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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1987-08-12, Page 6Page 4 Times -Advocate, August 12, 1987 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgama ed 1924 11111111111111111111111111111 Imes - dvocate Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 150. Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519-235.1331 nes eNA Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by I.W. Eedy Publications limited 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' Leaders in trouble Brian Mulroney's in trouble. So is John Turner, says the St. Marys Journal - Argus. Recent voting in three federal byelections indicates that those earlier polls showing the' New Democratic Par- ty with around 40 percent of popular sup- port, do translate into votes. The byelec- tions in Hamilton Mountain, St. John's East and Yukon, should leave no doubt in anyone's mind that the NDP stand poised, for the first time in its history, to become the party of government. That prospect may send shudders down the backs of many Canadians who are unable to break out of past patterns of mainstream political analysis which have usually depicted the NDP as a threat to the good life to which we are accustomed. That notwithstanding, it is clear that Canadians are in the midst of a momen- tous swing in political allegiance. Despite this country's relatively strong economic performance during the past three years of Tory government, the Mulroney government has obiviously failed to con- vince a majority of Canadians that it's on. the right track. There have been too many political blunders and scandals; and people are obviously wary about Canada being traded away to the U.S.- even if the federal government, is negotiating a freer trade deal with the best of intentions. The victory for the NDP in Hamilton Mountain was no big surprise, even though the NDP ran a little-known can- didate and there was a strong Liberal challenge. The Moutain riding had been held by the NDP's Ian Deans, who before his retirement was an outspoken, high profile party member. In Yukon and St. John's, however, it was a differnt story. Yukon had been held by Erik Nielsen, the former Conservative depu- ty prime minister. But in the byelection the Tory candidate could manage only third place after the NDP and Liberal candidates. The most telling victory for the New Democrats, however, was in the Conser- vative stronghold of St. John's East, Newfoundland where NDP candidate Jack Harris finished first with 46 percent of the vote. The St. John's seat had been held by the Tories for the past 25 years and in the 1984 election the Conservative victor chalked up a margin of victory in excess of 25,000 votes over the Liberal contender. The NDP candidate at that time received less than seven percent of the vote. Jake Epp, Prime Minister Mulroney's health minister, was reported as saying that the message from the voters means that the govern- ment will have to redouble its efforts, especially • to stimulate economic development in the regions. That's the of- ficial line. You can bet, however, that there's going to' be some (more) serious soul-searching within the Conservative Party of Canada. And the most perplexing question Tories must be asking themselves is how it is possible that a government, elected essentially on a promise of better economic performance, has been unable to translate its role as overseer of a sound economy into popular support. Does it have something to do with leadership? Take simple orders I think _one of my strengths is the ability to follow simple orders, one at a time, as in: "Do you feel like taking the garbage out?" Of course, I do. And it is done. "Would you mind sweeping under the kitchen table?" No, I don't mind a bit. -Done. And I usually perform my chores cheerfully, without grumbling or complaining. Except at vacation time. I am not talking about a Grand Tour of Europe or a month in P.E.I. Seven days at a lakeside family camp is what I am referring to. An hour's drive from our house. The holiday itself is nice enough. But .whatever physical and mental restoration may result is overshadowed by the ordeal of packing. For me, anyway. When I travel anywhere, I col- lect a few things that happen to be close by, throw them into a suitcase, and leave. When this family goes to the lake for a week, my first task is to check the station wagon for tire pressure. Weeks before the trip, our house takes on the characteristics bf a supply depot in wartime. There are staging areas, stockpiles, inventory checklists, and acquisition orders. There are organizing ses- sions and detailed briefings. • i usually pretend not to notice when my'way to the bathroom is blocked by mountains of neatly folded and stacked pants, shirts, jackets, sweaters, ,underwear and socks, by rows uon rows of shoes, runners, sandals, slippers, thongs and rubber boots. Because the planning of Opera- tion Getaway is such a deman- ding exercise, I try not to make any suggestions, comments or other remarks that might be con- strued as criticism. What if I had to be the P.C. (packing coordinator)? I'd wait for the day on which the vacation starts, gather up a bunch of like- ly stuff, throw it into the trunk, and drive off with the family. That system never had a chance of proving itself, as far as our holidays are concerned. When D -Day (for desperation) arrives, every hour is designated for a specific task. Typically D - Day begins on the day before departure for the lake. The children are either farmed out or tied to a tree. If at all possible, I hide in my office or attend an urgent meeting. Even so, I will eventual- ly get involved in the campaign. The orders come fast and furiously. "Get two rainy -day games for each child!" This type of command always worries me. I like my instructions predigested. Now I have to calculate, apply logic or imagina- tion, sometimes even reason. Three children times two equals six. Rainy -day means indoors. Game means anything in a box on the top shelf on the toy rack in the playroom. There are about 50 boxesloose- ly fitting that description. I pick and choose six. Naturally they turn out to be totally unsuitable. Two are rejected by all the kids, one is vetoed by Alexander, one by Stephanie. Only Duncan, bless his soul, is a sweetheart in such situations. Heois easygoing and obliging like rhe. The packing coordinator tell me that I (a) did not use common sense, (b) did not listen to her, and (c) am of no help what- soever, and why don't I go and water the plants instead. After I spend 10 minutes with the garden hose, Elizabeth asks me why the houseplants still haven't been watered. "Do I have to do everything myself?" she in- quires. All I want to do is get away and go to the lake. We are now two hours late. But finally I get the order to assem- ble the cargo behind the wagon. Routinely I load everything three or four times, just to prove that it is impossible to fit everything into the car. My suggestion to rent a U -Haul trailer is mistaken for sarcasm. I eliminate two lawn chairs, one large beach ball, two cartons of beer, and one He-Man- Bashosaurus. I finally manage to stow 16 assorted suitcases and bags, four boxes of toys, two children's wheelbarrows, food baskets, books,cameras, dolls, a doll carriage, teddy -bears, a rub- ber dinghy with two paddles, three air mattresses, 101 miscellaneous items, three children, and one wife into our moaning Malibu. I put on my sunglasses, squeeze into the driver's seat, turn on the ignition, and wait. In- evitably there are last minute ad- justm(a tts. They always turn out to be additions, never subtrac- tions. This time, only a few ab- solutely necessary toys had been forgotten. They fit between the raincoats and the first aid kit. And away Ave go. During the drive I wonder how much the Indians carried with them when they moved from hun- ting to fishing grounds. Did they have lawn chairs made of maple saplings, birchbark Adidas bags? Did their canoe ever sink because of over loading? And what about the families of settlers coming over from Scotland or Ireland? i bet they owned less than what we carry in the back of our station wagon. And then 1 remember that not too long ago, all my own earthly possessions fit into a single suit- case. Awesome, isn't it? Mistakes Before we get into any other subject, we must correct an error made a week ago. When telling our readers they could send cards or letters to editor Bill, we gave the wrong address. The correct address is RR 4 Denfield and the postal code is NOM 1PO. That's only one of the mistakes we have made in trying to fill a large pair of shoes. We hope Bill will be able to contribute his own column very shortly. The saying goes that anyone that • doesn't make a mistake doesn't do anything and we have a favourite that says, "That's the second mistake today, the first was getting out of bed." For those that sent any com- munications to Bill to Ilderton, don't worry they will get there. We called a good friend Agnes Prebble at the Ilderton Post Of- fice and all mail will be redirected. Our association with Aggie as she is well known as, goes back many years when she was a cat- cher for the Ilderton ladies soft- ball team and yours truly was an umpire. The word r:ssociation is probably the best to use between a catcher and an umpire. * * * * * What is the difference between an optimist and a pessimist? Our definition is an optimist invented the airplane and a pessimist in- vented the parachute. Seriously for a moment, it's in- teresting to note the difference in attitudes of people and this ap- plies also to the news media. Just this week we heard that the unemploym' rate in On- tario was six per, . it. Wouldn't it are be more optimistic to say the employment rate was 94 percent. We can be classed as an eter- nal optimist. For 10 years now we have been talking about the Toronto Blue Jays winning the World Series and also some day winning a big lottery. The former by Ross Haugh will likely happen very soon, but the other will still be a dream for a long time. In the same vein, the weather- man -often reports partly cloudy weather when partly sunny would describe the same situation. Same goes for a container being half empty or half full. * * * * * Found an interesting item in Friday's Toronto Star. It was on the scoreboard page and in small print, the results of the Xerox senior tennis nationals in Toron- '.o and one name caught our eye ,n the over 70 category. it was John Goman of Waterloo and we asssume it's the same John Gornan who for a nurnber of years was public school inspector in this area and lived in Exeter and for a short time after his retirement in Grand Bend. Friday's paper said Goman had defeated Joey Richman of Quebec who was the number two Other grass Twelve years ago I taught English in secondary school in Oxford County. Since then though I have been a principal in various schools in Lambton County. As you know the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence and also things in, the past always look a little brighter than they really are. Anyway i've often thought that it might be in- teresting to go back to teaching high school sometime in my career. So when i got the chance to teach a summer school English course I decided to go back at it. Maybe it would he just the thing i needed for a little excitement. Well, excitement was not ex- actly the word for it but i must admit that it was very in- teresting. First of all 1 was assigned Grade 13 English, not an upgrading course but a straight upper school English course. For three weeks before the course started I 'hit the books', reading and re -reading the texts 1 was go- ing to teach. Twenty-one students faced me the first day, from schools all over the county. These kids were highly easy seed in the semi-finals. The next day's report showed Goman los- ing in the final to William Foulkes of the United States. Foulkes was listed as the number three seed. We are assuming it's the same person we know as he was a very enthusiastic curler and tennis player while in this area. That goes to show you, that tennis players especially, never lose their LOVE for the game. * * * * Received a letter this week regarding the upcoming 42nd an- nual reunion of Number 6 Service Flying Training School at Dunnville. It takes place September 18, 19 and 20 and we were asked to pass on the information to any of our readers who were stationed at anytime at that flying school. The weekend kicks off with a 'mood adjustment hour' and the mayor's reception Friday night and a golf tournament Saturday morning followed by a parade. memorial service and banquet. The guest speaker at the ban- quet and the guest of honour for the entire weekend will be Ray- mond Munro, O.('., a wartime Spitfire pilot,, balloonist, parachutist, reporter and author. The concluding event is an out- door 'flapper and banger' breakfast at the Riverview Motel. All veterans and all ranks of No. 6 and their spouses are in- vited. If not on the mailing list please contact the Adjutant - General Frank Scholfield at 646 Alder Street West in Dunnville. The Postal Code is NIA 1S5. is .greener motivated. They wanted a credit and wanted it badly or they wouldn't have been spending four hours each morning there plus another couple of hours of homework each night. In addi- By the y Way by Syd Fletcher tion, most of them were holding down a full summer job in the afternoons and evenings. After six weeks of working with these young adults i have to say that I'm impressed with the quality of students that the On- tario school system is turning out as its end product. These youngsters can sit down and write a professional looking arti- cle or essay. They can stand up and speak about a variety of topics with ease. Would i say that they are all perfect spellers and that they never make a grammatical error on an assignment? Does it mean that i would want every one of them as a newspaper copy writer? Of course not. Their abilities vary tremen- dously. One girl can write as well as any teacher I have on my staff. A boy wrote a poem which was so emotionally powerful that I cried when i read it. Another lad is barely passing English but is really strong in mathematics. He plans on going into engineering" school next year at university and I have a feeling he will be a tremendous success in that field even though his language and writing skills are not as good as those of the first two students mentioned. A prospective employer would be wise to look at the marks on the high school transcript of a student he is about to hire. As well he would do well to look at the level of course. Those coming out of Grade 13 English (which is an advanced course) with a 75 percent average I would put up against students from any school system in the world. If they squeaked through with a 51 percent then some different conclusions might be drawn. k