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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1976-07-29, Page 4Under attack again ... The tentative compromise reached at an informal meeting this week to discuss the saving of the local race track should end the controversy which has been adversely affecting the recreation centre campaign. The recreation centre will remain basically in the same area, but will be mov- ed a few feet to the south to leave the track for the use of local horsemen and other groups which may plan events requiring the half-mile oval. It's obviously not an ideal situation for anyone, but the plan suggested should at least be given a try. It is easy for everyone to imagine problems, but many of those often have a way of disappearing — or at least waning — when such plans are actual- ly put into effect. The compromise puts an end to some of the excuses people were using for not sup- porting the recreation centre and that was obviously a major consideration in finding a solution. Now let's get on with the job! In further comment on the same sub- ject, it should be pointed out to recreation director Jim McKinlay that he appears to be over-stepping his position as a "resource person" to the committee in his public comments on the issue. Some of his statements in a news report last week were also misleading. Ex- eter council members were attempting to reach a compromise with three objecting groups when they voted against a motion to approve the original site last week. It was a decision made in an attempt only to "buy some time" for discussion, as opposed to McKinlay's claim that council had turned down a request from the recreation centre committee for approval of the site. That approval had in fact not been requested by the committee at the meeting. It is also questionable if a fence around the 18 acre park is a necessity. Some fen- cing may be required in the area around the track which borders the centre, but youngsters and horses have been co- existing on the balance of the grounds for years. Many of the comments made by McKinlay have already been pointed out to council and little will be served by rehashing them in the daily newspaper. In fact the recreation director could jeopar- dize the situation by arguing too strenuous- ly in a matter on which his very position to argue for one side over another is questionable. His views should be sought and con- sidered by the groups with whom he has been asked to work, but his position does not warrant him becoming the spokesman. Challenges our readers A veteran reader this week claimed that for the past three years he has found it extremely difficult . to feel proud about the fact he is a citizen of Canada. He suggested that this newspaper could possibly urge other readers to write in and advise him why they think he should still be proud to be a citizen of this country. We've lived up to our end of the challenge. Now it's up to our readers. Why do you think a person should be proud to be a Canadian in 1976? We'll be happy to hear from you and will print your letters. Really worth it? There are apparently some grounds for the rumbles one hears around Ottawa about the costs and effect of converting the civil service to bilingualism. Keith Spicer, Canada's official languages commissioner exposed some of his concerns recently. Of Anglophone graduates in jobs identified as bilingual, 23 percent apparently make no use of French at all. Of all those trained, 89 percent never reached a level where they could use the language at work and their skills naturally deteriorated through non-use. When it costs $9,150 to train an Anglophone public servant and there are 53,000 positions in federal public service designated bilingual, there seems some op- portunity to apply the principle of restraint. Particularly is this true when ex- perience shows many of the positions may not necessarily require the second language. Mr. Spicer's eminently intelligent suggestion, that only those who specifically need language training at work should be sent to language school, is so logical we fail to see why it wouldn't have been im- plemented long ago. Grandchildren are bedlam t3W)A-M7Et.k:, Z241.4.7NNTIVENTRESOMMINEAVECANTEMMONZZEU Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 ereferZimesabuoc:afe SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., 0,W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by J. W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Plant Manager'-•- Jim Scott Composition Manager Harry DeVries Business Manager -- Dick Jongkind Phone 235-1331 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 Paid in Advance Circulation ' September 30, 1975 5,420 Canada $9:00 Per Year; USA $11.00 ';=‘,222E:AikkaiiaidECENZI3M. CCNA RtUf R1RRON AWARD 1914 +CNA SUBSCRIPTION RATES: wartrzia:. ".-' Page 4 Times-Advocate, July 29, 1976 Crowns for wet-heads Like most grandparents, if they are honest, we are delighted to see our grandchildren arrive and overjoyed to see them depart. Started off this year's summer vacation with a visit from our two grandbabies and their mum. When they left, my wife and I went straight into a rest home for a few days, to recuperate. It's not that they are bad little boys. It's just that they are little boys, with voracious appetites for everything from mother's milk to peanut-butter-and-jam sandwiches dipped in fruit yoghurt to rides to the car wash to going to the beach to picking strawberries to being told stories to crawling around in the grass being bitten by ants, None of those activities creates any real problem, but this time, the Lord, moving in His usual mysterious ways, decreed that it should rain hard, day and night, for the first three days of their visit. Well, that eliminated the beach, crawling in the grass, picking strawberries and going for picnics in the park: all the things that little city boys, who Give it a try live in a square box on the ninth floor, should do when they go to visit their grandparents in a small town. And with all that rain, there wasn't a lot of point in going to the car wash, an experience full of joy and terror, the supreme moment of his visits for young Pokey. It also meant that, instead of riding his brand new tricycle around the yard and up and down the sidewalk under the maples, Poke was forced to ride it around in a screaming circle inside the house, through the kitchen, into the hall, into the livingroom and back to the kitchen, shouting a shrill, "Here I come!" scatter- ing various bric-a-brac and adults, and frequently running over one hand or other of his baby brother, who was creeping about on the livingroom floor, shrieking with anger when he'd get his feet tangled up and couldn't move, or yelling for someone to pick him up, or spew- ing up his latest nursing in great, viscous gldbs. . It sounds terrible, but it wasn't really. It was merely bedlam. I enjoyed every minute of it — when they were both having their afternoon nap, which almost never happened simultaneously. Pokey and I are still the best of buddies, which is great but can be a little trying. It's wonderful to feel the trust as the tiny, tough hand clutches yours, or you get a big hug and kiss for nothing. But the other side of the coin is when he won't let anybody but "My Gran-dat" put ,on his socks and shoes or pull up his pants after a "big pee" or get him se- cond, third and fourth helpings when he wants "more beans." We did get away from the women and children for one idyllic hour when it was merely drizzling, and drove through the park, down the main drag to the dock, and there got out and look- ed at the big boats and the little boats, and saw a real train and some real railroad tracks. Pret- ty heady stuff for a little city kid. But three and a half days of solid rain, with two lively, vociferous kids, 2'/z years and five months, is about as restful as trying to relax in a boiler fac- tory. I'm just getting to know my se- cond grandson, who labors, or So, what pray tell, do you suppose mother nature has against residents of Exeter? For some strange reason we appear to be the brunt of every type of weather problem imaginable, and even some which in retrospect, are difficult to imagine, It started with the flood on July 24, 1969. Now who could ever believe that Exeter would be flooded? Basically the town is located on two hills overlooking the river and there's no way water could reach the main portion of the community. Right? Wrong! It came in the back door, so to speak and provided one of the most remarkable scenes ever experienced in the town. Next there was a major bliz- zard. Traffic snarled for three or four days. Kids stranded at schools. Some roads not cleared out for three or foul' weeks. Next came that March ice storm. Some people claim that a periodic ice storm is nature's way of pruning trees. Pruning we could understand...but this was more akin to complete devastation. Then, almost to the day, nature marks the seventh anniversary with a wind storm. Perhaps she was merely attempting to blow out the candles on the an- niversary cake and got carried away. At any rate, it is not difficult to come to the realization that for some unexplained reason, the old gal who controls the elements is agin us. + + One of the axioms that comes to mind as a result of the latest disaster is "ignorance is bliss". Similar to many local residents, yours truly hurried about the house attempting to close up the windows in the face of the storm and after the pots delights, as his mother would say, under the name of Balind. It's a made-up name that sounds nice, so his mother says. I call him Young Bill. In a craf- ty stroke with inheritance in mind, no doubt, he was given the plebean second name of William. As it turns out, and as my daughter didn't know, it's right in the family, on both sides. He's named not only for me, but for his great-great-grandfather, William Thomson, on my side, and for his great-great-great- great-grandfather, William Bull, on my wife's side. Both were good men, and pioneers, William Thomson was slide-master at Calumet Island, in the Ottawa River, in the lumbering days. William Bull was the first settler at Colpoys Bay on the Bruce Peninsula, a "fine man, well educated" who was the first Indian Agent in that area. So, Young Bill it's going to be for me, just as Nikov Chen is Pokey, for me, Young Bill began life as a bawler, a fat little guy who look- ed like Winston Churchill and screamed like the Witch of En- dor, In five months, he has im- proved tremendously. He has lost three chins and now has only one extra one. He has an endear- ing, lop-sided grin, huge, bright eyes, and a delightful chortle. I think we'll keep him, after all. Well, just to add to the excite- ment, the kids' great- grandfather made the trip across country to see his second great- grandson. He got a royal welcome from Pokey, who pointed at him, yelled "Dat's my great-grandat," gave him an un- solicited hug and kiss, and from Young Bill, who gave him a drooling grin, A momentous few days, the like of which one in a life-time is enough. and pans had been put into place to sop up the overflow, we wat- ched out the window to view the storm in all its frenzy. It wasn't until we took a drive around town after the storm abated that we realized we should have spent the duration of the blow in the safe confines of the basement. We had no way of knowing what destruction was being wrought and perhaps that's just as well. The few minutes were un- nerving, but it would be easy to realize the panic that could exist if everyone in town that night had realized that some sturdy buil- dings near them were being tossed into the breezes with relative ease. Most of us can be thankful that we still had windows and walls that did leak. Others weren't as fortunate! + + Despite all the miseries to which we've been subjected in the past seven years, it is rather miraculous that no serious in- juries or deaths have been at- tributed to the disasters. There have been some close calls, and it is cause for some reflection to consider the fact that on most occasions there have been many "ifs" involved that could have brought tragedy. Friday night there was the matter of several workers at Canadian Canners having vacated dangerous areas only minutes before the storm. No doubt others can think of being only a short distance away from falling trees in the wind and ice storm, while during the flood, we recall the many people who came close to being washed away by stepping in hidden holes covered by the onrushing current. People are curious by nature and they often escape injury during the storm itself, only to injure themselves in risking their necks to get a better look at the disaster area after the storm has subsided. • They crawl over fallen power lines with reckless abandon, tramp over fallen timbers with rusty nails protruding, or step 30 Years Ago The winners of the field crop competitions were announced as follows: Oats, Oscar Tuckey and Earl Shapton and Harry Beaver; Barley, Wm. Elliott, George Link and Harry Strang. Only 10 percent of the 187 wells in Hensall that were tested were graded as Class A, it was reported by the Department of Health. Eighteen wells were listed as testing class A/while 69 percent were tested as class D. One thousand dollars was sent to the Dominion Red Cross headquarters this week. It will go towards meeting the overseas commitments of the Canadian Red Cross Society. ' 20 Years Ago Three prints submitted by photographer Jack Doerr have received awards of merit in a continent-wide photographic show in Chicago this week. Pollution in the Ausable River west of Exeter is killing thousands of fish, Deputy game warden, Jack Green said the fish began dying Sunday, By Monday night there were hundreds floating down the river. 15 Years Ago 11, G. (Hal) Hooke, retiring field officer of the Ausable Authority was honored at a picnic arranged by the public relations into buildings seriously weakened and in danger of falling at any instant. + + + One of the most over-worked words in the English language is "you", and by the same token, "we" becomes one of the least used. A good case in point cropped up at Exeter council's meeting last week in connection with the discussion of commercial development at the north end on property recently purchased by Len Veri. Councillor Garnet Hicks suggested to his fellow coun- cillors that "you should have bought the property. Mayor Bruce Shaw was quick to correct him, pointing out that the word Hicks should have used was "we". + + + The question of commercial development in this area is a ticklish one, of course. It leads to the perennial debate about hurting the downtown core area as everyone immediately assumes that commercial development means a shopping centre. This is not necessarily the case, There are many other types of business which operate in commercial zones. Officials in the community have been advised by developers that there is a lack of commercial zoning. This is not true, of course. What they really mean is that there is a lack of vacant com- mercial property. Much of the commercial property available is occupied by homes, and obviously this makes development extremely costly. It leads to a situation where a developer has to tear down a residence and replace it with a commercial building, while the people who lived in the house then have to rebuild on some of the town's other vacant land. It would appear more practical to allow the commercial developer to build on that vacant land in the first place. advisory board. Mr, Hooke came to the area in 1955. Caven Congregational Circle sponsored a unique afternoon tea in the form of a Japanese garden tea on on the lawn of Whilsmith Apts.MissKyoko Egame, a Tokyo girl attending Alma College performed Japanese dances. The new district fire truck, first in this area to be purchased on a co-operative basis was christened Thursday night during a reception in Exeter attended by officials from Usborne, Stephen and Hay townships as well as from Exeter, 5 Years Ago Hurondale Women's Institute made up the studio audience for the taping of the CFPL TV program "Act Fast" recently. The group raised $110.00 to be used for sponsoring 4-H clubs and other community activities. A theft from the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, Grand Bend, occurred some time last week. Taken in the robbery were Communion cups, Altar breads, sacramental wine and a chalice. Mr, & Mrs. Percy Hodgins and Joan, Whalen, were guests Saturday at the Holmes-Reynolds wedding at Delta United Church, Hamilton, Joan was organist for the wedding, Like many other people, I spent a good deal of time watching the Olympic games being televised from Montreal. It was thrilling to watch the young athletes pit their prowess against each other and see the victors come out triumphant and exalted as they were presented their medals, But what about the losers? What was in it for them? Did they go home despondent and disappointed, or was having tried their hardest to win enough satisfaction to them? Could they accept the philosophy of an old poem that says something like, "It doesn't matter whether you've won or lost, but whether you played the game!?" It's a fact of life, of course, that it's nice to be a winner; it's also a fact that only a small percentage are . and that's not just in the realm of sports. I was interested and somewhat amused by an article , by Jamie Buckingham, in a recent Logos magazine. Buckingham is an author of some note, having written and collaborated on several books including Corrie Ten Boom's, 'A Tramp for the Lord', He is also an award winning columnist in a Florida weekly newspaper. In this article he writes about coming to a point where he was sure God was telling him to syndicate his column. So he took the family savings, had his column printed in camera-ready samples, sent letters to 5000 editors of weekly newspapers (who he was sure were just waiting to have a writer of his calibre in their papers), enclosed contracts and self-addressed envelopes and sat back to wait for an overflowing and grateful response to his generous offer to selling it to them for the small sum of $5.00 per week! He got two replies, one of which offered him $2.00 and both of these newspapers dropped him after a short period. Buckingham says he would like- to be able to say it all, worked out well, that God turned defeat into victory but that just didn't happen. Gone were the family savings, gone, too, was all that effort and energy with seemingly nothing to show for it, Now, having been down the same road as Buckingham, only not on such a massive scale, I can appreciate his feelings. Why is it when you feel you are following God's guidance things just don't turn out how you visualized them? Did you read God's guidance wrongly? Did you really try hard enough? What happened? Buckingham says he's come to' the conclusion that 'trying' is just as important to God as `achieving'. He cites Peter's experience of walking on the water and says, "Every sermon I've ever heard on that subject deals with Peter's failure. Poor guy, if he had only kept his eyes on Jesus he never would have gone under. Good point. But at least he tried. The other fellows in the boat were all quaking behind the gunwales. The passing of the test, it seems, lies not in our ability to imitate Jesus, but in our willingness to try." That's encouraging, but it's also frustrating when one thinks of the thousands of people who are content to sit in the boat with never a thought in their heads of trying to walk on the water. It's a sad fact, I think, that se many Christians will not make any attempt to really imitate Christ, afraid they might fail or that they might be ridiculed. God help them, for they will never know the thrill of having stepped out for even a brief moment in faithful obedience to God, because of their fear of floundering, getting wet and looking like a fool. Too bad. Because as Jamie Buckingham says, the crown of righteousness fits on a wet head just as easily as it does on a dry one, An open letter to all the residents of Exeter. Did you ever watch a toilet regurgitate its delectable goodies into your basement to a depth of eighteen inches? I watched in awe and wonder last Friday night as this hap- pened in our home. Anger, repulsion, despair and then resignation followed in quick succession; but, as we began the mammoth clean-up job Saturday morning, we asked ourselves — "Why?" A new larger pumping station has been installed in our area, but still we get back up sewage. Then I remembered reading an article in the Times-Advocate, a couple of weeks ago, in which one of the councillors had made a statement to the effect, that many homes in Exeter had their downspouts hooked into the sanitary sewers. Is yours? We examined ours and, sure enough one side of the house was hooked into the drain around the foundation, and this, they tell us, is hooked into the sanitary sewer. As of today we have removed the connection and I'm going down town and buy a couple of those "Drain-o-matic's," which unroll when it rains and roll back up neatly, when it stops, taking the water safely away from the foundation of the house. Won't you do the same? It could solve a serious problem and save you and me a lot of tax dollars. Thank you Mrs. M. Dearing Dear Editor: For some time I have been wanting to write a few words of admiration, appreciation, and congratulations to the few young people (including one or more teenagers) who worked so hard, spending their time and money for the sake of saving and restoring our old Town Hall. I would say they are really the founders of our now thriving "Exeter and District Heritage Foundation" which, I trust will continue to flourish. Thank you Ida M:Dinney Dear Sir: During the planning stages of the events for Fun Days it sometimes became very frustrating and discouraging to get people involved with the Recreation Centre projects, but in the final analysis everyone seemed to rally to the projects and the results appeared to be nothing less than fantastic. Many thanks must go the following: Jenny Rowe for sup- plying Bar-B-Q food, Rebekahs for their assistance at the Bar-B- Q, the Anglican Church for the use of the facilities; the Sororities for their donations of pies for the Bar-B-Q, R.A.P. employees for moving of tables to and from the park; Jerry MacLean for organizing the talent show, the Miller Sisters of Dashwood, Chapel Lites of Goderich, Moffat Sisters, Heather and Melissa of Kippen, Sky-Lite of Exeter, Jim Pfaff for hooking up electrical power at talent show; Don Hooper for supplying-- hydro outlet from his house, Harry Van Gerwen for supplying trailer for the stage, Discount Dave's for plywood to dance on, Gord Kirk for speakers, Exeter Firemen for cooking breakfast; The Heritage Group fdr sup- plying the breakfast grill, Dave Johnstone and D&B Distributors who donated his profits to the fund, North End Shell Car Wash who donated proceeds of car wash to fund, Dave, Ronnalee and Scott Bogart for donation from macrame sale, all kids who helped me sell tickets on side of beef, all Committee members who sold tickets, all merchants who sold tickets. Probably I have overlooked someone. If I have, please accept my apology and a "Big Thanks" to you too, Without the effort that everyone put in, the Fun Days from our standpoint would not have been the success they were. Sincerely, Ron Bogart Chairman South Huron Recreation Centre Boost YOUR HOME TOWN It's Good For You Think about it!