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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1980-02-21, Page 1777. n. 1 have to sympathize with the politicians. Butofly to. a certain degree. Their efforts are open to public scrutiny daily and during the campaign: their every move 'is metignlously recorded by gangs of reporters and cameramen, . Their work is not private: • And that. is where I can empathize the politician. Ina sense my own toil On your favorite weeltly is up forpuhlic scrutiny every week '`• , And should. I ever happen by chance . to make: a slight faux pas(' believe it happened 'once) it. is in plain view of the readership. Even just a tiny slip in the darkroom or if I nod off while typing this .column and strike severai'wrong keys, readers will find the mistake. But I have to live with, that and I would„ assume many of you are in the same position. Regardless of health or personal moods the job has to get done. And I would suspect that during the )- r•nrin.ign • many candidates and Nettie celebrates lOOthbirthday BY JOANNE BUCHANAN Mrs. M.C. (Nettie) Jewell of Goderich says the secret to a long life is hard work. She should know. On ' Monday, February 11 she celebrated her ..100th birthday at an ; oyster - dinner with her family. She was born on a farm near Carlow in Colborne Township to Janet Strachan and Alexander Glen in 1880.That was the same year that St: G_e.arge's Anglican Churchwas built in Qoderich. .Her father was born in Canada -but' -his -parents came from Scotland. Her mother came to Canada by boat from .Scotland when she was five years old. Mrs. Jewell therefore emphasizes the Scottish spelling of her maiden name with only one "n". She attended9S.S. No. 3 Colborn;re--public--school and.•completed Grade 9. She walked two miles to school every day from her parents' farm. Sometimes, if the roads Were drifted over, her.' father would hitch up the horses to the sleigh and drive her and her brothers and sistersto the main road to continue their journey from there. Mrs.' Jewell was the oldest in a family of eight children and when her mother died at age 41, she helped to look after her four= sisters and three brothers. She was 17 years old at the time of bushels of apples sold for $1 and Mrs. Jewell " remembers that a nickle was a lot of money during the daysof the depression. Those days were very rough. About 1933 or 1934 the Jeweils' apple orchard was frozen out. Mrs. Jewell preserved food from her garden which kept the family going in the winter months. She made all the family's clothes.iioo. The Jeweils lost their first child, .Glen, in in- fancy. They .-had four 'More: Mrs.. ' Grace ' Cranston of Goderich, Ralph who died. in 1977,- • Mrs. Cenetta Bainton of Blyth andel Mrs. Effie Yeo of Goderich Township.--___ Mrs. Yeo • remembers that her mother always sewed and baked .bread. "She made the best buns in the country," she say. The Jeweils got their first car, an Essex, in -1928:-The-year be ore ria Mrs. Jewell's husband purchased his first tractor "to make it easier on the horses". Mrs. Jewell, however, her mother's death. , On June 10, 1903 she married William H. Jewell at her Glendale farm home and moved to his farm near Benmiller. They carried on a mixed farming operation there wwich included an apple orchard. Those were the days when you milked your cows sitting on a milking —stood c urn m own butter. It was a whole day's venture to take your milk and butter to town by horse and buggy to sell, recalls Mrs. Jewell. The work „was hard but Mrs. Jewell's husband always hired help during •the busy periods. The apple pickers and° packers were given their room and board. Three has never driven a car, ridden a bicycle or been up in an airplane. Her transportation has always been horse and buggy or foot. When she was 90 years old she took a trip bycar to Saskatchewan with her brother and sister for her sister's granddaughter's wedding. Mrs. Jewell and her husband retired front farming" and moved to Goderich in November of 1945. • Their farm was taken over by their son Ralph and _his family stil1.. lives there4 "William always. said he'd leave the farm to Ralph and the girls had to get an education," recalls -. _ That's exactly what happened. All three daughters attended. Stratford Normal School and became school teachers. Mrs. Jewell is a member of Victoria t ree sited Church and is a former U.C:W. member. She was brought up Presbyterian, married a Methodist and Turn to page 2A. • ' MRS. M.C. (NETTIE) JEWELL This is it folks. The last one. The kid is taking his boots off his desk, hanging up the phone and riding off into the sunset. • Welt maybe the sunset bit is pushing it but the rest is true. This column is ending as quietly as it began. No bells or whistles or ceremony just a column to say there will be nd more column. I think this is where I say I've been Writing it foryears but I won't be doing that. I don't really know how long I've been doing it. It started quite some time ago when a staff change took a columnist from this desk to Bangladesh. The editor asked me if I thought I could spin a short yarn once a week and I said I'd give it a shot. And now I'm moving on and the editor has asked another -reporter, Cath Wooden, if She can spin a yarn once a week and she's.giving it a shot. The change is something I've felt I've 104 led Is.,would have wished they: we e. fat ioiry Worker in Moose ely?. The uhl?iwc on be demanding. . -day election Campaign js odueed three weary leaders and that weariness was often reflected in their speech Comedians couldn't have any tette; than some of the following exaYnples. 1 d Broadbent delivered a:.classic on. one of his campaignstops when: he told. a partisan • audience that; "Life is . a .continuing . process throughout all • alit lives." . ]Pierre Trudeau could not 1'e counted"' out of the fuzzy issue explanations with his'thoughts•on Liberal energy policies. -"There will be a formula, bat it won't be one that you can mathematically say, thi§ will be the price today; it's the process and it's the way in which the algebra would be made." Are you any clearer on energy mathematics after that? Ciazt Maas been noted for his nonsense ptese and also produced a fev ter, tkez,i Each of us was :raised pri one pert of the country." No kidding, loe, "Ottawa is a ,long, long way from everywhere." Or in Prince Edward- . Island Where hp told an audience; "Oil by its very nature runs' out, but ladies and gentlemen; potatoes are forever." It is somewhat reassuring to c iseover" that our national political leaders have baddays too. It offers some consolation tothe little • guys who are prone to ,mistakes. • Finance Minister John Crosbie has been a wealth of copy with his down East humor• and recently when he and. Clark disagreed on oif price he said; "We are cheek to cheek, toe to toe and bum to burn." That line left Crosbie and the Con- servatives wide open for a retort and Trudeau couldn't resist. "What the people want to know is when those bums are going to get their act together," he said. • Oa* made 4_11 open. -arae radio dawns but he gat ariker .ap in Niagara Falls. Clan >iilal �n o and the caller wanted tib si ei; to tha Prime Minister. "1 am the Priine Minister," •lart said. ' "No you're not," the eattee responded. But with the election of a 1 ,berm: • majority government 'Monday, the election ads and campaigning are history at least Until .the next time, ' • And I believe it is a safe time for my own political prognostications on the election. . In Huron -Bruce a man, who is not a chicken farmer, will win by a slim margin and nationally the Rhinoceros `would not win any seats but would still have a great party. We should have elections more often. It helps to stimulate our deficit. 132 YEAR -.-8 ich NAL:7 STAR THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1980 SECOND SECTION Private Lives was entertaining BY JOANNE find themselves on a . BUCHANAN honeymoon in France With_ new_ partners -The audience has doubts about the ,choice of these new partners right from _the -beginning;. - -- •- Amanda has chosen an overweight, older man who has "an absolute mania"' . about looking after" her and whom she compares to a cocker spaniel for his loving loyalty. His name is victor., Prynne (Mike -Scott). Allison. Hollingworth and Heather Ross each made a fine debut on the Goderich Little Theatre stage, last week as the lead females in the Noel Coward . play, Private Lives. ' Billed as an "intimate comedy", Private Lives revolves around the divorce and rematch of Elyot Chase (Michael. Watts,,;• and Amaf�a P ryne (Allison Hollingworth) . After. three years of marriage to one another and five years of divorce, • himself by the name of Elyot and Amanda each . Sybil (Heather Ross). Elyot has chosen a "silly, little woman" much younger than variety Night '80 will raise money for Cambodians -BY JOANNE BUCHANAN Variety Night '80, being presented at G.D.C.I. on Friday, February 29 and Saturday, March 1 at 8 p.m., will offer a little something for everyone. Al- Mullen and Philip McMillan, teachers at G.D.C.I., are co- ordinating the Variety Night program with. assistance from several other • high school _te_achers.. Money raised through admissions to Variety Night '80 will go toward aiding. Cambodian refugees. Cambodia is a country totally dependent on 'outside aid until the next harvest comes due. Although other urgent international events have captured headlines in recent weeks, the emergency in Cambodia needed for some time now. I spent six years covering the news events in and around Goderich and I felt it was time to learn something else about the communications business. I've managed to work my way into a new job as the staff member for a new company publication. The new job involves selling and writing a magazine type guide aimed at helping tourists in this part of Ontario enjoy their visit. I only hope I enjoy the same success at that as 1 did writing this column. . 1 don't mean that to be egotistical. I've enjoyed writing this column and to be honest with you I've taken great satisfaction in the apparent response it got from readers. On occasion I've managed to tickle their funny bone or giventhem food for thought. Readers have snickered at some of the antics of my family continues._ Money donated by . Canadians provides food, medecines and supplies to the suf- fering, starving millions of Cambodian people. Variety Night '80 then can •be compared to the Jerry Lewis telethon for muscular dystrophy --on a much smaller scale of course. Basically, they are both raising money, through entertaining the public, for • worthwhile causes. Variety Night feature the G.D.C.I.. concert band; dance, vocal and instrumental solos; mimes and small scenes; songs by the school choir; songs by students and teachers together; songs by teachers' groups,; • and numbers by the school dance troupe. Admission is $1 for children, $2 for students and $2.50 for adults. hopefully comparing Lni &gs u,n� happen. •in -my home to things that happen in theirs. Columns I wrote about life in the Seddon home were not intended to give readers a laugh at my family's ex- pense. They *ere stories about family living that everyone can tell. Hopefully people read them coMparing them with their own home life which allowed them to sit back and smile at things they normally wouldn't think about. I don't want to give the impression that my columns just kept getting better. Many weeks it took hours just to come up with an idea and quite often those ideas fell, far short of being good material for a column. But those weeks go with the territory, As a matter of fact this could be one of them. I was asked to write a last column rather than just disappear from the page and have readers imagine what happened to me. She still refers to her mother as "mommy" and-can'.t_quite..stand .up. to Elyot's temper. Quite by coincidence, Elyot and Amanda are honeymooning' -at thesame hotel in rooms next to one another and rneet on the terrace. They have arguements with their new spouses and decide to run off together. They are found fighting and rolling on the floor at Amanda's flat. in Paris --Se a al-days�'1-a er he - jilted Victor and Sybil: Conflicting stories result about who started the "fight and in an at- tempt to remain loyal to their new spouses, Victor and Sybil in turn Begin fighting while Elyot and Amanda fade off into the sunset.- -..Alli•son. -_ Hollingworth portrayed Amanda as a self-centred woman who is definitely not the in- nocent girl -next-door type but who is likeable enough. Michael Watts por- trayed Elyot as a selfish, conceited manwho is not really very likeable at all. Heather Ross played that "silly little woman" role very well. As Sybil, 'fr •.�..-h�----h� heel wig 1 and frequent tearful outbursts were really quite comical. Mike . Scott played .*Victor with much good humour. He is a likeable' chap, but like Sybil, is much too gullible inthe area of human relationships. Neither • one is a match for their new strong-willed spouses. Private Lives is not an action -packed play, except for one fight scene. It contains long stretches of dialogue and. demands, an attentive audience to catch all the Coward humour, both subtle and forthright. Attentive listening, however, did provide an $ . e„te�td;ui•ng-eveningr • Two scene changes took place in the play. The stage at MacKay Hall was transformed from a terrace to a large living room. Anna Melski had a small part in the play as Louise, a French maid.. She jabbered away in French with total disgust' and contempt for the English Prynnes, and Chases.• Background music for the play was provided by Hiilie Kloeze on the ac- cordian. This music was played quietly but was effective in setting the mood in the first scene. Sybil and Amanda wore beautiful clothes in the play and they looked good - in then t,Nu. Director June 'Hill and all the behind -the -scenes people must take credit for their roles in getting the play together and providing another en- joyable evening for Goderich audiences. de �•a Goderich Little Theatre presented four per- formances of Noel Coward's Private Lives last week with the final staging on Saturday evening. The play featured four main characthrs, Amanda It's tough to write a last column without saying it's a last column. Before I put an end to this drivel I'd like to say. a word about my replacement Cath Wooden. Give her a chance because she's got what it takes. She's out to lunch Just like me. She's got a questionable grip on reality and unfortunately for her she can offer some social comment on life's idiosyncracies in 700 words or Jes. Ih other words she's a columnist. But you've, got to give her a break. She's going through a stage of identity crisis. She's just purchased a new wardrobe in preparation for her new job and is negotiating on a 1,972 Valiant, her first car. Once the excitement of her new pants and car wears off she'll no doubt settle into writing humorous little bits a'tibut nothing in general. And before you know it I'll be a forgotten item. Bye'. • and Elyot (foreground) played by Allison Hollingworth and Michael Watts and Victor and Sybil played by. Mike Scott and Heather Ross. (Photo by Dave Sykes) jerr Seddon