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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1977-06-09, Page 4PAGE 4--CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1977 Whatwe think A little town is. A little town is where you don't have to guess who your enemies are. Your friends will tell you. A little town is where few people can get away with Tying about the year they were born. Too many other people can remember. A little town is where people with various ailments can air them properly to sympathetic ears. A little town is where, when you get the wrong number, you can talk for 15 minutes anyhow. A little town is where the ratio of good people to bad people is something like 100 to one. That's nice to remember. A little town is where it is hard for anybody to walk to worklor exercise because it takes too ding to stop and explain to people in cars who stop, honk, and offer a ride. A little town is where city folks say, there is nothing to do, but those who live there don't have enough nights in the week to make all the meetings and social, functions. A little town is where everyone becomes a 'neighbour' in time of need. A little town is where those same businessmen dig deep many times to help with countless fund-raising projects. A little town is where many teenagers say there's nothing to do and they are surprised to learn that their big -city peers are saying the same thing. A little town, when all is said and done, is'a nice place to live. — from the Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association In the swim Swimming is one of the best ways to improve muscle tone, exercise the whole body and smooth unwanted bulges after a winter of inactivity. It's a good way to get in shape for the summer and also a lot of fun. Learning to swim? There are all levels of instruction in courses that meet Red Cross Water Safety standards. These programs are for the young and old, the healthy and disabled. Give Red Cross a call to find where these courses are being taught in your community. Interested in safe boating? No time like now to start learning. Thereare three approved levels of instruction for Rowing, two for Canoeing, and one for Power Boating. Take your pick and enjoy this water sport safely. Call Red Cross to find whether the backyard pool operator's course is offered in your community. The course can mean life or death for children and non -swimmers. This is National Water Safety Week. Keep safe and have fun in the water by taking a Red Cross course. Sugar and Spice/By Bill SrnLUey Great feelings One of the deepest satisfactions in writing a column of this kind is the knowledge that you are gettinginto print the angers and frustrations of a lot of other people, who have no recourse for their resentments, and consequently take them out on the old man or the old lady. How do you know this? Well, because people write you letters cheering you on to further attacks, and other people come up to you, perfect strangers, shake hands warmly, and say "By the Holy Ole Jumpin ! Bill, you really hit the nail on the head." This can be a little disconcerting, as you .are never quite sure which nail they are referring to. ' If the congratulator is a 'woman, I smile weakly and change the subject. Because sure as guns, though she thought youwere one of nature's noble- men for your assault on male' Chauvinism last week, she'll turn on you like a snake when she reads tornorrov& paper, with the column exposing female chauvinism. Speaking recently to a class of potential -writers-in a creative--writing-course;-•Ltried•-- to pass along the personal satisfaction one gets from this type of personal journalism. I emphasized the "personal" satisfaction because there's a lot more 9f that involved than there is of the other kind, financial satisfaction. Columnists and free-lance writers have no union working for them, nor any professional association, as have doctors, ' lawyers, teachers. They have only their own talent and wit and perseverance with which to penetrate the thick heads and thicker' kins of editors and publishers. But it's a great feeling when you vent your wrath, say, about the rapaciousness of mechanics, and you are button -holed six times in the next three days by people with horror stories about mechanics you can scarcely believe. Trouble is, they all want you to write another column about mechanics, and put some real meat into it. This means, in ef- fect, that they would happily stand in the wings and applaud when- you were sued for libel. Some readers would like you to be constantly attacking whatever it is that they don't like. Capitalist friends are aghast when you refuse to launch an assault on capital gains taxes. Welfarist friends think you are a traitor and a fink when you won't attack the government for not providing color TV for everyone on the take. I am not by nature an attacker, and I think there is nothing more boring than a ;writer of any kind who tries to make a career of being a "hard bitting" journalist. Once in a while my gently bubbling nature boils over. Throwing caution and syntax to the winds, I let my spleen have a field day and try to throw some sand in the grease with which many aspects of society are trying to give.us a snow job. And that's one of the finest paragraphs I've ever written, if mixed metaphors are your bag. Fair game for the hard -hitter are: garage mechanics, plumbers, postal workers, supermarkets, civil servants, and politicians. Most of them can't hit back, and everybody hates them, except garage mechanics and their wives, plumbers and their wives, etc. etc. Smaller fry are doctors, lawyers, teachers, used car salesmen. They all squeal like dying rabbits when attacked, but nobody pays much attention to them except doctors and their wives, etc. etc. There are a 'few areas that even the hardest -hitters avoid. When have you, lately, read a savage attack on greedy farmers, callous nurses, or unloving mothers? And yet, there are lots of them around... One of these days, perhaps, .one of these hard hitting writers will muster enough guts, after about five brandies, to launch an -all-out -attack -o r -the -audacity -of-women, thinking they're as good as men. Boy, that fellow will learn what real hard hitting is all about. Personally, I can't stay mad at anybody long enough to be a voice of•the people, or a public watchdog, or any of those obnoxious creatures who try to tell other people how they should feel. The only constant in my rage is the blatant manipulation of self-seeking politicians who will twist and warp and wriggle and squirm and bribe for self - perpetuation in office. Best example at the moment is the Tory government in Ontario, which has called a totally unnecessary election in that province through sheer hunger for greater power. Otherwise, I get a great deal more joy ' from touching the individual life than in- flaming the masses. When I get a letter from an old lady in hospital, crippled with arthritis, who has managed to get a chuckle out of my column, itmakes me feel good. Recently, I got a letter from a young Scot who has immigrated to Canada. He says: "1 have learned more about Canada and Canadians through reading your column than all the accumulated wisdom from the - Canadian newsmagazines, novels and TV programs I have absorbed." Now there is a man with his head screwed on right. If I, as a newcomer, tried to get my impressions of this country from newsmagazines and TV programs, I'd catch the first boat or plane home. So, I guess I'll just try to go on talking to people, getting sore, having some fun, bragging about my grandboys, looking for sympathy in the war between the sexes. That's what life is all about, not plumbers and politicians and other horrors of that ilk. What you think Diatribe Dear Editor: In behalf o>j my column, "Election Echoes", published weekly in the NEWS - RECORD prior to the recent Ontario Election, I should like to thank all your people at the paper for your fine co- operation, Due to the intricacies in- volved and possible em- barrassment to your staff, we decided to purchase the space for the column rather than impose on the good nature and judgment of your hard pressed editor. To us, i seemed the fair thing to do in order to remove it from the field of political controversy. We think the idea worked. However, we regret that one Paul Ross, Clinton, seemed to take exception. We think he was misinformed in his interpretation of the actual arrangement as evidenced in his letter in your issue of June 2. Apparently, he had not observed it wasa paid political message when he wrote his letter. It was unfortunate that his letter seemed to be a political diatribe under the guise of a letter to the editor. With regard to the letter in the same issue from D.S. Coventry, Clinton, respecting views expressed in my column, I am certain that he has every right to express his own opinion under the rules o'fj our democratic system. Whether ornot it is well - •advised for the administrator of a public institution such as Clinton Public Hospital to enter a political contest in* support of any particular candidate would be open to question. M Yours very truly, R.S. "Dick'' Atkf'y, Clinton. "He stopped to think about the consequences of the Berger and Hall commission report and can't get started again." Odds 'n' ends -- by Elaine Townshend Almost pierced FOr a long time, I've admired those dainty little*earrings, that only girls with pierced ears can wear,, and I finally decided to get my brother-in-law to pierce my ears. He's a doctor, you see. He pierced my sister's ears without any problems ; he pierced my niece's_ ears without any problems; and he would pierce my ears without any problems and without any charge. At least, I assumed there would be no charge. I arrived on Monday and planned to stay until Saturday. When I asked John whether he'd do the job, he answered, "Oh, I don't know." Then began our customary waiting game. Neither of us mentioned the subject again, but on Friday, he brought the needles home. The kids` were more excited than I was. "Will itbleed,-{D•ad?" the five-year-old asked almost hopefully. After supper, John just happenedto remark about all the silly women who were going to require plastic surgery on theft-- ear§ , because they wore large heavy earrings that stretched their ear lobes and because they ripped the skin by catching the earrings on their al 1 clothing. I. learned long ago riot to listen to his yarns, but I postponed the operation slashed my ear lobe, as I felt the gold until morning because I felt extremely wire tearing my flesh. Drops of warm tired. red blood mingled with sweat and oozed That night I had a strange dream. I onto my brand new $22 white sweater. was standing in front of my mirror, My ear throbbed; my head swam; my admiring a new pair of 14 carat gold knees buckled. earrings shaped like horseshoes and The next thing I knew I was lying on an remembering their price tag of $14.95. operating table and John was standing I began pulling my sweater over my over me with a scalpel in his hand, head. Suddenly I felt a tug on my left grinning. ear. "Oh no, my earring's caught," I That's when'I woke up: By morning, I groaned. . had decided I could live without pierced I wriggled and I squirmed, but to no ears for a while longer. avail. The sweater moved neither up nor Don't jump to conclusions; John's down without pulling my ear. story had nothing to do with my decision. When my sister's neighbour found He just made me think, and I came up herself in a similar predicament, she with several practical reasons for had to get her husband to free her. Since postponing the procedure. ' I didn't have one of those, I considered First, to avoid infection, I should buy other alternatives. Maybe I could find good earrings, and they would be ex - my Way to the neighbours, but I couldn't pensive. There are other things I could let them see me like this. What if I met spend the money on, such as food. someone else on the way, like a Secondly, they would be just something salesman? I could probably grope to they else for me to misplace. Thirdly, I don't "phone and dial for help. like earrings that much anyway. "Instead, I decided to try one more time When and if I change my mind again, I to wiggle out. I gently tugged the know John will splutter, "You had your sweater; it seemed looser than before. chance and blew it!" • The second time, I pulled a little harder; ' But, if I ignore his protests, he'll give the third time, I pulled harder than I in. I never listen to him anyway. intended to. A sudden searing pain Well, I hardly ever listen to him. . r From our ear 10 YEARS AGO June 8, 1967 The central school boards in Huron tiding will benefit by more than $20,000 annually from the recent extension of the Ontario Department of Education's capital grants program, Huron MPP Charles McNaughton reports this week. The amount represents savings to ratepayers in ' the five municipalities of tip -lo 11/2 mills on this year's tax rates. The relief for municipal ratepayers results -from the recent announcement by Education Minister William G. Davis that the new capital grants program would be made retroactive to the calendar years 1965 and 1966. Previously the new grant plan applied only to ap- provals granted from 1967 on. Ideal weather - in fact it was hot - a record number of entries and everything went off as scheduled, made Clinton's 113th annual Spring Fair a tremendous success last Saturday. The new community centre and arena just completed in the community park was used for the pet show, rabbit and poultry exhibits and the baby show with a record 24 entries was held in the freshly painted and tiled auditorium. During the official opening, ceremonies, all the speakers complimented Clinton and . dtstrict on the new centre. M. L. "Tory" Gregg, London was again the most efficient master of ceremonies during the afternoon and evening. 25 YEARS AGO June 5, 1952 Clinton • Spring Show, held Saturday last, had the largest "gate" attendance in its 48 -year- old history according to A. J. McMurray, secretary -treasurer of the Huron Central Agricultural Society. Mr. McMurray reported that • entries in the livestock classes totalled 469 and the attendance at the Fair during 'the afternoon and evening performances was in excess of 4,000, an all-time record with gate receipts about $1,500. Elimination of the riding of Huron -Perth by merging parts of it with the Federal constituencies of Huroll North and of Perth, is urged on jhe Ontario Sub - Committee f Redistribution, it was reported at Ottawa last night Member, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association The Clinton News -Record Is published each Thursday at P.O. Box 39, Clinton, Ontario, Canada, NOM ILO. It is registered as second class mail, by the post office under the permit number 0817. The News -Record incorporated In 1924 the Huron News -Record, founded in 1881, and the Clinton New Era, founded In 1805. Total press run 3,100. Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association Display advertising rates available on request. Ask for ` . Rate Card Ne. 7 effective Oct.1, • 1 4. Ge ieril Manager •.1. Howard Aitken Editor -James E. t'Itzgerald Advertising Ulrector • Oar/ 1., Heist News editor - Shelley McPhee Office Menages =Margaret Gibb Circulation • Fred' McLeod • itecunetiwg•Marian it , 'Subscription Rates: Canada - $12 per year U.S.A.-115.50 Other -$18 Single Copy - 25c O. Y files . according to W. Needham in the London Free Press. If present proposals before the sub -committee are accepted, the Perth section of the present riding. of Huron -Perth would be lumped with the existing riding of Perth. The balance wouldgo into the present riding of Huron North to form a new Huron. Adoption of this plan would save the historic' riding of Haldimand, which would be., enlarged by the addition of five Lincoln County townships - Gainshoro, Clinton, Caistor and North and South Grimsby. While strolling near his bush on Sunday evening to see how his cattle were faring, Stewart Middleton saw a very unusual sight. The little black Angus calves were indulging in a twilight frolic with a large red fox. The fox would run away a short distance, sit down and wait for the calves to come warily within a few feet of 'him; then they all frisked around. It wasn't clear who was chasing whom but the fox made the rules. They all enjoyed this game as kittens do at dusk. Seeing they were observed by a human, the fox suddenly vaulted off down the hill. What a movie it would have made. 50 YEARS AGO June 9, 1927 One of our citizens informs us that it does not need the inventive genius of a Zeus to provide a tantalizing punishment, because he is the victim of one. In this case he waited with exemplary patience for laws to change, for permits to be sold and for Government dispensaries to provide the needful refreshment and just when all is complete in steps a malady and a doctor that absolutely forbids what, he so much and for so long desired. Talk of Tantalus, he was not it, 1927 takes the prize. It was a brief meeting of council on Monday evening, all members present. A communication from the Collegiate School club, asking that a sum of $6,000 be raised for permanent improvements and equipment for the Collegiate school and grounds, was laid over until further information should be obtained. ' A petition from residents of the south end of Fulton Street asking for a light, was filed. Is Clinton going to keep Friday and Saturday, July 1 and 2 as holidays? Whether or not the merchants of town should get together and announce the fact, so that everyone will understand what to expect. Friday, of course, will be a holiday. 75 YEARS AGO June 6, 1902 The name of the Jackson Manufacturing Co. is widely known,particularly is their name famous by the well known "Lion Brand" of clothing. The other day the firm received an order from T. Eaton & Co., Toronto to supply 2,780 pairs of knickers. The shipment -was sent by express to be set on the Eaton counters for Saturday sale. The manufactory is being kept rushed and cannot turn out fast enough the large amount of orders received. More machines are being put in which will require more operators, and very soon the entire block will be utilized, for the trade in "Lion Brand" is constantly growing. ,The new steel steamer, in point of furnishings, will be most costly on the lake. All windows are heavy plate glass; tapestry, antique, observation room and the cabin will be a dream of luxury and magnificence; ten private cabins equipped with latest furnishings; dining room in cabin, a new feature; water for drinking and culinary purposes is from one of Michigan's celebrated springs, drinkine Birth Dear Editor: I am.- writing this letter Saturday afternoon, June 4th. This morning, like a ner- vous parent, I witnessed the birth of a beautiful, bountiful, baby - the Farmers Market! It was a great success and I write to thank the team who helped in this miracle: -I- The people of Clinton and Huron County - for their encouragement and support; + The vendors - for their cheerful, , enthusiastic par- ticipation; + Murray Draper - for the festive mood provided by his . . . water is cooled by coils and does nbt come in contact with ice, a double assurance of purity; pasteurized milk and cream; cuisine equal to first class hotels and restaurants. 100 YEARS AGO June 7, 1877 On Sunday last the sun was nearly obscured by the smoke coming from the burning forests of Michigan. The smell of burning timbey was quite strong. The myriads of caterpillars hereabouts have become somewhat annoying. They manage to find their way into everything not forgetting to climb over one's collar and down the back. Ugh! „ When the juveniles take into - their heads to get into a show of any kind without the customary plan of paying at the foor, they generally succeed in gaining entry somehow. A number of Clinton youths developed a new system of dead - beating on Tuesday night. The Sophie Miles Company were performing in the town hall and apparently not having the wherewith to purchase tickets, about a dozen boys climbed up a tin water spout that is fixed in the brickwork and entered by an open window. What persons inside the hall thought of their getting in this way, we don't know, but those outside, who witnessed the ascent, very dangerous indeed, thought they earned their seats and therefore kept mum. • 4 wonciertul caliope. Thanks too, to our tireless Market Clerk - Nanci East- man and those members of the Clinton Business Association who gave of their time and muscles! By the end of June, the Market will be offering vegetables, a coffee bar and more '-crafts made by the talented people of this area. Thank you again. See you at the Market every Saturday from 6:30 a.m. till noon( Heather Ross vice-president Clinton Business Association Proud Dear Editor: We, the people of Clinton and surrounding area, should be ®very proud of our local Kinsmen Club for going ahead with the much im- proved facilities at the new grandstand which was ready in time for our Fair. It has no doubt been a big step. The local public has also contributed greatly in the form of volunteered labour help. We will now be the envy of neighbouring towns through this effort - especially after 4 many other SOUR items on Clinton. Hats off to all! 4 An Appreciative Clintonian Success Dear Editor: At this time, I would like to thank you and your staff for all your help to make our Blood Donor Clinic a b success. We had 230' donors, one more than last time and 66 of these were ne-w donors. Our student donors were down, but we hope to see them all again in September when we will be back at the Secondary School. - I would like to thank' theft organizations, churches, schools and all who helped `S promote our clinic; the Sorority for addressing our reminder cards and doing our telephoning; the volunteers who came out and worked en devotedly at the Clinic; Clinton Public School, their ' students and custodians for their help; . and the donors who took the time to come and donate their blood. I would also like to pass on r a letter that I received from the Red Cross Office in London. Dear Gladys: "Thank you for all your help in organizing our most recent blood donor clinic in Clinton. We had 230 donors register of whom 66 were new. The Clinic went very smoothly and it was a pleasure to work at such a well organized clinic. Your volunteers were great, hard working and conscientious and I would like you to thank each one of them for us. We appreciate the support of volunteers from organiatations at our Clinics. "Please thank the men who (continued on page 5) News -Record readers are encouraged to express their opinions in letters to the editor, however, such opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of the News - Record. Pseudonyms may be used by letter writers, but no letter will be published unless it can ,be %millitln) by phone. ,