HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1978-11-30, Page 21sgkE•s
There revelry
Gis over
for
Cup
another year but the annual classic
provided a good time for thousands
whoflocked to Toronto f- r
o the
festivities and a fairly well played
football game was thrown in on the
side.
The llude to the football game
always produces some interesting
activities and anecdotes, especially
when a group of carefree Westerners
invades an eastern city. It lends a little
colour to the celebration.
During Grey Cup week, two couples
from New York happened to be in
Toronto and could scarcely believe
what was going on. They claimed to
have never witnessed such childish
activity even in The. Big Apple, where
weird tends to become mundane.
Regardless, the bewildered couples
were trying to leave Toronto as soon as
they could and vowed never to return.
I take particular delight in the story
Inside
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Entertainment. Page 6A
Jack Riddell Page 6A
Habouraires Page 9A
Legion offices .. Page 10A
Lions Club Page 11A
Explorers, Messengers Page 14A
Kinsmen ,...:. ° . , ............... Page.17A
Captain Comet Page 18A, 19A
of an ardent 12 yearoldfan who tried
sneaking into the Grey Cup game
Sunday only to be apprehended by
security guards at the last check point.
The discouraged lad tried to find a
vantage point, to catch a few glimpses
of the game, from outside the stadium,
but his attempts were in vain.
Two reporters noticed the plight of
the youngster, and in the usual good
manner inherent in all newspaper folk,
took the youngster to the press box, sat
him down in a window seat, told him
not to say a word and kept him in a
steady supply of hot dogs, popcorn and
colas for the afternoon.
The youngster, delighted, said it was
"simply neat". And nobody in the press
box suspected anything. He could have
been the Moose Jaw correspondent or
something.
Of course all the hoopla off the week
leads to the game itself. And its always
great fun listening too the football an.-
nouncers digging deep into their bag of
rhetoric and adjectival phrases at-
tempting to maketha gamesound like
the biggest thing since the end of WW
II. The way. they carry on the
outcome of the football game was of
utmost importance to national
security.
During the first quarter Edmonton
kicked a field goal to take a 3 - 0 lead
and the broadcasting crew came up
with these incisive comments.
"Well Mike," said Pat Marsden.
"The Eskimos have hit the
scoreboard."
"You're absolutely right," Mike
Wadsworth replied. "And the Alouettes
have yet to register."
"Of course", he added, "I.ts not
unusual for one club to have an early
lead."
But one of the great things about
sports broadcasters today is the .
en-
dles last of statArttcs they' havc at their
disposal and dole out in plentiful heaps
during the genie when their brains
can't function and produce anything
original,
There's Dan Kep.lythe 240 pound, ex -
All American linebacker from Penn
State who wears se 11 cleats and what
a game he's playing. Of course Dan is
one of the Eskimos who is working on
an unbelievable string of 14 games
without taking a shower.
And what a run that was by Jim
Germany, who is one of the few players
to wear his football helmet during the
off season. This year Germany ran for
8.592 yards, caught 1,268 passes and
went to the washroom 23 times. What a
year he is having.
Now Edmonton is leading 17 - 3. What
an exciting Grey Cup match and we're
happy to be bringing it to you. Click.
L
STA'.
YEAR 131-48
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1978
SECOND SECTION
Bob Stephenson is a sweeping success
BY
JOANNE BUCHANAN
It's a dirty job but the
money is clean. That's
what Bob Stephenson of
R.R. 4 Goderich says
about his...ah...er...new
"profession."
Stephenson has been a
chimney sweep part-time
for about a year now and
he says if he's not jet
black when he's finished
a job, some of his
customers are disap-
pointed.
"They don't feel
they've gotten their
money's worth unless I'm
black as the ace of
spades," he laughs.
There is quite an art to
chimney sweeping, says
Stephenson who has
about $3,000 tied up in
special equipment for the
purpose. However, some
people still think they can
clean their own chimneys
either by banging the
inside of it with a logging
chain or by burning it out
once a year.
Both of these methods
are ineffective and can
also damage the chim-
ney, claims Stephenson.
A logging chain chips the
glaze off the flue, the
inside part of the
chimney which the smoke
passes through, and
burning a chimney out
causes the flue glaze to
crack.
DEVELOPS INTEREST
Stephenson, a sort of
"jack-of-all-trades",
recalls several reasons
for, his . i '` erect in the
chimney sw' ep'tradee.
Until he was nine -
years -old, he lined in
Brighton, England.
Chimney sweeps are
somewhat of a tradition
in that country and once a
year, ' one would come
around to the council
estates (or average
working man's district)
where Stephenson lived.
The sweep would tell the
children to go out into the
streets and watch for his
broom popping out the
tops of the chimneys as
he did his work. He didn't
wear a costume but he
was a type of fantasy
hero and all of the
children, including
Stephenson, became very
excited when he paid his
annual visit.
"We'dl'all 'start yelling
excitedly when we" saw a
broom poking out the top
of • a chimney,"
remembers Stephenson.
In 1956, Stephenson
immigrated to Brantford,
Ontario with his family.
The wood furnace at his
parents' home there had
been converted to natural
gas, which leaves little
residue when it burns.
But, the chimney hadn't
been cleaned for years
and as a result, had
become plugged. The
house began to contain a
funny smell and family
members were getting
"terrific headaches".
Health authorities were
called . in and it was
Chimney sweep Bob Stephenson of R.R. 4 Goderich
uses an industrial vacuum cleaner and rods and
brooms to clean out the fireplace chimney at his
renovated log cabin home. A boyhood in England
where chimney sweeps are traditional and later
two mishaps which could have been tragic, led
Stephenson to take on his current profession which
keeps him quite busy. (Photo by Joanne Buchanan)
discovered that because
the chimney was
plugged, the carbon -
monoxide by-product of
natural gas fuel, was
unable to escape. The
family was slowly being
poisoned before the
situation was corrected!
In later years when
Stephenson and his wife
Carole moved from their
home in Clinton to a
renovated log cabin near
Benmiller, another in-
cident occurred which
finally caused -hirn to
investigate the business
of cleaning chimneys.
The Stephensons had
installed a` Quebec heater
stove in thei-r kitchen and
while having a cup of tea
one morning, ' they
noticed the 'wall behind
the stove going up in
flames. Fortunately a
fire extinguisher was at
hand and the fire was put
out before tragedy could
occur.
Upon investigation
later, Stephenson
discovered that the pipes
of the stove were full of
..Soot and had become so
encrusted that they
caused a fire.
About this time, he
read an article in a
magazine about chimney
sweeps. He already knew
first-hand about the
danger of uncleaned
chimneys and stove
pipes. He also knew that
there were no other
chimney sweeps in• the
immediate area. So, he
thought there might be a
potential market here for
one.
He had worked as an
installation man for Bell
Telephone for nine years
up to this point' but
decided if he ,was ever
going to go into business
for -himself, now was the
time to do it, while he was
still young. He was also
concerned that Bell
might transfer him to
another town and he had
already grown to like this
area.
So, he subscribed to
manuals published by the
August West System on
chimney sweeping and
through reading and later
experience, he mastered
the job.
Besides chimney
sweeping, he does sub-
contract,work for Bell
Telephoe and builds
aluminum frames for
Goderich Glass. These
latter two freelance jobs
allow him flexible hours
so he can fit -his chimney'
sweeping appointments
into his schedule and they
also help to supplement
his income.
Stephenson, also a
former mechanic, is
presently fixing a double-
decker English bus which
he had shipped to Halifax
and drove to Ontario. He
has written a story about
his trip in the bus.
He has even been a bee-
keeper and quips he was
the only person then with
20,000 workers and no
labor problems.
MARKET RIPE
among about 25 delegates
from across Ontario to
attend a one -day con-
ference for chimney
sweeps held in London.
These delegates agreed
to form a guild or
organization to keep up
their standards, ex-
change information and
provide public in-
formation. They hope the
guild will become
national eventually.
The trend back to
Turn to page 2A •
Stephenson was right
about the . potential
chimney sweep market
here. After only a small
amount of advertising,
his services were sought
not only by Goderich and
area people but by people
from Exeter, Bluevale
and Wipgham as well.
One woman even
telephoned numerous
persons, including the
mayor, to see how she
could get in touch with
the chimney sweep.
.Chimney sweeps, well-
known figures of the past,
are becoming popular
again today, not only. in
this area but throughout
the country. In Montreal,
says Stephenson, the city
hires chimney sweeps to
clean out chimneys in the
city once a year. And
recently, Stephenson was
No it wasn't Santa Claus silhouetted against the
morning sky. It was chimney sweep Bob
Stephenson Cleaning out his own chimney at R.R.
4 Goderich by lowering a weighted broom down
the flue. Stephenson, who has been cleaning
chimneys part-time for about a year now, says
its a dirty job but the pay is clean. (Photo by
Joanne Buchanan)
I've got a problem for Ma Bell's
advertising department. Ma has all
kinds of advertising that suggests
phones be used on weekends to warm
the cockles of somebody's heart in
Afghanistan. She has all sorts of
special phones that make interior
decorators swoon and she is willing to
save you miles of walking for phone
calls by installing extension phones all
over your house. But she has no special
message to keep very young children
from using the phones for play.
My daughter could use some of that
advertising. She has just graduated
from ,the Fisher-Price phone she pulls
around the house on a string to the real
thing. The other night she carried on a
lengthy conversation with some guy
somewTiere. I don't know how she Made
the call. She pulled a chair up to the
phone, picked it off the hook and
started moving the dial. Whatever she
dialed worked. The only ,thing that
remains is to find out if the call was
local or if she got a hold of that guy in
Afghanistan that needs his heart
warmed.
I knew it was only a matter of time
before she discovered the difference
between her phone and the one on the
wall. Now as far as she's concerned I
can have the Fisher-Price model
because she wants the real one.
I heard her talking on the phone but
figured at the time that she was using
the toy model. It wasn't until her
mother walked in the room we
discovered she wasn't talking to her-
self. What's funny about the whole
thing is that the guy she was talking to
never did find out what the callwas
about. My wife, figuring the child was
just playing, took the receiver off her
and hung it up. Just as she was about to
terminate the call she heard the, guy
yelling for my daughter to get off the
phone. From what I remember
hearing, my daughter, who will be two
in another month., was carrying on a
perfectly normal conversation but
because of her peculiar way of saying
things she was not being understood.
Rather than endure the em-
barrassment of trying to explain to this
guy that he was talking to our child my
wif : simply hung up.
The experience is nothing new in our
house. My oldest girl went through the
same thing. She regularly made calls
to people and never once, until she
called the operator, did we find out who
she called. The night she called the
•
operator was the night I ended her
tele0one privileges. ,
By ,the time she finished the con-
versation with the operator that night
just about every social agency in Huron
County had been alerted. They thought
they had a classic case of child abuse
on their hands. You see my daughter
,,made the dal' while I was out in the'
garage. My wife was at work and it was
about nine o'clock at night.
What the little angel did was tell the
operator Thad gone out and left the kids
home alone. She said her mammy was
at work and that she was afraid to stay
home alone. During the five minutes
that I spent in the garage the operator
was arranging to trace the call and
send the police around to rescue thisi
darling child.
When I came back in the house, I took
the phone and heard the operator
pleading with my daughter to tell her
what her mommy's name was and
where she worked. I said hello and the
operator sharply dismissed me telling
me she had a little girl in trouble and
that the girl had been abandoned by her
father and her mother was at work.
Trying to explain was of no use because
every time I started to speak the
operator told me to hang up the phone'
because she was going to handle this
emergency.
I finally got to speak long enough to
explain the situation and could hear the
operator cancelling the emergency to
several different organizations. It -was
when I hung up the phone that the real
danger of child abuse existed, but 1 just
couldn't keep a straight faee to scold
her.
Jerr-
seddan
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