HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1966-06-16, Page 1MAYOR DEWITT MILLER, chaplain of the local Legion
Branch, read the list of names of veterans who served in
the armed forces and died either in battle or since the
War. He was taking part in dedication ceremonies on
Decoration Day at the cemetery on Sunday.
—Advance-Times Photo.
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Wingham, Ontario, Thursday, June 16, 1966 SECOND SECTION
Those Terrible Teens are at it
again. Riot in Montreal. Riot in
Toronto's Yorkville. Teen-age
boy charged with glue-sniffing.
Girls nailed with bundle of mar-
ijuana. Students picketing ev-
erything but the public lavato-
ries.
Searching articles by sociolog-
ists point out the obvious: that
teen-agers arse rebellious, re-
sentful of adults, eager to ex-
periment; anxiety-ridden, reck-
less, sensitive, moody. Any par-
ent knows all that.
"Probing" and "sensitive" TV
programs point Out some more
of the obvious; that teen-agers
like power (boats, cars, motor-
bikes; but not lawnmowers);
that they like music with a big
beat; that they like members of
the opposite sex. Anybody who
is not blind and deaf knows all
that.
What's all the fuss about,
then? Is it a lot of overblown
sensationalism in the mass
media?
I'm no sociologist, but I have
been a teen-ager, I have two of
them under my roof, and I teach
swarms of them every day, so I
have some qualifications, how-
ever amateurish, to speak a
piece.
Let's try to look at the whole
thing coolly. They did inherit a
pretty cruddy world. Their
freshness and idealism is soured
at every turn by the massive
march of materialism. Man is
aiming at the stars with his feet
firmly mired in the mud. And
over all hangs the threat of an-
nihilation.
What do they want? They
want to sweep away all the old
shibboleths and start fresh.
They want to be their brother's
keeper. They want to communi-
cate. But every way they turn,
they are confronted by a great,
passive resistance from a society
constructed by adults for the
comfort and convenience of
adults. Who wouldn't be frus-
trated?
Students would Like to take
over the universities. And re-
membering some of the deplora-
ble professors and ridiculous
courses f was subjected to, I
don't blame them.
They'd like to have the vote
at 18, And this might be a good
thing. It would mean nobody
over 25 would dare to run for
public office. In this way we
might get rid of vast numbers of
the incompetent politicians we
now have at every level of gov-
ernment.
They'd like to he able to non.
conform (though they do cling
rather frantically to the Ultra-
conformity of the teen cult).
Well, there's nothing wrong
with being a non-conformist. I'd
love to grow a beard, if it didn't
emerge as a grizzled stubble
that makes me look like a Bow-
cry bum on a binge. I'd like to
have two mistresses and a pet
tiger, but I can't afford it. I'd
like to go in bare feet, but I
have this terrible seed-wart on
the ball of my right foot, that
hurts like the dickens.
They'd like some direction in
their lives, so they say, and
blame the lack of it on their
parents or adults generally. Did
you ever try to direct a teen-
ager to get to bed or mow the
lawn? RIGHT NOW!
They'd like to be beautiful or
handsome. They'd like to be
loved and trusted. They'd like to
be given responsibility. All
these longings prove is that
they are human beings.
You know, things haven't
changed that much. When I was
18, I thought my parents well-
meaning, but terribly narrow-
minded. When I was 21, we used
to call chaps of 29 in the Air
Force, "Pop." When I was 25,
people in their late 30's were
completely incomprehensible.
All they could talk about was
furniture and fuel bills, children
and chimneys, taxes and teach-
ers. People over 40 were dodder-
ing, senile.
Don't try to understand teen-
agers, Just try to put up with
them. They want to fly. We
want them to get on the tread-
mill with the rest of us squir-
rels. Remember, you too once
wanted to fly.
erY.0.-Avv/X/fr
Each year Mike McPhail of
California writes a personal note
when he renews his subscription
to the A-T. The McPhails
have many friends and acquain-
tances here who are always in-
terested in what they arc doing
so we will share the informa-
tion with our readers,
June 6, 1960,
Dear Barry:
It is good to hear that the
main street will remain potted,
and the town hall is not to be
deuced, Also the new church
on main street is a very beauti-
ful building,
Mary and I spent three days
with Miles and Lillian Overend
in Vernon, B.C., and as you
might expect, were treated
royally. I think that it was the
nicest trip that we have taken,
and California looks colourless
JUNE 1917
The heaviest downpour of
rain accompanied by the larg-
est hail stones ever seen, visit-
ed Wingham on Monday night.
The Teeswater Motor Club
have raked the stones off the
road as far as the halfway house
between Teeswater and Wing-
ham. What's the matter with
Wingham motorists doing the
other half?
A quiet wedding took place
at the parsonage, Teeswater,
on Wednesday, June 20th when
Annie C., daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Theop. Finnen, Wing-
ham, became the wife of Mr.
Thomas Casemore of Turnberry.
The happy couple will reside on
the groom's farm on the B Line.
At a recent organization of
the lady Liberals of Wingham
the following officers were
elected. President, Mrs. Ged-
des; 1st vice pres., Mrs. Thos.
Fells; 2nd vice pres., Mrs. Jos.
Pugh; secretary, Miss Whyte;
treasurer, Miss Powell.
JUNE 1931
Elmer Wilkinson and his
men are engaged at painting
the town standpipe. This will
no doubt be one job that will
be inspected from a distance on
completion, especially the top
half.
Mr. Geo. Day is moving his
barber shop to the rooms over
Miller's Wholesale Tobacco
Store in the Crawford Block,
and has reduced the prices to
Hair cuts 200, Shaves 10g.
Mr. Alkin Rann, who has
been employed by Mr. A. J.
Walker in his furniture and un-
dertaking business, has pur-
-'7,MAN:iii'v;7; ,SM.04'WM
after seeing Oregon, Washing-
ton and British Columbia,
There is a fine highway called
99 that winds its way through
the mountains, over large riv-
ers, and the lakes look so clear
you feel you could drink the wa-
ter. Vernon is a very pretty
city, and it was good to see the
Canadian flag flying from the
public buildings, but I think
Penticton was our choice of
small cities. It is a beautiful
place with three lakes.
Family news -- Bob is still
with the U, S. A.F. in New Jer-
sey and Mary Ellen is finishing
her first year at the Orange
Coast College., Mary works
from eleven in the morning till
four in the afternoon at Macy's,
about 15 blocks from here, We
all are in good health,
Sincere regards,
Mike McPhail,
chased a similar business in
Brussels known as the Walker
and Black furniture store. Mr.
Rann takes possession next week
Mr. Kenneth Lott has taken
a position in King's Store. Mr,
Carl Deans who was employed
there has been engaged by the
Dominion Stores in Galt.
JUNE 1941
Mr. and Mrs. William J.
Coulter, Turnberry, announce
the engagement of their elder
daughter, Jean, Reg. N., to
Mr. Cedril George Moffat, son
of Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Moffat,
Turnberry, The marriage to
take place the latter part of
June.
Miss Alberta Elizabeth(Bet-
ty) Lloyd was successful in the
graduation examinations at Al-
ma College, St. Thomas.
Mr. Fred L. Davidson and
his son William left on Mon-
day on a week's business trip to
Akron, Ohio, and Beaver Falls,
Penn,
Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Ken-
nedy attended the Magna Carra
demonstration which was held
in Niagara Falls, N.Y., the
latter part of last week.
Capt. A. W. Irwin, station-
ed at Fingal, has contracted
diptheria. It is reported that it
is a mild case and that he is
making a splendid recovery.
JUNE 1952
Graduation exercises of nur-
ses from Hamilton General Hos-
pital were held on Wednesday,
in the drill hall of McMaster
University. Miss Audrey An-
derson, daughter of Mr, and
Mrs. Earl Anderson, Belgrave,
was one of a class of 93 graduat-
ing.
Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Bryd-
ges of Belgrave, announce the
engagement of their daughter,
Norma Josephine, to Charles
Kenneth Downie, R. R. 1, Wing-
ham. The marriage will take
place on Saturday, July 5th, at
Trinity Church, Belgrave,
John Cruickshank, Vin Dirt-
met, Norm Fry and Jack Mc-
gibbon of Wingham, attended
the radio golf tournament which
was held at the Islington golf
club near Toronto on Monday.
A wedding of real interest to
the people of Belmore, rook
place in the Lucknow Presbyter-
ian Church last Saturday after-
noon when Miss Marian Mac-
Donald of Lucknow, daughter
of the late Dr. C. H. and Mrs.
MacDonald was united in mar-
riage to Mr. Alvin Mundell of
Belmore.
Canada's first postage stamp,
the "three-penny beaver" of
1851,- depicted a beaver in a
forest setting. It was designed
by Sandford Fleming.
Reminiscing
Those Terrible Teens
LETTERS TO TR EDITOR
.w.!;WKWSW015.04m024 WV.SOMMAVAMIgnitidtmenoommfam
The announcement last week that the
Wightman Telephone System of Clifford
had purchased both the Wroxeter and
Howick telephone companies reminded
us that everything we deal with becomes
more sophisticated. Before long these
purely rural telephone systems will be
handled by dial exchanges.
Many of the smaller rural telephone
companies began in such a humble way
that they no longer bear the faintest re-
semblance to their original ancestors, It
is a far cry from the smoothly operating
dial phones of today to the equipment
which was first used in country homes.
Perhaps some of you can recall the first
wall phones with two big jars filled with
a greenish fluid fastened below the
mouthpiece and receiver. These jars were
"wet cell" batteries used to power the
ringing circuit.
We can well remember the phone in
our grandmother's home, for in addition
to the drooling batteries the receiver,
.which hung in a hook on the side of the
box, was striped with red and black
rings, It was a fascinating object.
In some parts of Canada where dis-
tances were greater between farms and
money was even less plentiful than in
Ontario, folks improvised telephone
systems of their own. One lad we met
during the war told us how several homes
on his section of Saskatchewan were
linked by a communication line that em-
ployed the barbed wire fences to trans-
mit messages. Older second-hand tele-
phone sets were used and the fences took
It is surprising, says The Printed
Word, that that in the raging controversy
over the rights and wrongs of the Seven
Days firings, the main point has been
missed by nearly everyone. The main
point is that broadcasting is publishing
and there will always be discomfort when
an agency of government, in a democracy,
enters the field on a mass scale.
Excitement was the basic ingredient
that popularized the program. The young
people who produced it and performed in
it did so with a flair, sipping controversy
with the gusto of gourmets tasting wine,
if not with the same dignity. They took
chances, stepping on political toes, and
sensibilities with rapture and reckless-
ness, almost daring government to stop
them. Even some hide-bound reaction-
aries, however they might deplore some
of the content of the show, were fas-
cinated.
It could not continue for long. Gov-
ernment agencies cannot persist in biting
the hand that feeds them. When gov-
ernments undertake publishing, it must
be bland and innocuous. If Canada had
So far we haven't heard much talk
around the town about the forthcoming
International Plowing Match which will
be held this fall on land north of Sea-
forth. It is time to take an active inter-
est in this event, by far the largest and
most important one on the farm calendar.
Although Wingham is not the closest
town to the site of the match, it is cer-
tainly close enough to feel the impact of
the throngs who will be attending. All
public services such as eating establish-
ments and service stations will benefit
from a wave of extra trade, from those
travelling to and from the match, as will
our retail merchants.
The Seaforth district is the closest
the International is likely to approach
Wingham for many years to come. It
will provide an excellent opportunity to
show our town to newcomers and Wing-
ham should be at its very best, certainly
as far as appearance is concerned . . .
and ever more important, in its attitude
the places of lines on poles, He said that
nobody's business could be kept very
private if the fence telephone system was
used, but it was a lot better than nothing
in cases of emergency and helped to dis-
pel some of the loneliness of prairie
life.
Going even farther back, we have
heard our father and uncles talking about
the first telephone system used in their
home town. The general store and the
grist mill were both family enterprises
and the fact that they were an eighth
of a mile apart and separated by a river
made the conduct of business a draggy
affair when all messages had to be taken
on foot between the two places.
However, the problem was solved by
some budding genius who rigged a tight
wire from one building to the other. The
ends of the wire were secured to the
pointed ends of metal cones placed in
the offices of store and mill. When a
message was ready for transmission
someone would tap with a metal object
on the wire cone at his end until an an-
swering tap was audible. Then a spoken
message could be heard quite plainly at
the other end, travelling without aid of
electricitiy over the taut wire.
How vastly different from the com-
munications media of today, when radio
messages control the activities of man-
made satellites tens of thousands of miles
out in space and a television camera
continues to send back clear pictures of
its surroundings from the face of the
moon!
an independent broadcasting system, or
private broadcasters with the will and
fortitude to make their so-called indepen-
dence real, programs such as Seven Days
could survive (if respectable).
Strangely enough, the very crusaders
who rushed to the support of the Seven
Days co-hosts have been most blind to
these realities, and have been acting like
dogs biting their own tails. The young
performers could not long survive in a
running battle with management and its
purse-strings. Only when broadcasting
enjoys the kind of independence the
press finally won for itself, can broad-
casters afford to satirize in safety the
actions of politicians.
Friends of the CBC, whether vocifer-
ous or quiet, should remember that an
over-extension of freedom is a threat to
broadcasting. Only two or three genera-
tions ago, there was an important group,
almost a cult, who thought that attending
the theatre and playing cards were sin-
ful and to be forbidden. The CBC people
who become too smart should beware.
to visitors and shoppers.
We dream a great deal about the bene-
fits which would accrue to our com-
munity if another industry could be per-
suaded to locate here—and no single as-
pect of industry-hunting is more import-
ant than the attractiveness of the town
and its people,
The town's development committee is
presently engaged in the production of an
interesting little folder which will be av-
ailable inquantity for distribution at the
plowing match, The folder seeks to gain
attention for Wingham as a potential in-
dustrial site and the chief attributes to
which it points are the friendly atmos-
phere of the community, combined with
the very latest in educational, recreation-
al, health and social amenities.
No committee, however enthusiastic,
can sell a community unless every citizen
of the place is co-operating to the fullest
extent. In the final analysis it is up to
us, the people who live here, to prove
what a fine town we call our own.
Age of Communication
Noise of the Seven Days
This Is A Big Event
THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES
Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros. Limited.
W. parry Wenger, President - Robert 0, Wenger, Secretary ,Treasurer
Member Audit Bureau of Circulation
Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association.
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