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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1978-02-23, Page 4PAGE 4--CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1978 What we think IIIluIfhIIIIIIIIIIIIIQIIIIIIf IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The trustees of the Huron County board of education are more to be pitied than laughed at, as they are like sitting ducks in the middle of a penny arcade shooting gallery. On the one hand, taxpayers are screaming as they see their education taxes climb higher and higher each year, while there are fewer and fewer students, and no respite in sight. On the other hand, the teachers, who get more and more each year, are now screaming at the board over class sizes. The trustees, however, have lost control of 75 per cent of the budget already, because it is locked up in teacher salary agreements, and now the teachers want to say how the system should be run and how big the classes should be etc. It will soon be to the point where we won't need trustees anymore. After all, if they won't be running the system, then why go to all the trouble and expense of electing them every two years. The board 'and the teachers seemed to have reached the end of the road on one key issue, and depending which side one takes to its called job security, while the others call it a workload. For over a decade, teachers in On- tario have pretty well called all the shots. They are among the best paid in the North American continent, and their union, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) is so powerful, that no board had dared to fight them and win in the past. We cannot deny that most of the teachers are doing an excellent job in a very demanding profession, but it has got to stop somewhere. Vtith very few exceptions, the general public are against the teachers, and it would seem that the trustees have public opinion on their side. In a predominantly rural area where a farmer 'with a $400,000 investment gets $1.89 for a`bushel of corn that cost him $2.25 to grow, a teacher making, on the average, $23,200 a year asking for more money doesn't go over too well. The teachers say it has nothing to do with money, but giving them job security boils down to the same thing, more money out of the taxpayer's pocket. The teachers are now making, on the average, twice as much as those wage earners who pay their bills, and the OSSTF demands, giveh the current poor economic situation, seem ludicrous. The real unfortunate part of the whole teachers' strike is the students, who are the ones who really suffer the most. If it boils down to a long strike, then so be it, the rampage must be stopped, and if Huron must be the sand bag, then so be it. It seems ironic that present market indications say that half of the graduating students in Huron won't even be able to get jobs, let alone have job security. The board must take the stand here and now, but judging by past ex- periences, the OSSTF won't back down from their untenable position, and unless the board gives, in, the strike will be a long one, and the students will be the real sacrificial lambs. Sugar and Spice/By Bill Smiler More about winter After the last couple of columns, you probably think I'm a mean, shrivelled, shrunken, toothless old man who hates winter because he's so mean, shrivelled, etc. etc. You're right. But not entirely right. It's not winter itself that I hate. How can you hate an abstract thing like winter? You can't punch it on the nose or spit in its face (unless you are rich and can go south). No, No. After all, I was an ardent curler for a dozen or so years, working my way up through the tortuous passages of the curling hierarchy until I was a Vice -Skip (a Skip in mixed doubles, ,already) until my disintegrating discs suggested that there were better ways of achieving comfort than hoisting a 40 -pound rock around and beating the ice with a broom, bent double. And for a few years there, I was known as the Terror of the Trails. Ski trails, that is.When people heard behind them a whooping "Scheiss !" they got off the trail pretty quickly, I can tell you., They were well aware that Smiley had just roared down a three-foot slope and was about to run right over them. Mainly because he didn't know how to stop. In fact, for about three years, I was forced to undergo the torture of the trails, puffingly trying to keep up with an agile young wife who does yoga exercises, until I smartened up. About last year, I discovered that, with judicious planning, pleading the 'flu, my arthritic foot, my bad back and my bursitic shoulder, I could stall the skiing until about Maich. Then, with any luck, there'd be some freezing rain, a thaw, a blizzard, and another thaw, so that skiing was im- possible. And I'd go around smacking my right fist into my left palm, outwardly furious that I'd missed all the best of the winter skiing, inwardly chortling. And people would sympathize with me, and I'd respond "Yeah! Darn it to heck anyway." No, No. Winter is really a wonderland to me. I'wonder how anybody in the land in his right mind doesn't go out of it. Again, it's not winter I hate. It's putting on my rubber boots. It:s ice on the roof. It's driving in snow. It's my fuel bill. It's moving mountains 'of snow from here to there, and having some zealous civic employee, -whose wages are paid out of my taxes, move it black to here. Aside from these minor and constant irritations, winter can be a joy, an esthetic treat 'of the first magnitude. I discovered this on a recent bus trip to the city. We took off just as day was breaking. And we rolled through a winter landscape that was stunning in its stark beauty. It was like a trip to another planet in the warm, safe cocoon of our space ship, the bus. That's the only way to, travel in winter— by bus. It's a little bit like low-flying, ex- cept that you don't have to handle the controls and keep an eye on the altimeter. Once you've adjusted to the hum of the bus, there you are, morning paper on your knee, flask of hot coffee on your lap, snug and safe while the terrifying and magnificent white and blue and green and black countryside peels by like a film on a screen. • After 40 days and 40 nights of snow and wind, the land was not exactly pastoral, unless you were breeding a herd of polar bears. But the Great Sculptor had been at wotli„ and the result was a surrealist's dream. Vast sweeps of undulating white, un- dercarved here and there, chiselled to a cutting }point elsewhere. All this loveliness was overpowering, and I began to drift off into a day dream in which I was a Russian count flying across the snowy steppes in my troika, toward my baronial manor in which the countess was waiting with steaming vodka and a hot shepherd's pie, made of a couple of ground - up peasants who had got out of line. It was too good to be true. A hoarse voice from across the aisle shattered the vision. "Hey, you're Mr. Smiley, the teacher, aintcha?" It was some young turkey who was on his way to Halifax, having' just dccepted the Queen's shilling, and for the next hour he held me spellbound with a garbled account of how he had got his Grade 10 after only four years in high school, the teachers he liked and didn't like, the tremendous future he had in the armed forces, all of it interspersed with bad grammar and monotonous profanity. By the time I got to the city, my mopd was sufficiently depressed for it: the filthy slush, the bleak, biting wind, the total absence of any of winter's beauty, the hunched anclwatery-eyed pedestrians. It was back to the ugliness of winter. But for one brief hour there, I lived in an en- chanted world, frightening but ' PRagnificent, where the saletitt§ted fenders, the leaking rubbers, the escalating oil bill, the bloody snow shovel could be tem- porarily banished to the bottom of my bile sac. And the city was so windy and dirty I was glad to get home, walk • into my own backyard and cast a judicious, almost fond glance at the picnic table under four feet of white stuff, and the splendid array of sparkling, five-foot icicles hanging directly over my back door. There was no countess, but the Old Lady was there, and she wasglad to see me home, so I had a steaming vodka and believe it or not, she had prepared a hot shepherd's pie. What more could a man want, even if he isn't a count, on a winter's eve in Canada? t;. • The Clinton News -Record 1s published each Thursday at P.O. Box 30, Clinton, Ontario, Canada, NOM 11.0. Member. Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association It is registered as second class moll by the post office under the permit number 0117. The Now{ -Record Incorporated In 1014 the Huron Newt -Record, founded in 1551, and The Clinton New Era, founded in 1163. Total press run 3.300. Clinton NewsRecord Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association Display ad'vertlsing rates available on request. Ask for Rato Card No. II effective Ott. 1, 1017. General Manager • J. Howard Aitken Editor . James E. Fltigeraid Advertising Director . Dory 1. Heist News editor • Shelley McPhee Office Manager . Margaret Gibb Circulation • Freda McLeod Accounting . Marian Million Subscription Rates Canada •'13 per year U.S.A.• '11.00' Other . •40.00 VcA.V.UsloWI 1NVESTIGAtc cowslon until $400 "Let's hope the damage is under $400!" Odds 'n' ends - by Elaine Townshend Spoonerisms Have you heard of a spoonerism? It is an accidental transposition of the initial letters or other letters in two or more words. For example, "The boxer dealt a blushing crow" or "for real enjoyment, give me a well -boiled icycle." Some comedians intentionally com- pose spoonerisms and use them to turn a familiar story into a laugh. For example, you remember Rin- dercella, who was always ressed in dags. Her two sugly tep-disters and their mugly other wouldn't let Rindercella go to the bancy fail, that the prandsome hince was throwing. He was looking for a wife, and all the kadies in the lingdom would be at the bancy fall. After her two sugly tep-disters and their mugly other left, poor Rindercella sat by the ashes in the fireplace and fried and fried. Suddenly her gairy fodraAther ap- peared. With a wave of her wagic mand, the gairy fodmother turned a cumpkin into a poach and six mite white into hrancing purses. Then she turned Rindercella's lags into a govely lown and put slass gippers on her feet. She sent her to the bancy fall, but warned her to be home before twelve o'clock, because at the moke of stridnight the poach would turn back into a cumpkin. When the prandsome hince saw Rindercella, he fell ladly in 'muve. He nanced with her. all dight, and everyone wondered who the beautiful girl was. She was so happy she forgot her gairy fod- mother's warning, until she heard the sock trike twelve. As she ran -down the stairs, she lost one of ' her slass gippers. The prandsome hince found it, and he went all over his kingdom. searching, for the beautiful lady, whose foot would slit the flipper. At last, he came to Rindercella's house. Her oldest step -sister said, "Let me try." But the gipper fidn't dit. Her youngest step -sister Said, "Let me try." But it fidn't dit. Even their mugly other tried, It fidn't dit. Finally, Rindercella tried and the suss gippei dit. The prandsome hince married Rindercella; he took her to his hastle and they lived cappily ever after. . Recently, I discovered that I was unwittingly writing spoonerisms of my ,own. I typed a letter to my girl friend. It was the third letter I had written that morning, and for me that's a record. I was tired, and I was hurrying because I wanted to mail the letters when I went uptown at noon. • Those are my excuses; here are some excerpts from my unedited letter. "Thanks for sending me the picture of the kids. They've sure groan since the last time I saw them." "We've had some bad stroms, but it sounds though you're not having a terrific winter, wither." "Our camera club had a minute last night." Now I'm worried. I wonder how many bloopers have escaped the hasty glances I give letters before pipping them into the envelopes. How many people have chuckled or scratched their heads while reading my spoonerisms? From our early files . • • • • • • 5 YEARS AGO February 22, 1973 Fred Sloman, a, native of Clinton who introduced the first railway school -car to isolated communities in Northern Ontario, died Wednesday, February 14 in Westminster Hospgal, London in his 79th year. Mr. Sloman and his wife Cela Beacom raised five children and educated them to the grade five level -while they lived and travelled in a railway car on the CNR, from 1927 to 1964. Their route covered 150 miles and 13 stops each month, between Capreol and Foleyeh. The car was introduced in 1927 with the co- operation of the CNR and the Ontario Department of Education. Jack, Riddell, a 41 year old Dashwood area beef farmer, emerged victorious last Thursday evening when the Huron -Liberal Assbciation had their nomination con- vention. Mr. Riddell was named the Liberal candidate on the first ballot over three other candidates, Graeme Craig, RR 1, Walton ; John Lyndon, Goderich and Don Symons, Clinton. Retiring Huron MPP Charles McNaughton's executive assistant Don Southcott won a landslide, first ballot nomination to represent the Huron Progressive Conservatives in the upcoming March by- election. Mr. Southcott has worked with Mr. McNaughton since 1967. 10 YEARS AGO February 22, 1968 Clinton's retail merchants have voted to close all day Wednesdays instead of just afternoons, starting March 6. At the best -attended meeting in the history of the retail merchants committee, about 98 per cent of the 48 members present voted in favot of the change. There are 65 members on the committee, but not all are owners of retail stores. Karen Jennison, a student at Central Huron Secondary School, wdn the title of School Queen Friday night at the annual At Home Dance in the auditorium of CHSS. Miss Jennison's- escort for the , evening was Paul Wardle of London. Other candidates in the competition for school queen were Lee Gulliver, Pat Ball, Linda Hill and Agnes Dykstra. Five district young women were among 39 student nurses formally received into St. Thomas -Elgin General Hospital School of Nursing in a ceremony on February 9. They are Marie Lobb, Grace Cullen, both of Clinton; Linda Sheardown, Nereda Campbell, both of Goderich; Glenda Johnston of Varna. Mr. and Mrs. Harold Lobb are shown (in a photograph) at the Nassau Beach Motel in Nassau, the Bahamas during a recent visit. A dealer with Cockshutt Farm Equipment, Mr. Lobb was in Nassau at the company's convention. An open house and the official opening on the new Centralia College of Agricultural Technology will be held on Friday, March 1. 25 YEARS AGO February 26, 1953 This lovely spring weather has been good for a lot of us. With the frost out of the ground, construction of all sorts can go on at the rate usually expected by the end bf March. In conversation with M. McAdam contractor, yesterday, we hear that he is expecting to complete today the laying of cement blocks for the projection room at the new drive-in theatre. George Beattie, local volunteer to record pledges phoned from this' locality and relay them to Radio Station CKNX, had a busy time last Sunday afternoon, as he answered the phone calls from persons eager to con- tribute some help to needy folk in England, Belgium and The Netherlandsi so recently bereft of their homes when high flood waters swept over their and. The superintendent of the Children's Aid Society, Mrs. M. Caffree, reported that during the year the society has planned for more than 300 children. Only nine were made wards; 14 were' returned to their parents. There were 59 completed adoptions and 20 children placed for adoption. Mrs. Chafree reported that un- married parent work was lower during the past year than in many years and that all children released for, adoption have been placed. As 1 definite information concerning the advent of spring, Stewart Middleton reports seeing a robin in his orchard out in Goderich Township. 50 YEARS AGO February 23, 1928 While assisting in getting out ice the other day, Mr. A. E. Durnin stepped onto some thin ice, which gave way under him, precipitating him into the cold water of the pond. With assistance he scrambled out and went on with his work until two more loads were hauled' up, but on his return home a hot bath, hot .drink and dry clothing were very welcome and he was none the worse for his cold bath. Miss Jennie Taylor was taken ill on Friday last and still lies in a very serious condition. The Clinton Fire Co. put on a skating party in the local rink on Tuesday evening, which proved to be a fine success, the ice being in fine shape. Miss McDonald and the Misses Beattie have returned to take up their work of supplying the feminine portion, of the population of this town with new spring hats. Spring is always just around the corner when the milliners get busy. The Londesboro people are looking forward to having the streets lighted with hydro before long. We shall welcome it. 75 YEARS A 1►O February 26, 1903 There will be a rally in connection with the League of Temperance of the Ontario Street Church next Tuesday evening. The members of the WCTU met at the home of Mrs. (Rev.) Greene one afternoon last week and earnestly discussed the cigarette habit which is all too prevalent. One of the ladies told of seeing small boys buy cigarettes at a local shop. Another said she saw a mere lad come out of one of the hotels quite tipsy. They also say that not a few boys from. the P.S. are in the habit of dropping into a licenced house on their way home and "having a smile." ,We hope the ladies have been misinformed in regard to mere lads getting liquor but if what they state is correct, it indicates a sad state of affairs. What is said to be the largest and most expensive monument in the county will be erected over the grave of the late Samuel Sloane in Maitland cemetery. It is of colonial design with heavily carved cip surmounted by a ball `two feet, two inches in diameter. All to be of red granite, except the four corner columns which will be Scotch granite. There was keen competition for the job which was awarded to Mr. J. B. Hoover of Clinton. 100 YEARS AGO February 28, 1878 We are glad to learn that Mr. John Campbell has given up the idea of removing to Blyth and will continue busimess here. On Thursday last two Goderich youths promenaded our streets, the widest sidewalks of which were apparently much too narrow for them. One of them con- cluded to lie down on the street and did so. The day was an excellent day for this purpose, being rainy and sloppy and our readers can imagine his looks when he got up. A certain lady in town, forsaking the old style of "yours till death," now closes her letters with, "yours till cremation." The flax mill in Seaforth had a narrow escape from being burned one day last week. A little boy being or- dered out of the place has set fire to tile building, which was fortunately discovered before much headway had been made. Dear Editor: 'Since teenagers from all the areas served by your newspapers attend Central Huron Secondary School, Clinton, it needs to be brought to the attention of all parents of these teenagers that several recent incidents among students at this school would indicate that discipline is getting out of hand. Or, to put it more correctly, it is obvious that the disciplinarians are not permitted to - administer punishment equal to the crimes. At the rate the pupils are "misbehaving", the first thing we know there will be one of the pupils killed or maimed for,' life and then there'll be a real uproar, with the cry "Why wasn't something done to stop it all?" ' Think about what these events do to the ego of pupils involved, and the morale of all the students. Can you believe that a pupil could be hung up by his feet in a washroom and left there? It happened at CHSS last week. Can you believe that a girl could be hit so hard on the head that she suffered from concussion, was hospitalized, required stitches to close the ,wound, and needed glasses repaired? It happened last week at C.H.S.S. in a corridor at noon hour. What pupil can afford a week away from classes, but the Doctor says it is a must that she be quiet? Can you believe that boys would deliberately smash seven lockers? Again, it happened' at Clinton, last week. Surely if these students are that frustrated, they could get rid of their frustrations elsewhere. When 8 -track tapes were stolen on a school bus, just a general statement went out to "return or replace them and no action will be taken." If such antics went on anywhere other than at a school, the police would be involved and the culprits would receive what they deserved - fines, probation or othert punishment. It is un- derstood that parents have been advised to press charges. But... would you? Or would you fear other repercussions from such action.? Surely the board of education can authorize or legislate the necessary measures that must be taken to get life at the school back on an even keel. Telling the kids "You must not do this again" is a waste of time and effort. PLEASE - get behind the problem and ' tell the board your feelings before it is forever too late. Signed: "Concerned" Scare tactics Dear Editor: Ontario Hydro has been mailing 25,000 questionnaires to their farm customers on the possible results of a power bla6kout on the farm. Such questions as: What is "cost resulting from damage to farm: spoilage of produce, lost crop or animals, cleanup and eossible extra labour" and such are obviou"sly designed to scare the farmer into support for the position on electrical expansion that Ontario Hydro favours. The questionnaire raises the prospects of power rationing at a time when the projected seven percent demand for last`year turned out to be only two percent. The tactic is so obvious that we are surprised that a supposedly sophisticated corporation such as Ontario Hydro stoops to it. That some of the questions are needed and provide valuable information only serves to obscure the obvious reason for the questionnaire. The Huron Power Plant Committee has never questioned the projections for more generating stations, only their location. But the Committee has also kept abreast of the information that is presented in reams of paper to the Royal Com- mission on Electric Power Planning and, as mentioned before, found the forecasted demand to be faulty. It will, of course, be up to each farmer if he wishes to answer the questionnaire but we in our turn question the ethics of Ontario Hydro in this matter. Adrian Vos Chairman Huron Power Plant Com mitteE • •