HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1980-12-03, Page 4A....4
By Syd Fletcher
Smelt fishing is not for
everybody.
Those folks who like to
stay dry and have the sun
beating down upon them
from the relative safety of a
pier or a gently rocking row
boat better forget about
fishing for the slippery little
goobers and be content with
purchasing them frozen
from the supermarket.
Granted though, that
frozen smelts can never be
compared to the delicacy of
the fresh caught fish,
We used to leave about
twelve o'clock in the mor-
ning. My father-in-law would
hear on the radio that the
smelt were 'running' down
at Lake Erie and nothing
would satisfy hint but
heading out that very night.
The equipment was
simple: A net, twenty feet
long by four feet high and a
pair of hip boots, or a pair of
waist-high waders if you
were lucky enough to own
one.
After a two hour drive we
would pull into Morpeth, a
small town very close to
Lake Erie, completely
deserted by that hour, then
down to the lake. All along
the beach were strung many
bonfires. The smelters were
already at it.
The technique too was
simple, as long as the waves
weren't too big. Walk out as
far as you could with the net,
circle and drag it in. If they
weren't running the net
would catch only rock basS
(the round variety) but if
they were coming in to
spawn, the net would be like
heaving a load of
watermelons in. In the light
of the gas lantern you would
see thousands of them in the
net, twisting silver in the
bright light.
Two good sweeps, would
do it, sometimes, filling
every container to the brim
and then some. Other nights
there were none. For some
reason, the critters had
decided to spawn elsewhere.
If the night was windy
and the waves high, there
was additional spice to the
action. The fellow farthest
out on the circling net had to
be mighty careful.. If he
went out a little too far, a big
wave would fill the waders
up as quick as a flash and
then he had a mighty cold
load of water to carry back
in along with the fish. Lots of
excitement and fun.
And when we got back
home, be it four or five in the
morning or even later,
nothing would do for my
father-in-law but we should
have a frying-pan full of
fresh smelt, cooked to a
golden firmness in hot
butter.
A delicacy fit for any king!
Perspectives
-6.4kfri'memory
......
One
Lain n stream. a
The Underground Economy
P01011 4
,Tireos. fooklishott 14711
Timis-Advecato, Picombor 3,. .11940
aaegKete.istablisheri 11101 amaigarnates1.1914
"This country's got a real dope problem . . . but then, we elected. them.
Tracing ancestry of 406-915-413
For only $49.50 you can get the
"cavalier" coat of arms, which is your
basic crest on a wooden plaque. For
only $89.50 the "baronet" is available,
the additional $40 paying for the cost of
A the two jewelled Toledo steel swords
which adorn the coat of arms plaque.
Of course, if one acts quickly (by
December 5 in this instance) you will
receive a free parchment scroll con-
taining the complete history of the
family name.
If the writer had a common name,
unsteeped in history, there would be no
way he'd even consider ordering such a
dust collector. However, when it is one
of the oldest family surnames in
English history, it certainly is rather
tempting, particularly when the firm
points out "it is the vital link with your
family,, past, present and future which
gives you dignity and identifies you in
the vast community of mankind".
They obviously forget that, not only
are.we famous in the wool trade, we're
also known for not letting people pull
the wool over our eyes.
But still...when it is one of the most
ancient names,
Oh well, may as well just get the
sociaf insurance card framed. Actual-
ly, there are more people in Canada
that know me by that number than my
surname anyway. They just don't
realize how far back old number 406-
915-413 can trace his ancestry.
fat vING. CANADA'S UST FARMLAND'
-C.1111..N,A„ 0,t011.N,A. CLASS,'A.'.gnd AiK
Published by 4. W. 4Itcly Publications timitod,
0.0111141. OODY,. Pta111,05Pla
fditor. --- falters
Assistant Editor —.Bon Haugh.
Advertising Manager — Jim 13ackatt-
compasitian Manager-- Harry PeVries
IsteinessManaget--- Disk Jongkind Published Each. Wednesday Morning
Phone,235-133a at Row, Ontario
karnd Class Moil
Registration Number 0316
$0113PROPTION.RATES:
Canada $14,00 Par Year; USA $35.00
"*.;., • '
necessity to warn children of the high
incidence of the disease and the risks
they take by making contact with any
animal. Over 100 people in Lefroy are
taking the painful anti-rabies vaccina-
tion after contact with a couple of stray
kittens in a schoolyard. Most of those
getting the shots are children.
But even more frightening about
that situation is that the stray cats
could have disappeared and the rabies
gone undetected until it was too late for
some of the children who came in con-
tact with the animals.
That's the type of risk children take
and they can't really be faulted unless
the dangers are fully explained to
them.
But, it is also the type of risk to
which unthinking pet owners subject
others wheat they fail to take advantage
fo the free rabies clinics, That is inex-
cusable!
Buyers of natural trees for decora-
tion should look for freshness because a
freshly cut tree reduces fire hazards.
Keep it away from drapes and heat
sources. Make sure it does not block
doorways and fire exits. Use only non-
flammable decorations and Canadian
Standards Association certified lighting
gets. Coloured spotlights above or
beside a metallic tree are safer than
strings of lights on the branches. If
there are small children in the home,
avoid decorations that are sharp and
breakable. •
Purchase only toys which suit a
child's age. Unsuitable toys couldlead
to frustration or accident. Look for the
manufacturer's safety information on
the toy packaging such as "non-toxic"
or "non-flammable" and follow the
manufacturer's safety recommen-
dations.
in their mouths. Of the remainder, 300
were farmers' sons, 250 sold
newspapers, 200 started their careers
as messenger boys, 50 made their debut
as printers' apprentices, 100 as factory
workers, and 50 as railway hands.
We can't help but wonder how
many of the 1,000 ever wasted precious
hours, days, weeks or months on
organized picket lines.
The Creemore Star
+CNA
Shots a must
Area residents should not need a
reminder of the upcoming free rabies.
clinics. The substantial increase in the
dread disease recorded • this year to
date in Huron should have prompted
everyone with a pet to circle his/her
calendar of the dates of the clinics.
Unfortunately, reaching people
with the message of rabies prevention
is similar to reaching them with other
messages. The conscientious pet
owners take the time to protect their
pets and themselves, while those who
allow their pets to 'wander and in fact
create the largest hazard, usually don't
fulful their responsibilities.
The clinics should probably be
made mandatory to be more effective.
The giant scare received by the
small town of Lefroy, Ontario, a few
weeks ago should point out the dangers
of rabies and more particularly, the
Be safe, not sorry .
Christmas safety involves more
than the Christmas tree. The Canada
Safety Council points out some of the
hazards associated with the holiday
season and gives practical tips to keep
it merry:
A host's responsibility in parties
and gatherings is to assure the safety of
guests and to give them a plasant
"morning after" instead of a hangover.
Always respect the wishes of any guest
who says "No thanks" to the offer of a
drink, especially if he or she is going to
drive. '
Heavy traffic is to be expected dur-
ing the holidays. Snow and ice are
hazards you are likely to encounter, so
reduce your speed and increase your
following distance. When driving
through a business district, watch out
for shopper; they are often overloaded
with packages and might not see you in
time.
They worked
The Horatio Alger hero - the little
boy who struggled up the ladder of op-
portunity from newsboy to president of
a large corporation - is still with us, we
are pleased to report.
A few years ago a survey was con-
ducted among 1,000 men who have been
outstandingly successful, both
professionally and financially.
The study found that only 50 had,
started with the proverbial silver spoon
County of Cornwall called North Hill,
their • main branch holding estates at
Upcerne, in the County of Dorset which
they acquired in the 15th century.
During the religious conflicts of the
middle ages, many families migrated
across the Atlantic to the New World.
The family coat of arms is a silver
background with three blue battle axes.
While the letter doesn't outline the
origin or significance of the coat of
arms, it is obvious that we Battens
stem from, a long line of famous
fighting men.
.Most coat of arms contain only one
battle axe, and while there is the
suggestion the three in ours may haVe
something to do with the females of the
dab, it is probably more correctly
pointing out that tackling a Batten was
similar to fighting , three armored
knights at once.
The crest is a little more difficult to
comprehend, It is a hand, charged with
an eye. Perhaps someone in the
heraldry business can explain what
that signfies.
The point of the letter from The
Knights of Heraldry Limited was not
primarily to provide Batten with some
topic for his weekly column.
Oh no, indeed! The reason for poin-
ting out the details of this ancient name
is an attempt to get this descendant of
Batten of Bythemore to purchase a
copy of the family coat of arms.
my dinner in the oven, pour myself a
relaxer, and read the evening paper.
After dinner, I pile some more dishes in
the sink, give them a dirty look, and
toddle off to mark papers or fall asleep
in front of the tube, waking up at 2
a.m., -cold and stupid, to fall into my
unmade bed and nightmare away about
my wife having left me for good. Which
she could. Anytime.
Totter up in the morning, do my
ablutions, and go down to a cheerless
kitchen, with nobody snapping ,out the
orders of the day. I'm always late for
work when she's away, because when
she's home I try to get away early so I
won't have to get into a fight about
who's going to call the plumber, why I
am so incompetent around the house,
and why I got a $28.00 fine for not wear-
ing my seat-belt.
I don't deny that there have been
times when I wished I were a bachelor,
carefree, sexy, dining out with
beautiful women, taking off, alone, for
exotic holidays.
But boy-o-boy, when the laundry
hamper is overflowing, your last clean
shirt is a white T-shirt with a burnhole
on the belly, the dishes arebeginningto
resemble the Great Pyramid, and the
only clean socks you have left are white
wool golf type, you begin to appreciate
the Old gattleaxe.
If I have one more turkey pie, I'm not
going to grow wattles, Those I already
have, the penalty of sagging jowls. But
there is a distinct possibility that I
might begin to gobble. One more frozen
lasagna and I'll be singing arias. In
Actually, I can cope. I can keep
myself clean, dressed, and fed. But it's
the extras of housework that are
destroying me. Like dealing with
$y W, Roger Worth
High taxes have already
created an underground econ-
omy in Canada, And the salta-
tion is going to get a lot worse
before it gets better.
What's an underground
economy?
That's what occurs when
people feel they are forced to
use the barter system to avoid
paying taxes.
A Newfoundland fisher-
man, for example, may trade
part of his catch with a house-
wife who sews children's
clothes. Naturally, the,govern-
ment loses because there is no
tax on the transaction.
Roger Worth is Director,
Public Affairs,
Canadian Federation of
Independent Business.
Now sophistiCated bartering
systems are springing up across
the country, with participation
by thousands of professionals
and business people.
A dentist, for instance, may
fill a cavity in return for car-
pentry services. It's a neat
trick, and both save tax dol-
lars. Then there are the mil-
Rims of "moonlighting" trades
55 Years Ago
Mr. Robert Saunders
returned from his annual
hunting trip in Michigan and
Lambton last week.
Mr. Gidley and sons, one
of the oldest businessmen in
town, disposed of theirlarge
furniture stock to Mr.
Beverly and Mr. Hudson last
week and having leased the
opera block to the same firm
will go out of business.
100 pair of men's plow
. shoes at 80C per pair are for
sale at George Manson's.
Mr. N.Contine, the founder
of St. Joseph, is now in Mon-
treal in the interests of that
enterprising town. A' big
boom is looked for when he
returns.
30 Years Ago
It was announced that San-
ta Claus would make his'an-
nual visit to the area and
would arrive by both train
and plane as he tours about
Huron County.
The RCAF base in Grand
Bend is being reopened as an
auxiliary base to the one
presently located in Cen-
tralia.
Alonzo McCann bounced
back to defeat three other
candidates for the position of
.reeve in the township of
Stephen. His upset victory
puts him in the Reeve's
chair for the second time.
25 Years Ago
Mayor R.E. Pooley
celebrated his victory with
his team the Tradesmen. It
was the first time the mayor
has been involved in an elec-
tion campaign. He was
elected reeve by 'acclama-
tion in 1951 and has been
returned without contest
ever since.
Miss Trudy Pickard of Ex-
eter and Mr. Bill Yungblut of
Zurich, students at London
Teacher's College, are prac-
people who spend sit extra few
hours per week doing outside
work, in addition to their regu-
lar jobs. Naturally, they want
to be pgid in cold, hard cash.
No records are kept and
the tax man has little chance
of catching these Individuals.
The problem, of course, is
that luxes are becoming so
onerous that people will do
anything to shave a few dollars
front their tax bill, And as gov-
ernments increase spending
and taxes, we can only ixpect
the underground economy to
grow,
Slowly but surely, beating
the tax system is becoming a
national pastime in Canada.
Many honest people justify
their actions by claiming gov-
ernments are wasting, the
money anyway.
They point to the annual
auditor general's report which .
outlines 'case after expensive
case of waste and mismanage-
ment in government. Or pro-
grams that provide legal meth-
ods for recipients of govern-
ment money to rip off the
system,
The sad fact is, they are
probably right.
ticing teaching at Centralia
Public School this week.
The fi•eshmen councillors
include businessman Glenn
Fisher and Bill Musser who
are believed to be the
youngest men to hold
municipal office.
The proposed dam in
Usborne was dubbed
"Morrison Dam" in honor of
the chairman of the Ausable
River Conservation Authori-
ty at the meeting in Parkhill
on Monday.
15 Years Ago
Things are starting to
move rapidly for the
SHDHS. Six councils have
now approved their share of
the cost in the expanSion.
Only Hay Township and Hen-
sall have not agreed to their
costs.
Driver Training classes
will be resumed in January
at SHDHS it was announced
last week:
22 students for Usborne
Public School toured the T-A
offices and plant last week.
Ray Lammie of Centralia
has been installed as Master
of Lebanon Forest Lodge,
AF & AM The ceremony
took place before a packed
hall on Monday night.
10 Years Ago
Discussions were held at
the Stephen Township coun-
cil meeting on Monday night
on whether or not snow-
mobiles should be
prohibited.
The Hon. Charles
McNaughton announced that
arrangements are being'
completed for the provision
of flying services at Cen-
tralia Industrial Park.
An 11 member committee
will b e in charge of
arrangements to rebuild
Brucefield United Church,
which was destroyed by fire
November 20.
honest and always shall be.
If I do not agree with
decisions made by others
and believe I am right, then I
will not be swayed by the
crowd but if I am proven
wrong in my judgement, I
shall be the first to admit my
error and change.
As for issues, there are
many; some important,
others not so important. It
will take time to adjust to a
new governing body of
municipal government and I
trust we shall do so with as
little delay as possible. In
closing may I assure you
that I am on council as your
servant and if you have any
legitimate complaints,
please feel free to advise me
of such and I shall pass on
the same so long as your
name is included with your
complaint.
Electorate of Hensall, I
sincerely hope you will not
be dissappointed in my
representation and consider
me your friend, after all you
are going to be paying my
wages. Thanking you Mr.
Editor for your indulgence,
past and present,, I am t
Respectfully,
Minnie Noakes
• S.
In recene'years, and particularly
since that great TV show "Roots",
many people have been delving into
their family trees in an attempt to dis-
cover their heritages.
The writer never bothered getting in-
volved although there is a certain
fascination in the topic. The problem
is, of course, that some histories reveal
unsavory members of the clan, and
once they've been dug up you just can't
dismiss them. In short, it's best to
leave dogs sleeping, or Battens rotting,
perhaps.
You can well imagine the surprise,
therefore, in opening a letter from The
Knights of Heraldry this week and
reading right there in black and white
that in fact the Batten name is steeped
in history and should obviously be ex-
plored more fully.
The letter suggests it is one of the
oldest family surnames in English
history and is believed to be of Flemish
origin. The first record of the name is
in Essex in the year 1248 when Batten
of Bythemore was recorded.
The family branched to Somerset and
Devon and was recorded 'on the Hun-
drendorum Rolls in 1273: Now, let me
ask you, friend, was your family
recorded on the Hundrendorum Rolls?
* *
This eminent family (the letter's
description, not mine) in the wool trade
were famous for their blankets. They
acquired many more estates, one in the
There's nothing worse than having
your wife go off and leave you to cope
all alone for a couple of weeks. Unless
it's having her arrive home a day early
and finding you up to your waist in your
own filth, that you were going to clean
up tomorrow.
That has happened to me once, but
this time I'm going to make sure. I'm
going to do the clean-up a day earlier.
First time/ it happened, she was un-
bearable for about a week, just because
there were three or four bottles of sour
milk, a one-inch patina of grease on the
stove, and a kitchen floor you could
hardly walk across without getting
stuck somewhere.
I'll give a hot tip to some of you
middle-aged guys who think your old
lady has a soft touch. You know: a lazy
coffee and read the paper after you've
gone to work, a little dusting and a few
dishes to do; a leisurely lunch watching
a soap opera; a little nap, and then
nothing to do but get your dinner ready.
It's not quite like that. To keep a fair-
sized house in anything like running
order, a woman must go like a jackrab-
bit. Or a jillrabbit, if you think I'm be-
ing chauvinistic.
Migawd, I've barely time to brush
my teeth, shave and get to work in the
morning, leaving the breakfst dishes all
tangled up with last'night's dinnerdish-
es , because I was too tired to do them,
and there was a good movie on the
tube.
Get home after work and there's all
this mess of dishes, but I don't have
time to do them. I have to go shoppiniv,
for my dinner - a pizza or a turkey pie
and a banana and some pears for
breakfast.
And 1 barely have the energy to stick
aluminum window salesmen,
brickworkers, painters, plumbers, and
electricians. My wife does all that, nor-
mally.
I haven't a clue where she keeps her
bills, her chequebook, and all the sun-
dries. I was frightfully embarrassed
this week when a plumber came to
finish a job, and I couldn't pay his bill. I
dug out all my cash and was 42 cents
short. He was a good type, and told me
to forget it. My wife would have given
him a cheque for the exact amount. I
got a receipt. I think, which I'll
probably lose.
Perhaps this all sounds materialistic,
and not at all the sentimental nonsense
a husband should feel when his wife is
away, spoiling his grandchildren. Well,
it is.
I've written her a hundred or two
love-letters. I've told her how beautiful
she 'was, on many occasions. I have
complimented her on her brains, her in-
nate common sense, and anything else I
could dredge up.
I have admired her good taste in
clothes and decorating. I have tried to
buck her, up when she is depressed. I
have been an almost perfect husband. I
just threw in that "almost".
' But the simple fact is, she's got to get
home and get the joint running again. I
can't even find the television
programmes I want, because she
knows that channel 2 is really channel
10 and channel 3 is channnel 14 and
channel 6 is all French. I just flip the
dial around hopefully.
But what really gets me is the finger-
nails on my right hand. I can cut my
toenails. I can cut the fingernails on my
left hand. But she has to cut the ones on
my righthand. And they're about half
an inch long. Get home, mama.
Up to waist in own filth
Dear Sir :
Since a mere "Thank You"
seems so inadequate to
express my gratitude to the
electorate of Hensall for
electing me to council, may I
avail myself of the use of
your column to express a few
thoughts?
It has been 12 years since I
served as Reeve of the
village and I have no doubt
that many things have
changed since that time but
our government must func:
tion regardless of change. I
have never lost interest in
our town and have been
involved in many en-
deavours since I last served
on council but I am very
happy, honoured and humble
for the opportunity to once
again serve my people.
Until I sent out iettersto the
electorate, I had no idea how
many of our residents are
unfamiliar to me; however I
trust that these people will
not hesitate to ask for my
help if it be necessary. I shall
serve each and every one of
you to the best of my ability
.and strength. I have often
been referred to as a "Rebel,
"That Woman" and who
knows what: be that as it
may, there is one fact I
wish to make clear; I am