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Clinton News-Record, 1972-04-20, Page 4Generation gap-who needs it? THE CLINTON NEW ERA Amalgamated THE HURON NEWS-RECORD 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 registration number — 0817 :SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (in advance) 'Canada, $8,00 per year; U.S.A., $9.50 KEITH W. ROULSTON Editor J. HOWARD AITKEN — General Manager Publithed the heart every Thursday at of Huron County' Clinton, Ontario Population 3,475 rilE HOME OF RADAR IN CANADA ti 4—Clinton News-flacon:, Thursday, April 20, 1972 Nixon visit - big deal A great deal of commotion was made last week over the visit of President Nixon of the United States to Ottawa. From here, it seems like a lot of fuss about nothing. The most noise was made about the talk of Nixon about Canada having a right to economic independence. Many, including the prime minister apparently, thought this was a big breakthrough in U.S.— Canadian relations, They seem to forget, however, that just because Nixon makes a statement, the world doesn't change. It has never been American government pol icy to overtly seek the economic domination of Canada. The domination has been achieved by the enterprise of American businessmen who have seen the opportunity to make money here while Canadians ignored it. Granted, from time to time the U,S. government has taken advantage of the economic ties between the two countries to exert pressure on the Canadian government, but we really For those of us who applauded the decision a couple of years back that Canada should pul I out of international hockey competition until we were allowed to compete with o,ur best players, the announcement on Tuesday that an eight-game series will be played between Canada and Russia next fall on an open basis is good news. Some people criticized the decision to pull out of the competition at the time and many have since said it was a "poor-sport" decision by Canada. But the country didn't need the black eye it was getting every year by sending over the 10th best players we had. Our amateurs (and even they were far from amateur) were way above their heads playing against the Russian "amateurs" who loved the game so Make it the best team While this newspaper has often voiced its criticism of the county school board system as set up by the provincial government, it must praise the Huron board for the way in which it has sought to cut costs. The county system has many built- in weaknesses that make it too expensive to operate, but considering these the local trustees have done a marvelous job keeping costs down while other county boards have gone wild in spending. The latest example of the frugality of the local board came to light this week when the decision was announced that the board would use the former Par-Knit hosiery plant for its new offices rather than build a new building, It is well known that a proposal had been put before the Board by a Clinton developer for a magnificent new building which would have been tailor-made for board Pinching the pennies well they played 10 months of the year. Now we are free to compete as an equal. But some disturbing things were said by Canadian officials after the announcement was. made. One amateur official said that although NHL players would be on the team that met the Russians, he doubted the entire team would be made up of professionals. This could be an embarrassing mistake to send over a team that was not made up of the best players available. How are we going to explain it if we lose to Russia with some second-rate players in the line- up while real stars do not take part. We should send our best, like Orr, Mahovolich, Esposito, Hull and Keon or be prepared to come home with egg on ourfaces. Let's not underestimate the Russians. haven't been in that much danger. The real danger is caused by Canadians who are too timid to see the opportunities to make money in Canada. Look around you: how many people do you see who are in business for themselves? How many work for the government? How many want a good secure job where they can retire at 65 with a fat pension? This is the real problem in Canada. Most people aren't interested in running their own business. They want security. We are the nation with more life-insurance per capita than any other nation in the world. No wonder much of the Canadian investment there is through insurance companies. No, the Nixon visit isn't going to change that much. Nothing is really going to change unti I the people of the country become energetic enough to buy back their country, or the nation turns socialist and nationalize all American businesses. out of every dollar, and in a county where most residents have to pinch pennies to make ends meet, this could be a great asset. requirements. Compared to this building, the renovated, factory will probably present many problems for the staff and members. However, the difference in cost wil I be a break for the Huron County taxpayer, one of the few breaks he's had in recent years, especially in the educational field. In contrast, the board in Bruce spent $300,000 on a new office. The board also did a scalpel job recently on its operating budget for the coming year, a move forced by cutbacks 'by the provincial government. Although it might have been easier to go first class in all things, it now appears Huron County has a board that is making sure it .gets the most value "Another opponent of the Village Lake Louise development is here to see you, Mr. Chretien!" purge all their feelings of remorse and guilt. They love to shake those tambourines." Mr. Smith quit drinking because of a fright that still haunts him and will, he says, forever, "A friend in AA found me in horrible shape andtook me to his house. It was about 10 in the morning. I'd been drinking all night. He put me to bed and I pretended to sleep. When he left the room I got into my clothes and climbed out the window and staggered across the lawn to his car. I was crazy to get back to my hotel and the bottle. I vaguely noticed alittle girl on a tricycle. In my confusion I put the car into reverse. I heard a crash and a scream. I was so shaken I couldn't get out of the car. I just put my head on the steering wheel and cried," The girl was uninjured, as it turned out, and Mr. Smith hasn't touched a drop since that day. "When I'm tempted," he said, "I just remember that scream." I asked Mr. Smith if he was often tempted. "There isn't an hour of the day," he said, "when—rEciUldn't use a double rye." Thursday next, for the purpose of raising funds to purchase scenery for, and otherwise decorate the stage of the town hall. As this is a very worthy object, and much needed, the concert should be well patronized, and at the small admission fee of 10 cents, the halls should be packed. There is a growing philosophy among young people that goes something like this: "Work! Who needs it?" The theory has a number of foster parents, One of them is the exceeding ease with which one can get on the welfare rolls these days, Why work when one can draw enough welfare for a pad, however humble, grub and smokes? Then there is unemployment insurance. This is even better than welfare to fall back on, though it does require the Occasional stint of that four-letter word we're talking about. Work for a few months, get yourself fired on some pretext, loll hack on the mattress on Uri. ills, until it runs out, work again for a little while, and repeat the process. This is a way of life for some young people, and they make no bones about it. It doesn't occur to them that it's Merely a refined form of stealing, and in most cases, I don't think they'd care if it did, As an aside, I think you'd he appalled by their attitude toward Stealing, I conduct regular surveys in my classes on such subjects—what used to be known as simple honesty, In most cases, the majority believes firmly that it's bad to steal from a friend, but it's perfectly all right to steal, or "rip-off" from any large institutions: chain stores, insurance companies, the government. wonder whore they got that idea? It couldn't possibly be from hearing their dads talking about beating the tax collector, or their moms exaggerating an insurance .claim. Could it? Back to the subject. What else influences this comparatively new non-attitude toward work? One is purely economic, They are completely frustrated by the free enterprise system under which they have been raised. It still offers great opportunities for the few who have enterprise and luck. Well, how many of us have both? You can have all the enterprise that's lying around, but if you haven't luck, you're a perpetual bankrupt. You can he a real bicker, but if you don't have any enterprise, alt you do is win a few bucks at bingo or on the horses. • Their real beef against the system, of course, is that it does not work, It does not create enough jobs. Therefore, Why get an education, why even bother looking for work, if there isn't any? Another influence, or lack of it, is that of the church. It used to have two firm allies in the establishment and the work ethic, The church hasn't been able to cope, It is tarnished by its association With the other two, and the young people have turned their back on it, though I don't 'think they have lost the faith. They've merely lost respect for that massive body of rules and dogma and "an honest day's work for an honest day's pay", and the insistence that while life is pretty rotten, everything will be groovy in heaven. They are young, impatient, and simply will not buy that. As you may have expected, or hoped, or given up on, I am trying to make a point. I'm not against the attitude, If I didn't like work, I'd quit tomorrow, But there is nothing ennobling in work itself. It's an utter drag, unless you like what you are doing. The other morning, I was driving one of my students to school, He's a big, husky lad who has shovelled out my drive at times of stress. Asked him what he was going to do when he finished school, "Well, I'm going to work for a year, then maybe go to college," Asked him whether he couldn't get a student loan. "I don't want one, I don't wanna owe anybody anything," He continued, "My parents would give me the money to go to university, but I won't take it. They've worked hard all their lives for it. Why not let them enjoy what's left?" At this point, I ran off the road, and killed two girls from middle' class parents, who were confident that, despite the fact that they have ho brains, their parents Would send them to college and that they would there find a husband, and one boy Who had told inc he was going to extort every penny he could from the government in loans and grants, and never pay them back, Case history The highballs have been mighty pale and far apart around our place since I talked earlier this week with a reformed alcoholic. I no longer pour a convivial dollop of grain spirits without the creepy feeling that I'm handling nitro- glycerine. I'll call him Mr. Smith. His story is probably commonplace among the membership of Alcoholics Anonymous, but for those of us who like to think-we can Take It or Leave It Alone it's hard to believe. Take hangovers, for example. Doubtless you know or have witnessed the agony of the occasional morning after. Mr. Smith experienced this almost daily for more than 12 years. He tells an unpleasant' story to illustrate how accustomed the real alcoholic may be to the inescapable penalty of the big thirst: An alcoholic went in to see his doctor, very worried. "Doctor," he said, "I notice blood when I'm sick in the morning." "Good Lord," said the doctor, "you mean you're sick every morning?" "Why?" asked the alcoholic. "Isn't everyone?" Mr. Smith became an alcoholic 10 YEARS AGO APRIL 19, 1962. Miss Esther Jamieson has resigned from the staff of Clinton Public School, retiring from the teaching profession. Official sod-turning for the $327,000 addition to Clinton Public Hospital will be staged next Tuesday afternoon at two o'clock. The board of the Auburn Community Memorial Hall last week ratified a motion to turn the $21,000 hall over to Hullett Township. Hullett Township council appointed Thomas Leiper and Clare Vincent April 2 to take over the hall board. The original building committee was elected in 1957, 15 YEARS AGO THURSDAY, APR. 18, 1957 Baseball chairman Doug Walton of the Kinsmen Peewee baseball league is starting to organize the town league for the coming season. An application form which is to be completed by all interested players will be found on page 10 of this paper, Police are investigating a break-in and theft which occurred at the Fred /ludic saw mill last Thursday morning. The break-in must have been made before or during the snowfall which laid two inches on the ground before morning. No tracks were visible, Douglas Ball, of Ball and Mutch Funeral Home, attended a post graduate course in funeral service, held in Toronto last week for two days, April 10-11, 25 YEARS AGO THURSDAY, APR. 17, 1947 Clinton Town Council has for the very simple reason that drinking gave him confidence. He travelled across Canada as a liaison man between the head office of an insurance company and its local agents. "I dreaded those meetings with the local representatives„" he recalled, "Then I discovered urbanity and conviviality in the bottle. It wasn't long before I wasn't sure why I was drinking: to prepare myself for the meeting ahead or to repair the damage from the one before," It frightened him, Mr. Smith said, when he found that he was keeping a bottle under the bed, within reach for his morning pick- me-up. "I felt," he says, "as if I were standing back from myself looking at this degrading spectacle of a man tilting up a bottle in bed. It disgusted me, but now I know that it was just to excuse myself. I call it righteous drinking." Periodically, Mr. Smith became frightened enough to take a cure. Several times he experienced delirium tremens, "With me," he said, "it took the form of insects, I would feel ants crawling around in my struck the 1947 mill rate at 55 mills, an increase of 10 mills over 1946, the jump being accounted for chiefly by the cost of the sewerage program. A picked crew from Clinton trimmed a picked crew from London by less than 100 feet in the first Clinton—to—Bayfield boat race on the swollen Bayfield river. The course measured at 191/2 miles was covered in a little over five hours with time off for lunch. Members of the Clinton crew were Bob Campbell, Earl Leybourne, Don Epps, George Campbell and Ellwood Epps. 40 YEARS AGO THURSDAY, APR. 21, 1932 The death occurred at his home in Brussels of John Leslie Kerr, editor of the Brussels Post, formerly editor of the Clinton New Era. T.T. Carter was the lucky winner of the first prize of $1,000 in the London Free Press crossword game, Mr. Carter won a $500 prize as did E.A. Fines principal of the collegiate, Mrs, Morgan Agnew, who has been quite ill, is now thought to be on the way to recovery. Miss Maude Torrance supplied for her at the Wesley-Willis organ on Sunday last, 55 YEARS AGO THURSDAY, APR. 19, 1917 W. Jackson, J.W. Nediger and W. Proctor, propose to grow potatoes in the large field behind the Motor Works, T. McMichael and Son won first prize for their handsome roadster colt, at both Hensall and Mitchell last week. Dr, WI. Shipley, Calgary, son Of William Shipley, Clinton, has just been recently elected vice clothes. Sticky flies would land on my hands and my neck and I would try to brush them off. I would feel that there were bugs in my hair and it would panic me. The DT's are terrible beyond belief. I've talked with men in AA who believed there were snakes in their bed or who have seen rats coming through the walls. In a way I was lucky just to have insects," Often he would blank out for an entire evening. "I've driven all around Toronto, visiting people and going into bars and never remembered a thing about it, I would get a bell-hop to bring 'me the morning paper and look through it to see if there were any hit-and-run cases, That would often put me on the wagon a week or more." • Mr. Smith has mixed feelings about Alcoholics Anonymous. "It's been a God-send for some men, the real answer to drinking for-many, especially those who are naturally gregarious. But a lot of men just use it, as I used my `righteous drinking' as a salve for their conscience. There are a lot of men in AA who fall off the wagon for a Lost Week-End or a Lost Month and return to tell all about it in an AA meeting as if this would president of the Calgary Medical Association. 75 YEARS AGO APRIL 16, 1897 Novel or unique window displays add to the attractiveness of a store, and original ideas are frequently resorted to in order to obtain this end. In the window of Cooper & Co's grocery is a live hen and brood of chicks, while several plates of coloured Easter eggs are prominently displayed. The window of Irwin's grocery shows a live hen and rooster, while in one corner is a very natural looking nest. The Cricket Club will tender a smoking contest in the XXV Club Rooms on Thursday, April 22, The Clinton Cricket Club has joined the Canadian Cricket Association and are organizing matches for various points in Ontario. Mr. Terry is as enthusiastic as ever and will have the team in good shape, Arrangements are being made to give a benefit concert about Londesboro Continued from Page 3, Saturday night at Newry. lick spice at the W.L when he won the speaking contest at Hullett Central School three years ago. He now goes to Angus on Friday. April 14 to compete. Six members, Gladys Gourley, Marjorie Anderson, Mary Robinson, Alice Buchanan, Nona Pipe, Dora Shobbrook attended the executive meeting held in St. Helen's on Monday, The annual meeting will be held in John St. Anglican Church, Wingham on May 31st. Alice Buchanan reported on the executive meeting and Nona Pipe on Curators of Tweedsmuir Book, The Huronview May Tea will be May 3 and this W.I, is to supply sandwiches, Pennies for friendship will be received at the May meeting. ANNUAL REPORT Report of secretary Mary Robinson. Twelve meetings were held with an average attendance of 23 members. The treasurer reported that nine banquets were catered to; 25 stacking chairs bought; $25.00 donated to fire victims and money provided to help in the remodeling of the kitchen. The—auditor's report was read by Ena Howatt, followed by reports of standing conveners. The Social Convener Gladys Josling thanked all for their help. In her summary the president, Gladys Gourley, thanked all for their co-operation in her two year term. Public relations report was given by Margaret Taylor. The nominating convener, Jessie Tebbutt, presented the following slate of officers: Past President, Mrs. W. Gourley; President, Mrs. Eric Anderson; first Vice President not completed at time of meeting; second Vice President, Mrs. Harry Tebbutt; Secretary Treasurer, Mrs. Margaret Taylor; Assistant Secretary Treasurer, Mrs. G. Robinson; Public Relations, Mrs. Tom Allen; District Director, Mrs. Don Buchanan; Alternate District Director, Mrs. Elgin Josling; Press Reporter, Mrs. Bert Shobbrook; Pianist, Mrs. Edwin Wood; Assistant Pianist, Mrs. Edgar Josling; Auditors, Mrs. Gordon Robinson and Mrs. Art Clark; Flower and Card Convener, Mrs. Bert Shobbrook; Flower and card committee, Mrs: Art Clark, Mrs. Elgin Josling, Mrs, Jim Jamieson. Standing Committees Agriculture and Canadian Industries, Mrs. Elma Jewitt, Mrs. Harry Snell, Citizenship and World Affairs, Mrs. Lorna Flunking, Mrs. Mervin Datema; Education and Cultural Activities, Mrs, Reg Lawson, Mrs. Ted Fothergill; Family and Consumer Affair's, Mrs. Tom Duizer, Mrs. Don Buchanan; Resolutions, Mrs. Tom Allen; Tweedsmuir Curator, Mrs, Lloyd Pipe; Tweedsmuir Committee, Mrs. Tom Allen, Mrs. Myrtle Fairservice, Mrs. G. Robinson. The officers were installed by Mrs. Jessie Tebbutt. Margaret Taylor gave a reading "duck hunting". The meeting closed with The Queen and W.I. Grace, Lunch was served by Jessie Tebbutt, Gay Datema and Neltre Clark. FATHER AND SON BANQUET The first Londesboro Cub and Scout Group Committee held their annual Father and Son Banquet on Wednesday evening at which the United Church Women served a delicious turkey dinner to 83 cubs, scouts and fathers. The tables were suitably decorated with motifs made by Mrs. Lloyd Pipe in the Scout-Cub colours of green and yellow, Mr, Jack Lee, chairman of the Group Committee acted as chairman for the evening. Cub Wayne Hulley proposed the toast to the Queen and Cub David Lear played the piano for the singing of God Save The Queen, Scout Clair McClure asked the Blessing. Following dinner the chairman introduced the members of the group committee, the cub and scout leaders and special guests for the evening, Cub Bob Thompson proposed a very suitable toast to the Fathers, the See page. 5 Opinions In order that News—Record readers might express their opinions on any topic of public interest, Letters To The Editor are always welcome for publication. But the writers of such letters, as well as all readers, are reminded that the opinions expressed in letters published are not necessarily the opinions held by The News—Record.