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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1979-08-15, Page 13ground with a CO radio telling the jumper what to do to steer the chute Into the landing field, The' beginners wear one back and another infront, On top the one in front is a tiny CB receiver so that they can hear in- structions. If the back parachute fails, they have an alternative. The jumper also needs a jumpsuit--a large pair of overalls. Most of them wear hockey helmet for protec- tion, and heavy construction boots. Usually this equipment isn't needed, and Marshall says that if the jump is made properly it is the equivalent to jumping off of a four foot wall. As well as the thrill of skydiving, Marshall says that a great social life goes along with. the club. But, he stressed that the parties did not begin until the plane was down for the night. "When we're instructing or in the air, we mean business," he says. The club uses a Cessna 182 piloted by Fred Frangekis for their jumps, The plane carries four jumpers at a time, and takes off from the airport runway. The jum- pers land nearby in a field they rented for that purpose. Originally the field had barley on it, but it was recently combined. During the past weekend Norm Meyers of Gananoque was at the skydiving club teaching pilots how to get maximum efficiency from their planes. Marshall describes Meyers as "the best jump pilot in Canada," Pegs lA AUGUST 15, 1979 Price Per Copy 25 Cents Woodworker amazed at requests, custom makes variety of items LAST MINUTE INSTRUCTIONS — Lynn Ball receives last minute instructions from Bob Wright and Norm Meyers about how she stands on the airplane wheel and then falls backwards for her first free fall jump. • PACKING THE CHUTE— Peter Boshart of St. Thomas and Carole Case of London pack up a parachute for the next jump. They say a chute takes 20 minutes to pack and about two seconds to open. ON THE RUNWAY — The Cessna 1 82 taxis down the runway ready to take the skydivers for their drop from 7200 feet in the air. GOING DOWN — Instructor Bob Wright is underneath his square parachute and the tiny parachute required to open it. Well above him is Lynn Ball in her round parachute. House trailer and pick - up • • • I park Damages amounted to $21,500,00 when a pick-up truck collided with a 24 foot house trailer in Pinery Provincial Park Saturday, Matthew Bressette of RR. 2 Forest was the driver of the truck and the trailer was being towed by Mike Verkaik of Chatham, Gertrude Verkaik, who was a passenger in her husband's car, received minor injuries. The Pinery detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police investigated the accident. Also on Saturday, Pinery OPP investigated a single car accident on county road 5 near the tri-county bridge. A car driven by Raymond Gooding, Woodstock, left the road and skidded into a ditch causing $1200 damage. Gooding, who was alone in the car, received minor injuries. On August 5, a vehicle driven by Marion Quinn of London skidded into a ditch on B Concession, Bosanquet township near Pinehurst Trailer Park, Damage to the car was estimated at $1000 Please turn to page 2A Lorne Wright says he can make anything out of wood, anything but money, that is. Wright has his own wood working shop about three miles south of Grand Bend on highway 21, where he takes orders and makes the many strange things that people ask for. "I'm so busy that I'm astonished," Wright says. table top. He does put a He has stopped taking orders polyurethane coating on the right now, because he cedar to finish the tables, but figures he has enough work he prefers to sell them unfi- to keep him busy. for - tWitia4"nistiedIti1tiakhe-bilatbilier.. years already lined up. Wright has been a custom wood worker on a full time basis for the past four years. He says he likes the work because of the variety. "I'm ••-10.alealineiM SIMIMMORM Mcirce,WSNA,4" ry'e; 2intuaii BY MARY ALDERSON just amazed at the different jobs I'm asked to do." he says. His beautiful cedar table and chair sets or his coffee and end table sets are common requests. Wright selects pieces of dark and light cedar and puts them carefully together alter- nating the colors to make a can finish them, to, his own liking, Although his style of furniture is unique, Wright says that making the tables and chairs are ordinary. It's 1,4 "s1/4 Ni,. =shri NIA, Nog .40 W. mia, 110. DOG PADDLER — Swimming Instructor Janet Allister of Grand Bend helps Paul Hernacki in Tony Relouw's pool near Grand Bend. .First 'free fall' a thrill and 20 regular members. Members come from all over—most are from the London-St. Thomas area, others come from Sarnia and Stratford. They meet at the old airport near Grand Bend every weekend. Many come for the weekend, camping out in tents near the runway. This was actually the 10th jump that Lynn Ball had made. Up until now she had gone "static line"—when the parachute opens automatically about eight feet from the plane. But this was the first time she had actually fallen through the air before the parachute opened, One of the founding members of the "SWOOP", Wes Marshall says "Now, she'll be hooked"that's the difference between parachuting and skydiving." Organizers agree that if you can get a beginner to the stage where they make their first free fall jump, they will stay with the sport. Lynn says she found the jump exciting--"My eyes were watering and I was just falling", She says she can't wait to do it again, and her instructor said that she had done well for her first free fall. Keeping beginners with the sport through the "static line" stage until they get ready for free fall is sometimes difficult. The club charges $86.50 for lessons and the first jump. Wes Marshall waits on the I hate to see the end of summer come. Labour Day is the most depressing day of the year. Some people find birthdays hard to take, while others get upset on New Year's Day when they realize another year has gone by and they've ac- complished little. I used to cry myself to sleep on Labour Day nights. I thought it was because I had the back-to-school blues, but I still feel the tears coming on, even though for the first time in 19 years I don't have to go back to school. I sometimes thought my deep depression had something to do with the fact that summer was over and I still didn't have a tan. But I've come to terms with that problem and accepted the idea that I am one of those people whole turn pink when I'm out in the sun and fade to white the next day. I've tried to convince myself that tans aren't important. I keep telling myself that all those people who have deep golden brown skin are just going to be wrinkled when they get old. I think I've finally ac- counted for my hatred of September. I've never before admitted this to anyone, but I now realize that I have a serious ad- diction. I am a junk food junkie. And summer is the season for junk food, I hate Labour Day because that's when the withdrawal pains start. What better place than Grand Bend to feed a junk food addiction, You can go down Main Street from place to place and the owners will never be able to tell that you're a junkie. In Grand Bend you can start the day with a gooey chocolate doughnut, and follow that with a mid- morning chili dog, A bag of potato chips and a bottle of pop will see you through 'til lunch, when you can have a two layer hamburg with cheese, french .fries smothered in gravy, a burrito with hot sauce and top it off with a wild cherry milk shake. A foot long hot dog covered with fried onions and an order of onion rings may get you through the afternoon. Then for dinner you can easily feed your addiction a super delux submarine in- cluding salami, pepperoni and lots of mustard without the attendant becoming suspicious. A dish of soft ice cream covered in hot fudge sauce will help you enjoy the sunset. Then for a midnight snack you can have a nice big pizza with three kinds of spicy meats, mushrooms, green peppers and some pineapple, just to make sure you get your daily fruit requirement. An ice cream cone with at least three flavours—say, mauve, green and pink--will settle your stomach before you go to sleep. There are many ways to vary this menu so that clerks will not become alert to your addiction problem. You can switch the foot long to the mornings, and have the chili dog in the afternoon. But with the coming of fall, many of the establishments that supply the junk food addict close up, Another September of withdrawal symptoms. Then, it's back to salads, vegetables, broiled fish, carrot sticks and apples for another winter,. Eventually my system accepts the strange nutritious foods. But I'm always careful to lose just enough weight that I can go back to my addiction next summer, Will I ever overcome my attraction to junk food? Not likely! the other unusual requests he get that makes life in- teresting. Recently he was asked to make some wooden horses like the ones used on merry- go-rounds. The customer mounted the horses on large farm implement springs and set them up in his camp- aground so that children can play on them. Wright has had requests to make the curved wooden frames that hold up the cloth 4roof on antique cars. One customer had him making the frames for a Gray-Dort, a very old car that was once manufactured in Chatham. In the same way he curves the roof frames, Wright makes braces to steady the seat and backs of antique chairs. Many of his jobs are repairing antiques or family heirlooms. Another time he was asked to make a copy of an antique that was still in use. Wright fashioned a wooden sauerkraut cutter from a very old one, complete with blade and handle to hold onto the head of cabbage. He has also been asked to make the canopy frame for antique four-poster beds. Recently he repaired the wooden frame used to make a false wedding cake. The wooden boxes are stacked up and then iced. Wright has also made fleshing poles--the big wooden cones that trappers use to stretch pelts on for cleaning and drying. Hun- ters and trappers tell Wright thatp these poles can no longer be purchased in stores and several have come to him. Collectors appreciate Wright because he can come up with the just the right shelf to show off their hobby. Wright has made little tracks on which to display a collection of playing cards, and small shelves on which to place a collection of salt and pepper shakers. He's also make cuppolas to hold up weather vanes and wooden carts to hold plants in a flower shop. One of the most unusual requests Wright's had is to make a coat rack from little dollies which were once on electrical wires in France. The little iron figures resemble a child's doll and they held up the wires on early electricity poles. A customer brought them to Wright and asked him to build something using them. Wright make an attractive hall tree and used the dollies with their outstretched arms to hold up coats. It's the unusual things that make woodworking in- teresting. Wright says that the strange requests he gets from customers make his work a challenge. "It would be boring to Make the same old thing all the time," he says, Wright says he always dreamed of having his own woodworking business. He has done carpentry work all his life. For a while he managed a basket factory in Forest, but he preferred to be out working with the wood than in the office. Wright says there are very few custom woodworking shops around. Many have specialized in one item, such as church pews, and there a are few places one can go with a strange request. Wright also sells firewood, and his summers are very busy keeping campers supplied. He admits that , Bosanquet township is ready to look at alternatives in their flood plain zoning now that they have been faced with law suits amounting to $500,000. Deputy clerk George Eizenga says that an engineering firm has been hired to look into the area now zoned as flood plain and consider changes. "Some areas are lower than others, they can't be treated the same," Eizenga said. The law suits were served when a zoning bylaw made in the 1950's prohibiting building in flood plain areas was revived. The old bylaw had been ignored for several years, and many homes and subdivisions had been made in the area surrounding the Ausable River Cut, The claimants want a court order to stop the township from enforcing the old by-law. Ultimately they want the bylaw voided. Lawyer Kent McClure is acting for the land owners who want to build on their property. Heather Ross, a sub- division developer is many of his buyers of the custom-made wood furniture stopped to buy firewood. He's had many ex- periences with tourists whd drop in for firewood. One day a customer insisted on picking all the pine out of the various wood piles. He sorted through all the piles, and left with two boxes of what he called pine, very satisfied. Wright never told him that there wasn't a bit of pine in any of the piles, he only works with hard wood. claiming $250,000, Albert Pearce a home owner and realtor is claiming $200,000 and Harold and Audrey Coulson are claiming $50,000. Land owners Timothy Sweet and Norman James are demanding that they be issued building permits, Eizenga says he wants to make it clear that none of the existing homes in the area will be torn down. An ac- Wright attributes his large business to a change in society's attitude. He says people now want furniture that is solid and made to last. A few years ago people were buying inexpensive furniture that they replaced every few years. "We're not a throw away society anymore," he says. Similarly people want to hang onto antiques now, where a few years ago they would have thrown them out. This accounts for Wright's big business. in repairing old, brolen 'furniture. count on CFPL television frightened many people into thinking that their homes may be demolished and his office has had many inquiries, he says. Bosanquet township reeve Charles Srokosz and clerk Bob McCordic who has been named in one of the writs, were both away on vacation and not available for com- ment. Lynn Ball owes her friends a case of beer. After they had congratulated her and patted her on the back, she promised she'd buy it for them. Lynn made her first "free fall" jump from an airplane Sunday at the skydiving club at Grand Bend Airport. Tradition at the club dictates that when a member makes his or her first free fall jump, they have to buy the drinks for the next party. The club calls themselves "SWOOP"--South Western Ontario Organization of Parachutists, Chief in- structor and president Bob Wright of London estimates that there are between 15 CHECKING THE RIP CORDS — Lynn Ball of London gets ready for her first free fall jump, and instructor Bob Wright checks her alternate parachute. MAKES ANYTHING OUT OF WOOD — Lorne Wright of RR 2 Grand Bend uses a little horse as an example of the unusual things he's been asked to make. Bosanquet to look at zoning