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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1981-08-26, Page 4Paye 4 Times-Advocote, August 26, 1981 Tames Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 i.60.ftliNgw• .ilk :Is.1•80aW Imes - dvocate SERVING; CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C W.N.A . O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' AND ABC MEMBER ONTARIO PRESS COUNCIL Published by I W Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Be t1 Composition Manager — HarryVries Business Manager — Dick longkind Phone 235-1331 Amalgamated 1924 1 • Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario '.Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 SUBt4pTION RATES: Canada $07.00 Per Year; USA 535.00 : Communication lacking Members of Exeter council may have jumped too quickly to a conclusion regarding the relocation plans of Laidlaw Transport, but the conclusion was certainly based on some strong in- dications that the venture had fallen through. It was only natural to assume that. The owner of the proposed new site had put the property back on the market, and there was apparently official word from the transport firm to the con- trary. There is certainly no indication that any one acted in other than good faith in the entire transaction, and the report from the company president that the current economic conditions had stalled the deal between his firm and the prospective purchaser of the pre- sent site. is understandable, albeit lamentable. However. the apparent lack of communication is disconcerting. Hav- ing worked expeditiously to assist the parties involved, Exeter council should have been given the courtesy of infor- mation regarding the delay and subse- quent stall in the transaction, par- ticularly in view of the fact a major ex- esaoatsnibeeesePlif 1 penditure was in progress for sanitary sewers to the new site. By the same token, having invested money on behalf of the taxpayers in the project. council had some onus to attempt to get clarification on the matter from the principals involved, rather than make comments and under- take action strickly on assumptions. While this newspaper encountered some difficulty in getting any com- ments from local officials, the com- pany president was easily reached in Hamilton and appeared quite candid in answering our questions. His comments indicated that the project is not necessarily terminated and therefore some of -the statements made by council members regarding the situation may have been premature. particularly those which suggest the tax dollars spent on OMB hearings and engineering fees have in effect been wasted. Hopefully, economic conditions will improve to the point where the par- ties can proceed with their plans, but failing that, there is also the hope that negotiations will be conducted in an ef- fort to reach a satisfactory settlement of the costs that have been incurred. Voters were right Hurrah for the voters of Spadina. They saw through the Liberals' unprin- cipled actions and turned down Jim Coutts. The whole thing was a set up from the beginning. An MP from Spadina was parachuted into the senate, where he probably didn't want to be. And then. in keeping with the plan, Trudeau's right hand man, Jim Coutts, was named the Liberal candidate. A shoe -in. everybody said. A hasty by election was called, in hopes of catching the voters of Spadina off -guard. or at least on their summer vacation. Remember how long it took the Liberal government to call a byelection in London'' They sat back and did nothing until a well-known candidate such as Jack Burghardt came forward. In Spadina. the Liberals were sure they had a big winner. Coutts was already being called cabinet minister material. Trudeau's scheme was running perfectly. Coutts knew the ropes - cabinet minister tomorrow, party leader the next day. Then Trudeau could have gone on to bigger and better things: the United Nations. There must be an ulterior motive to all his recent continent hop- ping. and international interest. But the voters of Spadina decided they didn't want to be a part of Trudeau's sneaky scheme to get himself ahead. They turned down Coutts and said no to the Ottawa back room planning. Let's hope that their action will awaken Trudeau to the realization that it's time he did something for Canada, and not just himself. Thumbs up'for modern technology The aavances in medical technology never cease to amaze and no doubt readers were startled recently to read that a couple of researchers have even suggested that men may become capable of child birth. That was not the reason the writer ended up at South Huron Hospital dur- ing the early morning hours recently. While I was the recipient of a delicious batch of dill pickles, there is no ap- parent need to to form any special craving for such delicacies. Nor do I have any intent of joining the list of those who hang their heads over the toilet bowls in the morning, primarily because the T -A staff have not yet been able to convince the publisher to match the generous pregnancy leave benefits won by the postal union. I arrived at the emergency depart- ment with a swelling, but it was only on a thumb that had managed to get en- tangled in a pulley. As the coloring quickly changed to match a large black area that had been created by an errant, blow from a hammer acoualeof weeks I previously. the pain was showing no signs of waning. After three un- successful attempts at sleep, in- terspersed with applying ice packs and portions of. two late night movies, I decided that some medical attention was in order. Hoping that the kindly 'nurse on duty. would at least have something more powerful than the six aspirins that had been choked down, I arrived at the emergency ward amidst a lull in the ac- tion and received some very prompt attention, which was a pleasant con- trast to the last visit when I ended up having to drive myself to the medical clinic in Hensall to have a head wound stitched. • Taking one look at the colourful digit on my left hand, the nurse immediately suggested it "should be drilled". In later discussion, it was determined that her quick pronouncement was not only due to her nursing experience, but also a personal experience when she caught her finger in a car door as it was being slammed shut. A call to a local doctor confirmed her assessment of the situation, along with authorization to proceed with the operation on her own. I was sent to one of the two emergen- cy rooms while she attended another emergency case and I started looking around for one of those huge drill presses that adorns welding shops, recalling all too well the grating noise the 13rge bits make as they bore their way through wood and metal with hot remnants flying out in all directions. Taking a longing glance at my thumb, the pain appeared to subside slightly in direct proportion to the amount of pain that I expected to en- dure during the next few minutes. Fun- ny, isn't it. that even the most serious injury or most excrutiating pain appears to diminish as one conjures up the thought of how the cure is somehow going to be even more painful? It's even been known to cure some pain en- tirely, especially for kids with stomach aches when they view the arrival of some vile tasting remedy. I knew I was in serious trouble when the nurse quickly came marching in holding a Bic lighter. Yeh, one last smoke for the condemned victim before he's taken to the firing line wall! There was no blindfold, but everything else appeared to be falling neatly into place as the sweat dripped more profusely between clenched fingers. However, she didn't offer a cigarette, but walked over to thetableand started to unfold a paper clip. That's an ob- vious sign of nervousness, I thought, having done the same thing many times myself when confronted by an angry reader. I looked for other signs to suggest she was trying to get herself psyched up to perform the dastardly deed and to set her high-powered drill into motion. When she turned to face me, Iwassur- prised to see she had flicked her Bic and was holding it to the end of the straightened -out paper clip. A poor sub- stitute for one last smoke was the im- mediate reaction, but then a burning sensation quick reverberated up and down my spine when I realized I was in for the hot poker treatment. Now, hot pointed pokers are one thing, but a dull paper clip heated with nothing more than a Bic lighter is quite another. However, before I could even threaten to call in the humane society or whoe rer acts for innocent accident victims m the face of such diabolical treatment, she took my hand and with one little jab had broken through the nail and the blood came gushing forth. "That should do it," she said, probably already noting that the end of the grinding noise in my mouth had answered her question as to whether the quick and painless operation had reduced the throbbing. After some more blood poured forth, the thumb was covered with a small bandaid, three pain pills were handed over and we said farewell. Yes, modern medical techology real- ly is something. However, it has not yet prompted me to consider being the first male to give birth to a baby. Could be the final column By SYD FLETCHER Most people have met one of them sometime in their school careers, a teacher who has all the academic qualifications. knows all the textbooks from cover to cover, and all the curriculum books inside out. Her (his) primary aim is to get that class from point A to Z in the course of study, or die in the attempt, and if lit- tle Johnny, third row, second from the back doesn't quite fit into that picture then too bad for him. Unfortunately there are still, and probably always will be, such teachers in the educational system who feel that the course of study is more important than the child. Because of that belief on their part, some children end up thoroughly hating Perspectives school, and anything that goes with it. Fortunately though, there are many good teachers around who can inspire their youngsters and lift them up to their full poten- tial. creating in them a love for learning and a thirst for knowledge that carries them far beyond the classroom walls. One suchteacherwas Mrs. Ridley. She worked with me almost 15 years ago but her influence has stayed with me ever since. Though she was of retirement age (and did indeed retire that year) she was young at heart and in spiri t She worked in a 'special education' class with children that others had not had much success with. She though, was able to en- courage them, love them, care for them, teach them so well that some of them blossomed that year and were able to return to regular classes. Twenty years before that, she recounted to me, her husband had been haying in the fields when a sudden thunderstorm came up. He and the oldest son had head- ed for the wagon for shelter but the husband had been too slow. A solitary lightning holt had killed him instantly. During the following years she had had to raise four children single-handedly, run a farm, and teach, yet when I met her you could not have found a more pleasant person. There was not a mis- erable, bitter bone in her body. I think that all her troubles had strengthened her and given her new sources of courage and wisdom to han- dle the problem of life. They had acted like the fire of the forge acts on steel, temper- ing it to new strength. Whatever, she had become the kind of person that I would want my children taught by. If this column appears in your local paper with a black border around it, you can shed a silent tear, or a noisy one if you'd rather. The black border will mean this is the last column you will ever read by Bill Smiley. It will mean that he has a brand new :set of wings, and is swooping and gliding about with the cherubim and seraphim. Or that he has a brand new coal shovel. and is shovelling away with the incubi and succubi of the other place. It will mean that he has succumbed, simply succumbed, to a combination of playing three roles at once: Head of the English Department, a German general, and A Man Called Trepid. Head of the Eng. Dept. in June is enough to whiten the hair of a new-born black baby. First. there is the ad- ministrivia. about 10 memos a day: Please have your inventory completed by yesterday (60.000 books); Your list of books for rebinds has not been sub- mitted, it was due last Friday; You have not completed the inventory of the classrooms in your department (as though somebody had walked off with six desks and a waste -basket since last June); Where were you when the emergency meeting of department heads concerning gum -chewing by custodians was held? Where do you hide every time you are paged? When will you have your course outlines ready, or are you going to use the same old ones, merely changing the year? And so on. That I can handle. I usually stagger through and collapse in a lawn chair the 'day after graduation. But this year another ingredient was tossed into the mire in which I wallow each June. It was known as Operation Get Kim -and -the -kids home from Moosonee. With complete disregard for my ad- vancing debilitation, she blithely suggested that I hire a U -Haul trailer, drive 500 miles, load her stuff - in- cluding a piano - into it, and drive home, with her and the kids in the back of our car. no doubt sleeping. The piano weighs only 700 pounds. I can lift 25 without throwing my back out. I wouldn't drive 500 miles in a day to see Cleopatra kissing Joe Stalin. That was out, and even my wife agreed that there comes a point. As far as I was concerned, she could hitch -hike, including the 300 miles from Moosonee to Cochrane, which contains no road. But I had to think of the Boys, perhaps being carried off and dumped into James Bay by mosquitoes, or eaten to the bone by black -flies. So I swung into action, with my calipers, my maps, my calculator, and my wife shouting at me to tell her not to sell her toaster, and to sell her iron- ing board, because we have lost her other toaster, and we have an ironing board, an extra one, that almost works. She hired a box -car from Moosonee to Cochrane. A mere =380. Still 500 miles to go. I dropped a few hints around the staff room, cheerily describing my problem. Two friends of mine, who are entirely out of their minds, announced they'd go and get her and the kids and the stuff: "No problem. We'll drive up Saturday, pick up the stuff, turn around and drive home." "What about the piano? "No problem. We've done pianos before." "What about all that driving?" "No problem. We'll take turns sleeping." As far as they were concerned, it was a mere jaunt. As far as Kim was con- cerned, wduring $8C worth of long - distance. no problem. As far as I was concerned, it was a logistical nightmare. Supposing my friends got to Cochrane on a Saturday afternoon, and the freight yards were closed for the weekend, and they all bumped into that old malicious bureaucracy: "Sorry, we close at noon on Saturdays. Nope, there's nothing I can do. Just hafta wait till Monday." In some countries you can bribe officals, but not in this one. Suppose ail the U -Hauls were taken for that particular date. Suppose the furniture storage place had no room when they got here, Suppose the wife of one of my friends broke a leg, and the other friend slipped a disc before they started. Suppose the Boys had scarlet fever when they arrived in Cochrane and the whole expedition had to be quarantined for three weeks. Now I know how a general feels when he's planning an operation. Do all the paperwork, get everything set, and then some idiot shoots his foot off with an automatic pistol, and he is your key man for the whole works. At times, I felt like General Rommel. The trip was laid on. The freight yards would be open (according to Kim, whose Intelligence Service I trust as far as 1 could kick a jeep), the U -Haul was reserved. At others I felt like General Scheisskopf. The storage place gave me the gears and demanded a financial ripoff. Kim calmly said she'd meet my friends in the Cochrane station at 4:30. I've been there. You could not find your Uncle Dudley in the Cochrane station. Anyway, the green flares have gone up, the Operation is launched, and I am crouched at home, feeling Trepid, which I presume is the opposite of In- trepid (meaning fearless). Dear Sir : "After the Lord Mayor's Show" No doubt some are sur- veying "the scene", counting their profit or losses, resulting from the Wedding of the century. Has Canada benefited from this event?,Certainly it was a welcome diverson as far as our politicians were concerned, faced with our ever mounting pressure of the impending financial disasters that confront even those Canadians who saw fit to protest the disgraceful expenditure of those English ... notwithstanding profits made by those who "jumped on The Wagon" behind the procession, including our Free Press and broadcasters who at the same time vented their vehemence to support many who are still fighting those lost battles of their ancestors, instead of using such energy to combat troubles in Canada, where they gained refuge from whatever Country they fled. Then of course, there were other types, one of whom sits complacently within a well protected studio, able to call a person on "Open Line" a bigot, openly bragging he would never swear allegiance to "That Crown", letting us know in a bigotted way he was born in Canada, setting him'aside from those other citizens, some of whom like policemen, servicemen, and others have sworn in oath to Her Majesty, and "That Crown", to protect his right to blaspheme the very structure of their loyal focus point. The British and many Canadian citizens prefer to be loyal to the devil, that at least they know, rather than say a Prime Minister turned President with a special kind of Palingenesis possibley worse than that surviving British tradition, that at least allows us to go around our daily tasks. without the shadow of S.S. creatures im- posing satanic levies on us and our children. There were many in- jections of hypocrisy amongst those articles in the press and magazines, along with a type of parologism that I hope is not Canadian Trait, even though Anti- British, from those holding their positions via patrimonial "petals" seeded by Colonial settlers... Such remarks as "not understanding that peculiar British system of PRIMOGENITURE.. strange enough was designed to discourage the accesssion of such people as that writer, until possessing credentials and or the wisdom of their elders. Also in the Press, com- plaints about the pomp and ceremony such as the musical ride of the Mounties, or rather the Household Cavalry maybe also such as on Page C 10 (London Free Press, August 3 issue) no doubt acc _ptable for paying tourists in Canada, yet to kill bears for their headress is only objectionable if used for Her Majesty's Foot Guards and understandably not so for the Governor General's Foot Guards. Hypocrisy? But who amongst us has the sacred right to throw the first stone? ...certainly not me as an immigrant who followed tradition and fought for That Crown as a 17 year old youngster seeking ad- venture. Rightly or wrongly having my individuality removed, to be replaced with Diciplined Loyality and Comradeship, after qualifying to be shipped abroad ...first stop North Africa 8th Army ...along with a lot of Canadians and other Nationals, all fighting a common enemy. Then havingto help bury some of those heroes in their sandy graves, how can I show preference for any particular Crown, and how can I criticise any Canadian citizen just because he or she was not born in Canada, yet certainly objecting to those who ignore those precious principles whilst trying to divide us ... I admit I was annoyed, reading a paragraph which referred to "those four legged peacocks wearing the uniform of the Household Cavalry; maybe because I was looking at an old photograph on the occasion of Her Majesty's Coronation 1953. I suppose I did look like a "peacock" whilst displaying a "fruit salad" on my cuirass... but then the memories of also wearing a verydrab uniform like all the other "poor bastards" fighting for survival... during that last war... Also Winston Churchill's early War -Time speech, in which he praised our "famous regiment" for capturing those oil supplies, needed to win that War .. and of course the memory of those who are with us no more. They had no flam- boyant feathers... did they die to help those who would would divide us from each other? When will the Press stop prostrating itself to the whims of those sponfsors, and to start encouraging the many gifted Canadian citizens, to focus their power above the selfish desire for individual crowns, such that we could set an example to the British, which they would most assuredly honour in preference to their crum- bling castles, As I put away my albums, after all The Royal Wedding is over, I know as a Canadian citizen, all that pomp and ceremony is a past chapter in my life, the lessons of which are exemplified by the French Motto - In the order of the "Garter", embossed on my Household Cavalry Badge: honi soit qui mal y pense; which I believe was translated in that ancient English court as ; Evil Be to He Who Evil Thinks" ... such thinking will not do Canada any harm or the media who prompted me to write this letter... Finally as one who enjoys writing amateur prose, I submit my thoughts surrounding the immortal Terry Fox who showed what a Canadian could do whilst up against a much greater problem that this country faces to find a cure for our own made maladies, we all need only to put in a fraction of Terry's efforts to solve most of our problems. For whilst "man" is in need of a "pied piper" to guide him along a righteous path, then "Terry" has of- fered us a better focus point than that Crown, even if his version is woven with thorns. By F. SHORT Dear Mr. Batten, Along with corn cobs, crickets and cooler nights, August brings the realization that summer is almost over. It is a time for us to look back on the past few months and assess how we have filled our time. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those employers who made it possible for students to look back over this summer on a job well done. We, at the Canada Employment Centre for Students, truly appreciate the fact that many em- ployers have given a student a chance to use accumulated talents in order to gain a valuable work experience. Besides the fact that the work provided an op- portunity for the student to use time constructively, the added income will be helpful in easing educational costs over the course of the school year. To those employers who used our services this summer, we would like to extend our thanks. Next year the Student Employment Centre in Goderich and Exeter will again be operating from the begin- ning of February until the end of August. We invite you to continue to make use of our services in 1982, and we encourage you to recom- mend us to friends and fellow -employers. In the meantime, the regular Canada Employment Centre is available to help with your student employment needs. Remember, there are many students who are ready, able and more than willing to shovel your driveway this winter! Thank you for your sup- port. Yours truly, Mary Nichol, Student Placement Officer, Exeter CECS. Joni Thompson, Student Placement Officer, Goderich, CELS. Audrey Vanden Heuvel, Student Placement Officer, Goderich, CELS. Susan McKee, Former Supervisor, Goderich and Exeter, CELS, 4, •