HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1950-08-03, Page 131II01011iiI911110110 1!1111111' 111/11/11 u!1191!II Ii311!ullll01111llll 101011119111 HI!!!lIlulllulll'
THURSDAY,, AUGUST 3, 1950
CLINTON N
WS=RECORD -, OLD BOYS' SOUVENIR EDITION'
PACE ELEVE
Do :You Remember When?
"It's Later Than You
Think!"
The author of this ` and
other special articles in this
issue, is a native Clintontan
who, for the past 23 years,
has been teacher in an On-
tario Government school ear
in Northern Ontario, based at,
Capreol, and has spent his
summers at the old family
residence in Clinton. He has
made quite a name for him-
self as a writer of short
stories.
(By. FRED S OMAN)
There's a man in Lethbridge and
another in Akron, and there's me
and this year we are going home
to Clinton. There's a whole lot
other men and women too scat-
tered from one sea shore in
Canada to another seashore and
a hundred of us are going home.
Last year for our two weeks
with pay, we went a thousand
miles in the new Dodge or the
1945 Chev. or the 1936 Ford and
we brought back an Indian
arrowhead made of plastic and
an abalone shell and a hundred
picture postcards that have since
been put in the attic until next
house-cleaning time. We saw
great sights.
This years in our two weeks
with pay, I suppose I ought to
go In Chicago where a great
convention of delegates is dis-
cussing ways and means to save
the rising generation and . check
the growing juvenile delinquency,
or perhaps go to Muskoka where
delegates from many countries
are having a round -table confer -
The Author
FRED SLOMAN'
ence about atomic bombs. But
I'm tired and I'm homesick and
I'm going home.
In Clinton the town -fathers
are putting up colored lamps and
bright streamers that say "Wel-
come" and the merchants are
painting the store fronts and o*
the other streets maybe Tom
Cottle and John Cuninghame will
be hoping their gladioli and
their aster! will be at their best
and the lady that lives between
Np. III '1010011111 00001111011100100110110110101111010111011 11 10 119E0 IIIIIl111uu11111illlllp' '',I
El
Told b�Fred Sloma�i
Hodgens Store and Jackson's
factory will, have morning glor-
ies of
lor-iesof a color they call "heavenly
blue".
Why We Left Home
We came from Clinton
Several hundred or several thous-
and of us. Because our fathers
had too many sons and daugh-
ters in other days there wasn't
room for us all in the Doherty
Organ Factory and the Case
Evaporator and the farms of Stan-
ley and Huilett and the..Wearwell
Hosiery. Some had to becrowd-
ed out and they became mayors
of towns near the • Rocllties and
Managers of Aluminum Plants in
Quebec and merchants in 'Mani-
toba.
Mani-toba. We live in better towns
than Clinton ... better just be-
cause they are the towns that
show the work of our hands , .
towns where it was our turn to
dig'the sewers and make a Com-
munity Perk, and set up the
hydro poles and make ivy to
grow on wails of new churches.
Clinton was made by our fathers
and it is the, town where we
were kids.
Half a hundred .years have
passed. it is quite late and that's
why we' are going home for an
Old Home Week. We don't want
to fee jet planes nor atomic pow-
er plants nor blue prints for, d
new social system. We are home-
sick.
Shoeing Horses
I just want to stand again in
front of Jim Flynn's blacksmith
shop with Laura MacDonald and
she would wince as the man put
the . red-hot iron on the horse's
foot and I would assure her that
it didn't hurt the horse at all,
any more than it hurt a person
to get their finger nails cut when
they got too' long. That was the
day I gave Laura a ring with a
ruby in it. It was one I got in.
a Long -Tom bag of popcorn at
11/Ledennan's store and I promised
her I would be a blacksmith
I,
The Old Flour Mill
The old Flour Mill on the east •side of Albert St., at the
foot of Vinegar Hill,certainly was one of the landmarks of
the town which is missing at this Reunion, The original mill
was built by Thomas Rance who come/to Clinton .about 1852.
At that time this was the first mill in the neighborhood, the
nearest ones being located at Egmondville, Bell's (boundary of
Tuckersmith on the London Road), and Goderich. Later it,
was known as Fair's'Mill, being opertaed by James and Norman
Fair. The mill was operated from 1912-193.8 by John Schoenhals
who retired at that time on account of a serious heart condition,
Sbme time later, a good part of the mill was torn down and
since them has been used as a garage. Stewart Moodie is, the
p{esent lessee, having followed .T. P. Manning.
whep I grew' up and I was very
glad '
Idaybe when I am in town I
sbalil meet face to face with some
members of the Dead -eye Dick
Club and it will be my pleasure
to pass them by without speak-
ing, for I . have never forgiven
them for blackballing me when.
I wanted to get into their ex-
clusive.Club. They tried to make
I ' !!11111' 111!111111 !! 1111 • I IIl11111111uu111II!IIIIIIIIu1U!!I IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Il , I 01111111011 1110110011 1111111III!!all!!1!!1111!llll Ilfihl!11111111111! III
Hearty Greetings
.om
intoe Public Utilities
Commissioners and Staff
Neivak
•
ABOVE—Left to right—Cameron Proctor, bookkeeper; Royce Fremlin, lineman; Thomas O'Connell,
meter reader; Jabez Rands, assistant superintendent; Miss Shirley Baw,den, cashier; Hugh R.
Hawkins, chairman Public Utilities Commission; A. E. Rumbali, superintendent; Mayor R. •
Y. Hattin, Commissioner (ex -officio); William Cochrane, caretaker; Frank Mutch, book-
keeper; absent -W. E. Perdue, Commissioner.
WATERWORKS
1910—Artesian well system installed with pump house
and two wells; thefirst in thispart of Western
Ontario with capacity of 90 gallonsper minute.
Customers numbered 159.
1917—Third well drilled, increasing capacity to 140
gallons' per minute.
1932—New pump increases capacity to 175 gallons
per minute.
1941—Latest well drilled to depth of 365 feet, with
capacity of 500 gallons per minute.
. 1950—Average doily production at present time is
close to 250,000 gallons per day 1July 29-280,-
000 gallons). Plans under way to drill addi-
tional well through ' increased demand from
RCAF Station.'
HYDRO•.
1914—First turned on, in Clinton with 175 customers.
1923—Present office' building purchased.
1950—Customers now total 921, anincrease of more
than 426%.
SEWERAGE
May
943—Model sewerage system and sewage disposal
plant opened. The latter is considered the most
modern in Ontario.
1950—The system is operated' entirely by the Com-
mission for the Town of Clinton and the former
collects "sewerage rental" on the basis of.
Water rates.
"Come To Clinton And Have A Good ' Time!"
amends on the next Saturday
but even yet I have a sneaking
suspicion it was because I was
the only one that had a fielder's
mitt .. a good mitt that Stuart
Jackson gave me and it mended
up into fair shape. A couple of
that exclusive Dead -eye Dick
Club, remained in France, at
Vimy and at Arras.
Telephone Hum
I'd like to stand again with
Kathleen Blackhall and hear the
telephone pole hum in front of
Bert Kerr's house. It was magic
and so wonderful that we did
not hear the school bell ring so
that Jumbo Lough licked me and
told her never to do it again.
I don't know if she did or not.
There's no harm in listening to
a pole hum. I, listened to one a
few weeks ago when I got an
invitation from the Old Home
Committee but there is no magic
in the poles up here in the, bush
there is just hum,
The Baseball Team
I want' to go home and yell my
head off cheering for the home,
team that maybe will be playing
Goderich or Listowel or Exeter.
It is not possible there will be
a pitcher . the present gen-
eration are decadent . as good
as our mighty Dick Tasker in
the days when we beat Seaforth
and would have beaten Wing -
ham, except that those dirty
crooks from that town played a
fielder who . was Professional.
Always in those days if we got
beaten in hockey or lacrosse or
baseball it was because the Other
team used a player, that was
Professional. I have that on the
authority of; "Cap"Cook, who was
then age fourteen and I was ten.
I wonder will Fred Match be.
around playing a hag -pipe
and with three small kids beat-
ing a drum or playing a doodle -
sack as big as themselves , a
father's face beaming with pride.
I wonder what his kids amounted
to with the years,
Those Landmarks
And if filty consecutive town
councils have not removed the
landmarks, I will stand again
at the exgct spot by the Steph-
enson Electric Light plant where
Bert Fremlin stole my brood
agate by authority of some rule
called "fobbling" that he invent-
ed himself . . he and Tom Lep-
pington ... and in every book
of rules I' have read since there
is no "fobbling" rule mentioned
in the games of marbles. That
blood agate was one I traded
with Pic Levy and it cost me,
forty-two common marbles and
five colored ones. I haven't had
any luck since that blood -agate
was stolen. I'll meet Fremlin and
Leppington and maybe I can lick
them now for it could be that
their arthritis is even worse than
to ne. I told them then that my
dad could lick their dads and
now if I can't do it myself I'll
set my grandson ,on their grand-
scn.' for the sins of the fathers
she,,ld' be visited,
FArst Boyish Bob
And is there a Jean McTaggart
still in the world? She went
away to school or someplace and.
came back with the fimt 'boyish-
bob, that we ever saw.,,' '•:ome
girl=, said it looked awful and
some older folks said it was
downright wicked but, gee, she
looked swell! Next I heard of
her she was a grown woman who
picked up my kid brother when
he came from a war and whisked
him in her big black car to the
house where he was born. Should
I 'see her again, I'd look first for
the boyish bob, Tillie Perrin
told me that the Bible said girls
shouldn't cut their hair, so I'm
interested to know what became
of Jean. ' She looked swell. I
even tactlessly suggested that my
girl cut her hair and did I get
hell! One learns about women
by bitter experience.
A. Bitter Experience
Now that I am older T am in-
clined to the opinion that Teddy
Phillips never should have
brought out that• silver pistol to
show us when he was visiting
with May Bentley or with Ernie
Rumbell. It looked as if it would
shoot a .22 shell so Wilbur John-
son ran home and got one. The
gun did not go off when we
pulled the trigger so five of us
crowded round and hit the ham-
mer with a stone to loosen the
shell before May Bentley knew
we had ruined it. Then it did
go off. I do not know which
end of the gun the bullet came
out of, but there was a bang
and Willie Webb's cap fell off
and there was a hole in' the eap.
Combe's Fire
Combe's Drug Store was gut-
ted by fire some time since. Next
day at school we traded red pills
for white pills and for pink pills
and for brown pills. It was Dean
Courtice who reasoned with some
logic that pills were made to
make people well so they couldn't
do any harm to people who were
not sick. Some tasted awful and
some not so bad, but the nicest
(Continued on Page 12)
X_.
if
;1;
:
+i+
Fe -
as
Z i<
•
Sherlock -Manning Pianos Ltd.
Extend
Sincere Greetings
to the
Id ' os and Girls
of
Clinton
May you have a joyous visit
and a
Happy Revival of Pleasant Memories
Yon will notice many changes in the old town, and meet
many new friends who are loyally carrying on the
happy and friendly tradition so long established
in Clinton.
Style LOUIS XV
An invitation is extended to those who would like to i•isit our Factory
to call Tuesday afternoon, August 8th, when you
will be made welcome.
See our display in Beattie -McRoberts Furniture Window
Sherlock -Manning Pianos Ltd.
East St.
s� met»,N a
E. 711 ii 111121111 !'!b, I' l IJP 11111INKII 11u(IIlI1II ,m91111111 . n1PHI( 1111111 III- t),44+4,4,444,44.4:0:,
"Makers of Fine Pianos since 1900"
464,45141', 44144
C9-44.04...70144.* F+4 i;, �«F i•q«N442,i+»i
Clinton
•
4 41
144
5.
3
*et
+F$
'4+