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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1977-03-31, Page 4Exeter council can't be faulted for wanting to look at their budget priorities before undertaking tests to determine the cause of flooded basements in the Carling St. area, but they should realize that for the residents affected, that project is top priority. As resident Hugh Davis explained, they have put up with the situation for several years, and have been extremely patient. In fact, council members would probably agree that the residents have been more patient than they would be under similar circumstances. Council have been aware of the problem and have taken steps in the past to alleviate the situation. Unfortunately, the problem persists and it would appear to have reached the stage where it has become a top priority. Flooding in home basements is certain- ly one of the most annoying things that can happen to people, particularly when some of that water contains sewage as it has on occasions in the past. Missiles of doom In the Pentagon and in the Kremlin, in military academies and war rooms around thew orld, the talk is still of bombs and missiles. President Carter has been told by some of his military advisers that 200 to 250 long-range nuclear missiles — all intended for submarine launch — are by no means the minimum deterrence against a Soviet surprise attack. In 1974, the arms levels agreed upon by the United States and the Soviet Union at Vladivostok were 2,400 long-range missiles (including bombers) on each side. This is 10 times the level President Carter is now studying, and enough to spell an end to the civilized world as we know it. There is a broadened constituency in the United States and in many other coun- tries that favors higher spending on defense. The Pentagon's new defense budget for fiscal 1978 calls for $123 billion — representing about 10 times the amount that all the rich, industrialized states lent or gave to the developing countries in the form of economic aid last year. While armaments manufacturers are experimenting with Buck Rogers type death rays and warheads that weave their way to targets to foil the defenders, the dis- possessed of the earth must struggle with misery, poverty, illiteracy and disease. It is shame ful that the governments of nations — mostly rich nations but a good many poor nations as well — squander such vast resources on arms when hundreds of millions are in desperate need of a better life. The fault lies largely with the great powers. Not only could they help to create a more peaceful global climate if they wished, they also could halt the flow of weapons to the developing world. The rich nations are the ones that make the weapons. It is they who build not just the nuclear missiles that could spell doom for humanity, but the less sophisticated air- craft and tanks and machineguns that find their way into arsenals everywhere. It is the rich nations that profit from the manufacture and the sale of arms. It is the rich nations who must lead the way by banning first of all nuclear arms, and who must then work toward 'general disarmament. Farmers decide With friends like that ... It isn't too surprising that some farmers in Huron County have adopted the attitude that saving farmland is a pain in the neck. It just depends whose ox is being gored. Frank Falconer of the Huron-Perth Shorthorn Club told the local members of parliament recently in Clinton that efforts to save farmland is all a bunch of "B.S." — and who better to know about such a com- modity than a Shorthorn farmer. Falconer says that farmland should be "sold to the highest bidder". Obviously Falconer is convinced that farming, like all other business, is strictly to make money. Keep competition keen, keep the demand just a little greater than the demand, and there is the formula for financial gain. Let land go to the highest bidder and some farmers, especially those on the fringe of growing urban com- munities or those who are just plain lucky, stand to get rich, Gone is the old-fashioned idea that farmers have an obligation to feed the na- tion. And perhaps that's as it should be. Too long have city and town folk behaved as though it's their natural right to have a bountiful supply of cheap food from the farmlands of Canada. Still, farmers always will be an in- dependent breed. Though in recent years farmers have become increasingly vocal where farm policy and prices are concern- ed, they have remained fiercely proud of their ability to keep pace with the demands of a consuming public. They are intense about this matter of food production yet they demand the freedom to choose their own destiny. Politicians a -2e justified, perhaps, in their concern for the farmland of Ontario, of Canada. Maybe Frank Falconer's views are a little too radical for the times, but there is merit in what he says. Farmers must retain the choice. Chances are they won't let anyone down, Goderich Signal Star An end to fear Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 toreferVines-Uucicafe SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by .1. 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 5,409 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $22,00 Page 4 Times-Advocate, March 31, 1977 NEWS ITEM: Airborne base 100 miles from airport venmse,WIK.- c It is a priority Join the dance A celebration in the Bible that interests me is when David brought the ark of the Lord to the City of David. He was so happy he danced with joyful abandon at the front of the procession to the temple, His wife, Michal, a royal princess, took a dim view of his behaviour and accused him of making a fool of himself in front of his people. David's answer was that he was dancing before the Lord who made him king of Israel and that he was more than willing to look like a fool in order to show his joy and thanksgiving to God. The people standing on the sidelines watching the parade seemed unable to join David's dance. They were, perhaps, less sinful than their king. They trusted God, their confessed sins had been forgiven but they could not dance. How many people are there, I wonder, who are like those. who watched David dance but couldn't join him? Good, solid, faithful, gray people who never do anything very wrong but who have never experienced the hope and joy in Christ that allows them to dance in and through life, Some of them may not want to dance for fear of looking foolish, Others may be afraid to take the first faltering steps. Still others may want to dance very much but nobody ever asks them. In any case, they are all missing the joyful experience of allowing Christ to take over their lives. The Dance I want to stamp my foot and shout at her Move, woman, move! I want to yank her off that same old place where she's been marking time for twenty years I want her to run to the centre of the floor to skip and leap to experience the exhilaration of the Dance of the Lord. But she will not budge That dance repulses her or frightens her She drags her feet digs in her heels in that shadowy safe spot on the sidelines I am exasperated resentful angry because she is a stone around my neck holding me hanging me hauling me back God forgive me give me understanding patience love Help me to lead her gently to the floor for those first simple steps Then help her Lord to catch the throbbing tempo of Your Wonderful Life-Changing Dance. It seems that everybody is try- ing to throw a scare into me these days, And I must admit it isn't too difficult. We're going to run out of oil one of these days, trumpet the headlines. Not to mention gas, coal and practically everything" else that provides heat, I have visions of self, ten years from now, sitting in front of the fireplace, feeding the last bit of the grand piano into it, turning to the old lady and asking, "What now, baby? Go fetch the cyanide pills." Various ministers of health tell me menacingly that if I keep on smoking, I'm going to die a horrible death; if I don't give up the drink, I'll lose so many brain cells a day that there'll be nothing but a pack of putty behind my eyebrows, Economists claim that if I don't save some money for my old age, I'll wind up eating tinned dog food. Other economists in- form that if I do save some money for my old age, inflation will erode it to the point where I won't even be able to afford dog food. From one of the revenue department's lackeys comes a stern warning that if I don't produce within 15 days Some abstruse document which I already sent them two years ago, something mysterious and dreadful will happen, They will "make an adjustment." I wonder which part of me they will adjust, and how painful it will be. My nose could use some straightening, If Quebec separates, according to the pundits all kinds of ghastly things will happen: my Bell bill will rise, along with my blood pressure; my arthritis will soar to new heights; I'll have trouble raising a few billion next time I try to float a bond issue in the States; my wife will probably leave me, because I spent the first two years of my life in Quebec; I'll have to deal in funny money, with Saint Rene's picture on it; my roof will catch fire because of nationalized asbestos; and there won't be any French on the back of my cereal box. A fate worse than death. Unemployment is rising, and I am assured that nobody is going to hire an old, lazy, highly- trained guy like me when there are all those young, lazy, highly- trained people around. They tell me that when the anti-inflation controls come off, there's going to be such an almighty, all-Canadian grab for the buck that even God is going to wake up, grumbling, and wondering what's going on down there, And I'll be left in the lurch, because teachers, on the whole, will let themselves be dumped on rather than fight in the streets and be thrown in the paddy wagon. Even worse things are threatened. George Chuvalo, Canadian heavy-weight champ, having disposed at One sitting of a fat turkey called Pretty Boy Feldstein, might decide to start a comeback and demand a rematch with Muhammad Ali (at the age of 40). And speaking of turkeys, I have another fear. Toronto, with one of the worst football teams in Canada, and an equally inept hockey team, has now acquired a major league baseball team. It will inevitably be "promising," "threatening," and "scrappy" for the first 10 years. After that, when it soars from last place in the league to second-last, it will instantly become the "pennant- bound Toronto Bluejays." So much for sports fears, Advertisements constantly frighten me. They tell me I have dry skin, hemmorhoids, falling hair, crumbling teeth, bad breath, and high armpits. They suggest I am stupid if I don't rush right out, buy a lottery ticket, and become an instant millionaire. And just the other day I read in the paper that the South African doctor who started the heart transplant game is prepared to use baboon hearts, if there are no human ones available, Nothanks, doe. You can give me the heart of a pig or a chicken. Either would suit my personality. But have you ever seen a baboon from the rear? Who wants a great, flaming, orange bum? Newspapers tell me that the Canadian farmer is going down the drain, I go out for a quart of milk and it's gone up a nickel since yesterday, Some drain. Everybody is talking about forthcoming elections. This scares me too. I can't stand the politicians we have now. Why It's unbelievable just how pain- ful a knee injury can be! Now before you jump to the conclusion that the writer is go- ing to tell about the excruciating physical pain associated with a knee injury in the hope of foster- ing deep sympathy on the part of the readers, let us point out that the mental pain is much greater. But let's start at the beginning. Yours truly was among the coaches and managers of the Ex- eter Minor Hockey Association who took to the ice recently to do battle with Team 10 from CFPL in a benefit game at Huron Park. The game was full of laughs for everyone. Referees were smashed in the face with cream pies, spectators were showered with pop corn and there were the usual on-ice tricks of having a puck tied to a stick, etc. etc. The writer was among the par- ticipants enjoying himself until mid-way through the second period when he took a stride Lto check an opposing player and had the misfortune of having a skate blade dig into the ice, resulting in a twisted knee. As noted, the physical pain was not that severe. Walking becarrie difficult at best, and trying to get one's socks and shoes on in the morning was a task that required assistance from some member of the household. But all that was as hard to take as peaches and cream in com- parison to the mental anguish one suffers. Our first insight into that aspect of a knee injury came when we hobbled into the house after the contest. Noticing the pained expression on our face and the difficulty being ex- perienced in removing a shoe, the better half immediately offered the normal expression of sympathy. "I hope you realize now that you're too old for that non- sense," she remarked, and returned her focus to the book she was reading. While that lack of sympathy was crushing enough, there was more to follow when we joined the family circle. "Judy Savoy gave you a pretty good check," our eldest son remarked with a big smerk on his face. "It's like you say, dad, have to keep your head up," he continued, obviously enjoying the opportunity to return some of the ribbing he has taken after be- ing knocked to the ice by a smaller player. His two brothers, who had attended the game, quickly join- ed in the abuse, also enjoying the replace them with losers? Well, today I decided that I've had enough. I'm sick of being frightened half to death. If the human race, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, is go- ing to perish for lack of heating, I'll move south, 'I'm going to go on smoking, and will donate my lungs to a chef who will write a cookbook specializing in smoked lungs on toast, with truffles. Maybe I'll get senile from drink, but it's a lot more fun than just getting senile, If I'm going to die, why worry about my old age? I'll take a steak now and let the dog food look after itself. Let the feds throw me in jail over my income tax. I'd enjoy eating at somebody else's ex- pense for a change. And you get weekend leave, anyway. If Quebee separates, I'll rip out the phone, which I'd love to do, and stop floating those billion- dollar loans, which I seldom do anyway. If I can't get a job, go on unemployment insurance, and laugh all the way to the poolroom, with the rest of the boys. opportunity to suggest that the old man had been injured by that weather woman. „ The missing member of the family was still holidaying in By Deanna Young A common question posed at this time of year surfaced once again during the recent sand- bagging episode at the dam in Riverview Park. "Why are the levels in this and the Morrison Dam not drawn down in order to provide more storage for flood waters, thereby reducing the level of the peak flow in the river?" This is a frequent and reasonable question, and deserves a clear explanation. The reasons for maintaining a fairly high water level in the Morrison Dam are several. Firstly, the design of the dam requires that a certain amount of water remain in the reservoir to protect the structure from 4, damage due to frost. As well, this minimal volume of water preserves a habitat for wintering. fish. Secondly, keeping the water at a fairly high level allows the formation of a large, solid sheet of ice, which is resistant to cracking. This sheet remains in the reservoir, melting slowly in the spring. Keeping a lower level in the reservoir through the winter, or lowering it im- mediately before the spring freshet, would have the same result - the ice would crack into large chunks, enabling it to be carried downstream to wreak havoc at the dam and island in Riverview Park. The reasons cited for keeping the water level high in the Morrison Dam would seem in- significant if lowering it would have a reducing affect on flood flows. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Designed primarily as a storage structure for low flow augmentation, the dam will not store. sufficient water to significantly affect high flows. For example, the storage capacity of the dam, if drained, would be approximately 185 acre- feet, Translated to cubic feet, the volume of water held in the dam when filled would be about 8 million cubic feet. A typical spring runoff type flow into the reservoir would be about 2,000 cubic feet per second, or 120,000 cubic feet per minute. Simple arithmetic would then show that the dam would be filled to overflowing in a matter of about one hour. Thus, this small storage capacity would have little affect on a high flow lasting 12 or 24 hours or more. It is our hope that the above satisfactory e xp l ana t ion provides a answer to the annual question regarding the operation of the Morrison Dam, Brampton after his hockey torunament and our paths never crossed until we met at the midget game in Listowel on Mon- day evening. "I hear Judy Savoy really got you," he laughed, failing to answer our question of how that news had reached Brampton. And so it went. "Not as young as you thought you were, eh?" was the shout we heard from the local dry cleaning office as we limped our way to work, "Gee, Bill, you sure shouldn't play against those rough women," commented the adver- tising manager when he saw us coming in the door. Sympathy! It's a great thing to cure an ill, But just where does a fellow go to get it? But you know what they say about an ill wind. We've already written the Chicago Black Hawks to advise them about our knee injury. For those not in the know, Chicago pays up to $3 million for hockey players with bad knees and that can obviously go a long way to offsetting any lack of sympathy. We've also enjoyed shocking a few people this week, due to the fact that the better half is also hobbling about with a sprained ankle picked up in one of her "participaction" endeavours. Tuesday morning, it was decid- ed that both invalids should seek some medical advice and off we hobbled to the doctor's office and then down to the hospital for some x-rays. "Oh, it was just a little family squabble," we advised a couple of people who questioned what had happened. "But we can't kick each other now," we reported in trying to keep a stright face. So, if you've been hearing reports about that vicious marital battle at the Batten household, we can advise that it is not really true. The injuries were suffered in separate in- cidents. In fact, everything is quite blissful. It has to be, because we only have two good legs between us and there has to be con- siderable give and take — mainly because we only have one heating pad. "This looks like a scene from the Bluewater Rest Home," we remarked as the better half handed the pad over at the end of her allotted time the other day, We've managed to catch up on some of the latest TV shows dur- ing our convalescence, but we in- sist that the boys turn off the one-eyed monster before the weather report. It's not that we don't enjoy you, Judy, but your picture on the screen just starts that heckling all over again. 30 YEARS AGO Boy Scout and Guide week came to a conclusion in Exeter Saturday afternoon with en- tertainment of Scouts, Guides and Cubs to a skating party at the Exeter arena. Exeter now boasts the only turnip waxing plant with an automatic drying machine which has reduced to only nine minutes the stage from the washing machine to the bag. The interior of Credition Evangelical UB church is being redecorated by Mr. Paris Anderson of Ailsa Craig. J. S. White, son of the late J. J. White editor of the Exeter Times, has been appointed deputy health minister in Saskatchewan. A new Canadian four-cent stamp will be issued shortly to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Alexander Graham Bell. 20 YEARS AGO Hensall Council bought the old public school building which will be abandoned this year when 15 YEARS AGO The former Canada Packers building beside the Lyric Theatre will be torn down to make way for a food market it was revealed this week. As part of a movement to develop greater understanding between Anglicans and United Church persons, Rev. Bren deVries and Rev, Ernest Lewis exchanged pulpits in their churches, Sunday. John E. Hall,' Mt, Carmel, a graduate of SHDHS has been named one of four vice- presidents of the newly.formed Ontario Law Students' Association, The home of Mrs, Peter Ber. tram Carling Street, was sold to Clarence Wurm this week, [ 1 liovv'n memory one , the new school opens in the village. It hopes to establish 'another industry by offering the building for sale, Largest crowds to attend a production of the Exeter Drama Guild turned out this week to see the farce, "Father's Been to Mars." Stars were Bob Russell, George Godbolt, Eunice Ward, Ted Smith, Donalda Adams, Mrs. Doug Harrison and Mrs.. Bill Oberle. Trivitt Memorial Church gave the contract for the complete redecoration of the interior of the church to A. W. R. McDougall, Toronto, specialist in church decoration. SHDHS board offered its teachers a $400 across-the-board increase Tuesday night in a move to retain the staff in face of the frenzied scramble for teachers. National president of the Association of Kinsmen Clubs, Iry Cantor, Leamington, was guest speaker at an interclub meeting in Hensall, which marked the 37th Anniversary of the founding of the club, Thur- sday night,