HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1969-05-29, Page 12w
AR THURSDAY'- MAY•''3,1969
2,�, Oi�DE'�CH S,I,GNAia-ST
?HE
BLUE THUMB
BY G. MacLEOD ROSS
. We drove ,off south and at
IYiagarwsFa11s, Ont. the Custom's
man asked. "Where are you
going`" South Carolina. "South
Carolina -is full up" he says..
When we arrived, one week after
• Canada -Week at Myrtle Beach, a
resident told us: "Last week the
sea was stiff with Canadians."
Hardy souls the Canadians.
There vas a new form of
• mathiavelian cunning
, encountered at a filling station.
The boy wiped the, windshield,
checked the oil, the batteries.
the wind shield- washer and
finally took the air cleaner to
pieces. "You need a new filter,'".
he said, but we didn't get one.
• - A new expression for a lazy
individual: An underachiever.
, Washington . was quiescent.
Cherry blooms were late; but as
one.of our spare drivers barreled .
down the thruway to Richmond
at<.Ahi- rate of knots, the resting
crew questioned the speed: "Oh,
I thought the signs said 65
m.p.h. NMINIMUM."
Arrived at our. usual-
destination
sualdestination we found all our
friends, of former years. had
preceded us, such as Twistie, the
old English sheep dog. and Sam,
the 'pert grey poodle.
There was some. lively
" discussion en route as to how
best to confute the student
vandals: Ur. Pollock says: "Ask
• them what they have to replace
the status quo. Ask them what is
the question'?" It seemed t8 me,
that Nluggeridge had done that
pretty thoroughly when he
brought the doddering Professor
Grey of McGill up, all standing
on TV. Even so Grey soldiers on
at McGill, . where they say:
"Much better Grey than black
and white."
Ike's funeral and the press
reports: "Train crews had to be
changed (on his funeral train) at
Charlotte, Va. before going on
to Abilene, Kansas." But for Ike
the unions might now be in
Siberia. The railway engineers
couldn't muster an iota of
magnanimity and insist on being
accorded the hondr of driving
Ike all the way to Abilene. But
there were others, in uniform,
who fought for the privilege of
bearing his coffin. -
. The National Cathedral,
service: What beautiful singing
by the choirs and what
magnificent flower arranging on
the altar; and the band music, so
very moving, so very
appropriate; 'Palms' and Army
Blue.' Pretty hard to beat.
A Princeton alumnus is
belligerent at the disturbance at
• ,his old university. fie is
emphatic .that it should be kept
small in numbers and is quite
obsessed that the inequality of
individual ability and capacity
must be ignored.
The local press came up with
some hard looks at student
behaviour: "From rape to the
trampling of petunias."
The head waiter has a
diamond ring; a regular rock,
and we are bidden to admire it.
It soon became clear that he
'wore it to impress his own
colour,not his patrons, who
made it possible.
A long and hot summer
This is going to be a long;
hot summer. And not only for
those U.S. cities with their ker-
osene -soaked black ghettoes
just waiting, for a match to be
struck. •
It's going to he a long, hot
'summer for a lot of Canadians.
High among their ranks will be
parents, policemen and resort
operators.
Why? Because the supply of
,summer jobs for students is
far, far below they demand, and
there are going to be thou-
sands of restless, bored young
people_ -_looking for excitement.
It's a natural for an eruption
of rumbles; hassles and vandal-
ism which could make the sum.
,. mer a nightmare for the al-
. ready -harried , victims listed
above
For the last decade, there
has been a steadily -growing
population of young bums of
hath sexes. Summer -time.
warm -weather bums.
These are the kids who don't
really want: a job. They live
from hand to. Mouth, sleeping
on the beaches, or in the old
cars that are part of their
scene. 'They are not necessarily
evil or vicious. In fact, most.of
them aren't.
But they're aimless and irre•
sponsible and rude and selfish
, and dirty. and,. lazy as cats.
Cats that aren't house-broken.
From
the elephant's couch. Par
• Easter Sunday and,.. as last We dine with a couple with
the husband workin fora Lon
year, the Bishop of North g g
Carolina officiates atfi'the early Island towing firm which has
morning service. A full church, been hauling bits of the
but none sitting in the aisles as reconstructed "Manhattan," the
last year. oil tanker which, when provided
As an example of the decline- with an ice -breaking bow, will
of •integrity, our host had just attempt to force the North West
received a large supply of Passage to Prudhoe Bay and
postcards illustrating his "Little initiate -the transport of oil from
Wiluanisbufg" place and had left` that area,
a pile on his desk. Immediately The local columnist repeats
the whole lot was stolen. Just some school boy howlers from
like those who steal from a blind the 15th Avenue, New York
man. • school thus: Pen = a wet pencil.
On the beach Twistie has got passionate love only better.
into a fight with other dogs and Bowling = what Daddy did when
has been incarcerated, but next he comes home late. As Samuel
day she is out again and Johnson said: "I have provided
wrestling the floats away from you with a jest. 1 am not bound
the kids. to provide 'you with
The ghettoes ask: "What is understanding."
worth defending in, our areas`? A tornado watch is called on
and' a columnist writes on the the radio.
theme "The vulnerability of We went to Charleston to get
contemporary society in the face some " pictures of old St..Philip's
of vandalism." church, still' devoid of chimes
Hussein offers free passage since the bells were melted down
for Israeli ships through the Suez to cast Confederate cannon in
Canal on. behalf of -Nasser, 'the Civil War,
before the National Press Club, Still. another ship that passed
while the Soviets beef up their, in the night was a' U.S. Army
Mediterranean fleet. colonel retired with experience
An acquaintance invites us to in Indo-China when the French
his motet. for drinks. 1 note. he were still- there, in Korea, in
wear the Royal Army Medical Malaya and more recently in
Corps tie, thou Ile never got Vietnam with U.S. troops. lie
within .spitting distance of that has written a book and who
Corps. He liked the colours! This hasn't? With all that background
is a quirk which is hard to 'knowledge he should have,
understand, after all 'we" don't something worthwhile to' say as
wear West Point cjass rings, yet to how to win the war, or at
the number of spurious Sappers;• least how to achieve withdrawal
'Etonians and Guardsmen you with honor. His theme: that
meet in the States is legion. •
Well, add to this parasitic
swarm all .the kids who want
'ed, and needed, jobs this sum-
mer, angry, frustrated, and you-
' can see what's coming. I hope
I'm wrong, but two and two
stip make four.
Permissive parents, an infla-,•
tionary society in which even
young people need money; give
masses of them nothing to do
but look for kicks all summer,
and the old crystal ball looks
pretty muddy.
Wheii.I was a teenager (said
They're bored, and they're
boring They talk in endless
circles about nothing. They
even bore each other. But
they're united in one thing --
their conteftipt for the adult
world.
High on their list of inter-
ests, which are extremely lim-
ited, are sex and drugs. On
weekends, they are infiltrated
by the "ptisheet's", rrrany ' of
. therm amateurs, who arrive
from ale cities with their little
packages of pot and speed and
LSD
Lurking on the fringe of this
'bundle of burns is another
group the teenie•boppers.
_'These arenot kids . -- they_ .are
children , who are just' he
ginning to make the scene,
‘vho find it fascinating, and
who want to • try anything
that's going.
In the cities, same thing, ex -
cert that it's shopping plazas
and nubile parks and the
streets. instead of the htacho
the boring middle-aged man),
summer jobs were even scar-
cerb, He who nabbed •one was
deeply envied. My first job, at
17, was working on a ,Great
Lakes steamer, 12 hours a
day, seven days a week, $.1 a
day. And every other kid in
town thought I'd hit a bonanza.
Boys who couldn't find a job
played baseball and -swan
about eight hours a day. Girls
did, whatever girls do, giggled
'probably, and swam and picked
berries. '
Introductions to., a party of
local residents:, who are .flying
out to Poona of all' places, to be
present at the obsequies of their
guru who has just died. "Who
will succeed him?" I asked,
expecting that, like the Tibetans,
they would ,beat the 'arid plains
of the Indian' Peninsula until a
likely boy had been found to
become the" new Dalai Lama.
"Who succeeded Jesus, or
rishna, or • Mahojnet, . or
Buddha?" they"replied. Answer
came there none.
One local TV station actually
showed the final games in the
Stanley Cup finals, with Bobby
Hull commenting: "He's playing
tremendous!— Why can't
• Canadians learn to speak
English'?
Today's jobless a youth barely
muster enough energy to have
a swim. In the day -time, that
is. At night, they flower into
same sort of life and go to bed
at dawn .And wake up..Bored.
There are a couple of villains
in the piece, of course, One is
industry; the other govern-
ment. Industry could absorb
twice as many students as it
does, at comparatively little
cost. Industry is the , first to
whine about the "products" it
gets, but does little to help
produce a first-class product.
One or two future employees
of high calibre from a summer
group would easily repay the
• cost. And it would be good
public. relations on which in-
dustry spends thousands. most-
ly on whiskey.
Governments could. and
should, plan work 'projects to
absorb most of the surplus stu-
dents. They'd get it all back in,
taxes shortly. But if they sit on
their behinds and allow a ge-
neration of bitter, lazy, alienat-
ed bums' to- spront;'it —will-tost-
them plenty in the end.
(That's quite a sentence, but
no puns intended. Behinds.
bums, and end, indeed.)
Hope your kid has a summer
job: Better still, hope you're
not`'a parent'or a pol' eman.
•
T. PRIME and SON
AILS i C TIRY Li'K'RRINf5-
CCiNTON — worm -- $$AFORTN
Owslorrieh District Pissrsssrrts$ivas
FRANK hte1LW'AUNi
124.10011 .e 200 Osamu 04.., S244465...
itEG.
esraYr is Rwri 1. 5241464
•
Vietnam is no theatre for the King of Prussia. Who could
conventional troops; intelligence resist staying at the King of
is ' inadequate; attrition is Prussia? Actually very few
strategical suicide; it can 'never Hessians were abroad as far as I
Win. His formula for the further could discern, but on, a misty
prosecution of the war: 1. Good night the ghost of Wallington
i n't tel 11 g e n e e . 2 . G ood `stilt. haunts Valley Forge. In this.
communications. &".• The South hilly country, so thickly
Vietnamese army trained for Wooded, all the older houses are
counter -guerilla warfare; trained in cut stone of local origin; ally
to live hard — to stay out In the very reminiscent of Cotswold
jungle for weeks and gather country. Our. host explained,
intelligence. He deplored • they while we sat at the Meriam
huge 'target which conventional Cricket Ground, that they were
troops offered to a hidden due to -the Italian ,masons who
enemy who never offered any
target; the vast panoply of
impedimenta which is part and
parcel of a conventional force,
plus their soft living, their need
for recreation, for letters from
home, for Bob Hope concert
parties etc etc. Whether he will
get a hearing remains to be seen,
but all authorities, outside the
PentagnjL &.nd the White House,
are agreed that a strategy of
attrition is self-destrtictive. Sir
Robert Thompson, who served
in Malaya s.1948 to 1960, and
assisted Field Marshal Templer
to stamp out war in that area,
has just published a book: "No
Exit from Vietnam." (Clark
Irwin. 210 pages $6.00). Lf its
- precepts can penetrate the
Pentagon, it might help. Templer.
was in the States. recently, as
well as in Canada. In the States
he spoke to various English
Speaking Unions. He told a
friend of mine: "They can't"win,
but I• hope they don't give up-"
And so to Pennsylvania and
PLUG IN AND 'TALK
Wireless Intercom
use ,ix to talk from
— HOUSE TO BARN
— HOUSE -TO GARAGE
- ROOM TO ROOM
— ATTiC TO BASEMENT
Use it anywhere you have a hydro outlet _
Use it to keep an "ear" on the barn, garage, etc.
HUTCHINSON TV
& APPLIANCES
308 HURON RD. PHONE 524-7831
were imported or emigrated
hereabouts. But there is no more
masonry. "In three generations
they have all become lawyers,"
he said.
Mention , has already been
made in "That's Life" of
Militant Clergy. Pennsylvania has
some ideterniined people. One
said: "I will not sign a pledge to
support the church until it urges
people to keep the Laws of
Moses, instead of, encouraging
them to break the law of the
land."
NEED
INSURANCE?
PHONE
MacEwan
Insurance Agency
• 44 North St..
524.9591
CONTRACTS
at most attractive prices
is
W.G. Thompson & Sons Ltd.'
TELEPHONE 262-2527,
HENSALL
Specializing 'in Registered
And Certified Seed Grain,
Clover, Grass & Mixed Grain Seed
FERTILIZER
competitive
`prices
21,22 -
e smartcookies at
cCormick's use Natural
We're not going to say natural tnc e -i' •es't „, _ st uependabe.
a:s should take ai the cr.ed•t for nest . •._.d`,rn e •erd, source. ,'u
the de+irrcus cookres, bisc.i!ts and ratter .:fiat your d;i, c 's;ons
:.a-ers baked on McCorn' ck's T.3'K t_i yo—Jr las Company
L71dcn-Ontario premises recrescntat ve. arch.te.t or heating
Producing millions of pounds
of product annually ,takes more
s_:ccessful business inared,ents
than .se can probably imagine.
But natural 'gas does plays` art
important role at McCormick's:
Natural gas provides a better
working climate for over 1,000
employees. It's the energy source
that heats over 600,000 square
feet of' plant space.. in1the winter,
and air conditions part of the 'same
area in the summer
Because natural gas is versa:
t 'e. it helps McCormick's bake ,a
betler biscuit Natural gas heats
the peanut•roaster, the chocolate
tanks,- the cookie an.d cracker
ovens, the shortening and rotating
cookie oil tank, the wafer oven
and the candy drum.
The process of cooking biscuits
and wafers requires exact •tern-
,perature control and McCormick's
find natural gas just what's need-
ed to do the lob. • •
Natural gas heats all the general
purpose hot water that flows
through the McCormick's plant.
too
Why tell you all this when your
-offce or..store or .factory_�r lac n,e
heating needs prohabiv aren't
nearly as immense ' as McCor-
mick's?
Simply because natural gas is
Union Gas
TOTAL ENERGY FOR TOTAL COMFORT
( onIrd'.`, r scan. He I TIVe ymi all
the f,iits on h. „ eusv it is to
insta 1 and ma i twin nit ray ids
YOU don't have t(,M,dke.
to be a soart one
ATTENTION
home owners
if you are located on the same
side of the street as a gas line
which was installed prior to
April 1, 1968 and you change
to a natural gas central heating
system frorn another fuel between
now and September 30, 1969
You-
may qualifyy for
a
ALLOWANCE'
or...
A completely
installed charmglow
LAMP
And if you install a new automatic
gas water heater at the same time
a , you convert to your natural gas.
central heating system as stated
above in lieu of the foregoing offer
You, may receive an
ALLOWANCE of
$5O plus a
2 -Y -EARS
FItEE
RENTAL
an the Gas Water
Heater Or...
A
$100
ALLOWANCE
See your heating
contractor, department store
or caII Union Gas Company.
9 -
•