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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-07-29, Page 17After 11 years, Gordon Jamieson has retired from his job as a crossing guard for 'school children. The town recently presented Mr. Jamieson with a clock and letter of appreciation for his service. ( Photo by Cath. Wooden ) Mr. Jamieson hangs up stop sign after 11 years BY CATH WOODEN In this day and age of pointing our way across pedestrian crosswalks, it is nice to know that we still have humans to ensure the saftey of our children on their way to and from schooL The town of Goderich employs • four crossing guards during the school year. The oldest at 84, Gordon Jamieson has hung up his stop sign and is retiring due to a new age restriction put on crossing • guards by the town. Mr. Jamieson was hired as the only crossing guard in Goderich 11 years ago by John Kane, principal of Victoria Public School, to help children get across the difficult spot where Victoria Street' meets Britannia Road. • ' Since then, the town has taken .over crossing guard duties from the Board of Education , and last week Clerk Larry McCabe presented Mr. Jamieson with a clock and a letter of appreciation on behalf of the town for his 11 years of service. "I've really enjoyed the work," reflects Mr. Jamieson. "The children see me around and always say 'hello, Mr. Jamieson'. He says that as the children get older they become inclined to want to cross the street on their town, "but the small ones really relied on me, especially the ones in Kindergarten." Mr. Jamieson can recall only one frightening situation in his 11 years as a guard and that was one winter when the street was icy. A car slid when the brakes were applied to stop for some children and two little girls were knocked down. but not injured. "Fve found the public to be 95 percent good. There's been no trouble," he says, playfully wielding his stop sign. Well, is he out or is he safe? Pitcher Joe Fitzpatrick hurls one ata Kincardine hatter. a Area tnusiti BY JOANNE BUCHANAN Singer song -writer Jim Hagerty, 30, 9 Mitchell says the people around him are sa confident that he will 'make it', that he starting to have confidence too. 'Making it' to Jim was 'inking ;a decent living singe) nd writing'. Jim, a fd Signal -Star Publishing Limited employee as editor of the Mitchell Advocate, is now distributing his first record album, entitletAin't It Funny', in the area. Recorded ff Maxim Recording Studio near Stratford andcompleted at the end of May, the album consists of 10 country -folk songs all written as well as sung by Jim. Songs "from the album, in particular the. title'song, are now being played on several AM and FM stations and Jim has been interviewed by several gfthese stations for feature spots. "I'm really encouraged," he says. "Out of the seven radio stations I have taken the album to, six of them are playing one or moreof the songs off it. BX 93 FM in London did a half-hour feature on me; CJCS in Stratford did three interviews with me and are playing Ain't It Funny; CJET AM in Smith Falls did an interview and play three of the songs regularly; CKGL FM in Kitchener are playing my songs; and several people have told me they've heard me on CKNX Wingham." But the radio station that is encouraging Jim the most is CFCR FM in Red Deer,. Alberta. They are playing four songs off his album regularly and have asked him to come for an interview on August 4. Jim plans to make the trip out west by car, stopping at radio stations all along the way with his album. He is hoping to play at the Edmonton Folk Festival August 7. 8 n hits road with first album Jim Hagarty and 9. When he gets back to Ontario, he plans to play in local bars and coffee houses to make enough money to turn around and then travel east. "My goal is to get as much radio play across Canada as I can. I'd like to meet as many program directors and disc jockeys as I can and get my name known. I just finished recording a second album of the deric original material two weeks ago. This means that every three months for the next two years, radio stations will ,be getting another new single from me," he explains. After his cross-country trip, Jim says his ultirmate goal is Nashville, Tennessee, the home of country music, where he would like to interest other singers in singing what he has written. "I consider myself a songwriter first, a musician second and a peformer third. I like performing• but. I'd much rather be known as a songwriter," he says. Jim mainly writes ° about his own ex- periences and those of other people. A line will come ,into his head and he takes it from there. Eventually, he says he would like to write music themes and shorts for television shows. One might call Jim a 'late bloomer'. Born on a farm five miles north of Mit- chell, he attended a one -room school house in Bornholm and later went to high school in Mitchell. As a kid, he sang in school productions and in local music festivals. But as a teenager, although he wanted to sing, he came to regard it a 'sissy'. He took it up again in university_ at the age of 18 along with writing when a friend taught him how to play the guitar (he now plays flat top acoustic as well as classical guitar). However, it took him 12 years and several careers to build up enough con- fidence to devote himself to music. Jim attended the University of Western Ontario where he obtained his BA degree in English and then went to Althouse teachers' college. He taught high school in Sarnia for one year and then took a ten- month course in journalism at Conestoga College in Waterloo. After that, he worked at the Mitchell Advocate for three years, the last year and a half in the capacity of editor. He then became a reporter for the Stratford Beacon -Herald for nine months. Since November he has devoted hinself full -tune to music althOti'gh he still produces a syndicated weekly newspaper column celled 'One Day ata Tune'. He played at the Optimist club Festival in Goderich on June 27 and has been playing at places like the Victorian Inn, Daniel's and Jester Arris in Stratford on a fairly regular basis. At these places, he sings and plays other people's songs as well as his own but he says he does them in his own style so they `don't just come off as poor imitations'. He is trying to get to the point where he just does his own music. His biggest break so far, he feels, has been playing at the grand opening of the, Stratford Summer Music Festival, a brand new 11 -week festival of music which just started this summer. He was the opening act. Jim's main encouragement to enter the music business full-time came from the late Terry Fax and the late Bill Cole. Although he never met Fox,, he admired him as someone who was doing what he wanted to do against all odds. And Cole; a friend and fellow musician, always pushed Jim and encouraged him to play and sing full-time. "We (Cole and myself) played together on a Wednesday night in November of 1980 and on the Friday night he was killed in a car accident at Vanastra," Jim explains. He has dedicated his first album to Bill Cole and Bill's daughter Kim is the main back-up singer on the album along with Liz Fletcher and Jim's brother Steve. Jim doesn't play guitar on the album because he says 'that would have taken Turn to page 2A • GNAL-STA 133 YEAR -30 WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 1981 Kids' a big event SECOND SECTION Pee Wees lose district heartbreaker Emotions run high at . kids' sporting events; especially when there's a cham- pionship at stake. It was , no exception at Ag Park on Saturday as the Goderich Legion Pee Wees hosted the district 'championship tournament.. • Coaches yell instructions, at the kids, parents yell support at the kids, the kids yell at the other team, and everybody yells' at the umpire when things don't go their way. , The team from Kincardine 'were the eventual champs of the tourney, and Goderich. lost a heartbreaker to them by a score of 11-10. However they bounced back to take the consolation f rnr. Listowel 12-4. The Goderich boys were down 11-5 when their last inning at bat came around. With .two men out, they managed five runsbut it just wasn't enough. . Tim Beattie . was high scorer for the locals with three runs, while Joe Fitz- patrick and Tim Wilson each scored twice. Peter Nivens, Matt Wilkinson, and Mark Photos by Cath Wooden Burbine all got one run apiece. Fitzpatrick was on the mound for the Legion Pee Wees and. struck out two batters. Jim Beattie pitched the winner for Goderich . against Listowel. Peter. Nivins was high 'scorer in this game with three runs while Beattie and Tim Wilson got two runs each. Singles went to Darryl Black, • Paul Nivins, Gerry Kingsely, Matt Wilkinson, and John Fellows. George Osmond is manager of the Legion Pee Wees and Ken Fitzpatrick and Wilf Hurfurth are the coaches. Whistling is.a very important part of any sport. ' Peter Nivins watches the play while warfning up on deck. �',�' her Tim 14e;l(tie hooks ,ielor tt•c,