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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1987-04-29, Page 41 Page 4 times -Advocate, April 19, 1987 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgama ed 1924 • Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter,. Ontario, Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519-235-1331 LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager NOM 1S0 PCNA BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Salute volunteers Canada has long been recognized as a country with a vast wealth of important resources and certaily not the least among those are volunteers. This week has been set aside to mark the contributions of those who give of their time and talent in countless ways to make their respective -communities and the nation better places in which to live. During National Volunteer Week, these valuable resources• deserve everyone's admiration and thanks. Volunteers share a genuine desire to assist others and enjoy a sense of warm satisfaction when they give of themselves to help someone else. Benefits that all segments of society accrue from those ef- forts is incalculable and no life goes un- touched from volunteers. They operate the charities involved in health and social programs, the ser- vice groups which tend to the needs of young and old, organizations which pro- mote recreation and cultural oppor- tunities, bodies that help administer public responsibilities and those who undertake unheralded personal concern for a neighbor or someone in need in their community. The list goes on and on and it would be surprising to many to calculate the percentage of residents in their com- munities who give of their time and skills for the benefits of others. It would be difficult to even attempt an explanation of what motivates volunteers. Perhaps the most common denominator is that they are people who want to feel useful, want to participate in a meaningful way in community life and help improve the social conditions of themselves and fellow citizens. It is a certainty that many of the benefits people enjoy would not be available to them without the work of volunteers and while -. that obviously signals the debt of gratitude that is'ow- ed; it should also challenge others to take their place beside those who give of themselves for the betterment of all. Be on the watch Spring has sprung, and with it comes the severe weather season Tornadoes are the most dangerous of the severe weather systems experienc- ed .in to n arm, e . • ' . . his -pa -r -t -o the country. They occur infrequently but regularly throughout this province, for in recent years there has been an average Of 25 tornadoes a year. Some are more devastating than others, but depending on where they strike, they all have the potential for massive destruction. Over the last nine years, tornadoes have resulted in the deaths of 22 people in On- tario and caused over half a billion dollars in property damage. In' recent years, Environment Canada's Weather Service in Ontario has taken steps in key areas to increase the usefulness of their weather watch/war- ning program to the public. Improvements, for example, are continuing in . detecting these severe storms early in their life using weather radar. Initial testing conducted last sum- mer have proved effective, but further testing will be conducted this year. f____Turperienced forecasters at the On- "tIExather-Centre-have-beenstudying the weather patterns that caused the ma- jor tornadoes which struck Woodstock, Barrie and Grand Valley. Some similar - ties have been found, which might be in- dicators of potential for tornado development. These steps, along with volunteer weather watchers and increased study patterns, all make for an improved awareness on the experts behalf, not to mention the public's. . The effectiveness of summer severe weather• forecasting is increasing. Although it is virtually impossible to pre- vent property loss due to severe storms, lives can be saved through more ac- curate forecasts serving a well inform, ed public. That's the bottom line. Gap is widening Few people need to be remind- ed that inflation is still a factor of life, and while it has not been climbing to the extent of the late '70s, it takes a few wild swings at times. Those swings are not always obvious for items that may be in- cluded on a daily, weekly or even annual budget, but they become painfully apparent when you've been out of a particular marketplace for any extended period of time. That was brought home rather visibly this week when the mon- thly building report was tabled at council. Five permits for houses were approved in March in Ex- eter and the value was listed at $406,000. Permits, of course, do not show the land value and many of the other items such as carpeting and drapes that will end up in the final outlay for those owners, along with landscaping and the like, and that will no doubt dou- ble the actual value shown on the permit. Having been removed from the home buying market for over 20 years, my initial reaction to to- day's real estate transactions is that people are building giant mansions. To even dream about the size and accouterments of a $100,000 to $200,000 home (in- cluding the lot) for those of as in that generation would have been impossible. Such an abode would have been the domain of some tycon who would have had to suf- fer through a constant parade of sightseers interested in seeing / • how the rich actually live. I have little doubt that some of the younger readers will wonder what I'm talking about and that obviously points up the fact,infla- tion has created a very real generation gap. For their enlightment, it should be noted that the writer's three- :.... ::t:�::........... ............ Batt'n - Around .with The Editor bedroom brick home was pur- chased for the handsome sum of $8,500 only 22 short years ago. That's not even an adequate down payment in today's market and would represent only the price of a one -car carport attach- ment for today's homes. If you'd like to jump back one more generation before that to consider the • situation under which the community's grand- parents base their recollections about real estate values, I would hazard a guess that all the war- time homes located along Anne Huron and Marlborough St. were probably built (including the land value) at a combined price that would be in the neighborhood of the total value of the half dozen or so homes that have been started in Exeter this spring. My family's first purchase in 4 Exeter was the property which now houses the swimming pool and the sizeable acreage was bounded by Andrew, Hill and MacNaughton Drive. It included a house (still there) as well as a barn and numerous rat -infested chicken houses and the purchase price -was just over $1,000. • • • • * • Some of us too easily recall those "good old days" and can often be heard wondering aloud how those entering the real estate market today can ever consider expenditures of such incom- prehensible Magnitude as those listed for the community's new and re -sale homes. However, those with longer memories have no difficulty recalling the worries and trepida- tion with which they were con- fronted when considering the pur- chase of an average priced home in• their generation. Today's grandparent generation will recall dickering in tens of dollars, while their kids went on to badger in the hundreds and now the negotiations are considered in terms of thousands of dollars. Through the generatioris it ap- pears that the majority of pur- chases have remained relative to the salary scale and standard of living, although there are some disconcerting signs that real estate is coming close to stepping outside the bounds of that relativity with annual apprecia- tion values in urban centres soar- ing as much as 20 and 30 percent. How much further can the generation gap widen? Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by 1.W. Eedy Publications Limited GOSN- NO MORE EMBARRASSMEWV OF MISIT.L ED HOLDUP NATES OR NOT KNOWIN�x HOW MUCH LOOT you GoT ! 4019/11 You missed it? flock -day falls on April 27 this year. What? You missed it? That's a shame. Hock -day for Hock Tuesday as it is sometimes called) is the se- cond Tuesday after Easter Day, and - surprise - it follows Hock Monday. Hock d s ou • tional holiday in Canada because it seems to be closely connected with our national game. hockey. Hock Monday and Hock Tues- day together were often referred to as Hocktide in England, where this time of fun and games was observed until the 16th century. According to custom, on Hock Monday the women and girls of the village seized and bound as many men as they could get their hands on, and then- demanded a small ransom for their release. On Hock -day t Hock Tuesday ►, the men took sweet revenge and waylaid the women and girls. Once again, a ransom was re- quired to set them free. A contemporary account describes these goings on: Hock .Monday was for the men and Hock Tuesday for the women. On both days the men and women. alternately, with 'Areal merri- ment, intercepted the public roads. with ropes, and pulled passengers to them. from whom they exacted. money. to be laid out in pious uses." Well, this charming custom might have died out in England, but at least the memory of it was still alive in Halifax in the year 1855. On the second Tuesday after Easter - which came early that year - soldiers of The Canadian Rifles played a game with sticks and balls, resembling the Irish game of bandy (in which the ball • 1 was bandied from side to side). Because they played on the ice of a still frozen pond, they invented a new game for the game: hockey -.in honour of Hock -day. Much later, students at McGill University made the game famous. but by that time everybody had forgotten the origin o e reason. every on, apparently without making a direct connection: "Iloggins line at darts...the line or position at which one stands to make the throw, has since 1957 or 1958 been predominantly the hockey (or ockev►." If you're confused by all this. so am I. Why can't these scholarly e--For—that---lexo• : ►hers et their act dictionary or en- together? PETER'S POINT • cyclopedia you look up on the sub- ject offers a different explanation. The Canadian Encyclopedia thinks the name of our national game "probably" comes from the French word "hoquet' . meaning a shepherd's crook. Do you believe that? 1 don't. Collier's Encyclopedia admits it knows nothing about the origin of the word, and sodo many dic- tionaries. The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology -says: "Ilo- quet = bent stick, shepherd's crook, cannot be connected." A very interesting albeit strange explanation of the origins of the word hockey can be found in Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English tvol.2►: "Hockey - see hoggins. Hoggins: a due -share, especially in pleasure - e.g. sex- ual, i.e. hoggish pleasures: low 20th century." And then it goes Although I have repeatedly stated that Peter's Point is not a science column, it must be ob- vious to all careful readers that it is more scientific than most humour columns and more humorous /than most science columns. But no one has ever doubted the historical accuracy of this col- umn. My research is not only painstaking, it is often downright painful. I wholeheartedly agree with that great Canadian scholar from 'Parry Sound. Prof. Dr. Charlie Farquharson, who wrote in 1974: "I admit Jogfree is not Histry. Jogfree is what we had to start with, and Histry is the mess we all made of it." ..Perhaps I should quit history and stick to humour, it pays bet- ter. Only a few people have any use for history, but everybody needs humour. As Stephen Leacock put it: "A man will free- ly confess that he has no ear for music, or no taste for fiction, or no interest in religion. But I have yet to see the man who announces that he has no sense of humour." Don't you agree with me t ►dough that Hock -day deserves to become a national holiday, with as much merriment as the law permits? God knows we have enough pious uses for the ransom money we could raise. Pretty perceptive_ After a long winter we really treasure those first few beautiful days of spring when suddenly the air is mild, the sun, is shining brightly and the evenings are so much longer that you feel alive again, ready to go out into the garden and make something of it. That's the theory. Anyway, one such evening I found myself in the confines of a local mall, shop ping. Somewhat against my will, mind you, but still there. Unlike myself, most people were someplace else leaving the cor- ridors of the mall almost - deserted. I went up to a get a donut at one of the little shops and commented to the young clerk that she was going to be stuck with Large numbers of muffins and pastries when this fine day was finished. She nodded and comrgented that every once in a while they really misjudged. "What do you do with the one's .....................::::.. By the 7 Way by Syd Fletcher which are left over?" I asked. "Well, we can sell some tomor- row at a reduced price but after that we throw them out." "It's too bad you couldn't give them to a shelter for homeless people or something," I Commented. "We used to do that. We'd even box .them up. The people from (shelter's name deleted) used to come and pick them up but they decided that they didn't need them. They won't come anymore for them so we just throw them - out. The other day I pitched two big cardboard boxes, both of them full, in the garbage." The waitress, who couldn't have been much more than about sixteen, was getting angry. Not at me but at the waste which she was forced to go about so often. "You know," she muttered as I left, "there's something wrong with us, isn't there. Someday we're going to get .a slap In our faces aren t we?" I thought that she was a pretty perceptive young lady; to say the least.