 'of that great, shining automobile out- side which, with the telephone, is making all of us into first- class slobs. It's time we all learned to walk, anyway. I think we'd get more par- ticipation from our children, too, if we lived a Rainbow's End kind' of life. The place can be tidied up in an hour, leaving celebration of their 25th wed- ding anniversary. Miss Jacqueline Cluff and Mr. and Mrs. Jim Scotchmer and Jim McLeod entertained the Scot- chmer's at dinner at the Dominion Hotel, Zurich. On their return they found friends and relatives assembled, Mrs. Charles Straughan of Auburn visited last Sunday with her niece Mrs. Harold Nicholson, Mr. Nicholson and Gary at Seaforth. 25 YEARS 'AGO February 10, 1949 W. Hume Clutton, Goderich, secretary-treasurer, Huron County Holsteins Club, ha's qualified for a Master Breeder Shield, the highest honour that can be bestowed by the Holstein-Friesian Association of Canada on a Canadian Holstein breeder. Since the first such Shield was presented in 1930, only 37 Holstein breeders in Canada have received this award. Mr. and Mrs. G. Ross McEwan and Mr. and Mrs. George F. Elliott, returned home Thursday night after son--until we had dear old "Jeff" as our teacher? riding on Jimmy p‘rry's mail sleigh and having him crack the whip at our fingers? I have lots to keep me busy looking after my house and family but I remember lots of funny things from home while I do the tedious repetitive jobs. It helps to keep your sanity sometimes. Perhpas some of today's children will get treated more lightly if their "folks" are reminded of some of their capers at the same age. I hope SO, Sincerely, Ardyss (Inkley) Daniells 234 Herman St. Kitchener, Ont. the entire rest of the day for something more gainful than housework, And with that sort of clear-cut objective, I've found, children do their duty as they don't do it at home. In short, I'd like to try going back to the utterly simple life to prove my theory, cockeyed as it may seem in my wife's eyes, that our life is all complicated and involved by the gimmicks of the abundant life that surrounds us and that have us working for them. I can see my wife relax when the. door to Rainbow's End swings open. Her viewpoint changes with that first creak of the 'hinge. None of her stan- dards is altered, She's as im- peccable a hometnaker there' as she is here".' But there stief'S get a feeling of supremacy,over the inanimate. At home she hasn't. The cottage doesn't challenge. her to keep it in or- der. It invites her to enjoy its humble -austerity. And, living this life and enjoying it, I'm convinced that we, and those who live like us, could make some compromise between the two. nearly three weeks absence on a motor trip to Florida. Mr. and Mrs. David J. Stephenson, 'Egmondville quietly celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, February 1. Their three daughters, Mrs. Lee McConnell, Mrs. Russell Eratt, and Mrs. Perce Johnston and son Elmore Stephenson and Mrs. Stephenson's sister Mrs. Edward Boyce, were present. Owing to the ill health of Mr. Stephenson, a large celebration was not held but a number of their friends called. 50 YEARS AGO February 7, 1924 Mr. Alvin C. Leonard, who is in his final year at Toronto University, and a former C.C.I. student, has been appointed a class assistant in biology at the University. Miss Emma Higgins, Clinton, who is attending Toronto University was elected secretary of the German Club recently formed at the Univer- sity. As far as possible only German would be spoken in the meetings, Clothes, for example. In the cottage life, I've found, children and adults alike get by beautifully with a couple of outfits, one for work or play, one for dressing up for visits and such. In the city we seem to go through a wardrobe a day. Either my wife was taking in laundry on the sly all those years or we were all consuming a lot more apparel than was reasonable. It's not that I don't ap- preciate the marvels of home appliances, the wonders of the devices designed to make milady's life easier, but with them comes a conception of living that's altogether too rich and that, I fear, obscures the basic needs of comfort and con- venience. • Already my wife- is leaning over my shoulder, shooting these arguments down in flames (for reasons I can't un- derstand she is incensed at my suggestion that we bring our sleeping bags home and do away with all that bed- making), but what these eyes have seen at Rainbow's End can't be lightly denied. Doherty Piano Co. are on the jump these days, despite the fact that power has been off, to get thirty player pianos ready to be shipped to New Zealand. 75 YEARS AGO February 9, 1899 Mr. D. McCuaig teamed' 7,500 pounds of flour nineteen miles on Monday, though the roads were in places somewhat pitch-holey. He says he could have quite easily added another five-hundred pounds to his load and yet it would not have been too heavy for his good team. Mr. J.B. Rumball sold some of his best White Rock hens a while ago but this was not because, he was retiring from the business. He has been buying prize winners and con- siders he has no better pens than befre. There was a pleasant time at Mr. R. Turner's, Drysdale, on Thursday evening while the young people held a dance till early in the morning. Deal' Editor: Enclosed is a check for $10.00 for renewal of my sub- scription to the 'Record". Many thanks for prompt mailing. I sure do appreciate the new envelope type of mailing, a wonderful change from the tight package previously used. Best wishes for a Happy Prosperous 1974. Sincerely Mabel E. Wallace, 509 Parkway Court, Tecumseh, Mich. 49286. Mulic Dear Music Lovers: I write this letter to you because I feel that you should know what might not happen this year. It has been my hope for many years that the administration of Central Huron Secondary SchOol would offer a music course. I felt I had the backing of many parents and students in this community in my efforts to have such a course in- troduced. ' This year, our principal, Mr. Homuth not only agreed to have a music program if enough students signed up, but he also gave me time to visit the grade 8 classes and tell them about the program. The amount of interest shown in the public schools I visited was very encouraging, despite the fact that students were urged not to indicate in- terest unless they were seriously considering the music course. In a typical case at Clinton Public School, 20 students indicated definite in- terest in a choral , music program, 11 in an instrumental program, and nine in a com- bination of instrumental and choral music. Over all schools, my pre-survey showed enough interested students, about 150, for , at least five classes of music. isaTHeY pr6Posed music daitse for 'next year at d.ii.s.s." is a choral program, with the promise of an instrumental program to be introduced the year following, if enough in- terest is shown. We are now well into registration. Again, Clinton Public School is typical; of the 40 students who said they were definitely interested in some form of music class, a disap- pointing small number ,(only 6) signed up. Unless we have enough students for at least three classes, there may not be any music next year, and I can say with almost absolute certainty, that music will never be offered in our school again, at least for years to come. Having worked with many of the youth of this area in choirs and musicals, I feel that this will be a great loss. We have much musical talent that needs to be developed. Your sons and daughters deserve the same educational opportunities as children in cities. The students of C.H.S.S. have been given a chance, this year, for music. I hope they take it. A concerned teacher George Cull. 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 letter writers, but no letter will be published unless it can be verified by phone.