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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1972-05-18, Page 3�1. 4 �r 1 - , Workers have been busy laying new sewer to the Court House and "' 'K co.mpleti;ecfby the* end ofthenmonth, says Mayor Harry Worsel I (staff nevi/ sidewalks and roadways in the park.' The jobs should' be photo) Mrs: Moira Couper.... - Court House Park gets new look The•sidewalks and roadways in Court House Square which Goderich Town Council announced x recently' would be rebuilt, will likely be .completed, by the end Of the month. Workmen have been laboring in the park4for about two weeks now. They have replaced the Old sewer line from the court house which had grown full 'of roots and are now putting the finishing touches to the cement walkways and drives. Mayor Harry Worsell said Monday morning the job was Originally estimated at $9,000 lint may not run that high. Fifty. percent of the posts will be paid by the Ontario Department. of Justice with the remaining 5Q percent to be paid by the Town of Goderich. ,The work is being completed by the Huron County bridge crew. Mayor_Worsell' also said the south driveway is being reinforced with steel to dtlsrry the. heavy delivery trucks which enter Court House Square daily. The cement for the sidewalks and the driveway is being treated with a special compound to withstand salt in the winter. The broken cement from the job was taken to the Sifto Salt Mine at the dock to hold the bank there. Sodding will complete the park project, says Mayor Worsen,' and the court house should be as attractive as ever when summer visitors start arriving. A lady with vision for Huron Mrs, Moira Couper is a. .determined lady with vision. She is interested in self-fulfillment, of course, but more than that, Moira Couper is concerned about A the fulfillment .of other people. especially those people in Huron County. ,A Hensall housewife., Mrs. Couper is the wife- of Archie Couper, manager of the Hensall District Co-op. The couple has • ,four children, ages 19, 17, 13 and nine. That would be enough to keep most 'women busy. 'but Moira Couper has a host of other interests which hale just ..lately:• lead into the field of recreation. This summer Mrs. Couper ha's taken on the task of co-ordinating recreation in areas of Huron County where there are no community recreation, directors to take hold of things .... and bolstering other established recreation programs with sound *, new ideas. • Retained by .the Youth and RecreationBranctfofthe Ontario Department of- Community and • Social Services, Mrs. Couper is just finishing a three' -year Provincial "Institute Leadership "• course sponsored by the,. Youth - and Recreation Branch. "It has done wonders for me." opened all sorts of doors which just weren't visible before." For many years now, Mrs. Couper has been interested in art • and crafts, particularly hand - spinning and' weaving. She has always preferred towork through the community and to share her knowledge and skill with others. But as she so modestly pointed • out, she had ' no * particular teaching ability. No leadership, training And that's precisely the reason she became involved, iri the . Provincial Institute Leadership Course _ to try to make her involvement more meaningful.and more helpful to greater numbers of people. That's where she got the impetus to run a playground in Hensall for three weeks in •each of the past two summers. It wasn't just•an ordinary playground in° a small town where children went because there was nothing else to do: It wase -an imaginative 'playground, Mrs. Couper boasts. which brought the children and the' adults of the community together. in one grand summertime activity — and held their interest. I went into the project green."' smiled Mrs. Couper. "But I believe in letting the children set the pace and the theme for their ptaygrourtd. It only cost' 'us $200 for a whole season.' and the children .rriade some, money to boot." -Mrs. Comer has also. ;bee- involved in a learning experience at St. B'oni'face School in Zurich.. She has been transmitting her special 4:r4 weaving— to the children at that, school, and according to Mrs. Couper, the children .and ;their „parents are excited about what has been•accomplished thus far. "Culture and crafts could be 'carried .further in 'Huron, observes Mrs. Couper, "and I don't mean popsicle stick crafts. I mean crafts which belong to our heritage. • .Terrific things can" happen that just aren't happening. "The working class ofthe future is going to haye, more leisure time." continues Mrs. Couper. "They will have no fulfillment unless they've learned skills which will 'hold their , interest."' ' And . Mere are new interests. cropping up for Mrs. Couper. She now believes it is a vital thing to ,teach children to love their landscape, to use it, to build upon it, preserve it. , Her summer job with the Youth and Recreation Branch will never . provide outlets for all the ideas milling around in Mrs. Couper's head. Her main job in Huron will be to assist small' communities. such .as Zurich,,. Hensall, Bayfield, Blyth and Brussels , to develop programs where there have been only limited activities • in the past. She will also assist with programs in the larger centres where playgrounds have been well established for years and sh a. plans 'to organize, an intei community service throughout the county whereby municipalities can share activities and benefit from them. Mrs. Couper talks about bringing youth theatre to the Mrs. Moira Couper AINSLIUS Home Dressed Select Meat PEAMEAL . SLICED BACK BACON (BY THE PIECE) WHOLE OR HALE Ib. • lb.• FreshH�mRQa'StS, EXTRA LEAN GROUND CHUCK X6..6 MADE FRESH DAILY 0 LEAN 2bs;S Iib► county — a group to not only produce plays but to train other amateur theatre groups. Bringing' Summer Sounds, a musical group, to Huron is another project on .Mrs. Couper's schedule. Itis• a full summer's work for Mrs, Couper who may be contacted through the, Huron County Development Office. But when the leaves begin to fall and the wind begins to chill once more, Moira Couper's dreams for Huron County will still he burning brightly. Don't be surprised if some of herr imaginative schemes culminate into -realistic: workable programs for ,the betterment of all ,.. for Mrs. Moira Couper is -a determined lady with vision. Huron holding; line Huron Board rejects salary freers idea The regular meeting . of .the ' iluron Co.unt.y_Board. of Educaiion got underway a• half-hour late Monday evening -8:30 p.m:—to permit a longer than usual TOTifni'itt'e`e` i th"etiklitte (in camera) session. It ended about 10 p,m for a, short break kefore members of the board reconvened in another, committee -of -the - whole (in camera) meeting. During the open meeting, little new business was aired. All but .three of the recommendations. from "The Arts In Education' Meeting were approved and the threewhich were tabled involved budget limitations as well asa follow-up study of county needs. • The recommendation from the academic planning committee to form, a teacher -trustee - administration liaison committee was also approved. • A brief discussion was held on the request from the London, boardof education to put a freeze on administrative salaries, but board members agreed to file the correspondence. The. feeling„was that the Huron board' had been holding the line on administrative spending as • well as other educational spending since the board's beginning, and did not feel it was necessary to put a freeze on salaries which were already well within the guidelines set by other boards in the province. The following reSigna'tions were accepted effective August 31: At Brookside, Mrs. Patricia F. Alien, Mrs. Elsie Irvin; Clinton PS, Mrs. Sharlene ,Tyndall; Co,l,borne CS,6Mrs. 'Karen Webster; E, eter PS, Mrs. E. J Turvey;Grey CS, Mrs. Helen M. Keith; Hbwick CS, Mrs.Patricia Evers, Mrs. Eva W. Harris, Mrs. Darlene Knapp, Gerald.. Mlinchey •and Mrs. Mary F. Wood Hallett CS, Mrs. Violet Howes,' J. W. O'Rourke; Huron Centennial' CS; hilrs, Anna Mrs. Joyce Monteith; McCurdy PS, Mr*, ,Eleanor The Blue Thumb ission Murcel. . When retirement finally wood. Pulling the pistol from .its catches up with a man the biggest holster he prepard'to ensure a vacuum he experiences is the lifefora life, when the lead figure absence of campanions who 'speak said "Bon soir! Bienvenul" his language; men with whom he Monsieur Bienvenu, as he was has worked and planned; men who subsequently nicknamed, led him believe, in' him; who understand into the wood while the `reception his moods intuitively. Having committee' numbering close to experienced some years of this one hundred, because of *- void it was a godsend to meet- considerable labour of picking up Wally Booth some few years ago all the material dropped, loaded. and to find not just someone of my them on to farm wagons with own profession; someone who ° loudly squeaking wheels..,.He held definite views on methods of was then Ted to the house of the warfare, but who differentiated local Maquis leader. As the door between wars of mobility on Pot*, opened the Leader's wife, busy as opposed to wars of mechanical. • o v e r t h e ' h Ug e wood f ire, mobility. And since be had preparing a meal, ha"r'Ldly exceptional experience in this bothered to look around for her form of guerilla -warfare in husband was always going off on France, Burma, Korea, Algeria, and returning from clandestine Malaya and with the French Union meetings by night. But then she Forces in Vietnam)n 1950 et seq, turned, and saw the Colonel. the bond between us was Instantly tears literally spurted permanently cemented when we from her eyes as she came both agreed that the U.S. General forward to sink on her knees and Staff had made an irreparable . kiss his hands. "Enfin! Enfin!! blunder in mistaking the war in Vous etes arrives apres quatre ' Vietnam for mechanical, rather ans. Merci! Merci!!" (At last, at than a pedestrian war; for a last, you• have come after four • conventionalwar when it was a years. Thank you, Thank you.)' guerilla war. And later There was no time to linger,4As compounded their blunder by soon as word came that all the training the natural guerilla of material was safely stowed in the " South Vietnam in the image and wood, a posse of the Maquis set with the panoply of a mechanised • • out • to check the houses in the soldier. It was hard to conceive ' village from whichtheft' male how such ignorant advice could owners had been absent, for the emanate from such preferred Nazis had a habit of noting the professionals as peopled the absentees and awaiting their, Pentagon. return. Keeping the Colonel For the last three years I have behind a wall they waited for the enjoyed his letters, his company, '-'A11 Clear" signal, when they led his,conversation and his writings, him back to the wood which for it transpired that we shared another bond. We had both written formed their hideout. There was. little or no 'time for expressions books for which we could not find a of gratitude for the wood was even publisher. In both cases he books then being systematically dealt with critical experiences in surrounded by the Nazis; no one our respective careers. But when knew whether, by chance or by we met again this year I was to • betrayal. It was ac very . speedy learn to my greatsatisfaction that introduction into the hazards of• a his book had been accepted and e { G x, Maquis.. ,,.. ,,,,,, would he pulilislied in September' You will read,of the damageVial 1972 under the title ` "Mission a single guerilla can inflict on a Marcel—Proust." formed battalion of troops in Not surprisingly our books hostile country, with. all their have quite dissimilar themes. My encumbrances; their • lack of own is the story of the arrogance tactical information; the hostility - of jnilitary rank in ignoring th,e • of the local people. It is an disciplines of mechanical science „example . of how non -conformity so that Britain wehtto'warin"r.1..939 scan confuse and destroy with virtually. no Tank weapon, conformity, But my purpose here while from 1942 until VE -Day the is merely to whet the appetite, so American military mind that when the„book appears you condemned thousands of their own may read this thrilling account of troops to be armed with ,an cold-blooded courage at first ififerior Tank gun, thus incurring hand, countless unnecessary casualties. + + + . ' • Colonel Walder Booth's story MacDonell, Miss Joanne on the other hand is a compelling 011erenshaw, Mrs. Jennifer tribute to the patriotism, Dattels (also Stephen CPS) and , fortitude and heroism displayed Lawrence Wein (also Exeter, by the simple people who formed Hensall, Zurich and Stephen the French Maquis, highlighted by C�uti -Robe orrMemost- inseucintself Goderich, Mrs. Roberta: Proctor; sacrifice by Captain Claude Seaforth PS, Mrs. , Florence Kay, Vougnon who refused to betray his ` Mrs. Eula Kellar, Miss Joyce comrades of the Maquis, thus Norris; Mrs. Marian Pullman: incurring brutal torture followed Turnbe -ry nCS, Mrs. S. E. • by death at the hand of the Miss Sharon Baechler. Gestapo. Morrison, The story opens with the free (also East Wawanosh PS); •fall of Colonel Booth of the. O,S.S, Victoria PS, Goderich, Mrs: into the Haute Same region of Grace E.Cranstdn; Wingham PS, France i�,,�� ,1,944; after the Mrs, Mary E. Forrest, Mrs. Normandy Fidings. The object: Myrla Frank; and Zurich PS, to join trnd hearten the local. E.W. McQuillin. Maquis; to advise them arid to be Al Central Huron. Secondary 'their liaison with O.S.S. +2. School, . George Atkinson, D.J. Headquarters in London through.. Brazeau, L.D. Gray, R. Johnson, their radiolink and ,thus ensure ..Mrs. Margaret Robinson, Mrs. that 'succeeding parachute drops Dale Shannon and Qeorge Zwick; contained the arms, ammunition, at F. E. Madill, Mrs. Linda K. • explosives,'food and clothing in Campbell, Miss Patricia Ciebien, the requisite proportions so that Miss Linda Easton and Peter R. ' ,the Free French contingent could Mathwich; at Goderich District maintain their . depredations Collegiate Institute, Miss against the retreating German Maureen Dowds, Claude troops: .8 Kalbfl°eisc,h, Miss Joyce Descending from some Lambert, R. Scott Thomson and thousands of feet on to French Leonard Boyce; at South Huron, soil; the Colonel was cheered by Exeter, Mrs. Barbara Davidson the sight of a bunting aircraft and Miss Heather Hartford. •» which had succumbed to enemy It was also noted frons the anti-aircraft fired -and could • ruminate that there, but for the -committee-of-the-Whole (in grace of 'God went- he. Just an camera) meeting of April 17, that 'example of the normal wastage of Clarke S. Teal has been appointed war. Years of training snuffed out head of the mathematics by one round of ammunition.. So department at G D C I for a , much effort, so little return. As probationary periocrof one year. the Colonel floated lower he made out the outline of a wood, so that he "".. ••� , had to spill air from his chute to avoid it, His drop had .been the result of brilliant navigation by his pilot and though he could • discern the usual ground signals, these on occasion could be German inspired; resultant on a breach of security. Having picked 'himself •up, he proceeded to fold up his parachute; a precautionary • measure strictly observed to keep the drop location secret. Still engaged in this routine, he "i" ttor#f4"1"r .' became aware Of figures oar .r *sort r emerging towards him from the . OOP FIC ea* &WC, The criticism of several. including myself, who have read the typescript, is that `the author has been far too modest-. and accompanied by the widow ,.of Claude. Vougnon, they stood silently beside the grave Of the hero of this story, the grave. wherein lay his tortured body. There were tears and chills down the spine as the bonds of comradeship were renewed and it began to seemas though it was: but yesterday that they„ ,,had been severed, The widow of the hero repeating what she had said at the tinne of his death; that she would not have had him. pass the cup. Truly greater love hath no man than this,., „ ' Here then were these simple people, with their everyday idiocyncrasies, even as you and I, yet in whose hearts were imbedded all the lovely virtues of courage, honour, steadfastness, patriotism, loyalty and above all selflessness, exen to death itself. Her they wee, giving the -lie direct to those perfidious politicians who, in 1940 sold the honour of Francefor a.lmess of pottage. The Colonel insists there is drily one hero in his story, but having regard to the manner of his reception by these people of Haute Saone, you will probably decide with them and with me that there are at least two. ' +1. Mission Marcel -Proust by Colonel Waller B. Booth.. +2. 0,S,S. Office of Strategic Services; later to become the • C.I.A. •d Teachers make •. text rules A committee of secondary scho'ol English Department heads has -;laid down the rules for the selection of text books for high school English courses -rand the 'school trustee who initiated the committee's activity complainedthat--board members trad not allbeen at the educatfon• committee meeting to hear the discussion on the subject of: acceptable English text books. • It was John. Henderson of McKillop who• told the board of education several weeks ago .. about a, student having 'to read unassuming, while the Colonel aloud a passage from a 'textbook insis:isthexe is nothing..more..ta,:�.iictr°w2 iertnt2'ar.y °tt^tris say about his own contribution: that he'merely acted as a matrix., ° Consequently itwas not until he' related some' of his post-war experiences when he returned to the -villages involved, that the fervour with which his comrades received him supplied the answers he himself refused to give me. Five or six years after the Liberation of France the Colonel and his wife returned unannounced to the same village on to which he had dropped that dark night in 1944. He arrived about noon and entered the village inn to be confronted to his amazement by an enlarged photograph of himself aver the bar, As he ordered a drink the man ttehind the bar fixed him with a stare before bursting out: `"Mon Colonel” and coming forward to, kneel and to clasp the Colonel's thighs. Immediately .the underground telegraph,which had worked -so - speedily and -so secretly- during the tragic days of the Occupation, went into action, so that soon the inn was filled with memberof the Mission, pouring in to make their bienvenu. Solid peasants'all, yet possessed to a man of those qualities which onoccasion, for fleeting seconds, tan turn men into -gods. Monsieur. Bienvenu appeared, insisting on escorting the Colonel to the very stilt in the fieldon 'to which he had dropped, so many memories ago: -Then there was the. charhphgne; the visits hither and, thither to villages 10 and' 15 kiometr'es away, from which other ,members had: been drawn and always champagne! , ,These Were experiehce l' emotion -filled enough, :yet they could not compare with the Visits to the several graveyard„, Atone, personal principles. Since that time, the "questionable” English books have been a subject to study by teaching staff. It was also John Henderson who told Monday :evening'sregular meeting of the boardof education that he was disappointed no mention had been made 'by the teachersin their brief that board ' members and or parents were encouraged to make arrangements to sit in on English classes where books of a questionable nature7 were under discussion. Henderson also said he was sorry the full board had not been present to hear the teachers' comments on the subject which was aired , At an education committee meeting May 1, He was reminded that all board members are welcome at any committee meetings they wish to attend: The brief stated that before a , book becomes a text hook for study in Huron County English classes, a teacher must be familiar with the' - book and prepared to vouch for it; a colleague must be familiar with the book and prepared to vouch for it; a reputable scholarship must give it positive appraisal; it must be illustrative of a specific genre or theme considered important enough to warrant examination; and it must be relevant to;, contemporary student. The book must also exhibit {the qualities of a mature, writing style; it must stimulate discriminating . reading and thinking; it trust ° enrich the readers' understanding tit themselves and their fellows through an. expesure to great. themes;, and it must transmit an awarenesg'ot accepte4.values.