HomeMy WebLinkAboutGrand Bend Holiday, 1964-07-31, Page 2eitoziais
What the Lake is For
Heat, and more heat.
It's what thousands of Ontario
people spend scads of money on
to get south in the winter.
When if they'd just have a
little patience, here it is.
It has rained you know—but
only to make people scurry off the
beach temporarily. When you
think of it, that's funny too. They
go to the lake to get wet in the
first place.
No?
Well, some do.
Park or Beach Walks
It has been mentioned several
times in village council sessions
that a park—for picnics, for ten-
nis, for family gatherings, etc.
would be an advantage to Grand
Bend people.
Also mentioned and backed
by the directors of the Chamber
of Commerce is a cement or as-
phalt 'sidewalk — from the bath
house to the pier — for walking,
strolling, standing and meander-
ing.
Both of these are being con-
sidered for a centennial project.
Only •one will be chosen.
Total grants available are
$1,424 and to get this the village
must spend $2,001.
The beach walk falls within
this price range. The park does
not.
Is the village prepared to raise
the additional thousands required
to establish a park?
Summer Fading Away
Summer is half over.
This means that half of the
people in Canada and the U.S.A.
have had •their 1964 holidays.
Have you had yours?
Well of course, you lucky
creature, you're right here in
Grand Bend today, or on your way
here. Isn't that lovely?
See you again next year?
Grand Bend will be here —
bigger and better no doubt — with
more places to shop, more good
things to eat, more FUN things to
do.
See you in 1965.
Grand Bend HOLIDAY
published every Friday at
Grand Bend, Ontario
EDITOR and PUBLISHER — WILMA D. DINNIN
Telephone 238-2335
Printed by The Exeter Times -Advocate
London
Trailermart's
Trailer Trading Time
Trading's best in August
Best trade-in Best prices
GENERAL QUALITY
See the Beaver when you're in London.
This tidy little trailer built by General
Coach of Hensall features sensible com-
fort with strong wearing qualities to make
vacations enjoyable. It's not too late to
trade for this vacation. Prices are best
now for next year.
mozuz.37,4r-zomEr,sr„g
• •
London Trailer Mart
Wharncliffe Rd. South
1 on Highway 2, London
by General Coach
Page 2
Grand Bend Holiday, July 31, 1964
Not a mile south of Grand Bend, and only
of quiet beauty is the access road to Pinedale Subdivision.
a Northern Ontario woods.
100 feet from the busy Highway 21 , this scene
It could well be the middle of
(sugar and spice
.&„
Dispensed by Bill Smiley
Occasionally, I think how
pleasant it would be to have
a summer cottage. Just a
cosy little place, on a lake,
where a fellow could get
away from it all, do a little
quiet fishing and thinking. A
spot to go on those long,
lovely fall weekends, as well.
Fortunately, this manifes-
tation of madness is brief.
My well-developed sense of
reality revives,
and I breathe
a little silent thanks that I
have not been hooked.
A summer cottage, thirty
years ago, was a joy to the
heart, a balm to the nerves,
a refuge from relatives, a
source of spiritual rejuvena-
tion.
Today it is almost guaran-
teed as an ulcer -maker, a
ne r v e -wrecker, a spirit -
smasher. It is an albatross
around the neck of its own-
er, who winds up each sea-
son looking and feeling about
as spry as the Ancient Mari-
ner.
First, and perhaps worst,
there is the sheer, shocking
expense of the thing. A man
could keep three mistresses
swathed in mink for what a
cottage costs him.
Thirty years ago, you
bought a lot from a farmer,
who thought you were out of
your mind, for $50. You had
a local carpenter whack up
a cottage for about $400.
For another $35, you picked
up a stove, some beds and a
few other odds and sods of
furniture, at auction sales.
And you were in business.
Today you fork over about
$1500 for a lot, erect a mo-
dest cottage for another
$3500. And you're just begin-
ning. It costs a year's sa-
lary to outfit the pl a c e.
Then there's a well to dig,
plumbing and hydro to in-
stall, and a boat to buy that
is bigger than that of the
guy next door.
In the old days, a man
could keep his family in dig-
nified comfort at the cot-
tage for about ten bucks a
week. That, gentle reader,
is eighty dollars for the
whole summer. They got
their fuel in the bush. They
bought vegetables and milk,
chickens and eggs, from the
local farmer at prices that
make one weep with rage
today. Once a week, the fam-
ily went into town and loaded
up with grub, coal oil for the
lamps, and a round of ice-
cream cones, for about eight
dollars.
In these enlightened
1960's, keeping the family at
the cottage is like watching
blood pour out of an open
wound. There's wood to buy
for the fireplace, and gaso-
line for the boats, and hydro
bills and taxes and repairs
to the plumbing system. And
there's the thr c e -weekly
swoop on the supermarket
and booze outlets, to the tune
of about thirty dollars a
swoop.
But it's not only the finan-
cial aspect that appals me.
It's the communications and
transportation progress that
makes a cottage owner go
around all summer with a
severe facial twitch.
In the good old days, a
man drove his family a hun-
dred miles to the cottage and
left them there until Labour
Day. He didn't see or hear
one of them for eight weeks.
Those were, in de e d, the
golden days.
Nowadays, the poor guy
has had a couple of long-
distance calls telling him
that the toilet is leaking and
the kids all have pink eye
and his wife has run out of
money because she had quite
a repair bill on the Yolks
after backing it into the boat
trailer.
Then he's expected to
drive a hundred miles Friday
night in traffic that would
make a bishop blaspheme.
He arrives just before dark,
to find that the pump has
broken down, the kids have
wracked up the boat, the baby
has drowned but has been re-
vived by artificial despera-
tion, and the next -.door
neighbours, who never know
enough to go home, have been
invited in for a drink.
DRIVE IN
OR
SAIL IN
TO •
MON ETTA
MENARDS
LAKE HURON'S
MOST EXQUISITE
DINING LOUNGE
YOU WILL ENJOY
GRAND BEND
AND
THE PANORAMIC .
SAIL ROOM.
OR GAY
PIRAT'S CAVE
FULLY LICENSED ,
"SEAFOOD IS NOT
OUR SPECIALTY'IT'S
o,OUR VOCATION!"
Zeatetet Eateee,
Fresh Daily
FLEAR'S BAKERY
: Phone 238-2061 MAIN STREET Grand Bend