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The Huron Expositor, 1995-03-08, Page 44 -THE HURON EXPOSITOR. March E, 1tiU E E HurHuron sitor Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 TERRI-LYNN DALE - General Manager & Advertising Manager MARY MELLOR - Soles PAT ARMES - Office Manager DIANNE McGRATH - Subscriptions TIM CUMMING - Editor GREGOR CAMPBELL - Reporter UNDA PULLMAN - Typesetter BARB STOREY - Distribution A Burgoyne Community Newspaper SUBSCRIPTION RATES: LOCAL - 28.00 a year, in advance, plus 1.96 G.S.T. SENIORS - 25.00 a yeor, in advance, plus 1.75 G.S.T. Goderich, Stratford addresses: 28.00 a year, in advance, plus 7.28 postage, plus 2.47 G.S.T Out -Of -Area addresses: 28.00 a year, in advance, plus 11.44 postage, plus 2.76 G.S.T USA & Foreign: 28.00 a year in advance, plus $76.00 postage, G.S.T. exempt SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Published weekly by Signol-Scor Publishing at 100 Main St., Seaforth. Publication mail registra- tion No. 0696 held of Seaforth, Ontario. Advertising is accepted an condition that in the event of a typographical error, the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a rea- sonable allowance for signature, will not be charged, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for of the applicable rate. In the event of o typographical error, advertising goods or services at a wrong price, goods or services may not be sold. Advertising is merely an offer to sell and may be withdrawn at ony time. The Huron Expositor is not responsible for the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials used for reproduction purposes. Changes of address, orders for subscriptions and undeliverable copies are to be cent to The Huron Expositor. Wednesday, March 8, 1995 Editorial and Business Offices - 100 Main Sheet, Seaforth Telephone (519) 527-0240 Fax (519) 527-2858 Mailing Address - P.O. Box 69, Seaforth, Ontario, NOK 1 WO Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Community Newspapers Association and the Ontario Press Council Stop farming accidents Which is the most hazardous occupation in Canada: mining, construction or farming? Believe it or not, experts believe farming accounts for more deaths for each 100,000 workers than either construction or mining. And what's worse, children, youths and seniors account for almost one-quarter of all farm fatalities. The statistics contradict to the image of farming as a healthy occupation. Noise, dust, large animals and especially, farm machinery are everyday hazards, not only to farm operators, but to their family members, too. National Farm Safety Week, March 7 to 13, provides an opportunity for farm families to assess the risks around them and for others to appreciate the dangers of farming, as well. For the first time, the Canada, Alberta Agriculture, John Deer Incorporate, Imperial Oil and New Holland have joined together with the Canada Safety Council to sponsor the week. Although it's been held in July for the last 22 years, it's been moved ahead to March this year to catch farmers' attention before they start their spring preparations. A campaign has been organized around the theme Take the Challenge, an invitation to portray safe farming practices and to test people's knowledge of farm safety statistics. Did you know, for example, that farming has the highest incidence of disabling injuries, and estimated 58 a -year for every 1,000 workers? "Even farmers aren't aware of how high these rates are," says Pat Holas, of the Canada Safety Council. "We want people to be aware that farmirig is one of Canada's most hazardous occupa- tions." The most common farm accidents are machinery -related, such as a child being -run over by tractor, ora limb caught in an auger. Because agriculture is the only major industry where the home and the work site are one and the same, 23 per cent of fatal farm accidents involved people under the age of 19 or over the age of 65. But machinery isn't the only farm hazard. Some statistics suggest farmers are also more likely to die of cancers such as leukemia, non -Hodgkins lymphoma and multiple myeloma than any other occupational group. And more than half of farmers over the age of 50 have a hearing loss of more than 50 per cent. Experts urge farm operators to use their equipment with care. The rule for tractor rides should be: One seat, one person. They also say the appropriate protective clothing should always be worn when carrying out farm duties. "Illness and injuries are devastating to farm families," Holas said. "The challenge is to keep the farm family safe and healthy." Letters to the Editor Article belittles group Dear Editor, Re: Article in the paper of March 1, 'Knights win plaque.' Is this the way to promote brotherhood night by belittling other organizations that did not attend because of other commitments or whatever? 'Loyal' Orange Lodge (L.O.L.)' gone the way of the dodo. This must be the opinion of the writer and not of the sponsor of Brotherhood Night. This must have been miss editing by the sponsor's executive? For the information of the writer the L.O.L. has not gone the way of the dodo. It is a long way from dead yet. Last word to other organizations, please attend next year's Brother- hood Night or you may find that you have gone the way of the dodo. This is my personal opinion, not that of the L.O.L. I Remain, Kenneth R. Smith CHuMS nears funding goal Dear Editor, Many people have been asking how soon CHuMS will be able to purchase their accessible bus. Our goal is $55,000 and as of last Fri- day, March 3 we reached $40,464 thanks to the generosity of many individuals, businesses and service clubs. The Board of Directors have been out calling on businesses to explain our mission and solicit funds. If you have not been contacted and would like a visit from one of our Board members, please call me at 482-5666 or 1-800-267-0535. No matter what amount you are able to contribute, you will become a supporter of a service which can make a real difference in the lives of many people in your area. Over 200 persons have applied to CHuMS and are waiting for the service to begin. Call us today and help put the bus on the road. Beverley A. Brown Chair, Fundraising Committee Central Huron Mobility Service Opinion Cogitatingon shinny shenanigansars that the opposing team, would have to drop a better man. "But it was in those years that hockey was growing -up. Not ,.by theory, but rather as a result of cruel experience, habits were changed and new rules formed." So shunned by Seaforth, 'Babe' Siebert took his sticks to Kitohener (then Berlin) to play his junior hockey. The locals kept Hays and there is no record of them ever regretting it. Charles L. Coleman's classic The Trail of the Stanley Cup notes Siebert broke in with the Cup - winning Montreal Maroons in -1925- 1926 and played 14 seasons in the NHL scoring 140 goals and 148 assists with 864 penalty minutes. The bink adds he "was a fierce competitor and in his first few years with the Maroons compiled. an extraordinary penalty record -as a forward." Later sold to the Rangers, he was switched to defence helping the "Broadway Blues" to the 1933 Stanley Cup, his second and 'final one, paired with Ching Johnson. He then went to the Bruins and played three years as a blueline partner of Eddie Shore, arguably the grc9test defenceman of all time. It was one of the greatest defensive combinations in the history of the game. 'Babe' finished his career with the Canadians where he won the Hart in 1937 and was captain of the Habs in his final season 1939, and then was named coach. But he drowned in Lake Huron off St. Joscph on Aug. 24, 1939. And so it gots. Gord Hays' father, Col. R.S. Hays,was a lawyer in town for many years. They lived on . the house on Sparling Street now owned by Paul Copeland. Gord worked in a bank here in Seaforth before moving to Detroit. He died about 15 years ago. He . was Con Eckert's uncle, and a sister-in-law, Dorothy Hays, is still very active in this community and lives right around the corner from me. In a picture of Seaforth's OHA group championship junior team of 1920 Weiland, two years away from leaving local ponds and heading off to seek his hockey fortunes elsewhere, is flush left at the end of the front row. Hays is front row centre with the captain's "C" on his arm, no 'casts ot• sllfigs , looking sly as the crafty fail "he most certainly was. I enjoy soccer but a thing 1 find maddening about the sport is the amount of acting that goes on, players rolling around the pitch faking injury - acting like they're going to die any second and minutes later they're running around fit as a fiddle like nothing happened. Such shenanigans were once common and a colourful part of shinny too, and not that long ago if you remember Billy Barber (Philadelphia Flyers 1972-85). Anyway, on with the tale, the Seaforth Hockey Club once let a future Hall of Famer from Zurich go, to keep a local hockey lad who could fake with the best of them and turned "taking a dive" into high art. I first heard these "true facts" third -hand one recent sunny morning while cogitating on the post office steps with Seaforth's former mayor Frank Sills,, no stranger to the fine points of on -ice strategy and an expert on hockey's early history in this neck of the woods. He certainly comes by the reputation honestly because Frank's uncle Joe played for this local team, later turning pro in the United States, and Frank's other uncle Charles 'Chuck' Sills was the hockey manager in town way back then, and related to the Hays family, which you are about to hear more about. So let us go then you and I....back to the days of "the River Rats"....when our own future Hall of Famer Cooney Weiland was the local wizard of winter's frozen ponds....with a very good supporting cast with names such as Reid, Dick, Smith, McKay, McGeough, Holmes Sills, Hayes and Hays, et al,...back when men were men... hockey players were as always, a hardy breed and... referees carried brass cow bells, for protection as much as anything else, until an epidemic of bell -ringing by fans at rinks in small villages and towns spread like a plague, confusing players and officials so that whistles were soon adopted... Sometime between 1917 and 1920 around the end of World War I, a tough, young talented hockey player from Zurich by the name of Albert 'Babe' Siebert, who was born in 1904 the same year as Weiland and who that community's arena Babe Siebert Memorial "Arena now honours, wandered over this way in his overalls and wanted to try out for the Seaforth team. The locals didn't take him for much of a hockey player. They hardly gave him the time of day and didn't give him much of a look. This Siebert subsequently went on to become a three -time member of the NHL's 1st All-star team (1936,37,38), also once won the Hart Trophy as that league's most valuable player, and is now in the Hockey Hall of Fame. But Seaforth let Siebert go and kept instead a fellow called Gord Hays who was a "dive artist" of the first degree and was an even greater asset at the time, because the rules back then were ideal for bending. This Gord Hays could wail, moan and roll around the ice with the best of them, according to Sills, and was often carried off the ice apparently headed for death's door only to re- appear remarkably healthy and ready to roar shortly after the end of the game. "He was what they now call a *#!* disturber," Frank says, "but more fun than a barrel of monkeys. He kept you in stitches all the time." Back then substitutions weren't allowed and such skullduggery and one-upmanship could pay handsome dividends. It also, I imagine, gave rise to a few earthy adjectives, in many a winter conversation, uttered from under toques around area "Hot Stove Leagues". Seven, and later six, starters played a full game - there were Seaforth opted for local boy Gord Hays over future NHL all-star `Babe' Siebert point and cover -point positions instead of defenceman, and a rover who went anywhere the action was - and the official OHA rule read: "no change of players shall be made after a match has commenced, except by reason of accident or injury during the game." Then another rule kicked in: "Should any player be injured during a match, break his skate, or from any other accident be compelled to leave the ice, the opposite side shall immediately drop a man to equalize the teams. In the event of any dispute, the matter shall at once be decided by the referee." So the strategy was simple. If they have seven good players and you have six...what's a poor guy, or manager, supposed to do...who is playing to win. Foster Hewitt's father, W.A. Hewitt, was a bigwig with the Ontario Hockey Association for about 50 years beginning in the late 1890s. In his autobiography Down the Stretch published in 1958, which I chanced upon one day while browsing in a used bookstore, He comments: "There was a lot of deception practised half a century ago. A game was a matching of wits as well as ability...It was the phrase 'accident or injury' that caused a lot of trouble. When one team had a poor player, it was amazing how often he broke his skate or was injured and had to retire. Then the opponents were compelled also to drop a man to equalize the teams. During half-time some strange things happened in dressing -rooms. As OHA secretary I heard many allegations I couldn't prove. One was to the effect that a player who wasn't too good had a hockey stick rubbed across both arms until the red streaks were plainly visible. Then the bruised arms were shown • to the, referee as evidence that he 'had been so badly slashed that he couldn't continue - all in the hope This old-time photo, which was featured prominently in the Dean Robinson book Seaforth Beginnings, shows Fair Day in Seaforth, circa 1916. Note the Round House in the background and everybody dressed in their very best clothes. Former Seaforth residents will have a chance to renew their acquaintance with the Roundhouse at the Seaforth Homecoming '95, on August 3-6. Scots win by .large margin FROM THE PAGES OF THE HURON EXPOSITOR, MARCH 15, 1895 A hockey match was played on the new rink on Monday evening last, between the Stars, of Egmondville, and the Scots, of Little Scotland, when the latter were victorious by a large score. London beat Sarnia and Toronto 'Varsity'. Stratford beat London, Egmondville beat Stratford and the Scots beat Egmondville. It will be readily seen from this that the Scots can whip most any club out and are likely soon to be after the Provincial Championship. * * * At a meeting of the patrons of the Seaforth cheese factory, held at the Royal hotel on Saturday last, final arrangements were made for start- ing the factory earlier in the season. There was a good attendance, and the prospects are good for a large make of cheese. G. T. Turnbull shipped a car of hogs and also shipped several cars of caule to the Toronto market for the Farmer's Club. * * * Arthur Routledge of Eginondville has purchased James Wallace's farm on the 4th concession. * * * James Simpson of Walton has sold his 125 -acre farm on the 11th concession of McKillop to John Boyd, the price being $9,000. MARCH 16, 1945 Official word was received 'in Seaforth Sunday evening that Fly- ing Officer Van Egmond Robert Bell, son of Mr. and Mrs. Earle Bell, of Scaforth, and husband of the former Miss Helen Jane Hamilton, of Toronto, was killed on active service overseas on March 6th. He served with the Royal Canadian Air Force. J In the Years Agone The annual masquerade dance was held in Walton Community Hall on Friday evening with a large attendance. Music was supplied by Ken Wilbce's orchestra and Wilfred Shortreed was master of ceremonies during the parade of the masquer- aders. On Friday evening last about ninety friends and neighbours gathered at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Haney to honour them on the occasion of their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, which was Saturday March 10th. During the evening Mr. and Mrs. Haney received a telephone call from their second eldest son, Clare, who is in the Royal Canadian Navy and stationed in Halifax. * * * A former employee at the Copper Cliff smelter, Tpr. Ken A. Grieve, 21, of Monetville, has been reported killed in action in France. He was with the Kangaroo platoon, a carrier unit made up of tanks and trucks. He is believed to have been killed shortly after the capture of LeHavre. In Caen after its capture he reported that the place was flat- tened out until it looked like the prairie. MARCH 12, 1970 The Scaforth District High School Whippets, junior and senior basket- ball teams coached by Marianne Weiler, scored lop -sided victories in the final games to win the WOSSA 'A' championships. Angela Devereaux sparked the senior Whippets in the final with 12 points. Carol Glanville scored nine. The junior Whippets beat Mitchel in the final game 41-31. Betty McGregor scored 14 points in the final game and Rae Butson scored 11 points. * * * Mr. and Mrs. David Papple spent the weekend in the celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary. Mr. and Mrs. Carl Dalton have returned from Florida where they spent the past month. Mr. and Mrs. M. E. Clark left last week to spend a few weeks in Florida. * * * Mary Catherine McQuaid, a pupil of St. Joseph's Convent, School of Music, received honour standing in Grade VIII Piano examination, with the Western Ontario Conservatory of Music in February. Marching band thanks Legion Dear Seaforth Legion Members, I would like to express my thanks to your organization that has given so much support to the band over the last twenty year. The help you have given us this year will make it possible for the band to travel to Florida almost debt free. The Scaforth Legion make a great contribution to all organization in the arca and especially the students of Seaforth District High School. Yours sincerely, Charles Kalbfieisch Band Director Letters We should. support CHuMS i Dear Editor, It is my understanding that the fundraising program for the special bus required for the Central Huron Mobility Service Inc. (CHuMS) has not yet reached its goal. Although $40,300. has been raised, an addi- tional $14,700 is still required. I have no connection with the CHuMS Board of Directors, nor do I have any personal need for this service. It is my opinion however, that the citizens of Huron County have a right to access such a,prov- incially-funded transportation net- work to recapture their fair share of the provincial tax dollars 'being taken from Huron County which are used to fund this kind of service elsewhere. I know that my own parents and others of that gener- ation need this kind ' of service today. So do persons of alkages with various kinds of physical' dis- abilities. It's been my decision td 'dig a little deeper' and go back to CHuMS with a second donation to help build the capital fund. I tvopld urge individuals, service clubs, and other agencies which have agliepd to assist, to take the same appiroich, The Central Huron Mobility Setvice Inc. project is providing: our com- munity with a proposed service we cannot afford to lose. Sincerely, Paul Carroll PS: I think donations can be sent to CHuMS, P.O. Box 458 Clinton, Ontario, NOM ILO.