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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 1981-06-18, Page 3TrilJLte • Editor's note - Mr. and Mrs. John Guetter of Clinton celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary on June 3rd. Asa tribute to her parents, Mrs. Therms Bakker of Sarnia, has written a very special Netter on alf of the family. The Guetters have other children Chris, Jean and Rita, of Clluton, Pete from Feuwiek and Harry from Arizona. Dear Mom and Dad: I wanted to write you a letter on "your" day. You have just celebrated your 55th anniversary, and I wanted to sum up some of my thoughts and feelings which have accumulated through the years. Not, that I have hidden these feelings in the past! On the contrary, I have ever so often shown how much I love and care for you. But somehow, I now wanted to pay a special tribute to you in a special way. I do this by means of an open letter. The prime pur- pose for this letter however, is not to show how marvelous and loving you are, but first and foremost how marvelous our God is. He brought us together as a family, and to Him,alone be the praise and honor! I first looked into your faces in the late 1930's. Little did I know then, what a rich d beautiful life lay before me. But God 1! do not remember much of my childhood years, other than that the war made an impact on me. Our uncle in Amsterdam worked among the Jewish people, and it was through him that little Paul, a Jewish lad, came to live with us. Paul, 41/2 -years -old, was a clever little boy. He caused quite some confusion at times, because of his gifted speech and dealings. He was not allowed to go outside for fear the Germans would spot and kill him. You took a great chance to be put into the concentration camp Man and Dad! But you provided for him, because you knew it was your Christian duty and God rewarded you for it. Remember too, how poor we were? You hardly knew, dear Mother, how you were going to feed the family frau one day to the next. Yet, strange as it may sound, there was always enough food, not only for us, but also for friends or relatives. At meal -time, you Dad, would have long conversations with God. Your chair was always in the same position, and when you prayed you squeezed your eyes together, stuck in the middle ("Now, if I was a big, old Bengal Tiger, you wouldn't find we trooping through those hot, humid jungles in India. No way man, not me. I wouldn't spend my' days chasing after , those crazy antelopes or taking chard es of getting knocked off by some highfalutin trophy hunter. We. tigers may be kind of high strung, but I'll tell you, same of us have got some brains too and we headed right over to Rockton, Ontario, Canada to live in the lap of luxury at their African Lion Safari Park. Now that snow took some getting used too, but it's all worth it, knowing that we're protected and well cared for by the wardens and veterinarians. There are no guns allowed in this safari park, and the people are so friendly too. All they want to do is drive by in those automobile -things and look at us. Hey, now who can beat that! Even though those lazy old lions get top billing at this joint, there's a whole bunch of us in this 500 -acre park in- cluding cheetahs, zebras, white rhinos, elephants, monkeys and baboons, birds and exotic waterfowl, llamas and giraffes, and some creatures that I've never heard tell of in all my life - black bears, elk and sad nething called a bison Anyway, it's a pretty good deal we've got, and I hear that beyond our quarters the humans have got a lots of other by saugbter to couple celebraii.n. facing the one corner in the living -room. I used to peek through prayer at t .i :, I'd look so hard into the same cor er, r I thought for sure you were se;' : g # od through slits in your eyes. After supper, when you were not too tired, you would get on your hands and knees, and we would play horse with you, Dad. You were always a wild horse that bucked and galloped easily. We sure had our fun that way! I also remember so well, how every Monday morning we would have to wear clean knitted stockings - long prickly ones at that! Oh, how I hated Monday mor- nings! Some of our more fortunate friends- wore riendswore the boughten, knitted stockings and they didn't have to go through the agony of adjusting to the harsh, cheap wool. But then you, Dad, would come out of your carpenter shop, and while the big tears were rolling down our cheeks, you would sit before our chair and begin to rub the stockings on our legs - up and down, up and down, up and down. Somehow, through your gentle rubbing, the wool softened, and even though we would still walk around all Monday morning like dolls with wooden legs, it was at least bearable. I also remember the times we had been tucked into bed by Man who had said our prayers with us. You, Dad, would sometimes come up, and just sit on the side of our bed, and just chat awhile with us. You used to ask all kinds of questions about our home and school and those few minutes were always very precious to me. After we had talked together you would ask if we should also talk to God. Then you would take my little bands and place them into your big, rough hands, and we would speak with the Lord. It was through times like these that I began to feel how close you lived with God. I wanted that same relationship with Him already at a young age. In 1949 we emigrated to Canada. Little was I aware of our financial hardships. I did not know until later that you had borrowed every cent to bring your family to Canada. A big step it was, but you, Mom and Dad took it with God - and He provided for us all! In a very gloomy way, you prepared us for a life in Canada. We would presumably have to live in an old shack somewhere in the woods with lions and bears roaming shelley y mcphee dii) things to see and do. Local gossip has it that there's a midway, picnic area, train rides, petting and feeding zoo, birds of prey exhibit, African Queen _.boat toui`, elephant rides, and fishing. Now I wouldn't mind seeing some of those things myself, but the boss says I gotta stay were I am. Oh well, it's not bad in our corner of the park. They've tried to make it just like home, with lots of trees and bushes to hide in and even a pond so we can swim anytime we want. This just suits our fancy and life is so comfortable and happy, that we're glad to raise our babies here. Normally we're not keen about bringing our young'uns up in captivity, but this seems like a good place to have baby bengals. Now if you get a chance, come on down and see us at African Lion Safari, they can sure give royal treatment. Why just the other day, hundreds of media -types, whatever they are, came to the Safari for lunch and a tour of the park in our air-coriditionned trams. They really seemed to enjoy them- selves and I hear that most stayed right until closing time. Around here they, say, "Go Wild at the African Lion Safari," but I still think my pal Tony sums it up pretty good, "It's Grrrreat!" i around our living quarters. We had our initial shock but it was quite different from what we had anticipated, Remember Mom, how you and one of your daughters were ill when you came off the boat in \ Quebec? In those days the immigration office was not prepared for interruptions like these. While you two were taken to the hospital, they took the rest of us to a prison for stowaways. That was terrible wasn't it! Sick people were automatically taken care of, but what could the immigration staff do with the "healthy" members of a family? They did not want to split us up, sending -us on to Ontario. As for ourselves, we could not speak the English or French language. We understood little of all the confusion and had no say in this dilemma. We needed a roof over our heads, therefore we were put into the same place as "criminals" who had not paid their fare. Sunday was always the great day of the week, when we would go to church by chartered bus. All our Christian friends, (they were almost as dose as relatives then) would gather together and travel to Mr. and Mrs. John Guetter of Clinton celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary on June 13 with a special open house at the Christian Reformed Church when hundreds of friends, family and associates honored the happy couple. (Jim Fitzgerald photo) Home Phone 482-3183 Ball -Macaulay Ltd. is pleased to announce the appointment of John Patterson to a sales position with the company. -As- a progressive member of Homecare Building Centres Ltd., Ball -Macaulay offers a full range of building supplies and services. John will be representing the three branches at Seaforth, Clinton and Hensall as a sales representative providing an additional service to the community in all phases of construction including kitchen design, home improvement and form buildings. BALL-MACAULAY BUILDING CENTRE BALL-MACAULAY LIMITED Seaforth Clinton 527-0910 482-3405 Hensall 262-2418 PRO HARDWARE Vacation Cash ri • ve W i - - a We'll Give You $5.00 Cash If You Join the TILLEY LEATHER GOODS BARBECUES Hugo selection in stock! ub Before You Go On Vacation 482-9773 Membership Fee -635.00 WEED -EATERS Offer Expires -July 15th, 1981 SMITH'S PRO HARDWARE CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, JUNE 18,1981—PAGE 3 55th 4 ' versary church some 35 miles away. It was always a beautiful outing. Ii the stormy winter weather would not permit us to go, then you Dad would take aver at hoarse with a hymn -sing and a reading service. For- tunately, ortunately, that did not happen too often. One year with the farmer proved to be sufficient. It was then that we moved to the town with the home church. I was about 14 - years -old then and one of the things I remember best from that period in my life was that our home was always open for others. No matter who came, there was always room for relatives or friends. Young people flocked in by the car loads. They called our place the "Drive In," and it was through your friendliness and hospitality Mom, that so many came to our home. Assets, were never of great importance to you. Fancy furniture was not at all primary - but .cauiforts and cosiness were. After the older children helped pay the expenses of the trip overseas, the younger ones helped to provide a little "nest" for you two. What joy it was the day you purchased a little hit of property for yourself. How many thanksgiving prayers were sent to heaven for your little home on that day - and how many, since then? No, money was never a big issue at home. God II 1 1 1 CLIP AND BRING IN 1 THESE COUPONS 1 FOR BIG FURNITURE SAVINGS! ' - ---rte i 1----- Dins®142" �; c MATTRESSES 1 • NEIL t. I':.tc! KING.i) W.4$ 25. O �: Per Unit ' :fit (ld!'� (Mattress And Box Spring) (Ili Twin-double-or ' ` Q n Size � uee x �•� is i ___------- COUPON A t Oft came first - and you showed t'r _ t t1 rpt your giving for chard), school and somany other worthwiule causes. Once, when 1 showed you my hope chest Dad, you said, "Child, seek first the Kingdom of God and all other things shall be yours as well." I have tried to follow your advice - and my riches are beyond measure to this day. All the children were marriedone by one through the years. Finally you two were left by yourselves. Remember how ,you summed up your feelings, Mother? You said, "When the children were small, we had small problems but what good times we had. When the children became older, we had more difficult tunes, but we grew together as a family. But now that we are just with the two of us, what joyful times these are. Every day we thank God for our lives together." Yes you now live, the thiiee of you in your cosy little home - you two together with God. Fifty-five years you have been able to live, knit and grow into each other's lives. God has blessed you richly. Someday He will take you to itis mansions above, where you will forever praise and glorify his name. I cannot think of two people more blessed than you! Much love from, your daughter. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ---------- �----'--cou�vrT SOLID CEDF►ITUD; RN 11 1 1' 1 1 SAVE 2 WAYS! COUPON SAVINGS AND SAVE 7% SALES TAX ON THESE ITEMS! CHESTERFIELDS OFF E f any chesterfield In stock with this coupon Fv STI 4 10"O F �`` PIECE "a1 i 11 :::with this cou�n v s�!� rte. iuisb 2v ■ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ani ,�►. �SL�N�n i , � � ■ I/ Five Piece Sets SALE ENDS JUNE 30 raw AIL RECLINERS (tw $3 0 SOLID BIRCH DINETTE SETS $40. 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