The Citizen, 2015-07-30, Page 7THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2015. PAGE 7.
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RR#1 39843 LONDESBORO RD.,
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Saturday 8 am - 5 pm
Sunday 9 am - 4 pm
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‘Pass the Buck’ goes back to knife as dealer token
Older male readers will, no doubt,
remember a ‘buck’ knife. And most
men in the early west carried a
jackknife made by the Buck Knife
Company. Playing poker was also a
favourite pastime of cowboys. It was
a common practice to place a buck
knife in front of the dealer to identify
him. As the game progressed to a
new dealer the deck of cards and the
knife were passed along. If this
person preferred not to deal he
would ‘pass the buck’ along to the
next player. If that player agreed to
deal then ‘the buck stopped there’
and the game continued.
Regular worship services resume
at Londesborough United Church
this Sunday, Aug. 2. The Wednesday
coffee and conversation mornings
will begin again as well on Aug. 5.
The news of the sudden passing of
Murray Adams was met with
disbelief by area residents on
Saturday, July 18. People gathered at
Londesborough United to share
memories of the pieces that made up
the man and his life.
Murray was a Hullett Township
resident for all of his 71 years. His
parents farmed just east of London
Road on Winthrop Line and when
Murray married and began his
lifelong passion of farming he
settled on a farm a mile and a quarter
north at the edge of Londesborough.
Through the years, Murray was a
part of village life being an active
member of Londesborough United
Church, the bowling teams and the
local Lions Club and a friend to all
he encountered.
Eventually Murray got out of pig
farming and concentrated on cash
cropping. More recently he and Ann
had decided aspects of retirement
appealed to them and the land was
rented out. Not to say that Murray
wasn’t still interested, just not as
involved. Now he had more time to
give to his other interests because
Murray always had a ‘project’ of
some sort. His handyman abilities
were no doubt appreciated by Ann at
her hair salon in Clinton for many
years.
His children recall that Murray
could fix anything, from toys to
tractors, in the barn or in the house,
because he was a ‘keeper of useful
stuff’. And he always had advice to
share with them. If his advice was
ignored, he quietly supported their
ideas and allowed them the
experience of learning on their own.
His eldest son noted that Murray was
loyal, consistent and reliable, a
father who shared his wisdom and
taught by example.
Meeting Murray one might
consider him standoffish,
conservative, reserved, quiet. Not so.
This was a man who did his research
whether for farming or making
decisions as part of a group. Murray
was just standing back, listening to
all sides of issues and forming his
own opinion. His suggestions were
well thought out and invariably hit
the mark.
One did not have to agree with
Murray. He went along with the
majority decision with no animosity.
But one could count on a meaningful
discussion. He liked to play the
devil’s advocate and was
knowledgeable about a wide range
of topics. And Murray was
competitive when playing cards,
backgammon and curling.
In retirement Murray intended to
continue his involvement with the
lives of his children and be an
important part of the lives of his
grandchildren who spoke of him as
fun, handy, a tractor driver, a teacher,
someone who grew things and
always had time for them.
Even after several years of putting
this column together each week I am
surprised to receive comments about
the items I have included. This past
week I had a call from Joan Addison
of Clinton in connection with the
story about the Grand Bend Rotary
Club and its shipping of articles to
South Africa. Turns out that the
packing in these containers is
sometimes sleeping mats woven
from milk bags. The mats protect the
materials being shipped and the
group who makes the mats gets free
shipping to the children of South
Africa.
Joan is one of several Huron
County residents who gather in the
Grand Bend Anglican Church
regularly on Wednesday mornings to
make the mats. She remarked that
the project is always in need of milk
bags. Also Joan noted that storing
the bags you collect flat in a box,
rather than scrunched up in a bag
makes the mat making easier.
Many hands make light work and
there is no aspect of the project that
is particularly difficult, whether
clamping the flattened bags together,
cutting them in strips or weaving
them together. Didn’t we all learn to
weave in the primary grades? If you
are interested in learning more about
this project give Joan a call at 519-
482-7018.
By BRENDA
RADFORD
Call
523-4296
PEOPLE AROUND
LONDESBORO
NEWS
FROM LONDESBORO
Find a job or advertise
a job on the
Jobs In Huron section of
our website at
www.northhuron.on.ca
Taking the tour
The Auburn Horticultural Society held its annual garden tour last week and the first thing they
did was leave Auburn. The first stop on the tour was Falhaven Farms, south of Goderich,
where Mike Falconer custom breeds day lilies. From left: Joni Reinhart, Lois Rowe, Ruth Alton,
Falconer, Cathy Fisher and Sharon Nivins. (Vicky Bremner photo)
FDNH benefitting from scribe
The Fire Department of North
Huron (FDNH) has begun using a
new scribe program aimed at
helping to record actions taken at
fire scenes.
The program was brought up
during North Huron Council’s July
21 meeting when Deputy-Reeve
James Campbell mentioned that the
records kept by the FDNH for a fuel
spill in Wingham went “way
beyond” was the Ministry of the
Environment (MOE) expected.
“They were very impressed with
the record keeping,” Campbell said.
FDNH Chief David Sparling said
he would pass that on to the
firefighters and explained that the
scribe is on scene to record what is
said and what actions are taken by
the firefighters through the incident
commander.
“This was part of the takeaway
from the Elliot Lake mall collapse,”
Sparling explained. “The local fire
chief was put on the stand and didn’t
have a record. There were numerous
questions that weren’t clear or were
unanswered. The OPP chief there,
however, had a scribe and that made
it easy, so it’s definitely
worthwhile.”
After the meeting, Sparling
explained that the scribe will be
made a part of the fire department’s
existing social media system and
will let the public know what has
occurred at scenes when the
information is available and able to
be shared.
Councillor Trevor Seip asked why
it had taken so long for information
about the fuel spill to be made public
and Sparling said that the MOE is
responsible for that.
“As the fire department, we can
talk about fires and the damage they
cause, OPP talks about collisions
and the MOE handles situations like
that,” he said.
Sparling pointed to a recent pig
barn fire that was covered by The
Citizen as a perfect example of how
information can change depending
on the source, a problem he wants to
curtail.
Sparling said three numbers of
animals lost during the fire were
presented and all three could be
considered right depending on how
the context.
Thirty animals were lost during
the fire with another 70 (total of
100) dying shortly after. Other
reports of as many as 500 pigs
being potentially lost from a
produce standpoint were also
circulated.
“We reported the 100 because that
was the number that we were able to
verify,” he said. “However, that
wasn’t the information that went out
from all sources.”
Sparling went on to say the scribe
could help clear up information like
that.
“We don’t want to release private
information, but we want people to
be informed,” he said. “At the end of
the day, we’re in a social media
world, so news moves quickly
whether it’s accurate or not. We
want to manage the fire side of that
equation as best we can.”
Sparling, returning to the fuel spill
issue, said he hopes the MOE has
more resources dedicated to the
same social media process, so he
didn’t know why there was a delay
in getting information out.
He noted that in a larger city
centre, people waiting two or three
days to find out the severity of a fuel
spill in an urban area would
likely not be acceptable to
residents.
By Denny Scott
The Citizen