HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1976-09-09, Page 1T
. 'iDe• c' bx `.r 2
52 .1,11ontreal St .1
Goetpx‘ich r Ont.. N1 v.
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'• '.129 YEAR -37'
'•THURSDAY;'SEPTEMBER 9,1970
ronriVkfa0aillitti*-7-
farmingsuis hien
BY_RON SHAW
One seldom picks up a farm magazine
in the 1970s without coming across one
official or another lamenting the shift of
rural young people to the city, the losspf
prime .agricultural. land to development.
.or some other indication of the world's
lemming -like march to oblivion through
loss in agricultural production.
'Examples to the contrary may be too
few and far between for many, but they
.'do exist. Twenty -fou' year old Tony
McQuail, who has begun operation of a.
100 acre -fent holding in West Wawanosh
Township, is a case'"in point.: In fact Mr.
McQuail conies 'to'the farm from a semi-
urban . environment putsid'e
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
As Tony McQuail approached 18 years •
ofe"age c1uring the late 1960s, the United
• States was deeply involved in a war. in
'Vietnam. The McQuail family members
were Quakers and on reaching .draft age.
Tony intended to 'register` for Con-
. scientious Objectors Service.
"I was thinking about: this a'lot, and as
I name closer to draft age I.. carne to the
conclusion that it -was the draft itself
which made wars like. Vfetnam.
possible:" • "
"When you look -•closely at war ."you
realize that .people always consider
'their side' . to . be right. in that case
maybe we should` question both;` i.e. is
there a 'right' side in a.war?"
"Once started,'." Tony , observes,
'violence propagates itself. Vietnam
was a horrifying,..sad situation. A. a
Quaker I believe there arealternatives
to • this sort' of tvlolence: `.1 could not
support tlfs ,war in. any way.. For this
reason I felt I could not co-operate with
' ther'd'raft '. or apply for Conscientious
Objectors' Service."
"As I looked -at the' Vietnam war I
came to- the conclusion that the° U.S.
involvement -was a symptom of a larger
problem: Namely that the U.S. economy.
and- life stylewas dependent on the
exploitation of foreign •countries'natural
resources. A nation that consumes over
'30 percent of the world's resources with
-less than six . percent of the.. world's
epeople has to.do,a lot of 'stealing' tostay
in business."
"These perceptions ' forced . me --to
question the standard gf 'living I was
accustomed to. My religion_ and up•
; bringing, had taught me to oppose ex-
" ploitatibn and oppression 'yet my life'
style `made' me a party to them. I
realized that if I was to oppose the war•in
Vietnam I would have to get at the roots
of, it. These seemed to -.be greed and fear.
We •coveted our •giobal neighbours'
resources and were afraid that without
Where
possessions defined the value of 'aMan.
Industrial society has made great
them. we couldn't live."
"I had grown hp in a society w
0
wealth possible but it disassociates the
average guy, the worker, from his part
in the larger picture., It is easy to get lost
in the pursui ealth.,"
"-If 1 was't�ee inyself"of the greed
and fear .inherent in my life.style I
needed to discover what was' necessary
and meaningful in life. What 'I really
need is food, shelter, a clean en-
vironment•• and, of 'course, people: for
spiritual association: Thad worked in . a
factory` and, that employment left me
spiritually
BACK TO BASICS " •
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By late 1969: Tony had decided to The choice of livestock is seen as a ex saarlal -reference b supplies necessary for a family and this spring; he says,,a
refuse service with the Am ertcan Armed . c l p IA y
-Mr. Mc uail. Initiail the goats were as much ets as six week old registered doe kid was': bringing $300 on the
Forces, seven in the Conscientious Q y lfp o enTnarket. staff photo)
Objectors' Service, anything .else on the McQuail farm. but Tonc suggests"2lgat P ('
pets should be productive. Two goats' can. produce the dairy
CHOOSES CANADA AND
WEST WAWANOSH 4
"I was willing to go 'to prison, even
prepared for it, but a number of things
concerned me.. First of all the effect such
a thing would have on my family. Iafso
had no desire to' become.:' a prison
reformer and 2the homosexual scene in
prison upset me. Above all I wanted .to '
farm and finally decided:that coming to
While' still living in'.the United States Canada •was. as . effective • a. protest,
Tony quithis•job in the factory and found
a job 'working on, a dairy farm. The
operation Consisted of 500 acres and
milked 65 _head of cattle__ .___
'The man 'I worked for was bot1x',a
good farmer and a fine man,"• Tony
recalls. "Through this. job I began to get
back to basica, call it closer to nature,
bu.t for me it was very satisfying"
against the. war a.i going, to jail for
perhaps five years." •
In January'ofa 1971, Tony McQuail.
crossed. the border into Canada.. and:
found himself. in London, Ontario. He ..
placed an advertisement. in :.'the
newspaper for farm work and soon came •
to Goderich to work for -Bisset Brothers:
Dairy at Saltford.
"One morning a' cow was missirfg and _ While still. orking on the :.Bisset farm
when we 'found her she had just -calved. he enrolled for . the, -.1971-72 term at the
I'd never seen a. calf before and -I' Goderich. District Collegiate as a student
thought it was dead, all limp and • slimy in Grade. 13: He graduated from there in.
_. and just lying there.. The farmer. put' his the'spring of. 1972 with top awards and a
boot omit arid pumped a couple of times, scholarship to attend the U'iltiversity< of
the calf started .breathing and a :few Toronto. Dining the summer.of 1972<he
• minutes later it was. up and walking ' hitch- hiked` across Canada looking at:
:around. This was early .morning, the sun farming and farm land With an eye;to,
just coming up and everything quiet and finding a place -to settle down and farm •
peaceful. I; had' an overwhelming sense ' He returned to Huro t County feel�g
'of peace and beauty ',stronger , than f he that it -had the best land he had sen at
_•sorrow and • destruction •whieh-..man-.sd-t -t 'price he could al`fdrd: In' the star her..:.
oftenwgrl+is," Tony, said- of 197.3: he bought 100 acres in West
"It's not; enough to work at making the Wawanosh township. -
world. a better place: Unless you can. see The •1.972-73 term found, him, studying
sometimes that there is some, good and, ;. General, Arts at' the Uiaiversity of •
~beauty, you.won't:•khow' what"You ate 'Toronto. During the next school,year he
working toward. That is why I wanted•to studied at the University ,of Waterloo in
farm, It.seemed' a meaningful oc- the Environmental'. Studies. program, ••
cupation which refreshed me spiritually became: a special:' student' in Environ
and physically and was mentally mental., :Studies at .the University of
challenging." . ' Guelph the 'following year and finished
I can understand the guy who grows his degree at Waterloo during the 1975776
up. on •a farm, seeing -all the drudgery, term graduating this `spring with a .
wanting to do something else. But.I come Bachelor of Environmental Studies.
to it from another background and find Degree (Honors Man -Environment) and
in fanning, and the farm community; . was named to the Dean's•Honor Roll.
qualities which are difficult to find At the same time, front --the summer of
elsewhere.'' 1973' onward,, he..was• working to get his
To enjoy the benefits of arming, Tony West Wawanosh farm in shape. He only
feels, we must 'change. the fact. that the managed a.:minimu m of.work that, first
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guy next•door may work a 40 hour week "fall and as the only building on the
• and earn more than the farmer does for property was a barn he.spent the first
70 hours or more. The value assessment winter living in. rather poorly insulated
of a farmer's work: is wrong,. he says. • quarters in the loft.
'`Our society does riot value, essential "l lived in one room` up there and
d ed t
0o u instead places
items,•
like food'b t i t d l ces a high sometimes the thermometer ropp o•
price 6n luxuries.'' 10 degrees," he recalls.
Work on that Pennsylvania daisy, farm ___.
may have given Tony McQuatla look at
• REAL FARMING, T00
what he felt was a better life but the Work started on a house the following:
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draft and a war in Vietnam still lingered spring . and, he undertook , his first
en the horizon.
. (continued'on page 11A)
Tony McQuitil ,checks a baited insect trap in''his orchard which will give him early.
detection • of pest increaases..Ionv hopes to operate his orchard andfarrn land in West
Wawanosh .Townshi'p under the- precepts of Ecological Agriculture. Simply this means
trying to flt'agricultural'practices into larger natural patten'$ which influence soil fer-
tility, crop pests aid livestock, health. (staff photo)
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II_ ........
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BY JEFF S•EDDON
The Goderich volunteerfire depart-
ment encountered a situation recently,
they have been fearing for over a year.
The problem was created when three
callswere made. to the firemen in less
then half an hour. That alone is serious
enough; but the crux of the matter was
that although the firetnetr were all on
duty and intheir trucks, they, were out
of. 'contact with the Waterloo Street
headquarters.
The communications system the fire -•
department depends on virtually ends
when the trucks pull out ofthe fire hall.
There is a weak but effective system in
force which makes some of the firemen
aware that there is a fire and tells them
where it is and how serious, but the rest...,
of the mien must either work on a Word-
of-mouth basis or find out 'for them
selves; .
The peoblem carne to a head recently
during a severe thunderstorm. The fire
department was called to a blaze just
north of Poi it Farms provincial park on
Highway 21 to extinguish what turned
out to:be a 'mattress fire. Most of the_mep •
went to thescene taking with. them.' the
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emergency ,,van, the pumper and the ' '
tanker truck. -.
• Several minutes later the . alarm •
sounded again. A utility pole near a
house in• Carlow had been struck by
lightning and was burning. Some of the
men still at the fire hall' climbed' aboard
the old Dodge fire true ttaat"is pressed
into service only when needed, and race ..
off to the pole fire.
About two minutes after they. .had left
the alarm sounded again. A television
aerial on a house in Colborne township
had been struck by lightning and a fire
started, The fire was burning slowly but
threatened to envelop the house very
soon.
What to do?
There were four firemen still at the
fire hall end the'\, departMent's ladder
truck was still there. A rule of thumb the
department practilCes is to never leave
the Town of Goderich totally un --
protected: No matter how serious the
fire. is out-of-town, some men and- at
least one truck .remain in town amt all
times:.
The only alternative open to the r%etr•
Inrnn 1.....
was �o 'Galt sortie of ,the men and
equipment off the mattress 'fire •and .send
them • to the house in Colborne T'o'wn
ship. The problem was that they had no
way of reaching the men.
Fortunately -the problem was
alleviated through a combined effort by
the police and a'CB .radio owner. The
Goderich police went to the fire hall
when the fire alarm sounded and were
able to use their car phone -to telephone
the Goderich OPP. .
An OPP cruiser was at the scene of the
mattress fire and the message of the new
flee . was relayed.' Unfortunately • the
directions to the ColborneTownship fire
were confusing and several minutes
were ., lost making sure the proper
message was transmitted..
' At the same time a CVD radio operator
drove up to the fire hall and announced
that the firemen •wanted toknow. the
location of the third fire. Someone at the
scene of the first .blaze was aware the
alarm had sounded' and began tran-
stbitting o anyone listening ,or to help
the firemen out.
Through both comrnunicatiors
systems, the•firemen were advised of the
third fire and were able to dispatch the
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mon ,,nd 'equipment to.thehouse-
-' bui,nnt.urirll valuable. minutes had ticked-
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icked-
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RADIOS NECESSARY?
The luxury of Ole two-way radios at
the ',c,'nt•'nf <r firt• ik.one the firemend'o
not .til, aN,cniuy. ;,1'hc alertness of. all
pa.r•tie� the night (if the three? fires saved,
• thousands of. dtohtrs damage •but the
.point rt:marns• if. tht.y had not been on °
hind, i ilii. ons f Ire could have easily cost
as much 00'di;nage's as a radio system
f01.4he t'rcm"n v, Id ix)st. '
r,l .one if,•r soli. or body can be blamed
for time Lick r•onirnunicatinns'system
in the file depart inert. Cutbacks fol-c.ed
on tht town and township budgets and
other ekpens•es faced • by • the
nlatlliCipirlities ltnocked. the expense of
tht• equipment out of the 197.6budge.t.,..But
• perhapi,•in^this age of tight money, high
insurance• and replacement costs the
• town Would he wise to allend:the money
on Ihe r 6',li,+e t1 , prnt;nt.
Irate taxpay r•s petitioning council for .
new 1a•:.i, tsrrt•ait on their street. ntay be;
e. cn more ;lingered if their house burned'
° - tlowr?• ilt•t•;1'li't' tot` fire department' was
t
b _
unable to be reached.
Fire • comnlitt•ee chairman Leroy,.
H li r 1"+11 i'ntr'oduced the radio equip-
merit
equip-me it a; the 1971 budget meeting ; His •
lud ei.•inciuded $18,000 for "rne* equip -
merit. part ilf which was a beeper system
tet,"iii r•t firemen of an' alarm and an, a
raditi 0t:twork between the trucks and
the fire hall. .'1';
Council's first pass through the fire
budget stashed:, that figure • by 110,000
which wiped out two thirds of the trsbney
for the sy stent. Mr. Harrison•said that he
couidn'.r. sa : ifice ""other equipfnent
needed by the department such as hoses;.
nozzles. and other incidentals to funnel
all°the cash inter the radio equipment.
' The mayor at that .time commented
that the fire ,department had managed
for ' 150 years without .the system and
with.a little perserverance could,get by
little longer. Council was' of the opinion
that there Was only money •enough to
make. a start &towards purchasing fife
cnmmunica'tions :system., . hoping, -to
complete it at a tater date.
The fire chairman was bitterly,1:17.
posed to the moven ,claiming that, the
(continued pn page3k)
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