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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1985-02-27, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, February 27, 1985 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 • Imes-/ydvocate Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 'ISO Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519-235-1331 LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager Here's The rural community has a legitimate beef with our national TV network. The CBC's For the Record series did little to advance the cause of financially troubled farmers when- it henit reran the one-hour drama Ready for Slaughter recently. Anyone watching the program would be left with the impression farmers are lawless louts. If, as alleged by a major newspaper's TV columnist, the main character is based on Farm Survival founder Allen Wilford, the author of Farm Gate Defense should sue for defamation of -character. Gordon Pinsent portrayed a fourth- generation beef farmer facing the loss • of hisfarm because of an un- manageable $250,000 bank loan. He had been persuaded to borrow for a new silo and an additional 90 acres when interest rates were low and beef prices high. The fictional Willie Hacker, like so many real life farmers, wag now speared on the two- pronged dilemma of high interest rates and disastrously low commodity prices. The bank was closing in. Hacker, as pled by Pinsent,_-_. a con Tete disre and for eN A BATTEN ROSS HAUGH Editor Assistant Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager DICK JONGKIND Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $23.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' the beef both evinces p g the law and the rights of others. He drinks while driving, deliberately slices off a neighbour's mailbox, nar- rowly misses another car while speeding through a stop sign, and il- legally sells 30 stockers owned by the bank. After returning from the sales barn and stopping to make a payment on his loan with the bank's own money, Hacker marches into his kitchen and triumphantly slaps down a little pre- sent for his wife, and a case of 24s. In the drama's climax, Hacker coerces the bank into a60 -day exten- sion by threatening to burn up his/the bank's corn acreage: The program shatters the image of the farmer as a decent, law-abiding, hard-working pillar of his community. Urbanites two or three generations removed from their rural roots might well wonder if such boorish behaviour is matched by equally poor manage- ment practices, and conclude that farmers who go bankrupt and are forced off their land are the authors of their own misfortunes. Ready for Slaughter generates little sympathy for its characters. Instead of rerunning the program and com- ppundin the ,damage, some S t i • soul at the CBC should have ad- ministered a well-deserved coup de grace after the first airing. Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited It's to discuss the main problems facing the country Like Mulroney, Levesque, Bennett, Hatfield, Lougheed...? It's blizzard time Just struggled home through about the tenth blizzard of this year. You could see your hand before your face, if you had a large hand and good eyesight. Found my street more by feel than sight, turned off with a skid, went through the routine of get- ting into the garage. It's rather like launching a small boat in a large surf. It takes a lot of skill and a fair bit of nerve. Alive and well There is ample evidence in pic- tures in this week's issue that the scouting and guiding movement in this area is alive and well. The groups have been involved in a number of special events to mark the birthday of their founder, Lord Baden Powell, who along with his wife, provided the incentive for a youth program that has stood the test of time. While those programs have been modernized and enriched to meet the Has the Several years ago, the writer attempted to stimulate the idea of a united appeal in the area for the various groups which annually wage canvasses for the necessary funds for their organizations to carry on their important work. The suggestion was welcomed by a few organizations, but it died a natural death due to a lack of general inerest. in view of the proliferation of campaigns being staged in the area at the present time, the idea is mentioned once again to see if it has any current merit. in case you hadn't noticed, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Kidney Foundation, the i)iabetes Association and a couple of other canvasses are either underway or in the planning stages and volunteers N ill be knocking on your door for donations. The work of all these organiza- tions, and the many others which annually conduct campaigns in the area. are extremely wor thwhile and deserve support. Many residents of the area have gained first-hand benefits from the work the funds undertake. One of the problems experienc- ed by most campaigns is in enlisting the support of enough volunteers to conduct door-to- door canvasses. Many residents who would he more than willing to contribute funds are never reached due to the lack of can- vassers who become spread too thin in view of the numbers re- quired for each and every canvass. United Appeals in neighboring changing challenges of each genera- tion, the basic ingredient has always been caring and sharing -adults who act as leaders. The success of the programs in this area in recent years attests to the in- terests of those who have served in that capacity and during the celebra- tions enjoyed by the young people, it is hoped they took a moment to extend their thanks to those who give so free- ly of their time for their education and enjoyment through the programs. time come yet? cities appear to have con- siderable success, and while many of the contributions go to agencies not involved in rural areas, there is every reason to ex- pect that rural residents would be just as generous if the many area canvasses were combined into one or two major appeals each year. By having three or four groups Batt'n Around with 11111kThe Editor combine their person -power as well as their organizational and promotional efforts, it is probable that each would reach its goal by the very fact that more homeowners would be contacted. Most residents, when supplied with the knowledge that the ap- peals are being combined, would probably be prepared to combine their donations in an appropriate manner. Even if a couple of groups got together to "test the waters" it may be the basis for the future consideration of other groups. While it relates only remotely to the aforementioned, the pre- sent production of Joe Egg at the Grand Theatre in London is one which the writer can highly recommend. The story relates to a couple and their 10 -year-old daughter who suffers from cerebral palsy. It's a real tear jerker, but odd- ly enough the tears are mainly from laughter, despite the serious and lamentable nature of the topic of a handicapped child. While the humor flows in- cessantly, the audience always feels rather guilty about the abili- ty to laugh at the couple and it does appear rather ludicrous. The acting is superb and well worth the trip. And, hoping that it does not even remotely relate to the aforementioned, it is rather strange and bewildering to note that South Huron Hospital has gone over two months without delivering a new baby. Business at the hospital's maternity department has been decreasing in recent years, far beyond the decrease in the area's birth rate. Part of that decline can be ex- plained by the move to specializa- tion. Expectant mothers, it ap- pears, are enlisting the services of obstetric specialists in the ci- ty, and as a result, have their babies delivered in city hospitals. it's rather ironical that this penchant for specialization has affected the local hospital. Thirty-five years ago or so, it was built to a great extent through the stated need of requiring a well- equipped facility and trained staff for the mothers who at that time were having their babies delivered in nursing homes in the community. It leads one to ponder what the next stage in the cycle may be. At_ are t e boulders. These are huge gobbets of snow thrown up by the snowplow, which then freeze big- ger than a large man's head. Then there is a flat space, shovelled, about the length of a car. Then, just at the entrance to the garage itself, there is a sort of reef of ice, built up to a foot or so of frozen snow. You have to hit the driveway, and there is a large maple a foot to one side, at about 24 miles an hour. There is a great rending noise from beneath, just like rocks tearing the bottom out of a boat. But you don't even slow down. With a judicious touch bf brakes here and accelerator there, you sashay past the maple, line her up for the middle of the garage, and goose her just a little on the flat patch. There is six inches clearance on each side. All being well, you then ride up over the reef of ice, with another rending noise, this time part of your roof peeling away, slam the brakes at the last minute so that you don't go through the end of the garage, switch off, and sit there wiping your brow. i enjoy it. i feel like a skipper whose ship is sinking, and who has launched a boat, taken her through the surf, over the rocks, through the reef, and beached her on golden sand. But inevitably, on such occa- sions, my thoughts turn to the poor devils, our pioneer ancestors, who had to cope with the same weather and snow con- ditions, with a pittance of what we have to work with. When I've shut off my engine, feeling a bit like Captain I3ligh on one of his good days, all I have to do is walk 40 yards to the house. Inside there is warmth from an oil furnace, light, an electric stove to cook dinner, a colored television to take me to lotus - land. and eggs and orange juice and a myriad other exotics that would Take our ancestors blink in awe and fear. On the shelves in the kitchen we have another host of luxuries: canned fruit and vegetables and soup, coffee and tea and sugar and smoked oysters and sardines and salmon and tuna. In the bread -box, cookies and cakes and bread that cost money_but_na safety of my modern home and Sugar &Spice Dispensed by Smiley defy the elements. Let 'er snow, let 'er blow. No chores to do. No trips to the barn to feed, water, milk the beasts, by the light of a lantern, in sub -zero temperature. No wood to lug in from the woodpile, or ashes to carry out. All I have to do is sit down with a drink, un- fold my daily paper, and raid the refrigerator. The refrigerator is one of our Modern gods, and one of the most popular. I think it takes precedence even over the car as a twentieth-century deity. We kneel before it, con- templating its innards. We place offerings of food inside it, much as the ancients proffered food to their gods. And, just like the ancients, we are smart enough to take fbod back and eat it, after the god has been placated. Not for us the pioneers' meagre fare. We have fresh ( frozen) meat to hand. We have fresh vegetables, nothing from the root cellar. We have cheese and fruit After a meal that would appear to a pioneer as food for the gods (even though half the stuff in it is going to give us cancer, accor- ding to the quacks) , we don't have to sit huddled by the stove trying to read a week-old newspaper by the light of a kerosene lamp. We can sit in comfort and read 'a book from among thousands in a library five minutes away. Or we can listen to music or drama from hundreds of miles away. Or we can watch the same, or the news of the day, from thousands of miles away. By merely twisting a dial. How did they stand it, those sturdy forebears of ours? Wouldn't you think that they'd have gone starkers under the burden of never-ending toil, never-ending cold and snow, never-ending monotony and loneliness, in winter? Not a bit of it. They thrived and multiplied. (Maybe the latter was the answer. There's nothing like a bit of multiplying to pass the time.) Many of them didn't survive, of course. Children died in infancy. Women were old at 30. But it was a lifelong test course in survival, and the tough ones made it. What a lot of complaining, complacent slobs we are today! But I'm sure glad i don't have to go out to the barn, put hay down for the horses, milk the cows, and drag in a quarter -cord of wood to keep the stoves going, tonight. No problem at all The salesman said it would he easy. No problem at all. Half an hour and you'll have the frame put together. Another hour and it'll be filled. Now granted it'll take about a day for it to get up to the proper temperature but after that you'll be all set. Just like sleeping on a boat in Hawaii all winter. So we bought the waterbed. My first clue that something was not going to be all that perfect was when I started loading it into my little truck. There were twenty- seven assorted pieces and a large bag of mysterious sounding hard- ware. Half an hour into the assembly at home and there were now twenty-eight pieces on the floor, none of them connected. i still wasn't sure which end was the front. The directions were in French on one side of the paper and might as well have been in Greek on the other. One of the papers said casual- ly that it was a guarantee on the heater. it had never occurred to me that one would need a guarantee on a bed heater. i could see it all now. The heater would go berserk. We'd be boiled • alive or worse yet frozen solid when it refused to work in the middle of January. Electrocuted By the Way by Syd Fletcher when it was submerged in'water from the mattress suddenly springing a leak. 14y the next day 1 had calmed down. After all it had only taken me four hours to get the bed together (with the assistance of my brother-in-law who is a master carpenter) and once everything was in place it all looked pretty harmless After twenty-four solid hours of being on the little light on the heater even clicked off and the warm bed did feel pretty good. A month later we had decided that the bed was just about the next best thing to sliced bread and I even thought I'd get around to sending the war- ranty card in. Then one night we were wat- ching the CBC news and the an- nouncer very calmly announced that some waterbed heaters were being recalled because there had been a fire caused by one. Ile named the manufacturer. Guess who had one of them? You're right. First guess. Now i've heard of car recalls but who ever heard of a waterbed being brought back in. Well as it turns out ours was made two days before the had ones were manufactured but every once in a while i find myself dreaming that I'm at the North Pole hanging onto a live hydro wire while an Eskimo lady pours steaming hot water over my head. i knew I shouldn't have traded in that broken-springed mattress.