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The Huron Expositor, 1982-08-25, Page 2;thyliuron fxpositor Since 1860, Serving the Community first Incorporating ±Brun*eks Post founded 1872 u` 12 Main St. . J 527-0240 Published at SEAFORTH, ONTARIO every Wednesday afternoon auN' by Signal -Star Publishing Limited . naD Jocelyn A, Shrier, Publisher Susan White, Editor, . H.W. (Herb)Turkhelm, Advertising Manager Member Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc/a•tion, Ontario Community Newspaper Association and Audit Bureau of C(rculat/on A member of the Ontario Press Council Subscription rates: Canada $17 a year (in advance) outside Canada $50. a year (in advance) Single Copies - 50 cents each Second class mail registration number 0696 THE HURON EXPOSITOR AUGUST 25, 1982 £omrnon sense wins The common sense that has marked the Seaforth and District Community Centres organizing committee from the start prevailed last week when a move to drop citizen representatives from the committee to manage the new building failed. And we say hooray for that. To echo a comment John Jewitt of Hullett made when five municipalities met to go over a management agreement, where would we be if private citizens hadn't taken charge last fall when Lie councils couldn't agree on how to replace Seaforth's condemned arena? We'd probably still be having meetings, and a boarded up arena with no prospect of ice this winter. Instead, we have a $1.4 million community centre complex under construction and a .fund raising effort that's raised, so far, $518,000 (including of course a substantial amount of pledges.) The argument was made, at the meeting of all the councils, that a 10 member management board (one ratepayer and one councillor from each of Seaforth, Hibbert, Hullett, McKillop and Tuckersmith; would be unwieldy and expensive. We like building committee chairman Ken Campbell's reply to that one: "There.has been no mention to paying (any committee members)". When pay per meeting becomes the driving force behind anyone's participation in public affairs, it's time for that person to retire. To our knowledge, none of the members of the new management committee, ratepayers or councillor, has that motive in mind. (Although we've expressed concern before that councillors ought not to be paid by their municipalities for work ratepayer members do gratis,) In fact It's a desire to provide the best possible facilities tor the people of Seaforth and area at the best possible price that's motivated the members of the community centres committee to spend countless unpaid hours •planning and prodding, over the last year. To take citizen members off the management committee at this point would be a waste of their interest and expertise, a petty move and a slap at the ordinary people, ratepayers,' all, who believe in and have contributed to the new community centre. We're confident, and we think the people of Seaforth and district are too, that the management of our terrific new building is in excellent hands. The hands of those who 'made sure it got built. Farmers are a precious resource Oln�@ q'OCA hW d @ ffun©v'I br o b 4miltt@e The debt the rest of Canada owes to the agricultural community is beyond compre• hcnsion, In Asia, for example. one farm worker produced an average of 44.000 pounds of food crops last year. In Russia. a farm worker managed to produce 33.000 pounds of food. Sounds good? The average Canadian farmer annually supplies 3'5.000 pounds of food. more than I'o times that of his Russian counterpart. It has been long established that the Russian farmer on his private plot produces far more than the communal farms. Which is why the Canadian farmer has become so efficient. He produces on his own land, using his, own equipment and risking his own money. Without this exceptional production capa- city. Canadians would be importing far more food than they do. Even then. we import too much but that is another story. Canadians have been proud of the fact that nur factories produce a great many goods but productivity growth in farming has been five times greater than the non-farm sector in the last five to 10 years. Yet some publications. especially the large metropolitan news, papers. constantly refer to farmers as not being able to keep up with the technological and production advances of other major industries. Why farmers get tarred with this unpro- ductive brush is beyond me. All that is necessary is to look at the productivity figure's. One Canadian farmer supplies enough food to•feed about '0 people. Thirty ycnrs ago. one farmer fed approximately 16 people. Eighty years ago. one farmer produced enough food for about five people. Who could, in all fairness. suggest that the (anadian farmer is not producing as much or more than his city counterpart? What sets the farmer aside. what makes him /her different from any other producer is his her investment. The factory worker has little or no investment in a job: that is. no investment in land. buildings or equipment. Rut that factory worker makes. on average, more than a farmer. The factory worker has not made an investment: his employer has made the investment. But the farmers in Canada have invested more than $I 1S billion. most of it in land. It is Canada's largest industry, It has been said by better economists than me that if you were to group together the assets of the top 20 industrial corporations in Canada. the total figure would still fall short of what Canadian farmers have invested to produce food and fibre. So when farm leaders suggest that farming is different and that farmers should be treated in a different manner from other sectors of the economy. they are not just whistling in the w Ind They have a great deal to be proud of. Thcv arc different and should be given some favors. When it is suggested that the rest of the country can not allow subsidies• for instance. for farmers. to he paid forever out of the public purse. perhaps those detractors should look around and he grateful for what agriculture has done and will continue to do, Farmers are a precious resource and should he treated that way. They are different. They are special. OpOnkm-- at8 0 Station built 100 years ago 0n /he gcof3 ogOno AUGUST,18, 1882 The erection 'of the new Grand Trunk Railway Station house in Seaforth is progres- sing satisfactorily. The structure is 92 feet by 24 feet. At the east end Will be the baggage room, next the gentlemen's waiting room, the ticket office and ladieswaiting room. A ten acre field of wheat on the Hullett township farm of John McMillan, M.P.., on threshing, yielded 370 bushels.ofthe variety known as Michigan Amber. James Biggins of the London Road, recently sold to Mr. N. Matheson, 12 head of two.year old cattle at $60 per head. The horses belonging to Patrick Bary off the fourth concession of Hibbert, ran away while he was reaping. smashing the reaper and scattering it over the field. AUGUST 23,1907 Egmondville correspondent recently suggested the name of the village should be changed. To do this would be a mistake as it is a very pretty name. The name has been known since the first settlement and should not be forgotten. Last Friday evening the fire alarm was sounded and in a very few minutes- flames were seen shooting from the derrick at the Coleman salt works. Although the derOck was a complete wreck, the fire was kept Nom spreading to nearby buildings. After ,returning home, the firemen were again called when a fire was discovered in the clothing factory of W.E. Southgate Co., located at the southern limits of Seaforth. The entire building, with all contents and machinery, was totally destroyed. The foundation has been dug out for the new cement walls of the Methodist church "sheds in Hensall. The old sheds and stables will be pulled down. • All the prolific stock and successful raisers are not confined to rural districts, Mr. G.F. Youngblutt of Hensel) has a hen that has a brood of 18 chicks. AUGUST 112, 11932 A by-election will be held in the South Huron constituency necessitated by the sudden death off Thomas tM k illan, M.P. Former Seaforth Mayor, W.H. Golding will contest' the seat in the interests of the Liberals. W.E. Southgate has succeeded in produc- ing the ultimate in freak garden products. He recently discove'red growing on a potato vine in his.garden, a small tomato. The Brussels Dramatic Society presented the play, "The Old Home Place'` in Seaforth, under the auspices of the Ladies Aid off Northside United Church'. The proceeds amounted to some $40. Mr. E.C. Boswell, manager of the Baden Dominion Bank, has been appointed man- ager of the Seaforth branch of the bank. The position was made vacant by the death of Mr. R. M. Jones. Arnold R. Turnbull, son of Mrs. George Turnbull, Seaforth, has been appointed manager of the London, England office of -the Imperial Life Insurance Company. Receiving his early education in Seaforth, he graduated from the University of Toronto in 1927. SS#12 GREY AND McKILLOP—The year was 1924 when this school gathered for the photographer. The photo has been loaned by Olive Williamson Clarke of Atwood, Back, from left, are teacher Louise.Mills, now Louise Buttel of Blyth; Jim Williamson, Jim Ritchie, Reunion.entertains fend Norman Williamson (deceased); Della McNab, Nora Hoegy (deceased), and Olive Williamson. In front, from left are, Marie Coutts, Olda Williamson, 'Ruth Engler, Myrtle McCallum, Gertie Pride and Isobel Coutts. Summer is the time for family reunions. Other people fighter pilots, newspaper- men. Legionnaires, Women's Institutes. Librarians — have them any old time. But in almost every weekly newspaper across the land, every week of our two month summer, you can read that the Jojes family, or the McIntosh family, or what -ever, had a reunion. followed by a list of who Was there, who came the farthest, who was the oldest, who was the youngest, who hosted the reunion. and everything down to what was on the menu. Not too exciting to the average reader, but important to the family. so dutifully reported. After the reunion. on the way home, there's the usual obituary. "My God, wouldn't you think that Esther would stop, after having seven in 10 years." And, "Tina's got turrible fat. She's due for the big slab if she don't stop eating. Seven pieces of pie after a feed a • shanty man couldn't handle." Or, "Too bad Wilbur's got so fonda the stuff, They found him out behind the barn at I I a.m., and hadda use a block 'n' tackle to get him up to the table." And so on. Well. 1 avoid family reunions like the plague, but this summer 1 was guilty of attending one. My reasons were, three -fold: a sense of responsibility, love. and a chance to spend some time with my only and beloved daughter. The occasion was the 90th birthday of my uncle. Ivan Thompson, patriach of the clan. last of a family of eight. and a remarkable man. When you think of a 90 -year-old. you think of an old man, huddled in a shawl. toothless, senile or almost, sitting in a rocking chair. caring gruel. You don't think of a bright-eyed. lively, keen•minded fellow who could walk people like me up a mountain and leave them, gasping. about halfway up. as he reached the summit. 2ggoQ cmd $p0Q@ by ©O SEAn@r, Born in 1,892 on the island of Calumet, in the Ottawa River, in the lumbering days, he graduated from the school of hard knocks. His father was sluice -master at the Roche Fondue, a rapids in the river. where logs were diverted down a wooden sluice so they would not be smashed td splinters in the rapids. Young Ivan had to work on the family farm abutting the river. In his youth. he was an athlete, playing hockey for Shawville, which produced NHL star Frank Finnigan. With little formal education, he went into business, did well during many years in Montreal, retired, and bought some land along his beloved Ottawa River. where .he built, mostly by hand, a beautiful Jog cabin which he still visits every summer. in every respect, he is a self-made, self-educated and widely read man. He's my idea of what - somebody with guts and initiative could,and still can do. in this great country. But, beside those virtues, he has charm, wit, and great vitality. And these are why I've loved him since I was a kid, not because he "made good," On my way overseas, 1 visited him in Montreal• was treated like a son, and slipped a small cash donation. When i got back from overseas. same thing. His life has not been all roses. He lost a brilliant young won who was in his 20s. His wife died in an automobile accident. But his spirit. though deeply hurt, bounded back. At 80, he seemed 60. At 90. he seems about a year older than 1. And we look alike. When 1 was -a kid, about half the time my mother called me Ivan before she remembered 1 was Billy. After serving in World War 1, he worked hard in forming the Canadian Legion to make sure "you boys" of the second war got ' better deal from government than his generation did. He was also active in politics. and is a great environmentalist. He is beloved by his huge collection of nieces and nephews. daughter and grandchildren, and hundreds of cousins. Dear Uncle Ivan. I salute you as a great Canadian, and will be there for your 100th, even if I have to take an ambulance. I had two bonuses in going to Ottawa for my uncle's birthday. 1 got away from my grandchildren fora couple of days, just about the time 1 was going to crack-up, and I had a good visit with my daughter. We ate at an outdoor cafe. We went to a horror movie. We ate a gigantic pizza in Ottawa's burgeoning city centre. We went to hear a.rock group in which an old friend of hers. and a former student of mine was playing. My ears are still ringing. but I must admit i enjoyed it, We ate and drank in a swanky cocktail lounge at the Chateau Laurier and heard some excellent jazz. And we talked and talked and talked, without her kids or her mother interrupting. That was a treat. She was in great spirits, doing well in her university courses. and has found a place to live in a gond settion (but in a crumhy basement apartment). She told me Ottawa was a beautiful city, as she drove me around, but you couldn't prove it by me, My eves were shut tight and my fists clenched in my lap. She drives a beat -up old Datsun as though she were in the Grand Prix. Most of us slow down when we see an orange light. She speeds up to beat the redone. And everyone else in the city drives like that. Anyway, that was my big summer adventure. I'm still shaky from that driving, but have recovered enough to start making peanut butter and honey sandwiches again. SEPTEMBER 6, 1957 Attendance at the Seaforth Lions pool showed an increase of 50 per cent over 1956. In all, 15,916 bathers used the pool during the nine weeks it was open. Well known poultry breeder, J,M. Scott will take a ten day trip to British Columbia and California. He will be accompanied by Professor Ross Cravers of the Ontario Agricultural College. •He will represent Ontario producers at meetings being held on the west coast. Mrs. Alex Smith of . McKillop 'suffered burns recently when a pan of paraffin was spilled over her. The accident was the third in, a series. During the past year, she has had both a leg and arm broken.. During an electrical storm at Walton, Rae Houston of concession 16, Grey township lost two valuable cows and two calves. The cattle were struck by lightning. Mount Forest O.P.P. are investigating a breakin and theft at George Pollard's chain saw store in Brussels. Thieves ransacked the office and made off with a 5400 cash register containing about $8 in silver. "I wis I t S Oddi @Wdo b� [aU@Bti@ Tcpwnzbend Leafing through newspapers and maga• zines, we often find quotes that make us smile or nod our heads in agreement or say to ourselves, "Wish 1 had said that!" The statements we are most likely to remember are the short, snappy ones. Last week 1 shared with -you a few notes that 1 had found while reading. Most of them quotes were made by well-known people. This week 1 want to add a few more. Most of these had no names attached. From anonymous, and maybe amateur philosophers, come wise and witty sayings to cover almost every aspect of life. Animals, for instance. "Even if you kill the dog, you will not cure the bite." And, "If you hurt animals, you are not far from hurting mant" Someone commented about the sport of • fishing: "On a fishing trip, the real fish are not always in the water.' We have often heard that "silence is golden." Someone added to the thought: - "Silence is the element with which great things arc built." People are as diverse as the comments that describe them. For example. someone believed that "an individual is like a bicycle: to be balanced it must be in motion." Others observed: "What you know fills you: what you don't know fills the universe." "The world needs poets like the night needs stars." and "Man is an omnibus in which strolls his ancesto`rs." Emotions are often discussed: "It is never hate that puts an end to hate: it is love." "Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance." "Hope ever urges on' and tells us tomorrow will be better." "An ounce of vanity spoils a hundred weight of merit." "Most people are as happy as they arc determined to be," And. "No one needs a smile more than the one that has none to offer," Advice is easy to come by. Some of it's humourous: most of it's priceless. "To educate a man is to prepare him to face auy situation." "Often to justify our negligence, we say we are too busy." "To be interesting. you must be interested." "The best way to triumph in a quarrel is to avoid "Be wiser than others if you can but don't let them feel it... "It is always by way of the heart that we can reach the mind." "Do not condemn anyone: any fool can do as much." "To investigate all the facts: that is the way of the clever one." "Sell not thy conscience with thy goods." "Energy and persistence alter all things." "Borrowed garments never fit well." "You can hide a had deed from others but never from yourself." "Minds are like parachutes: they only work when they're open." "Know what you want to do and do it. You can do it." And, "They are all able because they think they ate able." Maybe Post Office can save more money Once again. leading the way to a new age of efficiency the Canada Post Corporation has come up with anew cost-saving measure with the announcement that after this Saturday those of us on rural routes won't be getting our mail on Saturdays any more. Well, it wasn't really announced. The word just kind of leaked out. The Post Office seems to havr learned that a leak travels fifty times as fast as a letter. The Post Office seems to have been trying to sneak this one through without letting us know about it at all. The London Free Press had caught wind of the fact that something might he happening but when they called the Post Office on August 13. a whole week before the news leaked out. they were told it was all just a rumour, So the newspaper, which delivers CO some 13,000 customers through the mail. and we who live out in the country, got only one week to figure nut what we're going to do when we can't get our mail on Saturday. The Post Office could have ddne a much t by KlgOth il©Qf9 4ow better job of hiding the news however. Instead of letting the'news come out in last Saturday's newspapers. they could have held it another week or so and when it came out in the newspapers on Saturday we in the country wouldn't have been getting the newspapers and therefore we woutlin't know we weren't getting Saturday mail any more. We'd just walk down the lane, ,stare into the empty mail box and think the Post Office was up to its usual standards of delivery. Ah but i shouldn't be so hard on the post office. Perhaps they did plan on giving us enough notice that all this was going to happen. They just made the mistake of sending out our notice by mail. When will they ever learn? Which brings up an interesting problem about the cancellation of rural mail delivery. If we can't get our mail on Saturday what are we going to do with the mail that shouldh ave come by Monday but didn't make it before the end of the week. is the post office going to speed things up enough that we'll get our Monday mail by Friday? Ah but I'can see the efficient mind of Michael Warren at work here. If we don't get our Monday's mail until Saturday but we can't get it on Saturday because we don't have Saturday mail any more, they'll have to hold it over until Monday. The post office will then be able to prqudly claim that we are getting Monday's mail on Monday. How's that for same-day service. The, Post Office says it has the figures to prove that people weren't getting much mail on Saturday anyway (perhaps because Saturday's mail was being held up to delivery on Tuesday?) so the biggest hardship for those of us who live out in the country will be the fact we can't get our newspapers delivered on Saturdays. Perhaps Mr. Warren in his wisdom will now have the government pass a law that says the world will stop for the weekend so that those of us out in .the country won't miss anything. But then perhaps it's just as well we won't he getting the newspaper, on Saturday. At least that will giveus one day's rest from reading in the newspaper how horrible the postal service has gotten and how much more the postal workers get than us normal folks who pay their salaries and how they're having such a hard time of it in these inflationary times that they're going to have to go on strike again and leave us with no mail at all. But who am 1 to complain. The Post Office is going to save money by this bold move of eliminating Saturday mail delivery; This reduction in service is estimated to save the Post Office $4 million a year. That means every time i don't get my mail on Saturday 1 am doing my part in eliminating the Post Office deficit of 5660 mitlin: my bit totals saving the Post Office 11 cents per week if you take their figures of saving 54 million by not delivering mail to 640.000 households in the countryside. This saving of 54 million will go a long way to getting the Post Office out of the mess it's in. It may even pay for the pay increases Mr. Warren and his aides got a couple of months after they took their new jobs. But just think Michael, it's just the beginning. If you can save 54 million by not delivering Saturday, you could save another $20 by not delivering Monday through Friday. That would leave only a deficit of $636 million for delivering no mail at all. This should fit right in with your enlightened policy of charging us twice as much to mail a letter which is returned to us if everything in the address is right but the postal code. 'I -mean who wants to be bothered delivering all those letters anyway.