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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1986-07-16, Page 4Pogo 4 Ttm.s-Advocoto, July 16, 1906 OL UE FitHNO% AWN() Imes dvoca e:ServsnS South Hutton, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Pubgslhed by l.W. Eedy Pubfdibns Umited Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 150 Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. .\ Phone 519-235.1331 GNA'' �1 M LORNE EEDY Publisher PIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTTN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK IONGKIND Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' A crisis in drug control The recent deaths of two young athletes in the United States provides fresh evidence that the so-called "civiliz- ed" countries are facing a crisis in their apparent inability to control drug abuse. Both these young men, among the most promising in football and basketball, were headed for careers which would have made them millions of dollars within the next few years. However, a relatively new and much stronger type of cocaine ended both of their lives tragically. An autopsy performed on the body of Len Bias, the basketball player, in- dicated that he had absorbed about five times the cocaine dosage which would cause death. As far as is known, he was not a regular user of the drug, but when he attended a party to celebrate his sign- ing of a contract with the national cham- pionship Boston Celtics, he did use the co- caine and paid with his life. Drug abuse by professional athletes has become a major problem, one which is being combatted in several different A visit from With editor Bill enjoying a two week holiday in the north, this is our first chance to hit the editorial pages in almost a year when we described a very en- joyable trip to Australia and New Zealand. This time around is sort of a repeat of the same subject only in reverse. Friends Jeff and Lynn Woodhart have just returned to Manildra in Australia after spen- ding 12 days in Canada. Actually their Canadian visit was only a small part of a 10 -week tour which took them to England, Europe, and the United States and Honolulu. The first stop in Canada was in Prince Edward Island where Lynn was thrilled to visit the home of L. M. Montgomery, the author of the very popular Anne of Green Gables books. From there it was on to Toron- to where we met them at the air- port on Sunday, June 15 and there began a busy nine days of show- ing the many interesting places in Western Ontario. It began shortly after their ar- .rrival at the airport with a quick tour of the city of Toronto in- cluding a look at the CN Tower and the many tall buildings. They saw the elevator going up the side of the tower and didn't think they would like to travel that way. Our visitors were impressed with the large shopping centres in Toron- to. They had a brief look at Square One in Mississauga. After the overnight stay at my sister Joyce's residence in Brampton it was off Monday morning to Niagara Falls by way of the QE and the Burlington Skyway and a stop at a roadside fruit market where fresh cherries were already on sale. When we arrived at the Falls shortly after midday, the weather was hot and humid with a heavy haze over the falls. A heavy thunderstorm in the late afternoon cleared things drastically and we were able to enjoy a three hour bus tour of the entire area. The falls were the last stop on the tour and after a short wait the lights came on. The bus driver said with the clearing of, the weather it was one of the best and clearest views of the falls he had seen in many months. Jeff was amazed when told of the amount of the water that travels over the falls. I don't think he believed the tour guide that 33 million gallons passes over each minute. His question was, "Where does it come from?" the Gem of the West mill in M HOPE WE GO SACK TO WORK Sooty -- my HOLIDAYS START 1N TWO WEEKS ! ways. Not only is drug addiction a dangerous and criminal act, but to some degree at least, constitutes a deception paid for by the millions of sports fans who watch the games these men play. Who now knows when the brilliant perfor- mance of an athlete on the playing field is a demonstration of his own skill, or the "high" under which he is performing? The greatest tragedy connected with drug use is that it has already invaded the ranks . of children. Recent studies have disclosed evidence that youngsters of elementary school age in the larger centres have access to and actually are using drugs, thus subjecting them to a life of misery and sorrow. Nor is it possi- ble to reassure ourselves that in small communities like our own the youngsters are in no danger. It doesn't take long for such dangerous practices to spread. Parents and teachers would be well advised to learn all they can about the signs.of drug abuse in children and move quickly when such signs become evident. Wingham Advance Times Australians By the time their visit here was completed they had seen three of the Great Lakes and a lot of the areas where this water does come from. Jeff and Lynn were amazed at the number of souvenir shops at Niagara and left with a lot of mementoes of their trip. We got a final look at the falls while hav- ing lunch Tuesday noon in the Minolta Tower before heading for Western Ontario and home • by Ross Haugh grounds along Lake Erie for a short while. Wednesday we were off to the Sarnia area and a visit to the Chemical Valley. On the way back we had supper in London and their introduction to a Caesar Salad. Later a couple of hours at the White Oaks shopping centre where, they said if you didn't know where you were going you would get lost. And they did. Needed directions to get back to the point of entry. Thursday afternoon we were off to the Listowel, Elmira and Startford areas. Just east of Dorking we were fortunate to en- counter a number of the Men- nonite population in their horse and buggies. We were able to see a farmer scuffling his garden with one horse and when he reached the end of the row the wife would help in turning the horse around to go the other way. The highlight of this day was watching a performance of The Boys from Syracuse at the Shakespearean Festival in Stratford. Jeff didn't believe us when told it was at Stratford on the Avon. Ile replied, "We were at the same place in England only a week ago." On the way home from Strat- ford we drove through a heavy thunderstorm. It was a different experience for Jeff and Lynn who hadn't had rain for 66 days before they left home. The Friday agenda started with a trip to Blyth tind the two woolen shops. Located close to the Old Mill in downtown Blyth is Ilowson and Howson's Flour Mill. As Jeff is production manager of 1 Manildra he headed off in that direction and spent an enjoyable hour looking ,over the facility. After Blyth we headed for ,. Goderich where daughter Linda dished up an authentic Caesar Salad for our visitors after being told by daughter-in-law Sherri that the one in London missed few of the key ingredients. Later in the evening Linda and Brian treated our visitors to an old fashioned wiener roast with the wieners and marshmallows roasted on a coat hanger. Saturday morning wife Irene took Lynn to Ailsa Craig to visit with Miss Ella Morlock. It was Ella as a school teacher at the Crediton Public School in 1938 that was responsible for the two ladies becoming pen pals and a long friendship resulting in the recent trips both ways. That afternoon we took in a family bridal shower at the home of Don and Ruth Haines in Exeter and finished off the evening by showing slides of our trip a year earlier. Sunday morning it was off to regular service at Crediton United Church. Following the service, Jeff and Lynn were real- ly welcomed as organist Doug Lewis played Waltzing Matilda for their benefit. Heavy rains late Sunday after- noon sort of hampered a picnic in our backyard which included 'residents, neighbours and Mends. Included were Drew and Barb Robertson who spent a year recently on a teacher's exchange in Australia. Late Monday morning we were off to Grand Bend for their third look at Lake Huron at Grand Bend. Included was a visit to Havasu and lunch at the Cheryl Ann and Dairy Jack's. This was followed by a couple of hours at Masonville Place shopping area, dinner at Krebs and a drive through Springbank Park on the way home. Lynn was thrilled by the many squirrels in the park. That's an animal they have never seen, other than in zoos. We weren't able to see any of the local White Wonders to s ow them. Tuesday morning we headed back to Toronto airport where the excitdment all started. Lynn and Jeff headed for Minneapolis, San Francisco, Honolulu and then home. It was a wonderful nine days with friends who have really become part of the family. There are promises that we will get together again within the next couple of years. 4 Hook,. Until now I have never had the courage to admit it. But it is time to come out. I may be scorned by some, held in contempt by others. My fan mail may drop to a trickle, and anonymous, abusive letters calling me anything from un -Canadian to ef- feminate may become a burden impossible to bear. But I cannot do otherwise, I must say in once and for a11. I do not like fishing. There. I'll let that sink in for a few seconds. In this age of sexual equality, I think we may as well be frank about everything. If it's okay for a woman to say she doesn't like cooking or sewing, why can't a man be pardoned when he dislikes fishing? Now maybe a man living in a city doesn't face the problem at all. There are no crude or subtle pressures to make his life miserable if he isn't interested in this ancient masculine sport. He can slink away to the nearest squash court any time the subject of fishing is mentioned. Not so where I live. Our village has neither a recreation centre nor a pub. Around here, the only way to prove that you're a man is by going fishing. And when you have sons, you owe it to them to take them fishing. "You can't live in the country and not let your kids go fishing," was the wav Elizabeth explained it to me. She said kids, but she clearly meant boys, because there is no way that Stephanie is going to get a fishing rod, even in the ulikely event that she wanted one. As usual, I tried stalling the issue by asking my naive ques- tions: "Why not?' "Because it isn't fair to the boys. Every boy in the country wants to go fishing." "Why?" So last Saturday, Elizabeth line and sinker bought two fishing rods, one for Alexander and one for Duncan. And a tackle box with all sorts of hardware in it. I mean one tackle box for each boy. The first two hours after they came home, they were content to sort out their hooks and sinkers and all the other little accoutrements. And Elizabeth learned a lot about un- tangling lines. I pretended not to notice her glances in my direc- tion. At that point I was a non- person. A non -fisherman, a non - man, a nobody. Talk about pressure. There must have been thousands of kilomgrams per square centimeter. But I remain- ed firm. I was made to feel that there is something perverse about a mother going fishing with her two sons. I said it was a charming sign of the times. But I had no chance to develop my discourse on equal opportunities, the dismantling of stereotypical bar- riers and the updating of sexual role models. I was left•standing in a cloud of dust as the station - wagon sped away in the direction of the fishing hole. I spent the afternoon with Stephanie. She helped me to mow the lawn and to trim the cedar hedge. Like me, she thinks that fishing is yucky. When the expedition returned, the pressure was almost unbearable. Alexander had a 20 -cm fish in a pail. He introduc- ed it to me as a speckled trout, although all I could see was its white belly. The boy's jubilant spirit was damperened by the fact that the fish, as Alexander put it, wasn't feeling very well. And sure enough, a short while later the tortured trout took its very last breath. Meanwhile Duncan showed me how big the fish was that he saw and that he was going to catch next time. It is going to be too big for the pail. I had no idea what happened at the fishing hole, but Elizabeth walked right by me without saying a word and went into the house, leaving me with three children bent over a pail holding a very dead speckled speciman. "Are you going to clean my fish, Dad?" Alexander wanted to know, "It looks clean enough to me," I tried to joke, but I knew exactly what he was driving at. "I've never cleaned a fish in my life.' I simply don't know how. And even if I knew how, I wouldn't do it because it would probably make me sick." 1 could see Alexander's estimation of his Dad drop by several degrees. That's what I mean. That's what I'm fighting. Why do we cling to ideas that belong in the stone age? Cleaning fish is not a survival skill in this day and age, surely. I like to eat fish occa- sionally, but I like the kind that comes from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, all sanitized and deodoriz- ed and beheaded and descaled. Without gall bladder and appen- dix and spinal chord and reproductive gook. I'll never tell you how this story ended. But I'm no longer keep- ing it a secret how I feel about fishing, I hate it, I hate it. Call me what you will. We're of a dependent nature A lady came jogging past our house the other day. Our miniature Schnauzer, who likes to think she' is an attack Dober- man but is really a pussy cat, ran barking out toward the lady, backing up two steps and going forward one. 1 talked to the lady (or a few moments and she went on to ask if we lived in this house all year round. 1 said "yes". "But doesn't it get awfully bad out here in the winter time, what with the white -outs and all?" I assured her that it wasn't really as bad in the country as one might think. She shook her head in disbelief and continued jogging back to her summer cot- tage down near the lake. When I got thinking about what she had said 1 laughed a little to myself but realized that her at- titude is not so unusual for many city dwellers who don't have to travel more than a few city blocks to work or to the stores. If you really don't want to drive you cBy the Way by Syd Fletcher si ply walk out to the bus stop or c> a taxi. eo le that live in the country or in the small towns that dot the Southwestern Ontario coun- tryside are of a little more in- dependent nature. Most of us have to travel several miles to get to work, to get to a shopping mall, to take the kids to hockey games or skating practices. Con- sequently we also become a little more accustomed to the hazards that accompany winter driving though nobody enjoys a winter blizzard. Perhaps that independence grows out of the knowledge that people in small communities are generally a little more caring about their neighbours and that if you got stranded in bad weather that very few people would turn you away from their door. People in big cities don't get to know more than their immediate neighbours and unfortunately this leads to more of a sense of isolation even though you are sur- rounded by many -more persons.