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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1984-06-13, Page 2•I he communities and areas of Dublin, Hensall and Walton 'I'NIS ORIGINAL UO('U"II'.N1' lLI4 �'1'titi' 1'l)OB (t7'v'D N Huron xpositor SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1984 — 20 PAGES 50c a copy od memories at reunion 0 were expected, over 150 pcupic auenued the Seaforth District High School Girls' Trumpet Band Reunion at the high school on Sunday afternoon to reminisce and hear the, present band play. For the first reunion in 10 years, over 400 invitations were sent out to band members from 1968 to 1984 and many who attended brought their families for the tatoo and the dinner, Old uniforms and instruments were for sale as mementos. "The reunion was good but there wasn't a great turn -out." says Marilyn Beuermann, who played the baritone from 1975 until 1979. "There were only a few of the girls 1 went to school with there but they hadn't changed•that much • 1 knew them." Mrs. Beuermann says she attended to see who would be there and to share her good memories of her days in the band. During that time, the band played at many fall fairs and for the International Ploughing Match. She was also a member when the band travelled to Fort Myers, Florida in 1978. "Going to Florida and playing for the president (President Ford) is my best memory," she says. Donna Arts, a flag -bearer from 1973 to '78. was also disappointed with the crowd but says she had fun at the reunion. "1 was hoping to meet up with some old classmates. it was fun finding myself in the old pictures," she says. "1 really enjoyed being in the band. We were the first bunch to go to Fort Myers and I carried the Canadian flag. When we came into the stadium, we got a standing ovation and that really made me proud." Mrs. Arts says she didn't feel too nostalgic but she has kept a few newspaper clippings from her days in the band. She says that marching with the band wasn't too hard except on really hot or really cold days. "If it was a scorching hot day, it could be exhausting. A few fainted on hot days and had to be taken out and given water. On a frosty day, it was hard too. Sometimes, we just froze our legs off." GOOD MEMORIES George Hildebrand, the band's leader from 1957 until 1978, says he has' so many good memories of his days with the band that he could talk for hours about them. "They've done so much in 21 years that 1 couldn't say one memory was better than the rest. When we played for President Ford and 13,000 other people in Fort Myers. we got a standing ovation; we were the first Canadian marching band to play in that parade. And, when we played in P'rankenmuth, there were so many people there that you didn't think you could get through the crowd for the 31/4 mile parade," he says. Mr. Hildebrand says he had little trouble remembering any of the members at the reunion once they came up and started talking to him. "You can't forget those characters. 1 knew each one by what she had to say. One girl came up and gave my tie a yank and as soon as she did that, 1 knew who she was." One of the highlights of the reunion for Mr. Hildebrand was when a group of "oldies" got up and started to play just before dinner, "One hadn't played for 18 years, another for 15 years and they called themselves the marching mothers. But. you don't forget that stuff. Your timing's off for the first 10 or 15 minutes but the next thing you know, you're right back into it." During the years as band leader, Mr. Hildebrand says he couldn't distinguish one band from another. "They were all great girls. They all did the job they were supposed to do and they did it without beefing. 1'd take any of my girls back to form a band tomorrow,' Schools to remain open Three Huron County public schools under 10 years ago, but said it should never have review for the past five months will remain been opened. open.?" He suggested the students' from Vanastra The Huron County Board of Education could be accommodated at Huron Centennial voted to keep the schools open in a 9 to 4 Public School in Ilruu'`yfield. He also said he recorded vote with two abstentions and one shares the concern of the Vanastra residents trustee absent at its June 4 meeting. iod if the school under review had been. The three schools, J.A.D. McCurdy in Blyth Public School (Mr. Elliott's area). he Huron Park. Hensall Public Sohool in would have fought .as hard. Hensall and Vanastra Public School in However, the trustee for the Vanastra Vanastra, have been extensively reviewed area, Frank Falconer, said if Mr. Elliott had since January by separate committees made visited Vanastra Public School' as much as he up of ratepayers and trustees. These has, "no one would say it should be closed". committees made presentations to til 'ward i "If you close Vanastra, you're not meeting at the June meeting. l . e needs of the children to the best ability of There wasn't much discussion op`,' jthertiis board," said Mr. Falconer. the McCurdy. or Hensall schools, as the He then read a letter written from CanBay trustees focused on the situation at Financial Corporation of Bayfield to Tucker- Vanastra. smith Township Council. In essence the Vanastra is an unusual situation, as the • corporation has purchased the former school facility used to hoose the 93 o'sildremssitdlecommunications school or red brick is rented from Conestoga College rather building in Vanastra with preliminary plans than owned by the school board. to place a company in the building which Trustee John Elliott said he had not seen would employ up to 60 people. any figures from the Vanastra presentation "These developments were presented, that firmly show him that enrolment at the based on the excellent recreational facilities school will increase He admitted he was on in your village and the accessibility of the the school board when Vanastra was opened public school." states the letter signed by an A. Wolsenholme on behalf of the financial corporation. We would appreciate your taking steps to inform the school board of these new developments in order that the school is not lost. You may be assured that these developments will proceed, placing a much greater demand on the village school." Some trustees still questioned going ahead and approving the recommendations dile three committees without further time t+y,, consider. the recommendations and e co' nts from administration. y Mc -Quail defended support - in a filo which called for leaving the UI sch tj opened. He added that the ba `rd may, ve to decide to spend money on tli ;''smote school, but concluded, "the education efits outweigh the economic t[i' o -hit q l.R"som0 talk of the role to be played by the Ministry of Education. Trustee Murray Mulvey said the board couldn't make a decision on Vanastra until it knew whether or not the ministry would help SCHOOLS/ ON PAGE THREE , SiGN ME UPi—That's what 13 -month-old Adam Muter ademed to be thinking when he got hia hands on a drumstick and a tenor drum at the SDHS Girls Trumpet Band reunion at the high school on Sunday. He was there with his mom, Corl Miller. (Hundertmark photo) May storm means work for steeplejack When he first climbed a church steeple in Listowel, Carl Vincent of RR 2, Grand Bend said he cried like a baby. He was 15. But this week, as he and Jim Desnoyers repair the slate roof at the Northside United Church, Seaforth, it's just another day at work, The steeplejacks have been busy repairing slate roofs since the violent wind storm in May And because of that storm. about 150 slate on the church roof need replacing. There are about 25 slate roofs in the area that need repairs. "There's some 1 haven't even got to yet," says Mr. Vincent. We have enough work to last us all summer." Though there are few state roofs. the ones that are around have been on houses, churches and buildings since they were constructed. And most still have the original slate red -dating back 75 years or mare. "The roof on Sill's Hardware has been there far 130 years. The roof on Northside United Church is as old as the building. And it'll be there long after I'm gone." in the business for 35 years. Mr. Vincent learned his trade from his father and uncle. But besides replacing slate, he also paints church towers, steeples, and water towers. And he doesn't use scaffolding. Steeplejacks use a special chair to scale steeples and when working on roof tops. use ropes. cables and ladders. When he painted the steeple on the Mount Carmel church. Mr. Vincent said it was about 70 feet above the ridge of the roof. From the ground to the top of the steeple. the height is a dizzying 165 feet. He remembers the time he was painting the cross on another steeple. "It was rotten. i was hanging on with one hand and had my safety belt on. 1 was just going to paint the arrn of the cross when a bird flew out. right past my face. We put a new cross on when we found it was in such poor shape." But the highest structure he s ever worked on was a 225 foot smoke stack at Imperial Oil in Sarnia. The stack was 18 feet across. Mr. Vincent's job was to tear it down. Heights don't bother the Grand Bend steeplejack. "There would be no problem ping up the CN Tower, just as long as there s something to hang onto. There's always a way to get up. Alljobs are challenging. And climbing a roof is different than climbing water tanks and steeples. , Jim Desnoyers has worked with Mr. Vincent for three years. The first time he went on a roof, "1 wasn't too keen on it." "Burt when 1 learned to stand and walk properly on a slate roof. it wasn't too bad. The WINNING THROW—Tammy Nash of St. James School puts everything In her throw to win first In the softball throw. Students participated in their annual track and field East week. (VVesslnk photo) view is nice, especially in Seaforth with all the trees. Carl told me tt isn't the fall that's bad. it's the sudden stop. And that maybe scared me even more." Mr. Vincent has fallen twice • • once from a church tower in Moose Jaw and the second time from the roof of a two storey house. He fell 25 feet fro t the tower onto the church roof. The lrouse roof was about 28 feet from the ground. "I never broke any bones, just tore the ligaments in my legs. The last time 1 fell was in 1951. i got a little smarter --i learn from my mistakes. You have to know what you're doing. You can never be too careful.' Buildings with slate roofs are becoming few because people don't know who to call to repair the slate. There are only three steeplejacks in the area. Including Mr. Vincent. there's one in Bright and another in Stratford. And they're all related through marriage. more expensive than asphalt roofing. but it also lasts longer. Buildings constructed today probably couldn't support such a roof. Each slate on the United Church weigh about a quarter of a pound. But some slate weigh as much as one pound. "You need a structure that can hold the weight. And they're not building churches like that anymore. The sheeting is usually a full inch thick." "The slate is made in Pennsylvania. They're heavy enough when you carry a bundle up a roof. 1 also use used slate. Mr. Vincent hopes to continue his line of work, as long as he can climb. "There's no roof that's too steep. We'll limb anything." "it's a seasonal job. Once the snow flies, you're beat." Women must tackle issues in the 1980's Economic issues such as affirmative action, daycare, and equal pay for wart of equal valve will be the most important issues for women to tackle in the 19801s, Dr. Cynthia Miller, a prafessat at the University of Western Ontario, told about 30 women in Clinton last Tuesday at the annual meeting of Women Today of Huron County. „Women continue tp make only 60 per cent of the male dollar, over 'A of elderly women live under the poverty level and most single mothers are poor while single fathers aren't. Until women achieve full economic equality. they will never have equality in anything else," she said. Equal pay far work of equal value is a fairly new concept in Canada but has been implemented in some American states. it goes beyond men and worsen getting the same pay for doing identical work by giving the same pay to work which provides the same value to society determined by a point -scale. The concept is premature in Ontario. said Bt. M liar, because jobs are still segregated on the basis of sex. „Plumbers now make more money than nurses and we could have a long argument on who contributes more to sodety. And, as long as the work men do Is valued more by society. equal pay for work of equal value will have verryy tittle value to women." Affirmative action, which means qualified women are recruited, hired and promoted for job openings, will lead to the same number of men and women doing the acme jobs. "Until then, a pip scale is not going to have a very goods on women. Witte an equal number of men and women doing the same job, society can't say this job is more valuable because men do it." Because women still do the majority of alt child care, daycare is also needed before women's economical problems are solved. "We're told daycare is bad, that Only mothers can be mothers and that children are going to be irreparably damaged if they have daycare but as a child psychologist, 1 can tell You that's not true. Daycare doesn't produce juvenile delinquents and it doesn't hurt children. In fact, most kids benefit and have happy parents and teachers." Because both society and employers benefit from the work of women, they should contribute to the casts of daycare, said Dr. Miller. "Children are worth a lot of money; we need to put mare money into their care. if society sat down and got its priorities straight, it may decide that children are more important than nuclear weapons." And, mace child care is valued more highly by society, women who choose to stay at home to raise children will also have mare status. "Child-reating is going to be viewed as a perfectly legitimate way to spend your time hut you should be paid for your choice - that's a job you're doingg A higher value to child care along with greater career choices for bath sexes will also benefit men. Men who want custody of their children or a job in child care could have that option. "Men haven't learned good child-rearing skills but lot of men like it and would rather stay home. But in this society they consider that's not a valid thing to do. "The whole point of feminism is to give iegfinmate choices to each person and each faniily_ When people learn that the true definition WOMEN/ ON PAGE THREE SPS wins regional track and field meet / Al0 Dam project gets full funding/ 414 Hensall fair attracts 2000/ A 18 West Virginia singers perform in Seaforth/ A20 II DE - Births /48 Brussels /A 14 Classified /Ale, 17 Community Calendar /A3 Dublin /44, 5 Entertainment /A19, 20 Family /A8, 7, 8 Farm /Al2 Hensel! /A9, 18 Kids /A13 Legion /A20 Obituaries /A6, 8 People /A7 Sports /A10, 11 Walton /A15