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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1987-12-09, Page 1Page 4 Times -Advocate, December 9, 1987 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 Bt UE RIBBON AWARD 1985 imes dvocate Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0 Second Class Registration Number 0386. rr � POine 519-235-1331 b BLL BATTEN Editor DON SMITH Business Manager JIM BECKETT Publisher & Advertising Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor HARRY DEVRIES DICK JONGKIND Composition Manager Vice -President SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00 New Bishop film The squeaky wheel gets the oil. That's apparently what happened to produce a recent announcement from the National Film Board of Canada. World War veterans from across Cana- da sent in petitions complaining about much of the content in a film featuring World War One fighter ace Billy Bish- op. Many at the recent annual Remem- brance Day banquet at the R.E. Pooley Exeter branch of the Royal Canadian Le- gion signed the petition. The local petition was put forth by town resident J.M. Gibson, better known. as Gibby who was also a fighter pilot. At that time Gibby said many of the facts in the film were fictitious and he wanted the Film Board to do something about it. To appease the anger of veterans across the country, the Film Board will produce a new movie probably by late 1988. It will be called simply ,"Billy Bishop". A film board official said it would be a his- torical documentary. The movie that caused all the fuss, "The 'Kid Who Couldn't Miss" questioned Bishop's 72 victories and his solo raid on a German airfield for which he won the coveted Victoria Cross. Although the Film Board won't with- draw the original movie, the decision to produce a new one on the same subject proves Legion members and veterans can put up a united voice to get their point across. Start Crime Stoppers The recent decision to establish a Crime Stoppers program in HuronCoun- ty appears to be a good one. This newspaper will join with others in the county in printing a re-creation of a recent crime on a regular basis. Crime Stoppers encourages people to call the police with information to solve any serious crime already committed, those about to occur or the whereabouts of wanted persons. At a recent organization meeting in Goderich, OPP Constable Jeff Saban said the police, media and community must work together to make the program suc- cessful. If a person has information regarding a crime, Crime Stoppers provides them a way to pass it on to police without having to identify themselves. A tollIree number will be made availa- ble for callers. When they phone they are assigned a code number which will be used to identify them in future dealings with Crime Stopper personnel. by Ross Haugh Another feature of the program is that the caller may be eligible for a cash re- ward for the information provid- ed.Based on the value of the information received, the reward may. range from $50 to $1,000. When Crime Stoppers gets underway in Huron in the early spring of 1988, it will be operated by a group of local citi- zens made up of a board of directors of 15 persons. While this type of program has been on in Toronto since 1984, the spread to rural areas has only taken place this year.Programs are now going in Lon- don- Middlesex' and in Grey -Bruce. - Since May 15 in Grey-Bruce,the OPP have made 18 arrests, placed 60 charges and cleared 50 cases with 120 calls to Crime Stoppers. Started a little later, the London - Middlesex program has been responsible for 15 arrests, clearing up 36 cases and recovering $36,000 in stolen proper- ty.Rewards of $600 have been paid out. by Ross Haugh Varied assignments In the newspaper business one could put assignments that re- porters are called on to cover in to about four categories. Some could be classed as inter- esting, others just plain boring,a third category of being a lot of fun and then the rewarding ones. We regularly run into all four of these classifications, but a couple in the last two weeks stand out. First comes the rewarding, one and that was attending the annual appreciation dinner put on by Ex- eter council when our editor Bill Battcn was named citizen of the year. We know that Bill really appre- ciated getting the honour and in 'our case it was a high point to see a fellow journalist with whom we have worked side by side, for some 20 years get the recogni- tion he deserves. It was also a rewarding evening for some of Bill's many friends and acquaintances who hadn't seen him since he was forced to leave his job in late July because of illness. His dedication to sort of being the conscience of the town in keeping the issues discussed by council in the forefront was at a high level. At the citizen of the year pres- entation Mayor Bruce Shaw was right on the ball when he said, "At times we may have thought he was tough with us, but he al- ways treated us fairly and tried to come up with both sides of the story." We can say the same thing by Ross Haugh about Bill as being our boss. The two of uS seemed to have the fa- culty of,knowing what each other was doing without really saying much about it and he always treated us really fairly. Congratulations again Bill for the award you so richly deserve. * * * When we talk about fun things happening during assignments , some- of these are not planned and that was the case last Tues- day night in Lucan. Answering a phone call to cov- er a fun auction at the Lucan Scout Hall sponsored by the Lu - can Nursery School we expected to just drop in to get a quick pic- ture of some of the committee in charge and then head for home t� put the feet up for a little while. Such was not the case. We did take the intended picture, but that was followed by a pie eating con- test featuring three Lucan and area ministers, a rep from the nursery school and Biddulph- Lucan school vice-principal Steve Wartamaker. The pie eaters provided lots of laughs as they couldn't use their hands. Wanamaker's moustache was the catch-all for a combina- tion of chocolate pie and whipped cream. The only full beard be- longed to Rev. Darnell Shaule. It wasn't fair as Darrell got a lemon pie without any topping and his beard stayed relatively clean. Right after the pie eating, auc- tioneer Tom Shoebottom started the auction of many donated gifts and articles. That's when we had planned to leave, but decided to stay for an item or two. That was a big mistake as we were still there an hour and a half later with a pile of purchases. You guessed right._ Some of our buys were of the foodly na- ture like a gift certificate from the Lucan Inn and a box of milk, eggs, butter and egg nog from Heam's Dairy. We did purchase a few non -edible items for Christmas gifts. It was a fun night which pro- vided some $700 for the nursery school. Thanks go to those do- nating and the buyers who were very free with their money. Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 PublUhed by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited "HOW- WAS YOUR CHRISTMAS OFFICE PARTY LAST NIGHT?" Aggression drills Recently I was at an arena in London and was watching some youngsters practicing. The boys would be around eight or nine years old. For the life of me I could not get the drift of what they were doing. The lads were divided up into 1 groups of seven or eight players, with each group working in one corner of the rink. The drill went like this: one boy would have the puck and try to stick handle with ' it toward the goalie. The assign- ment of the second lad, who did not have a stick, was to stop him, not to check him, mind you, to . stop him. He could push, shove, grab clothing or the other boy's stick, but he was not to let that other boy past him. Out of curiosity I asked one of the fathers standing there what the idea of the drill was. "Oh, just a little exercise to build up aggression in these lads," he said with a grin. "They'll be into the 'checking' game next year or so and this helps to make them a little rough- er." Now I would hazard a guess that that attitude is one of the rea- sons- why some hockey players By the Way by Syd Fletcher develop into 'goons'. Maybe you haven't heard the term but it is used for players (and I use that word loosely) who are hired by the major league teams to deliber- ately start fights and to injure oth- er players if necessary. A recent case shows exactly what I am talking about. One fel- low deliberately used his stick as a weapon in a game. The other player suffered a severe concuss sion and missed many weeks of work. It would seem to me that in a case like that that the first fellow should have been thrown out of the league at least for the rest of the year, or perhaps should face criminal charges. Did that happen? Of course not. He received an eight game sus- pension, a mere slap on the wrists. I think that hockey is a great game when it is played well. When you see players like Wayne Gretsky, Maurice Rich- ard, Bobby Hull, and Bobby Orr carry the puck down the ice you are witnessing athletes who have learned hqw to skate, -who have learned beautiful skills and are applying them. There's no room though for the 'goons' in the game. Hopefully the leagues will respond by ap- plying sufficient punishment to a team .o deter them from such shenanigans in the future. Cards big business I know Christmas cards are big business. People like Hallmark depend on people like me for their profits. And for a guy who dislikes the commercialization of Christmas, I sure send a lot of money down the bottomless drain each December. What between the cards themselves and the postage, it's easy to spend a bundle. Every year I preach about economizing and cutting down the Christmas card list. "Why do we send a card to people who lived next door to us for a while ten years ago, moved to California and will probably never cross our path again?" "And who on earth is Myrtle Moss?" -"O.K., I remember now. Yes, she was a good cleaning lady. But that was years ago. In another world. We should cut down." But I never practice what I preach. There are Lots of.faithful souls around. People with a conscience who, like me, cannot discard former friends, acquaintances, neighbours, babysitters. Why, deleting them from my Christmas card list would be like sentencing them to death. Without maintaining: this thin but precious once -a -year umbilical cord to me, they would probably float into space and disintegrate. vanish forever. I cannot allow this to happen. They need this lifeline, I tell myself, to continue their •existence. And really, isn't it worth a 50 - cent card and 36 cents of postage to keep in touch? What if fate should intervene and bring them back to our neck of the woods? How could I face a former friend who says: "You stopped sending me Christmas cards." I'm just not that kind of person. And all thy cousins and their grown-up children. How could 1 abandon my own blood relatives? I must let them know once a year that I' still cherish tho bond that unites the clan. ' And .so I send them a card and wish them a season full of cheer and joys that will linger through the New Year, or whatever else the ingenious text writers may have submitted to the editorial departments of the card companies. How I envy those clever writers! How can they ever think of so many wonderful things to say on Christmas cards? They must work hard, and they must wear out dozens of Roget's Thesauruses and Soule's Synonym, trying to be heart- warming and original. One of these days, I'm going to buy blank cards and compose my own Christmas card texts. But I know I'll never be as good as the professionals who make a career out of creating lines like "May the Spirit of the Season Enter your Heart and Make Your Christmas a Joyful One". I wonder whether the recipients of my cards treat them with the same respect with which I treat theirs. I just love receiving Christmas cards, don't you? Whcn none have arrived by December 1st, I begin to get worried. Have I been dropped from some lists? And if so, why? Between December 5th and 15th the volume of incoming cards should at least equal the volume of outgoing cards, and if 1 get less than five a day, I become depressed. After December 15th, I expect ten a day, not counting those from insurance agents and realtors. Months before Christmas, 1 stock up on rolls of masking tape. As soon as the cards begin to arrive, I plan their display. All over the house, walls become designated to hold rows upon rows of Santa Clauses and nativity scenes, rustic winter landscapes and still -lives, squirrels and puppies with mistletoe collars, and cute little mice. And classy UNICEF motifs and stylized trees and stars and snowflakes. And I love them all. I know I should be ashamed of myself. But I actually keep count of how many cards I have sent out and how many I get back. If there's a surplus, it gives me a sense of accomplishment. Aha, I say to myself, people regard me as somebody. They're sending me more cards than I send them. But when there's a deficit, I lock myself in the bathroom for hours and cry. People don't love me anymore, I'll say, and I won't snap out of my sulk till February. I know it's all a lot of nonsense. But I can't think of a nicer way of spending a couple of evenings than writing Christmas cards. It's like visiting the past: do you remember old Sammy? He must be still alive, at least he's still on my Christmas card list. Once in a while, I face a sad decision. When a correspondent has not mailed me a card for 15 years in a row, he becomes a candidate for deletion. What to do? Usually I give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the post office lost his cards. Maybe he's lost my address. Maybe he lost his job and can't afford to buy cards. Whatever the reason, I almost always keep him on the active list. I remember a while ago I wiped out an entire family because we hadn't heard from them in cOit years. And that very Chr, rn too late for me to do at. about it — they sent us Involy card with the warmest of wishes It made me feel like a first-class heel. There isn't a greater disappointment fot mo than to go out to the mailbox .,n snowy December day :md ftnu not a single Christina : Lard . "long the bills, cheques and letters to the householder. It's heartbreak, that's what it is. So far this year, I've received thirty-three cards, only about average, I think. I sure hope things will pick up soon. .