HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1980-11-06, Page 2On.
BLUE
RIBBON
AWARD
1980
rine: 1804 Serving Abe .00MMUnity" Fog
published at SEAFORTH, °Num every Thursday Morning
by McLEAN DROS. PUBLISHERS LTD.
ANPREW,Y,MeLEAX Publisher
.SVAP,IWILITEvEditor
ALICE plos NewkEditoi.
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SeContl Class Mail Registration Number 0696
Telephone 527-0240. :
RecentlY a 'tragedy Nippenect,
alcrbay.tookbis life! another vied* of °Ur'
high standard of living. Ism was YetVig,
bright and a hard Worker, He had been-
• abvsed in the past and haci•not known the
love of a warnrhome life. came to us in
spying .as the first ,flowers were opening.
}Ie found love and gave love with 'US and.
like a rare flower, Joe blossomed. Be was a
street boy. His other side sheVved
consideration, teasing, bard work and he
was sentimental and protective of those he
loved and, those who were weaker.
Joe -was special to all those who knevi;
him. He laVed to play the guitar, fish and •
draw animals and make people happy. Joe
wanted to w end be wt 5 • et‘od orker,
but With the.ccenorny as n is, he etialdn't
find work. He applied to many pTaces only
to be turned dewn due to lack of education
and experience. He.Was a real worker if
given a chance. He tried and" tried but get
one too manydoor SIM On him, Joe took .
his own life. It was sad because we had, Just
come from Stratford, happy to be able to
tell him we'd fkrid a job for him. We were
30 minutes too late.
We'll miss our Joey as he put so much of
himself into the group home. He didn't go
uptown often. He'd rather stay home
'playing eards. or. guitar or just talking. 'It
seemed, be wit1:16'i get enough Of the
home life he missed as a child, He'd been
between seven and 10 different placement
but:ran away as he was abused or made to
feel unvyanted. We wanted hitn' and we
loved him and we shared a special hood Of '
Understanding., I think he knew we'd
forgive and Understand, He felt if he died
with us, ne'd always be where he was
happy and be a part of is and the home.
well all miss him terribly. ,
This might not have happened if
• •••••• • 14,
someone, had given the lad a .elmoce to
prove he mulct dwarfs, flow was helo get the '
much required experience if no one gave a
Aarice t Shew what he could do,
, 1 'write this letter hoping, to at ciar -
system. Them are other Joes out there that
need jobs. Where de theyget the
, experience? Please someone out there„catk
enough to help 'because it could prevent
something lie this from happening in
setae, other place to some other Joe„
were only foster parents but in our hearts
,We leave out the word foster.
• • Signed;
Betty Gauthier, Dan Evans and
the kids at the group home
Egmondville.
Met eig are for' custonier :convenience
SEAFORTH ONTARIO, TKURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1980
I '
our -plan
Suppose you and, the wife decide you'd like to put a porch on the
house, on the south side to take advantage of the 'sun. Like a good'
citizen you head down to the town Office for a building permit.
WA. then, and only then, you discover life isn't so simple. You Cant
build your porch, the town office informs you, because your home is in
an area that's zoned commercial. Your residence Is a non -conforming
.use and as such it can't be altered; built on etc. because it's the
intention of the town's official plan that the entire area, including your
-place, be commercial not residential, in use.
Boy, then the screaming and yelling starts. You're up in arms
because it's the first you've heard about this zoning stuff. You enlist
friends who talk to,their friends about how a man's home should be his
castle. You take your case to council but it says the plan's in force and
exceptions can't be made.
At this point you and the wife feel you've got two choices:. sit in the
house in the shade or sell the place to Harry net door who's long
wanted to enlarge his used car lot anyway.
That's a depressing scenario, exaggerated of course for effect.
trying -4e- get-aeross
the message -that-Seaton-Ws -official-
plan isn't a dry old booklet but a collection of policies that will touch
each of us in our daily lives.
And the time to have a say in that plan is now, while it's under
review, not two years from now when you hit a brick wall trying to
build your porch.
,In the last few days just about everyone In Seaforth has received a
packet of yellow and gold sheets of paper outlining what's going on
• with our town' official plan review. We urge readers not to throw
them out unread but t� take time and study them a bit.
In pretty plain language the sheets will tell you what the plan's
supposed to do and how you can .get involved in deciding how Seaforth
will develop in the future.
Pay special attention to the map which shows how our town Is zoned
now. Look up your own property; it may not be zoned the way you
think.
Make some notes as you read along. Jot down your questions -don't
assume they're too dumb or that someone else will ask them.
And then, most important, try to get out to the workshops being held
for all of us to get involved In planning for Seaforth. they start Monday
November 1,7 and three more follow.
Well cover these meetings fully In the Expositor, but we can't ask
your questions or express your concern.
If you don't take part in the process, you've got yourself to blame
when you're told you can't build that porch.
•
Behind the scenes
by Keith Roulston
An example for us
Amid the. controversy over constitutional
changes, the anger over energy pricing and
the bickering over budgets there was a local
story the last couple of weeks that I imagine
few people gave that much heed to.
It was the sterry of one local man who had
been rewarded for a lonely fight he has
undertaken that just may be more important
than all the energy talks, all the con-
stitutional changes. all the budget blather.
Norman Alexander of Londesboro was given
an award bv the Huron Countv Federation of
Agriaulture for his contribution to agri-
culture
•
His. sera may ask. can the contributions
of one Huron county man he as important ag
the happenings in the capitals of the nation?
Well ou dont eat constitutions. You can
wonn all you want about having enough
gasoline to drive %mit ear but if you dont
have enough food to keep you alive it won't
matter w he ther sou have free gasoline. They
have vet find a w av to turn petroleum into
food
Nerrean Atetander has been working to
make sure that generations from now we will
still have food. despite trends begun by
many farming "experts•' that !night have
meant a few years down the mad we would
have been hard put to grow enough food in
this couritri to feed ourselves.
Mr Alexander. a farmer and seed
merchant, took up a new cause When he
retired a few years back. He became
concerned about what we were doing with
the soil of our landfew people in this day
ofindustrialization and urbanfeation seem to
realite that 0111' %TT); life &pellets o abeut
six inches of precious toP soil. Dirt is not
soil Whole areas -of the world have plenty of
dirt but no soil. Peel off the top few inches of
soil and you're left with dirt that won't grow
anything hat weeds.
But what Norman Alexpder saw as he
carried out his part time job as drainage
cornmissioner for his township was a lot of
precious topsoil being washed away in the
spring rains, washed down drains ana creeks
to Lake Huron. What he saw as he enjoyed
his hobby of f13 -ring was the topsoil blowing
on the harsh winter and spring winds; and
the deepening gullies along the lakeshores
where erosion eat away at the shoreline.
Farmland on the move, he called it.
He took his concerns to governpent
agencienhe got the fast shuffle. Nabody
seemed to want,to take responsibility forthe
fact We were throwing away our future, our
birthright. &anorak ealities and changing
technology had led Ontario farmers to new
farming pracices. The government had given
farmers grants to take out fencerows
because it would make larger fields meaning
larger implements cnuld be used. meaning
more "efficiency '•. It meant the wind and
the rain were more efficient too at tearing
away the top soil because there were no
fencerows to stop them.
Trees began disappearing too, not only
-because of diseases like Dutch elm disease
but because if was hard to work around trees
with wide farm equpment. Farmers
bulldozed down bush and drained swamps to
try to get the most return from their
expensive farmland.
Cashcropping became a way of life. No
longer could you afford to pasture cattle on
expensive land so sodded fields were
replaced with more and more corn -and gram
and beans and other field crops that made
money but didn't have permanent root
systems to hold the land in place.
It would seem like an impossible task for
an individual to undertake. Mr. Alexander
was faced both with official indifference and
the hard eeonomics of trying to stay solvent
on the farm. He personally had nothing to
gain from it all He wasn't going to get any
financial reward Just the opposite, he spent
thousands of hours and dollars in travelling.
researchingbuilding a model to show
people how things should and shouldn't be
done
And against all odds he, and a handful
of others in this country, has made a
difference. There is a new awareness that we
must change our ways to protect the soil.
I've seen the change in the reaction of Huron
County fartnets to the whole question since
Mr. Alexander first beOn to preach his
gospel of conservation five or six years ago.
The change isn't complete, heaven knows,
but the influence is showing. Farmers are
aware that they not only have to worry about
making a living today. burhaving soil left for
'their grandchildren to make a living two
generations from now.
We all benefit from the work of Norman
Alexander. This country way built from' the
soil and although few seem to realize it any
more still owes its prosperity to the soil. that
precious few inches of topsoil Norman
Alexander has been fighting to preserve.
. But more than even that. it is the example
that Norman Alexander sets, and the
examples of others like him. that we need.
We needle see the individuals can still stand
• up and fight for what they know is right and
that, if they can't win huge vicotries, at least
they-nan make changes. Thank you Norman.
in last week's Expositor, on the front
page, was a headline saying "Taxpayers
Knock Meters. I was Mayor in the early
sixties when the meters were installed and
so I feel that I am in a position to comment
on the pros and cons of parking meters.
Prior to putting in the meters. we found
that, with the increased car population, the
conditions on Main Street had reached a
point where double parking was the normal
and even triple parking was taking place
frequently. We did a two-week survey an d
found that eight out of nine parking places
were taken by shop owners or their
employees from nine in the morning till six
at night, which meant that only one parking
place was left for the customers.
St. Mary s had put in parking meters just
two years earlier so I went to them to see
how their meters were working out. When
the meters are installed, the company would
put them in on a trial basis for six months
with the revenue split between the town and
the company. At the end of the six inonth
trial period, the town could decide to remove
them at no cost to the town, or carry on with
the meters with half the revenue to each
party till the meters were paid for. When I
asked the St. Mary s officials what reaction
they had after the six months trial period,
they told me that they had received not one
but two petitions signed by farmers asking
that the meters be left in. They had found
that, instead of having to cart their
purchases a few block from Main Street, for
a few pennies they could pull right up in
front of the store they were doing business
with.
It gets right down to the question of -why
,are parking meters used. The basic reason is
for customer convenience. It's the only way
of stopping the owners and help from
hogging all the parking places. I'll admit
that the headache was trying to convince the
police that the meters were not a money
making scheme by tagging every car that
was a little over the time. I insisted that the
meters Were only to be checked when most
of the parking spaces were full. In other
words, not to do a check when a glance up
the street showed thespaces only half or less
occupied.
With even more cars on the Streets now as
compared to 20 years ago, I felt it was my
duty to point out the effect of no meters
Might have on the parking on Main Street.
Edmund Daly
Meters give you a chance
Take out the Meters! My goodness sakes,
can none of you remember before the
Meters? Now many times you would go
uptown in the car and home again to walk up
- no parking place - because the storekeepers
and clerks had their cars parked on the Main
St. for the.,day?
Now there is parking on side streets,
silent
BY BOB BOB HULLEY
Like,solemn sentinals the crosses stand.
ThrOugh countries far away.
The choicest breed from all the land.
Are there beneath the clay.
They fought our cause and gave the most.
That peace might later reign.
The crosses stand a silent host
But sing a loud refrain.
That we should stand for what is right.
And guard what they made sure.
For a moral thiefmithin the night.
Could make our land unsure.
For freedom is a sacred thing.
We all should pay our share
The bell of hope would lose it's ring.
If we should fail to care. ,
..
Victoria Park and the alleys. Take out the .
parking meters and it will be wev'tfib\
shoppers carrying our purchases t� the side
streets; Victoria Park and the alleys. At
least now for a nickle o r a dime you have a
chance of getting a parking place on Main
Street.
A long time resident of Seaforth
QV'
-Leave
to Howie HoWi.e or Dave
I have read religiously Dave Broome's
column On the local sports achievementsin
particular those in regards to the summary
and update of the I.H.L. But I'm just writing
to say. concerning his column of Oct 23, 1980
(I.H.L. notes) I believe he should leave the
commentary to either Howie Meeker or ,
Dave Hodge.
Salt well cleaned in 1880
NOVEMBER 5,1880
After January 1, 1881, the Chiselhurst
mails will be conveyed from Hensall instead
of Cromarty. This is a step in the righl
direction. Hensel] being much nearer and
affording direct railway communication.
We are glad to learn that Mr. Thomas
Govcnlock has got his salt well cleared of all
obstructions at last. The work of clearing the
obstructions in the well. at a distancc of.
about 800 feet from the surface. was tedious
and difficult in the extreme. but Mr. Peter
McEwen has proven himself equal to thc
emergency. and is entitled to the very
greatest praise for the patience and skill he
displayed. Anything about salt well boring
or . clearing that Peter doesn't .know is
scarcely worth knowing.
. The boys in Seafcirth were out on Monday
night last and on Tuesday morning an
average citizen might have been seen
wading into the centre of the street. fishing
his gate from the mud and shouldering it
home. always. of course. in the very best of
humor. and thankful that Halloween comes
only once a year.
A few weeks ago we published an item
from a Hibbert correspondent to the effect
taht a.man who was run over by the cars and
killed near St. Mary s was supposed to be
Mr John Henry, formerly of Hibbert. Mr.
Henry writes us from Rapid City. Northwest
Territory. informing us of the error. He
states that he is not the man. but tharbe is
still in the Northwest and is "as lively and
gay as a peacock- and that on the very day
on which he was reported to have been
killed. he was awarded the first prize for
horse shoes at Rapid City Agricultural Show
NOVEMBER 3,1905
Mr. Thomas Gemmell and family of
Egmondville moved this week into their
beautiful new house. erected this year. just
south of the woollen mill.
James Henderson. Sr. of the 8th
concession of McKillop. passed over to the
silent majority on Monday morning last.
having reached, the good age of 88 years
Mr. Henderson was one of the first settlers
in McKillop, having resided on the farm
where he died for over half a•century.
Most of tile young -men from Staffa who
left here to help take off the crops in the
Northwest have now returned. each one
exhibiting his share of bucolical brawn as
evidence of the part he took in gathering
together the mammoth harvfst.
.The auction sale of Mrs. John ML Nevin
near Kippen on Friday' last v‘ as largeb.
attended. good prices were realized and
everything was sold. A four months old colt,
sired by Mr. Geiger' g imported horse. was
sold for 5100. The whole sale realized over
51.600.
A valuable driving horse belonging to Mr.
James Archibald died from inflammation
on Thursday of last week.
Halloween passed over very quietly in
•Seaforth. A good many half grown youths
wandered about the streets until a late hour.
but no serious darnage to property w as done
in any part of town.
NOVEMBER 7, 1930
On Sunday laie-aimut noon, when Mr.
Thomas R. Hodiert of Tuckersmith came out
of the house on his farm on the Kippen
Road, he saw a deer standing in a ploughed
•
In the years agone
field just north of the housc. The animal
gazed at him for a few minutcs and then
bounded away.
About 120 friends and neighbours
gathered at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ross
J. Chapman of Brumfield on Friday evening
and presented the young couple with two
beautiful wicker chairs and a fernery. A
happy time was spent in dancing until
midnight when a dainty lunch was served.
Monday next is Thanksgiving Day and a
public holiday.
A near fatal accident occurred on Tuesday
afternoon when Charles Dolmageo lineman
in the employee of Ontario Rural Hydro.
while working on a line just out of
Brucefield. came in contact with a line wire
carrying 4,600 volts. The current passed
through Mr. Dolmagc's body, rendering him
unconscious and when first seen by his
assistant, he was suspended from the pole
by his belt. On gaining consciousness and
being questioned. Mr. Dolmage was unable
to remember anything whatever of the
circusmstances.
Miss Nellie Pryce. who recently purchased
the grocery business of Mr. A. Jeffrey. toot
possession this week.
NOVEMBER 4, 19SS .
Seaforth Public School pupils, who thie
year translated the age. old Halloween cry
of "Trick or Treat" with "A penny for the
pool", handed over S77.2.5 to the Lions Park
campaign as a result of their weekend calls.
The 80th Anniversary of Cavan Church
Winthrop was held on Sunday when the
Al Coltman
Regina Sask
edifice was more than filled to capacity.
Robert Smith of Seaforth was the only living
member of the building committee of the
present church.
H.N. Wolfe of Seaforth, from the 1st
Canadian Infantry Brigade which haa been
stationer in Germany, returned home on
November 1st.
Robert Southcott of Exeter was the lay
preacher in Egmondiille United Church on
Sunday morning.
Beta Geraldine Ryan, daughter of Mrs.
Catherine Ryan and the late Thomas Ryan,
was united in marriage to Rus.set1 Mark
Smith. son of Mr. and Mrs. Adelbert Smith
Zurich. After a honeymoon trip to Windsor
and Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Smith will live in
Logan Township.
Tom Whyte. of R.R. 2. Seaforth, received
recognition as Huron County champion at a
complimentary banquet for 4-H Club
winners given by the Huron County Hog
Producers.
All that's best in Canada
Do you like Autumn? I do. For me. it's
the epitome of all that's best in Canada.
You can have your spring. glorious sprtng.
with its drizzles and its mud and its chilling
winds. You can have your summer, with its
particular pests - tourists. bugs, visitors.
And you can Most definitely have winter in
its every possible aspect. Just give me
about six months of that September
October weather, and you couldn't drag me
out of this country to the island of Bali.
I know that. according to the rhythm of
nature, fall is supposed to be a time of
dying. of melancholy. of shrivelling on the
vine. or preparing for the deep. dead of
winter.
Maybe Canadians are just contrary, but
they don't react in the way they're
supposed to at all. in the fall. Instead of
careful) preparing for winter. drawing in
their horns. and going around' with long
Faces. they bust out all over as soon as that
first nip is felt in the morning air.
Perhaps they're just fooling themselves.
but Canadians act as though they love the
fall. They come tc life. They bustle. They
forni committees. make plans, have parties
They even start going to church. Perhaps
it's just a last hysterical fling, a frantic
escape from reality. with the grim prospect
of six months' winter ahead, but they
,ertainly burn with a clear, gem -like flame
while it lasts.
Where is the sober house -holder who
should be chinking up the nooks and
crannies. putting .011 the storm windows,
getting in his fuel supply. and battening
down all the hatches for the bitter voyage
that looms ahead?
tell you where he es. on his day off.
He's standing in ice water -up to his
nipples. trying to catch a rainbow trout. Or
out on the golf course, so bundled with
sweaters he can hardly swing. Or he's
sitting with a noggin, watching the football
game on television. That's where he is.
And where's the guide -wife, who should
be knitting woollen socks, putting down
pre'..,erves and canned meat, airing the
Sugar and'.
.spice
By Bill Smiley
flannelette sheets. patching the family's
long underwear. and quilting a quilt?
I'll tell you where she is. She's on the
phone. talking about what she's going to
wear to the tea. Or she's off in the car to
attend a wedding. Or she's out playing
bingo. Or-s_lies taking in an auction sale.
Or she's sitting around with her feet up.
watching the afternoon movie. That's
where she is.
It must shake our pioneer ancestors rigid
to look down, or up. from their present
abode, and see us preparing for winteis
About this time of year. grandfather was
killing a beef, shooting a deer. salting
down a hog, making apple cider, stacking
vast piles of firewood and hustling , his
wheat to the mill.
It must rot his celestial sock :a 15 look
down and see his graadson hunting deer
for a holiday. buying his pig pre-cooked at
the meat counter. and laying in his fuel
suppis by ,-icking up the phone and calling
the oil dealer.
And what about Granny? In her day, fall
was the time when you worked like a
beaver, making sausage, spinning wool,
putting eggs away in waterglass, filling the
root cellar. malting candles and soap.
She must do a tittle quiet cussing. in the
shadow of her halo, when he sees her
granddaughter facing up to the rigors of
winter: racked by the dreadful indecision of
whether .to buy a home freezer or a fur
out; torn by the dilemma of whether to
have the cleaning woman come once or
twice a week.
But, of course. that's looking at only ore
side of the situation. Granddaddy didn't
have to worry about antifreeze, atom
bombs. income tax or payments on the car.
He didn't need suppositories, diets and a
new tail -pipe every tirne he turned around.
And Granny didn't have to cope with a
kitchen full of machinery. kids who we re
smarter than she was, and the late movie.
She didn't need sleeping pills, cigarettes or
psychology.
Say, come to -think of it those WERE the
good old days. They didn't have much, but
what they had was their own, not the
finance company's. No auto accidents, no
alcoholics anonymous, no aspirin. Let's
stop worrying about the hardships of our
pioneer ancestors and get back to sweating
over our own neurotic chaos.
Expositor asks:
Why won't people answer my questions?
BY DEBBIE RANNEY
In the Words of a famous' Shakespearean
character, "Oh, woe is me!" or to put it
bluntly, this is my third anniversary of doing
this column.
For the uninitiated, Expositor Asks is a
column whereby each week a question is
presented by phone to people in the
Seaforth, Egmondville, Dublin, Staffa, gen-
sail, Varna. Kippen, Brucefield and Walton
areas to get their opinion that week.
Sometimes doing this column is fun, (but
not often) - more than often I could quite
easily equate it with the Chinese water
torture. The column is fun when people
agreeably answer my questions, make
general conversation with me and allow me
to use their name along with what they've
said.
Please turn to page 3
0 -111, • 1111,