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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 1981-02-12, Page 4PAGE —CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1981 ifteredey of P.g. Spa S3. Cfbntea. Ontario, teettidit, NIM UL Yat.: 042,1943. itsinsifit .n0.* ler. shyest - °&q fits per year tt.ro.aA_ Ib foreign - =:BF.®0 For poem le Co registered as airmail dies seen by the (Cast office ender ales+ parade number IMO. !fee incorporated fie Me ales➢ Huron etaysy.ftecord, founded in MI. end rite Gusto, New Fre, fovwdrad In I 3. totes prays moo &lee. A MEMBER JAMES E. FITZGERALD Editor SHELLEY MCPHEE - News Editor GARYfAIST - Advertising Manager HEATHER BRANDER . Advertising MARGARET L 0111 -Office Manager MART ANN GUDDON.Subsc rlptlons MEMBER Display advertising rates available on request. dela for tate Card No. 11 effective Oct. 1. taw. rt er 15r When our pioneer forefathers were struggling to make .a living from farms hacked out of the bush there was very little cash ..involved in their transactions. The man who had more potatoes than his fami- ly needed might trade for a quarter of beef or a few dozen eggs with his neighbor. Storekeepers accepted all sorts of farm produce for the purchase of shoes and clothing. In fact, says the Wingham Advance -Times; we have 'seen a few samples of metal tokens which some mer- chants offered iirreturn for farm products a sort of coinage which, of, course, guaranteed that the farmer would spend Ids credit tokens in the store where they originated. os Receitly we have heard that inflation . gas provided the' incentive for a 'small scale revival of the barter system in some country areas. It makes pretty good sense, - • too. Oeefellow who owns a woodlot. fells a few trees that must be weeded out, but he doesn't need 41,1 ll the wood UAl s9.4Ne„pan m a neighboring village is '.a good' book- keeper, ookkeeper, so he helps the farmer with his records and gets to cut up some of the fallen treesfor his own use -- and so on: It is quite possible that one of the reasons why consumers must -pay such high prices for food and farmers get so little for its production may well be our complete desertion of the barter system' in recent years. Farmers are insisting that the price they get for slaughter cattle is losing them money — and housewives are certainly anything but happy over steak in the stores' coolers at $3.98 a pound. But take a look at the roundabout route the meat has to travel. The animals have to be trucked from farm to the slaughter point, usually in Toronto; the Toronto firm slaughters and cuts the carcass; the meat is passed along to a wholesaler who trucks it back to the local store - and at long last it is sold to the people who are going to eat . it. At each step in the processing and delivery system some individual dr com- pany has to make a buck or go out of business. No doubt these observations will bring forth howls of protest from those who believe that any comments on existing food roduction methods are, about the. same as bad-mouthing . mother. You're ' right. Wehre not farm experts. All we know is that when both producers and con- sumers are groaning, something just has to be out of whack, says the Wingham paper., Don't bank on it r h ,,Would you do if you had a bank that credited, account each morning with $86,40101. A bank that carried over no bola ce from day to day; that allowed you take, no cash in your account We are speaking of a bank that cancelled every' evening, whatever balance you had failed to use. You would likely draw out and use every cent, every day, to hill advantage. Well, you have such a bank and its name is TIME. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds and every night .it rules off whatever you have failed to invest to good pu- This bar* carries over ' no balance, allows no overdrafts and, if you fail to use the day's deposits the loss is yours. There are no means whereby that which was left over yesterday can be used towards today's needs. There can be no borrowing against tomorrow. —Anonymous Valentine friends by Jim Fitzgerald Do your bit write letters Dear Editor: Numerous complaints about Sabo and ice buildup on the, sidewalks of our downtown area have been received at the Town Hall and by the Mayor. Granted this has been a difficult winter to keep up with the snow, but some of our merchants have proved that it can be done. ' With the present econichic conditions in mind, we should all be doing everything in our power to encourage people to shop in Clinton, and there can be no doubt that even a few stretches of uncleared walk pose a hazard and discourage ahoppers. If your sidewalk is one of those with a buildup of ice or snow, may we have your co-operation in getting the situation cleared up? There is a Town By -Law set- ting etting out penalties for failure to clear ice and snow ° from in front of your plains of business, but we would much prefer not to have to enforce it. Yours very truly, Town of Clinton Chester Archibald, • Mayor Heart to heart Dear Editor: Here we are again, into another year and just a few short days away from the.begin- ning of the 1981 Canadian Heart Fund caln- February is the month set aside, not only in Ontario, but across Canada, when we ask the public for financial support to help continue research into Canada's major health enemies — heart disease and stroke.. For 1981, the objective in the Province of Ontario is $7 million and we feel that if we can depend on your full support to help publicize our campaign, there will be no problem hi obtaining our objective. We have been most fortunate in having your complete support in the past years and we hope you will continue to make "Heart Your Cause". Thanking you in . anticipation of your help,lremain, Yours very truly,. Canadian Heart Foundation Ontario Division Esther M. Richards Director of Public Relations remembering our past a look through the news -record files r , 5 YEARS AGO February 12,1976 The light from the torch bearers created an eerie scene on Clinton streets last Wednesday night as more than 100 snowmobilers turned out for the Winter Carnival Torchlight Parade which was held in perfect winter conditions.. It was the second largest tor- chlight parade ever held in Clinton. Mechanical failure anddrifting snow combined to bog down a two -engine 23 -car freight train with caboose on the CNR tracks six miles east of Seaforth Saturday night about 9:15 pm. The train was not freed until about 4 pm Sunday. Good old days Due to the vagaries (and I could think of some other words for them) of our mail system (system? ), this column has been getting ` to readers at some peculiar seasonal times. My Christmas column, written in November, appeared after New Year's Day in many papers. My New Year's col- umn, written in early December, has ap- peared -in mid-January. A letter from my daughter, written on Dec. 10, reached me on Dec. 31. First-class something or other. So this one, written Dec. 31, 1980, will be my Valentine's Day job for 1981, and perhaps you'll get it by the March break. Looking ahead at a new year is more dispiriting, very often, than looking back at the old one. At least you know that the old one can't be any worse than the one that's coming up. That applies to years, / dos and women. Some pretty darn nice things happened to me in 1980. Generally speaking, it was a rotten year, but there were some bright moments that helped dispell the gloom. First of all, I read an article in the Toronto Star, with a headline: Teachers suffer highest burnout rate. This highest cheered me immensely, because it proved something I'd known for years, and we're always cheered when we're proven right, even though we prophesy that the world will come to an end next Tuesday. And it does. Some of the statements in the article might be considered a bit alarming, but they made me feel kind of special. I quote: "On average, teachers die four years younger than the rest of us. And next to air traffic controllers and surgeons, teachers suffer the most stress of all professions." You see the cheery note there? I could have been a surgeon or an air traffic con- troller. The author of the book on which the arti- cle was based stated flatly that many parents and school boards consider teachers, "No more than glorified babysit- ters and are prepared to treat them as such both through working conditions and salaries." I Did you get the key word there? "Glorified." Saints and martyrs are glorified, though I haven't heard about too many babysitters reaching that status, though there are some who should be. And there isn't a babysitthr in town who makes as much as I do. So I'm happy. And another nice thing happened to me in 1980. I made a speech to honor students at a high school banquet. Honor night speeches are usually about everything ex- cept honor. Mine wasn't. And I received a fine tribute about it from a teacher, Burton Ford. "Yourpresentation to Honor students here -was damn good. It was refreshing to an old boy, like myself, to hear it acknowledged that the Bible and Shakespeare are the models for correct English. In a time when old values and ideas are constantly being demeaned and even discarded, it was very refreshing to me to hear a teacher talk about Honor." Thank you, sir. Not all the letters were like that. Cassie Stafford of St. Thomas rips me up a bit, though she always sends along a poem at Christmas. She claims I am influencing her children's thoughts about sex, even though they are all out of high school by now. Her letter ends, "My own writing is deteriorating from reading your column each week." Me too, Cassie, and thanks for the poem. From The Corner Store in Newtonville comes a note from Gwen McOuat: "This is not a school paper. It is a love note. I think you are terrific and I love ya." Thanks, Gwen. She encourages me to get on with putting a book together, and guarantees it will be on display in the Corner Store. Just before Christmas, an old friend, who worked with me on a steamboat resort ship on the Upper Lakes back in the Thir- ties, was on the blower. He was the head bell -hop, and a consistent failure in medicine and dentistry at the U. of T. He is now a successful dentist in Vancouver, which says something about something. He may be a good dentist, but his memory is not so hot. He claims we once went to a whore house in Detroit. I have never been in a whore house in my life. Knowingly. And I don't ever expect to be. Knowingly. Then there's always the Christmas card from my old intend and critic, frotn Westport, who invariably signs his card Your TV Repair Man, and gives.me a ver- bal cuff on the ear, slap on the back and tells me to go on saying it like it is. Bless you all, and the many others who have written encouragement, vitriol, and just good old-fashioned gossip about the good old days, when our hearts were young and gay, aid a hamburger was a dime, and a Pepai was a nickel. �- .. 9 *lien -one of the engines on the train went dead,,the train crew decided to take the two engines to Stratford and leave the 23 cars and caboose where they were halted with one of the crew. Around Dublin the engines became stuck in the snow. Constable James McLeod of the Seaforth OPP was notified of the problem and secured two snowmobiles and shortly after midnight went to the aid of the crewmen in the caboose. 10 YEARS AGO February 18, 1971 - An experiment in community government carried on at the Clinton town hall on Monday night could be repeated en the future. The experiment involved representatives from all four townships surrounding Clinton and the town council itself in a discussion of mutual problems. From comments after the meeting it appears that such joint meetings could become more regular. Congratulations to Miss Lorraine Chamney in being chosen Queen of the Winter Carnival in Clinton on Saturday. Lorraine is the 14 - year -old daughter if Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Chamney of RR 1, Auburn and was chosen to represent Hullett Central School in the competi tion. 25 YEARS AGO February 16, 1956 There has recently come to notice a campaign to sell sewing machines and vacuum cleaners of little known make in house-to-house selling by a rather ingenious method. We " have this suggestion that the householder remember that these out-of-town salesmen do not pay business tax, nor ped- dler's license and therefore do not support the town financially in any way. The sales method appears to be dubious in the very least, and any papers you sign in concluding adeal with a salesman who comes to your door, may be legally binding, .even though legally there seems little that can be done about a firm who uses another firm's name to advertise. For your own safety. buy from a dealer in town that you know. You can have confidence in the men who are established in business. Members of the Clinton Community Athletic Field Board came up with the suggestion that the grounds of the old public school could possibly be used for the site of Clinton's new swimming pool. Lorne Brown of Lorne Brown Motors Limited, has this week set up a new limited company to be known as Brownie's Drive In Limited and has purchased the Llashmar Drive In Theatre from R. Bob Marshall of Listowel. 50 YEARS AGO February 12, 1931 Sunday School sleigh rides and suppers are the order these days. Both seem to be enjoyed by those who take part. Mrs. James Lindsay who passed her 89th birthday on Tuesday, February IOth. Mrs. Lindsay is not as smart as she used to be but odds 'n' ends by e!a_ine t-ownshend What's your inconvenience? Tom Sullivan, U.S. singer, composer, author, talk show host and athlete, describes his blindness as an in- convenience. He maintains everyone has an inconvenience and how each of us deals with it is up tous. In regard to blindness, he explains: "You've got to learn to boogie with your senses!" What is your inconvenience? Maybe you have to hunt for your glasses before you can read the newspaper. Perhaps you ask people to repeat things, because you don't hear them the first time. Maybe your inconvenicence is being not quite tall enough to reach the top shelf in the grocery store or being a little too stout to move comfortably in those old- fashioned telephone booths. (By the way, the old booths are being replaced with open ones that have low phones allowing people in wheelchairs to use them. ) Your inconvenience or hindrance may be a temporary one- a sling or cast. Or, maybe your inconvenience is a dead battery in a hearing aid. Sometimes you feel left out at a party because you can't lip read all the conversations taking place around you and the other guests don't understand sign language. Or, maybe your inconvenience is not reading a good book because the library doesn't have it available on cassette and you don't have a sighted friend to read it to You Perhaps it's the years that have in- convenienced you by slowing your pace or forcing you to walk with a cane. Maybe your inconvenience is not being able to open sealer lids as easily as you used to, because arthritis has made your fingers stiff and painful. Arthritis in your knees or ankles can make climbing the stairs into the church, the library, the Town Hall or the doctor's office an ordeaL A serious heart condition, emphysema or a wheelchair can make it impossible. Your inconvenicne may find you riding a service elevator at the back of a hotel, because your wheelchair can't climb the steps at the front. Maybe your inconvenience is that, like thousands of other Canadian adults, you can't read grocery labels or notes from your children because you didn't learn to read ire school. Perhaps your inconvenience is a migraine headache that sends you to bed for days ata time. Or, your inconvenience may be trying to explain to police or strangers on the street that your stagger and your slurred speech is caused by a condition called cerebral palsy, not drunkenness. Your inconvenience may involve taking daily medication to maintain a por-nal-ife or visiting a hospital three or four times a week to use life-sustaining equipment. Possibly, your inconvenience makes you call a hospital "home" because you need certain medical and support services that your family can't provide. Your hindrance may force you to do a "hard sell" job on a prospective employer. Although your qualifications are as good as the next applicant, you may have to convince the interviewer he's not taking a risk by hiring you. Because of your inconvenience, you may daily face stares, points, personal questions, maybe even snickers. Or, you may have to constantly remind people that you'll never reach five feet in height but you'll never be a kid again either. And a pat on the heed is no longer acceptable. Your inconvenience may mean you learn more slowly and with more patience than some other people. Or, maybe your inconvenience confines you to a bed or a wheelchair, able to move only your head. Modern technology is providing answers for many problems. For example, a machine can be operated with a touch of the chin or a breathof air to turn on a light, open a door or answer the telephone. Wheelchairs that climb stairs are being experimented with; calculators talk, and computers can be programmed to say what's on your mind. But with the magic of each innovation comes a whopping price tag that's hard for the average person to swallow. The point Fm trying to make is that we all have inconveniences. Some are ob- vious; others are not. Some are more difficult to deal with than others. Irregardless of the handicap, we all have one thing in common -we're human: she has done a he of living and its no fault on her part . fliat she should have come to the place where she goes slowly. Miss Lindsay. - when at her best, could tell many an in- teresting story of pioneer days in Goderich Township, where her parents settled in the early days. For Sale - 21 acres of pasture land, never - failing creek, Sauble Line, Bayfield. Terms: Cash$200. Apply to J.R. Cameron, Bayfield. 75 YEARS AGO February 16,1906 The fishermen are at present the busiest men in town, getting up ice for summer use. Auburn now has a sales stable in the village, run by G.T. Yuungblut and John Johnston, for which purpose Mrs. Symington's stables have been rented. They have now five horses on hand, of good quality: Mr. Jno Stanbury has a badly discolored optic, and people are naturally wondering how he got it. Most people get such a thing by participation in a row or scrap of some kind, and when you see a man with a black eye, you draw certain mental conclusions. But no one who knows Mr. Stanbury would for one moment think or believe that he got it in any such way. He is too quiet and peaceable a citizen to: participate in a row, and as a for- mer Justice d the Peace he knows that rows are improper. His explanation of it is that while out in the stable of the Rattenbury House the other day, some one let a hay fork slip and the handle struck him in the eye. This may be correct. It probably is, because Mr. Stanbury would not state what is untrue. But it's a pretty bad black, all the same. 100 YEARS AGO February 17, 1881 In Londesboro, commercial travellers are a thick as customers these days; they all say they like to get here for the night for they cannot get better accommodation outside the cities. This speaks well of this place. in the Methodist Church on Sunday, a mouse played about the communion rail, quite indifferent to its audience. On Monday evening, Mr. H. Beacom gave an oyster supper to a very large gathering of his friends, at his rooms on Huron Street. After all had partaken liberally of the refreshments provided, the evening was spent in recitations, songs, etc. The band was present and lend its aid in making the affair very pleasant. The thaw made sad havoc on the highways; those running north and south, where the snow had drifted deep, were left in a wret- ched condition and impassable. On the London Road the farmers turned out and plowed and levelled them. Where this is done. the travelling will soon be good again. As a family medicine and tonic, there is no remedy at present giving such universal satisfaction and effecting so many astonishing cures, as Electric Bitters. All billious attacks, stomach, liver and kidney complaints, diabets and gravel, readily yield to their curative qualities. Sold by J.M. MACKID, at 50c per bottle. i Luo you have an opinion? Willy not write us a letter to the editor, and let everyone know. All lettere. published, providing they cava 1>Np authenticates!, and pseudonym* rr•. allowed. All letters, however,. are, subject to editing for length or libel.