HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1977-12-08, Page 4PA(ib, 4--CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1977
Whatwethink
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The real cost of salt
If you live in,Eastern Canada;
someone is going to spread salt around
on 'your behalf this coming winter -
'----about 100 pounds if you live in Ontario,
slightly less in Quebec and about half
that amount in the Maritimes. That
adds up to an impressive tonnage,
Burke Stannard writes in the Financial
Post.
Ottawa will use close to 30,000 tons.
Another 80,000 tons will go on .Metro
Toronto streets and there'll be a
whopping half million tons for Ontario
provincial roads. Ontario as a whole
will use close to one million tons.
The salt for Ontario, at roughly $20 a
ton, will cost about $20 million to
purchase and another $5 million to
apply to streets and roads.
But there are costly indirect effects
of road salt too: The one which has
probably caused you the most personal
grief is a $200 -a -year's worth of
corrosion damage to your car.
Your health may also have been
affected. According to various
published studies, there is a direct
relationship between the salinity of
drinking water and hypertension (high
blood pressure). Those tons of winter
salt on roads inevitably dissolve in
ground water and run off into streams
and. rivers.
In addition to the health aspects of
salt -polluted streams and wells,
Duncan Laxen writes in New Scientist
magazine that road salt has been found'
to render certain toxic heavy. metals
such as lead more soluble and in-
creases their admission into the food
chain.
One of the. more insidious effects of
salt .is the way the snowy . brine
penetrates reinforced concrete and
attacks the reinforcing steel. Is that
overpass really safe? Overhead bridge
decks have collapsed unexpectedly
after a few.years of salt damage to the
reinforcing structure. Ottawa's
National Arts Centre has city streets
corporated into the total structure
arid, within five years of completion,
$75,000 in salt -related damage to the
interior and to electric wiring had to be
repa i red.
Remember winter?
No one knows if this winter will go
down the annals of our history: We
know the snow will come. And the
winds may howl extraordinarily long
or extraordinaryily fiercely. Or the sun
may bring warm spring weather
February 28.
But one thing is certain.
The winter of '77 will be remem-
bered. And it will be remembered for
the same thing as the winter of '76, the
winter of '75. We'll be short of blood.
Last year, 635 Canadian hospital
patients,, needed blood each and every
day, and they needed an average of
3.12 units of fresh blood each.
, That adds up to more than 1,981 whits
of blood every single day of the year.
Including Saturdays, Sundays, and
holidays.
This winter the need will be even
greater.
Even if the snow swirls, the sleet
freezes and the north winds gust,
hemophiliacs will need their
cryoprecipitate. Leukemia victims will
need their _platelets. Surgery patients
will need ,their red blood cells. And
thousands more will need the fresh,
whqle blood only you can gite.
Sugar and Spice/By Bill Smiley
Remembrance Day
You may have noticed that I didn't write
a Remembrance Day column this year. It's
not that I have turned against it. It's just
that, in 20 -odd years of writing this column,
I think I've said everything I could about it
without producing a bundle of maudlin
cliches that would embarrass me as much
as my readers,
I've written about the silvery wail of The
Last Post on the desolate November air -
that cry from the dead that would raise a
lump as big as, a golf ball in your throat,
tears as big as tea bags in your eyes.
I've written about Old Sweats chortling
as they went back to Vimy and Mons 'and
:he days when they were young and gay
and scared stiff. I've described middle-
aged vets sucking in their guts in the
)'grade, hoping they could hold in the pots
.Intil they finished the march and got back
:o the Legion Hall fora toldie.
I've described the little old Silver . Star
mothers, wiping.away one dry -tear as they
awkwardly placed a wreath, not quite
knowing whether to salute or bow or just
shuffle around until someone steered them
away.
It's become too much. I've dried up. It's a
bit like being the Poet Laureate of England,
and having to produce a sonnet to celebrate
the birth ofPrincess Anne's first born.
It's like being an editor and groaning
when you're " told that you will' have to
produce, for the 28th time, an editorial
lauding the virtues of Labor Day.
With any luck,'the Legion will die away,
because there will be no such thing as a
veteran, all veterans of all wars being
dead, and Remembrance Day will be
something, vaguely recalled as a pagan
holiday back in the 20th century, when
people thought they could solve their dif-
ferences by killing each other.
But don't think I ignore Remembrance
Day. No sir. I take it out on my students. On
the day before the Day, I lug to school an
armful of souvenirs, and rub their noses in
them. I think this is Much more effective
than writing 'a column or making a speech ,
° to a group of veterans.
For one thing; I can lie and lie without
fear of contradiction. .Those kids are left
with the clear understanding that had it not
been for Bill Smiley, 'we'd have lost World
War II and they'd now be subject to the
whim of some Gestapo Gauleiter.
Mind you, my souvenirs are nothing like
the real stuff my -uncles brought home! from -
World War I: belts with "Gott Mit uns,"
gas masks, shell cases.
But on the other hand, they know as much
about World Warr II as they do about the
Boer War, or the War of the Roses, so it
doesn't take much to impress them.
I bring my flying log book, which shows
clearly the number of bombs I dropped on
:he enemy. I don't have to mention that
'`the enemy" in most cases consisted of a
plowed field, or a river with a bridge which
1'd missed.
I bring' an eight by 10 picture of "your
hero," dashing, mustacioed, standing
beside his trusty Typhoon. They say: "Was
that your own airplane, 'D for Dirty
Dick'?" I reply casually, "We were like
husband and wife."
I don't have to mention that Dr for
Desmond was borrowed for the occasion
and that I flew any old, clapped out
Typhoon the riggers could put together for
another mission. Nor do I have to elaborate
that Dirty Dick was indeed like a wife - she
yawed violently to the left on takeoff.
Another feature of my souvenirs is a half
dozen blown -up cartoons of prison camp
life. I just sort of drop this in. Then comes
the inevitable question: "Sir, did you try to
escape?"
I slide into my British accent. "Well,
eckshwully, cheps, the, Old Hun took a
veddy dim view of escape attempts, but ...
yes," .chuckling reminiscently and
nostalgically.
"What happened?"
"Well, nothing much, relly. Tried to nip
off- with the .0bergruppenfuhrer's
Voikswagon jeep and steal a plane. But
they caught me. Demmit." .
You see, I don't have to explain that I
made what must have been the dumbest
escape attempt in WWII, after stealing the
Feldwebel's lunch out of his coat pocket,
and had the hoots put to me, severely and
accurately, by several old guys who had
been badly scared .recently by Typhoon
pilots, and had no desire to be sent to the
Russian front for letting a prisoner escape.
"And what happened then?"
"Well, I was sent to a special camp for
prisoners whose spirits could not be tamed,
even by the dread Gestapo.".I don't have to
tell these young turkeys that there were
10,000 other "untamed spirits" in the camp,
most of whom would have sold their ancient
mother to.Kubla Khan for a packet of fags.
And I wind up with a rather vivid
description of the final escape, fighting my
way through Russian and German hordes
as the war drew toward its climax. And
falling into the arms of a Canadian corporal
and trading him a PoW chocolate bar for a
.bottle of beer.
You see, Remembrance Day wildnever
be dead while I'm alive.
The Clinton Nows-Rocord 1s published each
Thursday at P.O. ®ox 39, Clinton, Ontario,
Canada, NOM 11.0.
Member, Ontario Weekly
Newspaper Assoclatlen
H Is registered as second class mall by the
post office undor the permit number 0817.
Tho Nows•Rocord incorporated In 1924 the
Huron Nows•Rocord, founded In 1881, and The
Clinton Now Era, founded In 1863. Total prow
run 3,300.
Clinton Dews -Record
Member Canadian
Community Newspaper
Association
Display advertising rates.
available on request. Ask for
Rate Card No. 8 effective Oct. 1,
1977.
General Manager •.1. Howard Aitken
Editor • James E. Fitzgerald
Advertising Director • Gary 1. Hoist
News editor - Shelley McPhee
Office Manager . Margaret Gibb
Circulation . Freda Mcleod
Accounting . Marion Willson
Subscription Rate:
Canada . '13 per year
U.S.A. •'17.00
Other •'20.00
f U ,
"Act nonchalant."
Odds 'n' ends.- by Elaine Townshend
A letter to Santa Claus
Dear Santa:
I'm going to be honest with you. I
haven't been a real good girl all °year
long. I tried hard to toe the ,line, but I
slipped a few times — nothing serious,
mind you. I won't go :nto details,
because I know you're a busy man.
Anyway, I hope you take my honesty
into consideration, when you make your
rounds on the 24th; I know you're an
understanding and a generous man.
Just in case you decide to give me a
second chance, I've jotted down a few
things I need. Most of these items are
essentials, Santa, not luxuries,
Please bring a year's supply of
staples, standard size, and paper clips,
large ones; also a typewriter eraser and
some Bic pens, fine point with blue ink
and two or three with red ink. I'm
always running out of typewriter' paper
and notepads. My waste btaskef usua y
overflows with c'rurhpled paper:.'~
Incidentally, I could use a new waste
basket, too...,
Please bring a new typewriter ribbon,.
'and if you've got an extra five minutes,
would you put it on for me You're
probably much better at doing things'
like that than I am. I'll leave the
typewriter near the fireplace, where it
will be handy, and a lamp on the floor so
you can see.
What I really need in that corner is a
swag lamp, with a round blue or amber
globe, please. A table lamp would' be
nice — I love the colonial style. Two
. matching table lamps would be even
better.
But, if you give me two lamps, I'll need
tables to set them on. I prefer the ones
that are octagon -shaped and made of
maple or oak. If you bring end tables,
you might as well add a coffee table to go
with them.
Have you thought about trading in
your sleigh on a van?
In case you get storm -stayed at my
p~lacetou better include extra pillows;
blankets -,--dishes and cooking utensils. A
cookbook wouldn't hurt either.
Please bring me some snowshoes or a
snowmobile; I have a feeling I'll need
them this winter. Better vet. send me to
1
Florida or Hawaii or the Bahamas. For a
vacation like that, I'll need a new
wardrobe.
If you can't send me on ,a trip, bring
me a heap of patience. The supply you
brought last year ran out by the end of
January.
Please bring mea green thumb before
all my"plants die.
And last but not least, give me some
tips on how to stop my fifteen -year-old
nephew from abusing the English
language, that ' I love, with his "Don't
gots." .
Thanks, Santa; I know I can count on
you. Merry Christmas!
Sincerely,
Elaine Townshend
P.S. I'll clean the chimney before you
come, and I promisee not to peek. I'll try
even harder to be good next year; at
least; you can be sure I'll be as honest as
ever.
I'll leave a big piece of Christmas cake
on the mantel.
P.P.S. Don't worry ! I didn't make the
cake. . •
From our early fres .
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• 5 YEARS AGO
December 7, 1972
Clinton Mayor Don Symons
was returned to office Monday
night with more than double the
number of votes received by his
opponent Russell Archer in an
election turnout that was
described as light.
Deputy Reeve Frank Cook also
retained his post by defea'ting'Biil
Crawford at the polls.
Mayor Symons received 690
votes -to Russell Archer's 313.
Frank Cook beat Bill Crawford
by a 680 to 329 count.
Huron County has its first
Optimist Club. The club was
formed last Saturday with 35
charter members.
The club, which will be called
the Vanastra Club of Clinton was
the brainchild of residents of
Vanastra (former CFB Clinton)
and will be heavily in youth work.
The new club also elected a new
slate of officers at the meeting
last Saturday. Besides president
Peter Brown, they include:
Harvey Hammond and Andy
Thompson, vice-presidents; Jim
Thomas, secretary -treasurer;
Norman Lacroix, Vince Fowlie,
and Lloyd Garland, two year
directors; Robin Gates, Peter
Bernard and Wayne McFadden,
oneNear directors,
CTinton now has a chapter of
the Imperial Orders of the
Darghters of the Empire. The
new executive and some of the
members are: Mrs. Gordon
"Phillips, secretary; Mrs. Orville
Englestad; Mrs. Bill German,
first vice regent; Mrs. Bruce
Williscraft; Mrs. R.W. Flowers,
regent; Mrs. John Cochrane,
second vice regent; Mrs.' Doug
Bartliff, treasurer; Mrs. E,
Willson; Mrs. Maynard Corrie,
Mrs, R. McCann,
10 YEARS AGO'
December 7, 1967
Mayor Don Symons, who was
elected to his third term (his
second -two year term) expressed
his delight at his new council, for
its youth and expected en-
thusiasm. .
New members of the council
are Wes Holland, Harold Lobb,
Frank Cook, Ted McCullough and
Clarence Denomme. Reeve -elect
is James Armstrong, Deputy
Reeve -elect is Gordon Lawson
and former cduncillor Cam
Proctor is hack for another term
Huron County Council voted on
Tuesday of last week to enter into
an agreement with the Ontario
Department of Health to provide
adequate ambulance service for
the reside,nts of Huron County at
a cost of 25 cents per capita paid
by the county.
A man identified with the
history and growth of Clinton was
honored with a party on election
night - Jabez Rands', retiring
manager ,of the Public Utilities
Commission.
Mr. Rands after 44 years with
the commission will continue to
serve it in an advisory capacity.
Born and raised in Clinton, Mr.
Rands joined the PUC on May 1,
1923. He worked as a meter man
and ground man and also
repaired and serviced electric
and water meters.
Elmer Hunter, RR 3, Goderich,
newly elected president of the
Huron County branch of the
Ontario Federation of
Agriculture, attended a pollution
control conference at Toronto
early this week.
25 YEARS AGO
December U, 1952
Clinton Public Hospital's
smallest and the last g"raduating
class, two nurses, received their
diplomas in a brief ceremony in
the Ontario Street United Church
Friday evening last. Miss Edna
McDonald and Miss Irene Howatt
got certificates from Miss A.B.
Sinclair, hospital superintendent.
The wheels of the council were
perhaps oiled to their finest
degree on Tuesday when the
Town Fathers passed a building
permit issued in the name of R.L.
Marshall, to erect a drive-in
theatre irf this town
It was just two and a half hours
from the time that the council
first heard of the special meeting
until the permit had been ap-
proved, proving once more that
the 1952 council is really on its
toes. ,
McKinley - In Clinton Public
Hospital on Saturday, Decern'b.et-'
6, 1952, to Mr. and Mrs. Anson
McKinley, Zurich, a daughter
(Katherine Ann)
The three paper boys in town,
Dave Beattie, Ken Currie and
Wayne McGee all delivering the
London Free Press, enjoyed a
trip to Toronto on Saturday to see
a hockey game. They enjoyeda
turkey dinner and lunches that
went with the trip, too. The trip
was made possible when each of
the boys had added seven new
subscribers to their list.
A proposal from the Clinton
Public School Board to build Gln
additional two rooms to the new
school now in construction has
met with tentative approval
through G.G, Gardiner,
Goderieh, inspector from public'
schools in South Huron from the
Ontario Department of
Education. This addition is
necessary to make room for
extra pupils.
The structure now being built
will accommodate 400 students,
but all probability is that in- 1953,
there Will be 500 pupils to attend
public school. At the regular
meeting of the board on Thursday
evening, December 4 it was'
proposed that the Ball Brothers
Construction Company be ap-
proached with regard to building
the extra classrooms at the cost
of $35,000.
50 YEARS AGO
December 8, 1927
At the council meeting on
Monday night, the abuse of the
public restroom which has been
going on ever since it was opened,
came up for discussion, the
mayor and a couple of councillors
calling attention to the fact that
the walls and. windows have been
written upon, the frosting
scraped off the windows, the
wallpaper smudged and the
furniture broken.
It was pointed out that this was
done by school children and other
young girls in town, not by tnose
for whom the room is maintained
and that something should be
done to stop it.
The funeral of Mary C. Ken-
nedy, Clinton's oldest citizen,
who died -lith Saturday morning,
aged 98 years, was held Monday
afternoon. The services, which
were largely attended, were
conducted by Rev. A
MacFarlane, of the Pres) yterian
church.
A couple of entertainments
were put on in the town hall on
Friday and Saturday evenings
last under the auspices of the
Clinton Kiltie Band. The en-
tertainers were the Brooks
Musical Mystics and Princess
Corea-a, claimed to be the
World's Smallest Wdrhan, a little
lady 30 inches tall and weighing
40 pounce, who sang and danced
and read your mind; if you
w-ished it read.
The company put oh an
amusing little program, but,
owing to the fact that scarcely
any advertising was done, the
attendance was not very large.
The case between the Town
Council and the Public Utilities
Commission did not come to a
hearing, the Commissi9p com-
plying with the .demand. of the
council over the surplus in their
hands.
Mr. Humphrey Snell of Hullett
lust about swept the boards in the
sheep line at the big Chicago Fair
last week.
Clinton merchants are showing
some fine lines of Christmas
goods, as .well as staple articles.
Read the advertisements in the
News -Record this week and in
next week's special, then do your
Christmas shopping in Clinton.
You could easily "go farther and
fare worse."
Clean
Dear Editor:
In the contributed editorial
"Clean up the Great I akes"
(from the United Church) the
statement is made: "We tend
to forget that a million years
ago. . ,there were but a few
thousand people on earth".
Now, where in the Bible is
such (mis) information
found?
Modern historians are
unable to determine any
certain date for the beginning
of the "historical period" of
mankind. By contrast, the
Bible provides a connected
history that allows for a
methodical count back to the
beginning of human history.
Luke, at Chapter 1, verses
3,4 says:- "I have traced all
things from the start with
accuracy, to write them in
logical order to you, most
excellent Theophilus,, that
you may know fully the
certainty of the things that
you have been taught orally."
Then Luke proceeds to
provide a list of characters
listed in the Bible from Adam
down to Jesus -(in reverse) at
chapter 3, verses 23 to 38.
Rather than Man being on
earth "a million years ago''
the Bible and secular history
supports the conclusion that
man has only been on this
earth about six thousand and
two years. But then, of
News -Record readers ore en-
couraged 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 publishod unless it can
be verified by phone.
What you
think
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Dogs
Dear Editor:
"A young girl was badly
bitten by a neurotic dog in the
London area last week.
Unfortunately the dog was a
Doberman Pinscher, also,
unfortunately, the news
media in its never ending bid
to sell papers, over-
sensationalized this fact.
We raise, obedience train,
and show this breed and I
write this letter in defence of
the breed, not is defence of
the dog that did wrong.
Anyone who has visited our
home and knows our dogs
realize the particular per-
sonality that a Doberman
possesses; it stands at the
door and defies strangers
entry and'` yet once welcomed
into the home, the dog im-
mediately takes over the
greeting procedures by
forcing its new found friend to
pet his head continually, all
the time of the visit.
Dobermans require a great
deal of attention, he wants to
-be close to you, firmly
pressed up against you; they
don't make good kennel dogs.
Our Dobermans are sensitive
to our feelings and mood.
Someone once said that the
Doberman Pinscher is the
Cadillac of dogs; most people
who have owned them agree,
but like everything else that
is good, some bad must come
to it.
The number of Dobermans
increase at an alarming rate
and ' people buy them as
"macho status symbols.,"
However, not everyone
should own a Doberman.
They are big, powerful
animals that require
obedience training and a lot
of personal attention. Don't
buy one just because you
want one. Don't 'buy one as a
watch dog because their role
must go far deeper than that.
Don't buy one unless you.
have a large fenced yard, as
they require much exercise -
and by all means like any
dog, if you have children, buy
the Dobe as a puppy, so that it
has the proper opportunity to
adjust to living in a home with
children.
When raised under the right
conditions, the Doberman
Pinscher becomes the most
useful companion you will
ever own. No one will ever
know how many attacks and
robberies have been
prevented by the family
Dobe.
You become a part of him
and he becomes a part of you
and the only tragic part of
owning a Doberman is the
part of you that dies when he
does, -
My wife, my Dobermans
and I welcome visitors to our
home, to judge for yourself:
-Sincerely,
Joe and Janet Lobb,
Brucefield
• course, the United church
claims that the first seven
chapters of Genesis are only
to be considered "myth".
Is it not possible that more
than "the Great Lakes" are
in need of be ell 'cleaned
up"? Sincerely yours,
C.F. Barney, Clinton.
Support
near Editor:
The Huron -Perth Advisory
Board of the Canadian
National Institute for the
Blind wishes to thank the
people of Clinton for their
generous support of the
recent fund-raising cam-
paign.
The amount of money
raised in the canvass is now
$1,335, about 15 percent above
last year's figure. With the
help of contributions from
several local organizations, it
was -possible to send.$l,430 to
Mr. R.W. Kennedy, the
district administrator for
CNIB. This amount may be
further increased by some
late''returns from the October
canvass.
The CNIB appreciates the
co-operation of the local
Kinsmen Club, the Lions
Club, and their members who
made the Clinton campaign
possible. In the weeks
preceding, and during the
project, the Clinton News -
Record provided generous
coverage of the work of the
CNIB, and in this way con-
tributed considerably t� the
success of the campaign.
Your contributions in time
and money are very much
appreciated by many
residents of our community
who are handicapped by
impaired vision.
W.B. Olde, Clinton,
Huron -Perth Advisory Board,
,A
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