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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1959-03-12, Page 6RONICLES iPIGE 'FA M rasutoutu i Cletobve One day's difference and this column is out of date. I had it practically written for this week but later events made it seem so out of date I tore it up, I'm telling you, this winter you can't tell in the morning what is like- ly to happen before the day is over. Each twenty-four hour per- iod brings something new in the way of weather, And Saturday was no exception. During the morning we were busy with ordinary work. Then the thermometer started to climb and Partner decided he had bet- ter do a little more work on the ditches — just in case. On and off for the last few days he had been chipping away at the ice so there would be runways for the water if, and when, a thaw should come. We got a thaw all right. The sump -pump worked like road but that didn't stop water seeping in at the foot of the basement wall. A narrow, shallow ditch in the cement floor was supposed to take care of just such an emergency but it wasn't deep enough. So Partner kept sweeping the water along the ditch to prevent it overflows-. ing. After supper it was even warmer so, Partner went out to the ditches again while I car- ried on with the broom -swish- ing downstairs. - And as i f we hadn't enough water to contend witli the toilet took that afternoon to plug up and overflow — for the first time since we came here. Bob hap- pened to be here at the time so he went off to the hardware for a plunger and looked after that little job for us. After the floor was mopped up we resumed operations with the outside flood- ing. Partner and 'I both worked until midnight, at which time I went to bed but Partner stayed up until two o'clock. Then he came to bed as I said I would go down in an hour or two and make sure the water situation wasn't completely out of hand.' But I was so tired I slept until five! By that time Partner was downstairs himself. Fortunately. it had started to freeze again so Rooding was no longer a threat — that is, for the time being. This morning there is more ice than ever — all ready to thaw again once it gets the chance. We will enoy the respite while we can. Of course we were not alone in our troubles. Neighbours here end there were out running ditches, trying to divert water away from their basements. In one house the sump -pump re - Pure Flattery ree . _ l esse. -4444 A superbly shaped sheath—the most elegant way to be noticed by day. at dinner, or on a date. Double-breasted buttoning curves a sieck midriff— hip pockets give long -waisted look. Printed Pattern 4556: Misses' Sizes 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, Size 16 takes 4 yards 30 -inch fabric. Printed directions on each pat - 'tern part. Easier, accurate. Send FIFTY CENTS (50¢) (stem os cannot be accepted, use postal note for safety) for this pattern. Please print plainly SIZE, NAME, ADDRESS, STYLE NUM HER. Send order to ANNE ADAMS, Box I, 123 Eighteenth St, New Toronto, Ont. 1SSllli 10 — 1959 fused to function so the plight of .that family was worse than most. This morning ice waythe main problens. One man driving home Couldn't make the turn into his own driveway, so there he was, straddled across the road on the ice, Art had the same trouble with our driveway last Friday when he and the family came in after shopping — for us as well as themselves. Theyr also brought us a gorgeous bou quet of red carnations .. for our anniversary. But it talree more than bad driving conditions to keep some people away, One evening last week we were surprised — and pleased — to receive a brief visit from two readers of this column. One has recently come to live in the village. The other was visiting. They phoned first to see if we would be home. (We were not likely to be anywhere else — not in a freezing drizzle.) So along they came and we had a very nice little get-together. Earlier in the week I had, as I expected I would, received several requests for more infor- mation about a hearing -aid. Those letters I have answered personally. So that means I am'. in closer touch with a few more' readers of this column. Would you lik etc hear about an experiment I tried the other day that savedus six or seven dollars? My warming -pad spark- ed one morning when I • was. straightening the cord. Was just on the point of phoning the, drugstore to send up a new one when I changed my ' mind. , De- cided first to ,.see if I could discover what was wrong with the old one — probably a short 'circut somewhere. So I took the switch apart, saw the wires were burnt, stripped back ,the • rubber , coating, twisted the fine wires tightly together, wound, them, around the two little screws, put the switch together. And it worked ... just like that! Then I gave my 'sewing - machine the once-over. . It had done a lot of sewing for me late- ly, sounded like a tractor'— and sometimes bucked like one. So I got' out the instruction book, took off the front plate and thoroughly cleaned and oiled the whole works. Now it. purrs like a kitten. As I worked I remem- bered -that as a girl in my 'teens I used to take my mother's sew- ing machine apart in just that same way. And for some reason she was always quite content to let me do it, but would never , touch it herself. I have known women, Daughter among them, have their sewing machine seize up entirely through lint and lack of oil. It pays to find out how to do these things for yourself. And it's fun, too. Mammoth Map Takes Five Years Work will begin soon on, the construction of what will be one of the most wonderful maps ever made, a mammoth map of an area where the foot of man has not yet trodden—the visible surface of the moon. So complicated is this task, that it will take nearly five years to complete. The work will be carried out by experts in the astronomy de- partment at Manchester Uni- versity. The United States Air Force is giving $80,000 to help pay fol' the map's construction. Maps always make news. The history of map -making goes back into the dire ages, There's a definite record of a crude map of the world being brought on to the stage as long ago as 423 B.C., during a performance of the Greek poet Aristophanes' comedy, "The Clouds', Few people realize when con- sulting a map of Britain that the first modern map was begun from the top of St. Paul's Cath- edral, in London, more than 170 years ago. The instrument used by these map -makers had to be hauled up to the dome and is still in existence at the Ordnance Sur- vey Office, Southampton. Way back in 1851, when Britain's first great international exhibition was h e 1 d,map- makers set up an immense globe in Leicester Square, London. It was 30 feet in diameter; Continents and oceans were depicted not on the outside of the globe but on its Inner sur- face. Visitors entered by a door at the South Pole and climbed e circular stairway to the Nortr. Pole. The biggest astronomical map is the giant sky atlas of 1,758 sections completed at Palomar laboratories, in Calieor'nia. Astronomers worked on the project for more than eight years. This unique atlas reveals stars, galaxies a n d systems stretching far out into space and all the sections together cover an area . the size of a tennis court, Q, Is the bride supposed to do the cutting of the wedding cake? A, Only the first piece. Then each guest can cut his own piece, or some friend can be asked to perform this task, BECAUSE IT'S THERE — ?Mountain climber Claude Kogan runs her hand lovingly over Asia at her home in Nice, France. She's getting ready to lead an 1 1 -woman expedition to scale one of the world's most :forbidding peaks — Himalayan Mt. Cho -Oyu, 26,867. .feet high. iHailed as the "highest woman in world," she is only five feet, one inch tall. Is Your. Chiari Safe On,A School. Bus? (Continued From Last Week) As for the actual training, the North 'Carolina' motor' vehicles -branch, which has chalked -up an impressive record for safe school transportation, • suggests a pro-- g -ram including both - classroom work and actual bus driving, If, necessary, the program should. go on for ,as long as 12 weeks, These authorities strongly -adv�- cate that the training program, should be undertaken on a state- wide (or province -wide)' basis !'Training programs left, in the hands of local or ,regional school boards usually don't work," they say. "They usually don't .-realize the need ' for training, they haven't got enough money •tor proper training and finally, they don't have qualified instructors." North Carolina„with 35 full-time ' instructors who do nothing but train and supervise school bus operators, has demonstrated that its program actually .works. • But .no matter how competent and well-trained the driver, -he can't provide safe transportation if his vehicle is .in'poor mechani- cal condition. Unfortunately, many school buses ale of sub- standard quality; ..many - locali= tes lack a regular and systematic program of maintenance and in- spection. In Nova Scotia, which is better than most..provinces. every bus is carefully scrutinized every six weeks. In Ontario, un- der a law that went into effect last summer, every school bus must be inspected by a licensed mechanic at the beginning of each school year. In Alberta ve- hicles are inspected every .six months; in British Columbia, once a year. A Saskatchewan ed- ucator told me, "Only six of our 56 local school units have a reg- ular program of maintenance and inspection.” Mechanical defects have al- ready been responsible for many 'accidents.' In Saskatchewan,a damaged exhaust system in, one vehicle allowed deadly carbon monoxide fumes to escape, sick. ening several young passengers.. The'accident might have claimed several lives, A school bus car- eered off Highway 8, near Hamil- ton and jammed into a tree, in- juring one child; the steering mechanism had jammed,' When I asked safety authorities. across Canada to list defects found in school conveyances, they cited badly worn tires, deteriorated brake linings, smashed head- lights, broken windshield wipers, rusted emergency doors which wouldn't open, and flimsy, make- shift plywood cabooses built on light trucks, Comments C. J Kenway, secretary, Alberta High- way Traffic Board, "Poorly main- tained, makeshift 'vehicles may appear economical but . they're expensive in the long . run in terms of crippled bodies and toss of lives." How can the presence of so many sub -standard vehicles be explained? Many safety .officials, like Fred Ellis of the Ontario Safety League, argue that the "tender system," used in many parts of Canada, is to blame. Many school boards, instead of running their own transportation service, call for tenders from private operators In an effort to save money, school boards some- 1'mes let their contracts not to lee most reliable bidder but to the lowest one. "They hire trans- portation at a price where it's impossible to provide sound ve- hicles and good quality mainten- once," a Saskatchewan educator declares. This is not too difficult to un- derstand. A good school bus costs $12,000 or more, Expert mechan- ics earn high waget and so do good drivers, Since school trans- portation contraicts last for only one year this discourages coo- tractors from making heavy in- vestments. Many competent bus operators have been forced out of business by price -cutting com- petitors, In one prpvince for ex- ample, one operator, after yeas .. of satisfactory service, failed to geta 'renewal of his contract be- cause an inexperienced new- comer had underbid him a few ' cents a mile, Another contractor, Who had driven children to school for over. 10 years with- out a single accident, lost his contract because he was $50 abovethe successful' 'bidder. Obviously, the one-year ten- der system is.in,need cif revision. Safety, rather than price, Should be - the main 'consideration in . granting contracts. And perhaps the contract period should be ex- tended to five years, on condition that the operator continue to pro- vide competent drivers and main-: twin his vehicles in good shape. ' But low -bidding operators, top poor to acquire good"equipplent, and maintain it," are not the only guilty ones,'' W. Arch Bryce ,of • the - Canadian •Highway Safety Conference says, `.'Many rural school boards buy school buses as cheaply as -possible. Some of themare so ramshackle, that par ents shouldn't permit their chil- dren to ride in them," Just as important a safety fac-' tor as ,the mechanical condition of the school bus is ,the behavior of the students as they drive to and fror- their classes. The aver- age family man finds that he , can't drive • properly if 'he's dis- tracted by his two or- three ;chis- - dren squabbling in the back seat of his ear. Imagine, then, the plight of the. bus driver who's harrassed by 50 or 60 noisy, ac- tive children. He's a likely can- didate for an accident. I recently spoke ' to .a safety official who spent a few weeks travelling ,several. school but routes. On most of. the 'trips, the children were • orderly and well- behaved. But he described ,one trip which was different. Under the watchful ,eye of a' teacher, the students waited, quietly for the'bus doors to open. -Once in- side, all hell broke loose. They , fought for their favorite seats. They shouted, • whistled, sang. Caps, gloves, books went sailing through the air. A half dozen students roamed ar'ound, occa- sionally engaging;their friends in •wrestling matces. They ig- nored the driver's pleas to keep quiet, An eight-year-old boy' shoved open the emergency door ' at the rear of the bus and might have gone sailing out onto the highway had not an older stu- dent grabbed him. Not long ago, near North Bay, a driver was forced to stop his bus because he was being blind- ed, by flying objects hurled by his passengers. He refused to'. continue until the horseplay ceased. It is too much to expect that such drivers, subject to this kind of an ordeal, will be cap- able of delivering their passen- gers to their destinations with- out a mishap. There are no sta- tistics available to show how manyschool bus accidents have' been caused by frayed nerves, Yet order and quiet can be. • SALLY'S SALUES "Next time, honey, 1'11 call louder than you for a ,life guard." maintained by a system which Is hardlybeing used in Canada at all. The solution lies in organiz• rag school bus safety patrols, 1» Wisconsin, for e5ample, a We - man safety patrol is assigned to each bus, The petroiment are senior students selected because of their maturity, intelligence and status in student activities One of the patrolmen is station- ed in the front of the bus. He helps the ehildree in, then sees them safely across the highway when they alight, The inside man makes sure that eVery passenger take's his assigned seat and he maintains order while the bus is in motion. A Wisconsin school official wrote me, "The young- sters serving in the safety pe- tl•ois have justified our faith in them. Wehave no dispiplinary problems on our buses." There is still another 'way of promoting school bus safety: traffic legislation, Most provinces have laws: making it 'obligatory for motorists to stop behind a school conveyance when it stops to take on or drop off children New Brunswick has gone a step further; motorists meeting .or overtaking a standing school bus are required to come toa halt, thus allowing the youngsters to cross the highway safely But many authorities, like ,Walter Reynolds, commissioner of high- way safety, Department of Transport, Ontario, are opposed to stopping oncoming traffic "It's over -protecting' the child," he ar,'. gues. -"He might get hurt 'when he has to cross a highway on his own." Another danger is that 'a' motorist_ from another province, _ unfamiliar with local laws, might unwittingly run down an unwary youngster. As a further protective meas- ure, most school buses are paint- ed a bright "school bus" yellow as a caution to the motorist. It has undoubtedly already saved Many lives. It will save even more 'as the public gets -used to 'the color and respects the Drell- . nance to come to a halt behind theschool bus. Unfortunately, the. effectiveness of "school bus" yellow has been watered down for a number of reasons. Com- ' mercial bus companies who use some• of their regular vehicles ,for school transportation for a few hours daily refuse to paint • -them in what they consider a 'garish color. Again, in recent years, thousands of buses and trucks have blossomed forth in a wide variety of bright shades and hues, thus making the yel- low school bus less conspicuous R: P. 'Lawrence; manager of the Alberta Safety League, believes that "we shouldgo to work im- mediately to find ways of mak- ing our school buses even more. distinctive than they are now." Never before have we spent so Bauch on the education of our children. Never before has there been so much discussion about our schools. Millions of words - Are .being written ,and spoken yearly about teachers' salaries and qualifications, curricula con- tent'anct methods of instruction. Courses have been introduced to improve the physical, and mental health of our youngsters. But a satire fundamental problem—how to safely convey 400,000 children to and from their classrooms so they cap enjoy the fruits of our spending and planning—is only now beginning, to ` attract the widespread attention of educa- tors;safety .authorities and par- ents. = By SIDNEY KATZ •in Imperial Oil Review. It never occurs to a boy of 18 that some day he will be as dumb as his father. Modern Etkitrett by Roberta l,ee Q. is it all right to ,use one's( own knife to take butter .frons. the butter dish, or one's own wet coffee spoon to take sugar from the bowl? A, No. If . the serving utensil is missing from either of -these serving dishes, and your hostess hasn't noticed it, be sure to use , a CLEAN knife or spoon, •and' then ask later—when you need that particular: utensil for the next course -to have it replaced, Q. Please suggest a letter 1 might write to a friend who was. kind enough to write to me in my recent bereavement. A, "Dear Margaret, Your sweet letter gave me great comfort. Thank you so much for writing. - I shall call you as soon as I feel able. Lovingly, Susan."' Q. Should the napkin he held above the edge of the table when unfolding it? • A. ' No; the napkin should be unfolded in the lap. Q. When is the title "2nd" used after a man's name? A John Jones, 2nd, is usually the nephew or cousin of a man of the same name. The number can be written either "2nd" or "II; and is used, with the, title "Mr.," as "Mr. John Jones, II" Gift -Worthy Set Delight a friend with an attrac- tive ttractive pineapple and •shell -stitch doily. Two sizes — larger as center- piece, smaller as place roat ar doily. Pattern 877 includes direc- tionsfor 13 and 22 -inch doilies is No. 30 cotton. Send THIRTY-FIVE CENTS (stamps 'cannot be accepted, use postal note for safety) for this pattern to LAURA WHEELER, Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St., New Toronto, Ont. Print plainly PAT- TERN 'NUMBER, your NAME and ADDRESS: Send for a copy of 1959 Laura Wheeler Needlecraft Book. It hat lovely designs toorder: embroi dery, eras -het, knitting, weaving, ,quilting, toys. In the book, a spe- cial surprise to make a little girl happy — a cut-out doll, clothe', to color. Send 25 cents for this book. FIRE'S AFTERMATH Sheet -covered, charred bodies rest en the floor of the Central Fire Station In Ashland, Ky., following d fire which brought death to 11 persons,