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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1989-06-21, Page 6Page 6 -Times-Advocate, June 21, 1989 • YRet.irement' means having time to do what you want to do stop. Once they did !hev.just went downhill. Now some are in a hos- pital or a nursing home, and not able to think for themselves. That's sad." Leone has not stopped. You have to call early in the.morning, or late at night, to find her home. Every day on the calendar is marked for something. As a member of the Hospital Auxiliary, she may be found assist, ing in the physiotherapy unit, working in the gift shop, guiding a tour around the hospital, working ;- the the spring and fall rummage sale or selling tickets on Tag Day. Leone is part of the "gift shop la- dies" team that completes a quilt each year. She just found out she is to be the second Exeter recipient of a life membership to be presented this fall by the Ontario Hospital Auxiliary Association. (The first was Mrs. Muriel Dunlop.) Leone is equally busy with church activities. In the past she has been a leader, and a member of the board of Exeter United Church. Now she is one of the care persons with a list of 10 to 12 people -she visits each week. In the winter, she quilts at the church two -and -one-half days week- ly. The 20 or so ladies complete quilts for customers, and raise over $1,000 annually for the church. Last year they completed 17 quilts. Until recently, Leone was a vol- unteer assistant at Exeter Public School. "Some youngsters need encour- agement, some just want to talk, and others like the grandmother im- age," she said. Summers are for lawn bowling, a pastime one local doctor described as the best of medicine for seniors - all that bending and stretching and walking. The gracious lady with the ever - ready smile also belongs to the Re- . bekahs and Eastern Star lodges, and the Women's Institute. Thougli Leone vows no one will know her age until they read it in her obituary, she has found the se- cret of living each day to the full, despite the 'cruel and unexpected tragedies -that life sometimes brings: a deep faith in God, and a genuine fondness for other members of the human race. • By" Yvonne Reynolds— EXETER - Roget's Thesaurus gives a broad range of synonyms for "retirement". The gamut runs from "quarantine" and "exile" to "seclusion" and "leisure". Many busy, happy people define "retirement" as a time in life that gives you the freedom to do what - you want to do. Although Carl Mills left his teachin: ob in 1985 long before the normal "retirement" age, he has certainly not retired. He has only changed careers. The former geography instructor has turned his carpentry hobby into a job. He works for Fullarton con- tractor Jack McPhail building new •homes, renovating old ones, adding decks and sunrooms, or whatever else a customer wants. "1; am completely in charge of m own life", Mills said. "The 414, ,_�.. •11,_ money is less (than teaching) but I have no problems, no stress. Jack has all the worries." While Mills was teaching, he bought 25 acres of bush near Exet- er to use as an escape from the pressures of his former career. He admits the mosquitos make life un- bearable intim May 24 on. Besides, now he has neither the time nor the need to spend much time at his re- treat. In his spare time, Mills applies his talents closer to home. In the past two years he has crafted all the elm wainscotting for his base- ment ree room, added an attractive sun deck to his home, and built a. hip roof storage shed for his lum- ber. Cherrywood clocks and built-ins tion", Mills said. The same could be said of Mills present lifestyle. Time to acquire new skills Clarence Smillie, RR2 Hensall, discovered that,he could do quite a few -jobs he never had time for be- fore, after he retired from farming 15 years ago. One pastime, fixing furniture, led to the acquisition of a new skill - caning chairs. "I had always liked the looks of it, argil wondered if Icould do it," Smillie explained. A 10 -week course at Fanshawe College 12 years ago started Smil- lie on his caning career. He had a set of four chairs he wanted to do. He brought one to the course, and applied what he had learned to the three chairs at home. By the time Keeping busy - Retired farmer Clarence Smillie gets great satisfac- tion from recaning chairs and other items bf furniture. out an attractive and useful product, Smillie notes one more benefit of caning; "It keeps your fingers sup- ple." Still on the farm Alfons and Julma Kints have been living in their comfortable farm- house in Usborne township for 30 years,. two years after coming to Ontario from their native Belgium. They celebrated their fiftieth wed- ding anniversary there three years ago. And 77 -year-old Alfons has no in- tention of moving for quite a while yet, despite the fact the Kints own a home in Exeter. "You can't walk to the turnip plant from town", Alfons points out: . He still strolls over almost every day to nearby Huron Produce, now run by son Eric, to help by "putting this here and that there". "I don't like to sit and do noth- ing,' he adds. Both husband and wife stay ac- tive. They tend a large garden that supplies most of their vegetables - potatoes, beans, leeks, cabbages, potatoes, celery, tomatoes. Every- thing is grown without assistance from any chemical herbicides or pesticides. One patch of ground is set aside for flax. Alfons grew the blue - blossomed crop in his native land, and and still plants a little each year for sentimental reasons. Julma Kints' job is to can, pre- serve or prepare for the freezer all the bounty from the garden. She still does all her own baking and cooking. "I've made my own bread - white, raising wholewheat - for 53 years," she said, implying that she plans to carry on for a few: years yet. She doesn't mind staying on the farm, as long as her husband brings her in regularly to Exeter for some shopping, followed by doughnuts and coffee. - Retire? Never Leone Brock may have slowed down slightly over the years, but she has never retired. "What's the sense?" asks the lady who was named Exeter's Citizen of the Year in 1983.in appreciation of her invaluable contributions to her community. "I've outlived most of my friends. They seemed to think as they got older it was time to Lifetime volunteer - Leone Brock is one of Exeter's best-known volunteers, lending her time and talents to many organizations over the years. She has no intention of retiring. are more evidence of Mills' skilled hands. So too are sone examples of the taxidermy that 'has been a hobby for quite awhile, ever since the capture of a trophy -sized 'fish that now hangs in Mills' garage. One lady asked if he would stuff her freshly expired cat, but Mills draws the line at family pets. Mills now has more time to play the bagpipes. He had always been interested in pipe music, but never , had his hands on a set of pipes un- til he asked to join the excellent St. Marys pipe band while living in Kirkton 25 years ago; He had a short -lekson from a pipe major, then learned as he Spent time with the pipes. "You can do a lot yourself",..,. Mills explained, adding that devel- oliing good technique takes "a tre- mendous amount of practice", and ' pipers should begin at a young age to develop_dexterity in their fingers. Bagpipe music is written in a. different scale, and incorporates ex- tra flourishes called "thortuath" and Tending the flowers Julma Kints checks her geraniums while "lctimlauth". husband Alfons looks on. The couple, married 53 yeais, Still live "If done well, playing the pipes on their farm near. Exeter. ,,ti gibes a lot of pleasure and satisfac• - he had finished the course, he was the proud owner of a set of four re - caned chairs. Two patterns may be used in can- ing, the basic one seen most often, and a spider web that is more deco- rative but notas strong. Smillie buys his caning at McPherson's Craft Shop in St. Marys. He can cane a chair seat in a day, but admits his own seat gets tired from all that sitting". Smil- lie has also developed a technique of using wooden strips to allow some give in caned chair backs, making them less rigid and thus more com- fortable. Smillie charges $25 to $30 to cane'the average chair. ,He will re-. finish the piece for an additional charge. He has never had to adver- tise - word of mouth reports of his excellent workmanship have brought a steady flow of customers to his door. "It takes a lot of practice not to make mistakes. When you do, you have to take out your work back to the mistake, and start again," Smil- lie said. $esides the satisfaction of turning Senior Games ready to go in area Monday, Tuesday EXETER - .After months of planning the Tri -County Regional Seniors Games. are set to go. The participants will be winners from individual arca games from Iluron, Perth and Middlesex Coun- ties, (excluding the city of Lon-• don). - This year's- games will take a new twist, as they will 4)e hosted through the combined efforts of arca municipalities in the arca, but will be based at the South Huron Rcc Centre in Exeter. Dashwood, Zurich, Hensall, Grand Cove Estates and Grand Bend, as well as Exctcr, will all play host to the various cvchts. The registration and opening cere- monies will take place Monday at the South Huron Rec Centre and greetings will be sent from arca dig- nitaries including Exeter Mayor Bruce Shaw. MP Murray Cardiff and MPP Jack Riddell have been asked to speak at the closing cere- monies at Tuesday's banquet. The opening -day events will in elude carpet Bowling, crokinole, euchre, golf, horseshoes, lawn bowling, softball throw, tennis, and walking. All of the events except euchre and horseshoes will take place in Exeter. Those two events will take place at the Hensall Com- munity Centre. Tucsday's events will include: Boston pool at the Albatross Tav- ern in Huron Park, Contract Bridge at the Dashwood Community Cen- tre, cribbage -at Zurich Community Ccntrc, darts at the Exeter Legion. Hall, 'five -pin bowling at Zurich Town and Country Lanes, Shuffle- board at thc.SIIRC, snookcr at the Exeter Legion, solo at the Dash- wood Community Centre, swim- ming at the Vanastra Community Ccntrc and Linc Dancing at the SHRC. The games became such an under- taking the town was forced to apply for a grant to hirc a special games co-ordinator, which they were suc- cessful in doing. Karcn Buchanan has been hired to run the games for the town and she will be in charge of the 50 volunteers that are needed to run the games. . Registration is going better than most expected as well. Recreation director Lynn Farquhar said she ex- pected no more than 500 to take part. As of Thursday, 560 have reg- istered for the games, which is leav- ing the games committee scram- bling to buy last-minute supplies for the games. Each arca in the tri -county held its own area Senior's games and the winners there are the ones that will take part in the regional games. Provincial Senior's games arc held every other year and unfortunately this is not one of those years, so the winners from these game will not advance any further. All 560'athletes will take part in each of the -18 events with the win- ners being awarded medals. The competition will also pit men against women. Farquhar was approached by the District committee about hosting the ganie back in November after the Town of Mitchell decided they didn't waist to host it. Farquhar then approached the Rec Centre board lat- er that month and asked if they would like to run the games and the board agreed but mayor Shaw said he would agree only if the town didn't lose any money in doing so, To help subsidize the cost, each participant is paying $3 except for five -pin bowling, which will cost $4.50 and nine holes of golf, which will cost $6. Farquhar said preparing for the games has been a lot more work than she originally anticipated when she took on the challenge, but thinks it will be worth it in the long run because of the positive feedback she has been getting from the Exeter Seniors. Opening festivities get underway at the SHRC at 8:30 a.m. Monday and spectators arc invited and en= couragcd to attend. Graduate - Susan Joanne Deichert, daughter of Earl and Phylis Deichert of RR2 Zurich, graduated from the University of Ottawa, on June 12 with an Honours B.A. in Translation. Su- san holds an Honours B.A. from Huron College, University of Western Ontario, and is a gradu- ate of South .Huron District High School. She has accepted a position with Dialangue, a pri- vate translation firm in Quebec City. Happy carpenter - Former geography teacher Carl Mills stands on the deck he ,added to his home. In the background is the attrac- tive ttracttive storage shed he built last year to hold all his wood for future projects. 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