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Times-Advocate, 1981-11-04, Page 4Page 4 Timos•Advecote, November 4, 1981 Imes -/'''advocate Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited IORNI FEDI' Publisher JIM BECkE ET Ads e‘rtising Manager Bit 1 RATEEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROS ti HAl 'GH 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 $17.00 Per Year: USA $35.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC' An unsettling decision A decision to close a bank because it was a fre- quent target of armed thieves would be easily com- prehended if it was in the ghetto of some impoverished city or in a country where there were many other ex- amples of lawlessness or even corrupt public officials who turned their backs to such incidents. But when it happens a few miles down the road in the quiet Middlesex hamlet of Arva, it must make us all sit up and ponder such a decision. The sub -branch of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has been robbed at gunpoint four times in the past five years,( another try was unsuccessful) and fearing for the safety of bank personnel and customers in view of that high incidence, bank officials have decided to close the facility. There is little room to argue with the bank deci- sion. It was obviously a high risk situation in which to place employees and customers. It is, nevertheless, a rather disturbing and unsettl- ing situatign, not only that it should happen in this im- mediate area, but also to wonder if another isolated bank in the region will take its place as a prime target for armed thieves. Unfortunately, closing one bank does not eradicate the problem or danger, it merely moves it to another location. Tighter bank security and more frequent police surveillance may help, but perhaps the greatest deterrent is stiffer penalties for those who are caught in armed robberies. Woodshed justice upheld p Residents in the Burlington area must be scratching their heads over a recent court case in that city. Seems a lady returned home from a neighbor's party and found a man spraying paint on her car and home. She raced back to the party, notified her hus- band of the situation, and the two apprehended the vandal in the act. He was subsequently charged and fined $200 for mischief and made restitution for the damage. However, a charge of assault was laid against the couple. Apparently they punched him a couple of times while subduing him for the police and he ended up in hospital. A judge acquitted the couple, being convinced that they had not used excessive force in subduing the van- dal, despite an argument to the contrary by the Crown A ttorney. There are some significant aspects to the case, not the least of which is the apparent assumption by a Crown Attorney that people who see their prpperty be- ing damaged by vandals shouldn't be allowed a ,bit of "woodshed justice". That the judge upheld that right is encouraging and hopefully it will at least cause some second thoughts for those who so heedlessly con- sider the property of others and cause wanton destruc- tion. Significant and vital force The daily Saskatoon Star-Pheonix recently had a word to say about weekly community newspapers: "More and more people are becoming aware of the travels of the daily newspaper business, especially the drive to respond to readers' needs. "In an attempt to remain healthy and pertinent, dailies across North America have commissioned tons of research on how to keep in tune with readers. In most respects this is commendable and can be viewed as a positive approach. "Practicality and the necessity of remaining close to their clientele has kept weekly editors at the grassroots, where all true newspaper work begins. Many of the changes daily newspapers are making today, bundled up in sophisticated gobbledygook, are nothing more than the weekly press has been doing for decades. "The weeklies are a significant and vital force in their communities and show no signs of giving up that role in the future. That's good, because the dailies will keep on learning." Hensall should be unique Is there nothing new in the concept of downtown restoration? Over the past month, downtown revitalization plans have been publicly presented in Forest and Hensall and with minor exceptions only. they parallel the plans that have been unveiled in many other communities in Ontario. One suspects that the planners will have all graduated from the same school. where the instructor was heavy on using interlocking bricks for sidewalks, building small projections out onto the roadway, planting some trees and installing some decorative lighting. There's little doubt that the results are certainly attractive, particularly when compared to the present condition of some core areas. But is there nothing unique that can be included in the plans? I have a suspicion that when all the towns in Ontario have taken advantage of the provincial government's attrac- tive loan plan for downtown restoration, that we'll end up having every communi- ty in Ontario beautified, but with the questionable result that they're all going to look the same. • Architect Nick Hill presented his plan for Hensall's core area this week and all residents of the community must be awed by the prospect of the transfor- mation that is possible, albeit with a sizeable price tag. But there is certainly nothing unique in it and that should be a high priority if the business people in the community hope to entice people to turn off Highway 4 and visit them. The transformation may indeed be significant, but if the core looks the same as numerous other main streets in Ontario, it won't have any par- ticular appeal. It's not unlike driving through a modern subdivision where all the homes take on a similar appearance. After peo- ple have seen the first couple of residences, they've seen it all. The writer is not suggesting there is BATT'N AROUND with the editor no merit in the plan whatever. On the contrary, it is excellent, but the point remains that it requires some further planning to try and find something uni- que that would set Hensall apart from Exeter. Forest and the many other towns undertaking downtown revitaliza- tion projects. For starters, why not try to incor- porate the theme of Hensall being the bean capital of Canada into some of the planning? For instance, the attractive pillar envisioned by Hill for the Highway 4 civic garden would have taken on more meaning had it been designed in the shape of a bean. The Wellington St. car park would appear to be an ideal setting for a giant mural showing the story of beans from their beginning in area fields through to the processing in the nearby mills. That would possibly entice motorists to stop and study the graphics and at the same time stop off at a local restaurant for some refreshment or visit a store. It could even become a popular rest stop for the numerous tours of senior citizens and school children which pass through Hensall. With some imagination, the bean theme could possibly be incorporated into the decorative lighting design or even the garbage receptacles along the street. Why not erect a giant bean stalk in one of the park areas rather than plan- ting trees or flowers? There are few tourists who could resist the temptation to stop and take a picture of their kids beneath a giant bean stalk with a for- midable giant looming through the leaves. The advertising benefit of having such a scene depicted in home movies, slides and photo albums is incalculable and would possibly return its investment many times over. Hensall is a unique community and every effort should be made to reflect that fact, rather than merely transform it into another of the communities across Ontario which have interlocking bricks for sidewalks, some flower gardens and trees. Council and the business people' in the village should send Mr. Hill back to the drawing board with instructions to draw upon its unique character and its ti- tle of bean capital of Canada. • "Hold it — those look like interest rates!" Hazards of putting on storms For years or more, we got along fine with or- dinary storm windows. Oh, I'll admit they caused a certain amount of domestic hassle, chief- ly because they were put on too late in the fall, or taken off too early in the spring, according to the old lady. But she's always in a rush to "get things done." I get them done. eventual- ly. Never once did I fail to find someone who would put them on before Christmas. And they were kind of ugly. And they did warp. And they did have to be painted. And it was costing more money every year to get someone to do the job. But, ah, what a good feeling I had every fall when I'd conned some guy with a strong back to do the job. I wouldn't touch them with a six-foot pole. It's a big house. and there were 14 of the brutes, weighing about 70 pounds each. I don't mind heights, as long as I'm not attached to the ground. I've been up to 32,000 feet, all by myself, in a Spitfire, and higher than that in passenger jets. But it takes all my nerve to climb a step ladder and change a bulb in the kitchen, with my wife holding the ladder. There was no way I was going to climb 30 feet up a ladder, carrying a 70 pound storm window, and punch and hammer it into place. I always had a vision of a wind catching the storm broadside when I was halfway up, and taking me off for a hang-gliding trip. That actually happened to one chap who was do- ing the job one fall. Agust caught him and he sailed off the ladder. landed on his feet like a cat, still clutching the window, and nothing was damaged. He just grinned. That was Jim Fletcher, a youngfellow who was completely unafraid of work. Made his living at cleaning floors. windows, etc. and built up a nice lit- tle business, scrubbing glassed half my front lawn. Last year, I had a young fellow, newly started in the cleaning -up of proper- ties. raking leaves, that sort of thing. I gave him the job of doing the es- tate, provided he'd do the storms. He looked pretty dubious, but agreed. Brought his wife around on her day off to hold the Sugar and Spice Dispensed By Smiley out banks and stores and such at nights. You dont see too many merchants or bank managers in there scrub- bing their floors after they've closed, do you? Might do them good. Jim used to charge 114 to put on the storms, which included washing them, and washing the outside of the regular windows, storing the screens. It took him a couple of hours. In the spring, he'd take them off, wash everything again, store them, for 110. The price went up steadily after he went to greener pastures, and the quality of the workmen went steadily downhill. Some of the young guys I hired took twice as long and charged twice as much. Sometimes the window would stick and they'd leave it with a one - inch gap around half of it. One bird put his fist through a storm and bled all over the place. Another dropped one and ladder. Well, he got them all, but he was pea green and his legs were rubber. when he'd finished. He swore he'd never do them again. By this time it was costing me almost 1100 a year to get the brutes on and off. Not to mention a great deal of harassment from the distaff side, and a frantic search for a putter-onner. Nobody on unemployment insurance was vaguely interested. All this. combined with the energy crisis propaganda, made me cave in, and we had aluminum storms put on. I could have paid 1100 a year for the next 13 years if I'd stuck with the old wooden ones. "But look what you'll save on fuel", you say. That's what they all say. Probably 50 bucks a year. "It will increase the value of your house", someone else says. Maybe. By a few hun- dred. But it's not the money that bothers me. You can't take it with you. Seems to me you can't take a house with you either. No. it's not the money; it's the stress. My wife thinks godliness is second to cleanliness. Those win- dows have to be washed spring and fall, and maybe a few times between. According to the brochure, and the dealer, there's nothing to it. You just tear off the wooden inside frame, hoist your inside window, push this, pull that, and the storm comes in. You wash it. Then you get out on the ledge, hang- ing on by one hand and one foot, 30 feet off the ground, and clean the out- side. After which, if you get back in, you just zip, whip. slide, lower your in- side window, and hammer back on' your now splintered wooden frame. My wife and a girl who comes to help her have wrestled with those things. got. them stuck, got them in but not on the rails, and generally found the whole process like roping a steer. I don't blame them. I've always had an aluminum door on my back door, and spring and fall I nearly rupture myself, swear like a sailor, then threaten to smash the thing with an axe, and take an hour just to slide the screen up and let the storm down, or vice versa. One of these days I ex- pect to come home and find two women, each clutching an aluminum window, unconscious on my lawn. Or hanging by one foot from an upper window, screaming for help. It's never easy to accept Death is never easy to accept. Last week i attended a funeral. For me it was not a very important one, a small cardboard box with a hamster inside of it, buried one shovel -full deep in the back corner of the yard. To the ten -year-old whose pet it had been though, it meant the loss of a good little friend that she had cuddled and lov- ed, fed and watered, and finally watched helplessly as he became blind and feeble, and obviously ill. It was her first contact with death, and perhaps an easy way to recognize the fact that is in- escapable for every living thing. Sooner or later it must die. Amidst the twenties, who was stricken with severe kidney problems. The Perspectives tears she shed I think that new understanding did come about the cycle of life, and how to handle grief. A lady who taught with me near Embro had a grown son, in his early By Syd Fletcher • r horror of kidney disease is that it destroys, but not quickly. He went the whole route: drugs, dialysis, and finally the kidney transplant, only to have complications set in, and then death. I can remember how this whole series of events affected this lady. At first she would not believe that this could happen. Then she was bitter and angry. Why her son? He had been a good lad, never bothering anyone. Why not someone else? Then depression set in. She became lethargic, uncaring about the world around her. At last though, a few months after the funeral, a calmness came to her, a recognition of the fact of death and that she could not change it. At that point she was able to get on with ' the business of living her own life again.