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Times-Advocate, 1980-07-02, Page 4Mainstream Canada deeeses••• (a) Times 01416,011100 117 uteEstobh.E0504b;r4 '1401 Amoly annated 1924 SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C,W.1.4,A.#*O.INN,A..CLAS$ A'',cind ABC Published by J. W. $sidy Publications Limited. LORNE Mt -PUBLISHER Editor — Biit Batten Assistant Editor Ross Hough, Advertising Manager — lim WWI Composition, Manager Harry DoVrias Business Manager -- Dick )0;1044 Published Each. Wednesday Morning Phone 215,1331 at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Moil tessistration Number 9316 SW)SCRIPTION TM Canada. $14,00 Per Year; USA $35.00 The real job creators aaa -axe, aaaaaema a A aaaataaeaaaasaaisa. Parents be warned Parents in the Exeter area have been handed a couple of jolts in the last couple of weeks. They've been advised that the handful of volunteers who have operated various youth groups in the community aren't prepared to continue in that role in the face of parental com- placency. Some of the stalwarts of the Exeter Minor Hockey Association, faced with the attendance of parents representing only 12 of the 185 boys registered, decided to drop the program unless more interest was shown. Many thought, that decision was in- tended to stir some interest only and considered it primarily as a bit of a "scare tactic". That may be true to a certain degree, but there was every in- dication many were prepared to follow Attorney-Gene, 1 Roy McMurtry and the Ontario Traffic Safety'Council have both come out to urge that stiffer penalties be levied for drinking and driving offences in an effort to reduce the mounting carnage on highways. It's a plea that will be welcomed by all but those who imbibe too heavily hefore getting behind the steering *heel, although they too should perhaps be appreciative if it in fact gets them off the road before they do damage to themselves or others and have to spend the balance of their lives living with the agony. Of course, the program will only be successful if provincial court officials comply with the requests and take a tougher stance. Area readers have already been ad- Three Huron County students are to be congratulated for their idea, and the initiative in setting up a new program for senior citizens that will be known as the Telephone Reassurance Service. Sponsored by the Huron Day Centre in Clinton, the program is aimed at helping those that need the help the most, but are too proud to ask for it - our senior citizens and handicapped who live alone. In Huron County. where the percen- tage of senior citizens is much higher than the national average, such a ser- vice could benefit as many as 200 peo- ple, and in its initial stages will only call on seniors who can be reached from the Clinton exchange without long distance charges, including Goderich, Seaforth, Bayfield and Hensall. By SYD FLETCHER I mentioned in last week's column about a school trip which I had made With a group of Grade 7 and 8 school children to Lenora. There were 30 of them, involved in a most unusual trip for any group of people. When I Went to Grade 3 it was to a one-room school house. The teacher had 38 urchins crammed in there with only 3 of us in Grade 8. She had her hands full With the primary kids and as long as the seniors did their Work and stayed aut of her Way She was happy, / Spent most of my time reading books from the portable library that sat in a big box at the hack of the room. We never through on the intent to let the program sit idle for a year. Fortunately, for the community and its youngsters, over 70 parents showed up at the next meeting to en- sure the program would continue. It was, however, still a small representa- tion of the parents involved. Now the people who organize the Exeter Guides and Brownies have let it be known that they too are fed up with the lack of interest and assistance by parents and portions of that program are in jeopardy. Sylvia Smith put it rather succinct- ly when she challenged parents to "make time" for assisting in the programs in which their children are involved, and to do so voluntarily. The volunteers are getting a little fractious, and rightly so! vised through this newspaper that provincial police have been given new gadgets (ALERT) to better crack down on drinking drivers and hopefully that added threat and the possibility of stiffer penalties will make them think twice before taking that "one for the road." It could well be "one for the jail" in the. most flagrant circumstances and certainly one for stiffer fines and licence suspensions in all cir- cumstances. The mounting death and injury toll has to be halted and obviously the time has come to stop merely lamenting the problem and to take the necessary cor- rective action to protect the vast ma- jority who understand their respon- sibilities. The program is an admirable one, because it allows the elderly or han- dicapped person to retain their indepen- dance in their own home, but still have a life-line to society with that daily call. Not only does it assure help to an in- jured or ill person, but it provides a valuable social contact as well. But to make the program a success, the program needs volunteer callers as well as clients, and to be a caller requires someone with patience, caring, and the ability to handle emergencies and understand the necessity of confidentiality. So if you would like to help someone else, contact the program leaders at the Huron Day Centre between 9 and 4 p.m. at 4829630. Clinton News-Record eaSaaVaak .,,a It's graduation time again for area students, and as usual, many of the speakers chosen to address the young people who are moving on to higher levels of education or preparing to enter the work force talk eloquently about the great opportunities they can achieve through resolve and deter- mination. The problem is that many of the speakers have apparently been digging out old cliches from the speeches Of graduation exercises of another era when they indicate that today's young people can still reach for the stars and hope to attain their goal. There's obviously still some truth in those old cliches about the oppor- tunities that are available, but the reality of the situation is that it takes as much good luck as good planning to hit some of the plateaus to which the speakers allude. Some of the best advice was probably contained in remarks made by Exeter Public School Principal Jim Chapman, when he told his graduating class to work from as broad a base as possible as they move into their next level of education so they can keep their op- tions open to a wide spectrum of vocations. One of the ironies of the situation is that while students who have an idea of what career they would like to pursue have some advantages over those who have no set plans, those students unfor- tunately find that the field of their choosing is often very close to a dead- end by the time they arrive on the job market. If they have narrowed the scope of their education to that par- ticular line of endeavour only, they find they are at a disadvantage to someone else who has a broader base of knowledge and can fit into a variety of careers. * * * Another of the ironies of society is u ar an Dispo sect by Smiley. Tough You have no idea hew tough life is for us celebrities: sighing autograghs, beating off groupies, phone ringing with congratulations and requests for interviews, trying to be triumphantly modest. I'm certainly glad my celebrityness lasted only, one day. Two days and I'd probably have started thinking I really was somebody worth knowing. I did start charging students one dollar a piece for autographs, and had a fair little run there until one of them reminded the others that they could get a free signature just by reading the nas- ty remarks I make on their report cards. That was the end of that bonan- za. To the bewildered, your old, broken- down, favorite columnist was the sub- ject of a profile in a national magazine called Today, and the phone has never started ringing since. Some people thought the article was dreadful. An old colleague was dis- gusted because the magazine printed how much I make a year. My wife was furious. The photographer who took my picture scrunched up the drapes he 'drew behind me for a background, and they looked as though they needed iron- ing. My assistant department head was annoyed about my picture, because the art department of the magazine had not used the air brush to wipe out the wrinkles, jowls, and other ap- purtenances of wisdom and maturity. A bright young colleague, who writes well, expressed the opinion that the ar- ticle was badly written, and was at- tacked furiously by other colleagues who thought he was jealous. He wasn't. He was right. It was a bit chopy because an editor had obviously beer' busy with the scissors, to make the thing fit around photographs and into the fact that while parents often sub- scribe to the theory that the sky is still the limit for their offspring and attempt to impart that as a challenge, those same parents have subscribed to the policy of job security which makes it difficult for their children to even get a foot in the door regardless of their ambitions, apptitudes or determina- tion. The job market is not as competitive and open as it was when those parents went looking for work. It's been replac- ed by such things known as "tenure" and "permanent contracts" where jobs open up only through such things as retirements, expansions or new businesses. Employers are no longer free to hire a new candidate to replace an employee who has lesser skills, abilities or even efficiency. It almost takes a case of gross misconduct or in- eptitude to discharge someone who has the backing of a union or professional association , protecting his/her job security. In a recent conversation, an employer told of receiving applications from over 100 candidates for a single position on his staff. He narrowed the field to about 15 for interviews and in- dicated that any of the 15 appeared worthy of consideration for the single job available. The disturbing aspect of the matter was that he felt the other 14 would have shown more ability and been more valuable to him than many of those already on his staff. Many of those current staff had been hired during less competitive times and having proven themselves capable at the time, had slipped into complacency once having attained an almost irrevocable job security station, * * * Just for once, the writer would enjoy hearing a graduation speaker talk more to the parents and those in the job field . •, life for celebrities the space allotted, as is their wont in a magazine that caters to a typical TV audience-mentality. But those wonderful people, my com- pletely uncritical students, thought it was great: first, because my name was in big type; second because it was a national magazine; third, because my picture was in it; fourth, because they got a little reflected glory. They'd have been just as happy if I were an axe-murderer, as long as I hit the media. So, one day my Grade 9 thought I was just that snarly old grey- haired guy up front who kept telling them that a verb was to agree with its subject. The next, I was in the same magazine as Richard Burton, and my wife was taking on the dimensions, figuratively speaking, of Elizabeth Taylor. Personally, I have some scores to settle about the article. For one thing, it was too innocuous and kindly. The writer, Earl McCrae, is a cracking good sports writer, whe has done some fine hatchet jobs on sports figures in Canada. Least he could have done is carve me up a bit, and let me get into a slanging match with him, via the public print. It was as though McCrae, usually as soft as a Swerd, had muttered to himself, "Poor old sod; he's over the hill. I'll use the butter instead of the Salt." This is the same writer whom George Chuvalo threatened to punch right through the wall of a gym when he had written a piece about George, the perennial punching bag. Another guy I have a bone to pick with is Ray Argyle, who owns the syn- dicate that distributes this here now column, At one point in the article, he than the graduates. I'd like to hear that speaker challenge those parents to subscribe to the challenge of having their various vocations put back on the free market where employers would be able to hire the most suitable candidate available for their needs. Let those employers be allowed to frequently review the ability and con- scientiousness of employees and replace those found lacking with the young people who are entering the job market and have that sense of enthusiasm and dedication that too frequently wanes with age and par- ticularly with job security. Then when graduation speakers stand up and say that opportunities abound for people with the necessary work and personal skills, they'll. at least be telling the truth. It's not quite that way at the present time. You see, kids, many of those job placements are currently filled by peo- ple who no longer have to worry too greatly about meeting the challenge of the work ethic, because they have a permanent contract and have paid enough dues to ensure that their brothers and sisters will help protect them from anything as unfair as com- petition from someone who may be better trained, more eager and more interested in giving a full day's work for a full day's pay than they. But don't be too harsh, kids. The ma- jority of you who do find employment opportunities will soon have the same outlook and will agree with graduation speakers in the future about those wonderful opportunities but sit corn- etacently and knowlingly that you for- tunately don't have to stand up to that competition for your job. MaaSsiats-., Argyle. One adjective in the article is going to create endless amusement for old friends of my wife. It is the word "languid". Mind you, it's rather a neat word. Better than pudgy, pugnacious, bubbling, feisty, or any of those other over-worked magazine-article words. But my wife is about as languid as a Roman Candle. We were at a big wed- ding the weekend the article came out. About halfway through the reception, I was fairly bubbling, fairly feisty, and pleasantly pugnacious. I drifted over to where she sat, deliberately looking languid, and observed, "Migawd, you're looking languid tonight." She marched straight to the bar and had me put on the Indian list. (Oh, yeah, somebody is going to write that that is a racist remark.) You'll be glad to know that the wed- ding turned out well, I drove to the reception while she map-read. She drbve home, but I couldn't see the street sighs. We drove around a strange city for an hour and a half, completely lost. Final- ly, I saw a car, and a place beside it that seemed to be open. "Stop! I'll ask where we are." I nipped out, went up to the stopped car, and demanded of the two police of- ficers inhabiting it, "How in the name of all that is holy, does one find the Royal Connaught Hotel in this mis- begotten city with all its stupid one- way streets?" The cop wasia modicum ofdecorum, "If you'll just look to your right, sit you'll see that ou are parked W Roger Worth The "image" of Caoada's small and mediumzsized busi- nesses, as they say in the ad- vertising business, is Out of whack with reality. The image is that big firms represent industrial salvation for pie country. Indeed, a lot of Canadians still believe the major companies - many of them foreign-owned - are cre- ating a majority of our new jobs, The reality is somewhat different. Here's what the 55,000- member Canadian Federation of Independent Business found in a recent study; • In the period 1970-1976, Canadian-controlled manu- facturing firms (most of them small and medium-sized enter- Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of ' Independent Business. prises) increased employment in Canada by 111,000 jobs. Meanwhile, overall employ- ment by subsidiaries of U.S. firms declined by 9,500 jobs and other foreign-controlled companies employed 1,200 fewer people. 55 Years Ago Clinton held an Old Boys Reunion this week. Eleven head of cattle were killed by lightning on the pasture farm of Mr. Don Oestricher on the Lake Road during the thunder storm which passed over the district. Mrs. Jane Snell of Huron Street celebrated her eighty- fifth birthday on Wednesday of this week. It has been decided to hold free out door moving picture shows in Crediton Athletic field on Saturday evenings for the rest of the summer. The biggest attraction in Exeter during the past week has been the merry-go-round and some half dozen con- cessions moved to Exeter from Clinton and pitched tent on a lot on the corner of William and Gidley streets Friday evening last and for three nights they attracted large crowds. Entrance results in Stephen this year are as follows: No. 1, Hazel Hay (A), No. 2, Agnes Lampert; No. 3, Eli Christie; No. 5 Lulu Kerr; No, 6, Dorothy Smith a No. 7, Mary McEachen; No. 8, Eddie Gill, Lyman Gratton (B), Velma Gratton (B), Carlyle Taylor No. 10, Nola Hodgins, Kenneth Hodgins, Lloyd Love; No. 11, Marjorie Morenz ; No, 12, Alex Desjardine, Donald Desjardine. 30 Years Ago Hon. Ray Lawson, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario pinned RCAF pilot's wings on 32 airmen during graduation ceremonies at RCAF Station Centralia on Friday. Rev. and Mrs. Donald Sinclair will attend the World Convention on Christian Education in Toronto, August 10 to 16. Night Constable William Wareing is on two week's holidays. Largest road repairing program in the history of Middlesex County this year will include surfacing of No. 4 Highway from north of • The major source of new employment in the skt, year period was by firms below the 509 employee size categoyy and the fastest growing sector was Canadian controlled firms in the 101)499 employee size class. • An additional 136,000johs would have been created if for- eign-owned companies had matched the performance of Canadian.controlled firms. • Canadian manufacturing companies increased output 1120/o in the period, com- pared to 859/o for American controlled establishments. • Man442.,turing shipments would have been $9.2 billion higher in 1976 if the foreign- controlled companies had du- plicated the success of the Canadian-controlled firms, . While the thousands of ' smaller companies that inno- vate more readily and grow more rapidly do not t much notice, they, are the key to providing more jobs in the country. leis" high lime everyone - including the bureaucrats and politicians in Ottawa and the provinces - took a long hard look at what's really happening in Canada. 'Our vibrant small and medium-sized "job creators" deserve more support.. Lucan to five miles south of Exeter. Miss Norma Wilson operator at the Lyric Theatre, has received her operator's license qualifying her as a licensed operator for any theatre in Ontario. Police Chief Norry was sketched by two amateur sketchers while in town for the holiday. 20 Years Ago; , Huron MPP C.S. Mac- Naughton indicated this week that the LCBO may eStablisb retail liquor and beer stores in Exeter. Conklin Lumber Company has opened a new lumber yard in Exeter and a showroom and office at Grand Bend, and purchased a site in Goderich where it intends to build in the near future. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kading celebrated their diamond wedding an- niversary this week. About 80 secondary school administrators, most of them from cities in Ontario toured SHDHS Wednesday "to see what a small town high school looks like." The Roman Catholic parishioners of Centralia RCAF station gathered Wednesday to honor their padre, Rev. G.C. Grant, on the 25 anniversary of his ordination. 15 Years Ago Constable Dale Lamont- joined the staff of the Exeter OPP this week, following a training period after his February discharge from the navy. Exeter's new swimming pool, being used extensively these warm days, Will be officially Opened Wednesday afternoon. Canada's 98th birthday was marked in Exeter with the raising of the new flag. About 50 people were on hand at the brief ceremony sponsored by council. Nine yearling steers owned by Maurice "Pete" Coates, RR 1 Centralia, were killed when struck by lightening during the violent electrical storm Friday. beginning a new' series this fall, featuring the per- forming and creative arts. The program, to be titled "Performance," will be searching out talented and creative people throughout Southwestern Ontario. We would, appreciate any information you could send us on upcoming per- formances in and around Exeter, or exceptional talent that you are aware of, With your help, we can begin preparation for a season of fine entertainment. Thank-you for your co- operation, 'Yours truly, John 8. 8ornmets Producer Director CFPL-TV +CNA EP.4. BLUE RIBB0.1 it,o,"ARD .1 $`490 About time, too Some reassurance eerspectives did do history, geography or science that year, The only school trip we went on was to the edge of the school ground to plant some trees on Arbour day. Things have changed considerably in education. The Ontario government has Seen fit to subsidize ex- change trips between nor- thern and southern schools in an effort to broaden young people's horizons. It's called the "Young Traveller's Program" and pays 90 per cent of the cost to send a bus to the opposite school. Since the students are billeted with Other students at each area there is comparatively little Cost beyond the tran- `Sportation and any ad- mission charges at places which are visited, ' BecauSe of the great distances involved we opted to fly and so had to raise some additional funds. For our students, some of whom had never been out of the immediate area, much less flying on a jet air-liner, it was just a tremendous ex- perience. When the Boeing 737 lifted out of Toronto Airport there was a spontaneous squeal from the kids that set the little old lady next to me giggling, She got a real kick out of the kids for the whole two hour flight'. They never had anything like that trip when I was a child" she said wistfully, "I had to wait till I was sixty- five before I ever saw a big city. What a chance for them !" Looking down at the sun covered area of Thunder Bay with its glacier-scraped rocks and lakes, I wondered how many words it would take to explain to a thirteen year old what the Canadian Shield Was and decided that had to agree with her. •aasaaasaaaaa,a;.aasaa-a,a,4.2. Not quite the way it is re ctly called tide a 44 monurrient", Well, in front of it." think of something to call you, Mr. So much for being a celebrity. Dear Editor: At a time when many small towns ate without a doctor we in Exeter should be proud of the type of medical doctors we have here in Exeter. Our doctors work together and when my OM personal doctor has been away I have had no problems getting care from any of the doctors in town. Also our hospital nurses and all staff are second to none and thank you all for the care that I have had. bear Editor, Fred Waiters CF1'L-TV in London is