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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1978-05-25, Page 4PAGE 4—CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1978 What we think 111014181111611111Yn111wn11111Nt1ilwu111111 IIIIIM ultoli1nn111NHamla We're changing Like just about everybody, a newspaper can get in a rut, get tiresome and boring, and fail to appeal to its readers week after week. The News -Record is just like a person; every once in a while they need a change of clothes. It's the same old person underneath, but a change of dress seems to breathe new life into her. Over the past several months, the News -Record has been changing our layout ever so slightly, trying to im- prove the readability, looks, and ap- peal of the paper. So far, all those changes have been very well accepted. And beginning next week, we will be making one of our more obvious changes when we switch from what is called in the newspaper business eight column format to nine column format. Basically, it allows us to put more news and advertising into the same Good service The Clinton Kinsmen Club, like most of our service clubs, long ago proved to us their worth to the community. The club's undertaking last year of the building of a new grandstand, at no cost to the town, will go down as one of the highlights of Clinton's history. So it was especially pleasing this week to learn that their feat had been recognized by the District Kinsmen as the outstanding project undertaken by a Kinsmen Club in Southwestern Ontario last year. At the district Kinsmen convention last weekend in Sarnia, the Clinton club won the Sinclair Service Shield, space, and changes little else. The newspaper is a business, and in the last few years has, like most other business, been faced with astronomical increases in costs, including labor and materials. In order to stay in business and still continue to offer our readers the best paper possible, as we have been doing for the past 113 years, we must become more efficient, and try and put more into less space. Even though the paper will boast of an exciting new look •next week, one thing won't change, and that is our coverage of events in Clinton and area. It will be the same news, just packaged a little differently. There will be no rate increases, no newsstand price increase, nor any increase in subscription prices. We hope our readers will enjoy our new look, and continue to patronize us as well as they have in the past. beating out 85 other clubs in this part of Ontario for "a project deemed by the Kin organization to be of the greatest need, in a community." The citizens and the Kinsmen can be proud of this award in recognition of the financial commitments and per- sonal involvement they made to the grandstand project. The winning of the award proves again that we, do indeed have a com- munity of people, not just a town full of houses, and when things are down and out, we can all work together and overcome any difficulty. Sugar and Spice/By Bill Smi ey That was some b What with Chretien's budget and the hockey playoffs, it looks like a long, dull spring ahead. That budget came sailing out with all the buoyancy of a wet sock. I can't help agreeing with the braying opposition critics, who labeled it a cynical, pre- election budget. So the sales tax was cut. Big deal. It (means that if I want to go out and buy a $6,000 car, I can save $180. Brother, if I could afford that kind of money for a car, I'm, not going to let $180 worry me, one way or the other. And that $180 is sure going to go a long way in providing jobs for the more than 1 million unemployed, isn't it! There wasn't a single iterp in the budget that will remotely affect our sickly dollar or our sorry unem- ployment situation. Something that truly amazes me is that the federal Liberals, despite their horrendous record over the past decade, have a very good chance of being re-elected. They are leading by a fat 11 - or -so percent in the polls. How do you figure that, with the whole country mad at the government for inaction lack of leadership, a monstrous deficit, and a dollar in the doldrums? It must only mean that we think an alternative would be worse, and this is a depressing thought. How can anything be worse than dreadful? 1 think perhaps the reason for the Liberal lead in the polls is that a sort of apathy and cynicism has affected the Canadian voter to the point where he just doesn't give a diddle any more. The lack of credibility among politicians has deepened, rather than the reverse, since the CBC began telecasting House of Com- et mons debates. Nowhere was it more evident than on budget night. On one side of the House, as the finance minister followed cliche with platitude, one group of trained seals flapped their flippers on their desks every time he stopped for a drink of water. On the other side of the House, another group of equally well- groomed trained seals flapped their flippers on their desks when their man was cutting up --'the finance minister. Perhaps the name sho.uld be changed from the House of Commons, to the Common Zoo. What is developing in this country is a deep festering sore based on a mistrust of Ottawa and everything that emanates from it. And somebody had better start paying some attention to it, at some other time than election time, or there's going to be hell to pay in this country. Surely, the Ottawa man- darins, the "expert" economists, and the $50,000 -a - year civil servants have had their innings. They have made a complete hash of things in the three decades since World War II, when Canada emerged as a vital country with everything going for it, and has slid steadily from a strong secondary power to a whining voice in the wilderness. Surely it's time for a leader to emerge who has a gut feeling of what this nation is all about and what its people want. But where is he? Or she? John Diefenbaker had it, but his own ego blurred the mirror. Robert Stanfield had it. But in this TV age, he didn't have "charisma." He wasn't sexy enough. Joe Clark sexy? Ed Broadbent charismatic? It is to laugh. I'll bet I'm sexier on a Sunday morning with a hangover and no shave. Oh well, we can't solve the nation's problems here every week. Let's turn, for comic relief, to the National Hockey League. It is to laugh again, uproariously. It is not national, it is not hockey, and it is not a league, but a conglomerate of big businesses. Despite the sport's page flacks who keep flogging us with "big" stories about hockey, hockey stars, big salaries, folding franchises, and such garbage (if I read one more story about Derek Sanderson I'll puke.), the hockey playoffs are becoming a big yawn. A couple of decades ago, hockey fans in North America were that -- fanatics. I knew guys who wouldn't go to the funeral parlor where their wife was laid out, if they were going to miss a playoff game. Nowadays, when everybody makes the playoffs except Aunt Mabel and the Peewee team she coaches Saturday morning, ennui sets in early in April and continues until almost June. Baseball i's in full swing, football is gearing for sum- mer training, and the golf tour is half over before the greedy owners will let their sweaty slaves hang up their skates. When those sweaty slaves, most of them Grade 12 dropouts, are driving Cadillacs and the like, and play is held up for TV com- mercials, and fourth -rate teams make the playoffs, the game has about ass much integrity as a poker game with two's and geights and,all red cards wild. I'd just as soon watch reruns of I Love Lucy as waste my time watching the NHI, playoffs. At least Lucy is funny. The Clinton News -Record 1s published each Thursday at P.O. Sox 30. Clinton, Ontario, Canada. NOM 111. Member, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association it Is registered as second class mall by the post offici'under the permit number 0011. The News -Record incorporated In 1924 the Huron News•Record, founded in 1001. and The Clinton New Era, founded in 1065. Total press run 3,300. Clinton NewsRecord Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association • Display advertising rates available on request. Ask for , Rafe Card No. S effect lve Ott. 1, 107/. - General Manager ..I. Howard Aitken Editor • James E. Fitzgerald Advertising Director . Gary L. Heist News editor • Shelley McPhee Offits Manager • Margaret Gibb Circulation • traria M flood Accounting • Marian Willson Subscription Rate: Canada •'13 per year U.S.A. • '17.00 Other . '21.00 tt 1 0 • O e. rot' r .'%'tt•'r y::t.1.;11'Yk1`i, +{;'':%':?ii .• vtt':::;. {r %:?'.:••;'... fi::: {: r.:...ti.{�. }rt T �► •• :tiT•:t't.;;.;r::r "r';:;:f�r{0.1•:4.•:1,•;{::.•'.r;:ititiy ti�%i:: :?•}•5;•;}:;:: j•{: r.} ;:� �:,}i�%"?tiff{'.>'%ti•''%i•';i%$titi•??tit. � ::;: {: i;:'✓•'•:} i {{?r is%:1•:%$.ir % '1:17,•=-,„,.k471‘.7.:b.7.:!:411.ii.ii.1;::: •77,44.1..., "Here goes — I'm turning on the news!" Odds 'n' ends - by Elaine Townshend Back-seat drivers, part 2 About five years ago, I wrote an essay entitled "Back -Seat Drivers". Since I didn't have a license and since I wasn't a back-seat driver myself, I just sat back and observed the nervous habits of other riders. For example, I noted the subtle ap- proach used by an elderly lady, who kept her fists clenched and her eyes glued to the highway ahead. With her feet, she applied imaginary brakes, but said nothing. Finally she peeked over the driver's shoulder to check the speedometer and asked if he'd mind slowing down so she could enjoy the beautiful scenery. Then I observed a man who was too nervous to teach his wife how to drive. Even after she had learned from someone else and had passed her driving test, he was reluctant to ride with her. When he finally gave 'in to her coaxing and let her behind the wheel, he fastened his seat belt tightly, sat with his back stiff and straight, tapped his fingers on the dash and allowed his eyes to dart from one side of the road to the other. He made sure the trip was a short one. Later I listened to a woman who in- sisted -on telling her husband in advance every move he should make. She warned him of lights turning red, cars slowing down and children riding bikes along the side of the road. For awhile, he ignored her or just answered her with a grunt, but suddenly he pulled the car onto the shoulder of the road, turned to his wife and said, "If you think I'nu're a better driver, you get behind the wheel." That's one way to cure a back-seat driver. Six months after writing the essay I began driving and became even more aware of back-seat drivers. I congratulated myself on having correctly observed their antics and the irritation they caused some drivers. I noticed that people, who had never driven, were usually the most relaxed passengers. They seemed to think the driver knew what she was doing; at least they thought she knew more about driving than they did. But people, who were accustomed to driving were more liable to notice mistakes. Many of them felt compelled to point out the errors and to explain what they would have done if they had been behind the wheel. Now, when I drive, I find back-seat drivers to be either amusing or an- noying; it depends on my mood. But, when I ride with someone else, I note a terrible truth. Other drivers drive too fast. Other drivers tailgate. Other drivers don't turn on their signal light soon enough. Other drivers do dumb things. In an effort to help, I give tidbits of information, such as the light is red, that car is turning left, this is our corner and the speed limit is 50 kilometres an hour not 50 miles an hour. In other words, as much as I hate to admit it; I am turning into one of those comical, annoying busybodies called back-seat drivers. From our early files . • • • • • • 5 YEARS AGO May 24, 1973 Nearly $1,500 was raised last Satrurday and Sunday by 69 Clinton and area people who participated in a bowling marathon. Beginning at 10 a.m., the eager youngsters, who ranged from eight to 20 years old, bowled until they could bowl no longer. Some bowled a few hours, but many bowled all night and a few bowled more than 30 hours. A group of young men with Bud Sturgeon as spokesman, ap- proached Bayfield Council at their regular meeting Monday evening, with the request that they be allowed 'to use the arena one night a week for lacrosse. Council could see no reason why they couldn't be arranged, but will meet with the Arena Board for their approval and the fee to be charged. Roberta Neil of London broke the traditional bottle of cham- pagne on the bow of a 43 -foot Newfoundland schooner which was launched at Bayfield last week. The boat, valued at up- wards of $40,000 was built at the Bayfield Boat yard and is owned by Calvin Jervis of Clinton. , A hand gernade found at Clinton Public School last Thursday was not armed, the Army Bomb Squad from CFB London disclosed Monday. The bomb was found in the playground at the school by children and turned over im- mediately to Clinton police. Although the gernade was not fused, experts didn't know whether or not it contained ex- plosives. Origin of the gernade has left police scratching their heads. 10 YEARS AGO May 23, 1968 Prime Minister Trudeau stopped off briefly in Clinton Tuesday afternoon, but spent more time getting from the platform to his car than he did speaking to the massive crowd assembled in the library park. An estimated 5,000 people lined the streets, many elbowing their way into the park to gets a closer look at the Prime Minister. ' Mr. Trudeau unruffled by the noise and confusion in the streets, , slowly made his way from his police escort convertible to the speaking platform, smiling and waving to the thousands of eager onlookers. Accompanying Mr. Trudeau were Malt Edgar, Huron Liberal candidate and several newspaper photographers and reporters. Robert Beavers, of Exeter has assumed reporting and editorial duties with the Clinton News - Record for the summer, begin- ning this issue. Ted Davies, second vice president of the Clinton Lions Club, volunteered to act as the one-man committee responsible for transporting the eye bank container (when required) to the eye bank of Canada in Toronto. In response to a letter, the Lions are purchasing a thermos - type container for the Clinton Public Hospital. The cost will be about $35. When a person gives his eyes to the eye bank of Canada, this container must be rushed to the eye bank at the Banting Institute in Toronto. This is the first time that Clinton area persons have had the opportunity to will their eyes to the eye bank project. 25 YEARS AGO May 28, 1953 Coronation Day next Tuesday in Clinton will be something for us all to.. remember. Without going to the coronation itself, the next best thing for all Clintonians and district residents is stay right here in Clinton and put all they have into making it a gala day. The CDronation Day committee has done a good deal already toward providing for a special time both for children and for adults. Because most folk will wish to remain close to their radios and television sets if they have them, there will not be too much active program before lunch. • There was a large attendance at the opening of the new dine and dance hall at the Old Forge, Bayfield on Friday evening May 15. About 300 persons enjoyed the dancing or snack in the restaurant. Lloyd Pease's or- chestra, London, played for the dance. The enterirising proprietor and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Blackie led off w th a fox trot. H. B. Manning, Clinton, represented the Ontario Tem- perance Federation appeared at the morning service on Sunday, May 24 at Brucefield United Church. Clinton Spring Fair, with a grand total of $4,000 on the prize list promises to be the biggest fair yet seen in town. A. 3. McMurray, secretary of the fair, reports that already he has received more entries than ever before . The class of sheep added to the prize list for the first time this year has -150 entries, from places as far distant as St. Ann's near St. Catharines, Paris, Tara and Denfield. Owing to the recent outbreak of hog cholera, there will be no swine shown at the fair. 50 YEARS AGO May 31, 1923 The Toronto Daily Star carried the news of the marriage of Miss Muriel Sissman, daughter of Mrs. Sissman of Chicago and gran- ddaughter of the late Thomas Tipling of Clinton and Horace E. Dodge, a son of one of the foun- ders of the Dodge Company car manufacturers. The marriage took place in London, England last week. Mrs. Sissman visited Clinton during the semi - centennial celebration and renewed acquaintances with many old friends here. Misses Beattie of The Vogue entertained to dinner at the Rattenbury House in honor of their father, Mr. James Beattie of Watford on May 24th. A number of relatives from Wat- ford and Seaforth were present and a very pleasant day was spent. Mr. Jack Smith, son of Mr. Ed Smith caught a six pound shad in the river at Stapleton the other day with a hook and line. When the lad sighted the big fellow on his hook you may be sure his eyes bulged, but he managed to land him safely. 75 YEARS AGO May 28, 1903 The Sons of England paraded to St. Paul's church on Sunday last at 3 p.m. for divine service. The interior of the church was decorated with flags and presented a fine appearance. The choir was in full voice and ren- dered the musical portion of the service in a very creditable manner. Brucefield had quite a lively appearance last week, so many men putting in long distance telephones. The head office is in the post office. One of the largest funerals witnessed by many in Auburn fdr some time attended the body of Richard Waite to its resting place in Ball's cemetery on Monday. The service at the house was conducted by Rev. Small of Auburn while the Canadian Po7rester brethren of the de'eased held their service over the grave, he being a member on the Londesboro court of the or- der. The concourse of rigs ex- tended from the Baptist Church corner to Ball's church burial ground when in line. 100 YEARS AGO May 30, 1878 On Thursday night an old man lay across a salt barrel on Albert Street and between his hic- coughs, lamented thus: "Morrow's races day. "Morrow's Queen's birthday. Blame fool to get drunk so quick's to spend my money, so's can't bet. Mis'r lend us a quarter; hang me if 1 don't pay us" - He did not get the quarter and the last sounds we heard from him were, "Queen Victoria's a fine old woman. H'rah for Queen." At a late hour on Thursday night Chief of Police Paisley, with two assistants, made a raid on a house of ill -fame situated below the railroad. The inmates, male and female, endeavored to escape by jumping through the. windows but the police managed to arrest three men and two women. They were brought up town, the mayor aroused from his slumbers, before whom they were at once tried and each fined $10 and costs, thus adding $50 to the town's treasury. A written notice, stuck up on a telephone pole in town and the following speciments of spelling therein: 'bin, 'ingaged, allreaddy. Any green one might do better than that. Lattice fences are becoming quite numerous in town. A few bottles of eau de cologne sprinkled about half -a -mile out on the Base Line would not be am miss. news Dear Editor: Next month, I will be leaving Stratford to accept a position with Bell Canada International in Saudi Arabia. I appreciate the fair treatment given my company and me by your paper. Although we did not necessarily agree always, you listened to1'rr side of any story too and Wrote it as you saw fit. That's great! Thanks for your help and interest over the past few years. Yours truly, J. M. Scott, Manager, Bell Canada, Stratford. What you think 111111111111611111111111191419111111111111111 Blood Dear Editor: Once again time has rolled around for our Blood Donor Clinic in Clinton at the entral Huron Secondary School Tuesday, May 30. Time 1:30 to 4:00 and 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Blood is in great demand at this time of year with warm weather and holidays ap- proaching. Traffic, recreational and farm ac- cidents also increase an more people need bloo transfusions. When we were faced with the loss of our arenas, grandstands and hospital, we all got together, and gave of our time, work and money to see that we kept these going in our com- munity. Now we're asking for blood, which costs us nothing and only a few minutes of our time. Maybe we do not realize that it takes over 225 pints of blood each day for our hospitals supplied by our London Branch of the Red Cross. This is your blood donor clinic so let's come out and give to make sure blood there when needed. We don't know who may need it next; it could be a friend, a neighbour or even yourself. .. Hope to see you Tuesday. Mrs. Gladys East, organizer Blood Donor Clinic, Clinton Dynamite Dear Editor: It has come to the attention of this Force that old dynamite or blasting caps lay around homes, garages, farms, gravel pits, or other areas once used. The potential danger of these items is great. Persons not knowing what dynamite or blasting caps are, par- ticularly children, could be playing with an item which would surely kill or maim them. One should never un- derestimate the explosive ability of dynamite or blasting caps no matter if the material is old or wet and decaying. Accidents have occurred through ignorance of the capabilities of these items. Play it safe. Report any knowledge of these dangerous items to your nearest OPP Detachment. We have a bomb squad prepared to remove explosive devices on your request. Your police force can serve you better with the help of information given freely by you. R.W. WILSON, Prov. Const. Community Services Officer, Goderich, OPP. Generous Dear Editor: The Huron County Unit of the Canadian Cancer Society would like to express their appreciation and gratitude to all the residents, industries, business firms, and associations of the Clinton area who contributed so generously to the 1978 Cancer Campaign for funds. You, have helped the Clinton Branch to attain, as of May 15, the remarkable total of $7,200. This achievement combined with the other four Branches in Huron has enabled the Huron County Unit to exceed its 1978 goal of $40,000.00. The excellent, results of this fund-raising will help the Cancer Society to continue its great work of assisting the residents of this area, as well as countless other Canadians, through its programs of service to cancer patients, research and public A special "thank you" to. education. the Clinton Branch Co- chairmen, Chester Archibald and Leen Rehorst and all the other fine volunteers, cap- tains and canvassers who have marched on the sidewalks, knocked on doors and covered both the hard surface and dusty sideroads in order to achieve this wonderful result. Sincerely, Ross McDaniel, Jim Remington, Campaign Co -Chairmen, Huron County Unit, Canadian Cancer Society More letters on page 19