HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1983-03-30, Page 4Page
4
Times -Advocate, March 30, 1983
Imes -
dvocate
Times Established 1873 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex
Advocate Established 1881 & North ILambton Since 1873
Amalgamated 1924 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited
it
i
LORNE EEDY
Publisher .
JIM BECKETT
Advertising Manager
BILL BATTEN
Editor
HARRY DEVRIES
Composition Manager
ROSS HAUGH
Assistant Editor
DICK •JONGKIND
Business Manager
Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario
Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386.
Phone 235-1331
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Canada $21.00 Per year; U.S.A. $56.00
C.W.N.A., O.±.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC'
Some good news
There was good news for the area economy in the
announcements last week that two financially troubl-
ed firms would be back in production.
New investors at Northlander Industries and
Hughes Columbia Inc. haveenabledthefirms to again
provide jobs for area residents. Hopefully, those in-
vestors will be rewarded for their risks and will con-
tinue to flourish and provide even more employment
and bouyancy to the area economy.
By the same token, the former employees of
Hughes Columbia should be commended for their ac-
tions throughout the delibrations to get the firm back
on solid footing.
*CNA
Throughout the lengthy deliberations, which were
akin to the rolling waves on which their product sails,
they had to carefully weigh their actions for the short-
term goal of attempting to recoup some back pay and
holiday pay, against the often faint hope of recouping
some jobs.
It is to their credit that they stuck with the long-
term goal, despite the fact some probably realized that
they may not be among those who would benefit from
even immediate or short -ranged job recalls.
It was a tenuous situation. That it resulted in a con-
clusion to their benefit was a just reward for their hope
and gamble on the future.
Expensive proposition
While the intent of proposed legislation announced
this week to give everyFrench-speakingstudent!in On-
tario
.this
the right to an education in his native tongue may
be commendable, the ramifications and costs involv-
ed are.too staggering to imagine.
The guarantee would mean one.francophone stu-
dent could force a school board to provide a program
in French --or ship the student to another system where
French instruction is available. ,
While the Ontario o.ducation system may rightfully
be charged with dragging its feet in providing instruc-
tion in French, such a drastic change could have dire
consequences for hard-pressed taxpayers who will
have to foot the bill, regardless of whether: the money
is raised at the local or provincial level.
The present rules dictate that there must be 25
francophones in elementary schools or 20 in secondary
schools who want the program before a board is com-
pelled to supply it. That appears to be a fair system.
Education Minister Bette . Stephenson estimates
the proposed changes Would result in an additional cost
of $1 • million a year, which she defends as being not
an overwhelming amount in a total education cost
which now is within the $6 billion range.
That may not be an overwhelming amount, but un-
fortunately experience too often indicates that such
estimates are overwhelmingly inaccurate on the low
side. Neither did she give any indication whether that
was the total cost of the change, .or merrgglI�y what the
province would pick up directly, leaving atspecified
amount for school boards —to raise through local
' taxation.
It would be prudent for all boards to demand time
to have parents of present and pre-school students in-
dicate their intentions if the rules were adopted so they
could get an accurate picture of the demand they may
face and what the total costs may be.
It's time school boards in this province advise the
ministry they are partners in the system with a man-
date from the grassroots to help guide the destiny of
education. The mandate should be exercised.
Part of the changing
The planned closing of facilities in
Crediton and Dashwood by the Bank of
Montreal has drawn considerable protest
from residents serviced by those
institutions:
The protest is probably not unexpected,
even by the bank officials who made the
decision. It is, after all, the type of deci-
sion that has been made by many people
in what could be described as the chang-
ing face of rural Ontario.
Modern technology and transportation
sparked the changes. Through the
decades, the couiitry general store disap-
peared, and along with it went the one -
room school house, the blacksmith,
barber, baker,mid-wife and a host of
other services which had been provided
locally by a self-sustaining community
knit together by the confining element of
the horse and buggy or shanks -pony.
Basically, the commercial life of the
hamlets disappeared with the horse as
people were drawn to the larger assort-
ment of goods and products that were
available in the nearby village. Then,
those villages were hurt by the same pro-
cess as merchants lost business to the
nearby town, and in many cases, even
those towns " experienced considerable
decline through the attraction of the
larger array of goods and services in the
nearby city.
Those trends are nowhere more evident
than right here in this area where the
commercial enterprise has gravitated
towards Exeter at the expense of many
area villages, while at the same time,
local merchants face the appeal of near-
by London in their battle for customers.
* * * *
One of the realities of the situation is
best described in the adage that you can't
have your cake and eat it too. People who
want the services of local businesses,
whether it be in Dashwood, Hensall or Ex-
eter, have to be prepared to pay the price
for those services.
In short, they have to shop at home!
People who drive out of town to buy
groceries on a regular basis, for instance,
can hardly expect the local store to re-
main viable and available only when they
run short on bread or have unexpected
company arrive and need a few extra
items for dinner.
Neither can they expect the local shoe
store to be there when all they need is a
pair of laces for the footwear bought out -
,:A ::dl
BATT'N
AROUND
with the editor
h '
of -town; the local appliance dealer to
come rushing to fix the refrigerator
bought at the mail-order office; the hard-
ware store to have just the right bolt to
repair an item bought on a holiday outing
to the U.S.; the ladies' wear store to have
a scarf to match the dress bought in
Toronto; etc., etc., etc.
Commerical areas, of course, are
dependent to a great extent on the selec-
tion, service and price they offer as a unit
tocustomers.One weak: link can jeopar-
dize others and then the whole thing starts
to snowball,
Once the availability of a product or
service disappears, requiring people to go
elsewhere to shop, they often make pur-
chases of other goods and services that
could have been bought at home. The
decline of the unit therefore continues. .
•
It would be rather presumptuous to sug-
gest that the decline of the commercial
and industrial base. in Crediton and
Dashwood is the basis for the Bank of
Montreal decision to close the facilities in
those communities.
It is no doubt a factor. Banks, similar
to most businesses, do not shut down
viable operations, particularly when they
have probably found out through ex-
perience that customers will move to the
,competition in cases where they become
scene
upset over the loss of service. •
Speculation would also give rise to the
thought that the move to computers in the
operation of financial institutions is
another factor.
There is Some validity to the argument
that banks cannot plead poverty in the
face of record profits and therefore owe
service to smaller centres, but by the
same token they owe profits to their
shareholders, some of whom probably
live in Dashwood and Crediton, and have
either direct or indirect investment.
A turnout of over 250 residents of the
area would indicate a sizeable number of
customers affected by the bank closing,
but they and their neighbors must search
their own practices to ascertain whether
they rely on the sub -agencies for all their
banking needs or as a matter of periodic
convenience.
One of the ironical aspects associated
with any business closing is the hue and
cry from the senior citizens of that com-
munity about the hardship they face in the
loss of that' service.
Yet, those same seniors were probably
to blame for the decline of the business
community. It's a fact of life that the local
merchant can't survive while you hustle
out of town to shop unfit you're too old to
do so. Unfortunately, the lesson often isn't
learned until it's too late.
The availability of goods and services
in a community is largely dependent upon
supply and demand. You can't have one
without the other!
While the Bank of Montreal will
hopefully withdraw the decision to close
their facilities in Dashwood and Crediton,
residents of that area may have to take
into account their demand for the services
which they want supplied on a continuing
basis.
A Dashwood businessman who admits
to banking elsewhere may have
legitimate reasons, but his stated concern
for the lack of banking facilities for senior
citizens in Dashwood becomes rather
shallow.
1
Students out of torpor
This is a time of year
that tries a teacher's pa-
tience. The animals come
out of hibernation, kick up
their' heels, and go snor-
ting about like young colts,
or frisking about like new-
born lambs. And that is
one of the craftiest mixed
metaphors since
Shakespeare.
For four or five months,
the students have been in
a torpor. This isnot some
kind of tent, and has
nothing to do with tar-
paulins. It is a human cop-
dition induced by lousy
weather, hacking colds,
overheated classrooms,.
and droning teachers.
The past winter has
been tailored for tarpor.
Lack of snow, lots of rain,
and a plenitude of ice have
prevented adolescents
from indulging in their
usual winter pastimes;
splintering a leg on the ski
slopes; smashing around
on a snowmobile; piling
up the old man's car in a
snowdrift 18 miles from
home.
The kids have been
positively cowed by the
endless dreary days; they
have slumbered secretly
through the most thrilling
math, science and English
lessons; they have cough-
ed and blown and sneezed
until there seemed nothing
left inside but a dull
emptiness.
But. Let them hear one
crow caw. Let them kick
off their winter boots. Give
them three sunny days in
a row. And look out.
The calendar says
winter has barely ended,
spring is a figment of the
Canadian imagination.
But these pallid, droopy,
bored, lethargic creatures
burst out of their cocoons
and fly.
A few bright, warmed
days in mid-March, and
they're babbling like
seagulls', bunting like
young calves. Their blood
begins to burble. They
hurl costly textbooks out.
•
threaten, "If you don't pay
attention...ya, ya, ya".
Nobody pays attention.
Must I admit that,
behind the stern contours
of my countenance, I envy
them? Must I confess that,
once upon a time, I drove
my teachers, in the
spring, even sillier than -
Sugar
and Spice
Dispensed By Smiley
the open windows. They
fall in love. There's color
in their cheeks. They get
into fights.
They drive their
teachers, whose blood is*
barely simmering, and a
long way from burbling,
right up the .nearest
blackboard.
If the fine weather
holds, by the end of March
they are dashing about in
shorts and would be
barefoot, if allowed. A
feverish few would wear
bikinis to school, if they
could get away with it.
And that's why this 4 a
tough time of year for
teachers. Our blood is.
thin. We are still huddled
in our winter coats. And
we look on these exotic
creatures, for whom the
very bottom line, and I
mean the bottom, is
schoolwork, like aliens
from another planet.
We try to cope. We mild-
ly reprimand. We say,
"Listen, you people..."
-Nobody listens. We shout,
"Shut up, animals!" The
decibels' increase. We
these 'birds are driving
me?
It's a few years back.
Sometimes it seems like
last week. Sometimes like
aeons ago. But I once
burbled with the best of
them, fell foolishly in love.
with the fondest of them,
andcaused my teachers to
break into stutters and
spots and tics of the jaw -
muscles like the "worst"
of them.
Falling asleep over my
physics, snoring over my
science, muttering over
my math, and failing my
French during those long,
dark winter months, I too
crystallized and emerged
in March.
My teachers shook their
heads dolefully. They
couldn't afford a March
break in Hawaii in those
days, so they had to be
doleful at home.
They predicted ruin, a
useless life, a futile job in
a factory, and other dire
straits, if I didn't shape
up.
In one ear and out the
other. There -weren't any
jobs then, just as there
aren't any now. What was
the point of a piece of
paper, that, with a dime,
would buy you a cup of
coffee?
My inner ear was tuned
to finer things than the
soliloquies of Hamlet,
right -angles triangles, and
la plume de ma tante.
I could hear the moose -
like bellow of steam -boats
firing up and blowing oft.
I could feel the inner ex-
citement of heading up
The Lakes wijh a fair sea
running, and a cutting
breeze blowing.
I could smell the
familiar scents of
"soogie" and engine oil
and honest sweat.
I could see the hustle at
the Sault, and the bustle at
the Lakehead, as we pull-
ed into port.
My summer job was on
the Great Lakes, on a
steamboat, and it was a
love -hate relationship. I
hated it vhile I was doing
it, and loved it when I
wasn't.
But it was The Great
Escape from the chalk-
dust
halkdust and the tiresome,
timid teachers, and the
constant reminders that
I'd never amount to
anything unless I... .
So, I may be driven into
a convalescent home by
the high spirits of my
students. I may bewail
their lack of responsibili-
ty. I may be driven to
Scold, shout and threaten.
But it's just an act. I'd
give an arm and a leg
(preferably my arthritic
ones) to feel the way they
de, when the sun slants in-
to the classroom, and the
windows are opened wide.
So close, yet so different
Whenever I travel in the
United States i marvel at
the fact that we can be so
close to such a big country
and can yet remain so dif-
ferent from it in somany
ways.
Recently I travelled by
car to Orlando, Florida
and during the eight or
nine days that we were
gone picked up a number
of observations about our
southern neighbour. Being
in a country for that short
a period of time obviously
doesn't make you an ex-
pert but there were some
things that stuck out so far
that they couldn't help but
be noticed.
The one thing that I
really liked about the
Americana, especially the
Southern ones, was their
friendliness. For the most
part clerks and waitresses
took time out to wish you
"Y'all come back now,"
or if they knew you were
travelling, "Y'all come
Coming through
Georgia one morning we
pulled into a tiny
Perspectives
By Syd Fletcher
back now and you make
sure you drive careful and
have a safe trip." The
greetings always seemed
honest and sincere.
When you come into an
American restaurant you
almost immediately get a
pot of coffee on the table
as soon as you sit down.
Though I can't stand the
stuff myself, again the
spirit of hospitality is sure
there.
restaurant for breakfast.
There were a lot of cars
outside sb I thought I'd
check it out first to see
how much of a line-up
there was. There were
about eight or ten people
ahead waiting so I was
just about to back out of
the door when about three
waitresses hollered "Good
morning!".
One exclaimed, "Here
sir, have a coffee while
you're waiting."
I said, "No thanks," and
started to back out the
door and she cried, "Here
now, don't you dare go out.
We'll have breakfast for
you in no time."
"I'll just get my fami-
ly," I stuttered.
"Y'all make sure you
come back,", she said.
"You mind, now."
What coud I do? In we
came and sat down. Inside
of ten minutes we. had a
table and were eating. I
couldn't believe the
number of orders . they
were cranking out, all the
time practically grabbing
anybody who dared to
stick their noses inside the
door.
It was pure entertain-
ment for us during the
whole meal, which was ex-
cellent I might add, and
speedily served,