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Times-Advocate, 1986-01-29, Page 4Tim's -Advocate, January 29, 1996 1111111111.111111111111111 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgams ed 1924 imes Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0 Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. • Phone 519-235-1331 LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' Doesn't work that way Canadians in general, and members of the federal opposition parties in par- ticular, are being a little naive in think- ing that prices at the gasoline pumps should fall immediately in the wake of drastic cuts in world oil prices. It' is only reasonable that prices should remain at current levels until the current supply is depleted and the lower priced product makes its way through the three-month time frame from the oil wells and refineries into the storage tanks at retail outlets. It is absurd to suggest that the sav- ings should be passed along immediately. After all, that only happens when the price is going in the opposite direction. Consumers know that when the oil prices escalated in the past, the prices were in- creased immediately. It's the same in other commodities too, it appears. No sooner has the temperature fallen below the freezing mark in Florida than the price of orange juice on grocery shelves hundreds of miles away is jacked up.. Companies which sign new wage pacts add the in- creases to products sitting in warehouses or even in transit to wholesalers. Surely by now consumers know that the speed in increasing prices due to higher factors is never comparable to the speed by which prices arelowered when there is a decrease in those factors. Back a fighter Area residents who may be waiting to see the final list of celebrities before deciding whether to buy a ticket for the Lions Sportsmen's dinner, should now know that the decision appears obvious. It was made so by a picture on,last week's front page in which this year's Timmy was portrayed. Josh Watson, a plucky seven-year-old, will have that honor this year and his exploits and en- thnsiasm should convince everyone that attending the event to help crippled children is worthwhile, regardless of who may be on hand to speak from the sports world. Josh, despite suffering from spina bifida, plays goal for the Exeter tykes, enjoys horseback riding and sings in two choirs. Just being in the presence of such a kid is worth the price of admission alone, especially when the proceeds go to help kids overcome their handicaps. There was talk of Mohammed Ali coming to the event this year. Perhaps he was frightened off by knowing, he couldn't compare with a fighter such as Josh! Some sun shines Optimists have always subscribed to the history that into every life'a little rain must fall. Pessimists, on the other hand, think that into every life a little sun must shine. Many people, it would appear, have trouble seeing the sun these days but it is there if you care to look hard enough. For instance, while Canadians have had to take a second look at winter holi- day plans in view of the value of their dollar, at least one traveller who cross- ed the border to the south found that there was a sunny side to the situation. A trucker from New Brunswick, stopped at a New Jersey toll. booth to check his tires, was confronted by two gunmen who demanded his wallet. The pair made off with the $60 in American Needs If justice delayed is justice denied. owner's of commercial trucks in Exeter have some justification for the intemperate comments smite attached to their recent opposition 10 parking restrictions in the community. The issue has already been debated for far too long and the smouldering feelings indicate quite clearly that the planning advisory committee's decision to delay further on their recommen- dation is not going to defuse the situation. Granted, studies 01 regulations in other communities may be beneficial. but they should have been conducted Tong ago as part of the initial stages of the c•om- prehensite review rather than moving solely to implement terms of a bylaw received from the ('ity of London. (tddley enough, that bylaw which establishes prohibitions on measurement rather than weight categories, appears to he more severe than the existing regula- tions in that it adds even more owners to the list of those who would he denied the right to park at their residences. Ironically. that's contrary to the message some members of Exeter council have been sending out to truck owners. Al the November ratepayers' meeting. a }pill indicated that some coun- cil members were in favor of dropping the regulations entire Iv. except in cases of hazardous loads, while others indicated they ti money, but gave him back the $30 in Canadian because they didn't want it. Tourists should consider getting t - shirts or hats made up with the message: "I only carry Canadian money". It could be the passport for safe passage through even the highest crime centres in the U.S. Those Canadians who have to stay at home know that the rain tor snow) that comes into their life carries a high acid content, much of it stemming from the industrial cities across the border. A Sarnia man recently noted that the sunny side of the situation is that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation plans.,to create a superstation to beam its signal by satellite to the United States. Many would agree that there's no better way to get even with the Americans for sending us that acid rain. to be resolved would prefer at least to see less restrictive measures. Given the fact council members will be making the final decision on the issue, it would ap- pear appropriate that council give the planning advisory com- mittee some indication of their feelings at this stage, rather than Batt'n Around ...with The Iditor after further delays and tinie- consurning studies. Members of both public bodies should have no difficulty in corn- preheriding the feelings of the truck owners in town. Some of the intemperate comments are dif- ficult to justify, but indicate how the situation is deteriorating through the delays and the con- flicting messages being sent out by the elected and appointed officials. it's not difficult to sympathize with members of the committee and council as they attempt to come to grips with the problem, but it unfortunately is not going to go away by merely delaying a decision and in fact can only com- pound until that decision is reached. While trucks are the issue, it is ( similar to most other controver- sial items in that it boils down strictly to human beings. The comments from the truck operators almost unanimously suggest that none of their neighbors find their vehicles ob- jectionable and therefore find it difficult to understand why any type of restrictions are being suggested. The fact is, similar to most other neighborhood activities, those who complain often do not have the courage (often justified) to do so directly and are often two-faced in indicating to their neighbor they have no objections, while at the same time relating a different attitude to authorities. That's a characteristic human behaviour and one that adds to the difficulty in reaching a deci- sion that is fair to everyone. it would appear that some of the objectors do their own cause some harm when they issue lightly -veiled threats, make in- congruous comments about being imposed upon by the upper-class or suggest they have the right to do with their properties as they wish. The tone and stance used by one party in a debate or discus- sion often leads to the other par- ty increasing that tone or stance and obviously nothing is gained by making disparaging remarks. In fact, it usually results in a loss. in the interests of all concern- ed, the debate should be conclud- ed as quickly as possible. Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Laonbton Since 1873 vocate Published by J.W. Eedy Publications limited NEW.IMIPROVED PRICE WITH TAY ADDITIVE ! emim ' • :1)/ • '.'First it sucked up his credit card. then his wallet. and finally. .. Surrounded by wealth Garage sales are quite the fad these days. Many people make them 'part of their lives. They troop around town watching for handmade signs and check the ads in the classified section. Drive around any small town and you'll see a cluster of cars, in front of a house. "Must be a wed- ding or a funeral," you muse. Then you see a pile of junk with a horde of human magpies dar- ting around it, snatching up bits, beating each other to another heap of rubble, like seagulls div- ing and screeching for a slice of french -fried spud. It's no wedding. There are no vows exchanged. except that you takes what you gets, "for better or for worse." It's no funeral, ex- cept for those who pay six bucks for something that costs three 10 years ago. It's a garage sale. This phenomenon resembles a mini -auction minus the auc- tioneer. The garage sale allows the proprietor (often abetted by some of his neighbors) to get rid of all the useless items overflow- ing the garage, the tool -shed, the basement and the attic. It sometimes brings in two or three hundred dollars to the ven- dors, and the garage -sale groupies go home all excited because they have bought a three-legged chair, a horse- drawn sleigh, an umbrella with only one spoke missing, or six paperback novels for a dollar. One of my contemporaries, an habituee of these bizarre events, was more than a bit thunderstruck when he found at one sale that he could buy text- books from alar school, duly stamped as such, dirt cheap. He remonstrated with the owners, pointing out that the books belonged to the school and had been stolen by their children, but they'd have none of it. They wanted cash. So much for human nature. These were taxpayers who had helped buy the books their kids had stolen, and now wanted to sell them back to the system so that other kids could steal the books they were still paying taxes for. Back to the garage sales. There is no suggestion of stealing here. Both parties, buyer and seller, are perfectly aware of what's go- ing on. The seller is trying to get rid of something he doesn't need. The buyer is buying something he Sugar Sp ice Dispensed by Smiley doesn't need. It's a classic exam- ple of our materialistic age. We want to get rid of some of the gar- bage we've bought, and the buyer wants to buy some more garbage. The epitome of a garage -sale groupie would be a person who goes to four garage sales, buys a lot of junk, then has a garage sale to dispose of it, preferably with a small mark-up. But they're fun. A friend of mine, who'll make a bid on anything, even though he doesn't know what it's for, has bought two old-fashioned horse- drawn sleighs. He has worked on them until they are serviceable. All he needs now is a couple of beasts to haul the things. He'11 probably wind up with a camel and a Shetland pony (and will make a fortune hauling people around when we run out of gas). Well, I wish I'd had a garage sale this past summer. First, I'd have sold the garage, a venerable institution. None of this electronic eye, or press a button and the door opens. It has a vast door, weighing about 800 pounds. You hoist the door and it slides on pulleys and cables, and at the right moment, on a good day, it stops rising at the height to tear off your radio aerial. Tho balances filled with sand, aren't quite enough from crashing down on your hood, but I've fixed that. To one, I've added an axe -head, to the other, a quart of paint. Perfect balance. A real buy. Behind the garage is a sort of tool shed. I say "sort of", because when I've sailed into the garage on a slippery midwinter day, I; ve sometimes gone an extra foot and crashed into'the tool shed, which now leans about 35 degrees to the north. . I'll throw ip the tool shed with the garage. tut not its cont its. Migawd, the stuff in there'w' uld bug the eyes of either an antique dealer or a garage -groupie. We have garden tools in there that haven't been used since Sir John A. MacDonald's wife told him to get his nose out of' that glass and go out and stir up the garden. We have at least four perfectly good tires for a 1947 Dodge. We have enough holy tarpaulin (or is it holey? I've never known) to build a theatre under the stars. There's a perfectly good set of golf clubs, a wee bit rusty. There's a three-legged garden tool that must have come over with Samuel de Champlain. There's a three -wheeled lawnmower (mechanic's special). Six hundred feet of garden hose that a little adhesive would fix. And many more, too miscellaneous to mention. And that's only the tool shed. Inside the house, we have eight tons of books, left by our children. The attic is going to come right through to the kitchen, one of these days. How about a copy of Bhagavad-gita. 1,000 pages, at $1? Man, 1 wish 1'd got this idea off the ground about six months ago. Anyone interested in an iron crib, sides go up and down, filled with $300 worth of broken toys, exotic paintings, some records and a hag of marbles? Who needs to retire, with all this wealth lying around? A preacher's kid }laving been raised as a P.K. (otherwise known as a preacher's kid) I am in pretty good position to know that a minister's job is nothing like the 'one day a week of work' job that some people toss out as a testing remark sometimes. That hour or so that the preacher spends up there in the pulpit each service translates automatically into at least three or four more in preparation time beforehand if things are going well, and even longer if the main ideas don't come to hand readily. The time in the church on Sunday though is just the tip of the ice- berg though for most pastors. Weddings, funerals, hospital visitation, counselling are just a few of the things they are ex- pected to do, not to mention sit- ting on church committees, help- ing with young people groups, speaking at local schools and so on. This list is endless. All of these things add up to very busy schedules and limited time for By the Way by Sycl Het( her family life Since many members of the congreation tend to think that the minister should he com- pletely available whenever they need him. Fortunately there are many others who value their minister and show this love in a caring attitude toward him. And of course, the minister would not be in his job if he didn't feel that getting up at 2:30 a.m. to visit a dying parishioner was not important and rewarding. Many times I can remember my father being in such cases and i now that he felt that it was all worthwhile despite the tem- porary discomfort for himself that might have been there. While I'm talking about ministers though i'll pass on this joke about the one who came in- to the pulpit. one Sunday with a large hand -aid on his chin. He remarked, "While shaving this morning i was thinking about my sermon this morning and i cut my face." A deep voice carne from the hack row, "Next Sunday think about your face and curt your sermon." i