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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1975-04-10, Page 4Housing out of reach Last month, the average price of a home in Toronto went up to something just a couple of thousand dollars short of $60,000 That, of course, includes the spacious home in the suburbs as well as the squat, crowded, duplex down in the near-slums. But what it also means is that the cost ' of a home took another $2,000 jump out of the reach of the average family. Even if they could muster the down payment, not many of them could consider shouldering the $350 per month to meet the interest costs alone on such an investment. There's been a loud cry from some quarters that the provincial and federal governments aren't doing enough to get housing starts increased, But that's not really the question at hand for most people. Regardless of how many homes were available, they couldn't afford them anyway, unless the supply and demand reached a point where competition would drive the prices down within reach of the beleagured would-be owner. Inflation of prices is the big problem, and until some relief is won in that corner, more and more families will be denied the right to a family home. Make views known The annual spring vacation for students in Ontario has ended, At least it appears that way, although this year's confusing situation was such that it would not be un- reasonable to assume that at least one school, district planned their March break for April. In this area of Southern Ontario, schools took their choice of three weeks for the holiday. The majority opted for the week of March 24, but others chose a week on either side. In short, there was some confusion, In some families, students attending different schools had a different week off and this really was upsetting. However, now that people have had time to assess the situation, some guidelines should be set up for next year. School trustees should be informally poll- ing their areas to see if the staggered sessions created havoc, or whether they provided some relief in cutting down on the number of people heading for holidays at one time. If you have opinions - pro or con - ex- press them now so trustees can be prepared to make their decision come next spring on the basis of your wishes. Need identification In the first three months of this year, Exeter OPP have charged 115 people with offences under the Liquor Control Act. The majority of those charges arise from underage drinking or young people drinking in places other than their residences. Drinking establishments report problems keeping under-18 patrons from their premises, thanks in no small part to Ontario's inadequate identification system. Proprietors report that teenagers at 15, 16 and 17 are trying to sneak into bars, often carrying phony identification cards belonging to older friends. That problem 'could be solved with a stan- dard identification card bearing a picture or detailed description of the bearer. At the same time, parents must be more cognizant of the fact that underagedrinking is increasing-by leaps and bounds. Even the statistics from the OPP are not quite as shocking as they could be. Last week, for instance, one charge was laid against an area youth for having liquor in a place other than his residence. However, there were four others with him who escaped facing that charge because only one claimed ownership. So, while one charge was laid, five people were actually involved. That should give parents some indica- tion of how rampant the problem is grow- ing and challenge them into some action. Do you know where your CHILDREN are right now . . . and more important, know what they are doing? A holiday that really is Aloorpm••••••••••,•••• latv,s 201idscied Oh for some wings ItriataMM.111MINVA.M.:.. ' .!irnreZiViSnarZiONOMMTEK. .,..„„!XASkiffaMt1 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND 0.W.N.A. and ABC Publisher Robert Southcott Editor — Bill Batten — Advertising Manager Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Plant Manager — Les Webb Composition Manager — David Worby 'Phone 235-1331 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 Paid in Advance Circulation March 31, 1974, 5,309 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $9.00 Per Year; USA $11.00 nE&MUulaberagESZ6,0ZsZ::MaaMi.WW2MiaiagVMRM121)MIZROMIMMan BE GENEROUS WHEN YOUR CANCER CANVASSER CALLS Our response to now By ELMORE BOOMER Counsellor for Information South Huron ).ri F,orbt)v appointment . e. , .)L., phone: 2286291 or 235-0560 ftri4“:•ftv Cancer can be beaten A fall marks winter's end Around here, it's one of those grand end-of-March days, with the sun pouring down, the air positively balmy (about 40 degrees) the defeated snow slinging grimly to the shadowed corners, and that lovely smell of rotten earth that precludes spring. If it were fall, of course, and the temperature were the same, we'd be saying: "By George! Nippy enough, ain't it. Looks like winter's not far off." But at this time of year, the weather is more a state of mind than a matter of temperature and all across the land Canadians go slightly hysterical with the jubilant certainty that once more they have made it through that masochist's delight - a Canadian winter. With the first relaxing of those icy tentacles, we go a bit haywire. Rubbers are kicked into a corner. Sweaters and scarves are hurled into closets. Babies are plunged into prams. And we all come down with a spring cold that is only slightly worse than the vicious one we nursed all winter, Typical example. This morning was garbage day. Just because the sun was shining and it wasn't snowing, I nipped out in my pajamas and slippers to deposit the plastic bags. It was a trifle nippy, but the sun was shining and there was that ineluctable essence in the air. I winked at a sexy squirrel in the cedar tree, I made a V-for- Victory sign at Old Sol. I hallooed at a beautiful crow. I stopped to stroke the cat, who was lying in the mud, basking. And I've been sneezing and blowing ever since. No matter. Winter is over. Those long black nights and those short white days are gone for another six months, and, as far as I'm concerned, fill up the bowls and let joy resign un- confined. Usually we struggle into spring with nothing more hilarious than a slightllessening of despair, but this year the old lady and I ended winter with a gallant fillip. Some would call it a flip. As you know, if you are keeping up with,the social i news, we "took up" cross-country skiing this spring. Most people take up sports,during the season, but we don't operate that way. As I recall, we took up golf in the fall, after the leaves had begun to tumble. Anyway, we took to skiing like a cat takes to nip, and in no time we were arguing about what kind, of wax to use (we have two kinds, red and black) and clumping around in our boots like real skiers. Our timing was perfect. On what turned out to be the last day of skiing for the season, we took a shot at a hill. Or maybe it was the other way around, It was a long, straight hill: no trees, no rocks, nothing that a capable six-year-old couldn't handle with both hands in his pockets. We were certainly polite enough. It was: "You go first, you're the man." And: "No, no dear. Ladies first, you know." As usual, I was out- manoeuvred. I steeled myself with recollections of driving a bicycle head-on into a cow during an English black-out, of diving into a hell-fire of German anti- aircraft fire. I took off. One thing I dislike about skiing is that there are no brakes. You can't even drag your feel . Well sir, the only way I can describe my descent of that slope is hell-bent, Squatting like a kangaroo in labor, eyes rolling, I went down there at what I reckon was about 140 mph, And I made it. No ignominious tumble. No splits. Thirty feet from the end of the run, all danger behind, I straightened up, waved one ski-pole nonchalantly and turned my head to see if The Chicken was impressed. Just then the snow, with un- believable crust, rose up and smote me a mighty smite on the head, My cap flew off. I knew I wasn't in hell, but I sure felt bent. I lay there, quietly uttering words It was bound to happen, sooner or later! Living in this part of the country just wouldn't be "nor- mal" without one big snow storm of the season, although most residents had ample reason to believe that they would escape such a fate in 1975. Mother Nature had different thoughts. She left her final (we hope) barrage until the 11th hour, but there was ample indication Thursday morning that an April storm can be just as devastating as one in the winter months. In fact, it created more problems than usual for most people. Already lulled into a false sense of security by some spring weather, they had removed snow tires, tucked the snow shovel back into the back corner of the basement and put snowmobile suits and boots back into moth- balls. Many didn't bother to tackle the final storm. It was just too much extra work and so they joined their youngsters at home in front of the TV (for those who still had hydro) and watched' the soap operas, quiz shows,b,and cartoon reruns. A forced holiday of this` nature has many advantages over normal holidays, The better half isn't bugging to get out for a shopping trip, the kids don't need a ride across town to play road hockey and there are no long, lost friends dropping in to help you deplete the bar stock. It's a day when you can curl up beside the fire place with a good book and let the winds howl and the snow blow, or listen to the radio as the damn fools who think they can fight nature phone in to the open line shows and relate their experiences of how they lost the battle. It would have been unfortunate to have missed it, don't you think? + + + While weather and related circumstances can tie traffic up faster than imagineable, Mother Batten returned from a holiday in Spain this week puzzled over the age of jet travel. It took her a mere seven hours to get from Spain to New York City and then another 19 hours to get from New York to London. As many world travellers know, this includes long waits at dumpy bus depots while alternate methods of travel are rounded up, The strange thing about the I haven't heard since my Dad used to go down and beat the coal furnace. with a shovel. I heard a scream,"At least she knows I'm dying," I thought bitterly. "Boy, is she going to be sorry for some of the things she said to me over the years." Then I heard another scream, "Bill, get out of the way!" I'm going to run over you!" Wrenching my broken neck around, I looked uphill. There was a dark figure flying toward me. It looked like a witch, but it was riding two broomsticks, instead of one, Then 0- e broomsticks began to part, in what seemed slow motion, and I knew the witch was going to split right up the middle unless the nightmare ended. It did, I woke up. The witch was dead. One broomstick pointed straight in the air. The other was pointed back up the hill. There, was silence. Then: "Are you all right?" And: "I don't know, Are you?" And: "I dunno, I think I'm gonna cry," (That was me), Boy, am I glad it's spring, and there's no more skiing until December. But skiing certainly tones you up, I can now touch my toes with no problem at all. I use a yard- stick, And my wife can knit like a demon withtone,hand. She got good at it while her left arm was in a Sling. 50 Years Ago After 15 years of splendid missionary endeavour in West China;Rev. Alfred and Mrs. Johns are returning home with their five children for their second furlough. Mrs. Burkart of Cleveland, Mr. & Mrs. Gordon Davis of Toron- to,and Mr. & Mrs1Clifton Davis of London, attended the funeral of their grandfather Charles Steinhagen Sr. of Dashwoed. William Hatter had the misfortune to break one of his little toes when a wagon wheel ran over his foot. 25 Years Ago Evelyn Desjardine, Grand Bend, a student of Exeter District High School, won second pplace in lyric-poetry at the OEA con- vention in the King Edward Hotel, Toronto Monday evening, William Mickle, Hensall is this year's choice from Exeter District High School for the Leader's club sponsored by the London Free Press. Charles Fisher has purchased the 100-acre farm of Bert Bissett, Concession 2, Usborne. Mr. Bissett will reside on the farm until he can' secure a home in Exeter. lric U Snell is having the foundation dug for the erection of a now home on Sanders Street. 15 Years Ago Mr. & Mrs. A. W. Etherington have returned hdme after Spending the winter in Florida. Judy Mason visited her home on Sunday. She had just com- pleted a two week course with the Bell Telephone Company in Toronto and left Monday for Goderich where she has a position with that company. Mr. & Mrs. Lorne Johnston and boys visited Goderich on Sunday with Mr. & Mrs. Jack Johnston. '10 Years Ago The beginner group of the Exeter Promenaders were graduated at a special dance at the local arena Saturday, when about 80 dancers from Exeter, Clinton, Seaforth, . Centralia and Stratford joined in the festivities. The graduates were Mr. & Mrs. Jack Hem, Mr. & Mrs.iRon An- derson, Mr. & Mrs. Fred Tilley, Mr. & Mrs. Jerry, MacLean, Mr. & Mrs. Andy Dougall, Mr. & Mrs. Rollie Youngash and Dr. and Mrs. Don Ecker, Dennis Cahn, son of Mr. & Mrs. Carman Cann, Usborne, and a SHDHS graduate, has been awarded a studentship of $3,000 by the National Research Council. Helen Burton skipped her way to her second win of the year in the ladies' final Tuesday, but she had to go to the final end to do it in a 5-4 thriller overlDorothy Prout, The squad were tied coming home. Members of the winning rink were Leona Morley, Helen Burton, Ada Dinney, and Leona Hern. Members of the Prout, rink who whipped Pauline Simmons 13.5 to gain the final were Lee Dobbs, Marg Strang and Dolores Shapton. Today is the day after our freak April storm. Outside my window the drifts are piled higher than they've been all winter covering the whole ground around us. The air is crisp, the wind biting, a rather bleak outlook for us who were expecting daffodils and crocuses any day. But out on the hedge that runs past the house, a little grey song sparrow is singing his heart out. He must be cold and hungry (although I've just thrown him some crumbs) still, he knows within his breast that this' wintry blast will pass, that the sun will shine warmly and melt the snow, that grass and flowers will bloom, and that Spring in all her glory will reign once more in our land. He's a courageous little fellow, an optimist, and we humans would do well to follow his example when the stormy blasts of life hit us, often when we least expect them. Sometimes our bright world gets buried in frigid banks of sorrows and disappointments. It's hard to sing then and often we wish we had wings of a bird to fly away, to whisk ourselves beyond our . present difficulties. Helen Steiner Rice has written a poem on this subject called Silver Wings which you may not have heard. SILVER WINGS "Oh for the wings of a bird," we cry, To carry us off to an untroubled sky Where we can dwell untouched by care And always be free as a bird in the air . . . But there is a legend that's very old, Not often heard and seldom told, That once all birds were wingless, too, "The world Has Cancer and the Cancer is Man." So wrote A. 'Gregg in 1955. Cancer is an uncontrolled growth. Growth uncontrolled in our world is cancerous, destructive. It is thought by some that "if present growth trends continue, the world'silimits will be'reached within the next 100 years, resulting in sudden and un- controllable collapse". The Club of Rome in its latest reports feels this be an extreme view. They see rather "regional catastrophes" occurring in this century in different regions, in different times and for different reasons. The effect of these happenings would be world-wide. The ideology of growth has its own ethics. Economic growth has as its motive • profit. Personal, corporate and state profit becomes paramount. The profit motive leads to a certain carelessness about people and' environment. Abuse of world resources seems to be part of our social order. The car industry in North ' America is a case in point. In 1973 there were over seven million vehicles manufactured in Canada and United States, This has become the most consumptive industry in the world. The gap between the poor and rich can be shown in terms of car ownership. Thirty percent of the world's population live in in- Unable to soar through the skies of blue . , For, while their plumage was beautifully bright And their chirping songs were liltingly light, They, too, were powerless to fly Until one day when the Lord came by And laid at the feet of the singing birds Gossamer wings as he spoke these words: "Come take these burdens, so heavy now, But if you bear them you'll learn somehow That as you wear them they'll grow light, And soon you can lift yourself into flight" So folding the wings beneath their hearts, And after endless failures and starts, They lifted themselves and found with delight The wings that were heavy had grown so light , . . So, let us, too, listen to God's Wise words, For we are much like the "wingless birds", And if we would shoulder our daily trials And learn to wear them with sunny smiles We'd find they were wings that God had sent To lift us above our heart's discontent . . . For the wingsthat lift us out of despair Are made by God from the weight of care, So whenever you cry for the "Wings of a bird," Remember this little legend you've heard And let God give you a heart that sings As He turns your burdens to 'SILVER WINGS'. dustrialized countries and these people own 89 percent of the world's cars. General Motors' annual bill for model changes and advertising is estimated at 700 million dollars at minimum. This well exceeds the 300 million dollars which Canada pledged at the world food con- ference.' "It's slowly sinking in," says John De Lorean of General Motors. Detroit will have to satisfy pollution and safety standards, and improve fuel efficiency. The nature of the car will change radically. It is tragic that so much time is needed, that we learn so slowly, The confession is still mouthed by many industrialists, "Planned obsolescence is another word for progress". Nor is the menace of cancerous growth limited to the corporate giants. We are all committed to buying more, to ever higher standards of living, to greater consumption, Any private or public deficit is charged against ever higher revenues. We have not learned that there are limits of growth, Individually we require ever higher wages to maintain an extravagant standard of living. Unionized labour demands its annual and even semi-annual ransom from an economy already overburdened and an environment already im- poverished. The London Times editorialized in religious terms about our present predicament. Inflation was described as a moral problem caused by the deadly sins of pride, envy, avarice, gluttony and sloth. The respected newspaper used the following words to define inflation, "It's an economist's word for overconsumption; for living beyond Your income; for taking more out of the kitty than you put in. Mesarovic and Pestel the writers of the Club of Rome's second report pictures the results of unregulated growth, growth for profit's sake alone: "—there will be a thousand desperadoes terrorizing those who are now rich, and eventually nuclear blackmail and terror, will paralyze further orderly development". The needed antidote to world wide economic cancer is a universal will to change in favour of a more realistic and equal life style. The Club of Rome feels that 10 or 20 years from now may be too late for remedy. Now is the time to take our medicine. situation is usually that one sits around for several hours for arrangements to be made and then you get less than five minutes to grab a taxi from one location to another to make the connections that have been arranged. By the way, neighbors over on Sanders St. should keep an eye on the Batten pool this summer as the writer tries -out the new swimming togs brought home as a souvenir from Spain. sinotireallyinewaslsomelof,You Bible experts will readily acknowledge, The gift was two fig leaves! Don't clap, Howard, just throw money! + + + While touring Spain, mother reports that many of the major centres were filled with high school students enjoying their spring vacations. There was a time when many of us thought that getting out to go sucker fishing was a big trip for the holiday season, but that's_ not the case now. Students think nothing of signing up for trips to Spain, , Rome, Paris, Cuba and the likes these days and by the time they have graduated, many of them have been to more world centres that their parents even knew existed. In some cases, the practice of providing funds for youths to undertake such adventures is rather difficult to understand because it means that their parents can't use those same funds to spend on their own vacations to see the places they've always dreamed about. We wonder how many of these young people stop to consider the' fact that they are being rather selfish in asking (some cases, demanding) that they be allowed to join the tours abroad and thereby deny their elders the opportunity to get the benefits they deserve from their savings. But then, some of today's young people aren't particularly noted for their thoughts along those lines anyway. + + + Riding out the storm in our office gave the writer an op- portunity to take more than a cursory glance through the many weekly newspapers which have arrived in the past couple of, weeks. The conclusion one reaches is that our cohorts behind the editorial/pens/are predicting that unless some drastic steps are taken against excessive wage demands and wildcat strikes, this country is slowly sinking into the economic mire that has been experienced in the past by England and other European countries. "The modern world has seen some specific examples of what unlimited power in the hands of a minority of irresponsible labor groups can do," one writes, and then asks "must Canada, this land of great opportunities and comfortable living standards, follow these sad examples?". The editorials speak about the blackmail tactics being used by groups of workers to further their cause towards huge pay in- creases. "Everywhere you turn, people are greedily reaching out for more. What's the end? Total chaos? The ruination of a rich country?" Those are the words of one observer who goes on to write that "today we have indecisive governments and people who are afraid to make a decision stick." And so the comments continue, but unfortunately they appear to be falling on deaf ears. People continue to demand more and offer less in return and we join in wondering just where we are headed. + + + Don't forget that canvassers will soon be knocking on your door to solicit funds for the Cancer Society. This desease remains as public enemy number one, but research is slowly making some inroads ,and the work must be continued. A large portion of your donation is used for research purposes,lso please be generous.