HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1969-01-16, Page 4few could 'spoil it
While snowmobiling has caught on in
this part of Huron County, it seems
unlikely that municipalities can continue
to tolerate the kind of foolish abuse some
snowmobile enthusiasts are inflicting on
their non-snowmobiling neighbors.
As is so often the case, a few rotten
apples can spoil the whole barrel; or to put
it more bluntly, some thoughtless antics
on the part of a few snowmobiling nuts
can seriously hinder the clean fun and
frolic of the masses for whom the
snowmobile was created.
Whether it is affluent Canadian
laziness or simple another passing fancy,
snowmobiling should be pure enjoyment
for the participants and sound business
for the gadget salesmen. Unless the
snowmobiling public treats the
conveyance as another motor vehicle
which one must use with due care and
concern, it is probable municipal bylaws
could banish these snow-skimming
vehicles onto snowmobile "reserves",
Hensall council last Monday heard of
complaints from citizens who are literally
weary from sleepless nights caused by
packs of snowmobiles which criss-cross
private property in the village at all hours
of the night.
Exeter council heard from residents
who claim snowmobiles have crushed
their shrubs and bushes. Council itself
expressed concern for costly plantings in
Riverview Park, especially west of the
swimming pool where snowmobiles have
been known to congregate.
Observations in the Stouffville,
Markham, Uxbridge Tribune seemed to be
in agreement with the thinking of most
councils in this district: "The council here
has been rather hesitant to impose further
restrictions, One reason could be that the
popularity of snowmobiling has
mushroomed overnight, catching the
members somewhat by surprise. Another
reason is, the council does not wish to
play the role of a "kill-joy" and force
restrictions on those who are guided by
comm on sense".
Perhaps it is the responsibility of
snowmobile manufacturers to produce
machines which are less noisy. Still we
expect snowmobile operaters to show
some regard for the property and the
reasonable rights of others.
The snowmobile isn't a toy after all
but a wonderfully manoeuvrable motor
vehicle to be driven with as much courtesy
and caution as the family car.
Brings added hazards
It's been a long time sincethis area
experienced a more persistent storm
than that of the past two or three weeks,
and perhaps it would be wise to point
out that even though the weather has
cleared — at the time of writing at least
— there are many added hazards left in
its wake.
Most noteworthy are the safety
hazards, and while winter always brings
added risks, the stout), created more than
usual.
In the first place, most of the
sidewalks in area communities are
blocked and it has become necessary for
old and young alike to take to the streets
to get anywhere.
Youngsters in particular enjoy the
pleasure of rough-housing in snow —
because falls are well cushioned — and
these antics often make them forgetful
of the fact they are in fact encroaching
on the paths of vehicular traffic.
Coupled with this obvious serious
situation is the fact that most streets are
still covered with ice and this makes
vehicle control extremely difficult.
Motorists also have to be prepared
to have youngsters come zooming out of
those hidden passages that are at present
the only access to most properties. This
is a hazard that applies to some older
folk as well, because the banks in some
places obscure vision for all except those
who are prime prospects for a basketball
team.
The list of added dangers could be
extended at great length, but suffice it to
say the weatherman has created a
situation that requires the utmost care
and caution on the part of drivers.
Parents too should be reminded
that the drivers are fighting adverse
conditions and children should be
repeatedly warned to practice good, safe
habits at all times. There's plenty of
snow in most backyards in which they
can burn up any excess energy.
A New Year's Eve party
Cares mcis# detapated eideded
MOVING
TO NEW LOCATION
Our meat market on Main St,, Exeter, will be closed at
6:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 18 as we are moving to the
meat department at the A & H Superior Market, a few
doors north,
We will continue to serve our customers from this new
location, as well as the regular customers at the A & H in
our modern surroundings there,
At this time we extend our sincere thanks to our many
customers for their patronage at our own store during the
past years, and look forward to continuing our service to
you.
The telephone number at the A & H meat department
will be the same as our present one — 235.1313,
HAROLD HOLTZMANN
Fink's Meat Market
Note — All Accounts Payable By Jan, 31, 1969.
Boost
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Pioneer instinct soon wanes
Hope you got through the
trying holiday season as well as
we did. All you flu victims have
my sympathy. I tottered about
for ten days, a tot here and a tot
there, not quite desperately ill
enough to stay in bed, and
therefore getting little sympathy.
Kim spent the festive season
going to bed at 2 a.m. and getting
up at 2 p.m. Mostly because of a
new boy friend, who is out on
bail. That's right; he's out on bail.
My wife did her best to set fire
to the house, one Sunday night
when I was at church, For years,
I've been telling her to bum junk
in the fire-place: paper and
wrappings and boxes and such.
She finally caught on. So did
the evergreens with which she
annually decks the mantel, when
she threw into the fire a
cardboard box about two feet by
four.
She stood there, paralyzed,
watching the joint go up in
flames. The only muscle working
was her tongue. When that stops
working, she'll be ready for the
Bold, cold ground. She screamed:
"Kim! Kim!"
And Kim responded nobly to
the crisis. Upstairs, she came
down like a bomb, seized a basin
Of water from the kitchen sink,
and hurled it with unerring aim all
over the fire, her mother, therug,
and the hi-fl. Did the trick,
though.
Speaking of Kim and fires, she
had a New Year's Eve party which
caused more turmoil than the
Battle of the Boyne did in
Ireland.
It wasn't that she demanded a
big spread or a hired orchestra or
anything like that, She had only
one request: that we get out
before the guests arrived and stay
out until they were gone.
The normal response of a
father to such a stipulation is to
smack his hand on the table and
roar, "O.K. Noioarents, no
party!" Which he did, about eight
times.
Finally, by some circuitous
route known only to families, we
arrived at a compromise of sorts.
There would be no thinking.
Undesirables would be severely
policed by Kim and two of her
largest girl friends, and two boys
who would be personally
responsible to me, by George, or else.
There would be no
gate-crashers. See policing, above
(Gate-crashing is a norm at a
party in a small town, where
everybody in the teen world
knows everybody else and after
all, what do you say, Dad, when
somebody arrives at the door
with a big, silly grin on his big,
silly face and asks, "Can I come to
your party, Kim?")
It was resolved that the food
would consist of potato chips and
pop. "How can you be so square,
Mom, kids don't eat at parties?'
Later, Kim graciously allowed her
mother to make about 480
sandwiches.
It was agreed, after a motion
by me that went something like,
"If you think I'm going to walk
the streets in a blizzard on New
Year's Eve just because a
stubborn brat like you doesn't
want her parents around just
because she's having a party for a
gang of degenerate teen-agers,
then you've got another thing
coming young lady!", that the
party would end at 1.30.
It's a long story, but she finally
kicked us into the snow drifts at 9
p.m. It was too early to go
anywhere. We drove around the
block a few times, my wife
peering desperately toward the
house on each circuit,
We dropped in on sick friends,
to get warm, or sick, and guess
who ran straight to the phone and
called home. The response was
chilly: "Yes, Mother. No,
Nobody's drunk. Will you please
stop bugging me, there's
somebody at the door?"
The old lady called four more
times from as many different
places. Responses grew even
chillier. We arrived home at 3 a.m.
ready to face the debacle:
There's nothing quite as good
as an "old fashioned" blizzard to
boost peoples' ego. It's possibly
that inert pioneer instinct that
conies to life at such times and
in many people there's an
indication that they enjoy being
tested by the hardships,
Being surrounded as we are
by the many luxuries and
conveniences of this modern age,
it is one of the few occasions on
which people can really test
their abilities to cope with
something that can't be solved
by turning off an electric switch.
Another fact is that most
people will always back the
underdog and in the case of a
storm they see themselves as
being an underdog to the
elements and perhaps they strive
a little harder to upset the
stacked odds against them.
While the pioneer instinct
does dissipate quickly in most of
us, it is the element that enables
most people to come through
these blizzards not too much the
worse for wear.-
After each such storm, people
try to compare it to blizzards in
the past, and while we have no
intention of trying to perform
that task, there appears to be
little doubt that there have been
many times in our past history
when the weather has been so
consistently miserable for such a
lengthy period.
Storms of this modem era
appear to be much worse than
those of a few decades ago,
mainly because we are so
dependent upon vehicular travel
for most of our pursuits. Things
quickly grind to a halt if traffic
is blocked.
Not only does a storm cause
more interruption to our daily
life, but it is also much more
costly. In grandpa's time, the
snows came and were let pile up
until thawing away in the spring.
Now it 'is necessary to spend
huge sums of money on
removing snow so traffic can
progress under safe conditions.
Really, we can't figure out
why some Indians are agitating
to get this country back! * * *
There can be many things
said about the weather of the
past two or three weeks, and we
can quite correctly say it was a
lousy time to attempt to build a
family skating rink in the back
yard.
At the conclusion of our
winter holiday and after the
worst of the storms appeared to
have passed, we set about the
task of cleaning off great piles of
snow, a feat that was
accomplished after many hours
work and many aching muscles.
It had been cleared for less
than one day when the blizzard
of Tuesday, January 6 niade the
back yard look exactly as it did
a few days previous — covered
with a deep layer of snow,
While it may lead some to
question our mentality, the same
procedure has been followed
about six times since then, with
the same result ... the Snow gets
there before the kids do,
We hate to admit defeat after
working so strenuously, but
right about now we're seriously
contemplating the purchase of a
couple of pair of roller skates
and letting the kids loose on the
basement floor.
With out luck they won't
turn out to be any better hockey
wasteland of broken dishes and
trompled grapes,
And sitting there with her
out-on-bail friend, listening to
records, was the Cheshire cat
herself. The house was clean as a
funeral parlor, They'd been working like dogs for an hour.
No burns, no broken dishes,
no scratches on the grand piano,
Nothing, Ineluding the 480
sandwiches, about 12 pounds of fruit, and ail the bread and nuts in
the hoeSe,
players than their old man
anyway, so what's the use! * *
While a storm brings out the
best in many people — and there
are many tales of thoughtful acts
to back that statement up — it
also brings out the worst in
some. ,
There are many who can't
understand why the snowplow
hasn't been down their street
yet, or why their newspaper boy
is late, etc., etc.
However, these people are
fortunately few and far between
and most area residents are most
appreciative of the fact that
some of their services continue
at all.
At last week's council
meeting in Exeter, it was
explained that Mayor Jack
Delbridge and Councillors Ross
Taylor and Don MacGregor had
given up much of their own time
over Christmas and Boxing Day
to help the works department
crew with snow removal so
others of us could enjoy family
reunions.
The employees also worked
lengthy hours of overtime to try
and keep abreast of the storm
and this is similar to their
counterparts in all area
municipalities.
All these people deserve our
commendation for their efforts
to reduce the inconvenience of a
storm. * * *
Last week's inclusion of the
Hensall council inaugural in the
Western Ontario Obituaries
column of the London Free
50 YEARS AGO
Mr. George Hawkins of the
London Road N, Monday last
had the unique experience of
casting his ballot in the Usborne
Township elections on his 99th
birthday,
Election returns for Stephen
Township were: Reeve, W. D.
Sanders; deputy-reeve, Alex
Neeb; counsellors, John Hayes,
David Webb and George Penhale.
Reeve of Hensall for 1919 is
G. C. Petty; councillors, George
Hudson, Robert McArthur,
Thos. Hudson and J. Jones.
The annual banquet of the
Elimville Adult Bible Class was
held Friday evening. The class
has a membership of nearly 100,
Mr. W. G. Medd being the
teacher.
25 YEARS AGO
Mr. Samuel Ross, who has
been caretaker for Main Street
United Church for nearly 27
years, has resigned and was
presented with a purse of money
in appreciation, at the Sunday
morning service.
While returning from Windsor
Saturday with a ten-ton load Mr.
Jack Delbridge, driver for
Tuckey Transport, slid into a
police cruiser at an intersection
in London and telescoped it
between a London Street
Railway bus.
Rev. M, A. Hunt opened the
1944 session of Exeter Council
with a short address. Reeve is
Benson W, Tuckey; councillors,
Henry Bierling, Edwin Dignan, J.
Wellington Horn and Aaron J.
Sweitzer,
The first carnival of the
season was held at the Exeter
Arena Friday evening with about
450 in attendance. The hit of
the evening was a game of
brootriball between the Officers
and the Senior N.G.O's froth No.
9 S F T 8,- Centralia.
15 ?EARS AGO
The inaugural meeting of the
1954 Exeter Municipal Council
was held in the Council
Chambers Monday morning
Press helped provide a few light
moments during the hectic hours
of the blizzard.
Reeve Oliver Jaques and his
council took the good-natured
jibes in stride and even went so
far as to publish a card of thanks
to those who had taken many
avenues to express sympathy.
However, we wonder just
how appropriate the goof really
was? Perhaps all the council
inaugural meetings could have
been put in the obituary
columns, because there is every
indication that the demise of
local government may be closer
than some care to think as
regional government continues
to make strides towards us.
We still haven't been able to
figure out exactly what the
Ontario government has in mind,
but if local government
disappears entirely it will be a
sad day in our books.
The personal service we now
receive .from our local officials
will be lost and as explained
previously, this often extends to
areas which few people know
about,
The dedication which leads
men to give up their own time to
help clear snow is something
that would probably be lost with
regional government, and while
we have no right to expect such
service in the first place, it is the
type of attitude most elected
officials in this area share, and is
a benefit that would be sorely
missed with a mere impersonal
administration of our affairs.
when Clerk C.V. Pickard
administered the oath of office
to the following: Mayor W. G.
Cochrane, Reeve R. E. Pooley,
Deputy Reeve William McKenzie
and Councillors Ralph Bailey,
Ed Brady, R. C. Dinney, R.
Jermyn, A. Snelgrove and Earl
Witmer.
Friday was Charter Members'
Night at the Exeter Lions Club
supper meeting where 15 years
of activity was reviewed by
Vice-president J. B. Creech.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Beaver of
Crediton were honored by the
family on the fiftieth
anniversary of their wedding
January 13.
The most important question
Huron County will probably
face this year is the construction
of a new courthouse.
10 YEARS AGO
H. L. Snider was re-elected
chairman of the SHDHS Board
for 1959 and E. L. Mickle,
Hensall is vice-chairman. E. D.
Howey remains
secretary-treasurer at a salary of
$1,250,
Chairman John Gotnan of the
swimming pool committee said
the campaign for 'funds for the
pool will get under way the end
of January, Pledges will be
sought on a three-year basis
covering 1959.1961,
Guenther Tuckey Transports
Ltd., llxeter has established a
new office and parking lot at
Goderich.
ALVIN WALPER
PROVINCIAL
LICENSED AUCTIONEER
For your sale, large or small,
courteous and efficient service
at all times.
"Service That Satisfies"
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USBORNE & HIBBERT
MUTUAL FIRE
INSURANCE COMPANY
Head Office -- Exeter, brit.
Directors
Martin Feeney RR 2
President Dublin
E. Clayton Colquhoun nit 1 Vice-President Science Hill
William H. Chaffe
Robert 0, Gardiner
Raymond McCurdy
Tim Teohey AR
Agents
Hugh Benninger
Harry Coates
Clayton Barris
Secretary-TreasUrit
Hugh Patterson Exeter
N. L. MARTIN
OPTOMETRIST
Main Street, Exeter
Open Every Weekday
Except Wednesday
For Appointment Phone 235.2433
G. A. WEBB, b.C.
DOCTOR OF CHIROPRACTIC
CLOSED WEDNESDAY
For Appointment Phone 2354680,
C. H. RODER
DOCTOR OF CHIROPRACTIC
228 Front St„ E,
Strathroy, Ont.
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For Complete Sales Service
that satisfies, Call 235-0621
433 Main St., Exeter
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