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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1980-09-11, Page 2' Srnce'19,60, Serving the Qsassunity First ffiliblislied at SEAPORT*, ONTARIO every Thursday morning by McLEAN BROS, PUBLISHERS LTD. ANDREW L'McIagAN, hiblisher SUSAN WHITE, Editnr 'ALICE GITIB, News Editor , Member Canadian Conunuidty Newspaper Assoelation • Ontario Wee1dy Newspaper Association • and Audit Bureau of Circulation Subscription Rates: Canada (in advance) $14.00 a Year Outside Canada (in advance) $30.00 a Year SINGLE COPIES -35 CENTS EACH Second Class Mail Registration Number 0696 Telephone 527-0240 SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1980 Involving the -young Ip one of his recent reports to Seaforth town council, recreation director Bryan Peter recommended steps should be taken to investigate the problems facing the young people of our community. The concern, noted the director's report, follows on the heels of newspaper articles which investigated the extent of these problems, both in general, and In Seaforth In particlular. Some of those articles were published in the Expositor. There are several suggestions for treating the -situation. One is to establish a committee made up of community .representatives which would prepare a comprehensive survey and a plan of action. Another is to have students irom the town's schools become involved in recreation committee activites. A final decision on the proper way to approach the issue is,yet to be made. but. More Importantly, Steps are being taken. Much.. of the credit for initiating this concern goes to Mr. Peter. It's often too easy, when articles such as these appear in the media, to become irate and simply, gloss over the difficulties. But It is'a genuine concern for one's community that says maybe It's time something were done, rather than retaliating by saying the media are simply looking for 'sensational' news. For our part at the Expositor, we take our role In this community very seriously. You don't grow up with a community for 120 years, only to turn on It viciously and without cause. When our articles were prepared, we aimed not to berate our town. However, nothing Is perfect, and that, unfortunately, Includes Seaforth. What can make Seaforth different from the rest, though, will be Its willingness to recognize problems and Implement changes. Thanks to our recreation director, our first step In that direction has been taken. Buy Canadian We're all guilty of it -buying products from fruits and vegetables to automobiles and wine that aren't made In Canada. Sometimes it's because we want exotic products that aren't homegrown, -sometimes It's a more attractive price on Imports and often It's simply because we just don't take time to check the label. Despite a costly campaign by the federal governrnent reminding us to "Shop Canadian" and despite continual layoffs in Canadian industries, some of them In Huron Cdunty, we conveniently forget or neglect to buy Canadian. If each of us would add S10 a week in Canadian -made products the country would be over S10 billion better off In just .one year. Charles Smith, speaking' on behalf of Robert Bell industries Ltd. delivered a convincing plea to Huron County board of education trustees this week to consider "buying Canadian" when It comes to replacing school boilers. As keiold the trustees, while local Industry shouldn't receive business automatcially, "neither should any foreign manufacturer." It's certainly a point to consider -too often government contracts at the federal, provincial as well as the municipal level, are given to companies based, In another country -often when the price can be matched by our own Canadian manufacturers. Every time this happens, the taxpayer, who is also an employee of Canadian business or works in a related -field, loses out. In the case of the Huron County board of educatien, perhaps the fair solution is to extend the tender publishing process by another week or two, to give area industries and contractors a chance to compete. Then we hope trustees and other elected officials will keep the "Buy Canadian" slogan In mind. As individual 6tioppers, we should took for the labels bearing the distinctive red maple leaf. Canada may not produce oranges or bananas or Merceds Benz -but we do produce apples, pears, furnace boilers and tractors. if we want to keep producing them, we'd better start buying homegrown! To the editor: Researching our theatrical history A century ago there were mote than 300 professiotal theatre companies touring this part of the country every year, playieg in Opera Houses and Town Hells. 1 am trying to reconstruct the story of their tours, and especially . of Canadian actors like Julia Arthur, IvIcKee'Rankin, Harold Nelsen, Ida Van Courtland, Ernie and Bob Maris, George Summers, Henry Miller.. Clara Mortis, Margaret Anglin, George Primrose (of Primrose and West Ivfinstrels) and others. I also ans looking for memories, programs and photos of Arnerican and • British acotrs who toured Ontario before 1914. If you can help or know of someone who can, please write me. Our theatrical heritage in Ontario is long and rich and I am trying to write a history of it which will prove that there were good shows and good actors who played to audiences outside the big cities and that small town audiences were jt as Eqepreciative and just as sophisticated as those in Toronto and Montreal. Diaries, scrapbooks, old theatre programs and photos of the 1880-1914 period are fast (5sappearing as aid family homes are sect or destroyed. 1 can premise to treat any borrowed material carefully and return it promptly. Within reason (and a limited budget). If can offer to buy items from the 1880-1914 period from anyone willing to part with them. Can you help? Sincerely, Mary M. Brown, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Western Ontario," London, Ontario. • N6A 3K7 . a , SEPTEMBER 10,1880 Sarepta Post Office, in Stephen Towles III the ',evil's a , ship has been closed by order of the, Postmaster General. • • Last Thursday afternoon, Mr. C. Purdy of Ifensall shipped a carload of furniture south overthe London, Huron and Bruce Railroad. On reaching Centralia, it was found to be on fire, the c'ar having caught fire from a spark from the engine, it is supposed. The car and , contents were rendered almost an entire wreck, ... Mr. H. Cook has taken possession of the Brucefield hotel, Lecently occupied by Mr. Strong. The property belongs to Mr. Cook and he furnished and very much improved it; Mr. Cook is a first-class good man and were are sure he will keep a good house, and meth a liberal Share ofthe patronage of the travelling public. Mr. James Langstraith of Seaforth has imported from his brother, Mr. Hugh Dalziel, Kenel Editor of the Field News -paper London, England, a pair of Scotch fat -ley canaries. The eost of these rare birds was $20. The firm of Coleman and Gouinlock, salt manufacturers, his been dissolved and Dr. Gouinlockis retiring from the business. Henry Chesney, of the 4th concession of Tuckersmith Township, a few days ago sold to an American buyer a six year old heavy draught horse, sired by Lord Haddow, for the very heavy sum of $250. On Monday night of this week, some of the sports of Kinsburn were coon -hunting and were fortunate enough to catch a monster one, which, when weighed, turned the scales at 20 pounds and a quarter: It was caught by the dogs of John Coats, Jr. SEPTEMBER 5,1905 Four burley, bushy Londoners mettheir match on Saturday -afternoon when- they drove in Hensall and set out tri paint the • town a glaring red. When.they began their "Big Indian" act on Sandy Bowden,, they discovered they'd picked a foe worthy of the entire party. Sandy. meeting the attack of the London mob with deft guards and landing beautifully' with his left and rights, sent the whole party over like ninepins. l'James Scott, formerly of Roxboro, died at his residence in Harpurhey on Sunday last, at the age of 88 years, Mr. Scott and his brothel. Robert, who came from Roxborough- shire, Scotland, settled on adjoining farms at Roxboro when the county was still a wooded ' wilderness. In additioraWfarthing, Mr. Scott ran a flour mill at Roxboro for many years. The pioneer settler is one of the men who have made this -country what it is. John McTavish, manager of the E. McFaul Dr); Goods Co. of Seaforth was praised in a recent edition of the Printer and Publisher. "Trade journalism has loet an able writer and advertising man in John McTavish, who has withdrawn from the staff of the Canadian Trade Journals, Limited to accept the management of the E. McFaul Dry Goods Co. of Seaforth. Ontario. The Robert Bell Engine and Thresher Company has just received an order for one of their 30 horse power traction engines from the Dominion government for an industrial farm near Edmonton. The engine will be used for threshing and ploughing. St. Columban residents eelebrated the recent Labour Day with a • Silver Jubilee concert. Everything was favourable but the Sugarcind spice By Bill Smiley weather and there was a heavy shower of rain in the evening, Janet Clark, of Hickory Lane, Farm, Walton, married Francis A. Gill a •We# MOnkton at her home recently Rev, Dr, D. B. Marsh of Norwich, the bride' S uncle, performed the ceremony. The Minister -united the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Clark in marriage 27 years ago. SEPTEMBER 16,1955 Well known Canadian columnist J.V., Maree of , the l'oronto Globe and Mail devotes his column to a reunion of the Seaforth Old Boys. McAree, who was visiting with Jim Scott, former literary editor of the Toronto Telegram, writes, "It turned out that there were four Jim Scott's in Seaforth, known, respectively, as Singing Jimmy, Curly Jimmy, Chicken Jimmy and _Writing Jimmy." John Kaiser, Seaforth CNR agent for 14 years, and his wife are honoured at -farewell parties in town. The couple who have been transferred to- Georgetown, belonged to a number of local organizations. Seaforth council learns Monday night that the Ontario Department of Health` has given its approval to the new sewage disposal plant. Gottleib Mueller of Brodhagen, who conducted a shoe repair business in the village for several years, celebrates his 93rd birthday at the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Beuermann. Mrs. John Flannery, 74, a well-known McKillop Township . resident, died Wednesday morning in the Seaforth Nursing Home. Mrs. Flannery, the former Katharine Walsh, and her husband, moved to Seaforth 40 years ago after farming east of the town. Ken Laron, who spent the summer working as a reporter on the Huron Expositor, is returning to his studies at Ryerson College, Toronto. ,•SEPTEMBER 15, 1930 ) Seatorth council accepts the offer of E.L. Box• to be bandleader, with a salary of $85 annually. „The bandsmen are to be paid a salary of Si per night for playing in the park but they must be present at practise to obtain the payment. - Robert Moran, night city editor orthe Atlanta Constitution, died Tuesday after- noon in a sanatorium. after an illness of several weeks.- His father, Pascal .J___Moran,_ known as one of the best newspapermen in the Southern States, was an old Seaforth boy. Seven residents of Kippen, who had been visiting • Wellington Good in Auburn, escaped serious injury when they almost collided with a CPR train at the Baseline crossing Tuesday. ° Mr. Thompson, the driver, applied the brakes when he sighted the rapidly approaching train, turned the car to the right and landed upside down in the ditch. An official of the Ontario Motor League, who viewed the scene of the accident, is having danger signs forwarded to the crossing. • A barn on the farm of John McKenzie, half a mile west of Egtnondville, was completely destroyed by fire early Tuesday morning. The barn, one of the largest io the township, contained 40 tons of hay, two calves and some pigs who were lost in the fire. The barn was insured for $7,200 but Mr. McKenzie 's loss above the insurance will be heavy. Some reading material to enjoy Had time to do some reading this summer. though precious little. in between losing my wallet. entertaining my grandboys, being almost torn limb from limb by mosquitoes at a lake up north. and being thoroughly whipped at golf by some old guys who should be in nursing homes but can still hit the pill right up the middle. Highly recemmendcd is Farley MowatTs account of his personal World War II. Its title alone would have made me read it. It's called And No Birds Sang. borrowed with a light change from Keats ballad. In Belle Dame Sans 'Mem First part of the book is typical Mowat. very readable but merely an account of the training and bumbling experienced by the average Canadian soldier. and sprinkled with a few highly improbable incidents. .But when Mowat gets his feet into the real ear, the invasion of Sicily. the brutal fighting up through "sunny" Italy. where the men were half -frozen most of the time. hp hits his stride. and 1 don't think he's ever written anything better. • No one could have written this book who was not there. He conveys with chilling accuracy the exhaustion. thc bitterness, thc dogged courage. and. yes. the wry humor of the real fighting men in a campaign that had Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston The power of religion Next perhaps to the hydrogen bomb. there is no more powerful force in this world than religion. People believing in the pewer of their god have tremendous power he themselves. We've seen a recent example of that kind of power with the overthrow of the Shah of Iran last year by people 'doing the biddieg of a religious leader who called on them to act in the name of Allah. People rose in the millions to stand in.front of the guns of the Shah with little but their faith to protect them. More recently we've seen the strikers m Poland carry pictures of Pope John -Paul as signs of their faith when they defied the military power of their country and the ominoas power of the Soviet Union just across the border. The power of religion- can be stirring and it can be frightening. The Jonestown massacre in Guyana made ail of us question just how people can be so brainwashed by someone as to take the gives of their children and themselves at the bidding of one man. Reiigion can be a power for good or evil depending on the motive of those who use It. Ordinary peopie can be ted by religious • leaders to make the wottd a better place or -bring a little of heil to earth. On one hand we see the Ayottolah Khomeini using the name of his god to hold power in just as cEctatorial a way as the man he brought down. ThOse who disagree with his reign are likely to face a court run by his followers where they will get a quick trial and be shot by a filing squad, And to this point anyway, the people of Iran are willing to believe this man is acting on behalf of their god. ANOTHER SIDE Yet there -is another side to what religion can die As an example of the power of faith to make the World a better place there could be none better than Mother Theresa. the tiny woman who last year won the 'Nobel Peace Prize. Here's the kind of determination and, single-mindedness that could have been abused to provide a religious zealot. She went as a young nun from Europe to India then, frustrated by the misery she saw in the streets of Calcutta, left the relative oemfort of the religious establishment and went out to help the poor of India. It would have been easy for her to throw up her hands and wonder just what one individual 'could do in the face of the thousands of people dying of disease and hunger. All of us face that same kind of helpless feelings- looking at the problems of the world today. But Mother Theresa decided to take things one step at a time. She couldn't try to help everyone but could help just one of these masses of poor and then go to help another. and so on and so on. Led by her faith and example, others followeatl. Today Mother Thee -ewe attracts people fronearound the world to work with., ben Her one -woman crusade now is a large organization running orphanages • and schools, providing food and medicine to the poor of the streets and giving people hope that they can not only live. but live a better fife. he gives this help not as a way of buying the conversion of the people she serves but as an example of the toe God has for man. She is no weakling, even in her old age. A recent thlevisien documentary showed het.as a woman of iron will. When a priest in charge of using some of the money she had received with her Nobel award showed her the houses, she toid him to not make the houses so -fanc;) so that mare people could have some kind of habitation rather than a few having a really nice house. Manywill likely find her a difficult person to work with. This kind of drive add stttbborness could easily have been 'misdirected to build a personal empire but this tiny woman has little for herself. She had only her nun's habit and sleeps Wherever there is a bed. There is a rebirth of reigion underway in North Arnetica these days. Unfortunately much of it seems to be directed by men and women who haven't been content to take their rewards in heaven for their work but want to live like movie stars here on earth. Huge empifes have been built by these people who build magnificent churches, live in lavish mansions and travel around the world on private jets. How much better it would be for the world and for common people themselves if they would take as their religious example the people in the churches such as Mother Theresa. There are many such people in all denominations, people who work quietly and diligently to show the love of their God, not pile up treasures on earth. How raucit power for good religion could have if we could put the millions of people to work supporting people like Mother Theresa. We saw over the weekend how a single individual, Terry Fox, could bring out the best in people for a common cause. Would that others would follow little of the drama and dash of thc invasion of France. Just tough. bloody fighting over range after range of mountains against some of the toughest and bcst troops in the German army. Mowat seems, to have put himself back into thc mind and emotions of the young Canadian lieutenant he was then. He drops his posturing. and eloquently and movingly reveals the anger. the bewilderment. the savagery and the suffering of the Poor Bloody infantry. Narrowly missing death himselfe'number of times. he makes no effort to pot himself in the hero's role. and indeed deprecates his own ineceitude in many situation. Rather. he writes with an admiriration that is almost love. of his -friends and fellow -soldiers and sufferers. He flares with rage at the in copetence and stupidity of senior officers. and in a couple of paragraphs strips all the gilt form that pompous little idiot. darling of thc newspapers. General Montgomery. hs an honest book. and a good read. . It had a little special interest for me. because one of his friends. Major Alex Campbell. was in his unit. and died just as he would have wanted to. in a mad single-handed, hopeless charge against a German position. It could only be the same Alex Campbell I knew. We grew up in the same town. Perth. Ontario. Alex's father had been killed in the first World War. From the time he was a nipper. he wanted revenge. He joined the militia as soon as he was old enough. and by the time 1 was in high school. he had a commission Alex used to help train our high school cadet corps. ferociously but with an underly- ing decency. A few years before. he had been a tiger on the line of the football team. a vast man with great strength and no fear of anything or anyone. I'll bet he was the happiest man in the country when Canada declared war on Germany. And he died exactly as he would have withed. hurling his bulk against machine-guns instead of op- posing linesmen. Another author I discovered this summer was Leo Simpson. He lives in the village of Madoc. Ontario. and 1 knew of him. but hadn't read his novels. probably due to the incredible ineqtitude of Canadian publishers when it comes to promoting good books. He is an excellent writcr. much more literate than the famous Farley Mowat. who knows how to promotc his own books and keep his name alive in the papers with various stunts and burning causes. I managed to grab two of .Simpson's novels and read them straight through. They were The Peacock Papers and Kowalski's Last Chance Eluy -them or borrow them or steal them. They're great. Simpson came 'to Canada from Ireland, but y-ou'd swear. from his novels. that he'd lived in a small Canadian town or city all his life. He knows the vernacular. he knows the petty little gypocrisies. and he knows the often peculiar attitude toward life of Canad- ians. In The Peacock Papers. he explores. with wit and irony and pity. a decent. middle- aged. suctessful Canadian businessman who starts to come apart at the seams. as so may of us do. In Koivalski's Last Chance. he peels off layer after layer of the social strata in a small city and dabbles with leprechauns until you are convinced the next short guy you talk to might be one. Both books are very funny, but a great deal mote than that. And my book. vou ask? Well. its going Please turn to page 3 Expositor asks: Terry Fox- why was he so successful? BY DEBBIE RANNEY Thanks to Terry Fox, Canada now has a national hero. He inspired people to reach into their pocketbooks and raise over 510 million for cancer research. With that in mind, this week Expositor Asks derided to ask local and area residents, "Why do you thinkaTerry Fox's effort to raise money for cancer research has been so successful?" Jane Glanville of 119 Main St. hi Seaforth • said, "Everybody wants to try and cm -e cancer. They figure if he's going to run around with one leg -if he's got hope and will, why shoeldn't everybody else?" Mrs. Charles Dalrymple of RTI, Hensel! said, "We've seen him on TV and heard so mucb about him. Cancer is something that's dose to home, something we've had experience with. It's a combination of so many things. He's such a likeable guy plodding all around on one leg." Arlene Van Maar of RRI, Varna said, "I think for people who feel that the cancer society is something worthwhile, he might stand up above everybody. He might stand as a figure for the cancer society. "Just because he's doing something pretty good for the country." she added. Mrs. Dennis Hutton of Brumfield said, "I would imagine because he's just trying the best he can to raise money for cancer.!'S "Maybe it's just that he has hump appeal," said Carol Bennewies of -RR2 Staffa. It's not thinking of cancer as a statistic. He's an actual human being you care about. It's someone you know." Mrs. Catherine Murray of RR1, Dublin said, "Because he has proved and worked -to hard for what he has got from the cancer society." "He provedthat cancer could be beaten, if they worked hard," she said. "I would say it's been so successful because, he has it (cancer) himself, said Nancy McCullough of Hensall. "tle's put in all that extra effort and done so much for Canada. "He's a brave, heroic -person struck with the disease himself. He's not doing it (the running) for himself. He's doing -it for other people," she said. 4,