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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1975-11-20, Page 14Dort at- bitlietsiet 'Saha- wood. w. V lC aibraith of eitt*' i it± Stuxisty with Mrs. V .' b et and Mrs. Elsie ' aa; Ws, Peryk Weber, 404 cOrry visited over end with relatives in andMi s. Anson Demerling v%ted Sunday with Mr. and Mrs. -OW ROttWand family of Hanover. Would Mi s. Frank Graham of Stritiftell,, Mr. and Mrs. Aitchison "Wa,ee of Clifford, Mr. and Mrs. Eimer Harding and Mrs. Cecil Wilson were visitors on Remem- brance Day with Mr. and Mrs. Norman Harding. Mrs. Lena Merry returned home to Toronto after spending the past week with Trinity ACW holds meeting FORDWICH — The Anglican Church Women of Trinity Church held the November meeting in the Sunday School rooms and opened with the hymn, "Stand up, Stand up for Jesus". The devotional reading and prayers were taken by Mrs. J. W. Daunt and the study entitled, "Hallowed Be Thy Name" was given by Mrs. William Sothern. She also read two poems,,. "What Is Dur Heritage?" and "A Prayer for Remembrance Day". The roll call was answered by the mem- bers naming their first school teacher and a public school inci- dent. The members will cater to a banquet for the bsuinessmen of Fordwich on November 19, also to the Fordwich Nursing Home Christmas banquet on December 8. Mrs. E. Ferguson gave the report of the Fall Deanery meet- ing recently held at St. George's Anglican Church in Goderich. The president, Mrs. J. Daunt, offered closing prayers. An auction of various articles donated by the members followed. Refreshments were served by Mrs. Bruce Sothern. and Mrs. 3. W. Daunt. , MUM-, bire‘reMber 210,,Ailsa Personal Notes the Hardings. Mrs. Dave 'Smith, Karen and Wayne of Cambridge spent e weekend with Mr. and Mrs. ill et Nominate new slate for WMA GORRIE — Mrs. Thomas MacDonald was hostess for the November meeting of the Knox Presbyterian Church WMS and took as the theme, "Remem- brance Day". Roll call was an- swered by a poem or a thought on Remembrance Day and a two minute silence was observed. Mrs. William Darling read two passages of scripture from Deuteronomy and I Peter. Mrs. Burns Stewart read a poem, "Why Wear a Poppy?" The scripture lesson from Jeremiah was given by Mrs. David Neilson. A Poem of Remembrance was read by Mrs. Harvey Payne. Mrs. James Robinson played "There Were Ninety and Nine" on her accordion. Devotions were given by Mrs. William Smith who spoke on Peace and had a display entitled Flander's Fields after which "God of Our Fathers, Known of Old" was sung. Mrs. David Neil- son received the offering which was dedicated by the president, Mrs. .MacDonald. The minutes were read by Miss Louise Mat- thews. A new slate of officers for 1976 was nominated: President, Mrs. William Smith; 1st vice presi- dent, Mrs. David Neilson; sec., Mrs. James Robinson; treasurer and Glad Tidings sec., Mrs. Glenn Underwood; literature and library, Mrs. William Darling; sec., for Ladies' Aid, Mrs. Burns Stewart; nominating committee, Miss Louise Matthews and Mrs. Harvey Payne; supply sec., Mrs. Thomas MacDonald; press, Mrs. Harvey Adams. The ladies were reminded of the bale which is 'being packed at the end of November. "Abide with Me" was sung and Miss Louise Matthews gave the closing prayer. A social half hour followed when the hostesses, Mrs. Wilford King and Mrs. MacDonald served lunch. Haverfield. Mr. and Mrs. Fred McCann, Mrs. Mariann Kirby and Mrs. Florence Wilson enjoyed a bus trip to Wheeling, West Virginia, over the weekend. Carman Bride of Port Credit visited a couple days last week in the community. Mrs. Hazel Frew and Sharon a d• Mr. and Mrs. M White of Cambridge visited one day last week with Earl Moore. Mr. and Mrs. Bill Magill of London were Sunday visitors with Mrs. Crosby Sotheran. Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Lynn of Orillia visited Sunday with Mrs. Dora Ridley. Mr. and Mrs. Roy Simmons spent several days last week with Mr. and Mrs. Doug Wildfang in Mississauga. Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Johnston spent Saturday and Sunday at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. Mrs. Emmerson Ferguson and Mrs. Jack Douglas attended the fall deanery meeting Monday of last week, held in St. George's Anglican Church, Goderich. Mrs. George Ashton spent several days recently with Everitt Ashton and family at Montreal. Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Armstrong visited Saturday with Mr. and Mrs. Dave Schneider in Kitch- ener. Terry Tudan of Guelph spent the weekend with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Tudan. Mr. and Mrs. Jim Sanderson of Wroxeter visited Sunday with Mr. and Mrs. Tom Hutchison. Mrs, Jim Douglas, Gary and Paul and Mrs. Jack Ruttan at- tended the Royal Winter Fair one day last week. Bluevale Mrs. Janet Walker, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Henning, Mr. and Mrs. Alex MacTavish, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wright, Mr. and Mrs. Jim Wright and Mrs. W. Gannett of Toronto attended the baptism of Shari Lynne, daughter of Mr. and Mrs: Gordon Wright at the Salvation Army Citadel, Wingham. We wish improved health for all those of Bluevale and area in Wingham and London hospitals. Unit hears bazaar nets .wp UCW $i,000 '1, GORRIE — "Remembrance and Patriotism" was the theme when unit 2 of the United Church Women of Gerrie met Wednes- day, Nov. 12, at the home of Mrs. bert Gibson. Mrs. Delbert Clegg wast, In charge of the worship service and opened the meeting with a meditation. Hymns "Land of Our Birth", and "0, God Our Hep in Ages Past" were sung. Mrs. Clegg based her study on reiflem- brance and patriotism, pastand present and closed the worship by reciting the poem, "In Flanders' Fields" very effectively. • Mrs. Alec Taylor presided for the roll call and business of the meeting, reporting on the quilt projects and relief bale packing. The recent Christmas bazaar netted the U.C.W. units $1,000, for renovation projects of the church. Following an appropriate dos- ing to the meeting lunch was served by Mrs. Robert Hastie and Mrs. Max Bell. Arrangements for the Christ- rhas meeting will be announced at a later date. Mrs. R. Higgins is extended birthday wishes BELGRAVE — Mrs. Robert Higgins was honored Sunday when a family dinner was held at Turnberry Tavern to celebrate her 80th birthday. She was pre- sented with gifts from the family and grandchildren. The highlight of the evening was when her two youngest great grandchildren, Debbie Penner and Steven Marks, presented her with a winter floral arrangement during the singing of "Happy 'Birthday". This was the gift of her four great grandchildren. Many friends and relatives called at her home Tuesday to extend best wishes to Mr's. Higgins and enjoy a cup of tea and, a piece of birthday cake. ACHIEVEMENT DAY was special for these 4-H members who were awarded Provincial Honors Saturday at Madill. They are: Doreen Anderson, Belgrave.; Joan Leishman, RR 5, Brussels; sels; Maureen Stainton, Wingham; Louise $tamper, RR 1,- Bluevale; Diane Kieffer, RR 2, Teeswater; Donelda Lamont, Belgrave.,. THE •VISUAL IMPACT of this display by Belgrave I attracted a great deal of attention at the 4-H Achievement Day Saturday -at Madill. The theme of the exhibit was "Breads From Other Lands." 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 40. AP I I .I I / I40. i Pte. Carl Miller relates experiences Private Carl Miller is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Lorne Edwards, RR 2, Teeswater and re- ceived his basic training in the Canadian .Armed Forces at Cornwallis, NS. Following a course as a radio operator at Kingston, he joined the first contingent of Canadian per- sonnel to take part in the U.N. peace -keeping operation in the Middle East, November 1973. In the buffer zone between Egyptian and Israeli forces he was attached to the Swedish and. Finnish forces. Private Miller has since returned home and leaves shortly to work as communications officer with the London police force. 0 0 0 • Immediately after the October War of 1973, Canada agreed to send a logistics contingent to the United Nations peace -keeping force in the Middle East. As a soldier and radio operator in the Canadian Armed Forces, I was delighted to find myself a member of the initial force bound for Egypt. On the day we left C.F.B. Trenton for Germany and Egypt in mid-November, there was an inch of snow on the ground. We were all looking forward.to having a winter without snow. We had expected to stay one night in C.F.B. Lahr, Germany and then continue on to Cairo, but that was not to be. The Egyptian government had given the U.N. an area of land which had formerly been a race track and golf course to use as a base. Camp Shams, as it was called, could not possibly provide accommodation for a large influx of men from several countries. As a re- sult, we found ourselves waiting in Germany for nearly a week. Day by day, a few men at a time would board the plane bound for Egypt. The rest of us passed the time playing cards, table tennis and touring downtown Lahr. At last, nearly a week after our arrival in Germany, we got the word to pack up our gear in preparation for the final leg of our journey to Egypt. As the plane made its landing approach at about 2 a.m. we craned our necks to see the city lights but there was nothing but darkness outside the aircraft. Cairo was operating under conditions of war and the city was in blackout. Our plane bounced across the tarmac and ground to a halt, its propellers stirring up a cloud of dust. As the ramp at the tail of the aircraft descended, a gush of air passed our faces. That breeze carried a thousand smells, all of them unfamiliar and most of them nau- seating. I can only describe the odour as a mixture of dirty streets, burning rubber and heavily spiced foods. Outside the aircraft we found ourselves sur- rounded by rifle -carrying Egyptian soldiers who were guarding the airport. The early morning air was surprisingly cool as we waited for transportation to come. It was nearly 3 a.m. when one of our big, dusty old trucks rumbled onto the airstrip. Somehow we managed to squeeze ourselves and our gear into the back of our truck for the two mile trip to Camp Shams. To say that.an old race track at 3 a.m. is un- impressive may be a bit of an understate- ment, especially when there are no ac- commodations available for a group of very tired soldiers. We simply pulled our sleeping bags out of their carriers and went to sleep on a cement floor of the grandstand. In the following days I discovered how a complete military camp could be built from the ground up. To provide accommodations for ourselves and the men coming in on the daily flights from Canada, we started erect- ing tents. There were tents for the officers, tents for the senior NCO's and tents for the rest of us. There were mess tents and kitchen tents and even little green washroom tents. Within a week, we had' erected a regular tent city which was rapidly filling up with men. Sanitation during those first few weeks proved to be somewhat of a problem. There were a limited number of portable toilets available. These consisted of green plastic buckets mounted with a toilet seat and placed inside a small green tent about 6' high and 4' square. I can't recall how many of these were avail- able but I remember sharing one with about twenty other men. Talk about early morning lineups! Wooden washstands were placed outside the tents. Hot water was provided by immer- sion heaters. This apparatus consisted of a large steel garbage can equipped with a gas burning heater and smokestack. Occasionally gas from the heater would spill into the water resulting in a smelly and oily shave. Medical facilities were at first very limited and of course the entire hospital organization was located in a group of tents. Every member of the hospital staff worked ex- tremely long hours, lacking supplies and equipment. They did a tremendous job in keeping us all healthy, especially during the third and fourth weeks in Cairo when nearly everyone became ill. Symptoms of this illness, known as the Pharaoh's revenge, were nausea, extreme stomach cramps and diarrhea. More than one soldier would wake suddenly in the night with the desperate urge to find a toilet quickly and then discover that he wasn't quite quick enough. Few men were immune to this illness which lasted about a week and then disap- peared. Before our arrival in Egypt, we were warned against buying and eating foods from street vendors in Cairo. Most foods such as bread, vegetables, cakes and meats are sold in open air market places. Sanitation is mostly non-existent. I once saw a man with a large tray of bread on his head lose his bal- AP'. ,,r wr r �► - s ,r. _.► .�► 40. I I I s I �► r I I l I A' I I► f I r ,/p ance and spill the entire load into the gutter. He calmly picked up the loaves and continued selling them to unsuspecting buyers. Animals are slaughtered and hung up in the streets for sale, the' carcasses barely visible through a covering of flies. I hake seen ducks, pigeons and doves killed and strung up for sale complete with feathers and internal or- gans slowly putrifying in the midday sun. Getting a taxi in Cairo is usually an easy proposition. While watching the traffic one afternoon, I noted that six out of every ten cars were taxis. The average Egyptian taxi driver has a most unusual way of driving. The accelerator is used to produce maximum speed at all times, the horn blasts continu- ously and the brakes are used only for dire emergencies. Thus a taxi ride through Cairo becomes less of a dgnvenience and more of a lesson in survival techniques. Another odd custom of the Egyptian cabby is the habit of driving without lights. At first I assurned it was because the city was in blackout in case of Israeli air raids but even after things settled down, taxis continued to race around the streets in darkness, passengers cowering in the back seat and pedestrians fleeing in all directions. One safer way to get downtown was to•take a bus which only cost a nickel. There was, however, one unfortunate drawback in that the drivers would pick up everyone waiting for a ride. This resulted in passengers standing between the seats, in the aisles, hanging out of windows and even on the roof. In early December I was sent to Ismalia, a city on the Suez Canal, mostly deserted since the 1967 war. I was a member of a four -man radio detach- ment. Our job was to provide communica- tions for the Swedish battalion. Most of the Swedish soldiers spoke English and asked endless questions about Canada and hockey. Christmas in Egypt was rather a dismal af- fair.• It just wasn't the same without family and friends, and the absence of snow made things worse. The Armed Forces did every- thing to make Christmas happy for us. There was a free issue of beer and turkeys and live Christmas trees complete with roots were flown in from Germany. We planted our tree in the shade of a palm tree but it died after a couple of weeks in the desert. heat. On Christmas Eve we sat on the roof sing- ing carols. I recall trying to sing "Silent Night" as the surrounding streets echoed with sounds of machine gun and rifle fire. Winter in Egypt proved to be much colder than I had expected. The temperature never - dropped below freezing yet remained cold enough to numb the fingers. Roses continued to bloom throughout the winter although several types of trees lost their leaves. Spring arrived in early February. At this time the damp weather ceased, temperatures Ap AP AP ih Middle East rose to the high 90's and the trees broke into blossom. • Near the. end of January our radio detach- ment was replaced in Ismalia and we re- turned to Cairo for rest and recreation. I de- cided to risk my life on another taxi ride and went to see the pyramids, located just outside Cairo. We stopped near the tallest pyramid (about 400 feet) , but had difficulty getting out of the taxi due to the fact that we were surrounded by a mob of Egyptians. They were all trying to sell trinkets, guided tours, camel rides and just about anything else that might interest a tourist. We tried to explain that all we wanted to do was see the pyramids, but we were totally ignored so we started off with a procession of vendors and one camel called Clyde. There were nine pyramids of various sizes, most of which were empty, their contents stolen or placed in museums. The sphinx looked more tired than mysterious with a blown off nose and weathered old body. Having survived both the rest period and the suicidal taxi drivers, our detachment was dispatched back out to the war zone, this time to the Finnish battalion in Suez City. The road. to Suez was empty of civilian traffic but crowded with Egyptian military vehicles. Our approach to Suez City was marked by the sudden absence of Egyptian troops. At the edge of the city, only fifty miles from Cairo, was a road block manned by Israeli soldiers. They seemed to be a scruffy lot with their long, dirty hair and casual, al- most arrogant, attitude but they smiled and waved us through. Suez city was nearly de- serted, its 200,000 citizens having fled to Cairo, leaving less than 1,000 behind. This city itself was in ruins with 80 per cent of the buildings destroyed. The Finnish headquarters were in a .large compound formerly owned by an oil com- pany, One street outside the compound was closed off, having been mined by the Israelis. The corpses of several cattle which lay rot- ting in the streets testified to this fact. An Egyptian truck lay rusting in a ditch, its cab pierced with hundreds of bullet holes. The driver laid sprawled against the door where he had died, most of his body having by this time been eaten by packs of wild dogs. We were warned not to go outside at night as Egyptian and Israeli soldiers patrolled the streets and snipers were everywhere. When the agreements were signed, the Israeli force left Suez City which was cause for much celebration for the Egyptian army. The Israelis left in the morning and by mid afternoon Egyptian infantry were entering the city yelling and firing into the empty Is- raeli trenches. We were afraid they might start firing into our compound but they were stopped short of our area by the mine field. Later that night we foolishly sat on the roof watching the red and green flashes of tracer Air Or. y,. - bullets as the Egyptians continued their cele- brations by emptying their weapons into the air. We quickly left the roof after several bullets ricocheted off our building, wounding one Finnish soldier who had been standing in the garden below us. Within a week the Egyptians began clear- ing the streets outside our buidling of anti- personnel mines. Every few minutes the building vould shake with the blast of ex- ploding mines. We used to spend our spare time watching the mine -clearing operations from the safety of our roof. We noticed that several soldiers seemed to be probing for mines in a rather unusual manner. I believe the idea was to take a long stick and feel in the dirt for the mines, moving forward a step at a time until one was discovered. A few soldiers appeared to be moving backwards yet prod- ding in front of themselves, with the end re- sult of finding mines with their feet instead of the pole. I saw three men lose their legs in this way. In February the buffer zee was estab- lished on. the east side of the canal. The Fin- nish battalion was to provide security patrols and our detachment went with them to provide a radio link back to Cairo. Life in the desert was relatively easy, if not boring. Spare time was spent lying on the beach or taking pictures of the burned -out tanks and crashed planes in the buffer zone. With the U.N. force separating the Israeli and Egyptian armies, patrol clashes ceased and our radio reports became routine. The only,excitement was provided by the frequent sand storms which lasted anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. One such storm approached as a large brown cloud at a speed exceeding 17 miles per hour. The air was filled with dust even though We had closed our tent as tightly as possible. Soon there was sand everywhere: in our sleeping bags, clothes, hair, ears, eyes and mouth. Our forty - foot radio antenna was bent in half and all the paint sand -blasted 'away. All meals went served outdoors so they had to be cancelled until the storm ended. We missed both break- fast and lunch that day. By the end of March, life in the desert had settled into a dull routine. After five months with my sleeping bag and a tent instead of a home I was definitely weary of life as a U.N. soldier. I longed to see grass and maple trees instead of sand and palms. I wanted to listen to good, music, drive my car and do all the things we take for granted in Canada. Finally, on a sunny day in May, with the temperature reaching 120 degrees Fahren- heit, I boarded a Canadian Forces jet. As we circled over the city I looked down, realizing that I might never return again and feeling a bit sad that it was all over. f did, however, bring back with me a number of souvenirs and enough memories to last al lifetime. • M ii M