HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1978-06-29, Page 4PAGE 4—CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, J1.1bM 29, 1978
Ifs Canada Week?
,Clinton is generally not known to
break traditions, especially not
national ones.
For this reason, the last week in
June for the ninth consecutive
year, from coast to coast, Canada
Week will be ignored by this
community.
Like, many other Canadians,
Clinton people seem to have
stagnated with a case of apathy, at
least on the surface, when it comes
to showing some pride for their
country and caring for their neigh-
bors.
Perhaps these people should
spend some time in Red China and
live with the political rule there. Or
they could move to Northern
Ireland or Rhodesia and feel the
fear, see the violence and the
unhappiness of the people. Or
perhaps they could visit India and
deal with the unbearable living
conditions in the overpopulated
districts, or move to the wilds of
New Guinea where the primitive
natives there have little chance of
advancement in the future.
Hundreds of thousands of people
around the world would like to live
in Canada. Teenagers in Japan, for
instance, dream about visiting this
country and presently the number
one song in that land, written by a
Japanese musician is called "Love
Letter from Canada."
It seems that the only people who
have any pride or respect for
Canada is outsiders. They can see
its dazzling potential. They value
its unique blend of old and new, its
combination of many civilizations
and its mixture of languages.
These qualities do not in fact tear
a country apart, or make it a salad
bowl but can be effectively com-
bined, with fairness and little
prejudice and bias to form a
Canadian melting pot.
However, if the apathy con-
tinues, Canada, like the small
forgotten town, will fall apart.
Clinton's meager contribution to
Canada Week, a mention of it
during a council meeting, is a clear
sign of outright apathy and un-
concern. A parade, a dance, a giant
birthday party, a special baseball
game, even flying a few flags, or
saying hello to neighbors in other
towns or even other countries, or
any small and not necessarily
expensive event sponsored by the
town, the people or any of the local
clubs would help this community
foster some pride.
Hopefully future councils and
future clubs will remedy this un-
necessary apathy before Clinton
becomes a town filled with cob
webs and dust in a forgotten
country.
There's an entire 365 days until
next year's celebrations, maybe we
should begin to plan for it.
Ah...the good old days, when a loaf of
bread cost a nickel and the price of a
gallon of gas was a quarter. Or, before
that, when the only fuel your con-
veyance needed -was hay.
When a farm yielded enough
vegetables, fruit, eggs, milk and meat
to feed the family for a whole year.
When non -perishables could be bought
on your doorstep from a grocery truck
and milk and bread were delivered in
Reading habits
There are so many things about me
that annoy my wife that I could not list
them in this space, not even in point
form.
But I believe the one thing that
abrases her most severely is that,
"You always have your nose stuck in a
newspaper." Well, I retort, if one must
get one's nose stuck in something,
there are a lot more painful things than
a newspaper.
She's right, of course. I glom through
two dailies, a welter of weeklies, a
scattering of news magazines, and a
gaggle of other publications, from the
Anglican to Canadian Literature. When
I'm not reading news, I'm reading
books, from fiction to history to
biography, from children's books to
spy stories to pornography.
It must be irritating to her, when
she's trying to tell me what a scramble
she had with her music pupils, or why
the dart she put in her new blouse
makes her look like Mae West with one
breast shot off.
It must be maddening' to her, when,
after fifteen minutes of wailing about
our daughter's unemployability,
groaning about our grandsons' powers
of destruction, or worrying about our
son's safety in the purlieus of
Paraguay, to have me look up and say,
"Hey, sweetie, did you know that
Dennis Braithwaite (a columnist) has
the gout? Or, "Guess what that turkey
Trudeau is going to do next?"
She is, however, not without a
modicum of realism. If she were a
general's wife, she'd know that I had to
be off to the wars, or at least to some
cosy place within fifty miles of the front
lines: If she were a doctor's wife, she'd
know that you can't make $100,000
sitting around watching TV. If she were
a lawyer's wife, she'd know that your
ears do prick up, like a hound dog's,
when you hear an ambulance siren.
So, she's the wife of a teacher and a
writer. And she knows darn well that
this is part of the price. The man has
got to read.
At least this is the picture I draw for
her, in many a heated discussion.
Sometimes I manage to convince her,
until the next lapse. The truth is
something else.
I read the news for nefarious and
numerous reasons. One is for pure
laughs. Often this is '-at the media
themselves, and the seriousness with
which they take themselves. Did you
ever see, since cousin Elmer was left
standing at the altar, such a
disgruntled bunch as the media when
the Prime Minister refused to call the
election they had got themselves so
engorged about"?
Another reason I peruse the papers is
to ipdulge my taste for irony. In an
effort to keep the peace, the Yanks are
selling fighter planes to both Israel and
the Arabs. They would prefer to sell
only to Israel, because there is a
veritable host of Jewish votes in the
U.S. But they need oil, so they sell to
-the Arabs, too. Shades of the days when
they sold scrap iron to Japan, before
WWII, and had it returned with in-
terest in the form of shrapnel.
I study the 'media as a sort of ego trip.
Doing so makes me aware that I am not
as obnoxious as Pierre Berton, nor as
arrogant as Pierre Trudeau. It works
the other way too. I learn that I'm not
as fearless as Borje Salming, not as,
colorful as Muhammad Ali. But then
I'm not as silly as Elwy Yost or Howie
Meeker, so I really come off fairly well.
Studying the news makes rhe aware
of the darkness of the human condition.
Two little boys in England, six and
four, beat an old lady of 84, bed -ridden,
to death because she gave one of them
six -pence, and the other nothing. I
wonder about my grandboys.
I.read a story, and wonder at the lack
of a sense- of humour among our
politicians. Recently a professor hired
to do a study of falling enrolment in
schools, came out with the first part of
his report. With tongue in cheek, he
suggested women should start staying
home and having babies, or. perhaps
test-tube babies should be produced ;
otherwise, our educational system
would fall apart for lack of clients. The
pols, fanned by the media, accused him
of racism, anti -feminism, and
everything else short of doing to the
bathroom without having to.
I know the feeling. Sometimes I
make a joke in this space, and I'm
appalled at the reaction of humourless
people. I'm attacked as a libertine, an
atheist, a monarchist, a war -monger, a
peace -monger, a perverter of the
The Clinton News -Record Is published each
Thursday at P.O. Ross 30, Clinton+ Ontario,
Canada, NOM ILO.
Member. Ontario Weekly
Newspaper Association
11 Is registered as second Bloss mall by the
post office under the per it number 0117.
The News -Record Incorporated In 1024 the
Huron News -Record, founded In 1001, and The
Clinton New Era, founded In 1116. Total press
run 3,300.
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Subitription Rotes
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young, a denigrator of the elderly, a
male chauvinist, a female apologist, a
rotten husband and father, a lazy bum,
a teacher who should not be allowed
within hailing distance of our young.
It doesn't bother me much, because I
get all this jazz at home, long before the
letter -writers get at me. I'm not any of
those things. I'm just old Bill Smiley,
trying to keep his head above water in
the stream of life, without swallowing
any of the sewage that seems to infest
it.
Finally, I enjoy that old enjoyable
known as "I told you so." I get a real
kick out of looking back and realizing
that some cause I espoused years ago;
to the great indignation of my friends
and foes, is now the in -thing. Thirty
years ago I said we should recognize
Red China, a fact. Horror! Now'they're
our buddies. They buy wheat.
the same way.'
When nein" - - " hail nor snow
kept the mailman from making his
rounds. The mailmen were the only
ones who thought those weren't the
good old days.
When the telephone didn't ring as
soon as you stepped into the bathtub.
When a quilting bee sewed a large
coverlet and rounded up a month's
gossip in one afternoon. When a barn
raising bee erected a building in one
day and the crew devoured 20 pounds of
meat, potatoes and vegetables and
dozens of homemade pies and cakes.
Ah...the good old days, when students
didn't have to worry about the batteries
in their calculators going dead. When
imaginations thought of more ways for
people to entertain themselves than
switching on a TV set.
And when you didn't have to worry
about being a "partner in crime" if you
left the keys in your car or if you went
on a vacation without leaving sortie
lights on in your house.
Of course, I'm 'not old enough to
remember all those "good old days,"
but I've heard people talk about them.
Some folks even say they'd like to go
back to those days.
The list of memories grows, and
other people recall different aspects.
Ah...the good old days, when the
bathroom was 20 feet behind the house
and neither rain nor snow nor dark of
night nor hurricane kept people from
making the trip.
When a person's bath ended with a
pail of water being thrown over the
head and the water was always too hot
5 YEARS AGO
June 28, 1973
Tomorrow will be the final working day
for Clinton News -Record staff member
Marg Rudd. Mrs. Rudd will be leaving the
newspaper after five years as an employee.
Mrs. Rudd, accompanied by her husband
Ron Rudd, came to Clinton in 1962 when he
assumed duties as a senior instructor on the
staff of the School of Instructional
Techniques at Canadian Forces Base
Clinton. Marg joined the News -Record staff
in January 1968.
Mr. and Mrs. Rudd will now be residing in
residential quarters at Canadian Forces
Base Borden.
Huron County officially has a new judge
with the swearing in on Friday of Londgn
lawyer Francis G. Carter fills the post left
open by the death of Judge R.S.
Hetherington last April .
Officials of Vanastrn Developments an-
nounced at a press conference Monday that
deeds will be going out to home owners on
the former Canadian base beginning in one
week to 10 days.
10 YEARS AGO `<
June 27, 1968
The staff of A -M Hugh Campbell public
school CFB Clinton, honored their retiring
principal, C.A. Trott at a special dinner at
the Maitland Country Club last week.
The thought of hoeing a seven acre field of
beans is enough to tire most people. But not
Robert Thompson. Mr. Thompson' who
celebrated his 91st birthday on Monday hoes
his bean field almost daily. He has com-
pleted the seven acre plot twice this year
and is working on his third round.
Mr. Thompson, who neither smokes or
drinks, travels to his son's farm, three-
quarters of a mile from his house in Kippen,
every day to help with the farm chbres. He
was raised on the farm his son now occupies
and resides there until he moved to Kippen
16 years ago.
Swimming against the Liberal tide which
engulfed the rest of Canada Tuesday, voters
in Huron riding, re-elcted Progressive
Conservative Robert E. McKinley, with an
increased majority over his Liberal op-
ponent in the last two elections.
Mr. McKinley polled 14,534 votes to carry
the riding, compared with 10,747 picked up
by Grit Maitland Edgar.
25 YEARS AGO
July 2, 1953
Highway 8 between Seaforth and Clinton,
a 7.7 mile stretch, is due for improvements
this year.
The right of way is to be widened and
tenders have been called for the work of
or too cold.
When sleepyheads woke up on winter
mornings with icy water bottles in the
beds beside them and they stepped
gingerly onto cold bare floors.
The fire had to be lit in the kitchen
stove every morning before mother
could cools breakfast. In later years,
the furnace in the cellar had to be
stoked several times a day.
Ah...the good old days, when the
country roads weren't plowed in
winter, The horses and cutters ran over
the snow, packing it down and the level
of the road grew higher and higher.
When the snow began to melt, ruts
appeared in which horses could be lost.
When bricks were heated and placed
in the bottom' of the cutter to prevent
anyone's feet from freezing during the
two hour ride to church on Sunday
morning.
When sugar and gas were rationed.
When young men who were in the
prime of their lives, were marching off
to war.
When there was no protection against
diseases, such as measles and polio;
when there was no way to battle
diabetes and when an attack of ap-
pendicitis could cause death.
Regardless of when we grew up,
most of us tend to look back and say
"those were the good old days." We
recall the good times, because those
are the things we want to remember
and the bad times are best forgotten.
But in reality, there is good and bad
in all times. For each of us today is a
personal gift and what`re make of it is
up to us.
a look through
the news -record files
grading and installation of culverts.
When everyone but the grdceful waterhird
on top of the fountain at Clinton Library
Park was searching for the coolest spot to
be, these young lads set themselves on the
cement block at the foot of the flagpole at
the park and commenced a business of their
own.
Wayne Grigg and Robert Addison, both
nine years old, and newly released
restrictions of public school life, were
selling handmade pot holders.
"We're using noodles," said Robert, and
Wayne added, "a lady up north taught him
and then he taught me."
Soon after their picture appeared in a
daily nespaper, this week, we heard that
they had received orders for 18 pot holders.
Proof positive that it pays to advertise.
William James Chowen and Beverlie Jane
Smith took their wedding vows on June 27 in
St. Paul's Anglican Church, Clinton. Rev.
R.M.P. Bulteel officiated at the ceremony.
50 YEARS AGO
July 5, 1928
The baseball game played at Exeter on
Thursday last between Clinton and Exeter
was a fast and evenly contested game and a
most interesting one to spectators. The
score was 4-3 in favour of Clinton. Pitcher
Gordon Stock of Clinton did some ex-
ceptional work, cmly allowing three hits
during the game.
Guy - Hicks is taking charge of Mr.
Charles`worths' store during his absent e°on
a little holiday.
The taxes collected thus fa.- amount to the
tidy sum of $19,500.
At a special 'meeting of the Blyth school
board on Friday night, Norman Garrett,
who has been principal of Wroxeter con-
tinuation school for the past six years, was
engaged as principal of the Blyth con-
tinuation school.
Mr. and Mrs. William Shaddick and Miss
Helen spent Dominion Day with Petrolia
friends.
75 YEARS AGO
July 2, 1903
About 50 of the London Road people drove
over to Byfield on Saturday and picnicked
in Jewett's grove and of the pleasant days
spent' in Bayfield this year's outing Will
always be remembered as a record breaker.
One Wednesday evening of last week, the
residence of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Oke of
Goderich Township was the scene of a very
pretty wedding when their.daughter, Laura
F. becape the wife of Mr. David Easom.
The parlor and dining room were beautifully
decorated with flowers and evel>ereens. The
ceremony was performed by Rev. Husser of
Archie was here
Dear Editor:
'Archie Bunker' was in Clinton on
Tuesday night (June 13) ; his strident
"stifle" rang raucously throughout the
high school auditorium: "Ban the
books; don't corrupt our youth!"
The best known contemporary bigot
and anti-intellectual paraded his fears,
his intolerance and his hostility before
four famous Canadian writers of
distinction; English teachers, senior
students. and parents and citizens
opposed to the grade 13 curriculum.
Probably the most baffled and
frustrated were the students. They had
known that 'Archie' had existed
throughout the ages, but they had not
before met a completely closed mind,
face to face. Deeply involved in.having
their own minds opened up through th�
educational process, they could no
understand an 'Archie' whose only
response to liberal and rational con-
cerns was "M,eathead."
Unable to see beyond hils own self-
righteousness, he labelled dissent as
blasphemy. The 18 year old student
said, "We can handle dirty words, trust
us, trust our judgement." Archie said,
"I can't trust you."
The 'Archies' of this world however,
can't protect themselves by professing
to protect their own children. They
can't push onto them their own
anxieties and insecurities, in an at-
tempt to cope with their own per-
ceptions of threats. The threats that
Archie perceives have been accepte
for many years by 18 year olds as pa
of the normal verbal world of growing
up.
Secure in his own fantasies, Archie
has blocked out the reality of the
elementary school bus and schoolyard,
where in a few minutes he could hear
more four letter dirty words than are
printed in the three novels he is con-
cerned about. We don't completely
disapprove of children because of the
dirty words they use. To ban good
books because of dirty words is to ban
good children for the same reason. To
condemn these books is to condemn an
eight-year-old child.
'Archie Bunker' the adult and parent
has insulted the school trustees and
teachers, his own children and perhaps
most of all himself. If students are
going to be corrupted by dirty words
they will have been corrupted long
before grade 13, and if so, only poor
parental training would permit such
corruption.
In our free society, we must tolerate
the 'Archie Bunkers' of this world. but
we must not run scared from their
fears. The young people in our high
schools are free of such weaknesses:
they have the strength of good
judgement. Let's trust our young
people.
Holmesville in the presence of some 79
guests and the wedding march was played
by Miss Maud Goodwin as the bridal party
took up their positions. The .hair bride was
becomingly attired in cream brocaded
lustre and carried a bouquet of orange
blossoms. After the company wished the
newly -wedded pair a happy and prosperous
future, the wedding feast was partaken of. It
consisted of the season's choicest viands as
befitted the happy occasion and testified to
the skill of the hostess. Afterwards a few
hours were spent in various amusements
when the guests departed for their respec-
tive homes. The esteem in which the bride is
held was shown by the large number of
useful and expensive presents. Mr. and Mrs.
Easom ' will take up their abode on the
groom's farm on the' 16th concession.
Mr. and Mrs. John Nicholson were in town
on Thursday last. This was the date of Sweet
Auburn's holiday and a goodly part of the
population spent the day out of town. It is
only on such an occasion as this that Mr.
Nicholson takes a day off, his Targe and
growing business demanding close at-
tention.
100 YEARS AGO
July 4, 1878
On the first of July, a young man and
woman, from a neighbouring township
started from home with the intention of
proceeding to a picnic at Benmiller, but,
changed their mind, they concluded to drive
on to this place and get married. Proceeding
to the house of a friend in town, a marriage
certificate and minister was procured and
they were soon declared man and wife, the
bride, as soon as the ceremony was over,
turning round to her husband and ex-
claiming, "Now what will Miss think."
They had only known each other two weeks
previously and were not yet out of their
teens. It is to be hoped that the marriage so
hastily entered upon will prove all that is
anticipated.
For ,the half year ending June 30, the
following were recorded with the Registrar
here: births, 33; marriages 14; deaths 16. •
On Friday a 3eitiy large wedding party
drove through town. After getting outside
the corporation, as is frequently the case, a
couple of the parties commenced racing and
'they succeeded so well that when near Alma
one ran into the other's rig, turning it over
into the ditch and damaging it considerable.
A certain farmer in Hullett Township has
an interesting family of nine boys and no
girls. Now he wants,to find a family equally
as large, comprising, entirely of the opposite
sex.
Sincerely,
C.Ken Lawton,
Exeter
Book banning
Dear Editor:
I am not a high school student,
teacher or parent - just a reader who
has been observing with interest the
controversy over certain hooks which
are evidently being taught in high
schools in Huron County.
I was interested to discover in the
May 18, 1978 edition that, "The defence
of free thought and speech is basic to
democratic and Christian
philosophies." Now it may he true that
'democratic' philosophy supports the
defense of free speech and thought to
the extent implied in the article written
- to include "so-called 'dirty hooks, but
it cannot he called 'Christian'
philosophy.
Tradional CHRISTian philosophy
begins with the pre-suppositicin that if
there is a God. we cannot know Him
apart from Him revealing Himself to
us - and maintains that Ile has done
just that fully in the historical Person
of Jesus CHRIST, and in what we
commonly call "The Holy Bible".
The Bible (which also hears the
historical record of Christ), then, is the
entire basis of Christian philosophy
and it has a lot to say about what yo
can say and cannot say. One of the
most basic tenets which almost anyone
knows if they know the Bible at all is,
"Thou shalt not take the name of the
Lord thy God in vain." ANY speech,
therefore, written or verbal, which
uses God's name either blasphemously
or carelessly is prohibited by Christian
philosophy. Call it democratic if you
like, but it is not Christian.
Secondly these seems to he a great
deal of furor over "censorship" and
"freedom of speech" - neither of which
is really the issue involved. I have yet
to read anyone advocating that these
writers not be allowed to write what
l,
they please, or that their books b
banned by the government. The rea
issue is - do parents (the ones who
really started all this a year ago) - even
if they be in a minorithave any right
in a democractic society to have any
say in what is taught to their children in
the public school system? If anything
can be said to be very basic to Christian
Philosophy at all, that has to be one - ,
that parents have the right over their
children and over what they learn.
And, if we are talking about freedom of
speech, why is it that many of those
who take the time aid interest to speak
about this issue are scorned, reproved,
and encourageld to keep silent rather
than to speak freely? Whose freedom of
speech are we defending? Nor is the
question one of social acceptability
within a given society of a given cen-
tury, but rather a moral question. And
Turn to page 9 •