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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2007-07-18, Page 5Wednesday, July 18, 2007 Times—Advocate 5 Opinion Forum News I OYEARS AGO July 23, 1997 - Only four months into production, Suntastic Hothouse Inc. is dou- bling its size. A new 10 acre greenhouse is under construc- tion at the Usborne township site, east of Exeter. Veri Trucking driver Mike Millian was the second person to steer a commercial vehicle over the new Bluewater bridge span at Sarnia -Port Huron, yesterday. 20 YEARS AGO July 22, 1987 - At the annual fishing derby held Saturday at the Parkhill Conservation area a total of 25 large mouth bass were caught. They were transferred to Morrison Dam. John Schwindt of the sponsoring Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority said the bass caught were fewer than expected, but larger. Of the 50 carp caught, the largest measured only 20 inch- es. Exeter's BIA chairman Karen Pfaff has been appointed a director of Region 2 of the Ontario Business Improvement Association. More than 250 area farmers attended last week's Huron County Soil Conservation Day at the farm of Jack and Norma McGregor, near Clinton. 40YEARS AGO July 21, 1967 - Three teachers with more than 10 years service each at J.A.D. McCurdy School were honoured by Huron Park council. Huron Park mayor Squadron Leader John Woodrow presented mementos to Donelda Adams, Gregory Mask and John McCarroll. Hon. W.A. Stewart announced yesterday that a new school of agriculture and home economics would begin operation this fall at the former R.C.A.F. station at Centralia. The principal will be James MacDonald, formerly associate director at the Western Ontario School at Ridgetown. Hensall centenarian Duncan Stewart cut the ribbon to officially open the new picnic pavilion at Hensall, Saturday. SO YEARS AGO July 21, 1957 - Induction services for Rev. Hugh C. Wilson were held Thursday evening at the Thames Road United Church. Swimming classes in Lake Huron are expect- ed to feature this year's summer playground at Hensall. Officials are planning to take children to St. Joseph every Friday afternoon during the five week program. Construction of a new commercial building which will house two retail stores has begun by Exeter jeweller Jack Smith. It's located between McMillan's Stationery and Fairbairn's egg grad- ing station. 55 YEARS AGO July 22, 1952 - To meet the growing banking needs of the Grand Bend area, the Bank of Montreal opened an office in the village this week. E.R. Russell is remodeling the front of his store. A new entrance has been made and the exterior is undergoing a face lifting. James McEwen of Hensall was awarded the top prize in the Exeter Agriculture Society's field crop competition in Malcolm barley. 60 YEARS AGO July 15, 1947 - Myrtle Reeder in training at Woodstock Hospital received her cap this week. 65 YEARS AGO July 20, 1942 - It is now unlawful to throw away any collapsible tubes. Old tooth paste tubes should be turned in to any drug store. Exeter Chapter 222 OES have opened their rooms on Main street every evening for the use of air force women at R.C.A.F. Centralia. The International Plowing Match has been postponed in an effort to save gasoline, tires and manual labour. 90YEARS AGO July 19, 1917 - Successful in entrance exami- nations at Exeter Public School were Laura Amy, Alvin Andrew, Beverley Aicheson, Dorothy Balkwill, John Betts, Josephine Davis, Harold Dignan, Viola Hodgert, Greba Hedden, George Hind, Georgina Hatter, Mabel Johns, Marguerite Kuntz, Willia Lawson, James Morley, Earl Russell, Perla Sanders, Florence Vincent, Holdred Horton and Verna Walker. ROSS HAUGH BACK IN TIME Seniors' Perspective By Jim Bearss SENIORS' CORRESPONDENT "God Himself does not propose to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you?" Probus Meeting on July 18 at Exeter United Church, starting at 10 a.m. sharp. Legion Upcoming Events Legion Fund Raiser! Royal Canadian Legion RE Pooley Branch #167, Exeter ON is sponsor- ing a Fundraiser Golf Tournament (Texas Scramble) and a Chicken BBQ on Sat., Aug. 25. The location is the Exeter Golf Club. Registration is at 12 Noon and shot gun starts at 1 p.m. Prizes for all golfers and entertain- ment. This event will help raise money for roof Jim Be and furnace requirements for the Legion. For more information contact: 235-2322, 235-2962, 235- 6213 and 235-2309. Entry is $40 and BBQ only is $15. Fish Fry on Sun., Sept. 16 upstairs at the Legion and entertainment by Li'l Audrey. Advanced tickets $12 or at the door $14. Contact: 235-1167 or Legion 235-2962. Steak BBQ on Sun., Oct. 14. Music by Ben Shane and Bobby K. Advance tickets are $10 or at the door $12. Contact: 235-1167 or Legion 235-2962. What is happening in Grand Bend? July 17 "Magic Mystery Adventure" Grand Bend Youth Centre July 17-19 .Learn about magic with a real magi- cian! Wednesday "travel" to exotic locations like Hawaii. Call 238-1155 July 17 "Port Franks Garden Club Campfire Meeting" to be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Port Franks Community Centre July 24 "Port Franks Senior EUCHRE-A-RAMA" Port Franks Community Centre at 10 a.m. sharp. (Coffee will be served at 9 a.m.) Cost is $5 per person and includes lunch. Call 243-3844 for details July 26 "Diabetes Support Group" Meet at Grand Bend Area CHC, 69 Main St East. 11 a.m. in the Adult Day wing. Please bring a healthy dish to share at our pot luck lunch. Call Aileen 238-1556 ext 4 for details. New partnership aimed at reducing use of plastic bags... The more things change, the more they stay the same. As the joke goes, take the handy, cheap plastic grocery bag -please! It is clogging up our landfill sites at a horrific rate. Add a fourth "R" to the environmental big three — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - and Replace the darned thing with a good old fashioned tote bag. Not so long ago, people brought their own tote bags when they went shopping. Then the convenience of paper bags arrived. They were marvelous — no more need to plan a shopping trip as if it were a military cam- paign, with check lists and equipment. In all honesty, we were not sorry to bid farewell to the old cloth tote bag. We were now free to just pop in a store on the way home from work to pick up a couple of TV dinners like other urban moderns. Besides, the brown paper came in handy to wrap parcels, line cake pans and start a fire. The paper bags gave way to plastic. They may not have held as much as the paper bags but they were cheap, had handles and were in no danger of disintegrating if they got wet. That certainly proved to be a mixed bless- ing. Oh. They had many uses, such as picking up after `Fido' on his morning walk around the block, or holding kitchen refuse. Cute little bag holders began to appear at church craft sales, but most of us accumulated enough bags in a week to last months. And they just kept com- ing. If you bought a single candy bar or a package of gum, the thing would be handed to you in a plastic bag. A trip to the grocery store could generate 10 or 15 of them. In recent years, the amount of waste going into our landfills has become a major concern. And those ubiqui- tous plastic bags keep coming like there is no tomorrow. One important thing we have discovered is all garbage is not created equal. Some of it, like food and garden debris, breaks down more quickly and harmlessly. That stuff goes into the back yard composter. Some of it, like aluminum cans and other common metals, can be melt- ed down and reused. That goes into the blue box. And then there are plastic bags virtually indestructible. Someone once said that should man succeed in destroy- ing himself and other creatures on this planet, this world will be inherited by the lowly cockroach. If so, the thing will be living in a plastic bag. In the wake of recent efforts in some communities to ban plastic bags, the Ontario government has partnered with industry to reduce the use of plastic bags by 50 per cent in five years. This might be accomplished through a carrot -stick approach — perhaps a combination of charg- ing money up front for bags (instead of concealing it in general overhead), or offering a discount for shoppers who bring their own. Public education will surely be a component of the pro- gram. Picture an urban modern in designer golf shirt and nicely pressed jeans, herding two similarly dressed children into a store, all three happily carrying organic cotton tote bags and commenting on how it feels to help the earth. Reality check time — the adult in the picture is more likely to be standing there with a dazed expression, won- dering how to get 25 tins of cat food out of the SUV with- out a grocery bag because there is no way he or she will pay an extra ten cents or so for one. But he or she will learn and so will the rest of us. Before we know it, we will be planning our shop- ping trips so we are sure to have our tote bags with us when we need them. We will take a page out of grandma's book and always have some sort of string bag or fold -up tote with us for spur-of-the- moment purchases. And we will be asking some serious questions about other forms of unneces- sary packaging. Bravo to the provincial govern- ment and industry for taking this sensitive, environ- mentally friendly step into the future. A good idea... It's certainly easier to rush down to the air conditioned supermarket to buy your food. However, shopping at farmer's markets or buying direct has its own rewards. Eating food produced locally is fresher, tastes better and is a lot easier on the environment since it doesn't have to be shipped here from the USA, Mexico or Central America. Perhaps the most important reason to buy locally is for quality. Canada imports food from China, for example there seems to be few standards regarding pesticides, labeling, and inspection. A number of dogs and cats died earlier this year from eating tainted food additives from China. Historians and geographers will tell you that if a coun- try is to remain independent, it should be able to feed itself. The best way to keep Canada's food supply in good hands is to buy locally. You can buy: locally -grown pro- duce; meat from locally -raised cattle, hogs and sheep. to mention a few; cheese; honey; beer. The list is endless. And if you eat out look for a restaurant, ask if the food is bought locally. Look around and buy locally. It's good for the farmers, the local economy and, especially your health. Planting Tomatoes!!! An Old Italian man lived alone in the country. It was early spring and he wanted to dig his tomato garden, but it was very hard work as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament. Dear Vincent, I am feeling pretty badly because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me. Love, Dad A few days later he received a letter from his son. Dear Dad, Don't dig up that garden. That's where I buried the bodies. Love, Vinnie At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son. Dear Dad, Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances. Love you, Vinnie. Last will and testament of a farmer; "I LEAVE": To my wife: My overdraft at the bank. Maybe she can explain it. To my son: Equity on my car. Now he will have to go to work to meet the payments. To my banker: My soul. He has the mortgage on it any- way. To my neighbour: My clown suit. He will need it if he continues to farm as he has in the past. To the Farm Credit Corporation: My unpaid bills. They took some real chances on me. I want to do something for them. To the junk man: All my machinery. He's had his eyes on it for years. To my undertaker: A special request. I want six imple- ment dealers and six fertilizer dealers for pallbearers. They are used to carrying me. To the weatherman: Rain, hail and snow for the funer- al please. No sense in having good weather now. To the grave digger: Don't bother. The hole I'm in now should be big enough. And lastly; to the monument maker: Set up a jig for the epitaph. "Here lies a farmer who has now properly assumed all of his obligations." Contributed by Bill Tinny arss