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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1987-03-18, Page 4- PAGE 4--GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1987 The women delightedly bounced on the bench in unison, clapping their hands in encouragement and support of the efforts put forth by their sons on the ice. At first glance they could have easily been mistaken for your average well- dressea, well-mannered, well-spoken hockey mothers, who tend to compensate for their lack of knowledge on the finer aspects of the game of hockey' with fre quent displays of affection and spirit. But beneath that innocent banter about the silly rules of the sport that seemed designed only to impede their sons's pro- gress and that of his teammates, and beneath the simulated fur and the well - powdered and coiffed exterior, were rag- ing, maniacal hockey mothers, ready to tear apart anything that resembled a referee. It was humorous, at first, the manner in which the four ladies would question the relative sanity and familial delinea- tion of the two referees working the DAVE SYKES peewee game during Young Canada Week. Their banter and asides were jovial are: gond natured. That was while the game w:,s still • within the grasp of the pubesc nt hockey. ' gladiators they had spawned, Once it appeared certain th "other side" had made a definiteve statement about the course of the game, the mothers spewed venom. An opposing player makes a few nifty dekes to elude two defenders at centre ice but as he makes his way to the up - position bluekne he is felled by a vicious check. The referee raises his arm to rightfully signal that an infraction in con- travention of the rules has occured While tI e defenceman could easily be called fur a number of infractions in- ,cluding crosschecking, intent to injure, dismemberment or even assault, the referee chooses to politely call it elbow- ing: In some countries the kid could be subjected to public hanging for the act. While the recipient of the c.hec•ltistruggles to get to his feet, the mothers vehemently berate the official. 'Come on you striped bozo, what about the other guy," one screams referring to the kid on the let who committed the in- fra'c•tiun of carrying the puck. • 'Did you know there was two teams out there you jerk," another hollers. They confer with each other and can't believe that the referees continue, all game long, to call serious and flagrant violations against their team. With each penalty, their words get heated, their de- meanor less pleasant, The humor has gone out of the situation. The fun has •gone out of the game. Due, in part, to the penalties and superior playmaking skills, the•':uthetr team" takes a considerable lead. l't in- furiates, these mothers. One opposing player, through a corn- bination of skill, hard work and heady play, has set up several goals and scored others. They yell at him, belittle hire and 4 call him names. "Why don't they throw that guy out of the game, he's always making trouble, he's stirring things up and they don't call anything," one mother laments. The player skates by and they call him a "hot dog", a "jerk" and several other names. They continue to question how "the lit- tle jerk can get away with that stuff." The stuff being relentless checking and slick puck handling. One rnother acknowledges that he gets away with it because he's the best player on the ice. After an obvious offside call, the mothers jump up and scram loud. They suspect the referees are from Goderich. One woman turns to the other and says, "1 don't even know what an offside is," she admits. "But you think the damned referee would know." Knowing the game is lost, one mother says he dreads the long ride home. •'It's going to be a long, quiet ride. but I can't wait to get out of this place," she laments. "I hope the kids can forget about this." - You're right lady. 'I'heyrprobably didn't give the game a second thought. THE NEWS;: RT FOR CoDERICH & .DISTRICT SINCE 18411 G thederi SIGNA SE BT ALL POUND COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER IN CANnoa A riESZtaff 'e0 HUCKINIS ST. INDUSTRIAL PARD( TA lilEINESENSIMMIA GOOERICH, ONT. N7A 4S6 ".PUBLISHED BY SIGNAL -STAR PUBLISHING LIMITED Founded la 1648 an.d published every Wednesday at,Ocdnrich, Ontario. Member of the CCA and OCNA. 8ubecriptIone payable in advance 1$22.00, (Senior Citizens -619.00 privilege•card number required) in Canada, 680,00 to U.S.A., 660.00 to all other countries, Single copies 6O... Display, National and ClaesN{ad adve.'tieingrates available on request. Please ask for Rote Cord No. 16 effective October 1, 19E16, Advertising 16 accepted on th'e condition that in the event of atypographioaberror, the odvertieing epace•occupied by the erroneous Item, together with the reasonable allowancee for signature, will not be charged for but that balance of the advertisement will ba paid for et the eppllceble rate, In the event of a typographical error advartieing goods or eerviceb at a wrong price, goods ,pr services may not be edld: /advertising la merely an offer to Boll, and may be withdrawn et any time,, The Signal -Star isnot reeponalble for the loan or damage of unsolicited menuacripte, photos or other materiels used 'for reproducing purposes. General Manager • • SHIRLEY J. KELLER EdltOr DAVE SYKES Advertising Manager DON HUBICK FOR BUSINESS OR EDITORIAL OFFICES.:.pleSSe phone [S19)5E4-2E14 Second class • mail registration. : number 0716 Member " _ --Taking strict year, it seems, the sport of hockey is marred by violent and ugly scenes which 'ultimately lead to cries for governing authorities to take strict measures against players and 'coaches involved. • • . This has been aTather exceptional yeas' to dissect and"ex'amine the state of amateur and professional hockey after an international incident between Canada and the Soviet Union at the International Junior Hockey.Tournarnent. The teams engaged iiia free-for-all, bench clearing brawl in the final period and the game watt suspended. Both teams, Canada had a good chance to win the gold medal -the Soviets were out of it, werebanished from -the tourna- ment for their pugilistic display. The incident was a hot topic in Canada and served to focus on the deteriorating state of amateur hockey in Canada and, in general. Labelled a (disgrace to the game and the coun- try; many purists believed the suspension was justified in.accordance with international rules. A couple of incidents closer t'1) home have also focused attention on the state of hockey and the authorities that govern. Last week. the Jr. C Port Elgin Bears of the OHA forfeited the championship series with .the Hanover Barons after two genies. Hanover had won the first two games by lopsided 4-0 and 9-0 scores and play between the two teams during the regular schedule was tame. The playoffs, however, appear to be anothermatter. Hanover had defeated 'Walkerton in a tough Aeries that featured bench -clearing brawls and suspensions and fines totalling $1,200, With four injuries to players, Port Elgin decided to take a stand on the issue and forfeit the series. the teams manager said the club's stand was aimed at hockey's governing bodies whose policies lead to unnecessary roughness and violence. The team had had enough with two players suffering from broken hands, a third needed 15 stitches to close a head wound and a fourth player was hospitalized with a neck injury. The OHA may take sanctions against the team for its action.but there was no word out of the governing body's headquarters. The Bears were protesting the system, one that allows teams the opportunity to pay a $50 fee to have suspended players reinstated for the next game. A player tossed out for fighting can be playing the next game provided the money is in the' mail. It's as simple as that. Also, Ontario Conservative leader Larry Grossman went to watch his soil's elementary school team play in a championship garne and left the arena calling for the youths to b charged with criminal offences and the coaches to be suspended. Violence erupted in the grade school game and one player.had to be helped off the ice after 'a vicious check. Other players left the bench to participate in a fight a referee -was punched in the heed trying to interV ene. About 1,000 people, mostly children, watched the game at Maple Leaf Gardens. Police were also called to the scene. •' It's called playoff hockey -win at all costs hockey. It's hockey in Which players can com- pensate for their lack of skill with violence. The Young Canada Week Hockey Tournament in Goderich has always espoused the ideals of friendly competition, fair play and sportsmanship. The tourney was started to give boys of peewee age a chance to play some fun hockey, The hockey is noticably faster and rougher but teams are cautioned before they take the ice that fighting results in automatic suspensions. Perhpas the rule should be enforced at all levels. Sortie people spend their lives worrying' about being replaced "by" a computer, i have a slightly ' different for r'n of technophobia — I live in constant fear of be- ing relaced "because" of a computer. In case anyone has any illusions about this column being laboriously hammered together, phrase by phrase, on a venerable manual Underwood or Olivetti -- it behooves me to inform you this is not the case. I dispense my weekly word allotment on something called a Compugraphic MI)T Mini-di'sc terminal) 350, -The difference is substantial. While 1 often cursed the heavy -keyed marl 'al ,monstrosities on which i used °to work for their sluggish performance and propensity for stuck keys, one could usual- ly rely on them, At the end of a da y's.work .one could always he certain a copy of their labors (albeit riddled with typos) would survive in solid format to be seen, touched, edited, filed, crumpled and eventually disposed of. Not so with the MDT. While it's true the machine's feather -light touch allow one's fingers to fly over the keys faster than a speeding stenographer. one can never be truly confident that the words so easily entered on floppy disc will eventually ap- pear as hard copy. Over the past few months,'since return- ing to the high-tech newsroom of the Signal -Star, i have had numerous stories eaten, right before my very eyes, by this cold-hearted character -starved creation. It is a . sad thing indeed, to watch the molecular structure of one's hard -wrought prose begin to destabilize and eventually disolve on tate screen, as the colliputer merrily munches out. My troubles have been further com- pounded by the fact that until recently, -no one would believe the dissohition of my stories has been a spontaneous process, in- itiated not by me but by the machine itself. °1 O0,ROO „ so -BRIAN HERE N10,114E GUY WITH T/E I1:00 EYES. ,NYJA ,, .RPNNIE, PP LIKE 10 TAP SOME OF YOUR MANY TALENTS --®- YOUR ABEL/T/ TO FC::)/:?5_7; „ a/ A7 _Ec E m2 KNX radio and TV studios destroyed by fire of undetermined origin in 1962 25 YEARS AGO March 15, 1962: Fire of, as yet, undetermined origin destroyed CKNX radio and TV studios at Wingham, Thursday morning I March 8 ). The fire broke out after 6 a.m. in the TV engineering labs shortly after caretaker Alex Skinner finished cleaning the area. Volunteer firemen from neighbouring towns stubbornly fought the CKNX blaze but to no avail. Despite the blaze; CKNX radio was on the air about 20 minutes after scheduled broadcasting was to begin at 6:30 a.m. Broadcasting of CBC -TV network programs began that night over CKNX-TV after a microwave receiver was installed by Canada National Telegraph crews. Tem- -porary radio studios were set up in the McKibbon Block in Wingham. Estimated damage from the fire is about $500,000. At the annual meeting of the Goderich ublic library Board. Tuesday night, rarian and Secretary of the Board, Miss Betty MacKenzie, reported a circulation total of 52,110 for the year 1961. This figure indicates an increase of 4,359 'over the preceeding year, a total increase of 21,000 `during the past four years. The Goderich ' Public i,ibrary is a well appointed building completely equipped with a reference sec- tion containing 1,837 reference books cover- ing a great variety of subjects. This figure conipares with 1.152 such books in 1961. The main floor is devoted to adult and teen patronage, with the children's room located in the basement. , The odd crow is heard around the coun- tryside these days but we -have yet to hear of a robin being sighted. The residents along Essex Street saw and heard plenty of other At first they insisted the problem is my in- ability to properly operate the terminal, that I had somehow miscued on the essen- tially simple process of entering, informa- tion into the memory system. In order to disprove these accusations, I began a desperate • game of musical machines. Whenever one of my newsroom cohorts -would leave the room I would kid- nap their machine and replace it with my own; with the predictable result ,that, while my machin would perform 'ad- mirably for another operator, the,hostage terminal would irretrievably spirit my stofies off into some obscure technological twilight zone. When word of my continued frustration leaked, some of my coworkers offered the opinion that perhaps the machine was reacting to some form of individual radia- tion, uniquely given off by my person in much the same way some people's body chemistry renders them unable to wear a LOOKING BACK birds, however. about 6 p.m. Tuesday. The willows, along the lakebank opposite Har-' bour;lite Inn were a mass of starlings. "There were many hundred of them, but they took off for other fields after about .a half hour's stay here."' said Allan MacDonald. 50 YEARS AGO March' 18, 1937: A freak Holstein calf was born on the farm of Mr. William bong, but lived only a short while. The calf had two heads and two tails. About ane in 2,500 births there is a calf with two heads, but the veternarian in atten- dance had never' experienced the birth of a calf with two heads and two tails. Life was noticed in one of the heads for a few minutes and the body of the calf was quite normal in that it had only four legs, orie body 'and one set of organs. Navigation will noe likely open until the middle of next month, it is thought by sailors here. A week ago, it looked' as if the first of April would see the boats moving again, but due to the sudden cold spell, ice has formed on the lake and the St. Marys River is frozen over. Ice, 10-12 inches thick, is in the harbor and there js quite a stretch of it on the lake, while at Harbour Beach. directly across from Goderich, the ice is only two inches thick. from this angle emnommommommommem Patrick Raftis watch., The though of projecting that much per- sonal magnetism was too much to bear. So, I continued to insist some sort of repairs to. my machine be effected. • Clinton Colts' swept Simcoe Intermediates , from:the path of victory at Clinton Last night. when they outiplay'ed, out -shot and out- scored the Simcoites 5-0. Unfortunately, the ice was soft and the puck was kept rolling pretty much throughout the game. The Colts worked like a fine machine last right, everyone working with the rest of the team and playing a combination .game that kept the visitors completely disorganised and at the same timeleft them panic-stricken. The largest crowd of the season, about 1,600 peo- ple. witnessed the game. 70 YEARS AGO March 15.'1917: The Natural Shipbuilding Company Limited is the style if the firm which' has taken over the Doty plant. Mr. W.H. Hut- chinson, the head of the company, also Col. Stewart and Mr. Larmouth, of Ottawa, who are associated with him, are in town this week and preparations are being advanced for the active operation of the works. Mr. Fred Doty Will be the manager in charge 'and is already at work at the office. The steamer Algonquin was torpedoed and sunk on Monday last by a German sub- marine. All of the crew were saved. The Algo`hquin was well-known in Goderich and was in command of Capt. Ed. Robinson, of this town, for several seasons. when she sail- ed the Great Lakes under Canadian owner- ship. Early in the war, she was transferred to United States registry. When torpedoed, She was bound from New York to London with a million dollar cargo, mostly foodstuffs. She was a vessel of 2,832 tons, 281 feet long and was built at Philadelphia in 1890, Despite, suggestions I hopefully made in jest I that it would be far easier and more economical to replace the operator than the machine, something was finally done. The machine on which i am currently typing has a number of new -parts, in- cluding a keyboard and logic board. It,ap- ) pears til he functioning at a level of max- imum effeciency which it has never before attained. Now If I could only get someone to come and have a look at my telephone. Seems everytime 1 hang it up, it rings me back automatically.. When I pick up the line .1 am greeted by nothing but the relentless buzz of the dial tone. 1fear that one day I will pick it up in frustration and utter an appropriate expletive at what I believe to he a dead line. only to find myself convers- ing with the person who signs~ my paycheque. Maybe I'd better just take it off the hook.