Clinton News-Record, 1974-09-12, Page 4WAGE:, 4—CLINTON NEWS-RECORD‘ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1974
Editorial Comment.
Two wise, steps
Clinton council's action last Monday
night in deciding to take positive action
on the question of both cleaning up the
town, and halting the annual ritual of
burning leaves shows that they can't be
all bad.
In the past, we have heavily criticized
council for what we thought were bad
actions, but we are just as quick to
praise them for good actions.
Last Monday night was a good case in
point. Council took action to clean up
the town by asking the Planning Board
to do a survey of all "messy" properties
in Clinton and inform the owners, where
necessary, to clean it up. Clinton.
Chance of error
See a mistake on this page? Don't
gloat.
There are no fewer than 4,367,428
chances of making a typographical error
on eacWnewspaper page, according to
an article in the Canadian Printer and
Publisher.'.
With those kind of odds it is a wonder
there aren't more gremlins to disrupt the
type each week. Certainly there are
enough around to upset the staff of this
journal.
There are few occupations with such
formidable odds against achieving a
perfect result. There are also few oc-
cupations where errors are exposed to
desperately needs cleaning up,
especially with Centennial coming up
next year.
Also council's action in finding provin-
cial statues that could effectively ban
leaf burning from Clinton showed
wisdom. Each fall, hundreds of persons
in Clinton and indeed in many small
towns suffer discomfort and even illness
when the clouds of thick pungent black
smoke settle on the towns and villages
from the burning of. leaves.
It's time we learned that burning
leaves is the worst possible way to
dispose of them.
public view with such regularity.
The wonder is there aren't more errs
and a few nervous breakdowns to ac-
company them.
• The article also points out there are
over 5,000 men and women engaged in
producing weekly newspapers in
Canada which are read by well over half
the nation's total population. During a
recent year these same weeklies carried
some $12,999,000 worth,of advertising —
presumably, most of it error-free.
These figures point out the fact of the
importance of the weekly press and
despite the chances of error, the
growing • number of advertisers_who
realize it.
The rotten egg question
The biggest news story in Canada in
the past few weeks seems to be the
destruction of nine million eggs by the
Canadian Egg Marketing Agency in
Quebec. If you'll pardon the pun it
seems the story isn't all it
cracked up to be, says the Blyth Stan-
dard.
The eggs, held in storage by the
agency because of low prices, spoiled
because the warehouse where they were
kept was not cooled properly. The big
city dailies and consumer groups have
been having a field-day with the story.
They've warted to pin something on the
farmer lOr *long time over high food
costs but pitertiMRIVIIiiidliTtiatide..;Suff;;
,the egg story was too good an oppor-
tunity to resist.
The farmers are accused of letting
food spoil in order to artificially inflate
prices. Not only that, they are accused
of throwing food away when millions
around the world are going hungry.
But let's put the whole thing in per-
spedtive shall we? Nine million is a nice
round figure that sounds very important. '
Yet there are 23 million people in
Canada. It's safe to say nine million
eggs are less than the consumption of
eggs for a single day in Canada.
Certainly it is a shame to see food
destroyed while people abroad go
hungry, but this is really a drop in the
bucket to what is needed. And besides
there is no proper system set up yet to
turn Canadian surpluses, 'whether in
eggs or grain or meat, into supplies for
hungry nations. There should be such a
system, but it isn't the farmers' fault that
there isn't. If city consumers are so
worried about the starving people
abroad then they should pressure the
government to seif00 .a"Systeni drOwing
Ast-!.rP,IY,PPr9,049*40:7'"***Pra,9460t,
abroad. Yet they don't.
The emlirionic marketing agency cer-
tainly has had its problems but what the
fuss is, really about is that the consumer
wants a return to the good old days
when she got food at bargain basement
prices while the farmer went broke. Well,
we can't feel too sorry for you ladies.
You've been putting the boots to the far-
mer for a long time. If he's giving it back
to you now then it's just what you
deserve.
Sugar and Spice/By Bill Smiley
End of summer notes
The Jack Scott Column - WI lel
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EGG MARKETING
AGENC1
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From our early files • • • • • • •
Amalgamated
1924
THE CLINTON NEW ERA
Established 1865
THE HURON NEWS-RECOR
Established 1881
',DIAN COMM
Clinton News-Record
Published every Thursday
at Clinton, Ontario
Editor - Jamaa E. Fitzgerald
General Manager,
J. Howard Aitken
Second Class Mall
registration no. 0817 wiiimeekk .HUB OF HURON COUNTY
Member, Ontario W
Newspaper Aerroolation
Member, Canadian
Community Newspaper
Asiociation
'we get
letters
End of summer notes: back
to work; babies; the speed
limit; and anything else that
crops up.
It's good to get, back to work.
For a month. At first there's a
general feeling of excitement as
the fall term begins at school
Bonhomie among the staff as
summer experiences are ex-
changed and tans are com-
pared. The challenge of facing
a hundred and some new faces
in the classroom. The fine Sep-
tember weather*
Even the students are happy
to get back. For a month. They,
too, exchange summer anec-
dotes, greet old friends, and
begin making new ones. There
is a feeling of liveliness in the
air.
One of the favourite pastimes
for the students as school re-
opens is sizing up the teachers.
"Yeah, he's not a bad guy,
but you can walk all over him.
His classes are a mob scene."
"She's a good teacher, knows
her stuff, but she's so dull, no
sense humour, it makes your
teeth 'ache."
"He's a real mean (deleted).
Makes ya work like a dog."
And so on. They're usually
pretty shrewd in their
assessments. What they don't
realize is that their teachers are
doing the same. "There's a bad
little devil; have to keep an eye
on him. Oh, no, not Joe
repeating his year. Why did
they put him in my class again?
There's a bright girl; good-
looking too." And so pn.
Utterly bewildered for a
month are the new kids in
Grade 9, They come in all sizes,
from tiny shrimps to hulking
giants. Some of them come
from small country schools. To
be dumped in a huge, complex
building housing daily about
1700 people, including staff, is
rather frightening for them.
They get lost, That's
reasonable; even some of the
teachers get lost. But the kids -
lose their books, forget where
their lockers are or if they find
them, have forgotten the com-
bination for the lock. They
have to unravel all the do's
and don'ts of a huge and baf-
fling new system.
But they get sorted out and
after a month, they're old
hands, just as cocky as all the
others.
Now for babies. Thank good-
ness I'm not a young mother.
We've been having a visit from
our grandbaby, and when it
was over, I felt ten years older.
He's a beautiful child and a
healthy one. But he's as active
and agile and slippery as an
eel.
Unfortunately, his gram had
cracked ribs, was in con-
siderable pain and could scar-
cely hold him or lift him. As a
result, she wasn't much good,
as an over-sized toy. That's all
grandparents are, when you're
eight months old. They're far
better than a rattle. They're
softer (in more ways than one),
they make the appropriate
noises, they pick you up and
kiss you when you fall down,
they sing to you and joggle you
on their knees, and so on.
Well, Nicov Chen "took a
shine", as they say, to me as his
new toy, "Ah, look. He loves his
grandad", the women would
coo, when he'd crawl straight
to me, look up imploringly and
begin to ascend me as though I
were Mount Everest.
His technique was im-
pressive. I was wearing nothing
but shorts most of the time. He
would reach up from the floor,
grab me by the hair 'on my legs
with a grip like an orangutan,
pull himself to his feet, grin-
ning with triumph and swaying
around, ready to fall, bump his
head and start yelling.
Another beseeching look, and
I'd hoist him onto my knee.
Then he'd turn around, grab
me by the hair on my chest, and
pull himself up for a little
jump, jump, jump, facing me.
When he got tired of that, he'd
start grabbing my nose and
trying to pull it out, or poking
at my eyes, or tearing at an ear.
Suddenly, he'd squirm
around and want down. On the
floor, he'd head, at startling
speed and with a demonic grin,
straight for a standing floor
lamp. He loved it because when
you shook it, from ground level,
it made a nice jingling sound. It
is also heavy enough to brain a
baby.
So grandad leaps across the
room and grabs the lamp in the
nick of time, points the kid in
another direction and sinks
wearily into his chair. Sixty
seconds later, he feels a painful
twisting of the hair on his legs,
and off we go again. One of us
never got tired of this little • routine.
He's a happy baby, but, on
the occasions when he isn't you
could hear him two blocks
away. Whenever his Mum went
shopping, I baby-sat and en-
joyed it thoroughly, but did my
sitting in a constant state of
fear that he'd get unhappy. I'm
glad, once again, that I'm not a
young mother, but an old gran-
dad.
Finally, the speed limit.
There is a proposal that it be
reduced from 70 on the big
highways to 55 m.p.h. This was
done in the U.S, and Germany,
among others, during the oil
crisis. There is quite a lot of op-
position here. I'm all for it. It's
been proved that it cuts the car-
nage on the highways. Save
lives, save money, save energy.
How can anyone be against it?
And what's the big rush,
anyway? It's time we slowed
down,
Frank again
It was ignominiously buried
under an immense stack of old
and yellowing magazines in the
cluttered window of a second-
hand book store, but I
recognized it as surely as if it
had called out to me: Maybe it
did call out to me.
It was in terrible shape. Its
covers had gone. The thumbed
pages were a tan color on the
outside, a sick ivory inside. I
knew that through the book
there would be corners of pages
bent over where happy readers
of an earlier day had "marked
their place."
From the sidewalk where I
stood it was impossible to see
the title, but that didn't matter.
I went in to the store, and told
the proprietor, a man as old
and faded as the books about
him, that I wanted that one at
the bottom of the pile. He
rescued; it with much. grit
"TI,Wbits,''24Vet' said:
inflation there.
I thanked the old rrian and
went into the street and turned
to the first page. "Frank
Merriwell's Shrewdness, or
Brain or Brawn," it said "by
10 YEARS AGO
SEPT. 10, 1964
Good weather during the
past several days has allowed
the completion of harvest of
spring grains according to Doug
Miles. White bean harvest has
started but ripening is still
slow. Warm weather is needed
to mature both beans and corn.
The Kippen Gun Club held
its annual Labor Day Street
Shoot here Sunday and was the
host to about 50 contestants
from six Ontario gun clubs. The
weather was perfect for the
shoot.
Brigadier and Mrs. G.L.
Morgan Smith of Ottawa were
guests here last winter for a
short vacation and were so im-
pressed, with the village, they
decided it would be an ex-
cellent place for retirement. A
short time ago they took up
residence here in a home they
purchased from Miss Jessie L.
Metcalf.
Bonnie Johnston, daughter
of Mrs. Alice Johnston, and the
late Walter Johnston of RR 3
Bayfield, received word last
week she has been awarded an
Ontario Department of
Education student aid bursary.
,It was for the commercial
course she is taking at Central
Huron Secondary School.
25 YEARS AGO
SEPT. 8, 1949
Clinton skunks are becoming
famous for their temerity and
general all-around attitude of
owning the place. During the
past few days, several of these
small striped animals have
been spotted in various parts of
town. The other day one little
girl in the north-east section
picked up what she thought
was a lovely "pussy" and
carried it home. Approaching
the house she discovered the
difference,
Clinton Public Library has
been strengthened with a new
solid concrete foundation under
the tower at the northwest cor-
ner of the brick building,
Saturday night, coming
before a long weekend holiday,
was one of the busiest nights of
tho summer in Clinton, During
Burt L. Standish, author of the
famous Merriwell Stories."
The publishing date was 1900.
When I took the book to bed
with me my wife gave the ar-
ched eyebrows treatment. I ex-
plained airily that I had just
reached my second childhood.
A woman could never under-
stand what re-discovering
Frank Merriwell could mean to
a man after 30 odd years.
Oddly enough, it didn't turn
out to mean all that much, For
the first couple of chapters I
was alternately amused and
nostalgic. On page 60 when
Frank was surrounded by an
ugly mob and was asked who
he was, he squared his
shoulders and answered in
ringing tones, "I am Frank
Merriwell of Yale, captain of
the Yale football eleven that
has come here to play Prin-
ceton in,..the,pig, game today!"
r rii,PT.,wa's:agre,ii,t1,murmur and
44becif014a,111,411mcii„-AyAba-A.,
crowd.
I was a little annoyed with
myself that I laughed aloud at
this point. Thirty years ago that
line would have filled me with
deep emotion. Now I could only
the height of the rush the
burglar alarm in the Bank of
Montreal started to ring. A
crowd gathered until it was
found something temporarily
had gone wrong with the
automatic alarm system.
Potatoes seem to be a won-
derful crop this year according
to various reports received.
Creamery butter and cheddar
cheese production in Huron
County both showed a decrease
in the seven months period en-
ding July, 1949, as compared
with a similar period of 1948.
50 YEARS AGO
Sept. 11, 1924
Mr. H.H. Cantelon was a
visitor at Toronto with his
sister Mrs. C. Floody during the
Canadian National Exhibition.
Mr. Harvey Potter has retur-
ned to Toronto after spending a
few days at home. He has spent
the summer in hospital work in
New York 'and Brooklyn.
There is bad weather for the
farmers in Hullett Township.
William Dougall Jr., residing
a couple of miles southwest of
Hensall, on going out to his oat
field the other morning saw a
large bald-headed eagle with a
broken leg making off with one
of his chickens. He was able to
pin it down with a fork and
with the aid of a neighbour,
carried it to the barn, he en-
closed it in a large crate. A.R.
Campbell V.S. set the broken
leg and the eagle is now
thriving.
The Clinton Knitting Factory
closed down on Wednesday to
allow the employees to go to
London Exhibition.
The Clinton soldiers com-
menced on Wednesday night on
their nine weeks drill of two
nights a week.
Mr, Fred Butts returned to
Canada and Clinton after a
visit of a year last June with
relatives and old friends. After
an absence of some 30 years the
Old Country did not appeal to
the visitor as it used to do, and
he was glad to sail back to
Canada.
75 YEARS AGO
Sept. 14, 1899
Colonel Holmes of London
laugh.
I must confess I was amused,
too, on page 82 when Frank, af-
ter getting up from his death-
bed, had kicked the winning
goal for Yale. It was quite a
kick. There was a wind of
almost hurricane proportions.
Frank had had to .kick AWAY
from the' goal posts to score!
"Such a kick for goal has
seldom been seen on any field,"
so the narrative went. "The
time-keeper's whistle blew, but
the ball was over and beyond
the goal-posts before the blast
cut the air and Frank
Merriwell's kick had won the
game for Yale in the very last
second of the time remaining
before the end of the second
half of the game!"
Thirty years ago it would
have been the most natural
thing in the world, expected,
eagerly anticipated, yet as ex-
citing as anything that ever
IVA PP.e,necl. a44 caRsing-,an!: nterzn
nal whoop for joy.
I didn't get through the book.
Some of the pages were
missing. Others were covered
with what I am sure is some
early vintage bubble gum. And,
was in Clinton last week and
under , the chaperonage of
Mayor Shaw, visited various
eligible sites for the proposed
Armory, among them the piece
of ground once occupied by a
skating rink.
It has also been suggested
that the site of the former
Doherty organ works would
furnish ample room and also be
convenient. It is fully expected
that when the armory is built it
will be located in Clinton.
Mr. Harry Thompson left for
Ilderton on •Monday to take
charge of an apple-packing
gang for King Cantelon. He has
been thus engaged for years
and the barrels he heads
always stand inspection at the
other end of the line.
Miss Kate Sheppard of Clin-
ton, who has been a guest at
Mr. PM. Curries for the past
couple of weeks, returned home
on Monday.
Mr. T. Battles, Porter's Hill,
entertained a, few friends
Tuesday evening of last week.
Dancing and other amusements
were freely enjoyed by the host
and guests and kept up until an
early hour, when all showed
their appreciation of the
pleasant time spent by
thanking their host and hostess
and taking their departure to
anyway, Mr. Standish, God rest
his soul, was not exactly what
you'd call a great writer. Or, at
least, not by the jaundiced,
weary standards of an adult.
But when I'd put the book
gently down I lay back, staring
at the ceiling, wondering what
had happened to me in three
decades.
The boy had something, I
was thinking, that the adult
can use. That is the ability to
believe in miracles, 'the pure,
burning faith in his fellow man.
I wish I had more of that in
me as I had written when I first
read this book. I wish I knew a
man like Frank Merriwell-that
I could believe in to the core of
me. I wish I had the
magnificent confidence that the
goal could be kicked against
the wind of the hurricane in the
last second of every game.
What happened to that fierce
;young,,. faith?,,,;;Wh;ere did the
hard and clear belief in
miracles disappear? I looked at
my wife and said, truthfully,
"You won't believe it, but this
is the most thought-provoking
book I've ever read."
their respective homes not soon
forgetting the festivity which
commerated Mr. Battles
threshing day.
100 YEARS AGO
Sept. 10, 1874
Mr. McHaffie, Clinton, is ex-
pected home shortly. He has
from time to time kept us
posted as to his movements in
the mother country by sending
papers from the locality in
which he then was.
One evening last week, a lady
from Clinton, who prides her-
self upon her bravery met with
a little adventure. As she was
proceeding home at about 8:30
p.m., in a peaceful frame of
mind, was disturbed by the ap-
pearance of a man behind who,
apparently, was trying to catch
up with her. She ran and at last
she reached that desired place -
home, and panting she sat
down, determined now to see
her pursuer who proved to be
an innocent neighbour.
C. Cusick, a hotel-keeper of
Ailsa Craig, went to sleep on
the railroad track on the
evening of Thursday, when a
train ran over his legs, fearfully
mutilating them and rendering
amputation necessary.
Hydro
Dear Editor:
I was appalled when I read
the recent articles in our local
weeklies regarding the findings
of Ontario Hydro in respect to
a proposed nuclear station for
Huron County. The spokesman
fir Ontario Hydro said op-
position by municipal officials
and area residents was a major
reason for suspending plans to
establish a nuclear generating
station site in Huron County,
What is wrong with some o
our officials and residents tha
they cannot see past the end o
their noses? Do the people o
Huron County not realize the
advantages of Ontario Hydr
constructing this plant in
Huron? We have for several
years had a terrible transpor-
tation problem, do you no
think with the nuclear station,
and the added residents, tha
this problem would not b
solved? Do our merchants no
want the added income whic
would certainly come with th
added residents? Would
property values not go up
Would the vacant h ouses and
apartments not be taken up b
the added residents? Would a
developer not buy up some o
the swampy cold-bottomed
land and turn it into housin
developements?
Best of all, would ,people wh
have been existing on unem
ployment insurance not be abl
to have real good jobs? What o
the young people in the Count
who have to go elsewhere t
find employment? Why no
keep these people in Huro
County? Are we so secure
Huron County that we can of
ford to turn down a proposal
such as this? Are people afraid
to take a chance on somethin
that might very well be
bonanza to our county?
I have a healthy respect fo
our farmers in Huron County
without them we could not sur
vive. But what of the farmer
who retire and still stay on
their farm homes and let th
land just sit? And as fo
e nuclear,, fall:out (which I thin
is tlie main reason people -dr
afraid of the generatin
station), has it harmed the
residents in Pickering or the
residents at Douglas Point? As
far as smaller numicipalities
worrying over the project
creating the need for water and
sewage systems, these are
inevitable. They will come
when our Health Departments
see the need for them, and with
the added residents, the cost of
such systems to each individual
would be less. This is a -project
we will not be able to oppose.
Local dumps are being closed
because of the environmental
hazards, and this too is
inevitable. Opposition to this
would be ludicrous.
I personally have no axe to
grind as far as this project is
concerned. My husband and
son are fortunate to have real
good jobs; but what of our
future employees, our younger
family?
How many projects can we in
Huron County afford to turn
down? I would like to com-
mend the Mayor of Goderich,
Harry Worsell when he said he
didn't oppose the generating
plant. He thinks it would be a
good thing, but apparently he is
one of the few who think so.
What or if the day comes
when regional governmen
takes over our County? W
will be to blame? What will
officials do then? Will they
and wring their hands a
wonder how it could have ha
pened?
This will be yet anoth
project they will not be able
oppose.
Milvena Erickso
Bayfield