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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1969-04-24, Page 14Palo 4 -- Windham Advance -Times, Thursday, April 41969 Outofthe Painful Past The Grade XIII students in Ontario's secondary schools are Working on a study project which is particularly significant. They are delving into ,the phenomenon of . the Great Depression—the pre -War econo- mic slump which paralyzed the civilized world for more than eight dreary years. Although none of us who lived through and somehow survived those years of stagnation, would want our own children to suffer through a similar period of hopelessness, we do believe that young people should know something of the consequences. Many of today's parents, often belittled and berated by their child- ren, were so shaped and influenced by their experiences in the "dirty thirties" that they have never been the same since. The grinding poverty of the years from 1930 to' 1937 is something that today's kids simply don't believe. Try telling your,. youngsters, for instance, that your budget for Cokes at age 17, when that beverage vias 5c for a tall glass—was one per week, and they will stare at you .in sheer un- belief. At worst they think you are lying and at best they 'believe you are so old that your memory has begun to slip. They cannot comprehend a society in which even the barest essentials had to be fore- sworn. , We recall that a few particularly re- sourceful housewives could manage meat for a family, of five on 6Qc a week. Mind you, it took a lot of bread crumbs and soda biscuits to stretch the ground beef AWN that far, but it could be done. Lots of homes never saw butter from , one year's end to the other. Clothing was mended and hems were let down and garments passed on from one son or daughter to the next. Despite the fact that the depression created untold misery and hardship, it did not produce a generation of weaklings or cowards. This is the great. truth_ which today's young people should learn. Those hard years produced the soldiers and sailors and airmen who had the neces- sary fortitude to face and defeat the enemies of civilization. Those gruelling times also produced the. generation of hard - fighting money - makers who have built up the affluence on which our own children can plan their purchases of up- to-the-minute attire and new sports cars. It was inevitable that some of those who had to fight so hard for economic survival should errcrge a bit too. greedy but for the most part the depression in- stilled nothing more than a gri.m deter- mination to succeed in a world which had proven to be pretty rough on those who could not fend for themselves. Parents are continually reminded that they have failed to understand their child- ren—a charge which is true in many in- stances. However, it is even more im- portant for young .people to understand their parents—to see them in the light of those influences and •experiences by which they were molded. Where Are All Those Students During this past winter, when there ;was a sizeable walk -out of students at the local high school, the core of com- plaint about a longer school year was that students would be kept at their books `until all opportunities for summer em- ployment would be gone. .. The- government of the province has also taken due notice of the need for sum- mer employment of students. Several ' hundred thousand dollars .are being spent on an. advertising compaign to stress the merits of student employment to potential erhployers. Two weeks ago The Advance -Times of- :fered free classified advertising to those AstvcIents who want summer employment, along with the suggestion that the early will get the .bestrY.worms-f--•from 'tb *employment standpoint.. So far we have , fi"ad no advertisers. Perhaps we don't think like today's `students, but we believe that there is a fair amount of work available for the. young person who is willing to sweat a bit a,nd do a' conscientious job. As one ex ample, householders find it increasingly difficult to get anyone who will look after the extra jobs around lawns and flower - beds. Although we wouldn't expect any student to become a full -fled d house painter, almost every . home h flower- ?. . need for smaller touch-up and,repair jobs -the sort of thing an intelligent .lad could handle quite efficiently. There is, of course, a possibility that the rates of . pay offered for this sort of ,, work will not be quite on a par with those charged by professionals, ,but that would "\bel logical. " We don't suggest that students are lazy. Only that with imagination and in- itiative they could pickup some welcome extra dollars this summer. We still offer free ads Sure Makes You Think This is the time of year when : the average . Canadian does some . real soul searching about .the . kind of governments hesupports and the ' high cost of .all the services he accepts from them. The moy merit of • truth comes when he sits down to make out 'the cheque for the • income tax people. For many, of"course, the pain is disguised by the fact that payment has been made. in 52 easy installments as de ductions at the source from his weekly pay cheque. We certainly live in easy-going times, There has been relatively little open corn- -plaint as taxes have climbed higher year by -year. This- year, however, there is a• new discontent in the land—particularly in ,Ontario, where fears are widespread that county boards. of education, regional government and other such innovations, will become very expensive luxuries. The taxpayer is suffering not only the pain of a deeper bite, but also from a lack of solid information on the real purpose in exacting all the extra flesh from the wound. - Some of it seems to make little sense. For example, the County of Huron made its plans to take over the responsibility for assessmeht procedures in all munici- palities. • . An expensive building•was erect- ed in Goderich, with not only enough floor space to house the county assessor and his staff—but with space left over for future expansion. The Ontario gov- ernment, through the Municipal Board had to approve the necessary expenditure for ^the structure and apparently did so. The county assessor took over on the first of January, but within two months the province announced that county as- sessors will become a thing of the past. The province will assume that responsi- bility.. • The future of Huron's new building is in some doubt, for the counties of Huron and Perth will be grouped together as one unit for assessment purposes. Head- quarters for the combined counties will, in all probability, be somewhere other than at Goderich. A. province -wide assessment schedule makes good sense in .theory. It should be moreequitable than the local assessment plan, under which each. community and jurisdiction was free to set its own stand- ards. The inevitable variations from town to town and township to township created the need for equalization committees so that county rates -could be fairly divided. Under the provincial plan the intention is to place a proper market value on:MI properties as the basis for taxation. It will no longer be possible to make lots of improvements to the interior of a home and leave the outside unimproved in order to fool,. the assessor. Quite likely we will see a sharp increase in the assessment values and a considerable drop , in mill rates. Tlie real grit of the _matter, however, will be the tax bill and don't hdld your breath in expectation of a decrease in the . actual dollars you will have to cough up. TI ere seems to be a fixed formula which dictates that the cost of any oper- ation is increased in direct ratio to the level of government by which' it is hand- led. The cost of -"'assessing Huron County properties, as one example, would have increased by many thousands of dollars with the move from local to county re- sponsibility. The economies which .are so frequently promised by moving to a larger and more efficient unit of operation are all too often eaten up many times over by the empire -building proclivities of those who find themselves with new and broader responsibilities and the opportunity to ex- pand their, field of control. Parkinson's law seems basic to government operations • 'of all kinds in this 'country. If any government, local, county, pro- vincial or federal, has assumed in the past ten years that the taxpayers are' fat and, happy and thus will make no serious ob- jection to freer use of their dollars, they were right. If that ' assumption is con- tinued for another 12 or 15 months they will be dead wrong. The taxpayers are starting to squirm and squeal'. The end of the "soak -it -to -'em" era is in sight. THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros. Limited W. Barry Wenger, President • , Robert O. Wenger, Seetetary-Treasurer Member Audit Bureau of Circulation Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association Sukscription _Rate: 1 yr. $6.00; 6 months $3.25, in advance; USA $7.00 per yr:; Foreign rate $7.00 per yr. Advertising Rates on application Second Class Mail Registration No. -0821 Return Postage Guaranteed SCENE STEALERS — Thesei three young ladies, modelling outfits- made by their mothers who took sewing at night classes, were show stoppers at a fashion show held last Thursday night in How.ick Central School. From left are Janna Gowdy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Gowdy of Gorrie; Leisa Garniss, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Murray Garniss of Wroxeter, and Lindy Mulvey, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Mulvey of Wroxeter:' —Banner Photo. News Items from Old Files APRIL 1920 Mr. William Clendenning left on Good Friday for Bler-- heim where he will reside with his sister, Mrs. J. Forbes. We are sorry to lose Mr. Clenden- ning after his twenty five years' residence in Wingham, but his eyes are fast failing although he has spared nothing in his en- deavors to have°his eyesight're-. stored. Mr. Clendenning has leased his residence on Minnie Street to Mr. John Johnston,. harness maker. • Mr. Frank J.. Hill has. eight. Rhode Island Red Pullets,. which started to .lay in. October, at five and a half months. They have kept up a record since. January which is considerably better: than the Ottawa laying contest. During January, Feb- ruary and March they laid 503 eggs or an average of better than 5-1 eggs per day. .In the first six days in April they laid forty-one eggs, or'alinost sev- en per day!' Mr. Hill will have a few settings for sale, and we would advise you to order how. APRIL 1934 Mr. A. L. Posliff, . Principal • of the Public School, was a .delegate to Ontario Educational Association .convention held last week in Toronto. It was his privilege to hear among many outstanding addressesthat of - "Education or Catastrophe" de- livered by Rabbi Eisendrath, which was in itself a master- piece of eloquence and inspir- ation. . Rev. L. H. Currie, pastor of the United Church, who has been invited to Wellington Street United Church, London, announced to his 'congregation on Sunday morning that he had decided to accept this invita- tion. ,On Wednesday of 1 as t week a ° congregational meeting was held at which a vote of ap- preciation was extended to Mr. Currie by the congregation and it was with regret that the con- gregation received his decision, on Sunday. morning to leave Wingham. APRIL 1944 A very large congregation attended the Easter service in Wingham United Church on Sunday, morning. The church was decorated w i t h flowers. Several names were added to the church honor roll: L/Bdr. Roy E. Bennett, Pte. William 'G. Burgman, Donald Campbell, Harry Casemore, Wilfred Cas- lick, Mary Cruickshank, P.O, Colin Crozier, George Edgar, LAC. R. A. Hickey, R. H. Mont- gomery. Pte. Harry Spry, who h as 'been attached to the Record Office, Pacific Command, Van- couver for some time has been transferred to No. 2. Record Office, Toronto. The Easter meeting of the High School Literary Society was held on Thursday afternoon, April fifth in the school audi- torium. The students of grade 11 presented act 1 of Disraeli. The following is the cast: Dis- raeli, Milton Brown; Lady Bea- consfield, Grace Golley; Duke of Glastonburg, Ross Prodfer; Duchess of Glastonburg,Mabelle Dunkin; Clarissa, Jean Stewart; Charles, Viscount Dufdrd, Don Lloyd; Sir Michael Probert, Jack Walker; Mrs. Travers, Irene Currie. Mr. Erland Ecklin has joined the staff of CKNX. Mr. Ecklin is a former foreign correspond- ent of News Week Magazine and a former CBS war commen- tator in London, England. Six tables took part in a Howell movement at the Wing - ham Bridge Club at their week- ly meeting on. Thursday even- ing. The result of the play: tied 1st and 2nd, Mrs. R. S. Hetherington and Bert Procter, Mrs. George Ross and J. H. Crawford; 3rd, Jack Mason and W. H. French; 4th, Mrs . A. R. DuVal and Gordon MacKay; • tied for 5th and 6th, Mrs. J. Brown and Mrs. J. H. Crawford, Mrs., F. A. Parker and Art Wil- son. Under the auspices of the Wingham Fish and Game Club a truck load of speckled trout Was deposited in the streams of this district on Thursday last week. The club is making a determined effort to, restore the good fishing that wasenjoyed in years gone by. APRIL 1955 Members of the Wingham Community Players are search- ing diligently for four red-head- ed boys and a couple of adult red heads for their forthcoming production "Life With Father. " The play concerns the trials and tribulations of a family of red heads, and unless real car- rot -tops can be found, they'll have to use the henna, rinse lib- erally. R. H. Lloyd was re-elected president of the WinghamGolf Club as thirty-two golfers met at the annual meeting in the town council' chambers Monday night. It will be Mr. Lloyd's fifth term of the club, first or- ganized in 1949. J. J. Cruick- shank was the charter president. Other officers named at the .meeting are: Honorary presi- dent, Herbert Campbell; vice Huron - Perth Sitp orate School board meets president, Dr. Walton McKib- bon; treasurer, Frank Madill; secretary, John Cruickshank, and club captain, W i l f r e d French. The following com- mittee chairmen were also • chosen:. greens, Herbert Camp bell,' finance, J. Harley Craw- ford; membership, Omar Hasel- grove; and property, Dr. George Howson. Ronnie Baker, of town, had the honor of being the first one in the Maitland River. this year, when he opened the swimming season at the Howson's D a m during the warm weather on Monday. Asked how the water . was, Ronnie replied "Not bad"— somewhat dubiously, we thought Less than three .weeks ago Wing^ ham suffered one of the worst. blizzards of the season, and the occasional patch of snow is still *in evidence, although it dis- appearing rapidly. Six and a -half tables were in play at the regular meeting of the bridge club on Thursday evening. Results were as fol- lows: North and South, Mrs. R. S. Hetherington, D. Crump ton; Mrs. D. B. Porter, Miss Yvonne McPherson; Mrs. .G. Godkin, O. Haselgrove. East and West: Mrs. J. H. Craw- ford, R. S. Hetherington; Mrs. W. H. French, H. Sherbondy; Mrs. D. C. Nasmith, W. H. French. Sunday's warm temperatures, in the mid -seventies, were the second warmest on record, ac7. cording to the weather office. Highest Easter temperature wa§ ' . in 1941,, when the mercury hit, > 82. in 1940, the year before, the thermometer was at 20 de- grees with a nainirnum temper- ature of four above zero and . Easter, which in that year fell on March 24th. Sunday was on- ly the third time in 40 years that the temperature had been in the 70's for Easter. Irish stew today,. 'or . clam chowder, or whatever your fa= vorite mucky dish is. It will contain fish and ' eggs, metal and glass. A recent column pn personal beets brought a `'hair - raiser from. W.Hie of, West Gravenhurst. Quote: °Question- 4or what formai education teaches have done and are doing, should iiia' tory indict the as murder- ers, manslaughterer suicides and conspirators thereto? I must vote 'yeti,' because after years of research I have not been able to find others on whom to place the responiibili- ty for the hell on earth which will be Our Canada in a very few years now — death and destruction everywhere." It may have been my attack on the beer can that sparked this. But he goes on to say that scarcely any teachers know that ours is a metal civiliza- tion, that we have nearly ex- hausted the most necessary of • these metals and that theye- fore our form of civilization is ending. Mr. House would never make a public relations man for ei- ther the teaching vocation or the metals industry, ° but he sure comes to,the'point. The same column in which I attacked disposable bottles, brought a letter from — guess who — the public relations. firm, for the Glass Container Council.' Enclosed was a broc- hure called "No -Deposit Bot- tles — A Study." The the of The Sttidy says the facts have shown that, properly handled, the no -de- posit bottle is not a danger to children or livestock, not `a sig- nificant source of litter, not a cause of forest fires, not a problem .in handling solid waste. How did' we get onto forest fires? ' It ends on a smug note: "The no-depositbottle is wanted by the public as a• form of conven- ience packaging." Well; I'm one of the public, and I don't want it. Also, "convenience," used to be a noun when • I went to school. The Huron -Perth Separate School Board, meeting at St. James' Separate School, Sea - forth, last week reported that the superintendent; John Vintar,' will meet with the school prin- cipals on April 24. The board approved a mo- tion to contact the Perth County engineer in regard to the° erec- tion of school signs at St. Pat- rick's School in Dublin. A kindergarten class in the Clinton Separate School is to be, deferred for at lelst one year. A discussion arose on the use of the strap in schools, 'There is no regulation to prevent prin- cipals of area separate schools from using the strap. The dis- cussion arose when it was , indi- cated'that principals felt the use of the strap was forbidden by department regulations. Student Teachers at Public School But. the key words in that blurb are ."properly handled". 4L10 they; meat} ithe_facts, of the: bottles. Facts, pi'operly Ban- died, can be a snow; job. Student teachers from Strat- ford Teachers' College at the Wingham Public School this week are Miss Mary Lu Miller of Owen Sound and Paul Brown of Goderich teaching Grade VI for Mrs. Thornton; .Miss Brenda Langille of Londesboro and Miss Cheryl Haskins of Gorrie teach- ing Grade VII and VIII for ° Mr. Ross; Miss Ann Burnside of Ower Sound and Miss Janice Pointon of Owen Sound teaching Grade VIII for Mrs. Walsh; Miss Grace Cullen of Clinton and Miss Sharon Slater of Walkerton teaching drade I for Mrs. Rob- ertson; Miss Mary Showers of Hanover and Miss Donna Al- paugh of Chesley teaching Grade V for Mrs. Coultes; Miss Joyce Musty of Listowel a n d Miss Agnes Schellenbeger of St. Marys teaching Grade II for Mrs. Mundell. There is only one thing for a man to do who is married to a woman who enjoys spending money, and that Is to, enioy earning it. However, mdstn't get built `up on ' the bottle. I pro nised,> some ' fish inthis stew, Read the fish story the other day, Wt's too good to 'be true, but Will pass it, along. Focal couple was vacationing in California. They were invit ed to a wine and fish dinner. Hostess had .a huge fish, sal- c mon, or s9nnething, cooked, gar, nished and put on the table. She went in from the patio for a last-minute ; check Ott there was the family cat up to its eyebrows in fish. She squealed for her hus- band. He came and like a sensi- ble chap, said, "Turn it over; they'll .never notice." There was only about a pound miss- ing, from the one side. They did, the guests were .called in, and unanimously called it. the best fish they'd ever eaten. Host, pleased at his ingenui- ty strolled outside and saw the cat lying dead. His thoughts can only be conjec- tured. But three . hours later, after all the guests had been to hospital and had their sto- machs pumped out, he and his wife . got home, just a little harassed. A neighbor woman came to the door. "I didn't want to . disturb you while you had guests, and I'm terribly sorry, but 1 ran over your cat and killed it." End of story. Which reminds me of Gracie Fields And the eggs. This is true. I was there. Miss Fields, Lancashire lass with great voice and comic sense, was on her fourth -last farewell . tour. She took the old steamer Ha- monic, on which 1 worked, down'the lakes from Duluth to Detroit. In for breakfast two hours late, she ordered eggs. The chef was sore, but fried them. She sent• them back, because they were sunny side up. The chef lifted an Oriehtal eyebrow then his spatula, flipped Dem over on the plate, • and . sent them back in, sunny side down. Gracie being a woman, peek- ed, and the poor devil of a waiter, working his way through college, took the full force of a Lancashire tirade., while the wily old chef..in the g,91 ey,b 1pAeci..,'•, se t� n' casing 1 of a Ca tohees§"damn about Gracie Field`s; TODAY'S CHILD BY HELEN ALLEN This is Children's Aid Week, a good time to think about all the children in Ontario who have no mothers and fathers to .love them. These children need to be adopted so they will have parents and permanent homes. The lonely ones include boys and girls in a wide age range from tiny infants to 16. but the great majority are little boys under two. One of them is Glen, six months old, an appealing baby with lovely brown eyes, scanty light brown hair and fair sensitive akin. You can't see the dimple in his chin for the rattle. but it's there. Glen is a happy, relaxed little fellow, sturdily built and in good health, though he may be allergic to eggs. He sleeps and eats well. He loves attention and is not a bit shy. He needs to lie adopted to he will have the loving, secure home moat children take for granted. To inquire about adopting Glen. please write to Today's Child, Department of Social and Family Services, par- liament Buildings, Toronto 5. i%'or other information about adoption ask your local Children's Aid Society.