HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1978-02-23, Page 4PAGE 4--CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1978
What we think
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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;.
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The Clinton News -Record 1s published each
Thursday at P.O. Box 30, Clinton, Ontario,
Canada, NOM 11.0.
Member. Ontario Weekly
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The Now{ -Record Incorporated In 1014 the
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run 3.300.
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"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
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