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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1969-05-22, Page 4MANY EXCITING DISPLAYS LIKE THIS—Over the weekend fireworks displays were held in Grand Bend, Hensall and Lucan that drew large crowds. Shown above is a double-barrelled feature at one of the recent events taken by an accidental double exposure by the photographer, T-A photo. Full points for frankness EXETER TRAQUAII3 DOMINIONIIIARDINARE orTeRs. ,excarioNAL VALV1 IN POWER MOWERS LO OK AT THIS 20 INCH U RF -BOY" 3-Horse Power — 4-cycle Briggs and 'Stratton engine with recoil starter,Heavy steel deck with tunnel discharge. Big 8-inch wheels with nylon laearings. Heavy chrome handle with centre mounted control. AQ 9 5 Mir DEL.V .D. (LISTED PRICE 84.95) Exeter Public Utilities Commission NOTICE of HYDRO INTERRUPTION Weather Permitting Sunday, May 25 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. D.S.T. Affecting most of the area south of Sanders Street, in the Town of Exeter. Some sections in this area will not be affected. This interruption is necessary to make alterations to primary conductors. Your co-operation will be appreciated. H. L. DAVIS MANAGER ,4010.4tMASMINKSIONstOPAAWRPOCIS Times Established 1V3 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1t24 SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A., CLASS 'A' and ABC Publishers: J. M. Southcott, R. M. Southcott Editor — Bill Batten -- Advertising Manager Phone 23.5-1331 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 Paid in Advance Circulation, September 30, 1968, 4,520 SUBSCRIPTION RATES! Canada $5.00 Per Year; USA $1.00 toAtAbga44$00$dsktaii141,d4et 41. 4" Ael A PI Mg r class A community newspapers VG TIMM and GREY T RUST COMPANY SINCE 1889 Generating enthusiasm Most people living in this area pride themselves on the enthusiasm generated at most community activities, and few of us have forgotten the monumental achievements accomplished during Centennial year. However, indications are that many people in the area are becoming lethargic in their approach to providing worthwhile projects or activities that provide opportunities for community goodwill and pride. This is the season of' those walkathons, and while most communities stage one walk in which everyone gets enthused and participates, we have fallen slightly behind and have to rely on individual groups to keep pace with some of our neighboring communities. We read items each week from neighboring communities that make us rather envious that they didn't take place here. In Preston, the residents staged a Police Appreciation Day and it turned out to be a large success and the policemen of the community were given due recognition by the people whom they serve so faithfully each day. Our policemen are obviously just as deserving as those in Preston. Strathroy residents got together recently to hold a night to save the Don Messer show from the axe, and again this was a success. People in this area were just as concerned about the future of the show, but nothing was done to clearly indicate that conern in a public manner. The Chamber of Commerce at New Hamburg staged a clean up campaign a couple of weeks ago and kept three trucks busy for an entire day hauling away junk as residents took advantage of the chance to clear away old debris from their properties, including junked cars. Closer to home, the residents of Zurich have planned a trip to their namesake community in Switerzerland. We could• extend the list to great lengths, and no doubt many readers have read of interesting activities in other communities which sound most beneficial or are just plain enjoyment. All of these events require leadership and people prepared to do some work in organizing them, but the results are well worth that effort. There are still many valuable projects and events in this area, but perhaps we would all do well to keep abreast of what is going on in other communities so we can continue to generate community pride or provide avenues of entertainment so necessary in this hectic society in which we live. A word to the wise We trust area drivers will take note of the fact Judge Glenn Hays levied a $100 fine against a young driver last week who put on a driving exhibition around the area of SHDHS. This has been a problem area for some time as young drivers put on erratic, displays, apparently in an effort to entertain students. Obviously, it is difficult to understand these antics and it is far from entertaining when one thinks of the number of youngsters from both schools who frequent the area. While it is impossible to condone this type of driving in any area, this is obviously the last place in which it can be tolerated and we commend the local police for bringing offenders to court and Judge Hays for his judgement in realizing that stiff fines are apparently needed to curtail such activities. Where has democracy gone? Nothing is so disconcerting to the average voter today as the realization that he has lost control of his governments. Bit by bit he has been squeezed out of the decision making process until he now finds he has nothing left but the problem of how to pay the taxes. School board members are presented with lists of teachers already hired; county councils discover bureaucrats have raided and carried off their assessment departments; local councils have their power to borrow suddenly cut off by appointed officials. Almost no decision by locally elected people is valid without the signature of an appointed government official somewhere. They cannot build a street, lay a sewer or grant a building permit without it. What went wrong? What makes people at one moment think they live in a democracy and the next that they are in a totalitarian state? The problem is very deep. The answer does not lie in centralized school boards or regional government or any of these grand administrative techniques. It is the problem of educating an entire electorate and leadership in the ways the world has changed. If we ever do decide to return to democratic government, it will be when we start electing men who offer not solutions but understandable philosophies aimed at letting free men work out their own problems. —Petrolia Advertiser-Topic A long and hot summer This is going to be a long, hot summer. And not only for those U.S. cities with their kerosene-soaked black ghettoes just waiting for a match to be struck. It's going to be a long, hot summer for a lot of Canadians. High among their ranks will be parents, policemen and resort operators. Why? Because the supply of summer jobs for students is far, far below the demand, and there are going to be thousands of restless, bored young people looking for excitement. It's a natural for an eruption of rumbles, hassles and vandalism which could make the summer a nightmare for the already-harried victims listed above. For the last decade, there has been a steadily-growing population of young bums of both sexes. Summer-time, warm-weather bums. These are the kids who don't really want a job. They live from hand to mouth, sleeping on the beaches, or in the old cars that are part of their scene. They are not necessarily evil or vicious. In fact, most of them aren't But they're aimless and irresponsible and rude and selfish and dirty, and lazy as cats. Cats that aren't house-broken. They're bored, and they're boring. They talk in endless circles about nothing. They even bore each other. But they're united in one thing — their contempt for the adult world. High on their list of interests, which are extremely limited, are sex and drugs. On weekends, they are infiltrated by the "pushers" many of them amateurs, who arrive from the cities with their little packages of pot and speed and LSD. Lurking on the fringe of this bundle of bums is another group — the teenie-boppers. These are not kids — they are children —, who are just beginning to make the scene, who find it fascinating, and who want to try anything that's going. In the cities, same thing, except that it's shopping plazas and public parks and the streets instead of the beaches. Well, add to this parasitic swarm all the kids who wanted, and needed, jobs this summer, angry, frustrated, and you can see what's coming. I hope I'm wrong, but two and two still make four. Permissive parents, an inflationary society in which even young people need money; give masses of them nothing to do but look for kicks all summer, and the old crystal ball looks pretty muddy. Any minister, we suspect, must be discouraged to have people indicate they "enjoyed" a sermon in which he was attempting to scold them for their practices or failure to live up to their responsibilities. In that context, we trust there will be many people who didn't "enjoy" the talks delivered by the young people at Caven Presbyterian Church last week. While we didn't agree with all the opinions expressed by the young people, we did admire their fortitude in expressing them, and we have no doubt but what they were most sincere. Peggy Pryde's comment that the youth of this time has a right to be optimistic was particularly thought provoking. She admitted that her elders, who have come through the Depression, two World Wars and a couple of other conflicts have a certain right to be more cynical in youths hope that they change things for the better. We hope Peggy and her contemporaries will never lose that optimism, because obviously it is much needed by those who, in the not too distant future, will have the chore of running this world which those who have gone before have allowed to fall into such a mess. It brought to mind the fact that adults must be guarded in their cynicism for fear that their comments will dull some of the optimism of young people. There's no faster way to discourage someone from trying to reach an objective than by repeatedly telling him that his objective is impossible. These are young people who very soon will see a man land upon the surface of the moon, so who are we to tell them what is impossible! * * * David Foreman tackled a tough subject when he discussed responsibility, and obviously this is one of the main problem areas in adult and teen relations today. When I was a teenager (said the boring middle-aged man), summer jobs were even scarcer. He who nabbed one was deeply envied. My first job, at 17, was working on a Great Lakes steamer, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, $1 a day. And every other kid in town thought I'd hit a bonanza. Boys who couldn't find a job played baseball and swam about eight hours a day. Girls did whatever girls do, giggled probably, and swam and picked berries. Today's jobless youth barely muster enough energy to have a swim. In the day-time, that is. At night, they flower into some sort of life and go to bed at dawn. And wake up. Bored. There are a couple of villains in the piece, of course. One is industry; the other government, Industry could absorb twice as many students as it does, at comparatively little cost. Industry is the first to whine about the "products" it gets, but does little to help produce a first-class product. One or two future employees of high calibre from a summer group would easily repay the cost. And it would be good public relations on which industry spends thousands, mostly on whiskey. Governments could, and should, plan work projects to absorb most of the surplus students. They'd get it all back in taxes shortly. But if they sit bn their behinds and allow a generation of bitter, lazy, alienated bums to sprout, it will cost them plenty in the end. (That's quite a sentence, but no puns intended. Behinds, bums, and end, indeed.) Hope your kid has a summer job. Better still, hope you're not a parent or a policeman. Perhaps he hit the nail squarely on the head when he opined that many parents were afraid to hand out responsibilities to their offspring because they were afraid their children would make the same mistakes as they did. The whole concept of the church service was an example of how young people can handle responsibility, and we imagine there were many in the congregation who must have been very much surprised at the end result obtained in extending youth this opportunity. Any church officials wondering about the merits of church union would do well to study the comments of Judy Burke, if in fact her opinions were representative of her contemporaries. We have no reason to doubt that they aren't, by the way. Her criticism of an over abundance of church structures in Exeter is one that has been expressed in this column before. Her comments about church people being biased is difficult to refute in some cases, but this is fortunately changing at a commendable speed and perhaps Judy will see the day when most of it has entirely disappeared except in extreme instances. Coupled with her opinions and Philip Moore's contention that young people want to communicate, we know that area church officials and leaders in all other endeavours will do well to accept the invitation to discuss current issues with young people. Too often we make decisions which affect young people, 50 YEARS AGO Sergt. Hilliary Horton, who went overseas with the 161st Battalion, arrived home last week. During the most of the time he was with the blacksmith service. Lance Corp Milton Pfaff, a former employee of W. S. Cole, and whose parents reside on the Lake Road, arrived in London from overseas and he is now in the military hospital suffering from injury to his hip. Mr. A. E. Kuhn, manager of the Exeter branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, who has been ill for several weeks following an attack of influenza, has been given three months leave of absence. Hon. Melville Martin, Premier of Saskatchewan, and his mother of London were visitors over the weekend with Mr, and Mrs. F. W. Gladman. 25 YEARS AGO Mr. Claude Blowes, principal of Hensall Public School, has been engaged as principal of the Exeter Public School to suceed Mr. Ray Waghorn, who resigned to take a position on the teaching staff in Hamilton. Sgt. Andy Easton has purchased from Mrs. Sam Martin her fine brick residence on James Street. Three members of the Schroeder family now with the RCAF have been visiting with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Schroeder: FO Gerald Schroeder from Prince Edward Island, FO Leroy Schroeder from Montreal and LAC Orville Schroeder of Belleville, The Exeter Municipal Council have proclaimed Wednesday, May 24, a public holiday. The Misses Huston of town have purchased the red brick residence of W. R. Goulding on Main Street. Mr. and Mrs, Goulding and family intend moving to London in June. without ever giving those young people an opportunity to express their opinions. It's an oversight we would do well to correct at every opportunity, because it is clearly evident that young people do have many worthwhile thoughts to contribute on most subjects and if the frankness and honesty displayed at Caven last week is an idication of what we can expect from the majority of young people, then we should be listening to them much more than we do at present. * * * We rather hesitate to mention the weather of the first holiday weekend of the summer season, but we certainly trust it isn't an indication of things to come. Those of us who planned to spend the weekend getting the garden into shape were thwarted, and we can only imagine the miserable time you campers had. If this coming weekend proves more enjoyable, there will be many who will want to start a campaign to have the holiday fall as closely as possible to the 24th of May. Next year the 24th is a Sunday, and if it reverts to the preceding Monday that will make the holiday a day earlier than this year, and that may be rushing spring just a bit. However, May is a tempermental month at best and it would be our luck to have the holiday changed to the Monday after the 24th and find that that weekend was even more miserable than the one just passed. 15 YEARS AGO A. J. Sweitzer, former president of Exeter Lions, was elected Deputy-District Governor of clubs in this area at a Lions rally in St. Thomas The Exeter Boy Scout troop after being inactive for several years has been re-organized with a membership of over 30, The troop holds the first charter in Ontario. Harvey Pfaff is Scoutmaster with Bob Luxton, assistant, and Glen Northcott troop leader. Over 100,000 trees are being planted in the Ausable Forest in Hay Township this spring. The big planting program is part of the reforestation scheme of the Ausable Valley Conservation Authority. The cornerstone for the new addition to the Huron County Home at Clinton was laid by Thomas Pryde MLA at an impressive ceremony Wednesday afternoon. 10 YEARS AGO The Exeter Kinettes plan to purchase a cart of their own through South Huron Hospital channels for the purpose of selling confections and sundry articles to the hospital patients. They have been doing this for some time but used a hospital cart. The Clandeboye station on the CNR railway has been sold by tender and is to be removed. Between campaign speeches at Wingham and Stratford Premier Frost attended a luncheon meeting of party workers at Armstrong's Restaurant, Exeter, Wednesday afternoon, Joanne Mair of Exeter and Audrey Rhodes, an outstanding Stratford athlete, whose parents now live in Exeter, were among the nurses who graduated from St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing, Friday. Let us develop and,print your films BLACK & WH ITE or KODACOLOR. Guaranteed expert processing plus a new fresh film FREE, the same size and type of your original roll in sizes 127 - 126 - 120 - 620 - 35mm only. ilNi INN INN NON IN NON VMA INI Mt :m of f 1 Exeter Phone: 235-1070 • FILMS • CAMERAS • SUPPLIES in INNIN NNW MN ONO MO WON NOIN WOW OWN WM NON NON INN 111111 Now Put your money into our guaranteed investment certificates now paying the never-before interest of eight percent, w w HUNTLEY'S —DRUGS —