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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1964-09-10, Page 9• siztautg. Hometown Productions Well Received Two events held in Wingham during the past week aroused a great deal of interest and reflected high credit upon those who produced them. We refer to the "Aquarama" at the swimming pool on Thursday evening and the water ski show on the upper pond Sunday after- noon. The swimming event is particularly noteworthy because all arrangements, decorations and rehearsals were carried out by the young members of the pool staff and their senior pupils. The show they put on was not only interesting and colorful, but provided the public with ample evidence of the training which is so successfully carried out during the summer months. The ability to swim was understood, a generation ago, as something a person could take or leave alone, but present-day thinking has changed all that. All sen- sible parents recognize swimming as a must for their children — the only fool- proof approach to the hazards of water and the possibility of drowning. Since the opening of the Riverside Park pool here the swimming classes have been well filled and dozens of youngsters have received training. The staffs each summer have been largely made up of high school students and we believe that their show on Thursday even- ing was a fine demonstration of the effectiveness of the water safety program. The water ski event on Sunday was one of the finest we have seen anywhere —and again it was put on entirely by local people without the assistance of professionals from outside. Hundreds of people lined the bridges and occupied the benches in the park to witness the smooth performance of the skiers of all ages who put on the show. Under the sponsorship of the Wingham Sportsmen's Association this event has been steadily increasing in popularity for the past few years, When the deeping of the lower pond is completed within the next year the broader expanse of water will no doubt stimulate interest in this sport and we should be able to look forward to even better shows in the future. Respected Editor Passes Along with the residents of the Luck - now community and newspapermen throughout Canada we deeply regret the early death of Campbell Thompson, pub- lisher and editor of The Lucknow Sen- • tinel, who passed away last week in the Wingham and District Hospital following a heart attack. He was 57 years of age. Mr. Thompson typified all that was best in weekly newspaper editors. Ut- terly loyal to his community and com- pletely devoted to its welfare, he pub- lished one of the finest small town news- papers we have ever known. 1 A "Cam" Thompson was a man of reas- onable and generous disposition who was slow to anger and respectful of the power his newspaper wielded in his own com- munity. He was liked and trusted by hundreds in his area and worked unfail- ingly in their best interests. His years as editor of The Sentinel have been of tremendous worth, not only to his own town and its people, but to the entire field of weekly journalism. It is men of his stature who have built and maintained the high reputation of our profession. Contagious Infection One of the most odious diseases of our times is the increasing tendency on the part of our young men and teen- agers to seek out violence and lawless- ness. The riot in Grand Bend at the ,, week -end is the latest in a series of sum- mer resort battles in such widely -separa- ted places as Fort Lauderdale, Florida, England, and Washington in the western States. Deplorable as such outbreaks are, it is the underlying reasons which puzzles • most of us. Why, at a time when pros- perity is at a record peak, when most young people in the countries we have mentioned have more material posses- sions than any previous generation, when educational standards have been vastly improved, should young people find en- joyment in pure destructiveness and hatred of law and order. Looking back over the history of previous generations we wonder, with a mental shudder, whether mankind will ever learn to live in peace. The fathers v and grandfathers of today's teen-agers had an entirely different opportunity to express their tendencies toward violence —they were called upon to meet deadly foes on the battlefields of Europe. If they were violent young men they had their fill. Surely it is not possible that humans like violence, despite their veneer of edu- cation and good manners. Is warfare our natural state and the periods of un- easy peace only the breathing spells be- tween our conflicts? Through countless weary centuries mankind has struggled slowly upward toward the shining prize of all time—a millenium of peace and progress. Some- how we must teach our children that this great goal will not be sacrificed be- cause of a few hoodlums. It has taken a long time to provide the full protection of justice for our society. It must not be thrown away because one small seg- ment of the population is restless and uncurbed. Bridges are a Hazard The accident last week on the bailey bridges across the prairie serves to em- phasize the fact that the two narrow spans are an extremely dangerous traffic bottleneck. Under rain or snow condi- tions the floors of the bridges are as slippery as a skating rink and since the railings are so close on either side a car has only to start into a skid and the damage is done. Because there are no signal lights on the spans it is quite possible for vehicles to start into the bridge entrances from both ends at the same time. When this occurs one or the other has to retreat and stopping in time becomes very haz- ardous when the planks are wet. In addition to the safety factor the two bridges are, to put it mildly, a pub- lic nuisance. The clattering of the planks under the wheels of cars and trucks makes a thunder that is audible a mile or more away on a quiet evening or in the early hours of the morning when sleep is precious. Personally, we are able to hear the passage of every vehicle and our home is more than a mile from' the bridge. How the folks who live near the two spans stand the racket we cannot imagine. We do understand the position of the Department of Highways. The causeway and temporary bridges across the prairie were erected because a bridge in Lower Town was no longer safe for heavy traf- fic. Presumably the temporary bridges over the prairie are still there because the department intends to continue the causeway to the east over the river flats, where more bridges will be required. The project is, admittedly, an expen- sive one, but the present half -completed job is creating a definite hazard for the public. r - THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros. Limited W. Barry Wenger, President Robert O. Wenger, Secretary -Treasurer IViember Audit Bureau of Circulation; Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Associ. ation; Member Canadian Community Newspapers Representatives Authorized by the Post Office Department as Second Class lVfail and for payment of postage in cash Subscription Rate: One Year, $4.00; Six Months, $2.25, in advance U.S.A., $5.00 per year; Foreign rate, OM per year Advertising Rates on application REMINISCING September 1914 While Mr. Thomas Aitkens, of Turnberry, was loading a stove onto a single wagon at the rear of Ross and Bell's hardware store on Friday morning, he had the misfortune to meet with a very severe accident. He was in the act of moving the seat forward to make room for a stove he had purchased from Ross and Bell when the seat fell forward onto the horse, causing it to take fright and bolt. Mr. Aitken lost his bal- ance and fell in front of the wa- gon, one wheel passing aver his body. He was immediately taken to Mr. Geo. Moir's shoe shining parlors and his friends phoned for, but was taken home later in Mr. O. Taylor's auto. The marriage took place in Bloor Street PresbyterianChurch in Toronto on Tuesday after- noon of Mr. Harry Haines, son of Mr. W. H. Haines of this town to Miss Mary Logan, of Toronto. Mr. T. Fells boasts of hav- ing the heaviest yield of oats in this section. He had sown a little over one and a half acres on his lot in Turnberry Township, and last week when he threshed, the yield was over one hundred and thirty bushels of oats. This figures out at about eighty-five bushels to the acre. September 1939 Mr. J. R. M. Spittal, man- ager of the Dominion Bank, Mrs. Spittal and children, Nancy and Ruth, were to have sailed this week for England for a visit with Mr. Spittal's parents,. Bookings were can- celled due to the troubled state in Europe. The following are the pu- pils of Tena E. Reid, A. T. C. M. , who were successful in passing their Toronto Conserva- tory of Music Exams held at Clinton. Theory: Grade III Harmony - Mabel Fothergill. (honours). Grade 11 Theory - Myrtle Fothergill (1st class honours); Russell Zurbrigg (1st class honours). Piano: Grade IV - Leslie Mae Wall. Grade II - Jimmy Hall (honours); Edwin Elson. September 1949 The members of the Wing - ham United Church choir look- ed very smart in their new wine coloured gowns on Sunday. The gowns are made of a light weight bengaline and the bright colour harmonizes with the gen- eral church colour scheme. A pleasant evening was spent at the home of Misses Margaret and Patricia Brophy on Wednesday when the members of the Junior Girls' Choir ofSa- cred Heart Church met to ho- nor Miss Vivien Ernest, organist prior to her departure to enter training as a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital, Kitchener. Rev. J. F. Bricklin gave a short address on the nobility of the nursing profession, and on behalf ofthc girls, Miss Shirley Lockridge PRIZES FOR NATIONAL COSTUME went to Kim Mellor, first; Keith Hodgkinson, third, and Marilyn Irwin and Dianne Stainton, second prize, in the Frontier Day parade. ingbran AttancieffZinte Wingham, Ontario, Thursday, Sept. 10, 1964 SECOND SECTION Ada Is an Admiral There are 85 admirals in the Royal Navy, and if this number is threatening to over- crowd the bridges of its dimin- ishing fleet, British ingenuity has come up with a solution. It is to abolish the admirals al- together as being obsolescent in this electronic age. Ada, which stands for action data automation, is taking over. Dubbed the automatic admiral, Ada claims to have a brain which is superior to those of Britain's 85 admirals taken to- gether. Consisting of three Poseidon computers, it can pick out potential targets by radar, determine whether ap- proaching objects are friendly or not, calculate their courses and speeds, and recommend the proper line of action. The human admirals under- standably resent the mechanical intruders, but if Britannia is to rule the waves she will have to Iook to her Adas rather than to her Nelsons. - New York Her- ald Tribune. "Makes you feel small and inadequate, doesn't ifr presented her with a Baby Ben alarm clock. John W. Hanna is one of the twenty-eight members of the Ontario Legislature touring Northern Ontario. He says the trip is extremely interesting and that the North Country is developing fast. SUGAR AND SPICE Summer: Who Needs It! BY BILL SMILEY Waning summer is a sad time, in a way. The halcyon days are nearing an end. The sun has lost its burning, bak- ing strength. The nights come sooner, and cooler. Young lovers who have had a summer affair part with a last embrace, desperate promises to write, and a great he a r t -wrenching, a feeling that something is going to be 1 o s t, irretrievable. And they're right. There is a slightly forlorn, lonely air about the beaches and the resorts and the sum- mer places. They have ac- quired a certain air of shabbi- ness that goes with the end of summer. Canadians fall asleep every year, in June. Lulled by the whispered, scented promises of that lush and lovely month, they dream of dazzling beach- es, pine -scented woods, fun and sun, health and happi- ness. And then the dream turns into the reality. The sizzling irritation of the July heat wave, when they have decid- ed, for a change, to take their holidays in August this year. And the cold. wet blanket of August. which turns camping trips into shivering family feuds, cottages into miniature mental institutions, and resort owners into wild-eyed neuro- tics. But don't let this end -of - summer sadness bother you. It's phoney. Canadians are not really sad as summer ends. At least. they're no more sad than I am, when I dream I'm flying to Hongkong with Eliza - "MIND POPPING IN? WERE SHORT A FOURTH FOR BRIDGE..." beth Taylor, and I've just drifted off with her head on my shoulder, and she shakes me gently and leers into my eyes and says, "I think I WILL have a double brandy", and I suddenly wake up and the Old Battleaxe is shafting my shoulder, the one with the bursitis in it, and mumbling, "Gemme a drinka wodder." Summer in this country is an absolute fantasy, some- thing in, which no sensible Canadian would put any more faith than he would in his Ir- ish Sweepstake ticket, or his old Aunt Ethel who has changed her will six times. Summer in this country is a fraud, an illusion. Every time I lie out in the backyard, on the green grass, with the green trees enclosing a circle of blue sky above me, I shake myself and pinch myself, until I know it's a dream, and that if I tried the same thing four months later, I'd be buried under three feet of snow. That's why I feel no real sadness as summer draws to a close. The Canadian sum- mer is about as real as Gil- bert and Sullivan. In fact, I am elated at the thought that another two months of muddling around with visiting relatives, irra- tional golf balls, reluctant fish and lippy kids is at an end. As any true, red-blooded Canadian knows, fall is the time when we begin to live again, We love it. We come al- ive. We stop dreaming. We look at our kids with clear eyes, after the opium - dream of summer, and find they've grown four inches. We look at our stomachs, after two months of barbecued chicken, french fries and dairy queens, and find they've grown two inches. We look with loving eyes at our schools and realize with some joy that it's only a few days until we can take advan- tage of our position as tax- payers, and get rid of the kids for the best part of each week. We look at our country and see it with new eyes. It's beautiful. Not a tourist in sight. We look at our soft, soppy, silly, summer selves, and realize that this is not what life is all about. And we give a dim silent Canadian cheer for the fact that it's all over once again, and we can get back to the serious things of life. Like having a baby. Or running for the school board.