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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1966-05-26, Page 9The Best System ANDREW THOMPSON, Leader of the Liberal Party in On- tario, spent a day during the three-day Annual Meeting and Policy Conference of the Party last week-end meeting important delegates in his Royal York Hotel room. He is seen here with Mrs, Chas, Lobsinger, Mildmay; Murray Gaunt, MPP, Huron-Bruce; John Elliott, Blyth; Mr. Thomp- son; Colin Campbell, Wingham; Charles Lobsinger, Mild- may, and Crawford Douglas, Wingham. The Perfect High School LETTERS TO THE EDITOR '43filflit",101r,//111/0.fffir Re: Unwanted Amusement Dear Editor: Do you really think all of the fault lies with our young people? The Kinsmen should be com- mended for their effort to spon- sor entertainment in Wingham for our young folk. But did they take a broad view when arrang- ing for such? They sponsored dances every week with good music, but perhaps they tried to make money too fast. How many young people attending school can pay $1.00 to $1.50 per person each week for a dance and '750 each for a show? Perhaps a dance twice a month would have been more feasible. Roller skating is again a big hit of the season. Our 12-year- old was thrilled to go the first Friday night, but was very sur- prised to be charged 600 instead of the expected 350. How many children can go very often at this price? Other communities are able to have good sound amusement and the young people support it, and for which our young people will now drive miles. Will they all come home safely to us? Mrs. J. Cameron. Reminiscing MAY 1917 Mrs. R. Coutts, Scott Street, received a cablegram on Thurs- day, April 26th, that her youngest son, Harry, had been severely wounded in the left arm from gunshot. Mr. J. G. Stewart, real estate agent, has this week dis- posed of the Jos. Underwood property on Francis St. to Mr. Harry F. McGee of East Wawan- osh, and three lots on Cather- ine St. owned by William Cas- lick to Chas. J. Rintoul. MAY 1931 J. W. McKibbon is beautify- ing his vacant lot, adjacent to his residence, by putting in a tennis court. In the results of Queens Uni- versity examinations made pub- lic on Monday, W. J. Hender- son, son of W. J. Henderson, Reeve of Morris, secured his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors. He also was awarded a medal in Physics and a resident $375 scholarship in Art Re- search. An unusually pretty wedding took place at the home of the bride's sister and brother-in- law, Mr. and Mrs. John R. Lil- lie, Reynolds St., Oakville on Saturday evening, when Rev. F. S. Dowling, minister of St. James-Bond United Church, Toronto, united in the holy bonds, Miss Helen Louise, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Gardner, of Rochester, N.Y., late of Toronto, and Dr. Arthur William Irwin, only son of Dr. and Mrs. A. I. Irwin of Wing- ham. MAY 1941 Joe Falconer left Monday for Hamilton, where he will enter the services of the Dominion Bank. A.C. Don Natrnith and A. C. "Ace" Bateson, of the RCAF are now stationed at Sky Har- bour, Goderich, where they are receiving their elementary training to become pilots. Ken Somers and Ken Murray reported for duty with the RCAF at London on Monday. Wingham is losing one of her popular young men, Harry J. Boyle, who for the past five years has been on the staff of CKNX. Harry takes over his new position with the Stratford Beacon-Herald on Monday,May 12th, and the good wishes of all in this community go with him. Manager J. R. M. Spittal, Accountant Murray Roberts, Messrs. E. Arbic, G. E. Ma- dill and Ken Johnson attended the Dominion Bank Recreation- al Club annual banquet in Tor- onto Friday evening. MAY 1952 Wingham Presbyterian manse, was the scene of a pretty wed- ding on Wednesday, April 23rd, when Mary Eileen Henning, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Henning, became the bride of Joseph Arthur Wal- ker, eldest son of Mrs. Janet Walker, and the late Thos. Wal- ker. Rev. Alexander Nimmo performed the double ring cere- mony. Ianville Hammerton, pro- prietor of Hammerton's Photo Studio here in Wingham, re- ceived an award of excellence for one of his two entries in the 68th Annual Convention of the Ontario Society of Photograph- ers. Wingham town council, at a special meeting Tuesday night, set a tax rate of '77 mills. This is an increase of 11 mills over last year's rate of 66 mills. Virtually everybody these days is upset about our educa- tional system. The public schools are not teaching the ur- chins to read, write and figger. The high schools are massive, seething factories turning out illiterates. The colleges are sep- tic tanks of sex, marijuana and LSD. Most of this is pure poppy- cock, of course, but a critical so- ciety is a healthy one, according to Hugh Dunnit, that great Welsh bard and beatnik of the eleventeenth century. This makes Canadians about the healthiest critters in the hemi- sphere. Columnists aver that high schools are run like military camps, producing lock-step con- formists who haven't learned to think, This is patent baloney. They think one helluva lot more than did these same columnists, when they came out of Hayfork Centre with not much more than S burning desire to get away from said centre, a lousy basic education, and a shiny blue serge suit. Lots of parents, and some teachers, are of the opposite opinion: that there is far too much freedom of speech, dress and action, too many frills, not enough good hard work and good hard punishment. These comments come from parents who worked one-quarter as hard in school as their kids do, and teachers who atrophied some years ago. The kids themselves, depend- ing on home •background, their own personalities, and their tal- ent, or lack of it, look on school as a jail or a ball. Some think of it rather like having a ball in a jail. School boards beef about the cost of everything, and the ad- ministration beefs about the shortage of everything and the teachers beef about the paper jungle and the custodians beef about the salaries and the hours and the teachers and the admin- istration and the school board. You might think, from all this nagging, that there are some slight imperfections in our high schools. And you might be right. But it's not as bad as it sounds. What I can't understand is that I haven't been approached for a definition of the perfect high school, It's probably just an oversight, and because I'm not a pushy type. But who is better qualified? I've been to high school myself, I work in the blasted factory every day, and I have a daughter who comes home every day and moans, "Do I ever hate school!" Well, here goes. Don't panic, now. The changes would be slight and inexpensive. I think we'd all enjoy life more, stu- dents, parents and teachers. First of all, let's cut out the muttered, mumbled morning prayer. I believe in prayer and practise it quite often (usually when I'm in a jam). But it's al- most sacrilege in the way it's delivered. The R.C.'s whizz through it and leave out the last part. The Jews and atheists are silent. The teacher winds up leading three or four dogged Protestants who aren't always sure of the words. Next, out goes The Queen. While I am a royalist, and -have the utmost respect for Queen Elizabeth, I see no reason 30-odd teen-agers should be submitted, every morning, to a pompous and had piece of music, the words of which have no more relation to their world than does the horse and buggy. How would you like to go to the factory, or the office, and stand at attention while a tape- recorded hand blares out one of these awful tunes, before you got down to serious business, like waiting for the coffee break? In place of these, I would sug- gest a warm-up period. We're all pretty dang doggy first thing in the morning. The class cut-up would be master of ceremonies. Witty sayings, announcements, brief weather report. Some Bea- tles and Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. An original poem or song from the students. If a girl has Go-Go boots, let her demonstrate a new dance. Prob- ably on the teacher's desk. By this time e verybody is friendly, warmed-up. The real learning atmosphere has been created. But unfortunately, have run out of space. Read next week's column for a fur- ther thrilling instalment on The Perfect High School. ADVERTISERS, PLEASE NOTE Taking the time to reach small town weeklies is worth the effort according to a man who is reported by a daily pap- er to be one of the best politi- cal executive assistants in Can- ada. He is Clare Westcott, a member of the staff of On- tario's minister of education. "Get to the weeklies and you get to the province. Their readers remember what they have read," -- The Printed Word, The appreciation of the community is extended to the Fireman, Kinsmen, Lions, Business Association and the Legion for w the excellent display of fireworks pre- sented in Riverside Park on Monday even- ing. This annual event is a real service and an excellent way to mark the 24th of May holiday. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of R A week ago the Boy Scouts from Wingham enjoyed a camporee at Prince- ton, in the Woodstock area, and judging from the list of places from which the other Scouts at the gathering came, it must have been a real experience in in- ternational relationships. Wingham had the largest troop pres- ent and in addition there were boys from several other Ontario points as well as from five or six centres in the northern United States. In addition to learning the fireworks display is the fact that it provides parents with a ready-made ex- cuse for not buying a whole bag full of explosive themselves, With the much bigger and better show at the park there is no need to have fireworks at home and thus a very real hazard can be avoided, new facts about their own craft, the boys had an opportunity to mingle with those from across the border and so gain a valuable experience in international friendships. The world is shrinking very rapidly and more and more adults find them- selves working with people from other lands. It is therefore very important that a spirit of tolerance and understand- ing be developed early in life. International Meeting Wingham, Ontario, Thursday, May 26, 1966 SECOND SECTION The Tourist Who Never Comes Back 0 We would like to follow up the sound advice given recently by R. N. Bubbs of Imperial Oil at the Pine Ridge Tourist Council's dinner, says the Bowmanville Canadian Statesman. He pointed out that a smile over a breakfast table is more welcome to the average tourist than the biggest feature attraction in the area, In short, tourists are likely to patronize a community or a district where the people extend a cordial welcome to them as guests. Such treatment of visitors is most im- portant throughout this area in particu- lar, because whether we realize it or not, we are quite dependent upon visitors for our prosperity. Also, even though many of them are enroute to other holiday spots in the north, if they are shown courtesy and kindliness here they prob- ably will return again. This is true, of course, not only of the tourist from afar, but of potential shoppers from a few miles away. "If she likes you she'll come back," is an old saying favored by the man in a dice game looking for his number. It is just as true of people. First impressions can be lasting and it is important to the economic well-being of a town that its citizens, all of them, go out of their way to make the stranger feel welcome. A pamphlet distributed by the Cana- dian Tourist Association has some food for thought on what not to do during the coming holiday season in your contacts with visitors to our town. A nice tour- ist might know these reactions: "You know me. I'm a nice tourist, I never complain, no matter what kind of service I get. "VII go into a restaurant, sit and sit while the waitress gossips with her boy friend and never bothers to see if my Though forced integration of the col- ored and white races in the American south has been getting most of the atten- tion for the past few years, it -is not the only means by which the final mingling of negroes and whites is being achieved. Have you noticed the use of colored actors in leading roles on television? One in particular portrays a pair of interna- tional trouble-shooters who display equal quantities of brains and courage in pur- suit of criminals of all kinds. The colored member of the team is never explained nor apologized for. He is simply there as an indication that whites and blacks can work side by side. The same trend prevails in recent novels. One we read recently was based hamburger is ready. Sometimes, someone who came in after I did gets my ham- burger, but I don't say a word. "If the soup is cold or the cream for the coffee is sour, I'm nice about it. "If the service station attendant fails to check my oil or polish the windshield I don't even raise my eyebrows. "When I go into a store and get surly treatment and lack of sympathy with my browsing around, I don't make a fuss. "When I register at a motel or hotel I'm thoughful of the other person. If I get a snooty manager who gets nettled because I want to look at my room be- fore making up my mind, I'm polite as can be, I don't believe rudeness in re- turn is the answer. You might say I wasn't raised that way. "I never kick. I never nag. I never criticize. I wouldn't dream of making a scene as I've seen people doing in public places. I think that's awful. "I'm a nice tourist. I'll tell you what else I am, I'm the tourist who never comes back! "That's my little revenge for getting pushed around. That's why I take what- ever they hand out . . I know I'm not coming back. It's true that this doesn't relieve my feelings right off, as telling them what I think of them would. But in the long run it's a far more deadly revenge. "In fact, a nice tourist like myself, multiplied by others of my kind, can just about ruin a business. And there's a lot of nice people in the world, just like me, when we get pushed far enough we go down the street to another restaurant, We eat hamburgers in places where they're smart enough to hire help who appreciate nice tourists. Together, we do them out of millions every year." on a theme that a power-hungry Wash- ington politician was making plans to have a friend under his complete domin- ation installed as chief of the FBI. The hero of the tale was a negro Congressman who struggled against tremendous forces to expose the danger to the nation, Another recently televised drama about life in Washington showed a negress as a member of a highly-influen- tial committee----without comment or ex- planation. Forced integration could not, we sup- pose, have been avoided, but it does seem a pity that the methods we have mention- ed above were not started many years ago, before the feelings of both races climbed to such a fever pitch. Cracking the Color Bar THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros. Limited. W. Barry Wenger, President - Robert 0. Wenger, Secretary-Treasurer Member Audit Bureau of Circulation Member Canadian Weekly Netvspapers Association, Authorized by the Post Office Department as Second Class Mail and for payment of postage in cash. Subscription Rate: 1 year, $5,00; 6 months, $2.76 in advance; U.S,A., $7.00 per yr,: Foreign rate, $7.00 per yr. Advertising Rates on application.