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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1963-07-25, Page 9P.U.C. Could Lend A Hand The work which has been accomplish - "'ed by the Riverside Park Commission during the past two years has often been mentioned in this column and it is a project which draws forth more favorable comment from the general public than any other undertaking in recent years. There is still much to be done. One of the major ambitions now is to have the lower pond cleaned out so that the unsightly weed growth will be removed, and the pond will hold the water it was designed to contain. The job is vital to the parks program, for much of the new riverside development runs along the shore of the lower pond. The parks committee has already studied the earth -moving problems and it is believed that by undertaking the job in the winter months, when the top of the silt would be frozen, it would be quite feasible to make a proper clean-up. Naturally, money is one of the hurdles, for the cleaning of the pond would, in all probability, overtax the budget which has been set aside for park development. Several of our townsmen have sug- gested that this would be an excellent opportunity for the Public Utilities Com- mission to participate in a program of public concern. The P.U.C. holds a size- able fund, originally intended to cover possible emergencies, such as widespread ice damage to local power lines, etc. However, the fund is now more than ample for its purpose and some of this money, which, of course, has been col- lected over the years from Wingham tax- payers, might well be spent to improve conditions at the pond. If the money were spent in this way, it would be clearly within the interests of the P.U.C,, which controls the pond and uses the water gathered there to generate power at the Lower Town sta- tion during peak periods. With the dredging of the pond a greater supply of water could be maintained, Ontario Hydro, which advises on the spending of P.U.C. funds would give its blessing to an expenditure of this kind. It has done so in hundreds of other com- munities for similar purposes. New Store Is Welcome Addition Congratulations to Harold Remington are in order this week, the occasion being the opening of his new IGA store on the site of the former Hotel Brunswick. The new store, with its stone front and large display windows, is certainly a fine addition to the business section in the town and a credit to the owners. Every time a new building goes up on the main street (and we have seen several erected during the past two years) the prosperity of the entire community is en- hanced to some degree. We are all proud of our town and like to see it looking attractive, not only for our own bene- fit, but in the eyes of outsiders as well. Canada Must Keep Nurses A few weeks ago we were talking to a young lady who had just graduated as a registered nurse from a city hospital training school. Interested in her future, we enquired about where she intended to nurse. To our dismay we learned that had accepted a post in a San Fran- 'wlisco hospital. The girl said she would prefer to nurse in Canada, where all hospital staffs were undermanned, but that she simply couldn't afford to sacrifice the difference in salary. The California hospital, she ;id, pay very much righer wages than can be obtained in Canada. Something must be done to arrest the drain -off of Canadian nurses to the U.S. And that something should be higher salaries. No one can blame the nurses for accepting better paid positions across the line, If we want to keep them at home we will have to meet the scale. The public is inclined to place the blame for low wages on hospital boards, but the directors of our hospitals are helpless to stem the tide. Hospital costs, in Ontario at least, where the Hospital Services Act is in force, are sharply pre- scribed. The directors of a hospital are not permitted to raise wages. If they do so, the expenditures which exceed "al- lowable cost" must be met locally, It is true that nurses appear to be reasonably well paid as compared with female help in other fields, but in actual fact they are not. Their training period is a tough one. They are forced to sub- scribe to a rigid set of rules and to work for next to nothing while they learn. The nature of their calling is such that one slip can mean instant dismissal or worse. They are called upon to work shifts which girls in other professions would refuse — and nurses at all times must remain cheerful and encouraging, regardless of the frustrations created by sick and often selfish patients. Obviously Canadian institutions all cannot meet American standards of pay. They don't have the revenue. However, as far as nurses are concerned, something more than ordinarily important is at stake—the health and well-being of our loved ones. During the past few weeks the Wingham and District Hospital has been carrying on with about one-third the basic number of registered and gradu- ate nurses to adequately staff that in- stitution. The situation is not good as far as patients are concerned and it must verge on actual danger to life at times. Higher wages for nurses are needed, not only to keep the current graduates at home, but as an inducement for more girls to enter the profession for training. Regardless of the price we need more nurses. Time To Clean Up While we are on the subject of the town's attractiveness, we might point out that there are a few property owners who are not holding up their end of the load. Last week's paper carried an advertise- ment which constitutes the official notice from the county weed inspector that all noxious weeds must be destroyed. It comes none too early in the season, for many of the most troublesome weeds have already seeded and thus provided for an even more abundant growth next year. Wingham, on the whole, is a well kept community, By far the greater majority of properties are neatly mowed and trim- med. Flower beds are beautiful at this time of year and there is evidence of real pride on the part of most home owners and tenants. However, there are some lots in town, many of them vacant ones, where neglect has permitted a most unsightly growth of grass and weeds. If a properly is not in use, it is natural that it will not be groomed to the same degree as the homes of residents, but there is no reason to leave such places to grow up in weeds, The law is quite specific in the matter. Penalties are provided for those who re- fuse or consistently neglect to cut weeds which will spread to other lots, How- ever, it would be vastly preferable to de- velop such civic pride as would induce every property owner to cut the weeds without worrying about the legal penal- ties. THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros. Limited W. Barry Wenger, President 4 Robert O. Wenger, Secretary -Treasurer IP'Sidember Audit Bureau of Circulation; Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Associ- ation; Member Canadian Community Newspapers Representatives Authorized by the Post Office Department as Second Class Mall and for payment of postage in cash Subscription Rate: One Year, $4.04; Six Months, $2,25, In advance $5.00 per year; p'orelgn rate, $5.44 per year Advert!Sing Rates on application REMINISCING JULY 1918 Mr, A, C, DuPlan, student of Huron CoIlege, who has been taking the work of Rev, E. 11, Croly for the past few months, has gone to do similar duty at Brussels, Mr, William Sanders of Lower Town has purchased the residence of Miss Nellie Wade. Mr, Leslie Grlsdale has opened a general grocery at Lower Town, in the corner building owned by Mr, Hart. The following; officers were installed for Minerva Encamp* went No. 47,, on Monday eve- ning, July 28; C. V., Joseph Guest; S, W, , James Cum- ming; H, F, , Harry Iiinscliffe; J. W, , James Murray; Scribe, A. J. Sentinel, John F. Groves; 1 Watch, J, Brooks; 2 Watch, W. Hough; Guide, N. N, Fry. Miss Agnes Walker has re- signed her position as chief operator at the Bell Telephone Office and leaves next week for Toronto, where she has accept- ed a position. Dr, and Mrs. Agnew, who left here some few months ago, are on their way back to spend their vacation. At present they are in Chicago, 0--0--0 JULY 1926 Rev. M. M. aid M.s, Ben- nett and family are spending a month's holidays at Oakville, Dr. 3. A. and Mts. Fox and family, and Mr. and Mrs, 0, Thompson and family are camping at Kintaii Mr, and Mrs. F, G. Fox and little twins, and Miss Fox of Toronto, spent the week -end with Mrs. Fox's mother, Mrs, Eliza Pocock. The Wingham Glee Club held a most enjoyable picnic at Bayfield on Monday, Our former townsman Mr. John Kerr, of St. Ste. Marie, Administrator of the estate of his brother the late Mr, George A. Kerr, Manufacturer of Cree- more, Ont., has sold the plan- ning Mill and equipment to Messrs. Peter Thomson and sons of Mansfield for fifteen thousand dollars. The new pro- prietors will reopen the factory during the first week of August, The new proprietors are exten- sive lumber manufacturers at Terra Nova and run three heavy delivery trucks. 0--0--0 AUGUST 1938 Misses Ivy and Winnifred Fuller who have visited for the past five weeks with their uncle Mr. Fred Fuller, Charles St., sailed on Saturday on the Empress of Britain for their home in London, England where they will return to their pos- itions in the Civil Service De- partment. Miss Florence Barber left Monday for a month's cruise to Kingston, Jamaica, sailing on The Lady Rodney from Mon- treal. Short stops will be made at Bermuda and Nassau. 0--0--0 JULY 1948 Mrs. Howard Bedford and two sons of Niagara Falls, are spending a few days with her mother, Mrs. John Homuth. Misses Barbara Foxton, Marj- orie Copeland, Donna Henry, Jacquelyn Currie, Shirley and Jimmie Foxton, are spending two weeks at the Beach at Goderich. Mrs. George Gardner of Port Colborne, Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Gardner and Mrs. B. J. Kelly of Connecticut, and Miss Marg- aret Miller of New York, visit- ed with Dr. and Mrs. A. W. Irwin. George Porter, son of Mr. and Mrs. D. B, Porter, has been awarded the Lions Club Scholarship for general pro- ficiency in the Entrance class of the Wingham Public School. Six pairs of Wingham Bowl- ers attended the Doubles Tourn- ament at Goderich on Wednes- day, H. L. Sherbondy and J. A. Wilson won third prize and 0, liaselgrove and J. H. Craw- ford won fourth prize, Mr. and M. Wilfred Con - gram and sons, John and Charles, visited last week with 4lev. and Mrs. A. C. Riley, and with Mr. C. 13. Blackhall and other relatives of Cordova and Rockford, Ill. MISS JUDY BROWN, 17 -year-old daugh- ter of Flight Lieutenant C. Brown, of No. 437 Squadron, Trenton, takes a close look at the 426 Squadron Reunion News- sheet, while the Thunderbird Totem Pole, official mascot of the "Thunderbird" Squadron, looks on. Ail members, both war and peace -time, are requested to contact Box 426, RCAF Station, Trenton, for further particulars. The reunion is being held over the Labour Day week- end. Lw AbliaucitaZittra Wingham, Ontario, Thursday, July 25, 1963 SECOND SECTION milllllllliiBIIIillllllfPifiIiIIIIIiIIIIIfiIIL`f111111IiIIIIIIIi11111111111nionounillli11111lIIIpufl81!pv"@mm I,,,,,,"r,,,, ,, ,,"',!'9111'!IIII"':!J'9!1<< SUGAR r . and iilllllllllllllllllim SPICE u,fiilulllliivaaiui,By Bill Smiley Going back to the old home town or the old home farm for a visit is a favorite summer pastime in this country. Each year, after a fantastic, nostalgic build-up thousands of families are dragged many long, hot miles to see the place where Dad grew up. It is usually, for Dad, a poignant mixture of bitter disappointment and an un- mistakable awareness that he is growing old. For Mom, it is a great big pain in the arm. For the kids, it is an exercise in sheer bore- dom, and a realization that the old man has been kid- ding himself, and them, for years. You look up boys you went to school with, had wild adventures with, stole apples with, dated girls with. You find them fat, fortyish and full of futility, much like the fellows you curl and play golf with where you live now. You look up girls you were once feverishly in love with, girls you kissed in the park after the band concert, girls who once gave you infinite heartache and ineffable joy. Sylph -like creatures they were, slim as goddesses, smooth as butter. They have four kids, false teeth, and a nasty habit of telling you that you're getting pretty thin on top. Or ex- pressing shocked disbelief that you are actually the lean, flat -stomached, thick - haired slick -f youth who took them to their first dance. * * * You revisit the old swim- ming hole with your kids, and find that the green and gold oasis of clear, cool water you've so often men- tioned is a dirty little mud - hole full of green slime and saucy small boys. You take your young- sters down to the bridge, to show them where you used to make those 30 -foot dives. They've either low- ered the dang bridge or raised the water something fierce, because it's only a three-foot dive now. You take your children around to see the old fam- ily home. You look for the huge brick mansion with the vast porch and the big, white picket fence. You finally find it. Your kids take a long look at the dingy little house with the sagging verandah and the ragged, unpainted fence, and then take a long look at you. And so it goes. It can be a soul-destroying ordeal, one you won't want to re- peat for about 99 years. But this only happens when you've been away a long time, and have lost all sense of proportion about the old home town, which, if the truth were told, was a dump when you lived there, and still is. My family's lucky. This doesn't happen to them. In the first place, the old home town is their Mom's, not their Dad's, and Mom's are notoriously less senti- mental about this sort of thing. Women have a built-in sense of reality. They can fool themselves silly about abstract things like love and honor, but they have no illusions about concrete things like old houses and old swimming holes. In the second place, we all lived there until three years ago. We haven't been away long enough to get misty -eyed about it. The old house looks exactly as it did. The old trout streams still have trout in them. The old golf course still baffles me. As a result, our annual summer visit to the old home town is not an ordeal but a delight. It's a leisure- ly progress down main street, shaking hands, ask- ing after each other's chil- dren, being urged to drop in at the house or the cot- tage. * * * It's popping into the pub for one cold one and hav- ing a dozen citizens offer- ing to buy. It's chatting about town polities, as ab- sorbing and zany as they ever were. It's catching up on whose wife has run off and whose husband is run- ning around with what lady. Our kids love the visits to the town where they spent their childhood years, and know every dangerous ditch and perilous preci- pice. They meet the young- sters they went to school with, size each other up like friendly dogs and hap- pily start comparing notes. No, they're never disap- pointed when we visit the old home town. But they're going to get a great shock one of these days when their father drags them back to his old home town and they discover what a big, fat Liar he is about his old girl friends and his old feats of daring and his old family mansion. G111' OF KNOWLEDGE NEW DELIII—At least42, 500 men and women in India have learned to read and write thanks to CARE donors who sent 1,300 literacy kits for adult classes. Each kit, a $25 CARE package, contains writing supplies for 25 people.