The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1956-08-23, Page 1and queen of Exeter Kinsmen Playground Meek were PLAYGROUND ROYALTY—Named . this summer were Judy Snelgrove king and Dale Turvey, shown here with retiring Rec reation Director Doug Smith. 'Crowning came at the playground program Friday night which wound up activities of the fifth summer session sponsored by Exeter Kins men. Director Smith, who leaves Exeter this fall -after being in charge of the rec reation program for four years, received tributes from Kinsmen and Department of Education officials. T-A Photo SHDHS CADETS IN TOP COMPANY—Five cadets from South Huron District- High .School werr members of the company which won the top trophy at Central Com mand CaJat Camp at Ipperwash this summer. The five are shown here talking to Captain E. D. Howey, chief instructor of the. SHDHS corps and a member of the •staff at Ipperwash this summer, following the closing exercises Saturday.. In front row are Barry Blann, Nick Fedossow and Paul Wilson; back row, Bill Robertson and Rinus Vanderneut. • —T-A Photo Five SHDHS Army Cadets In Top Company At Camp IThirteen hundred high school cadets from all over Ontario showed top army brass what they had learned at Camp Ip perwash this summer in closing exercises on Saturday. And the brass was impressed. Major-General N. E. Rodger, CBE, CD, Vice-Chief of the Gen eral Staff, Canadian Army, cal led the youths’ presentation “wonderful”. A large crowd of spectators, chiefly parents, a- greed. The camp, which included five cadets and two civilian. instruct ors from SHDHS, presented a precision parade foi’ the visiting dignitaries that rivalled regular army standards and then staged a display of camp activities to illustrate the training the cadets had received during their’ seven- week course. The five SHDHS boys shared in the winning of. the top award of the camp--the trophy for the best company during the- summer. They were in “J” company which carried off top honors. Display Atomic Defence Program staged by cadets on Lhe sports field was highlighted by a demonstration of “the new look in warfare”-the army’s an swer to atomic attack. Cadets exploded a miniature bomb which gave the mush rooming smoke effect Of a real Hurled From Car, Two Men Unhurt Police say George McLeod and Clarence Hohner, both of Hcn- CI1 can consider themselves eky as they escaped death in _ i. accident Friday .evening a ■unilo and a quarter north of Hen sail on Highway No. 4. McLeod, driving a 1954* con vertible, was travelling south when, he told police, he was blinded by the lights of an on coming car. He hit the soft, West! shoulder of the highway, wheeled back onto the road, lost control I and proceeded into the east ditch j where the car struck a telephone j pole and rolled. Car driven by Cpl. Thomas Bull, 30, of RCAF Station Cen tralia suffered $700 damage when it hit a cement culvett Tuesday; morning on an tTsborne township road south of Exeter, I i atomic blast. The explosion “flat-1 tened” a platoon in the field and, rescue teams went into opera-; tion to show how the am y wouid cope with the situation. Instruments were shown which indicated the amount of radia tion in the area. Special uniforms i used for work in areas saturated with atomic dust was displayed. Camouflage operations were demonstrated effectively when a company literally rose out of the ground In front of spectators who weren’t.aware of their pres ence. Personnel at this year’s camp i totalled 1,600 and the boys came .from secondary school cadet corps from all parts of Ontario. Among them were bi-lingual students from the Ottawa area, two of which were given top ca det posts in the battalion. . Ages of the cadets ranged from r 15 to 18. I Tlie summer’s training, for which the cadets receive $100, included drill, rifle and Bren gun practice,’ section training and field craft. The boys spent two days ih tented camp, participatec’ in one night scheme and in a five-mile march. Volunteers took part in a ten-mile march. A full program of sports in cluded tournaments ; i softball, volleyball, basketball and swim ming in nearby Lake Huron. Regular Visits T Resort Chief feature of the recreation part Of the camp, of course, were regular visits to Grand Beno. The cadets were transport- ed to the popular summer re sort in huge convoys of trucks. The boys from SHDHS who at tended this year were Paul Wil son, Barry Blann, Nick Fedos sow, Bill Robertson oand Rinus Van der Neut. Instructors .at the camp were mainly high school teachers who conduct cadet ’training in the schools throughout the school year. Captain E. D. Howey and G. M. Mickle, ’-’structors in the local corps, were platoon com manders. Two former SHDHS teachers,, Captain F. G. ____ ant Lieut. Ernest Jones, were also on the staff. Three SHDHS students ___ among the civilian drivers- hired by the camp. They were Barry Slade, of Kirkton, and Bill Bren ner and Jim Dalton, of Grand Bend. 9 Eighty-Second Year THE EXETER TIMES-ADVOCATE, AUGUST 23, 1956 Price Per Copy 7 Cents ....................................-................. ... mi....... ........................... ,........... . II." W-WfUMI------. ......... I.....................I............ ............................................................................................................ ............................ Planes, Boats Search Lake For Body Of Storm Victim » Merry Venture On Lake Ends In Youth's Death A merry expedition into a rough lake by four youths from the, Kitchener-Waterloo area en ded in tragedy at Grand Bend i Sunday when one of them be came Grand Bend’s first drown ing victim .o* the year. Alan Hoffman, 16, of Kitchen er, was swallowed up by crash ing waves near the north pier while he was trying to swim to safety after the old wooden raft he and his pals were playing with' started to float away from the breakwater. Only seconds before, “the boys were having the time of their lives,” according to one eye witness wlio saw the youths’ 're velry turn into disaster. “The., were having a grand time,” said Rev. W. M.- Kiteley, of London, who watched the boys from the time they launched the raft near the breakwater. “They were laughing and fooling, fal ling off the raft’ as it moved along the pier.’.’ •Rev. Kiteley'and a friend, G. V. Laughton of Toronto, were on the pier when the tragedy oc curred. “We saw them launch the thing,” Rev. Kiteley told The Times-Advocate, “and we said to ourselves, ‘These boys are head ing for trouble’, but they were happy and we didn’t want to disturb them,” “The raft got out within 20 to 30 feet of the end when two of the boys chine up on the pier t laughing and fooling, They were [ laying .on their stomachs trying r to hold onto the raft.’1 J “Suddenly, they started to yell ‘We need Help! Help! Help!’ Everyone -seemed to think they ’were fooling.” “The raft wasn’t 10 feet away from th ■ pier at any time, It kept jamming against the break water as it went out.” Rev. Kiteley believes the drowning could have been averted if there had been some lifesaving equipment on the pier. “I don’t think there was- anything anybody could do,” he said “There was nothing there to help them with.” Might Have Prevented Tragedy “If there had been a/life pre server nearby, I don’t think any tragedy —auld have been enacted at all. There’s no doubt about it in my mind.” “There wasn’t a rope or a thing in the area thdt could have been used to help the boys.” The three boys who reached the pier safely were Robert Stewart, 13, Ken Diebold, 16, both of Kitchener, and Karl Fox, 15, of Waterloo, Fox and Diebold were the two who first left the raft for the safety of the pier. As the swirls near the nier took the raft out further, Stewart and Hoffman became frightened and Stewart left to swim to the pier. Hoff man, described by the boys as a poor swimmer, hesitated and i See Help From Board In Water, Sewer Plans An indication that the Ontario Water Resources Board may ,gi.y& financial., ns.shta.nce.- tp„, the. town of>-Exeter ,t.o construct ;a filtration plant and sewage dis posal facilities was reported at council meeting Tuesday night. • Reeve William McKenzie, who interviewed the board secretary along with PUC Chairman Luther Penhale, during a hear ing at Stratford recently, said if was possible that the board would finance these projects for the town with a low cost loan which could be paid back over a period of 30 years. Reeve McKenzie said that such a loan would not be counted on the town’s debe.Aure debt. Report and recommendations on the’ town’s sewage pro blem is expected to be rea dy in September, council learn ed from a letter from its con sulting engineers, R. V. Ander son and Associates. Cost of a concrete chlorine contact cham ber, which is recommended to treat existing sewage in the Wil liam St. storm sewer, would be around $20,000, the engineers said. Want More Roads Oiled Nearly two miles of road in the town received its second coat of oil and chips this week, Councillor Ralph Bailey re ported. This is the final step of the oiling program which Coun cillor Bailey inaugurated this year to replace the former gravel and calcium method of street maintenance. Members expressed satisfac tion with the work which has been done. AU the streets which received the first coat of oil this summer didn’t get the second coat be- cause the road budget is limited. However, council hopes to cbm- . pXqto.lhe^oiling,.program in future years, - . . •■ 4-.. • . Building permits were issued to Douglas Sweet, Ernest Davis, fdr additions and repairs to i E. R. Hopper, and Jacob Reeder ■ buildings. Sell Debentures Less Than Par Debenture issue of $137,000 for the SHDHS addition was sold by town council Tuesday night to Dominion Securities Co., of To ronto, at its. tenders price of 92.772, highest of 12 bids re ceived. Only two of the dozen tenders contained a firm offer. The others requested an option on the issue. A representative of one of the companies who submitted a bid told council the reason for the low prices is the swing towards industrial bonds which ar.e offer ing attractive interest rates of seven and eight percent. The town debentures issue car ries an interest rate of four and three-quarters. The below-par figure means the high school board will re ceive about $3,000 less than the amount of the issue. then jumped into the water. A second tragedy almost An intensive eight-hour search!day to delay the search. The ’ __ ,—,, .................... ,, „..................... the body of theV6-year-old Kitch- day and the dperation had to be c~z‘: d:.-?”.-"—J —*■-------1 Grand Bend Sunday but police' pear Wednesday as’a result of lful job in buzzing the area,” agitation of the water. ! OPP Corporal Neil Chamberlain, Planes from. RCAF Station 1 who hoped vibrations frorn^ the Ontario Provincial Police with oc. » their search Tuesday, "’he opera-| I ___ ____________. ... .............. of Lake Huron failed to locate water was rough again Wedncs- the body of the'.16-y ear-old Kitch- day and the dperation had to be ener youth who drowned at postponed again. Grand Bend Sunday but police' “Planes from RCAF Station were hoping the body would ap-; Centralia performed a wonder pear Wednesday as a result of ! ful job in buzzing the area,” agitation of the water. ! OPP Corporal Neil Chamberlain* Planes from RCAF Station ’ who hoped vibrations from the Centralia and nine boats assisted aircraft would bring the body surface. Nine boats dragged the area curred when a rescue boat went j tion covered a length of five, from noon until dusk Tuesday ! milnq nnH annnr. nrip niilP. Hilt ; wiThnuf’ snnnp.qq Hnlirp. Jinnpn.out after the bov. The vachtJmiles and about one mile out; without success. Police hoped, owned by a Detroit man and from the shore. however, that the youth might be commandeered by OPP Consta- High .waves, in which the boy. washed up on the beach during ble George Doherty, almost cap- ! drowned Sunday, continued Mon-. the. night and kept an all-night sized in the rough’water as it------------------------------------------ j v,tnl fl™ ama went out past the breakwater to. — ” try to locate the boy. i _____ _ Lifeguard Bob Larcher, of Lon-I z*• I n I c* • don, dove of the pier several Cjif! oFGQKS □ □IDG ; limes looking for the boy but! gave up because of the rough water. One owner of a boat at the Bend described the lake on Sun day as the roughest he has seen it all year. Ken Hockey, of Exe ter, who owns a large cutboard, said he and a friend, Herman Dettmer, also of Exeter ventured down the river to its mouth but turned back when they saw the size of the waves. None of the boats in the harbour went out, the Exeter men said. The drowning occurred about noon. owned by a Detroit man and . from the shore. i------------------------------------------ i vigil of the area. * r nix I Among the Kat owners who • i Poses ror PHOTO assisted in the search were 'James Lloyd, Clarence Green, 'Lawrence Mason, Herbert Pfile, 1R. Smith, Glen. Brenner, Roy A 21-year-old school teacher Sheldrick, Constable George Do- ■ brdke her spine Tuesday after-, herty and Cpl. Chamberlain, j noon in a fall from the shoulders , Search will continue when ths of a boy friend after they had lake calms down, posed for pictures on the beach; _ I at Grand Bend. ’ The girl was taken by the T. 'Harry Hoffman ambulance to [Purchase Signs, (Harry Hoffman ambulance to . ■ »r South Huron Hospital and trans-; Ln@"O3Ving ferred Wednesday to Victoria i . Hospital, London, where authori- ’ ties say her condition is satis- • factory, - ' Parents of the girl, Mary: Elizabeth Wallen, are proprie tors of Holiday Inn, Grand Bend. j i Grand Bend council, meeting Monday night, authorized pur chase of danger signs and life saving equipment to prevent drowning like .the one Sunday when a Kitchener youth lost his life in stormy water. Red-colored warning.signs will be erected on the beach when the undertow is heavy. Rescue equipment, including a rope and life-saving ring, will be placed on the pier when swimming con ditions are dangerous. For the past year, the Ontario Provincial Police, in co-opera tion with resort, life guards, have erected red warning flags on stormy days at the beach. These were up Sunday but ap parently were disregarded by the youths who took the raft out near the pier. > The life-saving equipment will not remain on the pier perman ently because of the probability of it being lost by theft. How ever, it will be in possession of life guards who will be instruct ed to place it on the pier when swimming is dangerous. . .Council. authorized OPP ■ Cor poral Neil Chamberlain "to." buy the equipment. . .Sunday’s drowning was the first experienced this summer at Grand Bend which, has a re markable record for the lack of swimming accidents considering the number of people who use the popular beach. OPP Corporal. Chamberlain said several other drownings might “have occurred on Sunday except for the prompt action of lifeguards. Six swimmers, daring to brave the rolling waves, were pulled 'out of the water. Corporal Chamberlain praised the work of -lifeguards Bob Larcher, London, and Don Od- . bert, of Grand Bend, who, he ' said, have done «an excellent : job all summer. TWIN SWIM CHAMPIONS'—Elizabeth and Diana Knox, twin'daughters of Rev. and Mrs. N. D. Knox, Exeter, tied for championship honors of the juvenile girls division at the Exeter playground swim meet Friday. The girls ex changed first’ and second places in two races and tied for the third. When a spectator commented on their identical feats, Elizabeth replied, “Of course we always do things the same. Didn’t you know we’re twins?” Q * i Peacock Gone Suspect Theft Anyone seen any stray pea cocks around? , Police are investigating the disappearance of two of the handsomely plumed birds "rom Grand Bend’and Pash- wood farms. Either by coincidence or design, the two lost birds are a male and female. Officers aren’t overlooking the possi bility of theft by someone who plans to mate the pair, The birds disappeared from the farms of vyrne Weido, Dashwood, and N, J, White ford, near Grand Bond. They 're valued at $1CX1 each,, . Town council scratched its head over a petition it received from 10 ratepayers Tuesday night complaining about noise from a flock of unruly chickens. Norman Ferguson, of 60 Mill St. W., who presented the com plaint, said the birds were keep ing neighbours awake at nights. “I came home from work at 2 a.m. the other night, couldn’t get to sleep until four and’ then my kids were wakened by the noise and I had to get up again.” Council agreed he and his neighbours had a problem. In fact, several of the members were being disturbed by the flock. Councillor Alvin Pym, Of 73 Mill St. W., who kept chickens for many years while he was On the farm, said he’s never heard a flock kick up such a fuss. Another ex-farmer, Glenn Fisher, agreed the birds were unusually boisterous, “They sound like they were being dis turbed by a skunk all the time,” he said. Clerk C. V. Pickard couldn’t recall any town bylaws which could be enforced to remedy thfe situation and council didn’t , know what action they could 1 take> ........f The complaint was finally left in the hands of Mayor Pooley, a veteran poultryman himself, who planned to have a heart-to- heart talk with the owner. Clubs Help Park Show Service Clubs will co operate with Exeter Com munity Centres Board to present a unique program of entertainment at the first Exeter Community Night planned for Wednesday, Aug. 29, The program will coincide with' the completion of re- decoration of the arena gym, which the board plans to make available for more activities. , The gala night will start with a corn toast in com munity park organized by Exeter Kinsmen, Exeter Legion will conduct a bingo inside the arena and Exeter Lions are planning a jitney dahce following the gomes.A variety program will feature lop local talent. Hook Enters Eye Boy's Sight Safe Ricky Weber, five-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Weber, is in Owen Sound hospital suf fering from a severe eye injury caused by a fish hook last week. Doctors were optimistic this week that the sight of the eye will be saved. The accident occurred near Southampton where the family i was holidaying. Mr. Weber and , his boys were fishing when one of the hooks lodged.in Ricky’s i eye. I --------------------------------------------- j'Ppp' Liquid Wasn't Two Brussels men, who car ried liquor down the main street of .Grand Bend in pop bottles, were fined $100 and costs each for illegal possession in magis trate's court there Tuesday. The men, Clarence Edwin Elliot and Ben Franklin Bridge, admitted to police that the beve rage wasn't soft when they were questioned on the street with bottles ih their hands. They pleaded guilty in court. 1 Murray Baker, of Hensail, and Charles Dyson, of London, i paid $10 and costs each for i fighting on the Main St. on . August 18. I Ronald Moores, of Exeter, was assessed $10 and costs for creat ing a disturbance. Police said he ’Snun the wheels of his car on village streets, creating noisy squeals. Twelve people were fined a total of $165 for minor offenses under liquor, highway and vil lage bylaw regulations. Miss Evelyn McMullen, opera tor of Sunset Terrace, was acquitted of a charge of failing to obtain a licence to operate amusement chased court. devises. She nur* a licence shortly before annual safe and skilled driving competition fer civilianRCAF TRUCK RODEO—The < ' ' x ............. ‘ “ and air force personnel was held at RCAF Station Centralia on Thursday, August W. Twenty-two civilians and service drivers tested their skill in the obstacle tests. Shown ■above during the rodeo are, left to right, WO2 A. Johannesson, F/O C, Wright and LAC EL E. Cameron, ■ —RCAF Phofe iir.i-i. .uni...in -Ti- ■ ....... .in .... ..... Ninety-First feh’fhrfay John Fletcher quietly d her 91st birthday at . Marks j Mrs, _.............. I celebrated her 91st birthday at day. Mrs. Fletcher is quite active j for her age and continues in /fair health. ; her home jm Albert St mi Tues-