Clinton News-Record, 1979-11-01, Page 4' PM g 4r'-CLINTON NFWS-RECORD, T.W.SPAYL NOVEMBER 1 1979
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Look at ourseives
It's no wonder people in the know
are concerned about a predicted
doctor shortage in Clinton, that is
already starting to pinch the town,
and could become serious if not soon
alleviated.
According to a story in last week's
News -Record by Shelley McPhee, the
problem is already becoming a
concern among the community
leaders and the doctors themselves,
as even now, our practitioners have
-heavy Vvorkloads, some of them
working up to 70 hours a week.
Most of our four doctors are getting
older, and three will retire within the
next few years, with little likelihood
they will be replaced, unless
something is done.
According to one doctor,. Brian
Baker, the problem stems from the
appearances that Clinton is dying and
has little to offer a young doctor.
"Clinton's losing its industries and I
see many houses for sale," Dr. Baker
says. "We have to get off our back
ends and start promoting the town.
We're a dying community."
And he's right. In the past few
years, .Clinton has lost the piano
factory, the livestock sales barn, and
beencs,eyerly effected by ,the loss of
fteginditaries atYanastra, .
Except for Flerning's Feed Mill,
there hasn't been one new job created
in Clinton since Wildex opened their
plant in 1971. In fact, we don't even
have an industrial corhmittee, and
can't even come up with a brochure to
tell potential industries and
businessmen the advantages of the
town. The attitude of municipal of-
ficials is one of apathy.
One big drawback hurting Clinton's
chances at getting new doctors - and
the lack of doctors is already sending
people to other towns where they also
end up doing their shopping - is the
lack of a medical centre where
doctors could pool their resources.
It's just too tough financially to ex-
pect a young doctor to set UD a
practice in a home, which wouiu in-
clude buying a lot of expensive'
'equipment.
Although a committee has been
working hard at trying to lure new
doctors, and is still pursuing the
matter, the general public will have to
get off their derrieres and cease being
apathetic. And that can mean as little
as cleaning up your yard, or painting
your house or business.
After all, what kind of impression
can you make to a stranger when all
he sees is piles of junk as he drives
into town, rundown houses, and
empty businesses on main street with
weeds growing up between to cracks
in the ,sidewalk, while others haven't
had a coat of paint in 10 years.
Come on Clinton, let's get off our
bottoms and do something before it's
too late!
sugar andspice
The Press Gang
As he promised, James Lamb had his
publishers send me a copy of his just -
published book, Press Gang, and I'm
glad he did. Laid up with a dose of 'flu, I
was able to escape from my personal
miseries. into this warm and en-
tertaining account of small-town
Canadian newspapers and the people
who ran them in the post-war era.
As well as the, newspaper world, the
author has produced a social document
of some jrnportance, re-creating small-
town Canada (the real Canada, in my
opinion) in all its quirkiness, wealth of
colorful characters, and basic stability,
qualities that seem to be eroding
rapidly.
It is very much a first -person
narrative. We meet the young- Jim
Lamb, just out of the Navy, after years
on the corvettes, and determined to
bedorne a newspaperman.
Lamb recapture q the excitement and
urgency of that first autumn of 1945 and
the years immediately following.
Canada had come of age in World War
II, and Canadians knew it. Europe was
shattered, Britain exhausted. This was
the best country in .the world to live in,
and all we recently discharged young
veterans knew it. There was an almost
palpable exhilaration in the air.
Right across the country, including
Quebec, there was a sense of pride, a
feeling of unity, that had never existed
•in this country/ before, and has sadly
deteriorated:since. Our fighting .hien
had proved themselves the ecitial of
any, our industry was booming, there
was lots of room and opportunity for
everyone, and the future was rosy. Well
do I remember the feeling.
This was before the social revolution,
the inflation, the monstrously swollen
government, the huge deficits, and the
shadow of separatism: the things that
have turned us into a nation of security -
minded, thaterialistic try -babies,
But let me not draw a gloomy picture
of "Press Gang". It's a delightful book,
one that .will bring a nostalgic glow to
• all thde ,,people who lived In small
towns across Canada in the Polies and
Fifties.
net s only.a yOurig reporter in a
sti'4iige town t an be, Lamb gradually
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"Don't complain — we saved :you, didn't we?"
remembering
our past
' a look through
the news -record files
5 YEARS AGO
October 24, 1974
The Roman Catholic Parich, com-
prising St. Joseph's Church in Clinton
and St. Michael's Church in Blyth has a
nevv: clergyman in charge. He is Rev.
Joseph F. Hardy, 41, who has served in
the London Diocese of the Church in the
immigration and ecumenical fields as
chairman of the Diocesan committees.
"Mildess" of the Kittens of the
Christian Reform Young People proved
pretty powerful in their Powder Puff
football encounter with the Middleton
Church Angels at the CHSS grOunds.
The Clinton based girls lambasted the
Goderich Township lassies 18-0 on two
touchdowns by Jeannette Kuipers and
one by Sophia Hoogendoorn, Three
attempts at conversion by Cobie
Amsing were unsuccessful.
• 10 YEARS AGO
October 23, 1969
A family of- eight were made
homeless when their Goderich
Township farmhouse burned last
Saturday evening. The fire levelled the.
Roy Pickett's family house on the 14th
concession. The house and its contents
were uninsured.
Afer meeting with Police Chief Lloyd
Westlake for three hours in committee -
of -the -whole, thetown council an -
became absorbed in the atmosphere
and social life of the places he worked:
Woodstock, Moose Jaw, Orillia. And he
recreates this feeling of a. younger,
happier Canada, when life was simpler
and society less sophisticated on those
tree -shaded streets of our towns and
small cities.
From the .author we also get a good
look into the workings and
machinations of those small
newspapers with their ramshackle old
buildings and rickety machinery,
where reporters worked for $30 a week,
and loved it. It's delightful stuff for
anyone who has been in the business..
But perhaps the greatest pleasure in
the book is the anecdotes and vignettes
of characters, all the way from Lamb's
first meeting with tight-fisted Roy
Thomson, to become eventually Lord
Fleet of London and owner of the
biggest newspaper empire in the world,
down to the grubbiest paper -carrier,
' baffling the bureaucracy of the
newspaper with his complete lack of
organization.
We meet Harry Boyle, self made
Canadian millionaire, who wound up
with the Queen of Rumania as his
mistress. And C. H. Hale, editor of the
Orillia Packet and Times, "a prototype
of all the old-line newspapermen across
the country who ran newspapers
because they had something to say, not
because they thought they could get'
rich."
There were ., quite a few of those
around wh'en I was in the business, but
there aren't many left. The thundering
of the editor has been replaced by the
wiles of the advertising manager, in
the pursuit of the buck. The result isan
almost national blandness on the
editorial pages of small -city papers
across the country. Don't step on too
many toes.
James Lamb was one of the good
ones, and during the years he was
editor in Orillia, Packet and Times
editorials were quoted across the
country.
In the last few chapters of Press
Gang, Jim Lamb's tone changes from a
nostalgic chuckle to a tone of lament
arid even anger for a Canada that has
been lost, He sounds off loud and clear
for the millions of Canadians who must
grit their teeth and suffer in silence the
"inanit'es and incomprehensions of a
new bred (of journalise', or be labelled ,
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"rednecks or "reactionaries by the
trendy types who today write the news.
He comes out swinging at govern-
ment that governs in a vacuum. "It is
probably 'fair to say that most recent
Canadian legislation runs directly
counter to the wishes of the majority of
Canadians...In a whole range of issues,
from abortion and capital punishment
to the metric system and the monar-
chy, the attitude of the rulers is at
variance with that of the ruled." And a
lot more of it.
This is vintage Lamb editorializing,
and while you might not share all his
‘!ews, it ends the book with strength
and sting.
nounced that it decided to reverse last
year's decision to require the chief to
live in town.
.. Mayor Don Symons said, "I think
that the whole sum and substance of it
is that he is capable of doing his job, or
at least we feel he is, while living in
Bayfield.
A team from Central Huron Secon-
dary School, competing on the "Reach
For The Top" program on CKNX-TV,
Wingham defeated Shelburne High
School last week.
. 25 YEARS AGO
October 28, 1954
One of the most intensive searches in
the history of the Bayfield district took
place Tuesday evening for two-year-old
'George Montgomery, son of Corporal
and Mrs. G.E. Montgomery, who
moved- into Jowett Grove Cottage 3 on •
September 25. „
The child was safely found ofi „the
beach -about. one *die from his home,
below McAlister's cottage, lying face
clown in the sand at approximately
10:30 prn by a. group of men consisting
of R,E. Henderson, Ken Brandon,
George Bell, John Lindsay and James
Boyce.
50 YEARS AGO
October 31, 1929
On Sunday evening, while the family
were at tea, Mr. H.E. Rorke's car was
stolen from his garage. At 6 pm it was
in the garage and a few minutes before
7 pm it was discovered that it was gone.
The police departments of the various
towns about have been notified, but no
trace has yet been found of the car.
This is the season when.our minds are
harried by tales of suffering and loss of
life on ihe Great Lakes. Those who do
business on our lakes take their lives in
their hands during the uncertain
weather of October, November and
December.
There are many old coins in cir-
culation, and lying around in drawers
that have great value. For example,
the Copper Penny, dated 1839, with the
Bank of Montreal .on its face is today
worth $15. It is not so much the age that
counts, it is the scarcity of. particular.
coins of certain dates, For a rare coin
catalogue sent postpaid for 18c to..A.E.
Doherty and Co., 93 Wurtemburg
Street, Ottawa.
11
odds n° ends
Call me Elaine.
Call me anything ; just don't call me
late for lunch. That's a common
phrase used when someone asks how
they should refer to you or when
someone addresses you by the wrong
name. It's a way to let peopleknow
you forgive them for forgetting your
name; you've forgotten a few names
yourself.
I've mentioned this before, but I'll
mention it again. I have problems
with my name; in fact, I have
problems with both my names.
Take my first name, for example.
It's pronounced with the long sound
"EE" followed by "lane", as in a
narrow street or road. A silent "i" is
thrown in the middle of the lane just to
add confusion. Some Elaynes use a
silent "y", which probably achieves
the same purpose.
Elaine isn't an uncommon name, is
it? I've run across a few of them in my
Por some strange reason, I'm
called a variety of names by a variety
of people. The most popular is Eileen,
but I'm also referred to as Aileen,
Ellen, Helen, Lucy, Shrimp and
Squirt. (Vie last tkvo I don't eveh
dignify by raising my head.)
Behind my back, 't•n probably
75 YEARS AGO,
October 27, 1904
Two loads of the Model students
visited the Goderich Modelites on
Friday evening last and spent a few
enjoyable hours. At midnight they
began the journey homeward which
they made in a rather roundabout way'
so did not reach Clinton until five
o'clock the next morning. On future
trips of this kind they will make sure on
leaving Goderich that they are on the
Huron Road, not the Lake Shore Raod
leading to Bayfield.
A number from Hullett Township,
who had been in the West this fall, are
expected home this week, in time for
the election.
Miss Flossie Harrison from Goderich
Township is suffering from a severe
sore throat.
Just Out - 'Sherlock Holmes' - a new
card game. Sherlock HolMes is the,v,ery
latest in card 'games. Thp price is dog,.
Also all the other popular games, in-
cluding the new games of `Trix,' Pit and
Flinch are 50c each at W. Cooper and
Co.
100 YEARS AGO
October 30, 1879
A certain farmer on the 3rd con-
cession of Stanley paid no less than 23
visits to Clinton, on business, inside of
two weeks.
In the G.T. freight shed is a con-
signment of picture frames to a person
here, which looks large enough to
supply the whole country with all the
frames it would require for the next 10
years.
The way the mail from the east has
been arriving during the past two
weeks is simply outrageous. Nearly
every day it has been five o'clock, and
occasionally later, before it is
distributed, very much to the in-
convenience of the business com-
munity. As it arrived at Sti-atford at
11:30 am, there is no justifiable reason
for its delay.
Lottery tickets have been sent to
several parties in the neighborhood,
from the States, for disposal. We would
caution our readers against purchasing
the same, if offered for sale, as lot-
teries, are not only illegal, but are a
complete swindle, and anyone investing
anything in them, may consider it
worse than thrownaway.
by
elaine townshend
called.names I'd rather not hear.
Many people call me Eileen; I don't
mind; I like the name, but I got into
an embarrassing situation because of
it. I was called Eileen so often, that I
fell into the habit of answering to
Eileen almost as quickly as I an,
swered to Elaine:.
One night the phone rang; a man
asked for Eileen; without thinking, I
said, "This is she." Too late I realized
he really did want Eileen.
It was extremely difficult to explain
that not only was I not the Eileen he
wanted but I wasn't Eileen at all. Why
'did I say I was, when I wasn't?
never do that again!
Now let's look at my last name -
Townshend. I understand why peciple
omit the silent "h"; I insist the.put it
in, but I understand why they forget
it.
Sometimes people forget other
letters, such as the w, s or an n. I've
received mail addressed to Elaine
Towshed, Eileen Tonsend, Aileen
Towsent and Elaine Townthead. .
The labels Miss and Ms add to the
s/ariety. Once I received a letter
addressed to Mrs. Elaine Townshend.
That really shook me!
The people at the Pot Office are
extremely tolerant. They've 'become
familiar with most of the variations;
if it looks close enough to my name,
they throw it in my box, Only nee
have I been asked, "Do you SupPose
this is for you?"
"Your guess is as' good as mine,"
was. my reply.
My middle name, by the way, is
Marie, which seldom causes any
problems. If you say my initials
quickly; though, EMT sounds like
empty.
Some 'people are named after their
parents' favorite movie stars, sports'
heroes, political figures or behaved
relatives or close friends.
When I asked my parents what
prompted them to call me Elaine
Marie, they were stumped. "Oh, I
guess we thought it sounded nice
together."
Little did they know people would
find many variations for the simple
name. Oh well, variety is the spice of
life. It's confusing at times but I don't
mind.
',IIMONNOOMIN
would presume mach of the needed
funds are available through grants
and if, delayed any longer, will cer,
tainly be used in some other area
which might not be in Huron County.
We have a good start in Tucker -
smith Township with the only heated
pool in the county. Why licit be
builders together and show the
handicapped we really care by at-
tending the ratepayers' meeting on
Monday, November 12 at 8,p.m. at the
Vanastra Recreation Ha I.
Sighed
Rath! en WhitrnOre
Tuckersmith
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the
readers
emaate.aaromalmot_
No addition
Dear Editor:
There has been a lot Of talk abOut
the Vanastra Recreation Complex
addition. A small survey baS in-
dicated to Council that t4e tax payers
are against this addition. A petition
signed by over 100. people was
presented to council, asking that they
go to the tax payers by means of a
vote.
The council has decided that on
November 12, there will be a
ratepayers' meeting. If you are
against this project and don't want it
on your taxes, then it is time to get up
and fight.
From the indiction presented to one
council member, you want him to
fight it alone. This cannot be done.
It is one thing to sign a petition and
another to back it up. To be fair to
your council and council members,
every one who is against this iSs,ne
should be at the next council meeting
November 6. Support the people
working for you. If you sit on your butt
and allow something tobe pushed
down your throat that you don't want,
you can cry all you want after but no
one is going to wipe the tears.
Ask yourself: How many tax dollars
have we already paid that you are
unaware of? And do you want to
continue paying? It's up to you. Let's
have some support. Don't miss the
rate payers meeting November 12, at
Vanastra Rec. Hall.
If you support the addition, come,
out and fight for it.
Lloyd Eisler,
Egmondville
Need 'addition
Dear Editor:
I have been concerned recently
about the negative attitudes of a few
ratepayers of Tuckersmith Township
regarding the new addition of the
Recreation Complex at Vanastra, as
appeared in our local newspapers.
It is always most unfortunate when
a new project pertaining to the
handicapped is rejected by a few
people who 1. am sure don't fully
understand the circumstances.
Possibly having worked as a Board
Member and -a volunteer with han-
dicapped persons, my experience
would be of some value to your
readers.
I would like to suggest to those in
opposition to this addition to consider
themselves in a wheelchair at
Vanastra Recreation Centre or any
public building in need of using the
washrooms only to find when you
iee a Ch the door you and your
wheelchair can get no further -
consider the frustration - or suppose
you are a gentleman in a wheelchair
wanting to exercise in the pool (the
only access to the pool in a wheelchair
is through the ladies' changeroom) -
so while the ladies hide you are.
rushed quickly through this area. You
would feel embarrassed wouldn't
you? As a volunteer I have seen this
happen.
These conditions wouldn't be
tolerated by other members of our
society and shouldn't have to be
tolerated by the handicapped for in
the sight of God all people are equal.
It also upsets me to think there are
people in Tuckersmith who put the
almighty dollar ahead of the needs of
people, although I realize possibly
this is , due to the lack of un-
derstanding.
I am sure this recreation addition
has been well researched by the
Tuckersmith Council, whom we
elected with confidence to run the
affairs of the township so why in the'
name of "common sense" don't we let
them go ahead with what they feel is
best.
The complex at Vanastra has
served its purpose well, but like any
growing business at the present time
isn't large enough to accommodate all
the present needs - any good business
person, knows you can't stand still in
business, you either go forward or
backwards.
I feel sure if properly handled, this
addition could be funded without
going to the taxpayers of Tuckersmith
through taxes.
At the present time priority grants
from the Province of Ontario are for
the elderly and the handicapped
because the government realizes that
the most economical way to help
these groups of people is to furnish
facilities for them to help themselves
rather than institutions which are
extremely costly.
Because the needs of the han-
dicapped are shared in areas rather
than small comMunities, I don't see
fund raising as a great problem,
providing the opportunity hasn't been
destroyed by the comments (by a
very few Tuckersmith residents)
which recently appeared in our local
papers.
Did you know that the most com-
mon form of handicap is "aging"
which none of us escape. It could well
be the ones that oppose the addition to
the Recreption.Centre at Vanastra the
most, might be the ones who need it
first.
In conclusion, may I say I see no
reason in taking a vote as suggested.
Votes are always costly, achieve little
and are time consuming. The need for
the added facilities is here. Two
hundred aid fifty persons takin the
Special Needs Program duringthe
past months Icertainly indicated this. I
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