HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1989-11-15, Page 6Page 4 Times -Advocate, November 15, 1989 Times Established 1871 Adsocale Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 Qy► BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1985 In JE AV. AHD 1989 Publisheo Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0 SecondClassMail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519.235.1331 ROSS HAUGH Editor HARRY DEVRIES eN A «w. IIM BECKETT Publisher 8 Adt.ertising Manager DON SMITH Composition Manager Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $27.00 Per year; U.S.A. $68.00 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex " & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by l.W..Eedy Publications Limited Citizens of the Year ayor Bruce Shaw said at Wednesday's Annual Appreci- INI ation Night that nearly every- one in Exeter, at some time or another, could qualify for the town's Citizen of the Year award. If onfy that were true. It would be nice to believe that every- one in the community works -.tirelessly and. without reward to improve the qual- ity of life for their fellow citizens, but that just isn't the case. Most of us find it hard enough to keep up with "normal" life without setting aside hours and days of our lives for volunteer work. A spe- cial person is needed for that. ' A special person is also needed just to believe there are people deserving enough to warrant such attention. Too many say "God helps those who help themselvisq" and leave it at that. Of cot, , there are service organiza- tions that • dedicate. time and 'funds to charitable causes, but they are usually keen to seek publicity and recognition for their work. It takes a special person to give a 100 percent effort to a project, and yet be 'content to -remain behind the . scenes. Vol-- those. special people, a special award` Is required. Exeter's Citizen of the Year is such an award. There is no competition for the honour. It is given freely and without prior knowledge of the candidates - as it should be. While other communities would do - well to consider the introduction of such a tribute, the possibility exists that Exet- er is a municipality of just the right size for its proper use. Exeter is large enough that a list of de- serving candidates can be found, yet small enough that the award can be giv- en without political support or patronage interfering with the selection process and leaving sterling citizens unrecog- nized. Perhaps the only flaw with the Citizen of the Year award is that it is presented at a by -invitation -only banquet at the town's expense. Monty more Exeter res- idents could be on hand to give their support to their worthy Citizens of the Year. By Adrian Harte .The name of the game "The kids are watching too much TV these days" Elizabeth said. I agreed. As darkness is whittling away a good part of our days, it seems that our TV comes on automatically as the lights are turned on. I have nothing against the Bill Cosby Show. But we should have the capacity to create our own little bit of fun during the short interval between supper and bedtime. If there isn't any pressing homework. If there is no skating. If none of -the par- ents have to go to meetings. A week ago Tuesday was such a day. Thc kids were just begin- ning to laugh along with thc canned laughter of the first primc time sit-com, whcn Eliza- beth had the idca of playing a board game. • No, the children weren't inter- ested. "No way". They wanted to slouch on the cdiuch and vege- •tate."' 1 hate games", Alexander announced. I had ,really thought I could sneak away to the office for half an hour. But I thought "why .not". I supported Elizabeth's idea, and together we persuaded the children While Elizabeth las- soocd them and tied them up with a clothes line, '1 switched the TV off, unplugged it and locked it up in my office. Wc have two shelves bursting with games. Most of them arc far too complicated for me.. When the kids were untied and ready to play, Elizabeth insisted that we team a game we had neves played before, called Ag- gravation.' It sounded difficult. Elizabeth volunteered to read and internal- ize the instructions, which she can do with amazing speed. She and the kids had no trouble un- derstanding the rules, and they all very kindly and patiently guided me along. It took a few minutes to settle who would get what colour, be- cause both Alexander and Stephenic wanted red. Duncan always wants and gets yellow, his favourite colour. Elizabeth is kind of partial to green, but she had to take blue. I said I would take what nobody else wanted, and I got orange. The opening game went well, except that Duncan insisted in throwing the die across the board, knocking several marbles out of place (which is not the object of the game). When his next throw ended up on the floor, he claimed it was the long-awaited "one", but Alexan- der protested: "Under the table docsn't'count". ' 1 agreed with him, but Eliza- beth said: "There is nothing hi thc rules about. this, and I think the child should be given a chance". Thc child was given a chance. He got out of the "super shortcut" and marched straight home. With a couple of well- placed sixes, he showed us how to play this game. In no time flat he had won. There was a pause -while Alex- ander's expletives were deleted by means of an apology. The game continued with four players. Stephanie came second, Alexander a close third, and Elizabeth one throw behind him (a photo finish). Three of my marbles were still at the starting position, and the other was stuck in the "super shortcut". I hadn't thrown a sin- gle "one" during the whole game. That's an advantage of this game: there can be four winners and only one loser. And as long as I'm the loser, there is no prob- lem Everyone is having fun. And the laughter, -is real, not canned. "Let's have another game!" The kids were unanimous. "What about the TV?" I asked. "No, we want to play Aggra- vation again." Where these the same children who had to be dragged to the game table kicking and scream- ing only half hour ago? Was this the same Alexander who had said he hated games. "Bedtime!" Elizabeth called. And I supported her. 'Maybe on Thursday night af- ter supper, if nothing clse comes up, we . can play . the game again," I said. "If you kids all behave well". Since "Maybe " equals "you promised", and since the chil- dren behaved no worse than usu- al, we played it again on Thurs- day. 1 promptly lost again, and everybody had fun. The TV? It's connected again. But is has some powerful com- petition. 1. • TOE EGiG ¶hitt KILLIV 11tE Got.9Er1 GQO% On the mend This weekly column will like- ly be our only contribution to. the T -A for the next three or four weeks as we continue re- covery from recent surgery. First of all a sincere thanks to the rest of our editorial staff, Yvonne, Adrian and Wayne in doing an excellent job in keep- ing things on an even keel. We have a few interesting items to report on, from our six - days at University Hospital in London. As they were at South Huron Hospital about six weeks earlier, the staff and nurses at University were terrific. Our room partner was a great guy and couldn't have been more of an ideal person for yours truly to spend six days to- gether. He was Max Haley of London who is an ardent and enthusias- tic sorts fan. His knowledge and memory of sports happen- ings is phenomenal. Now retired after more than 40 years as a Greyhound bus driver, Max is a close friend of former London Free,Press sportswriter Bob Gage. We first mct Bob Gage more than 25 years ago at the annual Young Canada pce wee hockey toumament in Godcrich. The night before both of our operations, Max said, "I have to give Bob Gage a call." What fol- lowed was a long three-way conversation. Whcn both of us had recov- ered a bit, Gage dropped in for a very enjoyable visit. We were able to reminisce, not only about t From the ,.editor's disk by Ross Haugh the Godcrich tournament, but about sports at the University of Western Ontario over the past 40 years. Bob Gage, who was known as Scoop since he came to the Free Press in 1949, primarily cov- ered university and high school sports. He was recently named to the UWO . Sports Hall of Fame. One of Bob's requests was to be remembered to Derry Boyle who took a couple of Exeter pee wee teams to Godcrich when his sons Rick and Frank were . play- ing. Whcn we mentioned this to Derry, he replied,.That's got to be at least 37 years ago." Wc told Max that when we played hockey for Dashwood in the late 40s and early 50s, most of the referees came from Lon- don. He knew all of them. These included Clare VanHorne, Ken. McFadden, George and Gil Rob- ertson, Russ Evon;• Mush Hig- gins and Bobby Bloxam. The two of us also talked about the year 1948 whcn the London Majors won the world's amateur baseball championship and a couple of the aforemen- tioned referees were valuable 'members of the team. * * * * While at home we were able to -read-one--ofthe _Detroit_ papers following last Wednesday's many municipal and state elec- tions, net only in Michigan, but throughout the United States. While the abortion issue has been high on the news list dur- ing the past week in Canada, it also affected the outcome of a number of elections south of the border. Candidates with pro -abortion and pro -choice views were elect- ed as governors in the states of Virginia and New Jersey and as mayor in the city of New York. A Michigan state-wide propo- sal to add one-half percent to the state's sales tax to be used for school purposes was soundly de- feated by 72 to 28 percent. Thought of the Week: Faith is , the thing that gives us the cou- rage to go father than we can see. Shopping daze I love personal shopping. I hate grocery shopping. Supermarkets aren't half as in- teresting as shopping malls. The sight of a pile of zucchini or a tower of tin cans does nothing , for me. Shopping carts are a major source of annoyance. How of- ten have you grabbed one, only to find that two wheels steered cast, while the other.two steered south. Or one wheel locks and won't move at all. Often by the time I'm ready to proceed, I pull out my grocery list and discover I can't read my househusband's handwriting. Then I can't find the item in the section I would logically expect to. Another deterrent is .the lack of any order in a supermarket. Drivers .leave the rules, of the road in the parking lot along with their vehicles. Once inside and propelling a cart through the aisles, anything goes. You may drive `in the right or the left lane, stop without warn- ing, tum to port or starboard without any signal, or make an impromptu U -tum after realiz- ing you just passed the pickled kumquats. I stillremember one expedi- tion a few years ago. Traffic Reynold's Rap by Yvonne Reynolds was blocked both ways in a large supermarket while two women who had been travelling in opposite directions met, rec- ognized cath other as longlost friends, and stopped to catch up on The last 15 years. They chat- ted animatedly, oblivious to the .traffic back-up on each side. Finally the woman beside me said. "Watch this", and deftly ran the wheel of her buggy up the ankle of the closest blockader. The impeder turned, to face an ocean of bland, guileless, in- scrutable faces. She pulled her cart to one side. With a wink and a smile, my ingenious friend steamed ahead like Moses through the Red Sea, leaving one chastened and many chor- tling shoppers in her wake. I refuse to even shop in a store that ,equips young children with miniature editions of adult carts. I want to stay alive. Grocery shopping with chil- dren is another game entirely. I remember the days when 11{.id one small passenger in the bas , ket, and another clinging precar iously to the side. By the ti nr ' got to the cashier, I was unit ing half -eaten apples. of , packages of cookies, shun',.. , f cheese with toothmarks {Mutt the perimeter, and cartons of milk with holes rt .d in the sides. I am still not ira, to thc shock of paying out a H ,.,:k's wages for the -contents of two . bags I can.easily carry to the car without help. If I didn't have to cat, think of the money and the energy I could spend really shopping. ' HAVE AN *OPINION? The Times Advocate welcomes letters to the editor. They must be signed and should be accompanied by a telephone number and address should we need to clarify any . information. The newspaper also reserves the right to edit letters. Letters can be dropped off at the Times Advocate Office or mailed to: ' Exeter Times Advocate Box 850, Exeter, Ontario NOM 156 1. • TOE EGiG ¶hitt KILLIV 11tE Got.9Er1 GQO% On the mend This weekly column will like- ly be our only contribution to. the T -A for the next three or four weeks as we continue re- covery from recent surgery. First of all a sincere thanks to the rest of our editorial staff, Yvonne, Adrian and Wayne in doing an excellent job in keep- ing things on an even keel. We have a few interesting items to report on, from our six - days at University Hospital in London. As they were at South Huron Hospital about six weeks earlier, the staff and nurses at University were terrific. Our room partner was a great guy and couldn't have been more of an ideal person for yours truly to spend six days to- gether. He was Max Haley of London who is an ardent and enthusias- tic sorts fan. His knowledge and memory of sports happen- ings is phenomenal. Now retired after more than 40 years as a Greyhound bus driver, Max is a close friend of former London Free,Press sportswriter Bob Gage. We first mct Bob Gage more than 25 years ago at the annual Young Canada pce wee hockey toumament in Godcrich. The night before both of our operations, Max said, "I have to give Bob Gage a call." What fol- lowed was a long three-way conversation. Whcn both of us had recov- ered a bit, Gage dropped in for a very enjoyable visit. We were able to reminisce, not only about t From the ,.editor's disk by Ross Haugh the Godcrich tournament, but about sports at the University of Western Ontario over the past 40 years. Bob Gage, who was known as Scoop since he came to the Free Press in 1949, primarily cov- ered university and high school sports. He was recently named to the UWO . Sports Hall of Fame. One of Bob's requests was to be remembered to Derry Boyle who took a couple of Exeter pee wee teams to Godcrich when his sons Rick and Frank were . play- ing. Whcn we mentioned this to Derry, he replied,.That's got to be at least 37 years ago." Wc told Max that when we played hockey for Dashwood in the late 40s and early 50s, most of the referees came from Lon- don. He knew all of them. These included Clare VanHorne, Ken. McFadden, George and Gil Rob- ertson, Russ Evon;• Mush Hig- gins and Bobby Bloxam. The two of us also talked about the year 1948 whcn the London Majors won the world's amateur baseball championship and a couple of the aforemen- tioned referees were valuable 'members of the team. * * * * While at home we were able to -read-one--ofthe _Detroit_ papers following last Wednesday's many municipal and state elec- tions, net only in Michigan, but throughout the United States. While the abortion issue has been high on the news list dur- ing the past week in Canada, it also affected the outcome of a number of elections south of the border. Candidates with pro -abortion and pro -choice views were elect- ed as governors in the states of Virginia and New Jersey and as mayor in the city of New York. A Michigan state-wide propo- sal to add one-half percent to the state's sales tax to be used for school purposes was soundly de- feated by 72 to 28 percent. Thought of the Week: Faith is , the thing that gives us the cou- rage to go father than we can see. Shopping daze I love personal shopping. I hate grocery shopping. Supermarkets aren't half as in- teresting as shopping malls. The sight of a pile of zucchini or a tower of tin cans does nothing , for me. Shopping carts are a major source of annoyance. How of- ten have you grabbed one, only to find that two wheels steered cast, while the other.two steered south. Or one wheel locks and won't move at all. Often by the time I'm ready to proceed, I pull out my grocery list and discover I can't read my househusband's handwriting. Then I can't find the item in the section I would logically expect to. Another deterrent is .the lack of any order in a supermarket. Drivers .leave the rules, of the road in the parking lot along with their vehicles. Once inside and propelling a cart through the aisles, anything goes. You may drive `in the right or the left lane, stop without warn- ing, tum to port or starboard without any signal, or make an impromptu U -tum after realiz- ing you just passed the pickled kumquats. I stillremember one expedi- tion a few years ago. Traffic Reynold's Rap by Yvonne Reynolds was blocked both ways in a large supermarket while two women who had been travelling in opposite directions met, rec- ognized cath other as longlost friends, and stopped to catch up on The last 15 years. They chat- ted animatedly, oblivious to the .traffic back-up on each side. Finally the woman beside me said. "Watch this", and deftly ran the wheel of her buggy up the ankle of the closest blockader. The impeder turned, to face an ocean of bland, guileless, in- scrutable faces. She pulled her cart to one side. With a wink and a smile, my ingenious friend steamed ahead like Moses through the Red Sea, leaving one chastened and many chor- tling shoppers in her wake. I refuse to even shop in a store that ,equips young children with miniature editions of adult carts. I want to stay alive. Grocery shopping with chil- dren is another game entirely. I remember the days when 11{.id one small passenger in the bas , ket, and another clinging precar iously to the side. By the ti nr ' got to the cashier, I was unit ing half -eaten apples. of , packages of cookies, shun',.. , f cheese with toothmarks {Mutt the perimeter, and cartons of milk with holes rt .d in the sides. I am still not ira, to thc shock of paying out a H ,.,:k's wages for the -contents of two . bags I can.easily carry to the car without help. If I didn't have to cat, think of the money and the energy I could spend really shopping.