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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1974-09-05, Page 5THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1974 ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS New York always seems to be a mad rush. The usual wait for luggage and then the line- up to get into the bus. The driver drove like a bat out of hell and seemed to miss every- thing by the narrowest of marg- ins. Took my mind off of this by chatting with the young fellow in the seat next to me. He was an Austrian coaling to the U.S, to improve his Engl- ish. It wasn't too good yet so we carried on the conversation in German. He wondered if all bus drivers drove the same way there, I told him I hoped not. New York was hot, humid and crowded. Couldn't find a place in the station to store my Intern�tion�l Scene (by Raymond Cannon) TRAVELLING - A BITTERSWEET EXPERIENCE Every so often I find that I have to take to the airw&ys and go off to some distant city or cities to conduct a bit of business which I hope will be- come profitable. While I enjoy travelling, I find that it has its hectic moments and I can't entirely agree with those people who tell me how lucky I am when they hear I am off again. To give you some idea of the ups and downs of travell- ing, I'd like to outline my exp- eriences during my last trip to Atlanta and New York. Monday morning got up at 6 a.m. to catch the plane from London to Cleveland. Arrived at Cleveland about 8.30 and hac to wait 40 minutes to clear" customs at the airport. Most passengers on the plane were Americans returning home. There was only one girl check- ing travel documents and so the line moved very slowly. Then we got to the customs officers who seemed to be bent on opening as many pieces of luggage as possible to make sure that nobody was bringing in anything more than the allowance. I didn't fare too badly but they did go through my briefcase, looking under- neath papers, folders etc., and for the life of me I could not figure out what they were looking for. By this time I was so tired of waiting I thought that I would say nothing and just get through the line-up. After a wait of about three- quarters of an hour caught a plane for Atlanta. If left on time and arrived on time but the stewardesses went about their job of feeding us break- fast and other tasks with the same artificial smile and zomb- ie -like movements that seem to characterize all the large airlines these days. At Atlanta waited at least 20 minutes to get my luggage. At least it arrived there. I am always afraid that my piece is going to be the one which gets on the wrong plane. It has happended. Flying once from Amsterdam to Ottawa, I ended up in our capital but my lug- gage went to Rio de Janeiro. Since it was in the middle of winter, I hoped that I might end up in Brazil and my lugg- age in Ottawa but no such luck. At Atlanta I got an express bus to the air terminal on the other side of the city. Enjoy- ed the trip as I had an interest- ing chat with a Southerner from Miami. Was met at the termin- al by a business associate who went out of his way to make my stay pleasant. We discussed various international business LIVESTOCK SHIPPING ro TORONTO UNION STOCK YARDS Dunn and Levack Every Mond A>a Loads Fully Insured CONTACT Campbell McKinley RR !, ZURICH Phone 262-54. ventures in which we both have an interest and I really enjoy- ed hearing his points of view as well as his problems. It makes you realize that every- body has some of the latter, The next day, I was up at 6.30 and off to the airport. Some fast bus service and the same mechanical stewardesses on the plane to New York. I suppose it is hard to keep smiling but I wish at least some of them would try. PAGE5 luggage and was helped out finally by a friendly clerk at the Allegheny Airlines counter who let me leave it there if I promised to come for it by 7 p. m, One of my calls was on a firm which does a lot of busin- ess with communist countries. I got along well with the person with whom I had work- ed before but then the presid- ent of the firm spoiled every- thing shortly after I introduced myself to him by talking down to me and lecturing me on what Canadian banks did and didn't do in the way of handling inter- national trade. Since this is one of my specialities, I felt that this was a case of some- body trying to tell Nixon how to doctor tapes. I walked out of the office in a huff, follow- ed by the apologetic sales man- ager. In fact, he followed me all the way to the elevator, telling me that he would see to it that we worked something out on the deal I came there to discuss. He even phoned me the next day to see if I was still mad. I was but not at him and I'm now waiting to see if he is as good as his word. Another mad dash back to the airport where I tried to get an earlier plane. No luck but was put on a standby basis. A long (continued on page 6) Environment Ontario goes local. /-1, 'Owen Sound SOUTHWESTERN .Sarnia London* Windsor 6 new regional individucil co �.rn In a province the size of ours, it can take two days just to drive from one end to the other. It's that big, it's that spread out. And looking after the environment for such a vast area is one of the most complex tasks that the Ontario Government has. For years, we've been working from Toronto, working at long dis- tances from many of you. That's all changed now. The Min- istry of the Environment has come to you. Environmental matters are now being looked after in six Regional Offices through- out the province. There are also 23 district offices to help keep a loser eye on environ- mental services—air, land and water. Each region has a Director, someone whose only job is to care for the environmental needs of that specific "piece" of Ontario. The Regional Office for Southwestern Ontario, which encom- Doug Mctovish se passes the counties of Grey, Bruce, Huron, Perth, Oxford, Middlesex, Elgin, Lambton, Kent and Essex is in London. The Director in charge is Mr. D. A McTavish. District offices are already established in Owen Sound, Sarnia and Windsor. Doug McTavish is a profes- sional engineer who has had many years experience working in environmental management. He's familiarizing himself with the environmental needs of • the Southwestern Region—as part of Ontario's new policy to place environmental control closer to the source. The New Ontario Ministry of the Envi , n . dent Ontario Minister, The Hon, William G. Newman Deputy Minister, Everett Biggs Regional Office, 985 Adelaide Street S. London, Ontario Tel. (519) 681-3600 District offices, Owen Sound, Sarnia, Windsor.