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Huron Expositor, 2007-07-04, Page 5Opinion Contemplating a random act of rudeness The Huron Expositor • July 4, 2007 Page 5 Someone flipped ane the bird on Sunday morning. I'd gone to get the camera from the office so I could go cover the Fireman's Breakfast at the fire hall when I decided that eating might be a good idea too. I needed sh, so I stopped at ho to pick some up. I'd just walked around the car when a horn blared. Where I grew up — a small town not unlike Seaforth — a honking horn wasn't a sign of irritation. Nine times out of 10 it was someone saying hello to someone they knew. After living in Guelph and Toronto, I'd got- ten used to the idea that the sound of a car horn didn't mean you'd see a familiar, friendly face. Then I moved to Seaforth and found that again this sound was friendly. So I was a little surprised Sunday morning when I looked up and the hand that was wav- ing at me was a fist with its middle finger extended. I don't know who it was because I spent more time looking at the finger than the face behind it. I'm sad to admit that in a second of anger, I shot the same hand signal back at the driver. The anger passed quickly — it was only a middle finger after all, about as benign on the ladder of crummy things people do to each other as you can get — but the surprise didn't go away as fast. Who knows why the driver was so rude. Maybe he recognized me from the paper and took offense to something I wrote. Wouldn't be the first time I've ticked someone off. Or maybe he doesn't like reporters. You get used to that fast. I think we're ranked some- where after lawyers in terms of how much the public likes us. Maybe I offended him in some way unrelat- ed to the paper. Heck, maybe he just didn't like the way I look. Or maybe it was truly random, for no good reason at all. In the year I lived in Toronto, I never saw anything so rude and I spent a lot of time on the subway system and on the buses. This isn't a- judgement on you, Seaforth. It's possible this was just someone passing through town. As a rule, this community has been friendly and welcoming to me since I moved here. This guy was just the exception to the rule, and that says more about him than it does about Seaforth. Have an opinion? Write a letter to the editor! Toddler on a stroll sparks the biggest `manhunt' Seaforth ever saw June 30, 1882 Messrs. Kyle and Mustard of the Egmondville mills have installed a set of rollers for grinding, replacing the grinding stones. Business is good and the new machinery will improve their facilities. Several stalks of wheat taken from a field on the farm of A. Davidson have heights of approxi- mately seven feet. The grain grow- ing as thick as itwill stand, if matures properly, will average 50 bushels per acre. The demand for barbed wire is unabated. Scarcely a farm in this section of country can now be seen that has not a piece of barbed wire fence on it. Farmers say it makes a good and inexpensive fence. A wolverine was seen on the farm of John Sproat Jr. of Tuckersmith. It is not often that animals of this character make their appearance in this civilized country. Messrs. Glasgow McPherson and Co., of Clinton, received an order from Manitoba for 12 of their cele- brated threshers. This firm has the honour of having sent the fist thresher to Manitoba. July 5, 1907 While driving along the road with a livery horse, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Willis met an automobile which failed to stop and in the process frightened the horse. Mr. and Mrs. Willis were dumped in the ditch with the couple receiving torn clothing and numerous scratches. Rev. A.K. Birks, pastor for the past three years of the Seaforth Methodist Church, left this week with his family for London to assume the duties of his new charge. New pastor for the church will be Rev. Mr. Rodgers. During a football match in Dundas, Frank Sills, the star back of the Hurons had his leg broken between the knee and the ankle. He was brought home on a stretch- er on the nool� train last Wednesday. Delivering milk for McIntosh Bros., a young son of John Drimoldby of Seaforth, slipped while getting into his rig, The,back wheel passed over his leg and part of his body. No bones were broken, but it is feared internal injuries were caused. June 24, 1932 A wooden fence has been erected around t e monument at Victoria Park to discourage children from usin a mound as a playground. The f ce was erected at the insti- gation of the local branch of the Canadian Legion. Mayor L.F. Daly this week sold to the Edorado Gold Mines Ltd., a Fordson Full crawler tractor. The Machine will be used at the compa- ny's mines at Echo Bay, Great Bear Lake, only four miles from the Arctic Circle. To date this season, his garage has sold 12 new cars and 20 used cars, in spite of hard times. The first of the new equipment for the new theatre to be built in Seaforth by J.B. MacKenzie and son of Georgetown, arrived. The shipment included the heating and ventilating system. Work on the theatre is expected to begin next week. A new up-to-date scoredboard has been erected at the Recreation Grounds by the Seaforth Softball Club. The board gives the runs by innings and the batteries of the teams. July 12, 1957 Co-owner of the Canadian Tire Associate Store in Seaforth said the store is to be remodelled and enlarged. The present exterior will be transformed into a handsome modern one. Enlargement will necessitate the moving of barber John Pullman. Deciding to go for a stroll, two- year-old Lou la Qrant succeeded in touching off the biggest "manhunt" Seaforth has experienced. Found missing from the sandpile where he had been playing by his mother at 4:45 p.m., he was found in front of the residence of George Hildebrand at 7:00 p.m. Unconcerned, he was returned to his mother who said, "He's going on a rope from now on." July 7, 1962 When municipalities need to find solutions to tough problems, like Seaforth's requirements for a new dump, a phenomenon called "NIMBY" surfaces. NIMBY means, according to engineer Burns Ross, "Not In My Back Yard" and it's most people's immediate reaction to the search for a dump site. That's a reaction Mr. Ross and Seaforth council hope to prevent and that's why the public is urged to attend a Monday, July 19 public meeting to discuss garbage disposal alternatives. McKillop is blessed, or cursed, depending on your point of view, with an abundance of gravel. A fair sized gravel deposit, or esker, runs east -west in the area where two proposed gravel pits are in dispute on Con. 13 in the town- ship, Perth County planner Ken Whiteford told the public meeting on the re -zoning application for the pits in Winthrop last week. By this time next week, the new Seaforth and District Community Centres building will be on the site. The pre -fab structure will be shipped Friday, according to com- munity centre building committee chairman, Ken Campbell.