Loading...
Clinton News-Record, 1971-11-04, Page 4, Thursday, November 4, 1971 4 Clinton News-.Record Feeding ants-Americanism Many American's seem terribly offended lately about the ill-feeling toward their country expressed in other nations. Some Americans living in Toronto were recently interviewed in a newspaper and the biggest complaint they had was the anti-American feeling they met, It was not on a personal basis they said, but toward their country, After the events of the last couple of months, it's a cinch the situation isn't going to improve. First there was the surtax on imports and the resulting chaos in the world economic situation. Next was the problem of seating China in the United Nations. Then came the American Senate's vote which killed the foreign aid bill. And finally there is the Amchitka atomic test which, although opposition has been heavy both within and without his country, President Nixon has decided to go ahead with. The Americans shouldn't really be blamed for the surtax, because, after all they have to look out for their own needs. They can be blamed for the way they have been using the surtax as a blackmail measure to get the upperhand in dealings with our country. Blackmail isn't an endearing activity. The U.S, was also making a point in the UN debates on China and they were right to a certain extent, There should be a place to Formosa in the UN, but it is not in the seat given to China. The opponents who defeated the foreign aid bill had a point when they said they wanted to defeat the bill so they could re-examine all programs and make sure they were necessary. Certainly there must be a lot of waste in the program which has been going for 25 years, and growing for 25 years. But there is no excuse in the Amchitka blast. What can really be gained by the blast? After 25 years of testing, surely the American scientists know just about as much about such blasts as they need to know, What can be lost? The west coast of North America. Sure, probably it won't happen, but who can guarantee it won't? If the test goes off with no *mediate bad effects, the President will rub his hands and say "I told you so." But that makes about as much sense as placing one bullet in a revolver, spinning the chamber, pulling the- trigger and saying "See there's no danger", if the gun doesn't go off. Sooner or later the gun will go off if you keep pulling the trigger. And sooner or later something has to go wrong if we keep exploding bombs which cause as much disruption as an earthquake. But President Nixon seems to be thumbing his nose at the rest of the world and saying, "I can get along without any of you." It's like a little boy who goes around hitting all the other boys in the face, then wondering why they don't like him. Vital U.S. Soviet pact In a world where gloomy news reports seem to be well ahead of good tidings, it is heartening to find that the United States and the Soviet Union have signed a vital new treaty. It is aimed at ,preventing accidental war. If by accident a nuclear weapon should be fired, the agreement calls for prompt consultation, and the country responsible for firing the missile would take all measures to render the weapon harmless. At the same time, Washington and Moscow signed a pact establishing a faster hot-line by using satellites. For billions of people who know of the Mind pollution Some years ago the American writer and wit, Don Marquis, theorized that boredom with the welfare state and the affluent society would soon drive people back to barbarism. Listen to any newscast today, scan the papers, watch television or the movies and it seems fairly obvious that we are fast reaching that stage of retrogression. We live with violence every day and it's doing something dreadful to the psyche. We've developed an immunity to shock, a tortoise shell against compassion. Famine in Pakistan is too remote; war and massacre have left us numb, It is a matter of statistical record that out of 10 dramatic sequences 41 television designed for children, three are opehly violent. In addition 71 percent of children's programs have at least one violent scene, many of them involving the use of weapons. Even more startling is the fact that little or no serious damage ever results. The violence is part of the game. existence of many thousands of nuclear warheads, below the seas, in the air and on the ground, such new pacts are very real signs of hope for mankind. We have lived in the grim shadow of nuclear warfare for too long already, and at last there are definite indications of change on the horizon. The mood of detente between the two super-powers is a great step forward. It means that the kind of confrontation, nuclear or otherwise, that would draw humanity into still another world war, today seems to be out of the question. —contributed. It is condoned and becomes an acceptable problem solver. Is it any wonder then that it spills over into the nation's behaviour patterns in our streets and parks and even our homes? Are we bringing up a generation of insensitive, brutalized human beings to whom violence on TV and in the world at large are much the same? The answer is probably 'yes' and 'no'. 'Yes' from those likely to be affected by watching dramatized violence, 'no' from those young people who sing peace songs and refuse to be part of the national savagery that drops jellied gas bombs on defenceless people. However, we cannot risk one child being infected by the violence he or she watches on television or movies. A campaign against this type of mind pollution is needed just as urgently as the campaign against the pollution of our environment. —contributed. It happens to everyone, Bill Sombre November rxmbl irww with Lucy , 111111101.17111111111111111.11111110110 BY LUCY K. WOODS October has been a beautiful warm month. Lucy enjoyed sitting outside more than during the past summer or in 1970. One day Carl prevailed upon her to go for a drive in the car to see the houses which have been erected in Bayfield during the past four years - probably in another decade she wouldn't reeognize the village where she has lived all her life. Then after a tour around most streets, she was driven up the old trail to the Clinton road and on up hill and down dale on the Bayfield Line. The colouring was so beautiful. The golds and reds of the maples, birch, etc. seemed to crowd in on one going past Jowett's bush. How narrow it seemed, but Luey recalls that it was worse in the horse-and-buggy days. Two horse-drawn vehicles couldn't pass. So when one got to the turn where a big beech tree bore a religious text exhorting the sinner to be saved, one looked, or at night listened for a buggy or cutter and then urged the horse through the narrow terrain to the wider approach to Fraser's Creek. Not since 1960 have we had such a beautiful autumn. And no one need go out of Huron County in search of anything better. Thus it happened in Thanksgiving week that Miss Carrie Dixon, Canon and Mrs. Paull were out driving about to see the beauty spots. On their way from Benmiller to Auburn, they spotted three very large birds on top of an elm tree. Miss Dixon who is a member of the Brantford Nature Club ( a former president) got out her binoculars and identified them as Turkey Buzzards. Farther along the road they saw three more which had been feeding on a dead skunk which had been run over. Turkey buzzards have a wing spread up to six feet. They are black with small red heads (bare except for a few bristolly hairs, and in the young black in colour). They have large strangly- hooked bills with open nostrils. Their rather long toes, the back one elevated, are weakly hooked thus preventing them from hanging on to prey. They are therefore scavengers and serve a useful purpose in devouring carrion. They may be seen soaring gracefully at great heights by making use of the wind currents. Their wings are held above the horizontal in a wide V, thus distinguishing them in flight from the bald-headed eagle whose wings are held horizontally. In Canada they are found in southern Ontario in a V-shaped area made by a line drawn from Parry Sound to the western part of Lake Ontario and also through the southern prairie provinces, B.C., to Comox on Vancouver Island. The female is the larger bird. She builds no nest but lays two yellowish white eggs with irregular brown spots and sometimes lavender tint, under logs, rocky crevices or caves. These she incubates in from 30-41 days and feeds young by regurgitation. Carl thinks that perhaps the reason there are not so many as in his young day is the lack of carrion. When an animal died years ago it was dragged to the bush where its bones were picked clean. Now dead beasts are sold for fertilizer. About 60 years ago an elm tree on the fourth concession, Stanley, reputed to be the tallest in the area, about half a mile south from Carl's farm was struck by lightning. Being hollow it burned for a long time before the huge trunk fell over. A turkey buzzard decided that this was a good spot in which to hatch. Of course the young men of the neighbourhood knew all about it. Earl Collins who was living in Tuckersmith at that time was in the area and decided to crawl in and look at the eggs or young. As he approached the female regurgitated.- The stench was such that he lost no time in getting out again!!! Carl also told Lucy that Earl Collins was wonderful with bees. A swarm of bees' had located in one of the outer walls of the Henry Diehl residence and the honey began dripping down the inside wall. So they sent for Earl Collins. He cut out some boards and reached in for the honey combs. Only One bee stung him on the finger when he pinched it in trying to break off a bit of cone. He was trying to find the Queen bee. The workers were crawling all over him but did not sting him. One angry bee stung Carl although he was away back by the gate. Another time the honey bees swarmed on an apple bough in the orchard. They telephoned for Earl Collins. He drove over with the car, cut off the bough, wrapped it in a sheet and drove off nonchantly with the bees buzzing around in the car. And speaking of honey bees in this last week in October they are still swarming over a veritable hedge of French marigolds at "The Hut". Lucy counted as many as five on one plant, And the Monarch butterflies and some moths were sampling them as well as the delphinium. Lucy was not pleased with the over friendly attention of mosquitoes which left their marks on her, The dragon flies buzzed about but kept their distance. What's new. at Huronview THE CLINTON NEW ERA Amalgarhated THE HURON NEWS-RECORb Established 1865 1924 Established 1881 Clinton News-Record A member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) second class mail regittration number — 0817 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (in advance) Canada, $6.00 per year; U.S.A., $7,50 KEITH W. RO1JLSTON — editor J. HOWARD AITKEN General Manager Published every Thursday at the heart of Huron County Clinton, Ontario Population 3,475 TEE ROME OF RADAR IN CANADA We've just been through a perfect late fall weekend in these parts. The sort of weather we'd been waiting for all summer, and which refused to arrive. But the weather was the only thing that was perfect. The rest of the weekend was a comedy of errors. My wife had lost her glaeses. She can see about 18 miles, but has trouble with the Small print. So I *as volunteered on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, when I had planned to get in a last game of golf, to drive 75 miles round trip, with her, to the optometrist. For an eye examination? Oh, no, she could have obtained a prescription from the doctor. No, Merely so that she could choose trebles for the darn' things that would enhance her beauty. She had explained that the optometrist was closed on Wednesday afternoons, and that since I was free on Saturday, there Was ho reason I couldn't drive her yak yak yak. Just before we left she Wondered Whether she should call to make sure he was open. I stared at the Idea, "Don't be silly., If he closes Wednesday afternoon, he'll be open Saturday, Especially with all that out-of-town business," So the didn't. I mellowed a bit on the way, with the sun smiling on 'a world of magnificent colour. But I'd still rather have been six other places, We got there, parked, walked to the store and — you grabbed it— he was eloeed. Tee minutes later we were et the curt recrimination point, and 20 minutes after that we were laughing as we lumbered oft' on the home journey, Arrived chez nous and the house was like'an oven. We'were bickering about who had turned the thermostat up to 75 (it was 75 outside), when a sepulchral voice from above informed us that our only begotten son had arrived, taken a shower, and turned on the heat to avoid a chill. He's the same character who Will Walk around in his bare feet in winter, Following a long-distance call of a few days before, we had half-expected him, along with his kid sister. Half, because you never know With them. However, Old Fuss-Boots had decided we should stock up with grub, just hi ease. We hadn't all been together for about eight months. So we went all out: a turkey, a big roast, wine; all sorts of goodies, The freeter was bulging with meat. Kiwi •didn't come. When his mother asked Hugh what he Would like Tot dinner, and rhymed off the delicacies, he answered calmly that he was a vegetarian and had brought his own little packet of brawn rice. There are times When it's hard to keep your temper, but we Managed. By the time we'd Sorted this out, coolly, we had a desultory dinner of boiled brown rice for him, Kentucky fried chicken for us. But fate still had a facile, fickle ringer for us. Hugh had come home to get away from the city, see the glory of fall foliage, walk in the woods and on the lonely beach. He woke up Sunday morning, stretched his heck, and had a muscle spasm. This is 4 thing that sets your neck over on one shoulder and gives you a foretaste of hell if you try to turn your head. Spent most of Sunday, another perfect day, trying to find the local chiropractor at his carefully concealed cottage 10 miles from town, and thereafter slapping hot tOwels On Hugh's neck. He could see only the foliage on one side of the road, as we drove. Home to Mama, and the last blow had fella', The freezer compartment of the fridge wasn't working. And it was loaded with meat. All of which was rapidly getting limp. The meat is in the neighbours' freezer, Hugh's neck is slightly better, and, at time of writing, it's another beautiful day in which I have been Chained, first, in an institution, and second, to my typewriter. Tomorrow, everything will be baek to normal, And it'll snow. The TV wedge People who write newspaper columns are assumed to have answers to almost everything, though they may be mental basket cases, and it would surprise you, I'm sure, how often readers write in for advice. I often to try to dodge an answer, being in a perpetual quest for them myself, but on occasion it is irresistible. Here, for example, is a letter that concerns the effect of excessive television viewing in family life. The woman writer gives me a humorous account of the nightly debates and arguments in her nest that are caused by the differing viewing tastes of all parties. "From the moment we sit down after dinner there is disagreement on which program to watch," she explains, "and sometimes we argue right through until the late movie," How, she wondered, was this domestic problem solved in our house? My reply to the lady, which I now realize was unforgivably flippant, was to suggest that anybody who watches that much television is in imminent danger of turning into a vegetable and that the problem Might resolve itself by so deadening any values of selectivity or discernment that the family 'eventually will took at almost anything, including their navels, with complete passivehess and detachment. This could solve their problem and ruin their lives unless, of course, they'd prefer to Withdraw from the human race. It was only after /nailed my reply that I chanced on a , much more sensible and scientific approach which, while it does not solve the situation, at least demonstrates what we're up against out here in the wastes of Televisionland. The warning is contained in an article by Or, Joust A. M. Meerloos, the noted psychiatrist and social psychologist, who has decided that "the technical box of Pandora has unleashed forces that man can no longer control," Dr. Meerloos sees television as a wedge that's being driven between parents and their children and you don't need to be a psychiatrist with a funny name to see that. According to this authority, automatic, lifeless tools have come to subStitute for the parental function of taking care and giving affectioh and, visualizing a home such as that of my correspondent, be saw in it "little true exchange of affectioh, little warmth, little kissing, little spirited conversation," a place in which "words serve merely as a medium for commands*" As I read that I was thinking of a neighbor of mine who, with his entire family, is really, completely, hopelessly hooked on television. One night recently the set broke down or burned out from sheer exhaustion. He confessed to me that it was a harrowing experience. They were all embarrassed and ill at easewith each other, having forgotten how to communicate. Finally, in panic, one of the children turned on the radio, cranked up the volume, and they all sat there looking at the radio. It was the father, as you may have guessed, who passed on to me Dr, Meerloos' report. Television, as Alfred Hitchcock has recently pointed out, has now became like an automatic toaster. You press a button and the same thing always pops up. The trouble is, I think, that few of us have realized it, that we constantly hope that, if we wait long enough, the toast will come up angel-food cake and, in fact, once in a long while it does, But the rest is dreary, clobbering ... . 15 YEARS AGO The Clinton New Era November 3, 1896 Clinton Knitting Co, is closing its branches and concentrating upon work in the head office. Several farmers in the area, including J. Schwante, J. Middleton and P. Rowelifte, are planting "silk trees," Much silk used is fibte silk, made from the foliage of certain trees. If the industry grows, probably the Clinton knitting Co. will enlarge the plant here and begin the manufacture of silk stockings. 55 YEARS AGO The Clinton New Era Noivrnber 2,1916 3„ H. Taxman, the Ontario Street garagemari, has enlarged his building and is busy finishing it up before winter sets in. Charlie Ham, the Baron Street laundryman, has had an electric light placed outside the door. Miss Mabel Aiigtrelehe, Port Colbourne, takes a position as clerk at the GTII, freight sheds. R. Graham, local agent for Overland cars, has sold seven cars this fall. The new owners are 0. P. MeTaggart, W. J. It, Holmes, J. Harland, Wes Stevens, to the senses, habit-forming, full of false and sickly attitudes to life and, worst of all, a completely painless narcotic. Its total effect is a kind of negation of living for all ages, all mentalities. Ideally a family should do without it entirely and yet there are always things coming along — always out of the prime-time hours — that are magnificent. Where I live, for example, we can get the programming of the U.S. Public Service Television and, unlikely though it may seem, coming from south of the border, it is both a joy and an education. About all you can do is to work out some sort of compromise such as we've tried with moderate success at our place, The rules call for both gals to select one show apiece per night when their homework is done unless, of course, there's something extra that I think they ought to see. I'd be a great big fibber if I said this eliminated all arguments, but when I've the will to enforce it we have some remarkably pleasant evenings looking at each other just like teal, living people. ............... ,1Wh, William Middleton, 3, Atkinsoe, 40 YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record November 5,1931 It is hoped that all loyal citizens will do their share in seeing that the first Remembrance Day is properly observed oh Wednesday next by joining in the public memorial service, and the strict observance of the two minute silence which is by far the most significant gesture associated with the desire to do honour to the The Impressions, a musical group from the Exeter Reform Church, supplied the music for a Sunday Evening song service arranged by the Christian Reform Church of Clinton and led by Dick Roorda. The Huronia Male Chorus from the Exeter area along with chorus director, Mrs. Carffrey, aecompanted by Mrs. Wildfong, piano; provided the program for Family Night, The chorus of 20 men blended their voices for a very enjoyable hour of music, singing several request numbers. Mr. Charles Godbolt, a member of Memory of those men who made the supreme sacrifice for their country and Empire. 25 YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record November 7, 1946 Clinton Btarich No. 140, Canadian Legion, has taken a definite forward step in the purchase of the A. W. Anderton residence on Ontario Street, just east of Wells Auto Electric, for use as a permanent home for the branch. the original Huronia Chorus thanked those taking part on behalf of the residents. Rev, Youmatoff of Bayfield led a lively sing-a-long at the program and tea on Wednesday afternoon sponsored by the Kinette Club of Clinton, Kinettes, Barbara Norman, Mary Helen Clifford, Carol Bowker, Pat Mann, Carol Finch and pianist Crystal Jewitt were responsible for the afternoon's activities and assisted the residents to the auditorium. Mrs. Jane Young expressed the appreciation of the residents. 15 YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record November 1, 1956 Two black cats accompanied by three stately ladies visited the News-Record shop last night. 10 YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record November 3, 1961 Hallowe'en went off fairly quiet in the area, although provincial police report a number of occurrences, however nothing of serious nature. Even fires seemed placed where they could do little harm. eSeeleeeee....