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Times-Advocate, 1979-04-18, Page 4Page 4 Times-Advocate, April 18, 1979 ’imes Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 imes - Advocate Mb Hwrw*, Nw* MbMhwt M < ludk UmUm »«» M?» SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by J. W. Redy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager —• Harry DeVries Business Manager — T....................... Phone 235-1 Amalgamated 1924 4 (♦cna SUBSC Dick Jongkind Published Each Wednesday Morning (pfpRflM I 331 at Exeter, Ontario UnUQll!/nJ Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 ILUl RI0BOH AMARO SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $22.00 Time for solutions The situation last week when half a dozen local students had to be sent home from an Ottawa field trip after they were found drinking, points up a problem with which today’s society is having difficulty contending. It is certainly not a new problem, nor one confined solely to high school ac­ tivities, and by no means one that arises only when young people get away from their home surroundings. But regardless of how long the problem has been with us or to what magnitude it may now have reached, it is a situation to which society has been unable to reach any solutions, and primarily because it has not addressed itself sufficiently to finding any solu­ tion. Most of the time has been spent in assessing the blame, that ranging from the lowering of the drinking age to the increasing lack of parental control. However, the cause and affect have been well documented and it’s time to get our heads out of the sand and put them to better use in finding solutions. The first line of defence—or attack, if you prefer— rests with parents and obviously many of them are doing a lousy job, through their lack of dis­ cipline and example. Some of them have no idea what their offspring are doing in their time away from -the heme, and unfortunately some don’t appear to care. When they are con­ fronted with the problem they slough it off with the stock reply “my son/daughter wouldn’t do that”. While that attitude may be impossi­ ble to change, it does point up in­ creasing need for concerned parents to become more familiar with their own child’s circle of friends, even to the point of putting them off limits. They must also ensure that they are taking steps within their own community to provide activities that give young peo­ ple worthwhile pursuits for their free time, and in that regard, this area perhaps leaves something to be desired. Peer pressure is one of the main in­ gredients for the problem, but at the same time it may also offer one of the solutions. Principal J. L. Wooden has indicated that future school trips may be jeopardized by the recent incident. It may be profitable to throw the problem into the laps of the student council and see whai course of action they 'would suggest to eliminate the- problem or what disciplinary action they would recommend if it arises again. Another solution may be to increase the deterrent factor, not only for the offenders, but more importantly for those who supply liquor or drugs. An extensive revocation of a licence may prompt owners of liquor outlets to be more careful in their serving of un­ derage patrons. Had the Ottawa liquor store employee who was involved in the recent situation faced an immediate and lengthy suspension for not asking for an age of majority identity card, he too may have been more careful and thereby eliminated the problem. We hope some of our readers may offer some of the other suggestions that may be evident to them and that groups within the community may set aside a portion of a meeting to consider the topic in this “year of the child”. In conclusion, we emphasize again that the recent Ottawa trip incident is not an isolated or new situation, but merely an example of the problem that must be faced by the community and hopefully school officials can be con­ sidered part of the team. * “As if it's not enough we have to choose between Clark and Trudeau, the bars will be closed May 22.” BATTNAROUND ....... with the editor X ■■ . ■ ' ..... Envy soon disappears Mainstream Canada Who Creates the Jobs? Good news, too What with nuclear scares, mounting world problems, increased mudsling­ ing on the election campaign, higher taxes for Ontario residents and the vagaries of the weather, good news seems somewhat hard to come be these days. However, throughout the community there are people brightening the days with deeds of kindness and accomplish­ ment that should be noted. First off, congratulations should be extended to Lucan’s Lori Noyes for be­ ing chosen as the lone soloist to accom­ pany the Ontario Youth Concert Band on a European tour this summer. Lori has thrilled audiences at various con­ tests in the area and her accomplish­ ment represents a considerable amount of dedicated effort. It also shows the importance of the talent shows which she has been able to perfect her abilities and that should make the volunteers who arrange those programs extremely satisified and even more dedicated to giving other budding young stars equal oppor­ tunities. The report carried in last week’s edi­ tion regarding increased employment opportunities at Huron Park is also welcome news for area residents. While the industrial park has suf­ fered some ups and downs since its in­ ception, it is encouraging to see it progressing favorably at a time when industrial activity elsewhere is not as buoyant as could be hoped. * * * Even in the adverse news there is a bright side, as evidenced by the many offers of assistance bing received by the congregation at the Dashwood Lutheran Church who lost their house of worship in a fire last week. The caring and sharing evidenced is not uncoriimon in this area, of course, and while it may not be as newsworthy as some of the major items it is cer­ tainly an indication that people have not lost sight of the ideals that have made life so rewarding in this area in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Reporting on winter storms and similar violent acts perpetrated by nature are among the usual domain of this writer, given the area’s propensity for being victimized. However, it has always been with a little bit of envy that we’ve read ac­ counts from other newsmen who have been able to give more descriptive first-person accounts, having been caught in storms or managed to be in on-the-spot situations that lend to more detailed analysis of what it’s all about. But we found out this week that the envy was badly misplaced. From now on, we’ll be happy to view the problems from a safe distance or get second­ hand accounts of the problems that can arise. Similar to most area residents we were ill-prepared for the storm which hit on Thursday night. We’d taken our three youngest to head out for Toronto to greet mother on her return from a holiday in sun-drenched Vancouver. Notwithstanding our normal problems with parking spots at International Airport, we had the better half safely in tow around 9:30 p.m. and were heading back to Exeter, listening to the interesting accounts of her trip amid the constant pounding on the windshield of a heavy rain. The rain subsided around Kitchener and things looked brighter for the last half of the journey ... but alas, it was the lull before the storm. . Heavy hail started to pound the windows as we approached New Hamburg and each kilometer brought forth an increasing wave of snow, the visibility being only, possible on the occasions when sheetlightning lit up the heavens. Cars started to pull to the shoulders of the road, each driver hoping that those behind would take the lead and make his trip a little easier by following tail lights rather than the wall of snow. As we approached Shakespeare, the family van started to take on a shud­ dering sound from under the hood and we knew that the dampness was get­ ting in and before long our deepest fears were fulfilled. It conked out, just as we rolled to a stop well off the roadway with the dim lights of Shakespeare periodically being evident through the wind-whipped fury. '/'■Now, there are several courses of action open to one in such predicaments, none of which are fool­ proof. We chose to think the storm would abate and we could get the family vehicle back in operation. So, we waited. Mother unloaded her suitcase and the kids added some warmth with everything but her unmentionables. Walking was out, because there were only two pair of winter boots for five people. When it became abundantly clear (which is about two hours for the eternal optimist) that the storm was. not going to let up, that it was im­ possible to walk to a nearby farm house and that it was too cold in the wind-, rocked van to stay any longer, we hailed down the first set of headlights eerily approaching through the storm. A couple of Bell Telephone people who were heading for Stratford quickly offered a ride and we were again on our way . . . but very slowly. West of Shakespeare the tail lights ahead indicated the lead vehicle had stopped. As we approached closer, the cause was evident. A large transport had misjudged the road and was sitting perilously in the ditch. -Having proceeded cautiously around that obstacle, the new leader of the Into the cruellest month By W. Boger Worth Mary operates a small cor­ ner store in Vancouver and em­ ploys three people. Sam man­ ufactures wood products in Quebec, hiring 14 lull-time workers to produce a variety of crafted items for the retail trade, including a large depart­ ment store chain. John is a Maritime contractor, employ­ ing seven full-time staff and another dozen during the sum­ mer months. In an unusual way, the three Canadians are connected. They’ve all hired one extra full-time employee during the last few months, creating an­ other three jobs and, in their own small way, helping over­ come the country’s serious un­ employment problem. The three jobs certainly don’t make much of a dent in Canada’s 976,000 unemploy­ ment total, yet without the Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. jobs provided by these indivi­ duals and thousands of other small businesses across the country, the jobless rate would be much, much higher. In fact, it is not overstating the case to say independent businesses are the real heroes in the battle to beat unepiploy- ment. Consider these facts. Busi­ nesses with fewer than 20 em­ ployees provided an astound­ ing 59% of net new job growth in Canada between 1971 and 1977. In many cases, while big companies with more than 500 employees have in fact been shedding jobs, reducing over­ all employment, the small and medium sized firms have mov­ ed in to pick up the slack. While statistics are not available on job creation by firms with more than 20 work­ ers and less than 500, the med­ ium sized businesses almost certainly provided more than their fair share of new employ­ ment. The increasing importance of small business exists not only in Canada, but in the U.S., Japan, and other coun­ tries as well. What’s happening is that small and medium sized firms are beating the pants off the larger companies when it comes to creating jobs. Like many small business people, Mary, Sam, and John shun publicity. But it’s these humble, modest citizens, and thousands of their counter­ parts across the country, that have given Canada one of the highest job creation rates in the world. Without such independent businesses .and their tremen­ dous capacity to create jobs, the unemployment rate would be much, much higher. The people who operate such firms, in the vernacular of election campaigns, deserve our vote. A vote of thanks for a job well done/ By SYD FLETCHER Perspectives Life on the farm can be a little exciting, especially when you venture too near a power take-off. Three par­ ticular incidents come to mind, ranging from near- fatal ones to one which was almost amusing in its result. The first one happened to the hired man of the dairy farm next door to us. He was out. spreading manure. He stepped off the idling tractor to check the spreader and his pant leg caught in the Pro. ♦ The trousers ripped at the knee or he might have lost his Whole leg. Instead the foot broke off at the ankle. Believe it or not the twisted maze of tendons stalled the tractor. Now this man had real courage and strength of pur­ pose. He uncoupled the spreader, got back on the tractor and drove it home, right into the side of the barn so his boss would hear him. The hired man said later that he was more scared of the wild ride in the boss’s lit­ tle Toyota to the hospital at 90 miles an hour than he was about the foot. At the hospital they sewed the foot on in a four-hour operation. He can walk on it today after much therapy. On the same farm a four year old girl came close to dying when the PTO grabb­ ed her, threw her over the shaft, tearing a good size chunk of hair out and break­ ing her arm. On the lighter side was the time a lady of this communi­ ty was helping with baling the hay. She got too close, and as nicely as you please the PTO flipped her right over it and then plucked her dress from her as clean as a whistle, generously leaving the collar to keep her de­ cent. Her husband and brother- in-law, once they saw that she wasn’t hurt, gave her the royal hee-haw as she headed for the house, a white streak, accompanied by a convenient burlap bag. I guess all three cases point out the need for a bit of healthy respect for all machinery if we want to stay around to enjoy another spring. “April is the cruellest month.”So said T.S. Eliot, a transplanted American who spent most of his adult life working in a bank and writing poetry in England. As far as England goes, he was full of baloney. April in England in delightful. It rains only every second day, and the countryside is green with grass and as colourful as a patchwork quilt with flowers. Now, if he’d been writing about Canada, I’d agree, April is no bargain in these parts. It’s one of those nothing months, like November. You have staggered through the last of the March blizzards. Barely. And suddenly, in theory, it’s spring.In reali­ ty, it’s the dirty bottom end of winter, and the weakest possible whisper of a hope for summer. April is mud, treacherous, piercing winds that give you that racking cough you avoided all winter, rusted fenders, changing snow tires, and surveying your property and all the detritus deposited on it and around it by the re­ cent winter. Just checked mine today, On the side lawn there is a dirty brown hump that resembles something from the paleolithic age, eyeless, shapeless, but somehow menacing. It is made up of one part ice, two parts sand, and one part salt, all courtesy of the snowplow­ ing department. This lump will have melted entirely by the fourth of July and will leave a 30 foot square foot patch of pure Sahara. Scattered about the back porch are bits and pieces and whole shingles, removed, without charge, from the roof when the man was knocking off the ice at the end of January. Mingling with the shingles are por­ tions of brick, knocked out of the wall by the man who removed some of the shingles while he was removing the ice. Lying on the back porch itself is a pile of glass, shattered from a storm window that didn’t quite get put on last November, and was leaned carefully against the house to wait for a nice day for installation. A December wind caught that one. Leaning limply is the storm door, which will no longer close, because the ice got in around it, and it was forced shut so many times it lost its shape and all desire to keep out the weather, and the mosquitoes, a month from now, when it becomes a screen door. Lying in the back yard, leaning on one elbow, is one of the great old cedar chairs, looking as though it had just been mugged in a back alley by a par­ ticularly vicious gang of punks. Beside it stands the picnic table, practically sway-backed from the load of snow and ice it carried all winter. ‘ But all is not drab, There’s a nice touch of color here and there. A green wine bottle tossed over the fence by procession was soon seen to stop, just a couple of feet short of duplicating the feat of the transport driver. Cars pulled out to the right and soon the procession was off again, with thoughts of the curves approaching Stratford not being conducive to a relaxing trip. However, three hours after they had set out from Kitchener, our pair of rescuers pulled into their motel and we quickly followed, ‘hoping there was still a room available. Luck started to turn and before long we were into the warm confines of room 198 at the Festival Motor Inn, having made arrangements with former Seaforth reeve Frank Sills to catch a ride home around 8:00 a.m., only five hours hence. That too was overly-optimistic and we proceeded down for breakfast to wait for a further break in the storm. Arriving at the desk, we learned that none of the motel staff had been able to get in and breakfast was "catch can”, not entirely a disappointment, especially for three hungry boys who found a well-stocked supply of break­ fast cereal and started into a tasting contest to find their favorite. It was here that we learned of the comaradie of people who find them­ selves in predicaments. Each had a story to tell about his experience in the storm and before long the dining room took on the atmosphere of a gathering of long -lost friends. Dinner found us searching through the kitchen for more edibles and we were rewarded with a large pot of soup, a bountiful supply of ham and cheese sandwiches and even pie and ice cream for those first in line or those with good Please turn to Page 7 some passing contributor. Here, frozen into the ice, a newspaper wrapped in yellow cellophane. Over there, another paper, wrapped in blue, emerges from its winter retreat. Both bear December dates. There’s a frisky grey squirrel, scuttl­ ing up the dead vines on the house, looking for a soft spot to gnaw through and deposit her kits in the attic. Chas­ ing her-is a dog, probably the same one who left his calling cards all over the back yard during the winter, which are now melding nicely with the mud and the stench of dead earth coming back to life. And the clothes-line is sagging like an ancient stripper. The back stoop is just that. Stooped from the ice falling off the roof onto it. All this is normal enough, a typical April scene, and I’m not complaining. But wouldn’t it be nice if you got through one April without your tail­ pipe and muffler suddenly starting to sound like a bull breaking wind? It’s enough to break a man, were he not a sturdy Canadian, who had been through the same performance in the same arena year after year. But this April is going to be the one that broke many a man stronger than I. On top of all the usual crutf of April, —_—.-------------------------------------------- . ® «<»wn memory lane. 55 Years Ago Mr. William Kernick entertained about 65 youngsters of Exeter to a maple taffy pull at his sugar bush on the third concession of Usborne on Good Friday afternoon. The youngsters had all the taffy they could eat and needless to say had a very jolly time. Mr. Bruce Medd, who has completed his year at the Guelph O.A.C. leaves the latter part of the week for Walkerville where he has secured a position for the summer with Walkerside Limited. Mr. F.C. Hooper has purchased a new Ford truck for his egg business. Miss Dorothy Balkwill, of Stratford Normal, and Miss Marguerite Kuntz of London Normal School are spending the Easter holidays at their respective homes in town. 30 Years Ago At a meeting in Mitchell, Elgin McKinley, farmer of Stanley township, was selected to carry the Progressive-Conservative banner for the riding of Huron-Perth in the next federal election. Ushering in a new era for Hensail Bell Telephone users, a common battery exchange was put into service replacing the magneto exchange that served the community for years. The Exeter Chamber of Commerce did a good piece of work when it turned down a proposition to sell stock for the establishment of a factory in Exeter for making electric freezers. Two men who were trying to interest people of Exeter were convicted of taking thousands of dollars from the people of Waterloo county. Mr. C. Jinks, Hensail, who has bedn in the implement* business for the past 30 years has sold out to his partner, William Park. Principal H.L. Sturgis and Mr. A. Dixon of the Exeter High School, together with two students, Evelyn Desjardine and Charles Cowen, attended OEA convention in Toronto. 20 Years Ago In a plebiscite, Wed­ nesday, Lucan residents will decide if they wish to have a government liquour store established. Thieves stole cash and merchandise with a total value of $500 from Gascho Bros, and Stade and Weido hardware Friday night. One hundred and sixty persons sat down to dinner at the father and son banque* for Boy Scouts of Exeter, Wednesday. Monday night was ladies night at the AOTS men’s club of James St. United Church. Guest speaker was Mrs. Bren deVries. Exeter Mohawks won the Western Ontario Athletic Association Intermediate "B” hockey championship. Mohawks chalked up 30 victories' as against five defeats throughout the league and playoff action over, the season. 15 Years Ago Drs. R.W. Read and D.A. Ecker, Exeter, attended the four-day scientific assembly of the College of General Practice as part of a formal program of 100 hours of postgraduate study every two years. Town works crew began installation Monday of the block-long sewer extensions on William and Carling streets. Residential levy in Exeter was set at 83.7 residential and 91.8 for commercial. A $2,000 National Research Council bursary has been awarded to Mark D. Bender, R.R. 2 Hensall. He’s the son of Elton Bender. Count de Beaufort, world- renowned racing driver and his sister Joan A van Lim­ burg Stirm were visitors over the week end with Mr. & Mrs. Ward Fritz. will be pile the even cruddier crud of an election cam­ paign. It won’t be so bad for the kids, who don’t blind April at all, as it gives them a chance to get soaked to the knees and covered in mud with some excuse. They don’t care about politicians. , Nor will it be too tough for the elderly, who greet April with a kind of jaunty, triumphant grin, because they’ve made it through another bone-buster of a winter. And they are perfectly aware that politicians are pernicious, whatever their outer coloring. But for the honest, decent, middle-aged Canadian, who sees no more difference between the parties and their promises than he does between his left hand and his right, it’s just too much. April by itself is bad enough. But to go through 30 days of it huddling under a barrage of political poop is the utmost pits. I agree with the poet. This April will indeed be “the cruellest month.”