HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1978-10-12, Page 19r
sykeEJi:PVE!
Talk about a Thanksgiving surprise.
The people of the Collingwood area in
Ontario celebrated the holiday
weekend with a little cold turkey.
The cold turkey came in the form of
an abundant snowfall in that area early
Sunday morning that dumped as much
as five inches in a small area, near the
city. •
The snowfall disrupted power service
in the .community for up to as much as
seven hours and many housewives had
to abandon turkey stuffing operations
and ‘settle for the relaxed atmosphere
of a restaurant.
Youngsters enjoyed the first snow
but the Ontario Provincial ,Police were
forced to close a highway for a couple
of hours as motorists were also caught
unaware. Unfortunately most drivers
have difficulty relating to the first snow
of the season and it requires a few
sessions before winter driving skills
are perfected.
And not one driver was reported to
have had snow tires on his car, which is
perfectly understandable. The only
people ‘}rho have snow tires on their car
at the beginning of October are guilty
of leaving them' on all summer.
This weekend, while munching
lustily on a leg of turkey at a traditional,
Thanksgiving dinner with the family,
someone mentioned ,hearing on the
radio that somewhere in Ontario there
was a freak snowstorm that dumped
five inches of snow on the ground,
disrupted power and generally turned
things into a chaotic mess.
Now generally I am optimistic of
nature but as soon as I heard the report
there were groans of discomfort.
Naturally d figured if snow fell from the
heavens it could undoubtedly land on
Goderich, For some reason we are just -
fortunate in that regard.
The news report struck a responsive
chord in my imagination- and I knew -1 -
could, play up the stories to relatives.
My hyped up sagas of winter life in the
northern wilderness of Goderich leave
unknowing relatives shaking their
heads in amazement.
In fact 1 am sure they are convinced
that Goderich is .as close to the perma
frost line as any Eskimo settlement.
And so I explained that my trip horr'e
would probably be made through
raging blizzards,, howling winds and
treacherous road conditions. Nothing
e4.1•
1 out "of the ordinary for a hearty
erner.
Continuing with an air of non-
chalance,, .1 added, that 'any the trine I
reached the linnits of Goderich several
cross-eounU'y skiers, snowmobiles and
snowslloers .would aot the countryside
enlo ang their Werite_wi•1'ltex.so_orts.
. But there was bitter disappointment
as I pulled into Goderich Monday af-
ternoon. The 'sun .was shining, there
wasn't a snowflake to be found
anywhere,' power lines were intact and
I didn't pass a single snowmobile.
Not that I minded though. Winter will
make its presence felt soon enough and
those fabricated stories will turn into
reality.
But at least the stories keep the
relatives from visiting.
Colborne Country Fair -
October 18 and 21
Gt&le.rich:
SIGNAL
131, YEAR -41
Mrs. Joan Pope of Goderich is seen here with her
menagerie of stuffed animals. She will be selling
these hand -made animals at Colborne Township's
13th annual Christmas Country Fair to be held ih
Saltford Valley Hall on October 18 and 21. The
animal which she is holding in her right hand Is a
fictitious creature called a'womble from her native
country of England. (Photo by Joanne Buchanan)
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1978
Newcomer surrounds
hersel
SYJOANNE
BUCHANAN
Since February, Joan
Pope, newcomer to
Goderich, has has
collected quite a
menagerie. She can sit in
her home surrounded by
a hamster, a rabbit, a
squirrel, a panda bear, a
donkey, an elephant and
a - monkey. These
animals, which help
make up Mrs. Pope's
menagerie, are not real
however, as you have
probably 'guessed. They
are stuffed cloth animals
skillfully created by Mrs.
Pope in her spare time.
She plans to sell them at
Colborne Township's 13th
annual Christmas
Country Fair to be held at
Saltford Valley Hall on
October 18 and October
21.
Mrs. Pope, by the way,
is not only a newcomer to
Goderich but a newcomer
to .Canada as well. In
April of last year, she and
her husband came to
Canada from their native
England to visit her
sister-in-law: They
literally fell in love with
Canada, she says. They
liked .the distinctive
Canadian seasons, the
friendly people and just
everything about the
country, she explains.
The Popes went back to
England in May of last
year and returned as
immigrants to Canada
that August. Mr. Pope
had secured a job for
himself here while on
holiday which was a big
help in weighing the
decision to move.
Mrs. Pope visited the
Christmas Country Fair
with her sister-in-law in
October last year and
—was quite, impressed with
the variety of crafts and
SECOND SECTION
a
with a cloth menagerie
Talents she saw displayed
there. Her sister-in-law
knew fair organizer, Mrs.
Wilmer Hardy and en-
couraged Mrs. Pope to
contact her about having
a booth there herself this
year from which to sell
her stuffed animals. Mrs.
Pope did just that and has
since been busy building
up her stock. •
Having secured a job as
a nurse's aid at Maitland
Manor Nursing Home in
Goderich, Mrs. Pope -does
not have much spare time
to work on her animals.
But, she admits, that
when she does have a
spare moment to sit
down, she likes to knit,
sew and sketch.
Sewing was an art Mrs.
Pope learned from an
early age at school in
England. Besides making
clothes, one of her
specialties is gollywog
dolls. The first question a
Canadian might ask is,
"What on earth is a
gollywog
GOLLYWOGS
Mrs. Pope isn't exactly
sure how to explain what
a-gollywog is. In England
they are as popular as
teddy bears and are one
of the first toys a child
may have to play with.
Mrs. Pope herself had
one as a child. They are a
tradition.
The dolls are patterned
after the black and white
minstrels of England, a
group of singing, dancing
white men who paint
their faces black in
somewhat the same
fashion as Al Jolson once
did. Right now in
England there is a
television show featuring
some black and white
minstrels.
Without interruption,
Mrs. Pope can make one
and a half gollywogs a
day. She cuts out the
doll's pattern from black
cloth, stuffs it with foam
rubber and sews it
together. Using bright.
materials, she makes the
clothes --including
waistcoats, trousers,
jackets and bow ties --
separately to dress the
form later. The gollywogs
feature fur hair and felt
facial features.
Mrs. Pope has made
about seven gollywogs
since she started in
Febiaary and is finishing
off three more, all to
be featured at her
Country Fair booth.
STUFFED ANIMALS
When making a stuffed
animal, Mrs. Pope likes
to choose furs and
materials which match
the animal in real life.
For example, she has just
finished designing her
own Canadian beaver and
has kept it as close to its
natural colors as
possible. Children seem
to like the bright coloured
animals best though, she
says, so she makes lots of
these too.
Mrs. Pope brought a lot
of materials and patterns
from England with her.
Making stuffed animals
was her hobby there too
and she sold them on a
custom work basis. It's
not really a profitable
hobby, she says, just one
which -she enjoys.
If she can't find a
pattern she wants, Mrs.
Pope makes her own. One
animal, which she has not
been able to find a pat-
tern ,for .but is determined
to make, is .a chipmunk.
There is no such animal
in England, she says.
One stuffed animal
featured in Mrs. Pope's
menagerie which
Canadians have probably
never heard of is a
womble. In England
there is a song and a
children's television show
about the Wombles of
Wimbledon. The wombles
are fictitious animals
who collect waste and
make use of it for their
homes, keeping in mind-
the ecology, -conscious
society of today. The
name of the womble in
Mrs. Pope's collection is
Uncle Bulgaria. But there
are four others too. They
are named T.obermory,
Wellington, Orinoco and
Bungo.
NO REGRETS
Mrs. Pope says she and
her husband have neyer
had any regrets about
moving to Canada. She
does not get homesick for
her native England but
she does miss—her
married son and a sister
whom she left behind in
England. The Popes
brought their 10, -year-old
son to Canada with them
.and their 22 -year-old
daughter joined them
later. She has since found
a job here too and loves
Canada as much as her
parents.
The Popes are used to
moving around. Mr. Pope
was a boat wright
(builder) With the RAF
for 22 years and the
family lived in Singapore
for • two and a ,half years
and in Egypt for 18"
months. The Pope's
daughter lived in South
Africa for four years.
"Somehow• we always
ended up back in the
south of England
though," says Mrs. Pope.
Mrs. Pope says she
doesn't mind where she is
as long as she is occupied.
Her job and her hobby
manage to keep her very
occupied indeed. She can
make a small stuffed
animal in half an evening
she says and this kind of
activity is very relaxing
for her.
Mrs. Pope loves her job
at Maitland Manor and
says it is a very good
home. Her job as a
nurse's aid involves
making the residents as
comfortable as she' can
by trying to understand
their position and how
they must feel.
In England Mrs. Pope
is a state enrolled nurse
and she is hoping to
eventually get her RNA
status in Canada. She
loves the profession of
nursing and became
involved in it as young as
13 when she joined the St.
John's Ambulance
brigade in England.
Although Mrs. Pope
and her family like living
in Goderich and say it is,
"a pretty little town,"
they will be moving to
northern Ontario next
summer. Mr. Pope
bought a piece of land
there consisting of 81
acres. He ° is presently
clearing some of that
land and building a house
for his family. He is
almost finished with the
exterior and will work on
the interior this winter.
"I admirehim for what
he is doing," says Mrs.
Pope. "It's a big project
for someone who hasn't
done it before."
Eventually Mrs. Pope
hopes that her sister and
her sister's husband from
England will be able to
join them and all work
the land together. Her
sister's husband loves the
land' and everything he
plants seems to grow.
And her sister doesn't
Turn to page :1A •
Ever wonder when you drive down a
road and see a sign that warns of
"Bump" why that sign was there when
there was no bump. Ever wonder why
there was no sign warning of a bump
when you just put your car across the
Grand Canyon at 80 kmh.
I think it's got something to do with
the road maintenance crews that fix
municipal and provincial roads in
Ontario. The crews consist of a bunch
of guys, not all of them thrilled with
their work, that' take pride in what they
do enoughkto do it well most of the time,
but occasionally play a little joke on the
motorists they strive to please.
I think every,once and a while these
guys decide to get back at drivers that
year round refuse to slow dowr? when
passing road workers, drive
dangerousty close to the guys as they
workhorns at theLe edge of a road, occasionally
l\honk wworkers \ >c nakeoke\\aboutt i ire
workers as they drive by the job site.
Every now and then the workers
make some poor motorists pay for the
podr manners of others. There are a
variety of tricks the crews play on
drivers.
They oil the roads and don't spare the
oil and any driver having to cross the
sticky mess spends his evening trying
to get the black grease off his fenders.
They put up a bump sign to slow you
down and when you don't find the bump
you angrily speed up, usually going
faster than when you , met the sign
originally, and bang, you're in the
Grand Canyon.
This past weekend I saw perhaps the
greatest feat of any road crew I have
encountered. These guys were working
at a major intersection in a city and
were obviously disgusted with both
their location and the time of day. 1t
was Saturday morning of a long
weekend and these guys had obviously
been asked, to work tomake the road
pakkable f 'wdek�i traffi 1' n
T ed y wife sheltie 'out a lA tion) a I
road and digging up the roadbed in
preparation for a complete resur-
facing, .The roadway had been ex-
cavated and where the old road stopped
and construction started there wasa
drop of about a foot and a half. These
guys were dumping gravel into the
drop to level it off for traffic. ,
I had to wait for someone near the
intersection and out of boredom wat-
ched the men working. They began
pointing to certain areas of the gaping
hole in the road and looking up the
street at traffic as it barrelled down on
them. A few nods- of the foreman's
head, some instructions to the ,man
working the loader and the trap was
being set.
The foreman ordered gravel dumped
at the outer edges. of the hole to Make
the old pavement and new gravel lev 1.
The centre of the hole was left aboua
foot lower. The gap in the road was
about 30 feet long. The men worked
furiously 'foqr rout,half an hour then' began id narefult,Wath
, the tr ffic. liht bthstreet
prevented .thetraffic
from going too
fast when it reached the construction.
But then it happened. The victim
arrived. He had pulled onto the street
from a parking lot in a -brand new
Thunderbird. He had the sunroof open
and was adjusting his radio as he got up
a head of speed to cruise on a lovely
autumn afternoon. He had the green
light and was doing about 70 kmh when
he hit the trap.
The expression on his face was
priceless. The car dove into the trap
hit the other side and came out like a
rocket. The guy must have figured he
had gone over a cliff. His hand came off
the radio looking to stabilize the
steering wheel which was jumping
wildly. As the car came out of the hole
the guy left the comfort of his seat and
banged his head on the edge of the sun
roof.
He was out of the trap and back onto
solid pavement before •the road
workers began'their applau e. Smiling
and banging oil �� ther bi the hadk
like rem iers o ai c .ampionshi ate',
the men"signalled he driver of the'
loader for several more buckets of
gravel. Th1y smoothed over the hole,
packed it down, and still glowing from
their morning's work, waved goodbye
to one another and went home to enjoy
a Thanksgiving weekend.
Jerr-
seddon
P