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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1963-12-19, Page 9Ghosts Of Christmas Past Christmas is a special time—a time Which seems close and personal to every ;' idividual in each generation. Since it is a personal and not a mass experience we all tend to feel that any change in even the tiniest detail of Christmas ob- servance verges on the sacriligious. If stockings were hung on the bedposts of our childhood homes we tend to feel the whole thing is wrong because our children want to do things ditterently. (How absurdly, too, we disregard the fact that our beds no longer have posts and child- ren have never seen any long stockings except mother's sheer nylons). The dying customs of Christmases past are always tertile fields for nostalgia. Most or us love to aream our way back to cnildhood, warm in the memories of those times when we were the special objects of an entire family's devotion. In our own family we inherited a horde or Christmas customs, most of them accumulated from generations of English ancestors. Among these tradi- tions were some real dillies. A few of them, we suspect had been originated in ,days of dire poverty, but they were so well sold to us as youngsters that we swallowed them without even chewing. Perhaps the slickest of all was a fam- ily tradition, the Christmas Pie, which called for the presents being placed in a big clothes basket and covered with a white sheet. For some reason (fast talk we suspect) we were completely con- vinced that Christmas trees were only for the very dull and common herd. Our sophistication, of course, was a great relies to elders who, no doubt, were quite satisfied to skip the task of dressing a tree. Another old English custom in the family was a once -a -year dish, eaten only on Christmas Eve. It was called "fru- marty" and in fact was well -washed wheat, baked for many hours in a slow oven and served hot with brown sugar and cream. This repast was so filling that it was a stout lad who could handle more than one medium-sized bowl of the Yuletide delight. It is nasty to possess a suspicious mind, but the thought does occur that wheat was a lot cheaper than turkey— and grandfather happened to be a miller. Just hark back to all the Christmas cards that come pouring in. A typical scene depicts a coach -and -four carrying a load of red -nosed travellers, supposedly on their way to a Christmas celebration. A picture of this kind means Yuletide to us, despite the fact that none of us have ever seen a coach, much less that a coach_ could ever take anybody any place in our part of the world. And how about all the holly we see— in print? Unless you have relatives in British Columbia you've never seen the real thing. Mistletoe — now there's a terrific gadget; the answer to a bashful widower's dream. But where would you go for a sprig of this magic plant? The only reference we have ever found to real-life mistletoe was in a history of the ancient Britons, whose priests venerated the plant, a parasite growth on the oak trees of England. Considering the emotionally thera- peutic effects of this particular weed, we are simply amazed that the plastics industry has not yet produced a realistic substitute. Due to the present shortage of the original, it may be assumed the Druids would not be unduly insulted. Christmas customs, of course, must change, like all other things. It just happens that we don't really want them to do so. But the innovations we groan about this Yuletide will be the very tra- ditions our grandchildren will regret to lose in 2013. How To Be Unprepared It was our great misfortune to be forced into a trip to Toronto last Thurs- . By coincidence Toronto was hud- d down under five inches of snow that day. Now five inches of snow is no great deal in Wingham—but in Toronto it's a national calamity. By great good chance we did get to Ap;.r hotel room with only two or three ";fours' delay. Radio then began telling us about the hassle which had gripped the metropolis. According to these re- ports some hundreds of thousands of cars were stalled in the areas to the west, north and east of the city. All radio pro- grams were slanted to soothe the frayed nerves of the stalled drivers. (Just what happened to the drivers of the cars with- out radios, we never did find out). It later developed that the prime causes of the trouble were cars without snow tires and drivers who knew noth- ing about driving in snow. Now it is true that Toronto drivers don't face the problem too frequently. Apparently they live better than we do. Nonetheless the city of Buffalo has come to grips with such situations. On the busy arteries they prohibit parking at any time . . . and they have a standard $25 fine for the motorist who gets bogged down for lack of snow tires or chains. It is amazing that the capital of On- tario, one of the snowiest areas on earth, has no plan to cope with even a modest snowfall. Where Do The Dollars Go? It seems the handwriting is on the wall• Taxes are going up — provincial taxes that is. Under present conditions any tax increase is found to come within the provincial field, for at long last we are getting around to a point of concentra- tion on something other than vast nation- al schemes which involve our money. That provincial taxation must rise is inevitable. The monies received through greater provincial revenue will go largely into projects in which we have a keen local interest—better roads, more hospital beds, schools for retarded children (we hope), broader forms of education, etc. We do believe that Premier John Robarts' government has sound plans for the future of Ontario. His demands from the Ottawa government have been pre- dicted by reason and common sense. We are seriously concerned about only one aspect of government spending. The explosive expenditures for social services. For those who are in serious need there is no argument whatsoever. But in this country we have initiated pro- grams which are proving to be beyond our means. One of them is a system of payments for every child in the family up to 16 years of age. Another is universal old age pensions for ALL persons 70 and over. The latter are paid to millionaires and paupers alike. All we have to do is maintain more and more social services, more and more taxes, more and more and more. This way we can achieve perfection —perhaps the kind of perfection that has been won in Sweden, where every social need is met by government—and where the suicide rate is one of the highest in the world. Closer Comparison Pensions are grand. Let us suggest a comparative study between the amount of pension paid to a healthy millionaire at age 70 and a disabled war veteran at age 48. THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros, Limited W. Barry Wenger, President - Robert O. Wenger, Secretary -Treasurer 4 ember Audit Bureau of Circulation; Mernber Canadian Weekly Newspapers Associ- ation; Member Canadian Community Newspapers Representatives Authorized by the Post Office Department as Second Class Mail and for payment of postage in cash Subscriptiop Rate: One Year, $4.00; Six Months, $2.25, in advance U.S.A., $5.00 per year; Foreign rate, $5.00 per year Advertising Rates on application REMINISCING DECEMBER 1913 The following are the results of the S.S. examinations held in St. Paul's S.S.: Senior Div- ision, Marjorie Haines; Middle Division, Heloise Kennedy, Mary Allen, Vera Stricker; Junior Div- ision, Aileen Kennedy, Mildred Walker, Mabel Calver, Kath- leen Wilkinson, Emma Calver, Ruby Brown. Last week the pupils of Wing - ham Public School entered up- on a campaign for the Sick Children's Hospital of Toronto. Their efforts have resulted in raising $12.20. The children deserve credit in manifesting so practical a Christmas gift. Dr. James Wilson of Holstein was in town last week meeting many of his old friends made while practising here. Mr. W. F. Cornwall, who was employed at the C.P.R. section here, has been promot- ed to timekeeper on a special switch gang. 0--0--0 DECEMBER 1926 The Wingham High School Cadet Team are to be congratu- lated in their having won sec- ond place in the shoot for the Laura Secord Trophy. There were 41 teams entered. The Wingham team is composed of Messrs. Malcolm Ross, William Taylor, Wilber Tiffin, George Peacock and Will Brawley. These boys each received a two pound box of Laura Secord Can- dy. At the regular meeting of Huron Chapter, O.E.S. held on its 5th anniversary, December 14th, the following officers were elected for the year 1927. W. M. , Mrs. W. J. Boyce; W. P., Mr. George Olver; Secre- tary, Mrs. E. Nash; A.M., Mrs. R. A. Coutts; Treas. ,Miss Mary Pattison; Conductor, Mrs. W. A. Miller; Assoc. Cond., Mrs. Geo. Spotton. Mrs. Thos. Forbes of Wing - ham, is spending the winter with her sister, Mrs. Robt, Ged- des, 3rd line of Morris. 0--0--0 DECEMBER 1938 Mr. C. H. McAvoy haspur- chased from Mr. W. H. Gurney the building he now occupies with his drug store, Mr. P. A. Scott and daugh- ter, Velma, left on Tuesday for Vancouver, B.C. , where they will visit with friends. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lloyd and son, Donald, returned on Saturday, having spent the past six weeks in Florida. Betty Lewis, 10 -year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Lewis, was operated on for mas- told in London late Tuesday evening. It is hoped that Betty will have a speedy recovery. The following were the win- ners at a meeting of the Wing - ham Bridge Club. North and South: Mrs. H. Campbell and E. M. Snell; Mrs. O. Col- borne and W. H. French; Mrs. A. R. DuVal and Mrs. J. Mas- on; D. Nasmith and K. Somers. East and West, Mrs. C. Armi- tage and L. R. Blackwood; Miss S. MacLean and J. H. Craw- ford; Mrs. W. H. French and J. Mason; Mrs. D. B. Porter and Mrs. W. W. Armstrong. 0--0--0 DECEMBER 1948 Mr. and Mrs. L. R. Schroe- ter and daughter, Karen, who spent the past month with Mr. and Mrs. David Finley, left for Ottawa where they will visit for a few days before returning to Calgary, Alta. Week -end guests at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Coulter were: Mr. and Mrs. Clarkson Martin and Miss Lorna Martin of Galt, Miss Mae Coul- ter of Aylmer and Mr. James Coulter of Kitchener. A complete new Northern Electric Sound System has been installed recently in the Ly- ceum Theatre. This sound sys- tem makes our local theatre one of the best in Western On- tario. Funeral services were held at Napanee Monday afternoon for Rev. J. F. Dingman, 81, retired Baptist minister. Mr. Dingman was a former pastor of Wingham Baptist Church. Your application form for a new driver's licence may be in this picture—under the band of Ontario Transport Minister Irwin Haskett (left), who is examining the mailing machine that sends out the forms at the rate of 60,000 a day. With him is Ken Sands, administrator of the division that is handling the new system. Each application form has the name of the individual driver on it, and the new drivers' licenses will be valid for periods varying from one to three years. The Department of Transport started mailing in late November, and it will take two months to send 'out the forms to every one of the 2A million drivers in the province. ingbain 10ton/co/Elmo Wingham, Ontario, Thursday, Dec. 19, 1963 SECOND SECTION BOX 390 Ontario Safety League Dec. 12, 1963 Dear Editor: It is very much safer to use streets and highways in the U.S. than in Canada. So say statis- tics - unmistakeably, Two usual indices of traffic safety are to relate fatalities (1) to the number of motorve- hicles, (2) to the number of miles driven. On the first basis averaging the years 1960 to 1962, Canadian traffic is 18.9% more deadly. On the second basis (total mileage), Canadian vehicles killed 42.1% more peo- ple proportionately than U.S. vehicles, according to official statistics in each country. The disparity is even more acute for 1962 alone. Actual death rates for the year are:(1) Per 10, 000 motor vehicles - U.S. 5.2, Canada 6.0 (2) Per 100 million miles driven - U.S. 5.3, Canada 8.0 (i.e. more than half as much again). There are many influences that affect traffic safety. But in my view there is one single factor that could explain why our U.S. friends are "better drivers" than Canadians - high school driver education. Driver education has been firmly es- tablished in the U.S. for a gen- eration, and now over 12,000 schools take over 1, 400, 000 six- teen -year-olds every year and turn them out fully equipped to handle an automobile skillfully, sanely and safely. By contrast, only 230 schools in Canada (including 90 in On- tario, 102 in Saskatchewan) of- fer high school driver education - as an optional, extra-cirricu- lar course. The great majority of Canadians "pick up" their driving knowledge, and habits; or are taught by people without proper qualifications. The re- sults are tragically obvious in our accident statistics. In the U.S. a substantial proportion of licence holders really know how to drive be- cause they have been correctly taught. In Canada far too many people just think they know how to drive correctly. Widespread driver education could substantially reduce the tragedies and economic loss from traffic accidents that blight our country. It could be had for the asking. It is up to the Canadian people. Yours truly, Fred H. Ellis, General Manager. MULTISYLLABIC MOTTO The motto of llawaii (Ad- mitted in 1959 as the 50th of the United States of America) is: Ua Mau Ke Ea 0 Ka Aina I Ka Pono. The Encyclopedia Americana translates this as "The Life of the Land Is Perpet- uated in Righteousness." ;�nn'rlvl IiP d:r;r w. II :11:1`11Inlll IIS 111111!1111111!!I I I' )! [111r lPpo I' I "i4't b :k'�'!I" II II til"!I u [ ,u �'!''"ifs!'p ;,1,1111:.„ We neurotics of the frantic twentieth century have a genius of sorts. We can take almost anything that is simple, clean and beautiful, and make it complex, sullied and a garish monstrosity. Almost anything, but not quite. We haven't quite ruined Christmas yet. But we have taken a day that was, for our ancestors, a simple observance of the birth of Christ and turned it into a gift -scrambling, card exchanging, carol - jangling, tub -thumping sev- eral weeks. In the good old days, the good old families rose early on Christmas day and went to c hu r c h, where the parson gave them a two- hour appetizer. Then they went home and took a nip of something to take off the chill. While the servants were sweating in the kitchen, preparing the vast dinner to come, the gentry took a bite of lunch. Then the ladies set off to distribute gifts to the poor, while the gentlemen put their coat-tails to the fire and went after that chill again. That's your ancestors I'm talking about. Mine were among the people the ladies were taking the food to. I can just see them, kick- ing the pigs under the bed when her ladyship came in, tugging their forelocks, Colorful Cavalry The Tatars, a Mongolian tribe which took part in the in- vasion of central and western Asia and eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, introduced a mili- tary formation which was wide- ly adopted by other countries and used regularly until the be- ginning of the 20th Century. This formation was known as the "Uhlans," a variety oflight cavalry armed with sabres, lan- ces and, later, with pistols. Just under the points of the Ian ces hung gaily -colored bits of cloth, intended to frighten en- emy horses. Perhaps the most effective use of Uhlans was made by the Prussians. JAIL SUGAR and SPICE By Bill Smiley,,,.� scraping their feet, and say- ing, "F'ank yer, Milady, f'ank yer, Mum", as she pulled from her basket one of the geese that had died of disease, and one of last year's bottles of blackberry brandy that had gone vine- gary. This Christmas, of course, my ancestors' de- scendants will eat turkey until they resemble purple pigs, while the descendants of Milady, who have man- aged to hang onto the manor house only by taking tourists through at a shilling a shot, will dine, in the only room of the big house they can afford to heat, on a small bit of brisk- et, and brussel sprouts. However, that's not what I started out to say. Well, despite all the wailing and throwing of hands in the air at the paganism and commercialism of Christ- mas today, I feel that we have failed, somehow. We haven't quite managed to ruin Christmas. I'll warrant our children know just as much, and maybe more, of the story of Christmas, and the coming of the Christ -Child, as their counter -parts of 100 years ago did. And I'll bet we are not as smug and selfish, despite our much -touted materialism, as our Victor - i a n great-grandfathers were. Witness service clubs scurrying about town with Christmas baskets for those less fortunate. Witness groups of youngsters sing- ing carols at homes for old people. Witness high school kids selling Christmas cards for UNICEF, to feed t t 1 e, starving children abroad. So gird up your loins, plunge into your shopping and debt, give for the joy of giving, be happy in the family reunion, go to church on Chrismas day, stay away from the hard stuff, and don't be a hog with the turkey, and you won't go too far wrong!