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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1985-10-02, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, October 2, 1985 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 • • Ames Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0 Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519-235-1331 cn nev *CNA LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DfVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manage SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $23.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' Wheels coming off Prime -Minister Brian Mulroney can be excused if he is late for work these days. It appears that his arrival at the office each morning brings one new major problem and it is becoming ap- parent that the wheels are starting to come off the PC government machine that was so enthusiastically endorsed by the voters only a year ago. Opposition members have reacted with obvious glee to .the examples of mismanagement that have arisen, but some.create no laughing matter for Canadians. The inept and unacceptable man- ner in which the great tuna scandal erupted should cause concern, not on- ly for those who ended up eating some of the goods that had been turned down by inspectors, but also for the very fact it calls into question the validity of the entire food inspection routine for consumers at home and those abroad on whom this nation depends to swell its wares. The ill -managed rescue of the Canadian Commercial Bank is an item of equal _concern, particularly the excessive cost all Canadians will face in helping the government save face with investors and depositors of the bank. The Conservatives have a relatively long period before having to present themselves to the electorate again, but it is evident that the track record will have to improve significantly if they expect a vote of confidence. That confidence is slowly crumbling and the time has passed in which they can blame all their problems as being inherited from the Liberals. Opportunity awaits Are you enthusiastic or sports minded? Are you looking for talent competitions to compete in, travel op- portunities, or long-lasting rewards through leadership training or com- munication workshops? Well, the Junior Farmers' Association of Ontario has these to of- ferplus much more. Just think of the new friends you'll meet! Junior Farmers are young people with the opportunity to explore in- dividual talents and potential, and to show an interest and concern for their community. Membership is open to any young person between the ages of 15 to 29. You do not need to be a farmer. You can live in the country, town or city. October is your chance to join this organization. Community in good hands Having attended at numerous accident and fire scenes in the ' area over the years, I have established d great deal of respect for the efforts of the emergency personnel who pro- vide assistance. Those who are uninitiated in the handling of emergency situa- tions often are critical of some of the things theyisee, based in most part on the fact they do not understand the reasons why cer- tain action is taken at certain times. The record of the emergency personnel speaks for itself and it certainly came through unblemished in Wednesday's mock disaster at the South Huron rec centre. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the entire exercise was the fact it was accompanied with an air of the trauma that would certainly exist under real condi- tions. There were times when it almost became necessary to pinch .one's self to rekindle the realization that what was un- folding was merely a pretend situation. At times a few of the par- ticipants managed a smile but on the whole they too appeared to get swallowed up in the reality of the scene. Only the lack of a smouldering building would have tipped the unknowing to the fact that things were not as they ap- peared to be. Much of the credit for the scene being so realistic must go to the student "victims" of SHDHS. They obviously took the challenge seriously to recreate a disaster scene in a most convin- cing manner and in fact probably had a few members of the Exeter fire department wishing they hadn't been quite so convincing. It is not difficult to understand Batt'n Around ...with The Editor how some disasters have caused participants to pass out after looking at the assortment of in- juries perpetrated by George Jones. It was no place for anyone with a queasy stomach. Abetted by the superb acting abilities of the students, the Ex- eter firemen responded in kind as they set about removing them to the awaiting ambulance and hospital personnel. It was an afternoon's work that tested their mental and physical capabilities to the ultimate and no doubt was more arduous in part because they had been fighting a real fire in town in the early morning hours of the same day. They tested their initiative by hauling patients out with their coats as portable stretchers as well as some of the tables in the rec centre when the supply of pro- per equipment was depleted. While an initial communication problem arose (strictly p mechanical) it wasn't long before be everyone involved had overcome k that problem and all the back-up in support required for such a ed disaster was in position. di It was no small accomplish- g ment that the last of the 32 vic- m tims was on the way to the hospital within one hour after the r initial call was made. • I c Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambtn Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications limited Sleeping in box -car It's been a long way from the to here. Just forty years ago was lying on the floor of a box -c in north-east Holland, beaten and tied up. And half -frozen. A half-starved. Today, I'm sitting in a bi brick house, with the furnac pumping away, a refrigerat stuffed with food, and my choic of three soft, warm beds. Forty years seems like etern ty if you're a teenager, bu they've gone by like the winkin of an eye, as most old-timers wi confirm. Back then, I was tied u because I'd tried to escape. I wasn't pleasant. They had n rope, so they tied my wrists and ankles with wire. I was beaten up because I'd managed to pilfer a sandwich, a pipe and tobacco from the guards' overcoat pockets when they weren't looking, and these, along with a foot -long piece of lead pipe, popped out of my battle -dress jacket when the sergeant in charge of the guards gave me a roundhouse clout on the ear just before escorting me back onto the train headed for Germany. Served me right. I should have ignored all that stuff we were taught in training: "It's an of- ficer's duty to try to escape," and gone quietlyoff to sit out the war, which I did anyway, in the long run. re ,I ar udn e' or e g 11 p t 0 ut the next few weeks weren't leasant. I couldn't walk, cause my left knee -cap was icked out of kilter. Every bone my body ached. My face look - like a bowl of borstckl, as I scovered when a "friendly" uard let me look in his shaving irror. Worst of all, there was nothing read. When I have nothing to d, I start pacing the walls. But ouldn't pace the walls because 1 was on the floor, and tied up. Anyway, the Tight wasn't so good. It is difficult to properly ad- dress the matter of how impor- tant such exercises are in testing the emergency capability of all those who would be involved if the real thing happened. There were certainly problems experienced and shortfalls to overcome, but from this observer they were minor indeed and again provided ample and en- couraging evidence that the pro- fessionals know what to do and do it. Hopefully, the need will never arise; but area residents can take solace in the fact their lives are in good hands if the unthinkable does occur. Certainly, those who took time from their normal stheduleS to participate so willingly deserve a large vote of commendation from the community they so unselfishly serve. Going Sometimes writing this column is easy. Other times it's a beautiful autumn day outside beckoning me out to work on that flower bed that's been neglected for two weeks. It says "Come on out here. Forget about your deadline. Get your priorities straight!" And being a rational, reasonable person I of course do the most important thing. So there I am, out in the centre flower bed. It's a great September day, with a soft south wind blowing out onto the lake which is shimmering blue and grey so that it's hard to tell where the water ends and the sky starts. One little barred window. Perhaps even the worst of all was my daily ablutions. And I don't mean washing one's face and armpits! I had to be lugged out of the box -car by a guard since only one leg was working, helped down the steps, and ushered to the railway bank. Ever try to do your dailies (and I don't mean push-ups), with two hands planted in cinders, one leg stuck straight ahead, the other propping you up, and a guy poin- ting a revolver at you? It's a wonder I wasn't constipated for life. Sugar & Spice Dispensed by Smiley shoved me roughly back into the box -car. Why did Hans Schmidt (his real name) notkill me that day? �"e was fed up with a job on which rations were minimal, comfort almost non-existent, and duties boring and demeaning. There was another Schmidt in the detail, Alfred. He was a dif- ferent kettle, though he, too, was a wounded paratrooper. he was as dark -as Hans was fair, as sour as haps was sunny. He would have shot me, in the same mood, and written it off as "killed while attempting to escape." Luck of the draw. Another hairy incident in that October, 40 years ago, was the night the train was attacked by a British fighter-bomber, probably a Mosquito, perhaps even navigated by my old friend Dave McIntosh. I was dozing, on and off (you didn't sleep much, tied up, on the wooden floor of a box -car) when there was a great screeching of brakes, a wild shouting from the guards as they bailed out of the rain, then the roar of an engine and the sound of cannon -fire as he attacker swept up and down he train, strafing. As you can understand, I wasn't hit, and the bums in the ircraft didn't even put the train ut of.commission, but have you ver seen a man curled up into a hape about the size of a little nger? That was ich. Sorry if I've bored you with ese reminiscences. But they re all as clear, or moreso, than hat I had for lunch today. Forty years. Time to complete e war, finish university, mar - age, children, 11 years as a eekly editor, 23 years as a acher, a year in The San for n -existent T.B., and 30 years as columnist. I couldn't hack all that today. t I can go to bed and say, "This beats the hell out of sleeping in a box -ear." One day the guard almost shot t me. I never understood why. He was a rather decent young chap, t about 21, blond, spoke a bit of t French, so that we could com- municate in a rudimentary way. He was a paratrooper who had a been wounded in France and o seconded to the mundane job of e guarding Allied prisoners. s He hadn't taken part in the f i kicking and punching at the railway station, for hig own th reasons. Perhaps pride. He was a a soldier, not a member of the "' Feldgendarmerie. But this day he was out of sorts. ri th Perhaps sick of being a male C1 nurse. His eyes got very blue and t very cold, and he cocked his to revolver. All I could do was turn no the big baby -blues on him and mutely appeal It worked. He muttered so Bu mething, problably a curse, holstered his gun, and to work easier In my nostrils I can smell the pine tree which has cast so much shade this year that the By the Way by Syd Fletcher marigolds haven't done very well at all until the last two weeks but now they're making a real com- eback from their poor start. 1 can hear a semi shifting into high gear up on the highway half a mile away and a combine snor- ting two fields away. The rich black topsoil that I've been throwing into the flower bed is as warm as toast under my fingers. I can see why little kids tike play- ing in the sand. It suddenly strikes me how for- tunate I am to be alive, well in body, and possessing all my senses. It makes going inside to the work that is waiting for me back at the typewriter a whole lot easier.