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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1979-09-06, Page 4••• PAGE 4, —CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 , 1979 Thu Clinton News,Record is published ,cusch Thursday at P.O. Rom 39. Clinton. °Meld?. ;anode., NOM ILO. \ Member. Ontario Weekly Newspaper Amochstion It is registered as ssicen# class mali by the post office Under the permit number 0017. Th. Net.141.c.rd incorporated In 1t24 the Huron NAWS•Olecord. foundid In 1401, anti The Clinton New Era. founded In 143. Total press run 3.300. l'Aentber Canadian Community Newspaper Association Display advertising rotes .vouch'. on request. Ask for Rate Card No. 9 effectivity. Oct. I. • 1970. General Manager • J. Howard Aitken Editor • James I:Fitzgerald Advertising Director • Gary L. Heist News editor Shelley McPhee Office Manager Margaret Gibb Circulation • Freda McLeod Subscription Rate: Conado.'14.00 per year Sr. citizen • 92 per year U.S.A. 6 foreign • '30 per year Energy - at what price? One of the most heated topics these days is the energy crunch and inevitably the price'of oil. The big problem doesn't seem to be the shortage of oil but whether we can afford it or not. Most Canadians don't seem to be taking the gas shortage in the United States very seriously. We smile about motorists lining up for gas while some of us drive along quite happily at 10, 20 and maybe 30 miles ahoWthe speed limit of 50 miles per hour. ' Maybe we will be sobered a bit and slow our driving when gas prices reach $1.25 a gallon for regular by the _end of 1980 and that might be a low estimate. Most may be able to get by with higher gas prices by curtailing driving a bit, but, how about home heating? Most of us refuse to even think of what would happen .if Canadian families can no longer afford to keep oil tanks filled to heat homes. What are we going to do about it? Several suggestions have come forth in recent weeks. They may not be earth shattering as far as con- serving energy is concerned but, could be a start in the right direction. , The first came from the School Bus Operators of Ontario changing the school year by eliminating the month of January as far as studies, are concerned. It sounds great to close school during January to save fuel and eliminate danger to students riding buses during hazardous weather. The bus drivers suggested shor- tening the summer vacatiop. This could cause as many problems as the winter does. Can you imagine students trying to study in weather like we had, during the past week? It would probably cost as much money to air-condition classrooms as it does to heat them in January. The bus drivers noted that the long summer. vacation was originally, -intended to aid farmers who- needed their children io help with the har- vest. This is no longer the situation with farming operations becoming so much more mechanized. The real problem would come in eliminating holiday jobs for students if summer holidays were decreased. Jobs in January would be very scarce. A second suggestion to help in the energy crisis has come from thetown of Hawkesbury_ in_the form, of a resolution asking for earlier im- plentation of Daylight Saving Time to include the month of April. sugar andspice Notes on summer Well, here it is, Tuesday afternoon, time to write the column. I could have written it last Friday, or Sunday morning after church,..,or any. day during the past three weeks of holidays. But I couldn't. I write my column on Tuesday afternoon, rush to the post office, plead with the clerk to squeeze it into ‘ the outgoing bag. Summer or winter, working or vacation. If I try to write- it on a Thursday evening, a Monday morning, there's a complete block. Blank paper, vacuum mind. Especially in summer, when I have enough time to crank out a couple of voliiineg of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. That's why the summer columns don't have one single, brilliant theme, lucidly expostulated, witty, striking single, singing note in a muddled world. They usually come out as a kind of shOtgun effort. There are too many distractions. °A couple of promiscuous bluebirds have proliferated on'ourproperty. There are now five juveniles of the same species, shrieking bluebird imprecations from five different trees, driving out the song -birds of yesteryear. This morning, we had one of those real, old-fashioned summer storms. Darkness at noon. The gods bowling in the heavens with tremendous balls that rumbled, crashed, and reVer- berated down the empty halls of the black sky. Bolts of lightning straight from Zeus that hit, you swear, 20 feet from your giant oak. Blinding rain, cars driving, lights on, as though they were fording the Ganges. I love storms, ever since the one that put a pine treetop through the roof of our cottage, when I was seven, and everybody calling, "Where's Billy?" and finding Billy standing against one of the remaining walls, scared speechless and grinning like an idiot. Or - the one on the Lakes, when several ships went down, and the captain was puking in his second- best hat, and every dish in the galley was smashed, rtifore distractions • in summer. Rotten kids. Card from son Hugh in Pa gutty. He'dreviously written : for ive copies of his birth certificaf,e, an copies Of his tudent transcripts fr�iki U. of T. and Dalhousie, because t 0 "They call themselves a newspaper? There isn't a singM juicy, sordid line about Margaret Trudeau." remembering our pc:Ist a look through the news -record files 11111.1111.1111,111111M. 5 YEARS AGO August 29, 1974 A Bayfield couple, Mr. and Mrs.. Fred Fraser of,Ann Street, last week cele,brated 60 years of marriage and marked their diamond jubilee 'at a reception and party held in their daughter's cottage in the village. Hullett Clerk Clare Vincent resigned from his post as township ditch com- missioner at the August meeting of Hullett 1 council. The Clinton Centennial Committee's first annual arts and crafts show was an artistic and financial success, according to organizers. The show, which was held last Friday and Saturday at the Clinton arena, at- tracted more than 1,400 persons, and the arts and crafts committee said on Tuesday that they hoped to turn over about $1,000 to the Centennial Committee. 10 YEARS AGO • Aroma 28, 1969 Two teenaged girls, charged with vandalizing the Clinton police office in Town Hall last Saturday evening, are being held in Goderich for court ap- pearance this morning. ' he might be going to university in Paraguay or Toronto or India or Cuba. Card says, "Massage and English.classes going well." What the hell does that mean? Phone call from daughter, who's off to Moosonee to teach music to Indian kids. Doesn't know how to get there. Doesn't know how to get furniture shipped, what to take, why, what, where, how much? So guess who sorts all that out? Animals, birds and fishes have the right idea. Teach the offspring to fend for themselves, kick them out, and have some more. I wonder howmany grandfather whales, or bears, or eagles, are still solving problems for their fully -grown children, and baby- sitting their grandchildren? And in summer, of course, the daily mail, though a welcome break in the monotony, is distracting. Pleas, amounting, almost to demands, from relatives that you have to pay a visit, you promised last winter. They don't really want to see you, only make you listen to their problems, when all you want to listen to is the birds and the click of a five -iron as you set it up by the pin. Not all bad. Nice letter from Jim Lamb of Nova Scotia, saying I'd helped inspire his new book Press Gang, and that I am his favorite columnist, along with Ted Reeve and Eric Nicol. Bless you, sir. Note from Bessie Doolan, 89, of Cereal, Alta.: "I attribute the' smiles & chuckles I - receive from your column as a big aid to my longevity." And bless you, Bessie. Invite me to your hundredth, and we'll dance together and defy the fates, if you don't mind jigging with a guy with an arthritic foot that goes whither it wants. Two proofs of a photo of yours truly, from . Mike Boule of the Milton, Canadian Champion who dropped in one day to take a picture. Thanks, Mike, but I think you got your negatives mixed up, Surely this is a photograph of American poet Robert Frost when he was 86. Just kidding. You got me, warts and all. Every crease, every wrinkle, the warped nose with the scars on it, the bump on my hp from the car crash when a piece of the lip turned up missing dtiring surgery, even the hairs in my ears, which you might have had the decency to trim before you shot. i • Nester mind, my wife. 1 likes it, Probabfly becaus it make i me look old enough to be her father. But she insists I don't have those bags under my eyes and wrinkles on my forehead. I must have been squinting into the sun, rpoint out. • Anyway, it's the sort of face of which people say, when they can't think of another single thing, "It looks lived-in," or, `Where's a lot of character in it." But it's been a good summer. Twice I've gone out to play golf and played with complete strangers who were worse duffers than I, despite their immaculate shirts and slacks, and fancy equipment. Occasionally I go down to the dock, look at the $30,000 to $100,000 boats, and chortle when I think of what they'll be Worth when gas rationing • starts. And snicker and snicker when I drive .up beside a Lincoln Con- tinental in my 1972 Ford so rusty- you can put your feet through the floor- boards and pedal with them, for mobility. • Not quite like last summer, cruising the capitals of Europe, but fair-to- middlin', if the old lady would get off my back about falling through the back stoop every time she hangs out the washing. The pair, also charged 'with theft, were arrested Sunday and arraigned before Provincial Judge G.C. Marshman, who ordered -them remanded in custody. Clinton Public Utilities Commission crewmen install one of the first of the mercury vapor streetlights which replace fluorescent fixtures at the main corner and prepare to remove old and unreliable traffic signals. Bayfield • Ratepayers Association, dormant for two years, may soon again erupt into activity. There are rumblings of discontent and signs that some residents are again ready to call a public meeting. Several members seem to feel that while council cannot accede to the requests of every individual taxpayer, petitions presented on behalf of a large number will always carry more weight.Another group felt that being unable to vote, the U.S. citizens in otir midst should have a chance to express opinions, at the public forum, instead of appealing to council as individual tax- payers. 25 YEARS AGO September 2, 1954 Members of the Clinton Fire Dep- tartment fought through long early morning hours to save the property of James Handy, RR 4, Clinton, when his large barn was completely destroyed on Sunday morning, August 22. Though the barn along with the season's grain crop and a threshing machine was a complete loss, the fire was prevented from spreading to the house and nearby drive shed. "Skippy" a small terrier owned by Mr. Handy, sounded the alarm about .three o'clock by barking until the family awakened. Assessment notices are in the mail. The light purple stamp in the - corner reminds us of the exhorbitant costs of ad- ministering a democracy. An autocracy could probably manage more cheaply. We would not ask for that. Lastest predictions available Wed- nesday night, were that the old section of the Clinton District Collegjate Institute building would be ready for teachers and classes next Tuesday morning. Shop work • will be carried on in the old public school until such time as the new part of CDCI is completed. Work in Brucefield is continuing on the new homes being built in the village by Harry Dalrymple and by Misses Kay and Marie Elliott. Mr. and Mrs. Dalrymple expect to move into their home sometime this month. These two make a total of seven new houses in the village during the past three years. 50 YEARS AGO August 29, 1929 The Huron County, _Old Ag...Pension Board has received nearly 120 applications for the pensions already. An invention of a former Clinton boy, , Mr. A.D. Fisher, is on exhibition in W.D. Fair and Co.'s window. It looks ingenious and may bring a fortune to its inventor. Mr. D.A. Kay has taken the contract of decorating the Holrnesville United Church and- will have it ready for the special an- niversary services which are to be held the latter part of Septeinber. Clinton is talking of erecting a cairn in honor of the late Brig. Gen. Otter, who spent his boyhood on a farm within a few miles of the town. When Clinton celebrated its semi -centennial four years ago, Gen. Otter spent a few days here and, in com- •pany with Dr. Shaw, visited the old home farm and located as nearly as he could the site of the house in which his family lived. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Gray in Hullett was the scene of the pretty summer wedding, yesterday, August 28 at 11 am when their youngest daughter, Hattie E. became the bride of Edwin Wood, only son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Wood, Hullett. • Accommodation for several roomers, either boys or girls,- students or others. Apply to Mrs. L. Hunk ing, Albert Street, Clinton. 75 YEARS AGO • September 1, 1904 Complaints have been made lately that flowers and potted plants have been stolen from graves in the cemetery. This is a contemptible action, the next thing to stealing, coppers for a dead man's eye, something the perpetrators ought to be thoroughly ashamed of. We hope it will not be necessary to refer to this matter again. On Saturday last Mr. C.F. Cook received from Mr. A. Hooper a cheque for ten dollars as a sick benefit for the few days he was laid up with fever: • , •100 YEARS AGO September 4,1879 Mr. John Elliott of the Bayfield Line grew an ear of corn on his farm which had 578 grains thereon. A farmer of the Maitland con, lately thrashed out the product of three-quarters of an acre of oats, and had nearly 45 bushels. Apples are a drag on the Arkona Market at 10 cents a bushel. The Rev. Jas. Caswell will 'preach the funeral sermon of the late Miss Brown, in the C.M. Church in Londesboro, on Sunday evening next. While Mr. W. Perdue was thrashing on the farm of Mr. John McMillan, last week, a seven -barrelled • revolver went through the machine, snapped it in two, but did no further harm. On Saturday the thermometer stood at 85 degrees in the shade. On Sunday it was 87 degrees. Goderich Township council on August 25th struck the following tax rates: 21/4 mills county rate -or $3,757.50, 2 mills township rate. Fine, all -wool Canadian' tweed only $11 each. Beautiful French worsted suits,.only $15 at J.C. Gilroy. Poking fun Some stand-up comedians make a living by poking fun at their wives. Their monologues include jokes about the nagging spouse, the ugly wife and the fat lady. In a discussion of the wife, the mother-in-law is seldotn forgotten. The comedian uses exaggeration to make his story funny. For example, he describes the scary night time scene of mud packs, cold cream, curlers and rollers. He says a secretary, for instance, can't type or answer the phone because 'she spends the afternoon "doing her nails. " He also uses the line about waiting an hour -and -a -half for his date to get ready, and when se finally emerges she looks the same to him as when she left. After reaching a restaurant, he ,laiitts the first thing his date dOeti is go to the ladies' room- to "powder her nose", and he cofhplains that he spends most of the evening along because she's busy touching up her make-up. I'm sure profesional comedians (amd amateurs too) will have a field day when they learn of a study con- ducted by female psychologist at UCLA on women and the perfume they wear. She concludes that you can tell a lot about a woman by the perfune she uses. The following are seven classifications into which her findings were divided. (They maynot be exact but are as close as I can recall after hearing a radio report.) A liberated scent, such as Charlie, is worn by a career -oriented woman. A classic perfume, such as Chanel 5, is- the choice of a conservative female. A woman who wears an exotic , fragrance can/be expect d to do the unexpected. The fourth category is •labelled "French designe perfumes" and a' lady wearing thos fragrances is fashion conscious and has exquisite taste. A woman'who chooses romantic scents shows that she has a man at the centre of her life. Door-to-door fragrances; for example, Avon and Fuller Brush; are worn by a woman who is sure of herself and comfortable where she is. Unfortunately I can't remember the label given to the seventh class, but they are perfumes worn by independent, hardworking women, who are strongly dedicated to any cause they adopt. The radio report left several questions unanswered. How Many women were surveyed? How long did the study take? On what hyotheses were the conclusions baSed? Why was the ,study undertaken? What will the information be used for? The most important question is in my opinion, does she, the psychologist, plan a similar study into the types of after shave lotioh used by men. Thefndings of such a survey would be invaluable,, if ony to adfi fuel to the fire of cornediennes' monologues.' Remember Truscott Dear a Editor, Cent writer to you, I feel that the ordeal of Steven Truscott should NOT be forgotten, as we have yet to reform our criminal code and our system of justice to apply the j eth se s na sr pwe shouldrusco t t havecas writer,ewl eaas r nindoI frominnocent, evti, convinced tkceidethaPtrTevrui°sticsott and agree that Truscott should be allowed to live a normal life in anonymity, unless he himself wishes to dootherwise.that he T he was released from prison under exceptional precautions to protect his anonymity is, in my opinion, a tacit admission by the Department of Justice that there is now at least reasonable doubt whether Truscott committed the crime or received a fair trial, and also a high degree of confidence that he is unlikely to be a future danger to society. I can see no justification whatever for trial of a 14 -year-old in adult criminal court, and believe that our law should be changed to prevent it, and to protect the identity of the accused, at least until convicted beyond reasonable doubt. In crimes as highly inflammatory of local residents' emotions as the Lynne Harper case, the trial should automatically be held in another, area, where the chanes of obtaining a truly impartial jury are much greater. A jury tries to be impartial but may find it difficult. The really disturbing aspect of the Lynne Harper murder case is that, because a more thorough search for --sex --pervert suspects apparently was not made, the guilty person may- still be at large, and may have committed many similar, unsolved _murders since. A considerable proportion.. of sex pervert murderers though not all, repeat their 'crimes if not ap- prehended and most are mentally deranged (or sometimes under , the influence of hallucenogenic drugs and -or alcohol at the time of the crime), and if not apprehended, are likely to constitute a continuing danger to society. • A few, of course, are so' shocked, when they regain their senses, by the enormity of their crime, that they swear off drugs and alcohol forever, and never again commit a crime. If Steven Truscott's ordeal during his prosecution and over 10 years of imprisonment results in reform of Canada's laws and legal system to prevent • possible . similar miscarriages of justice in the future, I do not think that Steven himself will regard his ordeal to have been in vain. Indeed, he may possibly become a future leader in reform of our penal • and justice systems, for all we know. I am hoping that public conscience over the injustice which many believe to have, been committed against Steven Truscott, both before and after his conviction, will result in reform of our legal system so as to prevent possible future similar miscarriages, and also to aid in the rehabilitation of young offenders. All too often, because of lack. of such a rehabilitation system, first of- fenders are imprisoned with har- dened criminals and "trained" in what turn out to be advanced "schools of crime." Ultimately, there is a great saving to be made, both in financial and human terms, by abolition of these "schools of crime", and rehabilitation of our young offenders. Yours very truly, Harold B. Stevens, M.C.L.C. -Port Hope • Successful program Dear Editor, icet Family and Children's Services of Huron County is pleased with the success of its new community program FACES '79 (Family and Children's Excursion Services). The number of children involved has substantially increased from 90 in the summer of 1978 to 214 children involved with FACES '79. An Experience '79 grant allowed the agency to hire Pauline Hall and Margaret Foran as program co- ordinators. Margaret, with the assistance of volunteers, involved 75 children in a variety of special activity day camps throughout the county. Sixty-nine children participated in the week-long overnight camps with Pauline. In addition, another 70 children were sent to other organized camps including a one -parent family camp. Special thanks is expressed to the 20 volunteers who actively participated in both programs. Their time and com- mitment to the children and the program contributed greatly to the summer's success. We would also like to thank our volunteer drivers. The support demonstrated from the community for the FACES 'summer program was greatly appreciated. Donations to the Special Benefits Summer Camp Fund totalled $3,947. This funding made the entire program possible. • Yours very truly, John V. Penn, Director. `,. •