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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1999-01-13, Page 8.. , 0 Wednesday, January 13, 1999 Exeter Times—Advocate Opinion&Forum O YEARS AGO January 11, 1989 -Hensall. Public School has attained an important milestone on the road to recovery from a school once considered for closing. The arrival of a new student Monday from ,Wales brought enrolment back to 200 pupils. The school opened its new building in 1957, enrollment grew to over 300 by 1965, but dropped to 125 in 1983. Exeter council has approved the purchase of overhead pedestrian crossover signs for the intersection of Main and Wellington streets. 20 YEARS AGO January 13, 1979 - The Exeter Business Improvement Area found a simple solution in dealing with the large number of candidates seeking a position on their board of directors. They doubled the size of the board. After nine successful years, one of the area's top winter attractions, the annual crippled kids' week -end at the Pineridge Chalet has been can- celled. However, area snowmobilers will still have an opportunity to assist crippled children as teh Pineridge Snowmobile Club has arranged for a "bunnirama and Poker Rally* on January 20. 35 YEARS AGO, January 13, 1964 - Baby sitters in Hensall have taken collective action to raise their rates. Some 20 attended a meeting and agreed to change their rates from 25 cents to 35 cents per hour before midnight and 50 cents an hour after midnight. 40 YEARS AGO January 1, 1953 -Larry Snider ws re-elected chairman of the SHDHS board for 1959 and E.L. Mickle of Hensall is vice-chairman. E.D. Howey remains as secretary -treasurer at a salary of $1,250 per year. Guenther -Tuckey Transports Ltd. of Exeter has established a new office and parking lot at Goderich. Clare Paton was named president of the Lucan Junior Farmers at their annual meeting at the home of Mr. and Mrs. P. Toohey. 5OYEARSAGO January 12, 1949 - Jack Orchard of Byron, who recently graduated as an optometrist, has purchased the practice of John Ward. Mr. and Mrs. Luther Penhale left Friday by plane for Australia to visit their daughter Mr. and Mrs. Keith Colby. Telephone subscribers in Mount Carmel, Shipka and Khiva areas were connected to Dashwood central recently. This brings the num- ber of subscribers at Dashwood to almost 650. Dr. W. Stuart Stanbury, a native of Exeter, one of the world's leading medical authorities on blood, has been named national commissioner of the Canadian Red Cross Society. Robert J. Nicol has joined the staff of the Times -Advocate. 60YEARS AGO January 10, 1939 - Leavitt's Theatre was showing this week, "Give Me a Sailor" starring Martha Raye, Bob Hope and Betty Grable. Farmers are preparing for the iripact of a new trade treaty'With the United States in which 129 export items are to be subject to a reduction in tariff. One important concession was on Canadian cattle, a tariff reduction to one and a half cents per pound on a quota of 225,000 head. The duty on horses was cut from $30 to $20 per head. 75YEARS AGO January 13, 1924 - Mr. S.M. Sanders has resigned his position as manager of the Exeter Canning Factory and will devote his attention to his new factories in Hensall and Exeter. Mr. Luther J. Penhale is taking over management of the Canning Factory here. I I OYEARS,Apo January 12, 1889 - In Hensall news it is reported that a great many young people are heading home from Dakota and Manitoba this winter. Most of them are tired of bachelor life there and may have come home to seek a reme- dy. They could not strike a better place. Lake Huron is lower than the oldest residents have ever seen it. The water is two feet below the lowest point of a year and a half ago. ROSS HAUGH BACK IN TIME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Writer has recipe to stop colds Dear Editor: Put an end to colds! I know how. I was visiting a relative of my late girlfriend. The head of this family, two years ago, told me what he did to keep colds away. He said he had not had a cold in two years. That was over two years ago. I have faithfully fol- lowed his reason for what he told me. I haven't had any sign of a cold in two years. I don't stay away from families who have colds. I. even went into the Villa Nursing home this year when they had a notice not to come in because of the colds and flu that was in the home. Now I will tell the people of Ontario what pre vents yoµ from having colds and believe me it is not veryexpensive and it won't hurt.you medical- ly. Take one cod liver oil pill every morning and one garlic pill in the morning and night. These pills are not too expensive (in the neighbourhood of $5. each bottle). Now folks I will swear on the Bible that this works. So lets put colds on the back burner and have a free Ontario from colds. It works and it's nice not to have colds. I love it and my family joins me in this preventative medicine. Tom EMERY, Lucan Thank you for the snowmobile trails Dear Editor: I would like to take the time to commend the Town of Exeter and the Pineridge Snowmobile Club for their efforts in working together to make the routes out of Exeter possible. For many years I have been a snowmobiler and have never encountered such a well marked trail to get out of town. Thank you to everyone who helped to build the bridge and stake the trail. It is a job well done. DIANE SIMPSON Exeter Community spirit - alive and well in Creditonarea Dear Editor: I was very impressed with the support my two daughters and I received on Saturday, January 9. We were caught in the snowstorm coming home from Exeter. Our truck was in the ditch, along with many others and a ride was offered to us by the driver of a MacDonald Sanitation truck. A short way down the road, this truck was also in the ditch and on its side. Several people (whose names I don't know) stopped and helped to get my children, myself and the driver out safely and unharmed. Next, we received a ride from Jackie, who was on her way home to Crediton. At Larry's Town and Country I used the phone to call home and let my husband know we were OK. Mike, who was at the restaurant, had his tractor there and offered us a ride the last three miles to our country home. Later that day our neighbour, Glen, helped to pull our truck from the ditch. The unselfish acts by all of you enabled us to get home safely. We are very grateful to live in such a car- ing community as ours. Proud to be residents of Stephen Township, LORI, TONI AND SHARLA MACPHERSON The Times -Advocate welcomes letters to the editor its a forum for open discussion of local issues, concerns, complaint, and kudos. By mail: P. Box 850,1/actor, Ontario NOM 1S6 (519) 235-0766 By e-mail:. editor@Southlruron.rom Please include your name and address. nonytnous letters will not be published. `he Times -Advocate reserves the right to edit letters r brevity.. Lessons TORONTO -- The best-known picture of Ontario's most durable premier this century was taken with an aide who, it now turns out, later made the FBI's most wanted list. William Davis, Progressive Conservative premier from 1971 to 1985, had headed gov- ernment only a few months when, on a bright summer's day, he was photographed dur- ing a visit to Ontario Place, the innovative entertainment centre on the Toronto waterfront. Davis was never thought of before or later as having charisma. He was most commonly described as bland and despite his shrewdness revelled in being thought of as a typical small- town citizen -- he lives in Brampton. But his advisers had persuaded him to trade the high street barber's short -back -and -sides haircut for sideburns and then stylish suitp with wide lapels, shirt with long pointed collar and wide tie blanketing half his chest. A funny thing happened on the way into the forum. Davis was suddenly surrounded on its wide steps by scores of children, prompted probably by never having seen a premier before and the new excitement injected in politics by extroverts like prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Davis was snapped, hair blowing in the wind, shaking eager hands and glowing like a Roman consul returning from a successful war. The pic- ture showed a different Davis and he liked it so much he used it in the centre of his winning elec- tion campaign that same year. - Just a step behindhim was a trusted young aide, David MacLeod, who had worked for Davis when he was education minister and now had become almost his shadow, helping arrange where the premier went and often accompanying him. MacLeod, 54, was found dead on a frigid Montreal street just before Christmas beside a can of lighter fluid from which police believe he had drunk. Police who found only money, a coffee club card and a key with no markings in his pockets took , three weeks to identify him through fingerprints. MacLeod had come a long way since he was part of an elite group around a premier and who trav- elled with Davis on his bus in the 1971 election. He came from an accomplished family. His cousins included •movie stars Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine and his father, Alex, was a Labor -Progressive (Communist) member of the legislature in the 1940s and early 1950s who is remembered as among its most brilliant orators. When Alex McLeod lost his seat, Tory premier Leslie Frost paid him the compliment, "the opposi- tion has lost 50 per cent of its membership." Frost so admired McLeod that he kept him on to advise on human rights, explaining that he was never a doctrinaire Marxist but a fighter for underdogs. John Robarts, Frost's successor, had, McLeod write speeches which helped win him a name for promoting national unity, and Davis as a minister gave him an office at the legislature where MPPs trekked to pick his brains. Although it was never officially announced, David MacLeod left government about 1974 on being convicted of indecent assault. He went to the U.S where -his family connections helped get him a start working in films, but was known as a capable associate producer of such movies as Reds, starring Beatty, and Ishtar, with Dustin Hoffman. But he was convicted there several times of sex offences involving boys and fled while on bail in 1989. Although TV programs America's Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries asked viewers to help find him, the search did not end until the dis- covery on a cold street in Montreal. There are lessons and one is political. Davis was the primmest Ontario premier in memory with an impeccable family life, unlike some who held the post, pointing constantly to his wife and five chil- dren, his parents' churchgoing and the need for decency and civility. Davis won elections on family values long before Ronald Reagan and Preston Manning thought of such things, but he like all other politi- cians found he had to mix with all sorts. ERIC DONVD A VIEW FROM QUEEN'S PARK the province built