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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1985-12-23, Page 4Page 4—CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 119115 The Clinton News -Record Is published each M7ednesdey at P.O. Box 30. C 1pton. Ontario. Canada. NRIw 11.0. Tel.:402-3443, Subscription. Rate: Canadd.- 821.00 Sr. Citizen - $10.00 per year U.S.A. foreign 500.40 par year Lt pm reggstorod am second class mop.) by the post office under the permit number 0017. The News -Record Incorporated In 1024 thiNuron News.Record. founded In 1401. and The Clinton News Era. founded In 1009. Total press runs 3,700. Incorporating (THE BLYTH STANDARD J. HOWARD AITKEN - Publisher ANNE NAREJKO - Editor GARY HAIST - Advertising Manager MARY ANN HOLLENBECK - Office Manager Display advertising rotes available on request. Ask for Rale Cord No. 15 effective Oc. Iober1,1984. GGNA eiA MEMBER MEMBER A BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1985 The spirit of Christmas Christmas spirit is a common phrase, but what is it? Christmas spirit is the friendly nature in which people greet each other this time of year. Christmas spirit is a major ingredient for school con- certs and the decorating of homes. Christmas spirit is spread throughout the world via radio and choirs each December. And Christmas spirit gives the non -shoppers courage to tackle the crowds in shopping malls and crowded stores. But we must not forget how the spirit of Christmas came about. With the television screen carrying the latest toys, catalogues showing the most fashionable clothing and newspapers advertising an article you've been wanting all year, it's easy to lose the true meaning of Christmas. The dictionary defines Christmas as the yearly Christian celebration commemorating the birth of Christ. Most birthday celebrations include the giving of gifts, showing that one cares, and then the celebration is over. The birth of Jesus Christ is a birthday that should be celebrated throughout the year. One day does not do justice to the love which brought about the Holy birth. Jesus was born to bring peace on earth by teaching forgiveness and kindness. His teaching was not meant for one day, or one week or one month, but for an entire year, every year. But we use the old excuses of being too busy or too tired when we neglect friends and family. If only we could be as friendly and thoughtful in the first 11 months of the year as we are during the last month. So keep the Christmas spirit in your heart throughout the year. It'll make the world a better place in which to live. Merry Christmas! ! ! - Anne Narejko • Special thank:you needed By Helen Owen BAYFIELD-Christmas is a time of good- will. We greet our family and friends far and near, and the spirit of the season engenders a warmth and a feeling of wanting to extend goad wishes to all with whom we come in contact. However, there are those we do not see, those whose services are often taken for granted throughout the year. • It is only when we have to face the in- convenience of uncollected garbage, power cuts, travel restrictions and the like that we really become aware of how much we de- pend on a whole army of people with whom we have little or no'contact, and yet without whom our lives would be extremely uncom- fortable. The face of the man who generates our electric power is not reflected in the light bulb, the telephone operator is a voice. Maybe we are familiar with the people in the grocery store, but behind them are hun- dreds of transport drivers, manufacturers, packers, farmers, fruit -growers seen only,. as', stereotypes in 'TV commercials. Our other needs are supplied by fishermen.' oil producers, airline, bus and train staff. In the area of communication too, we are served by radio, TV and the press; and although some of the people do become familiar, there are hundreds more involved in the process, never seen and rarely acknowledged. They ensure that we are in- formed and entertained not only nationally, but on a worldwide basis. Many artists, designers, craftsmen, photographers and il- lustrators enrich our lives with pictures, col - 1 at Child Is This? Child is this, who, laid ary's lap is sleeping? els greet with a rds guard a to bring H bI& So.t: f y ere ox aa..; s d Christian, f ilent Word is g Him ince easant, Kin King of -Kings lvatio Let loving hearts enthrone Him. ors, clothing and furniture, How often do we meet them to say thank you? In the field of health care, from time to time we Ido encounter doctors and nurses and are able to express our appreciation, but here too, the army of support staff in laboratory, administration, • catering, therapy and laundry represent a vast amount of back up care. In public health, as well, our needs are not neglected and we benefit from the constant vigilance and at- tention in preventative measures to protect II our health and community. When we re- quire an ambulance may not be the time we are aware of the crew, but nevertheless, they are on call to respond to our needs.. Other tasks we tend to take for -granted are the maintenance of our roads, and at this time of year, a job many would hesitate to assume, snow ploughing and snow clearance, sanding. Then, of course, there are the policemen and firemen, always there at 'our bidding, often required to risk their lives and imperil their health. Because all these facilities are in place and functioning, it is all too easy to forget about them. Yet on the rare occasions when we are deprived we are quick to bemoan the inconvenience to which we are subjected. So, when you sit back in your arm chair, warm and comfortable after a good meal, and switch on the TV, spare a thought for all those unnamed people who have made this possible. We should remember them throughout the year, but at Christmas time - ,let's say a special 'thank you'. Every child reaches potenti4l benefiting in the process. In each secondary school, programs are being developed at appropriate levels for all students. There are three levels of difficulty in most subject areas. The advanced level courses are designed to challenge motivated students and to prepare them for success at postsecondary. • education ( university ) should they wish to go on. I might add, Huron County graduates do very well and are able to meet the rigorous demands of Ontario's universities. General level courses are geared to prepare students for community college, ap- prenticeship and the workforce. Current high unemployment levels impact most significantly on this group. A pilot cooperative education program has been in- itiated to enhance employment skills and help senior students discover interest areas before making career choices. Basic level programs assist students with learning difficulties that would hamper suc- cess in the other programs. As skill levels mprove, some of these students upgrade their course level. Many students per- sonalize their course selections at all levels depending on interest and ability. A special education resource person in each secon- dary school assists students with specific learning disabilities in each level of study. Our children are our most precious resource. As a society, we cannot afford to short-change one of them. The cost of their education is our investment and, if for no other reason than our own personal self- interest, we must secure their future. Unless we are able to develop a highly- ' skilled employable work force, encourage potential entrepreneurs and nurture citizen- ship in all our youth, the social programs we enjoy and our high standard of living will be in jeopardy. It all starts with the basics - a sound education. Our schools are ,rising to meet the challenge. BY: JOAN VAN DEN BROECK TRUSTEE, HURON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION There is a determination today, more solidly in place and attainable than ever before to educate each and every child to his/her potential.... to make every child a winner. The concept is exciting. Is it possi- ble that, within the next generation, we as a society could make such a quantum leap, in social development? Will we live to see the realization of such a marvellous promise? A few important developments in the past few years indicate that there is a,determination to see the achievement of this dream. Bill '82 and the individuality of programs for children will fine-tune the delivery of educational opportunities for all children. The revised secondary curriculum, initiated in 1984, will complement the process at the secondary level. Fortunately, today's teachers are highly -skilled professionals, quite capable of meeting this demanding mandate. In time, I believe the complexion of our schools will change to reflect a new image. A spirit of co-operation will eventually replace competitiveness as the common denominator. Every child will be challenged to reach out and grow. There will be no more winners and losers.... only winners. It is happening already. Let me give you a couple of examples of how we will perceive the enormity of the change. In Exeter, a ctass of developmentally handicapped adolescents has been established at South Huron Secondary School. Initial concerns that they would be taunted have proven un- founded. On the contrary, senior students have volunteered to work as peer tutors and assist with the program. Modest subject in- tegration is also proving successful. We are discovering our humanity and each group is Sugar and Spice Christmases past Ah, Christmas! Ugh, Christmas! Aggh, Christmas! One's . enthusiasm seems to drain as one grows older. I don't mind the first carols beginning before the Grey Cup game. 1 don't mind a big turkey dinner, after eating frozen turkey dinners all year. I enjoy a Christmas tree, if somebody else will pick it up, make the dam thing stand up and decorate it. I love a big fire in the fireplace, if somebody else will fetch the wood from the cellar. Otherwise, it's about as exciting as Labour Day. And you' don't have to sweep out the needles on that holiday. However. there are remembrances of Christmas pasts. And some of them are great ones. My childhood Christmases were all anyone could want, although during the Depression, gifts were pretty scanty. But there was always an apple, an orange, and some nuts in the stocking. Maybe a book under the tree. But usually a hew set of long - johns. • I remember a Christmas at an RAF station in North Wales. We rookie officers were introduced to an old custom: the officers served dinner to the "other ranks". We did it with a certain elan, considering that all the WAAFs were giggling and trying to pinch or pat our bums as we weaved, and I mean weaved, among the tables. We had fortified ourselves before the meal. Some officers were so well fortified that they slept through the officers' dinner in the mess afterwards. I remember another in prison camp. We had saved and scrounged from°the last Red Cross parcels to get through. It began, as I recall, with cocktails (potato whiskey), By Bill Smiley' went through creamed salmon on toast and wound up with a vast cake, unleavened, made of ground Graham wafers, chocolate, and dried milk, beaten with water. Anyway, we lay around and groaned, for the last time in six months. Another Christmas dinner was in a sanitorium. That was a real gasser. Lukewarm turkey, lukewarm everything, and five other guys cdoughing their guts out. However, we got our plum pudding, which looked suspiciously like the usual tapioca ,pudding, with a spring of holly, or pine 'needles on top. Then it was great Christmas dinners at Granny's, for a few years. Five hours frantic preparations in the kitchen, one hour to eat, then the women back in the kitchen for two hours, washing up, while the men stretched out like pythons, just fed. Jolly good. However, these great dinners were not without incidents. On one occasion, my brother-in-law and I went in on a television set for the folks on the farm. With great secrecy, we put it on a toboggan, and slid it 200 yards up the snowy lane to the house. We hoisted the great box into the kitchen. Kim, about three, said, "I hope you like the TB, Oran." The whole clandestine surprise busted by a kid. Anyway, Gran liked it. On another occasion, my wife decided to do the honors. It was the first real home we'd had - half a house. She spat and polished, even the stoves, and invited her parents and a favorite aunt for the big Christmas dinner. She was like a whirling dervish, making gravy, bashing potatoes, while 1 stood around being helpful. Finally, she handed me the platter with the turkey on it. I headed for the table, and the dang turkey - you know how slippery they are - slid right off the platter and onto the fresh - polished floor. I have never been closer to death. However, everyone was great, and they had a good turkey dinner, except for Tiny Tim - yours truly - who spent the rest of the dinner washing the floor.. Another big flop was the time we invited Gran and Grandad out to a hotel for Christmas dinner. Gran was a bit past the getting of a gargantuan meal. It was my idea; last of the big-time spenders. We 'all got dressed up, which we didn't do at the farm. The dinner was third rate, and we were all embarrassed, even the kids. Limp, cool turkey, dressing made from old running -shoes, gravy from a can. The only thing I could think of was, "well, no dishes to do." This cheery note was greeted by stony silence. Lust two years, haven't been so bad. Auhtie Iris invited us all for Christmas dinner, and it was the good old style. Last year, after about thirty seconds dialogue, we agreed to go out to a restaurant, and it turned out to be first-rate. No turkey, but all you could eat. My grandboys put away about twice as much as any adult. My only real regret is for the time my mother cooked a great turkey dinner, to be served,about three o'clock. My older brother and sister and a friend went out skiing and arrived home at five, full of themselves. My kid brother and I sneaked off to the matinee, and arrived home, guilty about the' same time. My mother didn't say a word, but the dinner was ruined, and I've never felt so guilty since. Our living Christmas ornaments songs and bubbling personalities, mere glass decorations pale. It seems ironic. It takes a Christmas tree, resplendant in its, mantle of ornaments, to make us pause and think about how beautiful our wildlife and countryside truly are. In huge measure, that landscape - its farm fields and forests, birds and minerals, mammals and landscapes - is what makes our country, and way of life, so special. This Christmas, let's re -open our eyes. Let's think about our wealth. Let's put that old Christmas tree out back in January, redecorated with suet -and -seed baubles. Let's go for a walk in the woods. Or share the discoveries with a youngster. Let's celebrate. And Appreciate Nature. By Mike Singleton Federation of Ontario Naturalists This Christmas, pause to, consider, our "living ornament." They're all around us. And, with a little work, many will visit us daily. A pair of cardinals, flit, unbelievable against the pale hush of their snow -shrouded backdrop. He garish, she mantled with the most delicate of pinks and orange; their every feather is a thing of beauty. Chuckling joyfully they flash from bush to bramble, stripping seeds from wizened berries. A meadow sways its filigreed costume. Dried tact, sculptured tureens and bases and baubles of balls and berries form a tapestry of infinite variety. Tiny parachutes;, sparkling amid their silver plumes, twinkle their reply to winter's golden sun. A gnarled old tree stands as a wise sen- tinel, its features contorted and twisted by 2 centuries of lore, its 'skin' sculped into deep furrows. Deep in its hollow loins, a racoon sleeps the winter by, while tiny chrysali magically transform to next spring's but- terflies. The ornaments march on: fluffy little chickadees, mineral -coloured icicles, a chortling flock of grosbeaks a hoar -frosted bush, and 'spunky' woodpeckers. Each evokes images, taken almost for granted. Against their spectacular beauty, The Yule tree's medieval origin The Christmas tree was referred to- by Charles i)ickens' as "that pretty German toy." liowever, the history of this symbol of Christmas goes hack much further than that. Initially it was called the Paradise Tree and the quotation from an old play, "In Adam's fall, we sinned all" describes the original setting in which it was presented. The Paradise play, a medieval drama about Adam and Eve, was presented during Advent, the four weeks preceding Christmas. it dramatized the episodes in the life"of our first parents and the story of their banishment from the Garden of Eden.' In this play, a fir tree was used hung with apples representing the tree in the Garden of Eden, from which Eve picked the first "bad" apple. it was the only prop on the stage, and as s}ich it naturally attracted the attention of the spectators, and in particular the children, In Germany, where the play was presented most often, the tree became a symbol of Christmas and this idea became firmly planted in the minds of the people. As such, it was called the Christbaum, and was decorated witt apples representing sin, and wafers representing redemption. Eventually the apples were replaced by cookies and pastries; and then at times the combination of all three were used, As time went on, the cookies began to assume fancy shapes and these eventually turned into the modern decorations as we know them today. We see then that the Christmas tree had its origin among the inhabitants of Western Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Paradise tree in the form of a.fir tree with its evergreen needles - evergreen being the symbol of immortality - and its pyramidal habit of growth was similar in shape to the wooden pyramid or Lichstock which held the candles. Both were set up in the best room of the house on the same day of the year, December 24. The two, when combined, made a symbol gleaming with Iight to teach the children that Christ was thk light of the world. The star from the top of the pyramid was eventually placed at the top of the Paradise tree and a Christmas crib was set up at the base near it. This picture needed no words to convey its message. Fir boughs and trees decorated in the above manner are still found in sections of Bavaria where they are known as Paradeis. In many parts of central Europe the same wooden pyramid or Lichstock lighted with tapers and hung with decorations with its star at the top is still used side by side with the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree had been used extensively for many years in Germany before its eventual popular recogrution in England as a symbol of Christmas. Perhaps 200 years before Christmas, 1841, German people had been celebrating the festive season in front and around the Christmas fir. However, in that year, which was the Christmas after the birth of his first son, the Consort of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, who was from the German Province of Saxe - Coburg, entertained children, including no doubt his first son, with an elaborate Christmas tree which was set up in great style at Windsor Castle. But it was not until seven years later that the Illustrated London News described by means of a full- page engraving in its Christmas supplement the eight -foot fir tree with its tiers or branches then being used regularly by the Royal Family. Although ' the Christmas tree had been used to some extent in England before this occasion, it was undoubtedly its acceptance and well-known usage by the Royal family that caused its popularity to spread throughout England, and for it to be accepted as the Christmas symbol in most English homes. So real or artificial, with electric light or flickering candle, it seems that our Christmas tree is after all the symbol of a symbol. Perhaps it doesn't matter - as long as we still have one. 1 •