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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1998-01-28, Page 5Editorial 4 -THE HURON EXPOSITOR, January 28, 1 filS Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 TERRI-LYNN DALE - General Manager & Advertising Manager LARRY DALRYMPLE - Sales PAT ARMES - Office Manager DIANNE McGRATH - Subscriptions & Classifieds JACKIE FITTON - Editor GREGOR CAMPBELL -Reporter BARB STOREY - distribution A Bowes Publishers Community Newspaper SUBSCRIPTION RATES- LOCAL - 32.50 a yeor, in advance, plus 2 28 G 5 T SENIORS - 30.00 a year, in advance, plus 2-10 G S.T USA & Foreign: 28.46 o yeor in odvonce, plus 578.00 postage, G S T'exernpt SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Published weekly by Signal -Star Publishing at 100 Main St , Seaforth. Publication moil registration No. 0696 held at Seoforth, Ontario. Advertising is accepted on condition that in the event of a typographical error, the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate In the event of a typographical error, advertising goods or services of a wrong price, goods or services may not be sold Advertising is Merely an offer to sell and may be withdrawn at ony time.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 undeliv- erable copies are to be sent to The Huron Expositor Wednesday, January 28, 1998 Editorial and Business Offices - 100 Man Street.,Seoforth Telephone (5191 527-0240 Fax (519) 527-2858 Mailing Address - P.O. Box 69, Seaforth, Orsrorio, NOK IWo Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Community Newspapers Association and the Ontario Press Council Publication Mail Registration No. 07605 Driver and car smashed One story this week that caught my cyc was the one about the 24 year-old Auburn arca man who flew his car almost 37 meters in the air. off the bridge at the North Harbour Road. The fella was taken to hos- pital after being rescued by members of the Goderich Fire Department and the Godcrich Ambulance Service. The Godcrich Police Chief was quoted as saying the car landed near the train tracks. 'travelling another 31 meters before it struck a tree on the Maitland Golf Course. He said it landed on its wheels and the car virtually fragmented when it hit the ground. The accident went undis- covered for about a half-hour before a police officer on patrol noticed the damage to a guard rail at the intersec- tion. It took over one hour to remove the fella from his car. Now. things like this do happen, but what's strange about this is"that the driver had been charged with impaired driving a few hours earlier. He had been stopped for a traffic violation when the officer discovered he had been drinking. He was arrest- ed, charged with a drinking and driving offense and...dah! had been rcicascd to a friend who gave him his keys hack. The fella continued drink- ing at a local bar before the accident occurred. It also said in thc story that the release conditions of the Criminal Code of Canada, police had no grounds to hold the man in custody after he had been charged with the earlier offense at 8 p.m. The Godcrich Police Chicf had said that in drinking and driving situations a person is rcicascd from custody. on a Promise to Appear for court. Police didn't release the man's name because the investigation is ongoing and charges have not been for- mally laid from either inci- dent. Maybe I'm two slices short of a loaf, but doesn't some- thing seem to be wrong here? if drivers are pulled over for drinking and driving it should be commonplace for them to spend the night at the local prison motel or have their license immediately suspend- ed. There is a l2-hottr license suspension still on the crimi- nal code books and a license can be taken on the spot. This was confirmed by the Goderich Ontario Provincial Police. Do the police have the power or is the Criminal Code tying their hands.' This is totally disgusting especially after all the hoopla about police cracking down on drinking drivers. The police have the power and it should he enforced. But, maybe it could have been worse, while that driver was drinking and driving thc second time he could have taken the life of an innocent person who could have been just out for a stroll. Albeit the man shouldn't have been released in the first place and if I had anything to do with it the friend he was rcicascd to would he having his day in court as an accom- plice. 1 realize there are three sides to every story. Yours. mine and thc truth, hut this really irked mc, maybe it's because I'm just an ordinary law abiding citizen like everyone else who look towards the police with respect as law enforcers. Letters to the Editor Heart and Stroke campaign Dear editor: The Heart and Stroke Foundation is busy preparing for the annual Person to Person Campaign in Huron County. The campaign runs for thc month of February, Heart Month. This year, the Huron Chapter is hoping to exceed their revenue goal of $56,000. The campaign is a very important part of the fundraising component for the foundation, as all the money raised from the cam- paign goes toward Hcart and Stroke research. Our canvassers will be col- lecting donations during thc month of February, so give generously. Official tax receipts arc given at the time of thc donation. Help us fight against Canada's number one killer. It's because of the gen- erous donations made by people that new discoveries in research are made. Angela Horbanuik. Person to Person Coordinator, Huron Chapter. The man with the Iron Cross First Class Although my father fought in a number of battles in the great war, and was severely wounded... and worse, he left his twin brother buried in France, he did not return home with a medal for brav- ery. In any ranking of emotion I'm sure the sorrow of being so desperately alone came ahead of fear. For as well as leaving my Uncle Clarence in the British cemetery near the village of Anneaux, killed in the Battle of Bourton Wood six weeks before Armistice was signed, he had another reason to be sad. His two sis- ters died in the influenza epi- demic backhome in Seaforth. But there were no medals for grief and an aching heart. So it was interesting for me to read about a soldier on the other side who was a hero and lived to return home when war ended...with a top medal. A decoration given only for the brave deeds in battle -The Iron Cross First Class. An honour seldom given to an ordinary field sol- dier in the old German Army. This soldier had fought through much of the same area in France and in the same battles as my dad and his twin. There was little dif- ference in their age. The German soldier was born in April 1889 in the town of Braunau. My father was born in Seaforth July 1895 - six years later. When the war ended in 1918, Arnold Westcott was in an army hospital in Surrey recovering from shrapnel wounds in his head and arm. He was serving with Huron's 161st Battalion in the Somme River fighting near Amien and was hit by an exploding shell in July, About the same time the soldier from Bavarian 16th Reserve Infantry Regiment was in a hospital in the town of Pasewalk, not far from Berlin, he suffered severe burns in the last Battle of Ypres on October. There is no doubt he was a brave soldier or a reckless and daring fool, for no less a person than famous writer and war corre- spondent William L. Shirer documented the deeds of this simple German soldier over the four years of the war - information gathered mostly from captured German records. He arrived at the front in October 1914 with only a few weeks of training.- Just in time to take part in the first Battle of Ypres. A bloody and costly fight. The British had dug in to successfully block the German drive to the English Channel. In four days of fighting his regiment was reduced from 3500 men to 600. In October 1916 he was severely wounded in the leg in the battle of Somme. In the summer of 1917 he returned to his regiment and fought in the Battle of Arras and at Ypres. The 28 -year-old soldier was a dispatch rider through the thick of the fight- ing in the last-ditch German offfensive in the spring and the summer of 1918. He proudly wore his Iron Cross First Class until the end of his life. But he was an odd duck. as soldiers go. He never received mail or parcels from home...or talked about his family. He never asked for leave. He never complained about the filth of war -the lice and the mud and the cold...and the stench of the dead at the front. He was cursed by his fellow soldiers for they found him intolera- bly aloof...a cold impas- sioned reclusive warrior -a loner. In early 1919 my dad came home to Seaforth to appren- tice as watchmaker with John F. Daley...but still having to regularly have his wounds treated at Westminster Veterans Hospital in London. He married my mother in 1922 and I was born in 1924. Together they ran the jew- ellery store on Main Street for 40 years. He died in 1961 in Sunnybrook Hospital. He was 66. After the war the German soldier with the Iron Cross First Class...whose interest since boyhood was to be an artist and possibly move into architecture found life diffi- cult and hard. He had little in the way of skills. What knowledge he had came from compulsion to read every- thing he could his hands on. He did not complete high school so his application skills steered him into many dead end jobs and he gravi- tated into the rough and tum- ble of politics of the street. He started right at the bot- tom. He had no family connec- tions. His father, a drunkard, a minor customs officer in the German Civil Service...and an illegitimate child. His mother was a siin- ple uneducated Bavarian girl and his fathers second cousin. His fathers name was Alois Schicklgruber which he later changed in an effort to claim part of an inheritance. He died of a lung hemorrhage in 1903 at the age of 65. His mothers name was Klara Poelzi. She was his father's third wife. It was her fourth and last child who grew up to win the Iron Cross First Class. She died in 1908 of breast cancer. My dad out- lived her highly decorated soldier son by 16 years. I still remember, those cold November days in the late 1920's and 30's when my dad marched to the cenotaph in Victoria Park with his veteran buddies...with his medals pinned proudly on his chest...but none for bravery. The brave German soldier received the Iron Cross First Class on the recommendation of First Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann who ordered him to carry dispatches through the battle area to the artillery. The citation dated July 31 1918 (my dad's 23rd birth- day) was signed by Baron Von Godin and read... As a dispatch runner, he has shown cold-blooded courage and exemplary boldness both in positional warfare and in the war of movement, and he has always volunteered t� carry messages in the most difficult situations at the risk of his life. Under conditions of great peril, when all com- munication lines were cut, his untiring and fearless activity made it possible for important messages to go through. Although the German sol- dier proudly wore his Iron Cross First Class for 27 years -right up until the moment of his death...when asked about his war experi- ences he appeared strangely reticent. Talk about the award seemed discreetly veiled as though some hidden mystery was attached to it. Of course he didn't want to talk about it...for First Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann, who so highly praised him and recommended him for the Iron Cross First Class was a Jew... and the daring German soldier, the son of Alois Schicklgruber, who fought in the same areas of France as my father and his twin brother Clare...would later be known to the world as Adolph Hitler. Elections pass quietly in 1872 From the files of the Huron Expositor January 5 1872. The elections in this village passed off much more quietly and with less excitement than was anticipated. It will be noticed by the following returns that the old council, with the exception of the Reeve, have all been re-elect- ed. Mr. Benson takes the place of Mr. McCaughey in thc Rceveship. While we congratulate Mr. Benson upon his election, we cannot but express regret, on person- al grounds, that Mr. McCaugheys not been again re-elected. There is no man in the village who stands higher in the estimation of thc people, as a private gen- tleman than Mr. McCaughey. But in his public capacity, he lacks the firmness of charac- ter which would entitle him Ouestion or the week to rank as a good municipal leader. He has been more inclined to allow himself to be driven by public opinion, than to strike out boldly on his own hook and endeavor to lead public sentiment . This weakness was never more manifest than during the past summer, when the railway question was being agitated; and again this fall, during the agitation for aid to manufacturing institutions. To this Mr. McCaughey owes his defeat. Had it not been for this failing, Mr. Benson would not today occupy the position of Reeve of Seaforth. Egmondville January 20 1898 - On Friday night or early New Year's morning some persons broke the door of Mrs C. Petrie's hen house and stole two very finc geese In the Years Agone . One of them was particular- ly valuable, and she would not have taken $10 for it. To make matters worse, a num- ber of hens flew out and were scattered in all directions some of then being lost entirely in the snow. Mrs Petrie who is one of our most kind -hearted citi- zens, feels justly, very mush annoyed at such treatment and it is to be regretted that our usually well ordered vil- lage should be the scene of such petty thievery. January 21 1898 Hibbert - A sad death occurred at the residence of Mr Donald McLaughlin, on Does Seaforth High School give you the courses you need to achieve your goals? Sunday last when his second daughter Mary and wife of Mr. James Laing passed over to the silent majority. The deceased who was just in the prime of life, being only 29 years of age was a particular- ly lovable women, and the deepest sympathy of a large circle of friends goes out to the bereaved husband, who is left with a 14 month old child to mourn thc loss of a loving wife. Although only confined to her bed on the day of her death, Mrs Laing had been a sufferer from that dreaded disease consumption for about a year past. Continued on Page 7. BEN MALONE Grade 11 "no. I'm interested in mechanics or electronics and they don't have any equip- , ment to do that stuff. I'm looking at going to Clinton." KEVIN BROWN Grade 10 "no. 1 want to be a rpechan- ic and there's no melhanics course now at the school, so I'm going to Stratford or Clinton next year they have a good mechanics course." NICK DENHAAN Grade 11 Seaforth "yes. I'm into computers and I'm looking for a career in computer science." TADD SMITH Grade 10 "no. If you want to take something in forestry they don't have enough classes to get you into that, I'm looking at another school."