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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1980-06-25, Page 17Page 1 A JUNE 25, 1980 Price Per Copy 35 Cents Imes vocate iersmA Uth litoen.ry t4trur• ,otIA Iambic n 11m. WI HEY! THAT'S US! — Driver of the Bluewater Country Baby Dolls bed, Jeannette De Vries peaks out between the bunks to see if the bed is actually moving. The Baby Di:A.1s took part in the Great Grand Bend Bed Race Saturday. Staff photo sponsored by the Bluewater Motel. The ladies division was taken by the Bluewater Country Baby Dolls spon- sored by the Exeter Times tvfer.- - e Advocate. The Baby Dolls also received the prize for the best decorated bed. All winners were awarded medals by Molsons. x " ON THE RUN — Jason Desjardine tries to beat the clock dur- ing the superstars obstacle course at the soccer field Satur- day. Staff photo 'MENA'21 Mary's amusing BY MARY ALDERSON The good news... and the bad Group goes. o Board \Non t .• dispel rumours Wes Fetch failed to get reassurance that Grand Bend Public School will not be closed at a meeting of the. Lamhton County Board of Education in Sarnia Monday night, Fetch of Southcott is chairman of the newly formed, Ratepayers Interested in Good Education and spoke to the board on behalf of the group. Fetch asked three times that the board dispell rumours that Grand Bend school will be closed and received no reassurance, When the judges told her to "be creative", she was. Unfortunately, it didn't win her any points, At the Burgerfest Bathing Beauty contest on the beach Sunday afternoon, one en- trant came up with what she thought would be a real crowd pleaser. She turned a bare bottom up to the audience with a quick flip of her bikini. When some young men in the front row lamented that they hadn't captured the event on film, she gave a repeat per- formance, and was im- to earn 'Creativity' fails her points media tely dubbed "Miss Moon" by the cheering crowd. Judges eliminated her in the first round, when the 14 contestants were reduced to eight . First prize which was $75 and a Native Tan beach kit went to Brigitte Long of Kitchener. Donnalee Wakenhut of Kitchener took second prize which was a gift certificate of $50 from the Sun and Surf Shops. Kandy Kapson of London won a poster from the Heritage Pavillion for third place. About 10 parents from Grand Bend and North. Besanquet attended the meeting with Fetch. Reeve Robert Sharen also spoke to the board, Prior to the meeting Fetch had sent the board .a letter outlining 19 questions which concern the ratepayers about the future of Grand Bend school. was told the board he Was looking for answers on how the system operates. Trustee Jack Fullerton told him that to answer all his questions the board would have to do a school study and that the study is the first step before a school is closed. Board official, Allan Wells said that a school study committee is not formed until a school goes below 60 per.cent capacity, Last year Grand Bend was operating at 60 per cent capacity. Wells said that this year Grand. Bend may have dropped below the 60 per % cent mark and a study committee eel be formed. He Said that the information will not be available until the next board meeting, Fetch was invited to return for that meeting on July 14. At one point in the meeting trustee Mary Anne Miller said that she shared the same concerns as Fullerton. She objected to phrases such as "street talk", and "clever camouflage" in Fetch's letter. Chairman Dr. W.M. McLean said she was con- cerned about question 14 which read, "Why is the board afraid to publicly state the facts of the matter, as it appears from the' meeting at Grand Bend Public School?" A discussion as to whether or not Times.:Advocate reporter Mary Alderson should haire attended that meeting followed. Trustee Ken Grey accused his fellow board members of harassing Petch, Another trustee Mary Alice Kerrigan agreed with Grey, "He's not here to stand on trial," she. said. She added that the situation did nothing for the board's public relations. Sharen told the board that they are keeping information from the ratepayers of the village, He said that a $40 Million dollar enterprise ShoUld be able to state clearly and accurately what it intends to do, He said that if they do otherwise they are inviting an "emotional and angry response," Chairman McLean called for an end to the discussion and said that it will be dealt with further at the next meeting when capacity figures are available. WE'RE NUMBER ONE — The victorious Colonial Hotel bed race team hoots They beat the Sanders Tavern team by a small margin in the Great Grand and cheers as they cross the finish line to capture the hotel challenge trophy. Bend Bed Race held Saturday as part of Burgerfest festivities. The modified baby crib proved to be the fastest bed in town. . ALL-OUT EFFORT -,-;‘ The 'Sanders team, ,pushEng a bed decorated as-a beer'6ottle, put forth the effort for the, uphill climb. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to make the win.. Colonials capture coveted cup, Sanders settle for second slot Cross cut saw contest offers break from noise There was a pleasant break in the noise of the chainsaws when the com- petitors put their machines down for a few minutes Saturday and went back to the old cross cut saws. Ken and Stan Lovie won the cross cut sawing com- petition, as a crowd of about 400 looked on. Several members of the audience were older gentlemen who applauded loudly for the cross-cut winners. In the chain saw com- petition Xavier Boogemans of Grand Bend won the 0 to 40 cc class with a Frontier. Ken Lovie Dashwood took the 40 to 50 cc class with an Echo. Ken McNee Who came all the way from Dungannon for the contest won the 50 to 65 cc class with , a Homelite. McNee also Won the 100 cc and over class with the "granddaddy" of the Homelites. Stan Lovie, Grand Bend with a Homelite won the 65 to 80 cc class. Bill Biggest and best Burgerfest ' "The best one we've had to date". That's the way that Chamber of Commerce president Gene Grenier described this year's Burgerfest. Grenier said that everything ran smoothly, and security at the beer tent presented no problems at all. Incidents were so minimal, they're "hardly worth mentioning," Grenier added. Grenier said that the Burgerfest was a success in that it brought many people to Grand Bend. He also said that final figures have yet to be calculated, but they are sure it was a success financially for the Chamber of Commerce. Grenier says that they made as much as they did last year, even though the tent was closed for two hours each day. Grenier estimated that they had the best crowds ever for their bed race and chain saw competition, The tent was packed for the bathing beauty contest. The Optimist Club •spon- sored a successful dunk tank. Large crowds were drawn for a chance to soak Reeve Robert Sharen of Grand Bend and Reeve Charlie Srokosz of Bosanquet. The Optimists also organized a superstar ob- stacle course for children. An overwhelming number of children entered. They crawled through tunnels, climbed scaffolds, and balanced a pole, among other stunts. Skydivers landed on the beach Saturday afternoon, in a precision jumping exhibition. On Sunday the Lioness club sponsored a fish fry and served fresh perch. Lioness president Diane Bexton says that although they didn't serve as many as they would have liked, they were still pleased with the turn-out for their first venture. Did you hear the good news We won! We won! Now the bad news -- we won by default. But there's more good news -- we won in the best decorated category, too. Now the really bad news -- they made us run the race anyway. Who are "we" - Well, we just happen to be the Exeter Times-Advocate Bluewater Country Baby Dolls Bed Racing Team, and we were entered in the Great Grand Bend Bed Race on Saturday. Since we were the only all- ladies team entered, we automatically won the gold medal. And because of all our hard work we took the top prize for decorations, too. Then came the bad part. there was only one entry in the junior category, too, so officials thought it would be a good idea if we ran against the kids for the fun of it. Ha! Have you run against a 14 year old boy lately? Those kids from the Bluewater Motel under the direction of Mark Boogemans took off and we never saw them again. It is a long way from the liquor store down to the beach and back up again. If you don't believe me, try running it and pushing a bed at the same time. I really hate to admit it The new Hotel Challenge Cup has a home in the Colonial Hotel for the next year. The much coveted cup which went to the winning hotel team in the Great Grand Bend Bed Race was taken after a long and close battle. The Colonial Bed race team took the title away from their arch-rivals, Sanders Tavern. Two years ago the Colonials team had the bed race title, then last year Sanders snatched it away. Because of the fierce rivalry between the two pubs, the Chamber of Commerce decided to offer the hotel challenge cup. now, but the bed race entry was all my idea. I brought it up here at the T-A a couple months ago when Burgerfest plans were originating. Suddenly all the men on staff had bad hearts, sore backs aching legs and numerous other ailments. I ended up with a handful of girls and we decided to make our debut in the bed racing world. Clerk Jeannette DeVries offered to ride in the bed. Type setter Debbie Lord and dark room attendant Carol Edwards pushed at the front of the bed and looked after the steering. Typesetter Elaine Parsons and news and ads person Mary Warburton were pushers. We invited former employee Shirley Southcott back to help out, and when we still needed pushers, Tammy Schenk joined us, I brought up the rear, quite literally. Now, some of these girls are avid ball players, and others have toddlers at home that they keep busy chasing. I figured this was a pretty physically fit crew. But pushing a bed up hill on .Grand Bend's Maih steee( Was almost more than we could handle. Maybe the judges took pity on us and gave best decorated award because they didn't want to see grown There were four teams vying for the trophy this year. In the first heat, the Colonials raced against newcomers RD's Hotel. The RD team had some technical difficulties, and it was an easy win for the Colonial squad. The second heat saw a neck and neck battle bet- ween the Hard Oil Inn all the way from Petrolia and the Sanders crew. Sanders came out just ahead of the youthful Petrolia group. That left the arch-rivals to face each other in the finals. It was a close match most of the distance, but the Colonials pulled ahead well before the finish line. women cry. For those of you who missed the race, our bed was the only double decker present, We had an old army bunk, and T-A employee Paul Leitch added bicycle wheels on the back and castors to the front. We called ourselves the Baby Dolls and that's what Jeannette wore. We decorated the bed with blue crepe paper streamers, multi-coloured balloons and a huge assortment of rag dolls and stuffed animals. Debbie's giant Raggedy Anne, Elaine's huge Raggedy Andy and my overstuffed Snoopy dog graced the top bunk. And as if the bed wasn't cute enough by itself, we decided that we "baby dolls" could improve our looks, We added freckles and big blue hair ribbons just for the race. There's just one problem. We still don't have that $25. Splitting $25 between one rider, one builder and seven pushers gives us a grand total of about $2.77 each. Had the Chamber of Commerce given us our prize then, I'm sure we would have spent the whole thing on Burgerfest burgers, As it is now, we'll all have to take time off work and go out for an ice cream cone. DUEL EXHAUST CHAIN SAW — Stan Lovie and Roger Ferrington show how wood should be cut with their modified two man giant chain saw, at the Burgerfest saw contest Rock of South Bend sports, Grand Bend'took the 80 to 100 cc class with a Poulan. Stan Lovie and Roger Ferrington demonstrated a modified two, super chain saw, Larry Desjardine and Steve Jennison also showed how to operate a two man chain saw. Organizer Stan Lovie said they were very pleased with the number of contestants and the crowd. He said that there were about 35 different entries. Staff photo Captain Johnny Musser said the pre-race tension was high, and he attributed the win to the tricky driving of Mike McCann. Musser added that they had an excellent bed this year, thanks to the service by Hamilton's Machine Shop. The Colonials were driving a modified baby crib. There were suggestions in the Colonial camp after the bed race, that they might offer an off-season bed race clinic. They also announced that they had decided to boycott the bed races at the Moscow Olympics. Bob Case, of the Sanders team, attributed their loss to over-confidence. He added that i f the team had had new T-Shirts to wear they might have come up with a better performance. Case said he was confident that the new trophy would be in Sanders tavern next year. He said that plans for next year's bed race include having a Kamakaze runner that would throw himself in front of the competition. The Hard Oil Inn team which provided so much competition in the Hotel race, handily won the senior mens title. Placing second was the Old Timers hockey team sponsored by Thomp- son-Warner. In third position was Lambton College from Sarnia. The Junior bed race was won by the boys team