HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1978-06-29, Page 4Times-Advocate, June 29, 1978Page 4
Oh, sueli fun
Despite the fact it seems to happen
every year and people should come to
expect such antics, it is still extremely
difficult to comprehend the thinking of
certain individuals who wantonly
destroy gardens and flower beds.
A number of downtown merchants
in Exeter erected flower boxes at their
stores last year, but attempts to grow
flowers in an effort to beautify the
community are almost useless. No
sooner are the flowers planted, than
they’re pulled out and strewn upon the
sidewalk by marauding youths.
•A number of homeowners also
report attacks upon their flower beds
and gardens. The plants are pulled out
by their roots and merely left to die,
their beauty lost forever.
Another problem that is causing
considerable concern in the community
lately, is the periodic theft of
newspapers left on a street corner for
the energetic paperboys. The papers
are usually found later, either in a
smouldering pile or strewn about the
ditches along some nearby concession
road.
Such fun it must be for those who
perpetrate such acts of vandalism!
Imagine the sense of bravery and
power they must feel in grabbing a
colorful flower and yanking it out by its
roots ... or the laughter that must be
enjoyed as they survey a decimated
garden over which someone has loving
ly labored ... or the joy that must ac-
company the thought of some
youngster crawling out of bed in the
early morning hours and tearfully
realizing that the couple of bucks he
hoped to make have been literally
stolen from his pockets.
Treat i ll cm royally
Many in this area tend to ignore the
tourist. Even though many persons in
Huron County make their living from
tourism, few others are willing to con
cede that it is our second most impor
tant industry, and we should be giving
it the time and attention it deserves.
The provincial government has
been trying hard in recent weeks to
make us all more aware of the impor
tant part it plays in our lives.
They have given us some startling
facts that we can’t ignore. For in
stance, tourism is our number two ex
port industry, after manufacturing, ac
counting for $4 billion in income, or 10.8
percent of our gross provincial
product.
Tourism accounts for 11 percent of
Ontario’s workforce, generating 405,-
000 directly and indirectly related jobs.
In addition to On tarions travelling
around the province, in 1976 20,853,000
visitors came from the United States,
9,900,000 came from other provinces,
and 933,000 came from other countries.
The money all those people spend
filters down to nearly every segment of
our economy, so it’s important that we
treat tourists with the respect they
deserve.
The provincial government in their
campaign has offered a few obvious,
but often ignored tips: Smile, it’s the
quickest way to win a friend; listen,
some visitors have different languages
or accents; be polite, thank-you may be
your most important word; be prompt,
tourists are usually only with us d short
time.
Be helpful, try to know your area
so you can help visitors find their way;
and be clean, nothing turns off a visitor
faster than grubby people and dirty
places.
And probably the most important
advice available is to respect their
money. A visitor’s money represents
his country, his work and his worth,
however much or little it’s worth in
terms of Canadian dollars. So don’t
treat it as funny money, and always
give the visitor the best possible rate of
exchange.
Clinton News-Record
BATT’N AROUND ..
Missing out on the party
Delightful guests
The past weekend provided us with
one ot the most rewarding ex-
•periences we have ever encountered.
Five French-speaking girls from
Quebec City were our guests, the visit
being occasioned by the wedding of a
mutual friend. Not only were the girls
guests in our home, but on Friday even
ing they were joined, at our invitation,
by several more young people from
Quebec.
Our own lack of ability to speak
more than a word or two of French
turned out to be no handicap, since
several of our guests spoke English and
interpreted for those who could not.
When the young people left we
were keenly aware that we had made
new and charming friends — the sort of
people one would enjoy meeting on a
regular basis. They were courteous and
appreciative of our hospitality; they
were obviously entranced by Western
Ontario’s green fields and clear
streams and though their love of their
own language and culture was obvious,
they were openly interested in the lives
of English-speaking Canadians. When
we did permit the conversations to
touch upon separation we found that
they shared our own view that a divid
ed Canada would be a stark tragedy.
The basic problem which has open
ed such a gap between Canadians of
two languages is that we simply do not
know one another. These young people
from Quebec seemed honestly sur
prised when we said that the vast ma
jority of Ontario residents have never
felt any antagonism toward their
French-speaking neighbors. Before
long we agreed that the quarrels which
do exist have been formented by the ex
tremists and the loud-mouths on both
sides of the cultural fence.
If time is permitted and the
peoples of both French and English
background really try to mix, laugh
together and learn that both are human
with the same aspirations and the same
worries, Canada will become a
stronger nation — and a united nation.
Wingham Advance-Times
This is Canada Week, but area
residents won’t have many tangible
ways of celebrating, because few, if
any, special programs have been
arranged to mark the occasion.
While many other communities
across the nation have seized the op
portunity to observe Canada Week with
imaginative activities, no group in this
area has followed suit.
That’s most unfortunate, because
Canadians are facing a crucial time in
their history and more than ever need
to gather together in community par
ticipation to not only have some fun,
but also to reflect on where the country
is headed, or more important, to make
some personal commitment on helping
to steer it in the right direction.
For most countries in the world,
Canada is considered by most to be
greatly blessed and for them, we are a
symbol of hope and the land of their .\
dreams. .... ?I.
But that dream is facing.|he prospect -
of being shattered. To let this country .
slip from us now because of apathy, in
difference or the ignorance of short
sighted views would be a tragic event
for our children.
It is up to each Canadian to
demonstrate his faith in Canada, its
wonderfully diverse people and the
future we can build together.
, They may be difficult on an in
dividual basis, and perhaps an indica
tion of the apathy that threatens us, is
regrettably evidenced right here where
Canada Week will go almost unnoticed
because no one took the time to
arrange a suitable program in which
all could have joined to celebrate and
show some pride and concern for our
country.
Hopefully, it won’t be too late to do it
next year!
However, such planning must begin
at an early stage and it would be en
couraging to see some of the service
clubs join together to foster such a
program.* * *
It has taken a long time for Exeter
councils to address themselves to the
problem of regulating the repair and
maintenance of town property during
private construction projects, but the
current members have finally resolved
the matter by approving a bylaw to set
down in concise terms the responsibili
ty of property owners in that regard.
People embarking on projects that
may alter the quality of sidewalks,
boulevards and curbs are now required
to post a bond with the municipality.
The bond will be returned when the
v<rlpairs have been satisfactorily com
peted.
*?ihthe past, many sidewalks have
been damaged by heavy construction
equipment or the installation of ser
vices, and while that is only natural, it
is also only natural that the people
responsible should be required to
return them to their original condition
and not through the general levy to all
taxpayers.
While it may appear to be a matter of
common sense that town property be
restored, there have been enough
problems in the past to indicate that
the bylaw approved by council is most
worthwhile.
* * ★
Many readers will know that we ex
perienced some problem with the post
office last week in getting the
Indulging taste for irony
somenewspaper distributed, For
reason, the driver of the truck who
delivers the bundles to area post of
fices, didn’t bother to perform that
task and as a result most subscribers
received their issue a day late.
The quality of service received from
the post office is often difficult to com
prehend, but the situation is not con
fined solely to Canada.
In Devon, however, doctors are doing
something about it. They have been
putting up with long delays in getting
blood and tissue- samples to nearby
Plymouth for tests, but somebody
came up with a brilliant idea and now
the samples are being flown back and
forth by carrier pigeon.
A regular flight schedule has been es
tablished, and so far all samples sent
by the feathered couriers have arrived
quickly and undamaged.
It all adds some credence to the
suggestion that mail delivery is for the
birds!
60 Years Ago
Misses Anna Dow, Lillian
Boyle, Louise Martin, Etta
May Bowey, Kathleen
Stewart, Laura Harvey,
Myrtle Hewitt, Mamie
Quinn, Viola Dobson and
Elva Rowcliffe have been
successful in a First Aid
Class when Dr. J.W. Peck,
Hensail was the examiner.
Mr, Thomas Smale of
Elimville is again to the
front with his early garden
stuff. Wednesday he brought
in some peas that were a
good sample.
Last week the Exeter
Times took a holiday. The
editor was at Buffalo atten
ding the conference of the
International Sunday School
Association. Two thousand
delegates were present
representing every province
of Canada, Alaska and every
state in the United States.
Rev. John Walker, son of
Mr. and Mrs. William
Walker, Exeter North, was
ordained to the Methodist
ministry at the recent
Toronto Conference.
Preparations are being
made for his going to China
as a missionary.
35 Years Ago
Over half of the rural
public school teachers of
Huron County have resign
ed, most of them to take
teaching positions in towns
and cities, Inspector J.H.
Kinkead told the council Fri
day. There is small chance
of replacing them, he said.
Salaries now range from $1,-
000 to $1,400, an increase of
25 per cent.
The Exeter branch of
Canadian Canners com
menced canning operations
on the new pea pack. It was
a race between setting up
necessary machinery and
equipment and the ripening
of the peas and the peas
were under the wire first
but not for long. Early in
the spring after the old
factory was condemned
the work of tearing down
and rebuilding com
menced.
25 Years Ago
Dr. Bruce Eickmeier, who
received his degree of
Doctor of Dental Surgery
recently, has opened an of
fice at the corner of Main
and Huron Streets, Exeter.
He is a graduate of Exeter
District High School.
Exeter Kinsmen are plan
ning two all-new shows in
the afternoon and evening of
their third Dominion Day
celebration.
A county branch of the
Master Plumbers Associa
tion was formed with chair
man William Sturdevant of
Grand Bend and secretary,
Lome Kleinstiver,
Dashwood.
The Exeter OES cooking
school attracted Exeter and
district women to fill the
Legion Hall Monday and
Tuesday evenings and
Wednesday afternoon. Mrs.
Charles Acheson won a mix
master in the final draw.
20 Years Ago
A five or six-room addi
tion to SHDHS will be re
quired within the next two
years, it was revealed at the
Board meeting Tuesday
night. Estimates prepared
by Principal H.L. Sturgis
revealed enrolment is likely
to exceed 700 by 1960.
In addition to marking the
completion of a $30,000
renovation program the
grand opening of Rether’s
Restaurant this Friday
celebrates the twelfth an
niversary of the firm.
McGillivray voters by a
majority of 83, indicated
they approved construction
of a central school to
replace dilapidated
buildings in the township.
Officials plan to start im
mediately on plans for the
structure.
At a special meeting of
Huron County Council John
G. Berry has been appointed
county clerk-treasurer
succeeding the late A.H.
Erskine on a temporary
basis until the November
session of Huron County
Council.
The readers write
★*
It doesn’t seem to make sense, but a
story out of West Germany tells of a
head-on collision between two
motorists on a highway, in which both
the drivers were injured, but neither of
the cars suffered as much as a scratch.
What happened was that the cars
were travelling in opposite directions
along the road during a thick fog. Both
drivers had their head stuck out the
side windows trying to see where they
were going, and their noggins collided.
Advocate Established 1 881Times Established 1873
imes - Advocate
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There are so many things about me
that annoy my wife that I could not list
them in this space, not even in point
form.
But I believe the one thing that
abrases her most severely is that,
“You always have your nose stuck in a
newspaper.” Well, I retort, if one must
get one’s nose stuck in something,
there are a lot more painful things than
a newspaper.
She’s right, of course. I glom through
two dailies, a welter of weeklies, a
scattering of news magazines, and a
gaggle of other publications, from the
Anglican to Canadian Literature. When
I’m not reading news, I’m reading
books, from fiction to history to
biography, from children’s books to
spy stories to pornography.
It must be irritating to her, when
she’s trying to tell me what a scramble
she had with her music pupils, or why
the dart she put in her new blouse
makes her look like Mae West with one
breast shot off.
It must be maddening to her, when,
after fifteen minutes of wailing about
our daughter’s unemployability, groan
ing about our grandsons’ powers of
destruction, or worrying about our
son’s safety in the purlieus of
Paraguay, to have me look up and say,
“Hey, sweetie, did you know that Den
nis Braithwaite (a columnist) had the
gout? Know what causes the gout?”
Or, “Guess what that turkey Trudeau
is going to do next?”
She is, however, hot without a
modicum of realism. If she were a
general’s wife, she’d know that I had to
be off to the wars, or at least to some
cosy place within fifty miles of the
front lines. If she were a doctor’s wife,
she’d know that you can’t make $100,-
000 sitting around watching TV. If she
were a lawyer’s wife, she’d know that
your ears do prick up, like a hound
dog’s, when you hear an ambulance
siren.
So, she’s the wife of a teacher and a
writer. And she knows darn well that
this is part of the price. The man has
got to read.
At least this is the picture I draw for
her, in many a heated discussion.
Sometimes I manage to convince her,
until the next lapse. The truth is
something else.
I read the news for nefarious and
numerous reasons. One is for pure
laughs. Often this is at the media
themselves, and the seriousness with
which they take themselves. Did you
ever see, since cousin Elmer was left
standing at the altar, such a disgruntl
ed bunch as the media when the Prime
Minister refused to call the election
they had got themselves so engorged
about?
Another reason I peruse the papers is
to indulge my taste for irony. In an ef
fort to keep the peace, the Yanks are
selling fighter planes to both Israel and
the Arabs. They would prefer to sell
only to Israel, because there is a
veritable host of Jewish votes in the
U.S. But they need oil, so they sell to
the Arabs, too. Shades of the days when
they sold scrap iron to Japan, before
WW II, and had it returned with in
terest in the form of shrapnel.
I study the media as a sort of ego
trip. Doing so makes me aware that I
am not as obnoxious as Pierre Berton,
not as arrogant as Pierre Trudeau. It
works the other way too. I learn that
I’m not as fearless as Borje Salming,
not as colorful as Muhammed Ali. But
then I’m not as silly as Elwy Yost or
Howie Meeker, so I really come off
fairly well.
Studying the news makes me aware
of the darkness of the human condition.
Two little boys in Englandr six and
four, beat an old lady of 84, bed-ridden,
to death because she gave one of them
six-pence, and the other nothing. I
wonder about my grandboys.
T read a story, and wonder at the lack
of a sense of humour among our
politicians. Recently a professor hired
to do a study of falling enrollment in
schools, came out with the first part of
his report. With tongue in cheek, he
suggested women should start staying
home and having babies, or perhaps
test-tube babies should be produced;
otherwise, our educational system
would fall apart for lack of clients. The
pols, fanned by the media, accused him
of racism, anti-feminism, and
everything else short of going to the
bathroom without having to.
I know the feeling. Sometimes I
make a joke in this space, and I’m ap
palled at the reaction of humourless
people. I’m attacked as a libertine, an
atheist, a monarchist, a war-monger, a
peace-monger, a perverter of the
young, a denigrator of the elderly, a
male chauvinist, a female apologist, a
rotten husband and father, a lazy bum,
a teacher who should not be allowed
within hailing distance of our young.
It doesn’t bother me much, because I
get all this jazz at home, long before
the letter-writers get at me. I’m not
any of those things. I’m just old Bill
Smiley, trying to keep his head above
water in the stream of life, without
swallowing any of the sewage that
seems to infest it.
Finally, I enjoy that old enjoyable
known as “I told you so.” I get a real
kick out of looking back and realizing
that some cause I espoused years ago,
to the great indighation of my friends
and foes, is now the in-thing. Thirty
years ago I said we should recognize
Red China, a fact. Horror! Now they’re
our buddies. They buy wheat.
Dear Editor:
I agree with Ken Lawton
that the “question period”
of the public meeting held in
Clinton, June 13, turned out
to be a show of intolerance
and hostility, on both sides.
As June Callwood put it
“Neither side is listening to
the other.”
The emotional involve
ment of the people in atten-
dance, however,
demonstrated clearly that
the issue is not resolved yet.
In fact, in my estimation,
the real issue never sur
faced.
I have no quarrel with the
three books under attack be
ing read by mature young
adults. To quote June
Callwood again: “Even if
you don’t agree with certain
things in a book, it will give
you as a parent the oppor
tunity to give your point of
view to your children.”
My basic question then is
this: “How are these books,
or any novel, discussed in
the classroom? Is it true
that the alternatives are
presented? E.G. In “The
Diviners” is the life of the
main character, Morag, and
her search for love and con
sequent love affairs viewed
as a lifestyle accepted by
all? Or is it also pointed out
that some people value com
mitment and loyalty to a
marriage partner?
Another question follows:
Is it the task of the
educational system to teach
moral values and if so what
and whose values will be
taught? Ideally the school is
an extension of the home.
How is the school going to
satisfy all parents? In a
public school system this is
an impossible task.
If these books are still on
the curriculum in
September I plan to attend
some classes where they are
discussed. Hopefully I will
find a level of maturity in
which students and teachers
can tolerate and appreciate
different opinions without
having to resort to name
calling.
Ena deHaan
# # #
Dear Sir,
Violence has happened on
the picket line at Fleck.
However, before judgements
are made, there are some
comments that should be
made.
There has been mention
made of this being a free
country and the right of the
non-striker to work at Fleck.
This is a free democratic
country where exist the
belief that the wishes of the
majority, in a free vote, is
right.
This rule is applied
throughout otfr society, from
the election of our govern
ment down to the smallest
organization, except in one
glaring place and that is
when applied to the workers
right to be organized or to
strike. If this rule was ap
plied properly, as it is in all
other situations, when the
majority of a local union or
any group of workers vote to
strike, then the plant would
have to cease operations and
all persons would have to
respect the picket line.
This type of legislation is
not only logical, but would be
the only method that is truly
democratic and free. I would
suggest that the comments
made by some non-strikers
that they were threatened
into signing union mem
berships is only a ploy
toward conscience soothing
because they are crossing a
picket line of their former
sisters.
There is the involvement
of the O.P.P. at the picket
line. This involvement
started even before there
was a strike, at which time
the women were warned of
the consequences of striking
and the rights of
management (no mention
made of any striker’s
rights). This involvement by
the O.P.P. grew in size (at
times over 500 officers) and
intimidation (the use of the
riot squad against the
women strikers).
The police time and time
again proved that their
motive for being there was to
protect the company and
the hell with the strikers.
The incompetence in dealing
with this strike by the police
has been evident all the way
to the top. Staff Supt. H. T.
Garry and Solicitor- General
George Kerr at the best
made contradicting
statements every other day
and at their worst seemed
completely in the dark about
the situation.
Minister of Labour Bette
Stephenson who forever
seems to be waiting for some
report and when she receives
them, still doesn’t do
anything. At one time she
expressed that in her
opinion, not only were the
women at Fleck justified in
seeking union security, but
that the company should
grant it to them. Another
time she stated that the
operation at Fleck was safe,
then a couple days later
safety inspectors shut down
five machines in the plant.
Still no action from her.
Then there is management
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