HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1978-07-06, Page 4PAGE 4--CLINTON NEWS -RE CORD , THURSDAY, J-U-LY'6, 1$78
rrX."'"4".
Keep them alive
The front page of this paper this
week lacks some certain news -.,,r..
items, and frankly, we're glad
they're not there. Yes, we went
through another holiday weekend
without any highway fatalities in
the Clinton area, and in fact, in the
last year or so, those horrible news
stories have been gladly missing
from our pages.
According te the ministry of
transportation and com-
munications, deaths from motor
vehicle accidents during* the first
three months of this year were the
lowest in 18 years, and are down 64
per cent when compared to the
same period in 1975, the year prior
to com.pu,lsory seat belt legislation
and lower speed limits.
The latest statistics show there
were only 123 killed on our high-
ways during the first three months
of this year - still too many, -
compared to 338 during the same,
period in 1975. And there were 55
fewer deaths this year so far than
even last year — 123 against 178.
Over, the first three months this
year, 808 fewer people were injured
on our highways, and the only fly in
the ointment was there were 59
pedestrians killed compared tea 49
of last year:
Transportation and ,._. com-
munications minister James Snow
said he found the results en-
couraging, and we can't help
agreeing with him that* the lower
speed I'imits and the wearing of
seat belts are the biggest factors.
But not only are lives saved, and
unnecessary suffering lessened,
but also the health care cost of
looking after highway traffic
victims dropped in 1976 from 1975,
a saving of $2 million.
All the protests about being
forced to wear seat belts, and
slowing down the speed are dying
out at last, and well they should.
The provincial government faced
a great deal -of flack' when they
imposed those two laws, and many
said they would mean little change
to the carnage on our highways, but
statistics over the past two years
have proved them wrong.
And deaths, injuries, and health
care costs could be cut even more,
if motorists and passengers would
take just a few extra seconds to
buckle up every time they're in
their vehicles.
til
........
"But Mavis, can weAFFORD all this haapiness?'
The power of poetry
A lady gave me a book of poetry
compiled by a psychiatrist. Could she
be trying to tell me something?
Dr. Smiley Blanton contended we
should not underestimate the healing
power of poetry, for there is a poem to
The good people
Despite my fairly often encounters
with snarly misanthropes who seem
bent on convincing me that the human
race is a nasty lot, I keep coming back
to the good, warm feeling that, on the
whole, people are a"pretty good lot, as
far as they go.
They are kind and concerned, despite
the evidence to the contrary. When I
wrote something about my wife's in-
somnia and how she dreads our up-
coming trip to Europe—trying to sleep
on boats, buses and a strange bed every
night --a lady reader sent me a long
letter filled with ideas on how to cope
with the situation.
One time, in a real cri de coeur, I
mentioned that our daughter was very
ill, and asked readers to say a prayer.
We received dozens of letters , and
phone calls from friends and strangers
assuring us that they would do just
that. •
An elderly lady from Alberta wrote
me a long and involved letter offering a
solution, when I once complained of
arthritic agony in this space. I'm going
to take'her up on it one of these days.
I've tried wearing a phony bracelet and
carrying a .potato around in my hip
pocket, and they were slightly less than
successful. Turning to write something
on the blackboard a few weeks ago, my..
old friend Arthur nailed me in the hip
and I almost fell down in front of the
class. Headline: English Department
Head Drunk 'on Duty; Angry Parents
Demand Dismissal: •
Wrote a column recently asking for
someone, somewhere, to give my
daughter. a job. It was written in jest.
But any day now, I expect an old friend
or'a complete stranger, to give me a
call and offer her a job as a chicken
plucker or a go-go dancer or a
cosmetician in a mortuary, or
something equally exotic.
Years ago, I had to go off to the San,
with a shadow on my lung,. I left behind
a young, pregnant, bewildered, and
scared wife. My„ friends, young and
supposedly callous, spent their scanty
money on visitsto me and supported
and solaced my bride, without ever
trying to take a pass at her, to my
astonishment and enlightenment, for
they were a pretty unscrupulous
crowd, and she was a raving beauty
and human nature being what it is...
Just recently, a colleague died of
leukemia, after a comparatively short
illness. He was in his prirrte, a nice guy,
generally liked, full of life. And he died
bravely, without any whimpering, still
making plans for next year.
A couple of days later,' one of his
mates was around with a piece of
paper, looking for signatures for work
parties at Paul's place. He and his wife
owned a summer resort, into which'
they'd poured ' a lot of money and
energy, planning for his retirement.
They had .:,,.neglected the place,
naturally, during his last illness. The
weeds and grass had grown, and they,
had to open soon . for the summer
season. There was ','nci ' lack of
signatures; and we all piled in, even the
old decrepits like me, who usually
leave the menial' labor for the kid next
door, to clean up the place.
During the war, I found the same
kindness and concern "among the
enemy. A young German paratrooper
who had watched coldly while some
older German chaps kicked me about
rather badly for something naughty I'd
done, came into the box -car in which I
was tied up that evening, bloody and
well -bowed, threw .his camouflage'cape
over tele --it was .October—and talked
to me in halting French. I sorely
needed both the cape and the company.
A few weeks later, with other
prisoners, I was sitting out an air raid
(ours) in the basement of a German
railway station. We were half -frozen
andhungry as hell. Some middle-aged
German ladies came down with a huge
basin of hot coffee (ersatz) and
motherly looks (real) in the middle of
that air raid. I blessed .their good
hearts and hoped my, mother would do
the same, in the same situation.
Arrived at my first prison camp; I
couldn't believe it when the
inhabitants, Australians and New
Zealanders, captured at Crete three
years earlier, gave us a hot meal from
their own meagre rations. We were
cold, exhausted and half-starved. If
anything gave me a faith in the innate
decency of the human race, it was that,
Those are clear-cut examples but
there are hundreds of others, less easy
to describe.
The neighbour who slips over with a
jar of hot, homemade soup when your.
wife is away. The other neighbor who
feeds your cat when you're off on a trip,
or who fixes your shutters or your
plumbing and forgets to send a bill. The
doctor who calls, after an ungodly long
day, to check on the state of your sick
child. The quiet concern in the eyes of
your students when they know you are
really too ill to be up there teaching.
It's a cynical age and it's an easy age
to be a cynic, but don't let it get to you.
When the chips are down. when
there's fire or flood or famine, blizzard
or blast or bats in the attic, people will
respond with a kindness that will blind
you with tears.
5 YEARS AGO
July 5, 1973
Fire last Sunday afternoon caused an
estimated $40,000 damage to a barn and
equipment of George Lavis on hi arm near
Holmesville.t`�
Lost in the blaze were a tractor, a manure
spreader and a hay wagon. The barn,
containing about 500 hales of new hay was
completely destroyed. Firemen believe the
blaze started near the spot where an elec-
tric -powered hay elevator was in use
minutes before.
The official take-over inspection of the
new post office in Bayfield was completed
Wednesday afternoon, June 20, when the
contractor, Wayne Smith of Smith Con-
struction, Seaforth officially handed over
the keys to the Department of Public Works,
Their inspection consisted of the technical
aspects of construction. The DPW then
handed it over to the Post Office Depart-
ment who looked at it (the completion of the
building) from the standpoint of everyday
working conditions.
The Clinton News -Record Is published each
Thursday at P.O. Box 39, Clinton, Ontario,
Canada, NOM 11.0.
Member, Ontario Weekly
Newspaper Association
1t Is registered as second class mall by the
post office under the permit number 0113.
The Hews -Petard Incorporated In 1924 the
, Huron News•Rotord, founded in 11181, and The
Clinton How Era, founded In it63. Total press
run .3,300,,
Member Canadalan
Community Newspaper
Assotiptton
•
Display adverthIng rates
available on request. Ash for
Rote Cord No. t effetttve Oct. t,
1111'1.
General Manager - J. Howard Aitken
Editor • James I. Fitzgerald
Advertising blrettor - Gary L. Halst .
News editor . Shelley McPhee
Office Manager - Margaret Glbb
' Circulation - Frock* Mel eod
Subscription Rafe;
Canada •'12 per year
1,1.0.A, •'11.00
Other •'20.10
10 YEARS Ala)
July 4, 196
A dog, owned by Roy Lambert, led 110
school children of the Calvin Christian
School on their 13'/2 mile walk-a-thon last
Thursday. Students from grades 4 to 8
participated in the walk held for the benefit
of the Korean Orphan Fund.
Everyone who began the walk completed
he full distance. They travelled down the
lsaytield Road from Clinton to the
Holmesville Road and then to Clanton via
Highway 8,
Mr. Harry F. Baker, Bayfield retired on
June 28, 1968 in the 39th year of his em-
ployment by Shell Canada Limited and their
predecessors, Canadian Oil Company,
In spite of a steady drizzle Friday, many
people attended the annual Rose Show
sponsored by Clinton Citizen's Horticultural
Society. On display at the show, held at the
council chambers Friday afternoon and
evening, were a total of 163 entries, in-
cluding 11 in the junior classes, Thisis down
from last year's 237 entries.
The champion rose of the show was again
the Peace Rose exhibited by Mrs. Charles
Nelson, Mrs, J.W. Counter won the Rbyal
Bank trophy, a silver tray for the exhibitor
with the most points.
25 YEARS AGO
July 9, 1953
John F. Diefenbaker spo e last night at
Clinton Community Park train enthusiastic
crowd of upwards of 500 peole, on behalf of
L. Elston Cardiff, progressive conservative
candidate in the new riding of 'Huron. With
the climax in Clinton at the end of a
crammed tour of Western Ontario, Mr.
Diefenbaker expressed his deep feeling
about the warmth of his reception and ex-
pressed his pleasure in the opportunity of
speaking for his friend Mr.Cardiff,
Mr. and Mls. W.J. Plumsteel celebrated
their 50th wedding anniversary on Tuesday,
June 30 with a reception held at the family
residence on Ontario Street, Clinton, Over
1550 guests called at the house during the
day.
Mr. and Mrs, Plumsteel who have spent
most of their married life in Clinton, have
three daughters and four grandchildren.
Now an unusual hit 'frons our Hayfield
correspondent "Ms vs, we hears or' hil'i'n'1
fit every, mood and situation of life. He
pointed out that poets, prophets and
playwrights gave insights into human
emotions long before Freud and the
advent of modern psychiatry. In the
age when flogging was the accepted
treatment for emotionally disturbed
persons, Shakespeare asked, "Can'st
thou not minister to a minddiseased?"
Dr. Blanton often • recommended
certain poems for his patients to read.
The poetry, of course, couldn't cure
their neurosis or solve their problems,
but it could help to make their
problems easier to bear. Thepatients
realized their feelings were not unique;
other people had gone through similar
experiences and understood how they
felt. Poetry gave strength and comfort
and sometimes revived a sense of
humour, which Dr. Blanton maintained
was essential in life.
He listed examples' of poems that
dealt with conditions of everyday
living, such as insomnia. When you are
lying awake at night, read William
Wordsworth's sonnet. "To Sleep":
"A flock of sheep that leisurely pass
by,
One after one; the sound of rain, and
bees
Murmuring;, the fall of rivers, winds
and seas, •
Smooth fields, white sheets of water,
and pure sky;
I have thought of all by turns, and yet
do lie
Sleepless-! And soon the small birds'
melodies
Must hear, first uttered from my
orchard trees;
And the first cuckoo's, melancholy
cry.
Even thus last night, and two nights
more, I lay
And could not win thee, Sleep! by any
stealth;
So do not let me wear tonight away;
Without Thee what is all the mor-
ning's wealth?
Come, blessed
barrier between day
and day,
Dear mother of fresh thoughts and
joyous health!" -,
I tried reading the above, and it beats
counting sheep or watching the late,
late, late show. It's also the best advice
I've heard since someone suggested I
apply for a job as a night watchman.
When I am angry, I usually slam
doors, but for the sake of the neigh-
bours, maybe I'll try reading.
Unfortunately many of us vent our
anger • and frustration on innocent
people. This practice reminded Dr.
Blanton of the woggly bird in one of
Edward Lear's anthologies:
"The woggly bird sat on the whango
tree '
Nooking the rinkum corn,
And graper and graper, alas! grew
he,
And cursed the day he was born.
His elute was clum and his voicewas
rum
And curiously sang he,
'Oh would I'd been rammed and
eternally clammed
Ere I perched on this whango tree.'
Now the whango tree had a bubbly
thorn,
As sharp as a nootie's' bill,
And it stuck in thewoggly bird's
umptim lorn
And weepadge, the smart did thrill.
He fumbled and cursed, but that
wasn't the'w,orst,
For he couldn't at all get free,
And he cried, 'I am gam med and
injustibly nammed
On the laggardly whango tree!'
And there he sits still, with no worm in
his bill,
And no guggledom in his nest;
He is hungry and bare; and
gobliddred with care,
And his grabbles give him no rest;
He is weary and sore and'his tugmot
is blore
And nothing to nob has he,
a look through
the news -record files
we bears. All signs point to them, but still
there are numerous spoofers who think it all
a big joke. It is no, joke for the apiarists."
John Ostrom, Varna has lost 43 colonies of
bees in the last month. He first discovered
bruin's depredations on June 14, when he
found 30 hives broken into, number of bees
killed and honey comb gone.
50 YEARSIAGO
July 12,1'928
A.J. Holloway, who prides himself on
being something of an amateur gardener,
says he has peas grown already.
Little Master Billy Jenkins, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Frank Jenkins, who has been quite ill
with pneumonia, is now recovering nicely.
Much sympathy is felt for Mr. G.W.
Layton, who had to have an operation on his
hand recently owing to blood -poisoning.
Mr. Kenneth Rorke, who taught last year
at Montreal River, returned home last week
and is now in camp at Carling Heights with
theHuron Regiment,
We are, pleased to hear that Mrs. William
K. Govier, who has been in St. Michael's
Hospital, Toronto, is expected home this
week. ,
75 YEARS AGO
July 9, 1903
Chief Welsh has been upon the warpath
this week notifying the citizens that their
backyards must be placed in a proper
sanitary condition. The Chief means
business.
Mr. George Fluker, who went to Manitoba
22 years ago,( and -took up land, near Car-
berry, came Home last week to die. For the
past couple of years he has been suffering
from cancer of the stomach and spent
several months in the Winnipeg hospital for
treatment, but medical science couldnot
stay the disease and as the end drew nigh
there came a longing for home.
He was helpless and unable to take
nourishment and must have suffered untold
agony on tjie long journey from Winnipeg,
Ile arrived at the residence of his brother,
Mr. William Fluker of town of Tuesday night
by whom he was taken to the old homestead
in West Wawanosh next day. On Suladay,
death mercifully released hire from suf-
fering', The interment tnnk place on Tuesday
in Ball's cemetery on the Base Line. Mr.
Fluker was in hits 58th year andhis depth is
the first break in the family of 10 brothers
and sisters.
There was quite an exciting time in the
Bayfield rectory one day last week when the
kitchen portion of the house appeared to be
in danger of being burned down owing to the
chimney being on fire. Thick clouds of
smoke came out between the walls and
window casings but the trouble was soon
under control. The fire brigade was ready,
but arrived a few minutes too late to be of
any assistance.
There's talk of a new electric light plant in
Auburn, Let's have it. The new chopping
mill is running full blast. Operations are
starting for the construction of a new
evaporator.
The local banks - Sovereign, Molsons,
McTaggart's and Tisdale's - will close at one
o'clock every Saturday afternoon during
the months of July and August.
100 YEARS AGO
July 11, 1878
There are only 15 prisoners in the
Goderich jail now. The warm weather has
an evident effect on tramps.
We are informed that the Clinton Organ
Co. are manufacturing and disposing of nc
less than 24 organs a month. This speaks
well for a business only established two
years. and we are pleased to see the Messrs.
Doherty doing so well, notwithstanding that
they are among those who think Canadian
industries need the fostering care of "more
protection".
So well are their instruments got up, that
other manufacturers are copying and
adopting their styles 'of case, designed ex-
pressly for the Clinton_ Organ. This hardly
the fair thing, but it is certainly paying a
compliment to the excellent workmanship of
Messrs. Doherty and Co,
Last week Mr. J. Sheppard, of the 9th
concession of Goderich Township
discoSered a skunk in a hen's nest in one of
his buildings. Procuring his gun he shot it,
and the wrtdding of the gun set fire to the
loose straw which Was instantly in a blaze,
and it was only by strenuous efforts that the
fire was put out before doing injury,
On Monday of last week, during the
progress of the baseball match, Mr. E.
Doherty had a gold hunting watch stolen
from him, No trace of the thief.
As he chirps, 'I 'am blammed and
corruptibly jammed
In the guggerdom whango tree."'
Bright spirit
Dear Editor:
I have wondered when some bright
spirit would have the unmitigated
nerve to bring up the. name of
Shakespeare in comparison with
Laurence's controversial book. "
Shakespeare. whose plays have
delighted millions and will continue to
do so as long as there is a stage on,
which to perform, and performers ,to
tread its boards, can't be mentioned in
the same breath. It's like comparing a
cowbird with a cardinal or better still a
nightingale.
Although you are apparently not
supposed to compare twentieth century
'reading with an earlier age, now you
have done so we might point out that
the age , of Shakespeare condoned a
cruder way of speech from ours,
though froth what I hear on the stre-ets
of Clinton I question the authenticity of
that statement.
The wit, the cleverly worded phrase,
the beauty of his expressions, the
grandeur of his greater plays far
outweigh any lewd expressions or
"smut" as you called it, which ad-
mittedly there are in some of his lighter,
plays. Be that as it may, there is
nothing in any of his works as revolting
as in Laurence's one book. His works
will live after him long after the name
of Laurence will reach oblivion.
In a democracy majority rules. The
consensus of opinion of 500 people in a
recent meeting, was definitely against
this book under discussion, Does this
count for something or not? I noticed
this was left out in your report of the
meeting.
• Sincerely
'Portia'
Clinton
Evolution
Dear Editor:
Is "Evolution" a scientific fact, or an
unprovable theory? Darwin's theory of
evolution was based on the assumption
of gradual change from one life -form to
the next. But "the fossil record still
proclaims (gradualism) false, after
more than a century of diligent search
for gradual change," writes prominent
evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould,
professor of geology at Harvard
University. "Paleontologists have
documented virtually no cases of slo.v
and steady transformation, foot by foot
up the strata of a hillslope - not for
horses, not for humans."
"Instead", admits Gould, "most
fossil species share two features: First,
they do not change in any marked way
during the entire ,course of their
existence; second, they enter the
record abruptly, either replacing or ob.-
existing with their ancestors. In short,
stasis (stability) and sudden
replacement mark the history of most
species."
To counter this seemingly in-
surmountable evidence, evolutionist
Gould speculates that in each case, the
evolving must have occurred relatively
rapidly "in a small, isolated peripheral
area," which geologists have not as yet
found in their diggings. Of course, such
speculation affords an escape for
evolutionists when confronted with this
overwhelming' evidence against their
theory,
However, does such probing in the
dark have the "ing of o jective, un-
biased scientific thought Ol. does it,
•rather,,.reflect the frantic gropings of
the dogmatist whohas been exposed?
Sincerely yours.
C.F. Barney,
Clinton
•
•