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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1980-02-07, Page 19dove Sykes r 1 Last week the media around the world unfolded the sordid details of the daring escape of `six -Americans from Tehran with the aid of the Canadian irmbassy. • The six Americans were even sanction in the Canadian Emb-assy following the siege of. the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by militant Iranian students. The Americans were later slipped out of the strife -torn country along with other Canadian diplomatic officials. The Americans were presented with falsified Canadian documents to make it appear as if they . were part .of the Canadian diplomatic corp. Then amidst the turmoil of an election, Canada opted to remove her delegates from Iran with the Americans masquerading as Canadians. Canadian Ambassador, Kenneth Taylor, masterminded the project and although reticent to speak of his ac- complishment, his action is being hailed as heroic. -Taylor's ‘i.104' CS were truly ad- mirable and pave made Canadians the objeCtlei much American affection and ,sudden 'good neighbourliness. We are their friends: But, although Taylor's escape plans to appeared have been accomplished in the smoothest manner, there were trying times during the three months the Americans took refuge in our embassy. The major obstacle was preparing the Americans to act like Canadians. It was not an easy task.• ",Okay if we are going to pasSwyou5i Americans -off as Canadians there are a few things we should go over," Taylor told his attentive American atidience. "And first we will have to change your speech habits. , "Now• first, Canadians never pronounce words in .a correct manner. So, if Iranian. officals ask where you are from, tell them Trranna. Got it." "Toronto,'." they replied in unison. "No, no, no," Taylor said in • frustration. "0 you pronounce it like it sounds they will know you're not• Canadian. '1rranna, really roll those Rs„ "Trranna,." they offered in unison. "Good, good', Now there are only two things that Canadians really .cherish and they are hockey and beer," Taylor told them. "So there are likely to be some trick .questions but as Canadians the answers are simple.' "For example. If Iranian officials- should fficialsshould question you about our coun- try's .foreign policy, .offer a truly anadianresponse. • "Foreign policy? Ya' man we got policies so freign nobody understands !ern. But our major policy of a foreign variety `is to beat the bleep outa those Rusgians. in hockey. "And if we can't beat in the rink then we'll blow 'em away in a beer drinking contest. And we got the• guys what can do it too." "These clever Iranians are also likely to question you about sonic oi?pkir historical figures and most respepted nadians,"Taylor ciaizned, • "You .mean like John A. MacDonalti, Lester Pearson, Mackenzie King, • Pierre Trudeau and Joe Clark," the Americans replied. "No. Are you crazy. They'll pick that up right away,"Taylor said. "Canadians aren't conversant with those names. If they ask any questions along those lines just answer *Bobby Orr,, Rocket .Richard, barryl Sinter and Guy Lafleur. That will get you by. "You see there are nd real tricks to being a Canadian and all .we require is - that you play as dumb as possible.'That way they will not suspect anything." Taylor suggested. - "If you get confused .about any of the answers we have gone over, there is an. even simpler solution. "To any question directed at you simply offer this response. Guy. Lafleur, Labatts, hockey puck." "They will never suspect a thing." • Insidethis section: Got Captain Comet's Birthday Club Page 3A ` School Show returns. to Blyth Page 4A Tractor Pullers hold banquet Page 6A improvements made in pediatrics ward Page 8A •Almost 500 women attend annual U,C.W. meeting .: Page 9A"" Bob Trotter's One Foot in. the Furrow Page 10A e ich IGNAL:wmoSTAR 132 YEAR -6 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1980 SECOND SECTION Has played fiddle for 71 years ert BY JOANNE BUCHANAN When Robert A. (Bert) McDonald was nine years old, his father taught him to play the fiddle. He has been• playing ever since-- . for 71 years. ` 'Th'ere are °> not too many daya that I don't play a few tunes," he -----s-a•ys— "442s a g•r-aa-t- pastime," Mr,McDonald 'calls himself an ;'ear player". "All the music is in my head," he says. "I don't care whether you have the, notes or not„ you still have to have an ear for the time. The ear player is the best. Afterall, who composed the notes in the first place." , Robert A. (Bert) McDonald of Goderich will be $0 years old on February 28. He has been playing the fiddle for 71 years. In this picture he plays one of the - fiddles he made himself. Although he doesn't make fiddles anymore, he still repairs "the odd one". (Photo by Joanne Buchanan) About 20 years ago, Mr. McDonald "took a notion" to, make his own fiddle. . He had been. repairing them for many years anyway. He ended up making about 12 or 14 fiddles through the years and still tappin found_ that he had to be very particular and use the right materials. "The best wood for the front is'edge grain spruce and the back and sides are maple," he says while proudly' displaying one of his hand made instruments. Although he doesn't make fiddles • anymore, Mr. -Mc -Dena -Id- sti11- repairs "the odd one". He hasn't really kept track but he figures that over the years, helix's. repaired hundreds of them. He was born and raised at Amberley and farmed there until moving to another farm in Goderich Township, five miles south, • of Goderich on Highway 21 in 1936. Twelve years ago, he retired from farming and moved into Goderich where he lives on Bayfield Road. He keeps busy playing.his fiddle at ,varsious celebrations like anniversaries and senior citizens' parties: Although he just plays for the - enjoyment now, , there was a time when lie. was paid for his musical abilities. About 10 years ago he played at, dances with a group called The Country Boys. And he remembers that in 1930, he„and..his cousin played at 61 dances in one winter. There were a lot of. fiddle players around Amberley in his day and it was a great place for house dances. There were a lot of good chorders there too, he says, describing chorders as the piano players ^who accompanied the fiddle players; "Sometimes we'd play until five o'clock in the morning,". he recalls. There was a time when at least one person in each house played the fiddle, although not always for dances, he says. Everybody used to get together and have a out tunes wonderful time: But this, type of musical get- together seems to • be dying out now. • "These ; days people th'ink the louder they turn up their speakers, the better their.music'is but playing too loud just` spoils it," he laments. Dances are just not the same anymore 'either, feels Mr. McDonald.who was once a. prize winning step dancer' ' to fiddle music. • Step dancing, he explains, is a part, of square dancing. "These new fangled square dances they . do today are just *drills," he says while recalling such dances as the Upper Reel and the Scotch -Reel. can still playthe music for those reels but you never see. them anymore," he says. In 1937 at the Old Boys Reunion in Goderich, Mr. McDonald danced in a set (group of , eight) "from Ashfield Township 'which won first prize in . a competition. This set won another dance com- petition in Clinton in the 1940s. Mr. McDonald says he used to 'play the guitar .a bit too. He maintains that learning to play the fiddle is harder t tan learning to play the guitar though.' He ha -s given--each-ons-- of his seven children a good fiddle but his oldest son, George, who lives in Wiarton, has, been the main one to carry on his father's musical tradition by still playing. Mr. McDonald is most proud of the German fiddle which his son gave to him. It was in pieces when he got it and he had to reconstruct it but it has a good sound, To Mr. McDonald there. is no music like the sound of the fiddle and a few tunes a day on this magical instrument brightens his life. Rotary Club to present second Sinfonia Conceit on February 15 The' Goderich Rotary Club will present a Sin- fonia concert on February 15 at North Street United._Church, the second , in a series featuring the London • Symphony Orchestra. Subscription tickets are The second concert will still available for the two feature conductor Victor remaining, concerts at Feldrill and the London Campbell's on The Symphony Orchestra's Square. The cost is $20 Sinfonia' Group, com- per .faniil._and $9_per prised of 30 full-time adult. Since this is a musicians. subscription series rush At the February 15 tickets will only be made Concert the Sinfonia will available the door five perform Mozart's -The minutes before the Marriage of Figaro, performance at $5 each. homes 'of the rich. The Symphony Orchestra's Vivaldi's Concerto The final concert dale musicians had to en- special group called m Grosso, Boccherini's series is Orchestra Night tertain the family and Sinfonia. The program by Cello Concerto , on May 2 when Victor f1 guests at dinner and this group scheduled for Beethoven's Octet and F_Bldrill will coed ct_xhe:Lin.. con.certs....The . ,sic,•••_ Goderich on February Haydn's Symphony No. full London Symphony has an immediate appeal 15th includes' a wide 88 Orchestra. because the patron ® wanted to be entertained. The amazing thing is' that B.Y while pleasing the patron, GORDON GRREENE composers such as Haydn Some of the most and Mozart 'managed to charming music ever create great -works of art written was composed in _.as well. - the 18th century when The orchestras of that orchestras were em- period usually numbered plQyed almost ex- about 30 players -- the • clusively in the private size of the London I promised I wouldn't but I've got tp. When I told my.dentist what I thought of his profession as -rt -"related to my pearly whites he insisted 'I keep it to myself. He said if I made my fears obvious to my kids they would be afraid of dentists before they ever,met one. That was about five years ago when I ended my boycbtt of drills and fillings and went in for a little excavation. I was very fortunate in my younger years. I had what I guess were .strong teeth that didn't .need a whole lot of work. That kept me away from a dentist until I was about 10 years old. But when I finally had to get some work done I learned that what 1 feared was true, was true'. I hate getting work done on my teeth. I'm scared to go to the dentist and I'm forced to humble myself by refusing to buy the suggestion that it doesn't hurt at all. My trip to the dentist as a 10 year old was a real drag. The guy's gIairside Ihmingramanner may have been the problem, He was a dentist that flunked out of butcher school and should have been a blacksmith. The first thing the guy told me to do was open wide which I tried valiantly to do. My idea of wide and his were ob- viously different. The first thing he did - was put iron,fingers on my uppers and lowers and spread them until I began to wonder if he was working on my teeth or my stomach. He looks around; jAms a mirror in and then begins scraping and poking with this steel prong. Now he tells me that his poking around is not work it's exploration. He advises me that what ; ;'s about to do won't hurt a bit. That's when I realized that he obviously had gone through life without a cavity. Otherwise he wouldn't have said what he did, After several minutes of poking around and mumbling something to his faithful edl'npanlon (nurse) he says "there that wasn't too bad was it?" and starts removing equipment. Age variety of works. Mozart is represented with his orchestral overture to the opera "The Marriage of Figaro". This delightful comic opera tells how the town barber Figaro outwits some stuffy members of the nobility. ' The overture is a piece in sonata form which uses main tunes from the "Naw that was a piece of cake," I claim as I bid him farewell and try to get up. • "Well you only have two itsy bitsy cavities and we may,as well take care of them today," he advised me as he gently but firmly pushes me back into the chair. Before I have a chance' to protest ,I notice .his silent partner (the nurse) pass him a.hypodermic that looked like it could have been used on an elephant. "Don't be afraid it doesn't hurt," he soothes as he pulls my cheek out and works this spike into position. Two lies in a row acid I'm beginning to doubt this guy's moral fibre. It hurt like hell. Not only that but the second shot, to freeze -the area of cavity two, made the first shot a joke. He then leaves me to contemplate my situation telling me it will be a few minutes until the freezing takes affect. I sit there thinking abdut what all he's going to do and my mind begins playing tricks on Me. opera as themes in the gift for writing beautiful struments each with a overture -- rather like a melodies. separate part. The in - short summary of all that Another work on the terplay of strings and will take place on stage. program is for one soloist wood winds i s This overture is used with orchestra, in this remarkable. regularly as a concert' case a cello -Concerto by The major work on the, piece because of its Boccherini. The cello, program is Haydn's charm. which is the tenor voice in Symphony No. 88. Haydn Vivaldi, the red- the string section, had not was employed as a full- bearded- priest of Venice, ,been treated as a virtuoso time musician at ' the is represented in the instrument until Boc- court of the Esterhazy program with a Concerto cherini applied his family during most of his Grosso which is an early considerable skills to the life. He directed the form of• the 'Concerto instrument. orchestra and the opera involving two or three Beethoven's Octet is company,mined the in - soloists with orchestra. particularly interesting. struments and kept them Vivaldi was a virtuoso As the title indicates, this in repair, saw to the violinist and had a great work is for eight in- cleaning of unifortns, and By the time the dentist returned I was a wreck. He tapped me a few times, stabbed at me with his poker and, when he got no reaction, he told me everything was ready. In goes the mirror, in goes the cotton batten, in goes a clamp and finally -the drill. Realizing I'm tense he tries to strike up a conversation. "How's school?" he asks. Stupid me tries to answer by closing my mouth. My teeth closed on his drill bogging it down in teeth. He quickly advises me it would be better if he talked and I listened. , Ever really listened to a dentist's drill. I'm about to come unglued when he tells .me he's -got all those nasty cavities cleaned up and now only has to ' fill them, But I. promised I wouldn't' tell my kids this'story and I won't. I finally got it off my chest deciding to air my secret fear of dentists before the little darlings could read. had time to write over 100 symphonies, more than 100 quartets, 30 operas, 50' piano sonatas etc. There is a grace and ,eharra_aand..T humour in everything, from Maydn's pen. His Symphony No. 88 'was written in 1787 and remains one of the favourites of the eighteenth century ^ or- chestral repertoire. Those who attend this interesting program will have a rare opportunity to peer into a day in the Turn to page 2A •6 jerr eddon •