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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1979-01-24, Page 4Times-Advocate, January 24, 1979 isn’t it? Proceed with discretion BATT’N AROUND z.-.- An accident is just a word..until you have one! That probably explains why people tend to ignore all the warnings and safeguards that are available to them until it is too late. There are still many homes in this area that are not equipped with smoke detectors, despite the fact that cost is relatively small in terms of the life­ saving warning they issue. Exeter councillor Lossy Fuller rather startled fellow members last week when she asked them who they would call in an emergency, and while most thought they knew the answer, it would be interesting to know how many had the required telephone number prominently displayed in a convenient place.. Unless one has faced an emergen­ cy, it is difficult to imagine the trauma and lack of common-sense that can prevail. Such a simple task as looking up a telephone number in a directory becomes a major problem that often results in the loss of the precious seconds that make the difference There’s a good deal of talk today about people not wanting to help when someone is physically volved in a motor otherwise obviously assistance. Frequently, too, attacked, accident in need in- or of police are frustrated in investigations and in their efforts to lay charges because people don’t want to get involved and possibly have to appear in court. We know it’s the humanitarian thing to "do to go to the aid of those in distress but you’ll have a hard time convincing a Vancouver woman of that fact after what she went through recently. Glancing out her window about midnight she saw a stumbling, crying young woman in her front yard. Within a few minutes after opening her door to admit the person apparently in distress she realized she had made a big mis­ take. The young woman, who was simply 1I ( 1 \ By SYD FLETCHER “You wouldn’t get rid Suzie, would you Daddy? the seven year old beseech- ed. I had to laugh despite my frustrating position. The lit­ tle red car had heated up again on me, and to top it off as I was fiddling with the engine the hood had blown down and hit me a smart crack on the side of the head. I had said several sweet words about the beast, among them something about a short trip to a large junkyard. I must admit that Suzie has been something of a tradition in the family. Most cars come and go with little or nothing special about them but Suzie is a little different. The little red Renault was my mother’s. She had bought it new and despite a fair amount of repair dollars spent on it Times Established >873 of O V» I I 'O N between tragedy and the required assistance arriving on time. The local fire department has fre­ quently outlined the need for families to plan an escape route, yet there are many youngsters in this community who still have no idea how they could escape flames if their normal route was blocked off. lyhile planning is an essential part of the preparation of handling an emergency, it is also necessary to put that plan into practice through a dry­ run, even to the point of faking an emergency to see what happens, although of course it should be ter­ minated before the final numbers are dialed on the phone or the kids start smashing out the upstairs bedroom window. Each day, tragedies strike families across this nation, yet few people take the time to avert similar cir­ cumstances for themselves. Strange isn’t it? Now...drop this paper and. run to the phone and see how quickly you can find the numbers you need to call for assistance. staggering drunk, attacked her . benefactor. And when the latter broke away and hurried to a neighbor’s for help the woman picked up a large potted plant and threw it on the floor. She then emptied every potted plant in the house, dumped the housewife’s china cabinet smashing many articles the owner had for years .and, greatly cherished. . When the owner’s husband and the police arrived they found the young woman had passed out. It took half a day to clean up the mess and the dirt, broken glass and china filled three shopping bags. Perhaps such a thing isn’t likely to happen in smaller places and rural areas where such characters' as the young drunk are rare. But the fact that in such places there is a greater spirit of neighborliness and usually a quicker response to lend aid and such offers should be made with a measure of dis­ cretion. Dutton Advance Perspectives maintained that it got good gas mileage. Just what I needed. Perhaps the first inkling of a problem was when I brought it back from St. Catharines one bright summer day to find a load of sod in the front yard ready to put down at our new house. I had put the door and trunk key in my shirt pocket when we left the city. I pitched right in to help with the sod, and as far as I know that key is still fertilizing the new lawn. I guess I didn’t really want to lock the car anyway. Somebody hinted that Suzie is set to self-destruct. At time I have believed that with some of the odd things that have happened to her. The only thing not too definite is the date of -that event. Part of the joy of driving Suzie is knowing her little eccentricities. My brother- in-law borrowed her for a week recently. The first thing he did wrong was casually pull the large red rubber ball out of the back seat.- Disastrous! That’s there to hold up the back of the front seat. Not too many people have a completely automatic reclining seat in their car. You don’t even have to crank it. Then my sister-in-law, riding along with him, min­ ding her own business, suddenly got a bash on the side of her head. The sun­ visor, ‘normally’ tucked up quite safely into a slot over the door, had fallen on her! Not everyone has the same affection for Suzie as I do. Left out on the highway one night (she had pulled another heating-up tantrum) somebody decided to s rearrange her features a lit­ tle by jumping on the roof and putting the boots to the side doors. I must say she has some unusual angles to herdines now. z Despite her faults Suzie gets me where I want to go, usually, and even a little faster than she should, ap­ parently. I have that on the word of an O.P.P. officer, since the speedometer doesn’t work, that we were peppering along at 109 kilometres per hour. I didn’t think the little devil would go that fast. Whatever, if you copie up behind me and want to pass, remember that just like the old Volkswagen drivers, I’m pedalling as fast as I can- imes - Ad *•*•* forwt, NodA MMdhrws.................... Advocate Established 1 88 1 vocatel I "L — w forth UMMoa foe* V SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.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 Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager Dick Jongkind Phone 235-1331 (♦CNA SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $22.00 Published Each Thursday Morning al Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 Think small ‘ Z hear the post office received a letter from the prime minister congratulating it its speed and efficiency — unfortunately, it was from Prime Minister Borden. $ SW® Caution.- jangled nerves ahead White it’s always a good idea not to upset people, there’s a special reason why you should guard your comments and actions today in dealing with friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Wednesday, January 24 has been designated as “Smoking Cessation Day” and those who have decided to toss away their weeds for the day will be a little more edgy and irritable as they go through withdrawal symptoms. Many people, such as the majority of Exeter council members, may think there’s little value in the campaign to have the air free of cigarette smoke for a day, but the fact remains that some rather surprising results have been ac­ complished in similar ventures. Tens of thousands of Americans voluntarily gave up smoking for “Weedless Wednesday” last year and a large number of them used it as a step­ ping stone to give up the habit on a per­ manent basis. Having proved to themselves they could go one day without a smoke, they decided they could continue to be in the ranks of the non-smokers and the pro-gram proved remarkably successful and no doubt was one of the' main reasons why the various heart and lung associations in this country decided to emulate the program with ^Smoking Cessation Day. * * ★ While today’s program is strictly on ■a voluntary basis, there’s little doubt that smokers are rapidly losing ground in their stubborn battle to oracticetheir stubborn battle to practice their habit without any qualms. Non-smokers used to fume in silence at tobacco smoke, but not any more. The meek have becoihe aggressive, and their new attitude is evident in the growing influence of the anti-smoking lobby. , x A definite social stigma has become attached to the'smoking habit, and ex­ cept for the most brash, an increasing number of smokers are asking permis­ sion before lighting up in the presence of non-smokers. Restaurants, airlines, hospitals, all kinds of public buildings and board­ rooms have either set aside specific sections for smokers and non-smokers or placed an outright ban on smoking. However, one of the greatest in­ fluences, if the writer’s home is any ex­ ample, is coming from children who are shaming their parents into giving up the smoking habit. Not only do they express their con­ cern about what smoking is doing to the health of the head of the household (??), they point out quite strenuously that they'want no part of the second­ hand smoke which engulfs their heads. When words fail to satisfy their aim, they move to more aggressive tactics, making it almost impossible for the smoker of the family to continue. They have even gone to the point of attacking the writer physically, gang­ ing up to confiscate his cigarettes and unceremoniously breaking them into small portions and despositing them in the garbage container. If you want to lay a few bucks on your local bookie, the government has a surprise for you: fines and/or jail. But, at the local race track, you can legally blow your financial brains out. There’s a full-fledged law prohibiting penny-ante poker on the CNR. But you can buy Loto Canada tickets at most train stations. The law says you can’t run a Bingo game for cash. But you can buy lottery tickets from almost any of the provincial governments. And at least two provincial governments are seriously considering legalizing casino gambling. We’ve reached an interest­ ing point in the social devel­ opment of this country, No longer is all gambling deemed to be the work of the Devil. Now only private enterprise gambling is officially labelled as sin. State-run gambling is now condoned as socially beneficial. This sort of convoluted thinking comes naturally enough to a government which wants to spend more than it figures it can safely raise in taxes. (“Safely” means, simply, that the level of taxation will remain low enough that the voters will keep the government in of­ fice.) A similar sort of think­ ing takes place during wars when, rather than tax the - public directly for the full Suffice it to say it is now too costly to cost of the campaign and smoke at 64 Sanders- St. to say nothing of the physical dangers. • W * * While most smokers will readily ad­ mit to the self-inflicted dangers of their habit, they are a stubborn breed, continuing to ignore the discomfort they force on others, even to the point of being rude and brash enough to pay no attention to the no-smoking areas that have been designated. The same people, of course, scream loudly when their rights are denied or eroded in other facets of.Iife. One of the best examples occurs almost any night at the South Huron rec centre, where a smoker who blatantly disobeys the no-smoking rule will hurl his ire on a referee who mis­ ses an infraction on the ice. It’s one of the best spots for children to see the double-standard which adults so vividly display. While anti-smoking rules are seldom enforced adequately, there is little doubt that the growing militancy dis­ played by non-smokers will continue to have greater influence and hopefully many smokers will seize upon the op­ portunity afforded by Smoking Cessa­ tion Day to terminate a habit that is becoming a definite social stigma. It’s getting to the point that “where there’s smoke, there’s ire”. risk losing public support for the war effort, government prefers to print money and tax the public more subtly through inflation. Almost anything - as any politician knows - is preferable to a tax which is highly visible. In lotteries, all sorts of governments have discovered an almost unlimited gold mine. The same people who hate to pay taxes love to lose their money on games of “chance” where the odds against success are high enough to make a bookie blush. This vast supply of money means that govern­ ment doesn’t have to take the full rap for its spending. And, since the taxpayers are not really aware of the total revenues which government is taking out of the public pocket, there is less opposi­ tion to the government’s programs. The case for lotteries might be a lot stronger if the money was being used to offset the deficits in essen­ tial public programs. Instead, the lottery departments are running around trying to find new projects which can be funded through the gambling revenue. It’s impossible to make an airtight case for legal gam­ bling under any circumstan­ ces, however. Government should be required to collect its revenues through taxes, making the public fully aware of the cost of public programs. As matters stand now, lotteries are just one more loophole allowing gov­ ernment to avoid the full consequences of its excesses. “Think small” is an editorial message from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business© 7 >. memory Ians J j ’ . X ’’’ Produces a dull, sick ache It’s hard to head into a new year with a high heart, when every second headline or smarmy news announcer hits you another blow where it hurts — right on the financial bone. It doesn’t tingle, like a crack on the funny bone. Rather it produces a dull, sick ache that you know isn’t going to go away in a few minutes. All the staples of life in our once- wonderful Canadian standard of living* are taking another spurt in the inflation race: bread, butter, cheese, milk, meat, vegetables, fruit. There’s a plausible explanation for every in­ crease, as usual. But I have a deep, abiding suspicion, and if I had the research facilities, I’ll bet I could confirm it. I have a strong feeling that when the basic commodity rises, say, 20 per cent, the middlemen, the big food chains with their-handy outlets, the supermarkets, add another five per cent to make it a nice round 25 per cent, fully realizing that the ^harried shopper hasn’t time or resources to figure out whether the in­ crease on the shelves is justified. One would have to shop with a calculator in one hand, a copy of the Financial Post in the other, and a mind like a steel trap to be able to prove it. But I have a feeling deep in my bones that it’s so. Heard of any big food or supermarket chains going broke lately, trying to keep prices down? Any liquor stores? Any big oil companies? Nope, just round it off to next figure above the increase, never below, and let the consumer make up the difference. After ail, it’s a free enterprise system we’re living in. And devil take the hind­ most. 45 Years Ago Mr. Wm. Hatter, local dairyman, has bought out the dairy business of Mr. Ben Case. A real old-fashioned blizzard visited this section Sunday and Monday. The wind blowing a gale and the driving snow made travelling almost im­ possible. The storm came up suddenly following a week of mild weather. Messrs. H. M. Hurd and R. Fries of London, engineers of the Bell Telephone Company were in town last week making arrangements for the removal of the com­ pany’s lines off the business section of Main Street. The company proposes placing the main cables from Huron Street to North Street, a distance of three blocks, underground. The banquet of the Men’s Club of the Trivitt Memorial Church on Wednesday evening of last week was put on by the losing^ide in the membership contest and was catered to by the U-Go-I-Go class. Miss Marie Melville, R.N., a recent graduate from Victoria Hospital, has ac­ cepted a position with the Sarnia General Hospital. 20 Years Ago Plans for the new central school in McGillivray township were presented to the school area board at its inaugural meeting last week. Dr. Walter H. Johns, a native of Usborne and graduate of area schools has been appointed president of the University of Alberta by Premier E. C. Manning. Robert E. Aitken of Palmerston has joined the Exeter police detachment to bring it to full strength of three. Exeter council gave ap­ proval to the Swimming Pool committee to proceed with a fund-raising campaign but it took pains not to obligate itself financially toward the project. Pete McNaughton, a native of Hibbert, will take over his new duties as clerk of Hensail, February 2. This type of swindle is only pennies, when you look at one item. But it doesn’t take those pennies long to turn into millions of dollars when the manipulators gather in their counting houses at the end of the year. And it’s a kick in the solar plexus for the people on low or limited incomes’ trying to keep food on the table. If I were an old-age pensioner and had nothing else to live on, I’d be scared stiff to pick up the morning paper and learn what new item would have to be banished from the menu. If I were a young mother with a raft of kids and a husband out of work, I’d comtemplate eating the kids, starting with the youngest and most succulent, rather than trying to feed them. I’m not an economist, thank the Lord (what a mess they’ve made of things). But I think it makes more sense to sub­ sidize farmers for growing wheat so that the price of bread may be kept down, than it does to subsidize American industrial giants so that a few thousand jobs will be created. I know the answers: we need the jobs and the taxes industry will produce. But the farmers will still be here, growing wheat, when huge new fac­ tories have closed, the jobs have vanished, and the Americans are gone, laughing all the way to the bank. It’s happened before, and will again. I don’t blame the Yanks. If you can find a sucker willing to give you huge subsidies, and sweet tax concessions, why use him? When the subsidies dry up, and the tax concessions period . ends, you can always go home, taking your marbles with you. No skin off yours. a Don’t think I like subsidies of any kind. I hate them. Nobody ever sub­ sidized my father. And when he went broke in the depression, he and my mother had to scramble to keep us off the relief roles. But they did. That of course, was in the days when individual enterprise was possible, before everything got so big and faceless and unwieldy, when a person was still a human being, not just a number buried in the bowels of that vast conglomerate that is government today. No, I don’t like subsidies, but I do believe in fair shares, or as near as we can get in our system. And that brings me from food fiddling to taxes. Every year I read the early January reports of changes in the tax structure. And every year I almost weep. It’s the rich wot get the gravy, it’s the^poor wot gets the blame, as the old song goes. This year, as usual, the poor get a few minor concessions, but with inflation, wind up shorter than ever. The rich get the same concessions, but with their money invested at fat interest rates, come out ahead of the game. The poor don’t have investments. They have to operate in the market place. 1 It’s all very complicated, and I won’t go into it here. But putting it roughly, I reckon that if you were a totally disabl­ ed veteran with 12 kids and a working wife, you might, just might, have the same income, as the pension of a politi­ cian who served two terms, was sound­ ly thumped the last time around, and had returned to his fat law practice. 30 Years Ago Over $18,760 is on'hand in the building fund for a proposed community hall and memorial arena for Lucan with the site property purchased. Mr. Jack Doerr was chosen chapter sweetheart for 1949 of Beta Sigma Phi. H. R. Sherwood has pur­ chased from Lome Johnston two lots of land just off Main Street and intends erecting an up-to-date showroom for his Massey-Harris im­ plements. J. M. Southcott has received official notice of his appointment as returning officer for the Huron-Perth riding for the next federal election. 15 Years Ago South Huron Hospital Board received a $2,000 bequest from the late Mrs. R. N. Creech, who died last fall. Mrs. Ernest Koehler was reappointed librarian of the Dashwood Library at the annual meeting held Saturday. Syd Sanders, his son Aljoe, Herb Ford and his son Irwin have served on Exeter’s volunteer fire brigade for almost a century and a half in terms of actual years participation. Bob Pooley is a patient in St. Joseph’s Hospital, London where he underwent surgery. % your Heart Fund help your