HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1978-03-15, Page 5Ai& C RAWFORD
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WINGHAM ONTARIO
USED. CARS
1977 CHRYSLER NEW YORKER
1977 TOYOTA
1975 OLDSMOBILE 442
1975 PLYMOUTH ROAD RUNNER
1975 CHEVROLET BISCAYNE
1975 OLDSMOBILE CUTLASS
1975 DODGE MONACO
1975 CHEVROLET NOVA SS
2,-1974 FORD' TORINO
1975 PONTIAC LAURENTIAN
1974 DODGE MONACO
19'73 PLYMOUTH FURY
1972 PONTIAC LEMANS
1972 PLYMOUTH. FURY
1971 PLYMOUTH FURY
1970 CUTLASS
T3862
rade 13 -s
icket 13 of E
About .75 Grade 13 students
from three of the five secondary
schools in Huron County waved
their placards and march in front
of the Huron County Board of
Education office in Clinton Wed-
nesday afternoon,
The students from Clinton,
Seaforth and Goderich were pro-,
testing the quiet battle being
waged by the Huron board
members and the 270 teachers in
the five secondary schools in the
county.
The students were laughing
and good natured as they tramp-
ed up and down in a line before
the offices. But there were
flashes of anger as they protested
their closed schools because their
teachers were locked out of the
schools by the board following the
teachers' series of one-day strikes
in the county.
Scott Doherty and Bill Murphy,
Grade 13 students at Central
Huron secondary schoOl, Clinton,
said after losing 12 days of school
so far, they had contacted four of
their teachers who agreed to give
them four one hour long classes at
Wesley Willis United Church in
Clinton. The subjects taught will
be algebra, calculus, function
relations and biology.
"Basically we want to show the
public today we are concerned
about our education," Doherty
said. There are sixty Grade 13
students in the Clinton school.
oacesi MAYER'S
JEWELLERY
Where Personal Service is still
important
Trophies For All Occasions
Hockey, Figure skating, curling,
public speaking
Trophies for other occasions
can be ordered.
Engraving done on premises -
Member B.B.A. Brussels 887:9000
Ready to go for
SPRING:.
. •i•
Spreading Equipment
and
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NNOUNCING
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area
New modern blending
equipment already installed
We can also DELIVER bulk to your farm
Complete line of CHEMICALS
* for all your crops.
ARTHUR HINZ •
& SONS
R.112, Man ktan
Phone 347.204
• Once in training. it was a shattering
experience to be "washed out" of air crew
merely beeause you had badly bent up one of
His Majesty's aircraft by trying to land at 40
feet up, or had wound up 300 miles off course
on, a cross-country training flight. It was
devastating if you wanted to be a fighter pilot
and were shipped, off to 'timbering old
boners.
I have friends who still bear a deep scar on
the psyche because they were made flying
instructors and spent the rest of the war in
Canada. This despite the fact they were
chosen as instructors because they were far
better pilots than the rest of us.
This despite the fact that many of the pilots
they trained 'were- dead,, dead, in no time.
None of this was any consolation. They still
feel they missed something irrecoverable,
Well 1 know what they missed. They missed
the stupidity of senior officers who didn't
know whether they were punched or bored.
They missed long, deadly dull periods of
training, and short, intense moments of sheer
terror. ,
They missed being shot at, physically, by
perfect strangers; and shot down, verbally, by
people on their own side.
They missed the utter blind confusion of the
amateurs in charge of the war.' Migawd, those
idiots lost an entire wing of Typhoons for a full
'week.
Nobody, 'least of alt intelligence, had a clue-
where it was, I air-hitched all over southern
England and northern France before I found
the blasted thing, all on my own.
Let's see, have I left anything out? Well
maybe I have. First I'll take that back about
stupid senior officers. There were plenty of
those in Canada, too, so you didn't miss that.
Perhaps you missed the joy of climbing out
of your aircraft after an operation, lighting a
cigarette, and -talking a wild blue streak of
relief and let-down.
I guess You missed the glory of heading off
fora week's leave in a strange country, loaded
with lust, a month's. pay. in your pocket, and
the secret sweetness in your' head of knowing
that nobody would be shooting at your for
seven days. • . •
And you did, I must admit, miss th girls.
Not 'all of those fumblings in the blackout were
frustrating. ' • .
But I stiltsay we were all crazy to yoli.tnteer,
and even vie to be killed, Must write a paper
on the some day.
My involvement with. RCAF Association
brings back a lot of memories, some a bit
grim, some pretty hilarious.
As the old mind's eye wandered back.
something hit me like a cold douche, Not that
I've ever taken a cold douche.
Why were we so keen to get killed? In this
age of dropouts, draft dodgers. and deserters,
it seems incredible that thousands, of yonng
Canadian males, back in the Forties, were
almost frantic to get into the air force, into air
crew, and into a squadron, where the chances
were excellent they'd be dead with-in a couple
of months,
From the point of view of common sense,
reason, logic, it was not any brighter than
theChildren's Crusade of the 'Middle Ages.
Why? Certainly we had no death wish.. We
had no, deep urge to inmate ourselves in the
breath of the war dragon. We weren't even
running to ,the battlements to protect our
homes, our wives and children. Most of us
were in school, or just recently out, and didn't
have none of them there things.
' Oh, we knew we had to "Stop thet
bawstawd Hitlah!" as Churchill once told us
on an airfield in Normandy, We knew rather
vaguely that we were defending democracy
and unemployment againSt the monsters of
totalitarianism and full employment, although
it was a bit puzzling that totalitarian Russia
was on our side.
We knew joining up was the -thing to do,
that most of our friends were doing it, that a
fellow looked pretty fine in a uniform, that the
girls were impressed and the hitch-hiking
easier.
But why the air force? And why air crew,
where the dice were loaded so heavily?
Did we avoid the army because we didn't
want tobe exposed to the rude and licentious
soldiery and get all dirty and grimy in action?
Or the navy because we preferred a fiery
grave to a watery.
I just 'don't know, but most of my friends,
and most of their 'friends, chose the air force, -
and were dead keen on getting into air crew.
Within a bare few years, most of them were
a lot less keen, and many were a lot more
_ dead.
As I recall,lt was a real downer for those
who failed the tough medical test for air crew.
, Once chOsen, you were filled with despair if
- you were going for pilot and had to settle for
bomb-aimer, just because you were a little
cross-eyed.
Bluevale
The March meeting of the.
Bluevale Presbyterian Church
W.M.S. was held at the home: of
Mrs. Harry Elliott - with ten
members and one child present.
Mrs. Glenn Golley presided
and used as her call to worship a
poem entitled, The Logic of .
Christian Missions. Following the
opening hymn, Mrs. Glenn`
McKercher offered prayer. The
scripture and topic were taken by
Mrs. Ross Gray using Luke 12:
16-21, Mark 51 25-34 and other
short excerpts from Proverbs and
St. John.
She introduced the thought that
no matter how successful or
self-sufficient we may think
ourselves to be, our lives cannot
be complete without God and
when great difficulties come, or
immense problems need solving,
we cannot cope, God is looking for
people of faith Who will look to
Him for help.
Using Caleb as an example of a
Biblical character of great faith
and a positive outlook, the
speaker showed how be dispelled
doubt, conquered fear and aided
Moses in successfully
encouraging ,and leading the
children of Israel to the Promised
Land. He depended on God and
believed that help would 'come
from Him.
Arrangements were Made for
the Easter Thankoffering on April
5, when Mrs. Grace Richardson of
Bambi, AfriCa will speak and
Show slides of her work there, and
May- 24 was set as the date fOr our
cold meat supper.
Closing hymn and ptayer by
the president, and a delicious
lunch was served by Mrs. Gray,
Mrs: McKercher and Mrs. Elliott
concluded this meeting,
Sugar and Spice by 0111..Smiley
1978-5 THE BRUSSELS POST, MARCH 15,