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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1972-01-27, Page 4Page 4—The Wingham Advance -Times, Thursday, January 27, 1972 Back Where It Belongs The announcement a week ago that the former Wingham post office building has been, or is about to be purchased by the town as a site for a day care centre, is good news for this community. Situated as it is, immediately across from the town hall and in the core .of the shopping, centre of the town, it is certainly a relief to know that the imposing red ..brick structure will now be properly maintained and its outward appearance will no logger be a£ menace to the reputation to. the comrrtun- ity. Much more important, however, is the fact that it will be employed for a useful pur- pose. It remains to be seen how many work- ing mothers will avail themselves of the op- portunity provided by a*day care facility, but the initial survey indicates that there is a real need for this type of service in Wing - ham. Smaller communities tend to either shrug off or totally ignore the need for such sophisticated and "new fangled" social ser- vices. Because, we have an' established way of life we are inclined to think that the;pat- , tern will continue without change. That is not really true. In Wingham and the surrounding area there are a great many mothers who desperately need to supplement the family income, but find that the cost of baby-sitters pr housekeepers makes their efforts almost worthless. A day care centre, however, is not intended. to merely provide a baby-sitting service. Its chief objective is to initiate chil- dren into the social patterns which they will follow •l.atet in life. 0 It is a great achievement to learn mathematics,_engineering or typing—but .ad ,.. the .most important factor in the total pro- cess of learning is the knack of getting along amicably with one's fellows. The skills of companionship, friendship or, at the very Feast, general good will toward those with' whom we will have to associate for the next 50 or 60 years are paramount. The government's expensive plunge into social, development, as evidenced by the grants for day care centres may well be sus- pect as a vote -getting ..mechanism, but this time it has at least worked for a useful pur- pose. ioun.g Professionals -There is one aspect of our current youth sports program -/which continually nags at us—something like a chronic toothache. Most red-blooded Canadians are seriously dedicated to the "national sport". Hockey is a worthwhile part of the Canadian winter scene, for young and old alike. As a mafter of fact, hockey is something more than just a sport. It is a sacred cow in Canada—one of the things that no com- mentator is ever supposed to mention in print or on the air unless he is prepared to raise his arm skyward and join -the loud anthem of praise fo`r that particular game, in whatever form it is played. We can be just as .enthusiastjc as the next person when good, clean hockey is the subject. The mere fact that Paul Henderson comes from nearby Lucknow tends to set our scalp a -tingling, just like yours, when he scores a goal. Of course, when he trips a.n op- ponent or gets .a penalty for hooking, that is another matter. "Our Paul" certainly would never stoop to the rough tactics which are common throughout the NHL and equally so ,in local and minor hockey circles. • ,Be 'that as ,it may. If we want to face squarely up to the facts, the televised brand of hockey which draws the worthwhile bbx- a office receipts is the rough variety. Just like the•citizens of ancient Rome, we still pay oUt good solid cash to see a little blood flow. If the• players are getting paid for the punish- ment perhaps there is no great harm done. No harm to the players that is. But there is &tremendously bad influence on the tykes and bantams and juveniles who seek to copy the style of play they watch every Saturday night. The coach who sends youngsters onto.,, the ice with a "take 'em .out of the game" at- titude.is the sort of guy we can well get along without. Granted, he is willing to spenda lot of time at the arena with the youngsters, but somehow he reminds us of the "sportsman" , of a hundred years ago who spent everyun- day pitting his fighting game cock against his neighbor's bird in a win or die battle to the finish. , - Thank goodness this type of sports en- thusiast is a rarety rather than the reverse. There are hundreds of good coaches Who are doing a tremendousjob with the boys in their charge. However, a few adults seem to have lost a l I sense of proportion—like one father we know who pays- his son ,$1.50 for every goal he scores and is equally ready to slap the kid around when he fails to .cone through. , Great Minds. One hurried visit to Toronto fast week Prime Minister Trudeau voiced the very thought which has been expressed in this column on several previous occasions. You may recall that we have pointedout the dis-, parity between job opportunities and job seekers,which can be found in almost any is- sue of the daily papers' classified columns. While the federal statisticians release figures that Canada has 580,006'unemployed persons,, the average daily newspaper car- ries up to 20 or 30 columns of advertisements placed by individuals and corporations seek- ing help. If you are interested in the mystery of Canadian unemployment"statistics all you have to do is read on into the next classifica- tion lassification which carries the advertisements placed by the few who want tb find jobs. On the average these "work wanted" ads will 'total about six or eight. Mr. Trudeau struck the•nail squarely on the head when he said that it is, highly pos- Sible unemployment insurance benefits •are now so attractive that many Canadians pre- fer to remain,on the unemployed list rather than accepting jobs which will pay less than the ones from which they have been dis- 4 7 ` char9ed or laid off. In the words of the Prime Minister, some of our Canadian ,Unemployed would rather remain in their home towns on unemploy- ment benefits than make the move to other` places where work is available. Mr. Trudeau amplified: "The man who has previously. been earning $3.00 an hour takes unemploy- ment insurance because his only alternative offer has been a job at $1.75 -an hour. As we have said on'many previous occa- sions, unemployment insurance is a. great boon tgi those unfortunate people who really need but it is quite possible that the new and higher benefits which are now available are among the basic causes contributing to. the; high unemployment statistics in Canada , this year., A much more realistic w . of re- cording unemploy nt would be to enumer- ate tose householdf In which no member of the mily is bringing home a pay cheque. Th gloomy statistics of the "dirty thirties" were based on the "no income" households: Not on the seasonaly:unemployed or the laid - off housewives who had to while away their time while a working husband was bringing in an adequate income. We'II Have to Try Harder The week following November llth we wrote what we thought at the Time was a thoughtful editorial .for this column. Reflect- ing on the thousands of young men who have given their lives49ring the two majorwars in which Canadians have taken,,an active part, we mused for a few paragraphs, on a more hopeful aspect of the international . scene. We pondered the bare possibility, that national leaders may be losing some of -the absolute power which has sent so many fighting men to their violent deaths. The number of_ young Americans who have sought refuge in Canada as "draft dodgers" and the endless protests in the United States by those who ape opposed to the War in Viet Nam are an indication that politicians must heed, at least to some degree, the wishes of their constituents—and very few voters want e war unless it has become totally unavoid- able in defence of one's homeland. The editorial to which we refer was also carried in our Mount: Forest newspaper and ,it brought forth &r.epll_y from a highly literate letter writer in Toronto. Apparently all he had read in the editorial was a slur on the bravery of' our fine young Canadians who made the total sacrifice during the war. The Mount Forest Confederate carried his letter _(-a long one) in full and without comment, but it has bothered us ever since. Nothing could have been farther from our mind than under -valuing the courage of. the fallen. Many of those young men who didn't return were our closest friends and we need no rethinder" of how well and how will, ingly they,took up arms in a war which was not of their choosjng. - Perhaps this writer is losing the skill to put his thoughts before his readers so that they can be properly understood. Or, on the other hand, we may have a few readers who seek insdlts where none are intended. Cer- •fainly the man in Toronto missed the entire point of the article. We happen to be so keen- ly aware of the valour of our fallen friends that we still hope to see the dawn of a better era, in which their countrymen may be able to join hands with those across other borders and- oceans in the -clasp -6f peace. THE WINGHAM , ADVANCE -TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Weng-bros. Limited. Barry Wenger, President Robert 0. Wenger, Secretary -Treasurer Member Audit Bureau of Circulations Member Canadian and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Associations. Subscription Rote: Subscription $10.00 a year, $5.50 for six months, in United States $12.50 in advance Second Class Mail Registration No 0821 Return Postage Guaranteed F • '/;x/owul ca/E, Yo0 26 CALL/v5' q SivPip co , A -ND /OFF/c' 4LL. OT 4 3/1,PDE/ / ? Memories of the Jalna books A lot of people would give their eye-teeth for some free publicity in this column for whatever they're•selling'. In fact, I have a large case of mounted eye-teeth which I haven't bothered return- ing., For once, I'll make an excep- tion. In this case, it's a plug for a television series. I'm not much of a T.V. hound. Most of the content is aimed at the 12 -year-old men-, tality; and this is an insult to a bright 12 -year-old. Three . BBO series,. however, were well-d'bne enough to interest me. They were The Wives of Henry VIII, this year's Elizabeth. R, and The Forsyte Saga. In each case we had superb. entertain- ment,. without the violence, off- color jokes and utter inanity which characterize so many well- known and avidly followed' shows. I might add that one rea- son they appealed to me was that they were not trying to be "sig- nificant", merely good drama. I remember saying to my wife, during the span of the Forsyte family_, `,Wouldn'tthe Jalna navels 4nOke a wonderfi.ml ser- ies? She agreed, whereupon` I put a nick in the doorpost. 1 do this every time she agrees with me. There are three nicks there now. Of course, we've only had this house for ten years. Now we have 'it. A 'Canadian series, produced by the : CBC, which can turn out first-class stuff when the creative people manage to wiggle out fronLunder the meaty:, far -from -green• thumbs of the administrators. The Jalna series. Mazo de la Roche, creator of the Jalna novels, will never be ranked with Shakespeare or Dickens. But she was an excel- lent craftswoman, with a. shrewd knowledge of the reading public, able to blend romanticism and realism into a mixture that had a. universal appeal. It was the same old story. Practically unknown in Canada, she submitted her novel Jalna to a U.$. contest and won the Atlan- tic Monthly prize of $10,000 (I be- lieve), for best novel of the year. She had found a rich vein of gold. Like Ian Fleming, who DONNA BENNETT Repeating last years sue cess, Donna Bennett again captured the prize for her costume. Friday night she competed in the 'girls over 12 years ol,d class. Staff Photo. wrote the James Bond• nonsense, and that character who churns out the Carry On Doctor stuff, she mined her lode to the depths, ex- tracting every last nugget, and even panning for grains toward the end. Don't mistake me; she was a far better writer than the others mentioned. The novels deal with a large; extremely eomplex family, the Whiteoaks, living on a big farm near Lake Ontario, and it covers several generations. Our pioneer ancestors were about as much like the Whiteoaks as Pierre Trudeau is like me. And Jalna is about asp, real in rural 19th -century Canada, as Camelot was in' the barbaric dark ages. But this is part of the- charm. They're escape novels, in the best sense of the word. Yet, the author creates characters who are not only attractive but memorable. And the love -hate relationships within the family are believable, because, they are familiar. I predict a run on the Jalna novels, if the TV series is ''any good. 1gardless, treat yourself. 'They a available in most public libraries.- A little incident during the war proved to me that, despite their regionalism, the novels have an international appeal. It was about May 2nd, 1945. The Russians had just "liberated" our prison camp. -They were pret- ty drunk and disorderly, still celebrating May 1st, one of their big holidays; and they let us out for the evening. (Next day they - locked us all up again.) But we had one glorious spring evening of freedom. I set off for the little town near the camp with Nils _ Jorgenson, a huge Norwe- gian who spoke German. We watched the Russians still pouring into the town, a motley and colorful crew. I remember a huge Cossack -looking type, with vast moustaches, riding a stal- .lion. Slung over one shoulder was a machine -pistol. Dangling from his saddle was a balalaika. On his other shoulder perched a tiny monkey. So help me! We drifted into town, wised the Yanks picking. up German girls, or trying to. We saw a big house, set back among the trees. Went up and knocked, out of cu- riosity. A frhtened old woman finally open d the door a crack, Nils •spojently to her. in Ger- man. She scuttled away. After a few moments, a stately, white- haired lady with great poise'"ap- peared, and imperiously deman- ded to know what we wanted. Nils said we were just visiting, told her we were P.O.W.'s, a Nor- wegian .and ,a Canadian: . She `turned to The, and in stilted but grammatical English, asked eagerly, "You know ze Vhiteoaks of Jalna?" I confessed that I didn't know them per..sonally`(but we had a lively conversation about Rennie, the old uncles, Finch, and the other' characters, followed by a cup of ersatz coffee. Just a little incident, btit one I'll never forget. All this free publicity should gratify the CBC. But I warn them that if the series is rotten, I shall sear them, scorch them, fry them, and boil them in their own oil, DUAL_ROLE • When he's not `moonlighting' as one of the rotating co -hosts of the flagship , CBC -TV current events series Weekend and Mid- week (other hosts are Kay Sigur- jonsson, Peter Desbarats and Pierre Nadeau), urbane .ClivAe Baxter functions as Ottawa edr for of The Financial Post. Execu- tive producer Richard Nielsen's use of rotating hosts prompted one studio wag tb suggest that Weekend and Midweek were tele- cast from "co -host to .co -holt". THE CAMERON FAMILY ran away with the prize for the family group on skates in cos- tume Friday night. Brian, his wife Mary Lou and Brett and Monique, all represented clowns. With only four answering the call for boys over 12 in costume, Brian was invited to compete in this class and was the winner. —Staff Photo. News Items from Old Files JANUARY, 1917 Councillor J. H. Crawford had a narrow escape at the° corner of Josephine and John Streets Mon day afternoon when a runaway horse with only the front bob of a sleigh dashed past, missing him by inches. Lloyd Carter was driv- ing Murray's Meat delivery out Diagonal Rclad -when the - horse made its. dash for freedom. It was finally captured on John Street after the sleigh hit Dr. W. A. Mc- Kibbon's car and threw the horse. Dr. Bruce Fox burned his hand with heated oil on Thursday. The injury was not serious, though, and is mending quickly. ' ' for the ,past weelf,,,we have had 'a $rrp fruit on, di pla ira our. window which was picked m Alex Crawford's garden in St. Peters- burg. Mir. Crawford is now presi- dent of the St. Petersburg Lawn Bowling Club, the largest in the world. R. J. Currie was again elected president of the Wingham Fair ' to the Imperial Oil truck which Board. Vice presidents are Ben- stood in front of Mr. Peterson's son Cruikshank and Richard house. On Sunday evening it took' Procter; H. L. Sherbondy is, sec- one Wingham man three hours to retary and J. R. M. Spittal trea- drive from Brampton to Listowel. surer. The marriage of. Eno May George Baird of Lower Wing- Gamble of Howick to David Rit- ham, an experienced bushman, chie of Culross took, place at the • felled oneo ofthe old monsters of United Church parsonage, • Gor- the forest last week, a soft elm rie, on Saturday, January 23rd. which measured over seven feet across- at the stump and over JANUARY, 1947. sixty feet to the first limb. These John Bumstead recently pur- old trees will soon be all gone; it -chased the building.of Chas. Bon - is rare to see one so big nowa- nett on Victoria Street and takes days. " . possession this week. He will After February 1st, Dr. A. W. handle Cockshutt Farm Ma- Irwin's dental office willbe.locat- ch'inery, ed in the Uyda blw k, slrt l,erlY-- Brown Smyth, reeve of, West H. B, Ellioit's,b kstore.;.,;. , .o . ,,,. . �.. , �, . . �wanosh, was el.ed rsy{larden Sunday ' road ' obnditfons were of Huron County at ttii it th1eeting treacherous with the , freezing on Tuesday, rain that fell. W. F. Burgman's It took over 25 years for a car slid into the bridge".at.the Christmas ''greeting card,• -to go power house when he, was return- •-• from Blyth l o M'r's: W. 'J. Tough of ing from the Lucknow road. On .Clinton. It was sent in 1921 by Monday Jack. Mason's car slid. in- Mrs. W. C. Laidlaw, then of Blyth TODAY'S CHILD BY HELEN ALLEN HIGHLY COMPETITIVE Glen is an appealing lad who has just turned nine. He is slender with blue eyes, brown hair and fair skin. In good health, he is extremely active and has a great zest for sports. He plays hockey, baseball and lacrosse. - Glen is highly competitive, both in sports and at school with a real drive to be on top. It Is hard for him to accept even a small degree of failure, so he needs parents wvfto can help .him realize that once you've done your best it's no disgrace if you can'tachieve all your goals. Glen, does well in school where his teachers say, he is imagina- tive and creative. 'One of his projects has !Nen working on a puppet show were he made ftp the plot as it went along. He likes making things -- his own Hallowe'en costume, for instance. This lad's foster family have a cottage where he has learned to swim, which he loves. He also enjoys frequent visits to a farm where he make§ friends with the animals. Glen would do well as the only child, or With brothers and sistep considerably older than himself. He needs parents who carol bate hiin understand he is loved for himself and not for his achievements. To inquire about adotping Glen, please write to Today's Child, Box 888, Station K, Toronto. and now of Wingham. Mrs. Tough was at that time living in Bay- - field. During the years it has travelled many miles, including a trip to Argentina, Tenant Henderson and Jean Austin *ere elected officers of the Fish and Game Club at its an- nual meeting last week. The Wingham High School is preparing an honor roll of all former pupils of the school who served with the armed forces during. the Second World War. W. W. Gurney, Walter Woods, Horace Aitcheson, H. C. Mac Lean and G. C. Gammage wer( elected to the Board of.Manageri of St. Andrew's Presbyteriar Church at that congregation's an nual meeting on Monday. Lorne Robinson, who pur chased tlr Patterson' block it Wroxeter, is making several im provements which will enabh him to carry on his baking busi ness more conveniently. • Wilfrid King of Gorrie has pur chased' the 100 -acre farm fron the William Hamilton estate co the 6th concession of Howick. JANUARY. `658 Thomas Abraham was appoin ed to the Saugeen Valley At thority for 1958 when members Turnberry Council held their it augural meeting. Miss Elva Hupfer of Wroxeti Suffered second degree burns 1 her left hand and right arm ( Wednesday when she emptied small container of oil into the fu •nace at the home of her brothe Vernon Hupfer. •She is beit treated at the Wingham Gener Hospital. Tied Houghton is taking bas training as a recreation specials in the air force. Red, a member several championsh ball and hockeylocal teams1 has be serving wttn the RCAF for months and is now stationed Aylmer. R p 'entatives" f tith ti' fH ^ of Beatty Brothers in Ferg have purchased property Lucknow and introduce a new dustry to that town, the manuf ture of wooden products. +he choir members of Kt United Church, Belgrave, h their annual meeting last` WI and elected Mrs. Carl Procter their president. Other officers elude Miss Lois Goll, Roy Mun Mrs. George Michie and' N George Johnston.