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Clinton News-Record, 1983-07-27, Page 4PAGE 4 – CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1983 The Gowtaa iT unAle anti to caviadishad tlYasirse (fay at PAD. Den S'S. Biiwtara, 0itt®rio. Cousins. WW U.S. Tete.: MU -ASO. Tw,Qpaeriptears Sets: Canada - °111.®il Sr. Citizen - °MSS Par Vow* i➢.�.&. ! foreign - °WM gear your le is registered as second class magi ipyy ins past office antine due swath number MA Tis©B eas-Rssord inesaparsated stn 1M Ins Doren Nenvedt sar+d. teesnrde6 in Bethel. saes The Minton New Sire. intandoef in DM. Totia guns cyan e.x. Incorporating (niL BLYTH STANDARD) Jo HOWARD AIITKEN = Publisher SHELLEY McPHEE - Editor GARY HAIST = Advertising Manages MARY ANN HOLLENSECK = Offices Manager MEMBER Display advertising rates available on request. Mk for Rats Pard No. 13 oehetive mat. 1. 1111. A newspaper's purpose To me, the essence of a community newspaper is to be Her Majesty's perma- nent Loyal Opposition Salmon and Coffee Shop. We must be the permanent opposition to all of the other power structures in the community, watching loyally to make sure they're playing fair. We're the salmon because we should always be going upstream, against the flow. When everyone says you should be hanged, we should look for reasons why you shouldn't. When everyone is admiring the emperor's new clothes, we should be asking around the pawn shops for news of his visits. We're the coffee shop because what they're talking about at coffee is what should be on the front page and what is on the front page should dominate the coffee shop conversation on publication day. It isn't easy. It's one thing for an anonymous editorial writer in a tower in the ci- ty to criticize someone he's never seen. It's quite another to tackle someone you see every day, do considerable business with, and whose children go to school with your children. It's hard, too, to visit the mother of a dose friend to gather information and a photo to go with the story of his death in an accident. It's also challenging, exciting and rewarding. A community newspaper usually covers a society that is small enough for the human mind to comprehend. When 1 look at the town police budget, for example, I can say, "Oh yes, that's three cars and Danny and Cuffy and Donny and Billy...." 1 can figure out whether the total is reasonable or not. A community newspaper publisher also has to become very knowledgeable about the economic bases of the community. Here that's the forest industry and fishing. Fortunately, it's easy to get to talk to the people who are involved. I have an editorial staff of seven in an audience area of about 55,000 people and 14,000 households. That's one reporter for every 8,000 people and 2,000 families. No paper in Toronto or New York would come close. Because we're close to our audience and they're close to each other, we're writing about people who know each other. That has led to exceptional circulation penetration and credibility for communi- ty newspapers and their advertisers. We won't run ads that promise you can make $1,000 a week stuffing envelopes at home. We and our advertisers hove to face our readers and customers week after week. Without a reputation for truthfulness and fairness, we won't survive. At the age of eight, I started in this business 'washing individual letters of inky type and sorting them back- into the case. As a teenager, 1 spent eternities feeding four-page sheets one at a time into an old flat-bed press. My tools keep getting better and better. It's the same for the people in my com- munity. They're doing fascinating things in the forests and on the waters and reading about each other in their paper. The essence of a community newspaper? Well, if you live here, we're the medium that thinks you are the centre of the universe. -David Cadogan is editor and publisher of the Miramichi Leader and Miramichi Weekend, and president of Cadogan Publishing, Newcastle, N.B. — from the Media Magazine, April 1983. 7 behind the scenes Every now and then some American comes out with a suggestion that Canada should stop playing around and join the United States. Nothing is more guaranteed to make Canadians unite. We'll be outraged at the very suggestion. Yet how can you blame Americans for getting the wrong idea. I mean Americans just naturally think that everyone in the world would love to be an American anyway but we also give them so much reason to think we're just being coy: like the girl who says no but really means yes. I've been most embarrassed at being Canadian at some of our moments of so- called triumph. Remember the rescue of the American hostages in Iran by the Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor and his people? Now it was a first class story of heroism but the reaction of Canadians to the attention Americans gave us reminded me of a little puppy, desperate for at- tention, hurling himself in the air just hoping to reach the hand of his master and get a momentary pat on the head. We're downright sickening sometimes. The latest example of that was a week ago when ABC television broadcast a baseball game from Toronto, the first time they had ever done it. You'd think the cure for cancer had been discovered, Toronto made such a fuss. Now they're thinking of the possibility of a Canadian World Series between Montreal and Toronto. I don't think Toronto especially and Canada in general could stand it. We'd die of 'deers worrying about what the Americans would say about us. For instance: We'd wonder if we should change the way we pronounce Toronto and Canada because Howard Cosset; and his friends pronounce it differently and being on a major American network, they must be right. We would, (especially Torontonians would) glow with pride everytime somebody mentioned how clean the streets were downtown, perhaps doing permanent damage to our faces from grinning too much. Then we'd worry that perhaps there was something wrong with clean streets. We'd worry that we looked ridiculous in American eyes when they sang the national anthem in French in Montreal. In Toronto where the anthem was in English, keith rouiston we'd worry that because our anthem was shorter than the American one it couldn't possibly be as good. Torontonians, especially, would worry about comments on their stadium. Toronto would be afraid they'd look too cheap. On the other hand we'd worry that we looked ridiculous in American eyes because we spent $1 billion on Olympic Stadium in Montreal and still hadn't put the lid on it. We'd become furious the first time some American broadcaster talked about how cold it was in the "north". I mean is it our fault we're this far north? We've been trying our best to live like we're in California. We dress like it. We follow their fads (as soon as we can find out what they are). We'd roof everything possible in Toronto so we can pretend it's California even in February and every restaurant in Toronto would look like California restaurants did five years ago. That snow, Mr. Cossell, is a figment of your imagination. Ah, but wouldn't it be wonderful if a Canadian team did win the World Series. Wouldn't that show those Americans that we are just as good as them. We'd still find something to worry about. We would, for instance, spend several months telling ourselves that, after all, why should we feel so good because all the players are American (even if many of them are from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela). We'd point out there isn't a single Canadian on either team. Moreover if there were all Canadians on both teams we'd play it down because they'd been taught how to play by Americans. (When New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup, it didn°t worry Americans that there were only a couple of Yanks on the team. On the other hand Canadians spent huge amounts of time and newsprint talking about the fact that all the players weren't Canadian anymore and wondering if we were losing our touch at hockey.) And finally, if the Blue Jays did play the Expos and guarantee a Canadian team would win the World Series, after we got finished wondering what itg would do to national unity, we'd say it didn't really matter that a Canadian team won anyway. Should we celebrate a baseball team when unemployment was still at 12 percent? Floral delight By Shelley McPhee One of the cynical, apathetic remarks of the 20th century is, "You can't fight City Hall." I think it's American in origin, as are so many of our colorful expressions, but it reflects a conception that has contributed to the skepticism that permeates many - aspects ,of our life: In essence it betrays a weariness of the individual spirit in a world that is growing ever more corrupt, violet and treacherous. It means basically that the individual hasn't a chance against the burgeoning bureaucracy, the petty patronage, the you - scratch -my -back -and -I'll -scratch -yours philosophy that has always been with us, and always will but should be resisted stoutly and sturdily whenever it rears its ugly head. Jesus fought the City Hall of His time, and won, though He lost His life. Sir Thomas More fought the City Hall of his bine, which included his king, the nobility and the clergy, and refused to nudge an inche to save his life, because he was right, and City Hall was wrong. Joan of Arc fought her City Hall, in the form of her own king, traitors to her vision, and an opposing army. She wound up being burned at the stake, and became a saint. Her opponents are mere footnotes in history. Oliver Cromwell fought his City Hall, won his fight, and taught British royalty to mind its pees and queus, if you'll pardon the expression. William Lyon Mackenzie took on the City Hall of his day, and though his only battle with it was a typical Canadian charade, he left it smarting. I could name a hundred others who cock- ed a snook at City Hall, and lost many a battle, but won many a war. The United States is a classic example. Another is the Republic of France. Mahatma Ghandi practically had the British Empire begg- ing him to go change his diaper and leave it alone. Well, it's nice to be in the company of such, even if only for a little while, and on- ly in the imagination. ,= The Fourth St. Fusiliers, of which I am a proud, wounded veteran, has fought many a skirmish, several sharp encounters, and a prolonged war of attrition against the local town council, and the will of the peo- ple triumphed to the extent of a dozen trees being uncut, a new sidewalk installed, and a desert of pot -holes turned into a paved street. You've heard of the 30 Years War, the 100 Years War, the War of the Roses, the War of Independence, the Boer War, and The Great War, followed by that sickening euphemism, World War II. Not to mention Korea and Viet Nam. Well, a lot has been written about them, and millions died in them, but for sheer in- tensity of emotion, I think the Fourth St. War outdoes them all. That's the reason for this bit of history. In three or four hun- dred years, the Fourth St. War may be almost forgotten, were it not for some humble scribe to get it down on paper. It has lasted between seven and nine years, and the veterans will even argue hotly about the duration. I do remember that the hundreds of children who we.•' going to be slaughtered by traffic if the Lown council achieved its insidious ends are now replaced by grand- children in many cases. I do remember that the first rush to the barricades was about as organized as the French revoluntionaires' attack on the Bastille. I do remember that one lady threatened to chain herself high in the branches of a maple tree if the town engineer carried out his plan of massacring maples. There were other threats of a similar but unlikely kaleidoscope It's time to stock up on summer reading material. On Thursday, July 28 the Clinton Library will be holding its annual book sale, starting at 10 a.m. Adult books sell for 25 cents, children's books are 10 cents and magazines sell for 5 cents each. Money raised from the sale will go towards the purchase of new books for the library. + + + Had a letter from former Clintonian Norman Elliott, now of Toronto. He wrote, "The recent story of Tom Penhale making a wagon for Disney World reminded me of my father who told me when he operated a carriage shop at the corner of Huron and Orange Streets in Clinton, around 1913-1914. He worked on a wagon for a Mr. Disney of Holmesville, a relative of Walt Disney, i believe. "This Mr. Disney was an aged man then and he could have been Walt's grandfather as I believe Walt was born in Chicago. I believe there is a Disney tombstone in an old cemetery at Hohnesville." + + + While we're looking at the past, here's another profile on Chnton's most eligible bachelors, from 1983. Mr. William 14. Cooper - The subject of this sketch is well known to many of our readers and we may not be able to tell nature, such as everyone lying (1 rwn in front of the bulldozers, blowing optic town hall while council was in session, n' kid- napping the town engineer and giving him a cement -barrel burial in the bay. Fortunately, cooler heads itreAailed. After half the street was ruined, the works department ran. Out of money. Over the years, they tip—toed arould the potential explosion, filling In the cilli) pot- hole and letting the street turn aro the semblance of a long -forgotten et untry lane. But this spring, falsely feeling thaot the ancient hatreds had cooled, with mow peo- ple moving in, and old people (vitt,: off, they foolishly raised the desescrative idea again. Cut down the trees. 'I'turr up the sidewalks, make it a one -block tht'lra ay to - nowhere. Like an old, dormant volcano, the p. oiple rose in their might and descended on the works committee like a disturbed hoc'let's nest. The air was filled with vltupt'i'ii ton, calumny and blasphemy. C:otuicll et oled off like a bull confronted by an a.it;ry elephant. Another meeting was called. Attain The People rose in their wrath. They form el is committee. It consisted of 0 brill lent mathematician, a contractor, 0 doctor, 0 lawyer, and an indomitable nurse. Not lust a few angry people to be baffled by engineering jargon. I don't want to go into the bt'llbant counter-attack, the superb tactics, the in- credible strategy of The People. Il'r+ telt; ex. citing. You wouldn't sleep tonight. But we won. The trees slay, the sidewalks will be rebuilt, the thruway sill continue to be a residential street, thousands of children will not be eat down by thundering trucks, and the root) will be paved. You can fight City Hall. them much that is new about him. He was born in Tuckersmith Township and is just a little beyond the age when men think most of matrimonial matters, but has not become old enough to give up hopes of entering the wedded state. Bill is not what most people consider good looking, and yet he is not ugly; he stands about five feet eight; wears a somewhat bushy beard, which might be improved by trimming and generally has a smiling countenance. It is not known that he has ever been engaged to be married, though he is particularly fond of the company of ladies. He attends the R.C. church, takes a prominent part in polities on the Conservative side, acts as correspondent for several papers and gives personal attention to his business as a marble cutter. It is said he has an in- satiable weakness for rice, but whether this failing will remove him from this list, time only will reveal. + + + Fran Porter brought in an article referring to an item from our more recent past. Does anyone remember Sgt. Electro, from the days when the Clinton Forces Base was active? Built in Clinton about 25 years ago, Sgt. Electro was a six -foot -six; mascot for the Canadian Forces. He has now been replaced with a smaller remote controlled robot, named Sgt. Servo. As ago,. r,lectro wu, the new maseot wl'll serve an important and unique role h; entertaining and bossting the image of Canadian Forces. The unveiling of the new robot, anti retirement of the old mascot were hold at CFB Trenton recently. Sgt. Servo will be. maintained and directed through the, Directorate of Exhibitions and Displays in Ottawa. Sgt. Electro will retire to the. Canadian Forces museum In Kingston + + + The Industrial Accident Prevention Association has an informative pamphlet available on Tips on Summer Safety. Here's some worthwhile advice about swimming pools. Make sure deep and shallow ends are clearly marked. Keep non -swimmers in the shallow end. Do not permit running on pool surroundings. Never permit swim- ming alone. Check filtration, chlorine and PH regularly. Keep the pool clean. Keep fences and gates in good condition, + + + Workers at the townhall recently un- covered a bronze plaque while digging in the basement. The inscription on the 4 inch by 13 inch plaque read "Presented to the Town of Clinton in memory of Sidney H Smith." ' Anyone knowing anything about the plaque contact the clerk's office at 462- 3997. the f eade r Proud of Peuhtles This letter was sent to l eyfleld Reeve Dave Johnson in appreciation et the village's hospitality, Dear Mr. Johnson: Please accept my personal thanks for the hospitality that you and the citizen of Bayfield extended to Dave Marquis and Art Green during their stay in Bayftekl. We are extremely pleased with the wagon that Tom Penhale and Son built for Walt Disney World. I'm sure you are pro- ud to have businesses of the quality of Penhales in Bayfield. Dave Marquis has been with me for over ten years and I can't remember when he has enjoyed an assignment more than this one. He and I want you to know and ask you, in turn, to convey our appreciation to all of the people that helped make this such a successful project. Sincerely, Richard Hanks Manager, Design Support WED Enterprises at Walt Disney World Summer jobs Dear Editor, Many students are experiencing dif- ficulties obtaining summer Jobs. Apart from a lack of summer jobs available, the next largest difficuity students experience obtaining a summer job Is conducting a good Job interview, As a result the Canada Employment Centres for Students will be tresenting a 20 minute taped program on he Hluewater Cable TV Community. Chan- nel i Channel 121 outlining some of the do's and don'ts of interviewing. The videotape contains an interview with Jay Campbell, weatherman of CFPL Channel 10 news and co-owner of Earl Carnpbell's Jewellers, Exeter, as well as coverage of both incorrect and correct In- terview techniques. 1 encourage anyone who Is experiencing difficulties in this area to watch the film; or if you happen to be home at the time and are interested in seeing the filming capabilities of the staff of the Canada Employment Centres for Students In Goderii'h and Exeter, and possibly gaining a few extra tips on interviewing, please tune us in, The program will air Thursday, July 28 at 12:30 p.m. and 4 on. on Channel 12. Sincerely, Angelina Arts, Supervisor, Canada Employment Centres for Students Goderich and Exeter, Need! for shelter Dear Editor: In the July 13th issue of the News -Record there appeared a picture of a young lady with two sad dogs she had rescued from the Hallett Dump. This is just another example of the real nerd for a Humane Society Shelter in the area. With proper facilities available, there would be no need to abandon un- wanted and homeless animals. Too often, the dogs or cats etc. I are not as fortunate as the two who were rescued. The aim of the Huronia Society ( A Branch of Ontario Humane, is to obtain land on which to build a Shelter. The support of humanely -minded people would be appreciated, Thank you, Audrey Graham French studies Over 00 per cent of the children in On- tario study core French in their schools by the tune they reach Grade O. A registry of types of courses and where they are offered will soon be available from Canadian Parents for French. Core French is a school program where French Is taught as a subject perhaps 20 to 40 minutes per day. The goal is to develop basic skills so that the student can read, understand ideas and orally express hun/berselt in a .second language. t'anadian Parents for ti renal Is an argaanlzatuan of parents wtucliromotes quaint.' odocutlu1 U‘Pronch and offers sup- port asci titlurnuition to wogs, educators and gi'verntnont. A national atomization of nearly /,000 families, it functions also on a provhu Jul 1.275 Ontario rnvinbcrn and local level The corer FrtMeuh registry, which will be updated each wtq , as ti listing of sehuat brain's, prog ran w of (brud, number of students and othn'► ►tafutuuafion pin Intuit to the core French prregrsms, nue is only one service of many offered lay the organizewin Acting as n bridge between parents, educators andovernment, Cana- dian Parents tor French lobbies, extends moral support and provides concrete infor- mation. Such resources as pamphlets on core French, immersion, support for teachers, parents, books: "So You Want Your Child to Learn French". "The Trial Balloon that Flew", registries of Ontario students, im- 1uan Stun aria core, project Kit tor meetings, posters, T-shirts, and information on sum- mer camps are available from the group. Formed in March, 1977 by 35 parents, the group has grown so that it presently has active branches In all the provinces and territories of Canada. Canadian Parents for French wants to ensure that each Canadian child has the opportunity to ae- cjuire as great n knowledge of the French language and culture as that child is will- ing and able to attain, The Ontario director is Deborah Whale, R R.2, Alma, Ontaario, NOB IAO.