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Home My WebLink AboutTimes-Advocate, 1979-08-15, Page 4 (2)pins 4 • Times -Advocate, August 15. 1979 _ _ _ _. ._ fieiiti lsfoifnh�d I IYT "„ — Advocate Esrobbshed 1 881 Amatgomaled 1914 SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by .1. W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager — Dick Jongkind Published Each Wednesday Morning Phone 235.1331 at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada t 11.00 Per Year; USA 830.00 ft times:" tic An ironical twist It was ironical that Exeter -council received a letter at their meeting last week requesting aid from the Township of -West Carleton which had recently ex- perienced severe flood damage. The request was denied, as council members chose to follow a policy of not providing grants from the public coffers for such funds. The irony was, that at about the same time they were adhering to that police. a storm was building near this -"community that eventually touched down in the Woodstock area and created devastation that only those who have viewed it personalty can fully com- prehend. • What would have happened had that tornado hit Exeter? Would the residents of the area look to their fellow citizens across the province for assistance - in rebuilding their homes, churches, barns...and indeed, their very way of life? It's a hypothetical question, of course, and one that everyone will be thankful they do not have to answer. But in reality, it is a question everyone must answer, for the need for assistance is paramount. Would you have expected others to help you? Do you think they would have offered that assistance? Should help Increased fines announced last week by Judge \V.G.Cochrane may help to appease some of the criticism the court has been receiving for being too lenient, but hopefully it will also act as a deterrent for those who fail to obey the laws. Time alone will tell whether those who have been hit by '50 fines will think twice about having booze in their vehicles now that the cost hits gone up to '100. That makes for an expensive night on the town, to be sure. • However, those size fines have been levied for offenders at Grand Bend for some years now, and the deterrent factor is Tess than could be expected. Offenders still have to be caught. of course. and while the new fines may not curb the increase in illegal drinking, Judge Cochrane has advised he will hike them even more if there is no ap- preciable change - in,. the number of offenders on the court docket. It's a step in the right direction and hopefully it will have the desired results. Out of the past Flies are nasty. They breed in places of filth. They like to crawl around on our food. So we swat them and forget them. Mosquitoes are a real pest. They bite -and leave itchy welts. So we spray them and slap at them and forget them. But not so the ,earwig. That little two-pronged monster is something else again. He manages to arouse a sort of savage hatred that is not accorded to either the fly or the mosquito. And yet the lowly earwig is really much less offensive than either. True, the earwig - does chew off some of our garden plants. but that's not what brings out the killer instinct in us. Somehow his mere appearance makes us shudder with revulsion. After all, the earwig seldom does us any personal harm. He can nip us with his little pincers, but he doesn't leave us with any itching aftermath like the kite By S1Y�D LETCHER Lawton ` • had never hit it off right from the first .of the year, when he made his remark about red-haired teachers who try to teach music, old peoples' music, as he called it, at that. Lawrence and I frequently made the long trip down to the principal's office, me fairly bristling with in- dignation, large tears already brimming in Lawrence's 'eyes. The routine was. e:.» --1-Y7.4 k-nieurit well by Christmas. A short lecture was mixed with a small amount of -gelling and stirred with an ample portion of the rubber strap. Many tears were served followed by a pleasant period Of silence in the classroom which was enjoyed by all. It was odd though. After Christmas i introduced some new kinds of music. We started working on an 'operetta and Lawrence of the mosquito. He doesn't leave any tracks. He doesn't continue to Tight on an arm or nose as does a fly. He doesn't make any noise. He doesn't make specks •on the window. He, and his -pals don't come. at us in bloodthirsty packs when we try to weed the tlowerbed. The earwig doesn't weave webs like ' the spiders. He seldom gets into our food supplies like the black ants do. He doesn't even show up unless the weather is favorable for his multiplication. Why do• we hate the earwig so much? Perhaps because he reminds us, by his very shape, of some primeval monster. Maybe his form, magnified ten thousand times. was what our shadowy ancestors saw coming at them out of the swamp. Hard to say. But, by the way, have you found any new earwig spray that works better than ours? The Wingham Advance -Times Perspectives actually volunteered for a part in it. I found myself actually liking him and he stopped -acting iip.in class. In - fact, the whale class seemed more friendly. 'a surprising development. The principal at that school felt that he had to back up his teachers. For him, that meant ringing the strap_ out of t his desk frequently. 1 have to admit that the school seemed to run very smoothly. One new boy, not yet aware of the system was caught teaching our country boys the mysteries of the game of craps. The dite ame itself was bad enough but his little black book showed that he was into some students forms much - as three or bur dollars. Obviously the floating crap game had to be killed im- mediately. - The problem that the principal had was that though this boy looked quite slight and innocent, his school records showed that the last time somebody had tried to strap him, the lad had wrenched free,'rpri out of the door, and on Jicime. This time something mould have to be done to ensure that justice was served. The vice-principal, a husky six-footer, stationed himself at one door of the office and i was placed at the other, while the principal informed the boy that if he . did not submit he would be suspended. ' - The principal gave him five stiff whacks on the left hand asked for the other but hit him only twice on it. He looked at me. "Do you think that that's enough? he asked. f shrugged, puzzled by the uneven distribution of blows. Then I looked at the boy's iron? and understood.- iter only two blows, the hand had turned as black as pitch from the fingers to the heel of the palm. Apparently a blood vessel had broken and flooded the whole area. The floating crap game was dead and buried, but the strap came out of the desk drawer just as frequently after that. "Where do 1 plug in the electric blanket?" BA 1- F'N AROUND e • with the editor About grants and priorities In recent weeks this newspaper has made mention of the vast changes tak- ing place on Exeter's Main St., not only in new construction. but in the renova- tion and re -decorating of many existing buildings. However, there appears to be a slight misinterpretation as to where the funds are coming from for those projects. BiA president Bob Swartman sat down beside the writer at- last week's council meeting and related a story that perhaps is too wide -spread in the com- munity. Bob had some car trouble the other day and was kindly given a lift home to get another vehicle by a female motorist. While that would normally be a pleasant experience. Bob wasn't quite, ready for the comment of his good Samaritan as they drove along the main drag. ' "Isn't it great that the businessmen got .some grants to fix up their store fronts," the young lady remarked. While the BiA president is naturally among those who would like to have that story be true, it just isn't the case. The local businessmen have not received any grants for their store -front projects. Any work being done is coming out of their own pockets.. As Bob tells it: The only "grant" we're receiving is the one. that comes with a 14 percent interest tag from our local banker. Hopefully, that will set the record straight as to who is paying for the sprucing up that is taking place along the street. - The businessmen hope to get some provincial grant money, but it will be spent only on beautifying public proper- ty, such as tree plantings, shopper's rest areas, etc. -None of it can be used for privately owned facilities such as store fronts. The majority of local residents may be able to understand Ted Wright's con- cern over the fact that we're falling behind in the reconstruction of sidewalks. It's a costly proposition, although to be sure, there are many areas in town where pedestrians feel as though they're tackling the Swiss Alps when they attempt to traverse some of the heaving, broken sidewalks. Those people may be more than a lit- tle chagrined to note that while Ted was making that comment, it came after his roads and drains committee had recommended the spending of 15,000 to pave the parking' lot behind the municipal offices. So, while they continue to stumble along on broken sidewalks. they can take soma respite in the knowledge that the cars parked behind the town offices will have a nice, smooth surface on which to rest their tires. Don't know about that...it just doesn't seem quite cricket that cars get better treatment than pedestrians all the time. To be sure, parking can be arranged more orderly when there is an asphalt surface on which to paint zones, but the priority does appear more than a little out of whack. As any area motorist will tell you,peo- ple tempt fate every time they head on to area roads, and at no time has that been more evident that the past two weeks. if memory serves correctly, the accidents in that duration have caused about a dozen injuries and property damage of well over 175,000. You can use your own mathematics to figure out what those statistics would add up to over the period of one year. Any way you look at it, it's a lot of work for some body shops, both of the human Sugar and Spica Dispensed by Smiley and vehicular type. Some of our counterparts in the news media appeared to make fun of a pilot project over the Civic Holiday weekend when the 'OPP parked unmanned curisers along various highways in an attempt to slow down motorists. it was unofficially ,known as "operation scarecrow". Well, this writer happens to think it was a good move. in fact, we'll have to applaud any attempt by law enforce- ment agencies to protect people from themselves. And that's all they were try- ing to accomplish! If the carnage continues on area highways, it may be necessary for the police to use their unmanned cruisers in the middle of the highways to slow down some people. In case you're interested, they ap- parently -don't have Civic holiday over in our namesake in England. The hard- working editor received calls from two Exeter papers last Monday asking for pictures of our Main St. to accompany a story they' were doing on the return of Tom Rookes. Tom, as you may recall, visited Mayor Derry Boyle and this Ex- eter a couple of weeks ago. Tom is interested in opening up better communication between the two Exeters and to that end wants to hear from any local citizens who may be interested in a type of pen pal relationship with some people over home. You can contact Mayor Derry or write to Tom Rookes personally at: 3 Leypark Close, Exeter, EX 1 3NU, Devon,- England. By the way,old chap, we think it's a jolly good idea! Nothing typical about weather Not nuff fer ya? By the time this appears in print, I may be looking through drawers for my longjohns. That would be typical of the weather in this Canada of ours. But as I write, holed up in my study with the drapes drawn and the fan blow- ing. we're well into the second week of one of those scorching summer sessions that we masochists in this country en- dure and even enjoy, in a perverted way. We suffer. but we suffer with a certain pride. One wilted citizen will say �to another dripping one, "Ain't it a cor- ker?" And the other will respond, almost_ joyously, "Never seen thebeatof it." On the sheets of our towns and cities, We duck from one air-conditioned haven to another, Catching our death of cold in the process. Smart people take a heavy sweater to the supermarket so they won't freeze their extremities, and peel right down to those extremities as soon as they get back into the street. What a crazy way to live. Six months ago, and six months from now, we'H be doing, the opposite, ducking from one over -heated place to *another, and bragging about the cold. I wonder if there is another nation in the world that talks as much about the weather as does ours. f doubt it. Perilfapls' it is because we are rather shy and inar- ticulate when it codes to opening a con- versation. -As a result, we commence with; "Cold Liftoff fer y ?", or, "Kot puff fer ya?",-agd can n'earl�y always be certain that the person spoken to, even a complete stranger, as long as he's a Canadian, will respond with somthirig like, "Real brute, izzen it?" This retort covers ex- treme days in either winter or summer. If an immigrant, unfamiliar with our opening gambits, makes a sensible remark about the weather, such as, "My, it is unpleasantly warm today, is, it not?;" we go right on the defensive, with "Ah, this is just right. Wait'll the real heat wavehits. I t'll slaughter ya." Or if a similarly untutored foreigner, just trying to be pleasant, says in February, "Mein Gott, zis is a cold country in vinter, Hein?" we snarl, "Nah, she's mild this year. Ya shoulda been here last winter. Forty below for three weeks straight." 'Yes, there is a certain arrogance in Canadians when it comes to our weather. Nobody much likes rain and wind. But when it comes to hot and cold, we are fascinated by temperatures. We exchange weather repoYts. We remember winters and summers as far back as thirty years. If some unusually urbane Canadian ventures to utter g,-"9Pkt usually comeback with a yabbut. "Yab- but they 's a big blizzard comin' in from the We." Or, "Yabbut it's supposed to rain all next week." Canadiafs know, without being told, that if a winter week has been sunny aitd sparkling, it's going to- snow and blow on the weekend. They are positive that, if the summer has been ideal, warm and dry and delightful so far, it will be cold and wet when it's their turn to go on holidays. •r... - } 110 • The io natnalWpsyche that it's a wonder it hasn't crept into politics. On second thought, it has. Elections are carefully geared so that they don't•occur.in mid- sumnw, when nobody gives a damn about politics, nor iii midwinter, when it's too cold to get out the vote. One of these days, so enthralled are we with the weather, that we'll probably have a couple of guys running for prime minister who are weather forecasters. And the one who gives us the most horrendous forecasts will win in a walk . i am not sneering at my fellow Canadians obsession with the weather. 1 am as bad as -the next. There's nothing i enjoy more, on a winter day, than blustering in from the cold, tearing off the boots and overcoat, and asking all and sundry, "Did you ever see such a rotten winter?" And sure enough, someone will retort, "Yabbut we had two feet more snow this time last year." in summer. I sizzle around the golf course (my body, not my score) and -whine with the best of them, "Isn't this brutal? My lawn is baked black. 1t was 98 in our bedroom last night." And one of the foursome will come back with, "Yabbut remember last summer, when we hadda play in rubber boots and mackinaws?"YouQt ccan't win. 0.`•- the 0.`•- : �Man_w* �► 'are about --the 'weather ,is my wife. When we had babies, she'd pop into the office in the middle of a bliz- zard. "What in the Sam Hill are you do- ing out on a day like this?" And I'd discover that she'd thought the baby needed some fresh air, and pushed the carriage through the snow for half a mile. Her indifference to our great national conversation piece infuriates me. We had a bitter quarrel % {Ltn dust this week..I'd 't he- car, apil told her the gay-"' bn 'Ric Milo said if w'as 96 downtown. She said she didn't believe him. With a touch of svarntth, 1 repeated what the . guy on the radio had said. Ninety-six degrees: it coulda't-be." „Why not?" "Because it doesn°t feel that hot. And what does it matter, anyway?," You can see why I blew .my top. Matter? What could be more important. There is not single element in this country that is more important to us Canadians than our love -hate relationship with the weather. In fact, it may be the only thing that will hold this country together, when all the referen- dums have been taken. - 9 Mainstream Canada Producers Taking a Bum Rap By W'. Roger Worth Canada's fanners and fisher- men have been laking a bum rap from consumers who con- tinually lay the blame for ris- ing food prices at the dock- side, or at the farm gate. Bluntly stated, a lot of the complainers don't know what they are talking about. In fact, Canadians are among the best fed people in the world, and at prices that are among the low- est in.the world. it's true, food prices have been rising at an inordinate Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. rate during the past couple of years, but so have the pro- ducers' costs. Certainly, farmers and fishermen having been faring well of late, but that's the na- ture of the business. Producers earn a great deal of money in the good years hopefully off- setting losses in the lean periods. Some misinformed city - slicker complainers are bright enough to remain silent when food prices are dropping, and producers are in trouble. While there may be room for complaints about the in- adequacies and pricing poll - cies of the nation's processing and distribution system, over- all, consumers are getting food at reasonable cost. • Much has been made of the fact that it now costs $61 per week to feed a family of four people in Canada. Atrocious, some consumers would say. Yet Canadians only spend about 22°/o of take-home pay on food. The complainers should look at Japan, where f flies spend as much as 4004 ofincome on food. OrCurope, where it's not considered un- reasonable if food Costs sur- pass 300/0 - 350'o offamily in- come. Canadian consumers com- plain'about hamburg at $2.50 - $3 per pound. Yet the same product in Tokyo appears on retail store shelves priced at SIO - $15 per pound. And the Japanese don't complain. What's important to note, particularly considering . the energy crunch, is that North Americans have not been faced with outright shortages of food. The producers are doing their job. - Rather than complaints, Canadian consumers should be palling farmers and fisher- men on the back. They deserve a break. ' o Wf memory lane 55 Years Ago Months of preparation, much thought and patient toil went into the making of the fifth Hurondale school fair, l,vhich was held Friday. Judges for the livestock, fruit and vegetables were Harry Strang, Harold Hern, Horace Delbridge, Gordon Cudmore and Ernest Pym. The judges for the flowers, cooking and sewing were Mrs. (Dr.) Graham and Mrs. Wickwire. At an organization meeting of the temperance forces of Hensall held in the Methodist church on Tuesday evening a full organization was effected. Everything is in readiness to carry on a campaign for sustaining the OTA on October 23. Dr. H.G. Fletcher is opening an office in the residence of Mr. A. Camm, Main Street on September 20. Mrs. Ed Johns and children of Elimville, left Tuesday for Saskatoon where they will visit Mrs. John's parents and other relatives. 30 Years Ago Council voted $470 to the Fire Department to pur- chase trailer equipment for added protection to the village. Cedric Shaw in charge of the Bank of Montreal's Ingersoll branch since 1947 will succeed James Hendry as manager of the bank's office here. HyAro men will start sur ying electrical equipment this fall and winter prior to the district change over from 25 to 60 cycle. The members of the Exeter Turf Club decided at a recent meeting to donate $800 to the Exeter Com- munity Park. 20 Years Ago First scholarship to be won by a member of the 1959 SH - DHS graduating class is a $200 UWO entrance award which went to Bill Etherington R.R. 1, Hensall. Robert Wolfe as King and Ann Robertson as Queen, reigned over the Cowboy and Indian parade which marked the end of the Exeter Kin- smen playground for this summer. Col. E.E. Tieman, OBE, CD of Dashwood has been appointed commandant of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Camp School at Camp Borden. 15 Years Ago Grand Bend OPP detach- ment and anti -gambling squad raided three amusement centres and closed down a bingo game, Thursday. Pinball machines, equipment and merchandise prizes were seized. A Cooksville Firm moved into Exeter this week to commence immediate demolition of the Central Hotel building, the last of Exeter's nine hotels. It will be replaced by a modern, one -storey office for British Mortgage and Trust who purchased the building a year ago. Tenders will be opened today for the construction of the Parkhill dam. The date is about four months later than what had originally been set as completion date for 'the dam itself. The extensive work en- tailed in the conversion to dial by the Blanshard Municipal Telephone System is progressing "pretty goofs" according to Ross Marshall, chair ma n. JASPER, Ganada's Safety Bear • rissAse- .i �1 sIt ,Stay away from, cleep water unless you can swim Ike a fish or a frog or even a pollywog 3 • • •