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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1982-12-29, Page 2inron$&xposifor Since 1860, Serving the Community firs? Incorporating -Brumme(+ Post founded 1872 12 Main St. 527.0240 Published at SEAFORTH,.ONTARIO every Wednesday afternoon by Signal -Star Publishing Limited Jocelyn A. Shrier, Publisher, ' Susan White, Editor '- A H.W. (Herb) Turkheim, Advertising Manager Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Community' Newspaper Assoc/ation and Audit Bureau of Circulation A member of the Ontario Press'Council Subscription rates: Canada $97.75 a year (In advance) outside Canada $50. a year (in advance) SIngIo Copies - 50 cents each Second class mall registration numbert3698 SEAFOR'ial, © TALI®, DECEPtI iER29, 1982 1 The' more things change the more they remain the same, That old cliche, and also the one about history repeating"itseif,,.un(ess we learn from it...ran through the mind tits week as we looked at the Huron expositor of late 1982 and the beginnirig of 1983. We've come a on way in Seaforth-and area over the past 10 years: But the striking thGng.about town 10 years ago is how many of the issues we were discussing then are still under consideration, albeit in different form, as we head Into 1983. The dump was a worry to Seaforth's council back then, and an incinerator looked like .the solution to the problem. It wasn't mainly because of costs, and 1983 ought to see a solution, as that same old champ is replaced by a new site. Seaforth's 1973 council, which by the way was acclaimed in 1972, as were all the reeves In neighbouring municipalities (10 years has definitely brought more involvement in local politics) also faced decisions about upgrading the town arena. We all, know how that was resolved in 1982, with the tearing down of the old and the construction of our brand new community centre. ,Then mayor, Frank Sills, said industrial land was a priority in 1973, and with the industrial park that was developed in the meantime now filled, it still is. The mayor also planned upgrading work on sidewalks and roads, ditches and drains, and that's still going on. And we hope, always will be. On the police front, Seaforth'e'`council of 10 years ago was making plans to hire a third constable. We still have" three, plus the chief, although from time to time the need for another member on the local force is bandied about. At the Huron County school board, trustee Dorothy Wallace and Seaforth's representative at the time, Molly Kunder, were calling for more open board meetings and less business conducted in committee. They lost their bid to have two complete board meetings a month. An Expositor editorial later in 1973 criticises the board's budget, saying it had riever been discussed in open meeting and therefore taxpayers had no idea why their education taxes were going up. Mrs. Wallace is still fighting -that -battle; we hope she has more success in 1983. Also on the county front, a plan to tear down the wall around the old Goderich jail, to provide parking for the neighbouring assessment office, was in dispute. That plan failed and the jail Is now a terrific tourist attraction for the county town. But at the time Ervin Sillery, who was then deputy reeve of Tuckersmith, was suggesting that if the assessment office needed room there was plenty of it at Vanastra. Echoes of the county museum debate that will rage into 1983 and of the bigger question of whether or not all county services, and tourist attractions, need to be located in Goderich. Provincially 1973 was a landmark year for the area, with the election of .Jack Riddell, first Liberal MPP in the South Huron riding in 30 years. There was a lot of talk about regional government In those days, and people of this riding had sent the Queen's Park Tories a message that they didn't think much of the idea. In the rural areas, farm severances were a blg issue, as they are becoming again, after generally quiet acceptance of the concept over the last few years. At Tuckersmith township council, poor old Egmondville was being talked about as needing sewers, They still haven't happened, and it doesn't bother many residents of the hamlet one bit. SDHS students got quite a bit of coverage the pages of the Expositor 10 years ago, with an excellent column by student Jean McKaig. Student volunteers are stillcontributing to the per, with their twice a month page, called The Junction. One of the lessons of looking back 10 years is that the concerns of those in a small' community like this one don't change a'heck of a lot. A good education for our kids; decent town services, reasonable taxes and not too much government interference In our daily lives are what many of us continue to want. If anything the look back gives us the feeling that most of what's happened over the last decade has been positive. And despite a gloomy national forecast to the contrary, we have hopes that 1983 will continue that way. The words of Frank Sills in his 1973 inaugural address as mayor still hold true: were lucky, he sald to live in "a grand town in a great country." He was right then, and he still is. Snow causes roof to cave, in 1882 DECEMBER 22, 1882 One day recently, Mr. Biddlecombe, the jeweller off Clinton, lost a pocket book containing between 5200 and 5300. He advertised a reward of $25 for the finder. Mrs, Briddlecombe was the lucky person, and will doubtless appear soon in a new set of furs. The butchers of Seaforth are makinga magnificent Christmas'display of meats and poultry. Mr. Ewing has 10 beeves, nine lambs, 16 pigs and an array of poultry and venison. Mr. Jones has 10 beeves, six lambs, two sheep, eight pigs and a lot of venison and poultry. The roof off a large shed on the premises of Thomas Downey caved in a few days ago froth the vyelght of the snow. Fortunately the building was empty at the time. James Johnston cif the second concession of Tuckersmith, has a ewe which made him a nice Christmas present in the shape of a brand new lamb. 'It is as sprightly and smart as if it had made its exit into this worldat a more seasonal period. 'The Brussels news reported a short sketch of differentindustriesin that thriving village. included were: salt works, three good saw mills, two flouring and grist mills, and steam fire engine works. The article includes names and capacity off each industry. Ill -1 f fa ) Revolution is a word that's become an integral part of our language used generally in the political or technological term but in the last few decades our society has seen a revolution that will rival the computer revolution in histories of the future. It's hard to believe now; looking back, just how different life was even back when 1 was growing up in the fifties. The coming of television, the new 'ease of lifestyle brought about by labour saving appliances in the home, these weren't the things that really changed society. What really changed were the attitudes, the rules of. society. 1 0n t G) y?©Qg @got@ t Winthrop correspondent writes: "w^ births, deaths, marriages, elopements, sQ« (addling or thefts to report from this place this week. It is horribly dull." Mr. B. Hoggarth of Hibbert recently sold a very, fine three year old bull for the grand sum of $150,_ DECEMBER 29, 11882 Edward Gibbons, Huron Road, Hulled, -has a curiousity in rite shape of a cabbage stalk, on which there are 23 well formed heads. Twenty two are close to the stalk, and on the top sits a larger head, covering the smaller ones as a hen would cover his chickens. Christmas day passed over quietly in Seaforth. The day was mild and pleasant, but the snow was so deep and soft on the roads outside the town that few people ventured far out on them. It was a common remark that seldom before had there been so many intoxicated men on our streets. W. Campbell of Harpurhey and Peter Hawthorne of Hullett returned home from Muskoka. They had a very successful expedition. Mr. Campbell got 20 deer besides small game and Mr. Hawthorne over a dozen. t.(11 el F I t III�U)IE'h:nd Owing to the unusually mild weather, the Gaolers are so far, losing all their fun this winter. There has not yet been sufficient frost to make the iceood enough for curling on. Skating has not been very good either. The Seaforth station building is finally being torn down. For 25 years it has disgraced the town. Not one tear will be shed over its removal. The annual meeting of shareholders and patrons of the Union Cheese and, Butter` Factory in Walton was recently held. Amount of milk taken in the factory was ,1,239,596 pounds which made 121,529 pounds.,of. cheese, taking 10.20 pounds of milk on the average to one' pound. Amount of cash received for cheese was 13,608.09. i3ECEMBER 30, 2932 The little girls who won prizes in the Renal) Doll contest at Keating' s_�Pharmacy, Seaforth were: Louise Case, Wtlitw McLean, Gene- vieve Allen, Phyllis Scott, Margaret-)lh1dson, Mary Boswell,' Shirley Warm, Marie Eva s (Dublin), Barbara Sproat, Betty Nigh, June Fletcher, Jacqueline Habkirk, Elizabeth Bannon, Doris Venus, Jean Currie. 1s t •n(``i®BQ`�11 Q©uilve W remember, for instance, the big news when they decided to open the arena in our town on Sunday afternoon. Even then they couldn't charge money for skating but only took a silver collection because it was looked on as too commercial to charge for something on a Sunday. Looking back at '82 (Oct. 13) LEAVES ARE FUN— Most residents spend their spare time raking leaves, but kids think leaves are great. B.J. Little, left and Judy Horne had fun with a pile of leaves, burrowing themselves to their shoulders. Sure looks exciting. (Wassink Photo) A dollar doesn'tbuy much anymore Well, a typical week. Went to a euchre party and learned that i was even more stupid at euchre than I am—as my wife tells me—at bridge. And that is abysmally stupid. Fact is, 1 don't like games in which one must use one's mind and at the same time depend on Lady Luck. And my wife loves them. 1 had to, almost literally, drag her away from the euchre party. And I hate navigating, which I also contend, despite the protests of all the old World War 11 navigators who thought they bombed Essen when they were bombing an orphan asylum, is a trade for idiots who depend on such weird things as mathematics and physics, and not the trade for an intelligent personwho believes in witchcraft wiff The Lord, and a good pilot to get them home So almost endeth the lesson. My navigated borne. in rain-[ merely steered the brute. And she, learned that the shortest distance between two points is whatever way the car goes, with me at the wheel. After 1 gave up on her math, i turned to my intuition. We got home, finally, but the guy behind me wondered if i was leading him on a wild goose chase. Perish the thought. And speaking of wild geese, 1 had a visit from my grandboys. - There seems little connection, but there is. i took them down to the park to see the wild geese. to me an on•going source of awe. They're not really Augaf and opc* bGu1i Hc 97 wild. They're smart. They are Canada geese who have discovered that it's easier, and saves a lot of wear and tear on the wings, to dump themselves in the local park, and feed heavily on bread crumbs and fish -'n -chips, rather than fly south. Cost of flights south is even affecting the geese, let alone Canadian !turkeys, who pay enormous sums to get in he sun for a week in winter. Anyway, the boys thought the geese Were for the birds, yuk, and'that the sea -gulls were much superior. Untif 1 threw a bread -crust and they watched a great gander and an insignificant sea -gut,) go for it. No conflict. The kids apparently learned Some deep lesson about' Darwin, because they •started throwing stones (potential Toronto Argo fans?) at the sea -gulls. 1 also learned some other things, while the boys were here. 1 always do. My own kids were brought up in middle-class, properly repressive circumstances. They weren't to swear, break things, get their clothes dirty. They were to be respectful. not ask embarrassing questions of adults, and vote against the government. These grandboys are completely irrepres• sible. They might be a little quiet, patiently, contemptuously, during a five-minute harangue after they've just knocked a lamp off ateble, but it'sjust a cover. They roll their eyes at each other. They don't swear, but they know all the words, as a little listening will confirm. They break things with abandon, always coming up with the wide-eyed explanation that, "it lust broke." They jump. deliberately, into pud- dles that soak them to the navel. They call me "Bill." How's that for respect? They ask embarrassing questions. "How come your hair is black, Gran and Bill's is white? Why do you put your teeth in a glass at night, Bill, are you afraid the fairies wilt get them, and not leave you a dime? How come Gran gets mad when you fall -asleep with your mouth open, Bill? Hey, Gran, why are you getting so fat in the tummy? Are you going to have a'baby? And I also learned something about our society when I took them, and dumped them, at a matinee at the local cinema. First of all, it cost $1.50 to get in. Each. It was a dime in my day. Second of all, acting the big wheel, the affluent, benevolent grandfather. 1 gave them a buck each for treats. They looked rather askance. 1 checked the prices of goodies. No wonder they were askance. One dollar would not even buy them one (small) box of popcorn and one small pop. Sixty cents for a narrow box of stale popcorn and fifty cents for the smallest pop. And Balind dropped his dime, when made it up to $1,10. What a rip-off. The show opened at 1:30. The movie, a cheap cartoon, began at 2:00 and ran for an hour. And there, at the popcorn counter, in a town that is one of the worst in Canada, as far as the recession and unemployment goes, were all these little kids, waving two and five -dollar bills at the popcorn girl. Some recession. Some hard times. Their mother had a convenient migraine, and their gran had guests to prepare for. so the boys and I spent most of our waking time together. it was like spending a weekend with two charming con artists. You know perfectly well you're being taken. right down to the horribly expensive games they want for Christmas, but its so much fun that you scarcely feel the shaft going in. �1 1 III 1 Seaforth nomination meeting aroused much interest and was exeepttonally well attended. Nominated for Mayor was John F Daly and A.D. Sutherland. For Reeve, Robert Smith and John Grieve, U.S. For Council, Harold D. Dale, W.W. Crosier, Thos. J. Stephens, Isaac Hudson, John H. Scott, Louis Hberhart, Wm. M. Reid, Crich, Robert Johnstone, e, James Rivers,W.A. McMillan, George D. Ferguson, Ernest L. Box, Ross 3. Sproat, F.S. Savauge, J.WtI: tcattie and Frank Sills. Six counillors are to be elected. t The Seaforth Beavers lived up to their name in the Palace Rink when they defeated Goderich in their first game of the season. Those playing for the team include: C. Muir, G. Muir, B. Christie, C. Christie, W.C. Barber, T. Cluff, E. Rennie, C. Reeves and 3. Hart. Wit and Wisdom: "The world has moved so rapidly in the last 50 years that the whole of human experience avails us but little today. It's beyond us. If people would spend four Ilion, everybody would prosper; if the go ment spends four billion, everybody is poorer. 'e,.,Robert Quillen. • I can still remember when" the government made it as difficult as possible to buy liquor with as few stores as possible and complicat- ed procedures with the result that bootleg- gers were a major part of life. Remember too when a woman and man living together without the benefit of clergy were called "common law' with an inflection that automatically assigned them to a lower strata' of life? Remember the tremendous stigma that was attached to a young girl who got pregnant before the wedding day and the number of girls who used to disappear from high school to suddenly enroll in business college or hair dressers school in some city a safe distance away? There were great sighs of relief and even cheers when these strict rules of society' began to slacken. Many looked on the changes as an escape from medieval times to a better, freer society. With these changes came a corresponding decline in the power of the churches in our society. Where once just about everyone in a city, town or village went to church out of a feeling of necessity. only those.who really felt comfortable in church began going. Today we seem to have another kind of rebeiliot►.:against rules as we did in the fifties as people object to the growing number of laws imposed by government. We have a cynical public that feels put-upon by these laws and therefore, claiming the "rights" of the individual, feels free to break many of the leaser laws, even making it a political statement of doing so. The reason I mention the two different eras is that it seems to me they are connected. Mankind has always sought greater freedom: freedom from hunger, freedom from cold, freedom from fear of death at the hands of first wild animals, then other men, freedom from political oppression. We always keep thinking we can create a heaven or eartn. That is what people were doing ill the 1950's: seeking freedom. fl And they got freedom but they discovered that in freedom there is not necessarily heaven. For instance, for the average person who has wine with dinner or a beer while watching a hockey game on television, the freer attitude toward, alcohol has, been nothing but healthy. But for some people alcohol and its easier accessibility have brought problems. Thousands off people die every year in accidents caused by drunk drivers. Today, in an effort to combat the problem, the government is talking about jail sentences for first-time offenders found guilty of drunk driving. The. freer attitude toward Sundays has been a two-edged sword because some unscrupulous employers took advantage to overwork their employees. For a while it seemed the.Sunday would be just the same as any other day of the week as every business threatened to stay open seven days a week, until the government' stepped back in.. The thing we all seem to forget is that -society needs rules. Since time began tribes have had rules and taboos. Some rules have been cruel and seemingly without justificat- ion but most rules have had theireause. Many people, for instance. looked on the proscriptions to pre -marital sex as just a way to keep people who weren't married from getting pregnant and.so with the introduction of the pill thought the need to discourage sex out of marriage was over. Today, of course, the country faces an epidemic of venereal disease and realizes other things than Regnancy are, prevented by chastity outside of marriages.'.. Society must have rules to function and these will either be social rules set down by the morality of the church accepted by society or governmental rules,. These rules protect the majority from the minority who will push their own needs and wants if they can get away with it, no matter what the consequenc- es, for others and even the majority from itself when it thinks it wants something (such as free sex) but doesn't know the whole cost of that freedom. That's why some of that revolution of the fifties is likely to be reversed, We're either going to set oni�-own riltes or the' government will, 't' Christmas season means overeating Oddi CEwd� fOatwQ 4owneii*wi i In mid-December, i decided i should write this column because between Christ- mas'and New Years l probably would ttol have the time nor the inclination to sit down and type. - Iteverything goes according to tradition„1 ,will spend the week of December 27 suffering the effects of beer -eating while trying to exchange some Christmas gifts and writing New Year's letters alar were intended to be Christmas letters. I probably cheated on Christmas Eve by breaking into the box of chocolates i had been craving for several weeks. Christmas Day would begin with breakfast at my parents, followed by dinner at my sister and brother-in-law's. The traditional turkey, dressing. potatoes. pudding, etc, would make me say "1 won't need more food for a week.” But, knowing me, 1 was probably nibbling crackers and cheese, grapes and chocolates before the afternoon was over. (It's a shame to leave those goodies untouched.) In preparation for New Years Eve and New Years Day, l'II probably spend much of the week nibbling on any goodies that happened to survive the Christmas onslaught. This week 1'11 also enjoy the gifts I received, and I'll possibly have to exchange a few presents that 1. bought. Wrong size, wrong colour, wrong kind are mistakes that are easily made, but sometimes hard to correct. One thing puzzles me, Why does the one -size -fits -all hat not fit the head 1 bought it for? This week is also a chance to catch up on' some letter writing. My intentions are always good. Along with the Christmas card 1 send to friends and relatives who 1 haven't written to since last year, I will include a long newsy letter. )net biy, in a panic to get cards to their destinations before. Christmas, the letter is reduced to a "Hope you have a good Christmas". or "Best wishes for the New Year'. This is also.a good week to ponder New Year's resolutions. Increasing letter writing, making more phone calls and doing more visiting are good ideas. Improving my cooking by practicing sounds logical, and balancing my budget more successfully is essential. (should have more patience with my car on these cold winter mornings, and I should not let dirty dishes pile up in the sink the way 1 have been lately. Through 1983, i shohld remember upcom- ing holidays and get my columns in early instead of adding to the editor's last minute holiday rush. But the most logical resolution of all is the one that states I will not make any resolutions, It saves me from feeling guilty when I break all the other so-called resolutions. Trite though jt may sound, the only way can think of to conclude a New Year's column is to simply wish each of you all the best in 1983. Bequests from the poorhouse [Author anonymous, contributed by W.G. Strong of Ottawa) in the pocket of a ragged coat belonging to one, of the inmates of 'e Chicago Poorho,se, 1 am told, there s found, atter . . his death, a w,jll. The an had been a lawyer. So unusual it that it was sent to an attorh a story goes that he, was so impressed with its'contents that he read it before the Chicago Bar Association. Later it was probated. This is the will of the ragged old inmate of the Chicago poor- house: i, Charles Lounsberry, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, do hereby make and publish this my last will and testament in order to distribute my interest in the worlddfmong succeeding men. That part of my interest which is known in law as my property. being. inconsiderable and of no account. I make no disposition of. . My right to live being out a life estate, is not at my disposal, bttt, these things excepted, all else in the world I now proceed to devise and bequeath item: 1 give to good fathers and mothers, in trust for their children, all good little words of praise and encouragement, and all quaint pet names and endearments; and I charge said parents to use them justly, but generously as the deeds of 'their children shall require. item: 1 leave to children inclusiyely, but only for the time of their childhood, ail and every flowerof the field and the blossoms of the woods, with the right to play among them freely according to the custom of Please turn to page 3