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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1966-12-15, Page 4By Val Baltkalns No Expo for this chap late exeferZimesihuocale SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND Member: C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A., C.C.N.R. and ABC Publishers: J. M. Southcott, R. M. Southcott Editor: Bill Batten Advertising Manager: Val Baltkalns Phone 235-1331 ONE OF A SERIES OF CENTENNIAL REPORTS Youth make their plans Now on with the job By LEN HUME President, SHDHS Students' Council the town that will be placed in front of the swimming pool. They have also made plans to sell centennial pins at a modest price to aid in getting people in the mood for celebrations. The high school is having a centennial yearbook, and the stu- dents have picked a new school ring which will be designated the "centennial ring." These pro- jects show the enthusiasm that is beginning to build up in the people involved, Other projects just in the plan- ning stages, but ones that seem to be a reality, are; a log rolling contest in June, a car smash in April, a semi-formal at the school with a centennial theme, and numerous other smaller pro- jects. We will climax our projects with a bed pushing race or a "centennial pus h" to various communities in the area to try and involve them with our ac- tivities. Our plans are ambitious but will be most exciting when car- ried to completion. I'm sure they will and so are all the others who are volunteering to help on various committees. Will you share in our plans and make the coming year a resounding success? LETTERS TWE EDITOR '7a/re-coca 4afaet to Exam Open them Dear Editor, I quite agree with your com- ment re Huron County Council and their closed door policy in your December 1 issue. I was a member of a delega- tion appearing before the Health Board with a specific health prob- lem affecting MANY ratepayers in Huron County. This meeting was held last August 29. The Board told us they would notify us as to what action they would take. We are still awaiting this notification of action. This problem was brought to their attention as early as June and it seems that their policy is to discuss things be- hind closed doors and to ignore legitimate complaints. As a ratepayer I request that the press be admitted to all such meetings so that the ratepayer may be better informed. ANGRY TAXPAYER Members of the board at SHDHS remain adamant in their decision to withhold information from the public regarding their recent decision to ask Principal Douglas Palmer and Vice- principal Joseph Wooden if they would be willing to resign for the good of school morale, the education of the stu- dents and harmony of the staff. They have rescinded that sugges- tion to the two men and have told the public that all parties involved have agreed to cooperate in solving all the problems which initiated the original action by the board. While that does nothing whatever to clarify the situation or explain the reasons for their original action, it still comes as welcome news as it suggests that the fuse has been removed from an explosive situation that could have had disastrous results. This does not indicate that the en- tire incident has blown over with no damage having been caused. That would be too much to expect in view of its serious nature and the wide-spread pub- licity it received. Only the future will tell to what extent the board's hiring ability may have been jeopardized, or to what extent the parties involved will co-operate to solve the problems at the school. We have reason to be confident that the co-operation of all will be forthcoming despite the animosity that the two men could have been expected to build up over the board's action. They are in a similar predicament to the board in that their ability to find comparable jobs may also have been jeopardized. The fact that the board jeopardized the school's future and that of the two men suggests a very dangerous situa- tion was created for all concerned, and the quick move by the board to rescind their action suggests they were unpre- pared for the events that were to take place. We are of the opinion they never expected — or even considered the fact — their original suggestion could become public. There's a valuable lesson contained here and one which we hope this board and all other public bodies will remem- ber . . . if you are dealing with pub- lic business, assume at all times that the information will become public — for indeed it should. This newpaper has many times cited the problems that arise when public bodies attempt to hide behind closed doors. The situation at SHDHS provides us with concrete proof of the serious problems. Centennial year may mean Many things to different people but the young people of this community are formulating a plan that is most ambitious and one that reflects the attitudes of the younger generation. We want to get the next hundred years off to a rousing start; therefore, we are emphasizing action, achievement, and indiv- idual creativeness. Our aim is to give the celebrations a push with the hope of making it the most successful undertaking that this community has ever seen. Under the Centennial co- ordinating committee, Teen Town and the student council at SHDHS have been asked to jointly share the month of April as our month to arrange the activities. We are not though, as you will see, re- stricting our activities to that month. In the week of February 6-11 we are planning to have a "winter week". This will entail a broom- ball game between the students- and the staff of the high school, and possibly one between the young people and the parents of the town. On the Saturday we would like to have a snow sculpturing contest among house- wives, business men, students or anyone who would like to form a team. After this we may possibly have a sleighing excursion followed by a dance. Anyone for winter sports? We certainly hope so. An activity that will be fam- iliar to all people is the Easter parade that has been so success- ful in recent years. This year we hope to make it far bigger and better by approaching all the planning groups for the year and asking them to prepare floats that will be both appropriate for Easter and Centennial Year. So, when a member of Teen Town or from the high school asks for help for the parade, please co-operate and this fes- tivity will surely be an extra- vaganza to remember. It has been said that the new form of modern, expressive sculpturing is Canada's individ- uality and daring, coming to the foreground in a form of art. Our group would like to run a contest under which people's expressive "talents" would have a chance to appear in the work that they produce. Sound like fun? We think so and more plans will be made public as available. Teen Town as well as the high school have already started some projects. The teens have given a flag pole and centennial flag to A million others did it too In this regard, the board must be prepared to accept whatever problems they have created for themselves. We do not suggest the board did not have grounds for taking some type of action to clarify the situation at the school. However, as long as they re- main silent there is no proof that any action was warranted, and certainly not action which in fact threatened the very future of the school. However, it becomes apparent that conjecture on the situation is of little importance in comparison to the need to urge all parties involved to quickly get on with the task they have set themselves to correct whatever prob- lems do exist. This task does not confront only the two men and the board. It involves students, parents, teachers and the gen- eral public. For too long, stories have circu- lated throughout the community re- garding various situations at the school. While some of these stories may have been true and in part prompted the board's action, we believe many were exaggerated or were even untrue. That these stories were never brought into the open to be supported or refuted shows clearly that there is little communication between those con- cerned. Obviously, the board has been lax in apparently allowing the situation to grow into a position where they felt their recent action was the only solu- tion. These were things that did not happen overnight and they should not have been allowed to persist and grow without a hearing or investigation to either conform or deny them. By the same token, it is impossible that there be no problems at the school. No decision or action can please all the students, parents, staff and board members at all times. Unfortu- nately, it is often the minority who don't agree with the action who create the noise and complaints, thereby blow- ing the situation out of all proportion. The solution appears to be in es- tablishing lines of communication so problems can be presented to the prop- er officials for proper handling, rather than having them solved on the street corners or behind closed doors. Well-founded complaints should be handled quickly and honestly and un- founded complaints should be just as quickly and publicly refuted. Certainly, we don't have that many problems that they can't be handled in such a manner. The stakes are too high to handle them any other way. That was almost proven. There's probably been enough said and written about the "Sun- day" show being carried by the CBC, but perhaps we wouldn't be considered normal if we fail- ed to make some mention. In our opinion it has served little purpose to date and in gen- eral has shown poor taste and many of the items carried have failed to prove they were pre- sented for any clear purpose. We don't think TV shows of this nature have to meet with agreement from the majority of viewers. If they start people thinking about some of the prob- lems our society faces, they at least serve some valuable pur- pose. Without them, we become vegetables. However, they need not be pre- sented in such a manner that viewers become enraged or in- sulted — and people can be ex- cused if they have assumed this attitude with much of the stuff which "Sunday" has presented. Change with the times The International Corn mittee of the Red Cross is a neutral body of 25 Swiss citizens. The com- mittee is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions. that fresh air was better than money. This was his reply in part to a question of what he was doing to help bring the farmer's pay scale up to that of his city cousins. At the time we were of the opinion our venerable legislator had gone off the deep end, and while he did little to console his audience which was con- stituted mainly of rural folk, there was a degree of truth to his statement. This is brought to the fore more and more these days and in the past few weeks many cities in North America have been choked with smog which created definite health hazards. This was especially so for per- sons with respiratory ailments and on occasions the smog has been directly responsible for many deaths. Statistics to show the longev- ity we can expect may soon• indicate that there is a depend- ence upon whether or not we live in a city where industrial wastes and carbon dioxide from cars and other sources continue to choke the populace and create hazards that have as yet been unsolved. Fresh air is one advantage of rural living that can't be dis- puted. Council's decision to give a de- tailed study to the entire election and nomination procedures in Exeter is in- deed a wise move and one that could be followed by neighboring municipali- ties as well. It was apparent this year that the suggestion was actually made too late, because there were certain aspects of the two events that could have been al- tered this year to bring added bene- fits to all concerned. This newspaper suggested a cou- ple of weeks ago that municipalities whose merchants stayed open Friday nights were in fact reducing the num- ber of persons who could attend nomi- nations by holding them on that night. Last week, one of our readers suggest- ed that some of the townships should consider changing to evening meet- ings because many of their ratepayers were unable to attend afternoon ses- sions. Some of the other suggestions pre- sented to the Exeter council were: an advance poll should be held; election officials should be given more money; voters should be better informed on the location of polling places. There are many other aspects of nomination meetings and elections that should be reviewed in view of the changes taking place in our society. While we are updating other things, it appears proper that we may have some updating to do in this regard as well. We also suggest it should be done now, while the memory of the recent meetings and elections is still some- what vivid. If it's set aside until next year some of the need for changes may be forgotten. There's ample proof of that fact. Two years ago we suggested Exeter's nomination should be changed from Friday in view of the local store hours and there was much support for the suggestion at that time. It never came about because those responsible for such things didn't act while they were still thinking about it. 50 YEARS AGO Messrs A, J. Heywood and John Walker, theological stu- dents at Toronto University, are visiting at their homes in town during the holidays. We have a beautiful line of bon-bon boxes from the best makers in Canada. Prices are from l0Q to $1.00 per box -7 W.J. Statham. These are the days when we are using Made in Canada Prod- ucts. Why not go one better, and use flour made in Exeter — Harvey Bros.? Mr. Cecil Pickard, who has been attending Toronto Uni- versity, has returned home for the holidays. - Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 15 YEARS AGO There'll be an old-fashioned outdoor carol singing service on the library grounds Thurs- day night from 7.30 to 8 p.m. Taking part will be the Huronia Male choirs, the high school glee club and the junior glee club of the public school. Tom Pryde MLA for Huron presented the gavel from Exeter, England to Mayor B.W. Tuckey and town council prior to the meeting Monday night. On the stand are carved a miniature replica of the Guildhall, the Cath- edral and Customs House. After the recording of the cer- emony for the presentation the recorder was left on unknown to the Council. Later it was noticed it was on and the owner, Dep- uty-Reeve 13111 Cochrane played back the session. The witticisms brought gales of laughter. 0011611,01Aelig ivi cer4r. Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ont. Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Dept, Ottawa, and for Payment of Postage in Cash Paid in Advance Circulation, September 30, 1966, 4,427 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $5.00 Per Year; USA $7.00 Those of us who have shown remarkable willpower in being able to kick the smoking habit (we only cheat once a week) may now unwind our arms from their back-slapping positions. Word has been released by the health and welfare department that 1,000,000 persons who once smoked cigarettes daily have overcome the habit. While this may take away some of the impetus with which we converts viewed ourselves, it also takes away some of the excuses presented by those who have attempted to quit and fail- ed. Obviously, if 1,000,000 peo- ple can do it, there can be few excuses for anyone. There are still 5,500,000 in Canada who do smoke regularly and of those numbers, 45 per- cent have attempted to kick the habit, indicating perhaps that those who have been successful still can be proud of their achievements. One of the reasons for our success in cutting down on the tar on our lungs, is the fact we've been dumping 50 cents per day into a can. This repre- sents the amount we normally spent on cigarettes. In case your mathematics is not too good, that suggests that after only one short year we will have accumulated $182.50. Now that our life expectancy has skyrocketed since giving up smoking, it is reasonable to as- sume that we will at least remain on this planet for another 30 or 40 years and the saving in that length of time could climb to $6,000 or $7,000. No doubt most of our readers have seen these figures project- ed before and so there is no value in going over them again. However, we think it should be mentioned that you can't really believe them. We had this opinion after sav- ing $15 or so and a column by Gary Lautens in the Toronto Daily Star backed up our con- tention that it really was costing us more money to stop smoking than it had when we puffed away about 25 fags a day. Lautens estimated it cost him $5,000 a year to quit smoking, although we haven't found it quite that expensive as yet. He pointed out that his wife had talked him into buying a new color TV on the basis that this expenditure would be about the same as what they would make if they smoked, The noted humorist also went on to report that she had used the same logic to get him talked into a new mink coat, a car and a few other luxuries that he could no more afford than yours truly. We haven't met the same re- action to that extent, but every other day or so the better half asks how much WE have saved so far, and presents some sug- gestions as to how the money can be used. So, if you're thinking of giving up the habit for economic reasons alone, don't jump too quickly, It could end up costing you a lot of money,- About five years ago we at- tended an election campaign meeting when our former MP, Elston Cardiff, told an audience swg." ":"(wAr.,WAMP 4W% says flatly, you think I'm going to leave my comfortable home, treasured piano students, and all my friends, to go and live in some cold, clammy dump among a lot of strangers, etc. etc." Sometimes, she wavers, and asks me what England is really like. The trouble is, I haven't been there for over 20 years. About all I can do is describe some first-rate pubs, and tell her how easy it was to lose your girl in the fog or blackout, unless you clung to her. Some- how, these descriptive gems don't fan her ardor for the trip. As I said, no one in his right mind wants to spend a year in the U.K. I know I'll come home either riddled with rheumatism, or in a wooden box with a sheen of fog on it. And it isn't sentiment. Admit- tedly, there are a few old pubs I'd like to re - visit. But they've probably changed into raucous road-houses that serve martinis instead of half-and-half, and the waitresses are insolent pups in- stead of buxom barmaids who called you fiLuv" or "Ducks". And there are a few old girl- friends I'd like to re-visit. But a friend of mine did this last year, taking his wife along. Somehow, he said, there was a lack of rap- port. And they were all so old. And, even worse, they thought he was old. And I sure as heck don't want to go and stand on some deserted, dilapidated air-drotne and think of the old days. Old runways are for the birds, who make much better landings on them than I ever did. No, what sparks my desire to go away for a year is none of these. It is the thought of spending the whole of Centen- nial Year in Canada. Now, I love this land. But the idea of an entire year of having Expo rammed down my throat, of watching municipalities sol- emnly snip the ribbon at such sparkling centennial projects as the new public lavatories, or the new parking lot, makes me Want to throw up. And what better place to go than the U.K., where 1 must admit I have done it before, On a number of occasions, after an evening of warm pints of bitters. We've been talking about it for a long time. It would mean a major upheaval in the fam- ily. But it's two against one, and this is a democracy. Un- less, of course, your wife hap- pens to constitute the minority. Today I applied for an ex- change teaching job, for one year, in the United Kingdom. I must be out of my mind, but I did. Daughter Kim is all for it. With the adventurous spirit of the young, and their complete lack of participation in all the work involved, she glows at the prospect. After all, England is the land of the Beatles, the RollingStones and the highest mini-skirts. England, as the song says, swings like a pendulum do. That's for Kimbo. She'd like nothing better than to spend a year abroad. Not ac- quiring a broad education. Neverl She looks upon education as small boys do upon washing: t h e squarest and most useless thing foisted on the young by stupid, loving parents. No, what she'd like to pick up in England is a Caraby st. wardrobe and a Liverpool ac- cent, so that she could knock the local kids dead when she comes home. The (cmod" look of Caraby is bad enough, but the dialect of the Liverpudlian is surely the ugliest in the world outside the pure Hottentot. What she doesn't picture, and I haven't the heart to tell her, is the truth, If the deal goes through, a year from now she'll be wading through the fog in Little Muddling, or climbing the cliffs on the Isle of Mull, com- plete with rubber boots, raincoat and sou'wester, approximately 3,000 social miles from the Eng- land and London's West End. My wife blows hot and cold. One week, when things are par- ticularly obnoxious around here, She's fairly keen. She sees a snug cottage, with vines and a cozy fireplace, shining brass, and an English garden out back, She envisages a jaunt into Lon- don every week end, for piano lessons, concerts, lunch and the theatre, The next week, she's been talking to someone who has just spent a year there and wag half- frozen for 12 months, Or she 10 YEARS AGO District citizens have an op- portunity to display Canadian hospitality to youth of foreign countries next week by enter- taining NATO trainees stationed at RCAF, Centralia. Employment provided by Hen- sail's thriving industry — General Coach Works of Canada Limited has resulted in an eight percent increase in the village's population. Chairman C.S. MacNaughton, representative of Exeter, on the SHDIIS Board, submitted his resignation to town council last week, lie succeeded Dr, 11. IL Cowen as chairman of the board two years ago. 25 YEARS AGO The women of Exeter branch of the Red Cross have launched a campaign to secure a regular collection of waste material in Exeter. They have purchased a baler to bale scrap paper which every businessman and houSe- holder is called on to save. Mr. J.R.C. Moffatt, manager of the Bank of Commerce is being transferred to a Toronto branch. Mr. and Mrs. Moffatt and family came to Exeter from Toronto and have taken an active interest in the welfare of the town. Mrs. J.G. Cochrane of Lea- vitt's Theatre has donated a plane to the Exeter-Hensall branch of the Canadian Legion. She had heard how much use was being made of the Legion Clubrooms by the airmen at Centralia. Misses Ann Morgan and Grace Heckler of Usborne, who are attending London Normal, are home for the holidays,