Clinton News-Record, 1974-11-28, Page 4Amalgomalod
1924
Tut; GLINTON NEW ERA
Estublishod 1865
THE HURON NEWS-RECORD
EstaNishvd 101
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Clinton News-Record
Published 'Very Thursday
et Clinton, Ontario.
'Editor 4- E.
.Getteirtil
J, Howard Aitken.
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.Editorial Comment
Not another Moodag
Monday to many people will he like
any' other Monday, even though It's elec-
tion day in the area,
Based on past experience, most
people tend to Ignore the day as voter
turnout percentages show that we are
lucky if more than a third of the eligible
voters turn out to cast their ballot.
The situation isn't expected to im-
prove much this year either, especially
in townships where there is only board
of education candidates to vote for, the
rest being returned by acclamation.
it is indeed a pity that most of us don't
see fit to express ourselves via the ballot
box, and it is a heritage that we
somehow take for granted anymore.
At one time, voting against the trend
meant ostracism and even physical harm
in this area, but now with the secret
ballot and the ensuing private choice of
municipal officials, we seem to care
less.
With such an attitude, it's no wonder
that the running of our own municipal af-
fairs is being taken out of our hands by
the provincial government. If we won't
run our own affairs, they argue, then
they will have to,
' And that is why we are begging you,
the voters, for the umpteenth time to get
out on Monday and vote, It is a precious
right that will disappear if not used.
The population puzzle
Nothing can be as discouraging as to
give long speeches on the need for
population control to a conference
whose delegates know that, for the time
being at least, they are fighting a losing
battle. Yet that is what occurred at the
August World Population Congress held
in Bucharest, Romania, says the United
Church.
Some delegates implored. Others war-
ned. Quite a number didn't turn up
because inflation had eaten into travel
budgets. And none who came had a
meaningful solution to what is probably
the most pressing problem in the world
today.
Unless the people in poorer lands tend
to follow the example of more affluent
nations, where young people are begin-
ning merely to replace themselves by
having no more than two children in.
many cases, future generations face a
grim prospect.
The recent floods in Bangladesh, for
instance, which covered almost half the
country and which took thousands of
lives, are a form of population control
that was accepted by humanity for cen-
turies. If the land had to support too
many souls, vast numbers starved to
death, or died of thirst, or were killed
and drowned in storms and floods.
Mankind, with its new technology, today
can overcome the cruelties of nature on
most occasions.
But will we conquer nature if we grow
from today's figure of 4 billion to 8
billion by early next century? Will the
massive international relief operations
that were mounted in drought-stricken
Ethiopia or flooded Bangladesh be
enough? Will the hundreds of millions of
unemployed wandering the world by the
year 2,000 be content with ,degradation
and deprivation? Clearly, one must an-
swer NO to these questions. And
therefore daily the need to search for
meaningful solutions to the population
puzzle becomes more urgent.
Sugar and Spice/By Bill Smiley
„About that word honour
„ Had to ,; mike" speeailthe; other;argbt:Dt0,; the
honour students at our school. I say "had to",
because, the vice-principal, who is six feet twelve,
told me I was going to be the guest speaker. I am
five feet eight and a half.
How can you be a "guest" speaker when you
work in the joint?
However, I done my best, as we say in the
English department. It wasn't much of a speech,
but the remuneration was not exactly princely,
either. Zero.
I abhor speakers at honour nights who get up
there and praise the kids and tell them to stick in
there and fight and be competitive, because
that's what the world is all about,
I took rather a different line. I told them that
being an honour student is chiefly a matter of
birth. Either you are born with some intelligence,
in which case you can walk through our school
system, or you are born to a mother or father
who makes you get off your lazy butt and do
some work. In either case, it was an accident, not
something to sit around and feel self-satisfied
about.
Both my kids were honour students, in grade
9. And the boy could almost tie his own
shoelaces when he was 14, and the girl was still
knocking over her glass of milk at table when she
was 14. From grade 9 they went straight down
hill. But I'm not too worried about them. They
both have a sense of honour, and that's a lot
more important, to me, than honour standing in
school.
Some of the rottenest people, physically,
morally and emotionally, whom I have ever met,
have been honour students. With no sense of
honour.
I was an honour student too, once, in grade 8.
This was back about the time of the Boer War,
knew I was about the smartest kid in the school,
and was confident of coming first in grade 8, or
the Entrance, as we called it, Entrance to what, I
never did find out. Entrance to five more
stultifying years of school, I guess.
Unfortunately, though I was the smartest kid
in school, I was also the laziest. Eddie Kirkland,
now a big corporation lawyer in Montreal, came
first, I beat him up as soon as the results came
out. This didn't solve my frustration. Muriel
Robins came second. I was going to beat her up
WO; but she was bigger than I, so 3OArad,:fo
third.
Third is a good place to be. You can't be ac-
cused of being a teacher's pet as we called it, or
"brown", as today's youngsters so bluntly label
it. On the other hand, you have proved that you
are not a dummy. I've been running a comfor-
table third ever since.
I was the, third member in our family of five. It
was rather pleasant, I didn't have to compete
with my older brother and sister, and I could
bully my younger brother and sister,
When it came time to take our lumps' in the
war, I still ran a comfortable third. My older
brother chose to have himself blown up, rather
spectacularly. My young brother, in a desperate
attempt to get some recognition, won a
decoration for bravery after being shot down in
the English Channel. (I don't see what's so brave
about that.) I went quietly off to a prison camp,
and emerged with three thousand dollars in back
pay. They were both broke.
There's nothing wrong with being a third-place
runner. I don't mind getting a little mud in my
face, as long as I finish in the money.
Now let's he serious for a moment. I'd like to
take a closer look at the word "honour". It's one
of those abstract words that you hear less and
less these days, as though it were embarrassing
to utter them. Words like compassion and virtue
and chastity and loyalty and decency. People
almost blush when they use one of them, It seems
that we all have to be tough and callous.
From this "all", I would except our young
people, who are not afraid to talk of love and
compassion and tolerance and kindness and pity.
They see only too clearly through the "plastic"
world they have been bequeathed; a world of
false values, lip service to ideals, and violence.
No wonder there is a generation gap. We won.
ship the golden calf, and are flabbergasted when
our kids see it for what it is: a graven image.
We want to sweep everything under the rug, so
the neighbours won't see it. We want our kids to
be "nice", and "sensible", and "solid", while
they see the joy and the pain that. is real human
life,
These are some of the thoughts T shared with
the sftudents. In closing, I suggested, "Don't just
be an honour student, Be an honour person."
Do you agree?
From our early files.... • • • •
The Jack Scott Column um IIIII NM MI
No. TO (T NOME NM POKING TOE ?M 1111.
The first dance
The Fertility Festival of the Mojave tribe, which I had oc-
casion to investigate in the California desert of that name a
year ago, begins six months before the actual night with the
ceremonial slaying of a goat.
The goat's ears are hung to be dried in the sun as a symbol of
something or other and the maidens of the tribe begin the
process of fashioning robes for the dance of love, a chore (the
robe-making, that is) which will occupy them half of the year.
The men, meanwhile, have begun the making of dyes from roots
and herbs for their own decorative effects.
I have been recalling this lore in the past week because it is
so very similar to the preparations for a teen-age dance. This
time it is the daughter of a neighbor, but I'm happy to report
that the rites are timeless, involving an agony which, sooner or
later, must be borne by every father of daughters. The little
lady in question has gone to her first formal dance. And, like
the Mojaves' tribute to the' hormone, it makes fascinating
folklore.
A father is a wistful figure during these preparations. His
traditional and functional role, in theory, as the head of the
household, LeShadowy thing, He must reconcile,
60ledge Wet he` is needed only for his bliffilcW 'One
id elf
Die'
such 'as ft• is:This is woman's work. This is No2Man's -Land. •
The selection of the dress, which makes any Supreme Court
judgment seem wickedly offhand, is debated for weeks before
the night of the dance and it's a wise man 'who retreats into the
tent of his newspaper.
In the city, I presume, mother and daughter are able to per-
form these rites in the privacy of a dress shoppe or a style salon.
In the country it is often clone though through the medium of
the mail-order catalogue.
City people think of the catalogue as a large book containing
pictures of shallow-well piston pumps, automobile parts and
men in long woollen underwear. The modern catalogue, in fact,
is a bible of high style offering a bewildering and terrible choice
for the female of all ages.
As the deliberations reach their crucial stage the father may
be invited, half-heartedly, to cast his ballot. This helps to
narrow down the number of eligible gowns for, quite naturally,
the little dress that Daddy likes is automatically rejected. This
is not mentioned with any bitterness, but merely as advice to
younger men who will find it out the hard way.
The dress having been selected, there are then a welter of
subsidiary problems. Would earrings be too extreme? Shoul^!
white gloves be worn? Will the corsage go at the waist or the
neck? This is a splendid time for a father to retire to his work-
bench in the basement and drive nails into boards.
Like all of life's big moments, it happens with a jolt of sud-
denness. The father hears a rustle of stiff cloth in a doorway,
looks ;Ip to behold a strange young woman in the room. It is a
moment of pride. How lovely she looks! And it is a moment of
despairs-How olt;VI-am!
-,•.ek kind: of reserve-comes:between 'father end
eonly-lase night that he wrestled with her so playfully? Now she
has made perhaps the greatest of all leaps between childhood
and maturity.
There is time for a sort of experimental dance before her
escort will arrive, himself grown overnight into a gigantic man-
child, and the father may put on his favorite old record. She
dances easily, coolly and forgiving his nervous missteps. And
then, before he knows it, the man-child has snatched her away
into the night, leaving behind only a faint, clean fragrance of
cologne.
PAGE 4—CLINTON •NEWS .RECORD, T.HQRSDAY, NOvFMCM. 28, 1974
10 YEARS AGO
Nov. 26, 1964.
Huron County Council was
told at its November session in
Goderich last week at least
114,000 trees will be planted in
the county next spring under
the Huron reforestation
scheme.
Bayfield village w as re-
incorporated as a village after
the application was granted by
the Ontario Municipal board,
They were given 656 1/2 acres
rather than the 1248 1/2
sought.
Huron County maintained its
position as one of the high,
specialized agricultural areas
of the province. They are tops
in poultry on the farm and first
in cattle on the farm,
Two Clinton students have
been announced as winners of
$100 fall scholarship awards at
the University of Western On-
tario. They are William Alan
Cochrane, third year honors
biology and Bonnie J.
Hamilton, third year English
language and literature.
Mr. and Mrs. John E.
Cuninghame and family of
Branialea, Ontario, visited over
last weekend with Mr. and
Mrs, Gordon Cuninghame of
Rattenbury St. West.
Clinton Scouts Kenneth
Hamilton and James Cole
recently were awarded Queen's
Scout badges - the scouting
movement's highest honor.
John Bylsma of RR4, Clinton,
a student at the Hamilton In-
stitute of Technology has
received the Steel Company of
Canada award of $200 for his
scholastic achievement the
previous year,
25 YEARS AGO
Deo, 1, 1949
Mr, and Mrs, Frederick Glen
Anderson were married recen-
tly tit•North St, United Church,
Goderich, They will reside in
Clinton,
After a week of the worst
type of winter weather, stormy
and rain, there was a change
the beginning of this week to
what is more typical for this
time of the year.
Mr, and Mrs, J.K. Cornish,
Brucefield, celebrated their
30th wedding anniversary on
Monday evening when many of
their relatives and friends
gathered to spend a social hour
with them.
The local hunters returned
home last Wednesday, after
having been up north hunting
for the past week or so. They
came home with very good
results of their trip.
The largest pelt of a timber
wolf brought in this fall to
County Treasurer, A.H. Er-
skine's office, Goderich, for the
bounty of $25 was delivered
Monday by H, Schill, Formosa,
It measured six feet from head
to tail.
Clinton stores have agreed to
stay open on all Wednesdays
until Christmas but this still
leaves only 20 more shopping
days until Christmas.
50 YEARS AGO
Dec, 4, 1924
Clinton 'will definitely have
an Old Home Week in 1925, it
was decided at a meeting on
Thursday evening last.
Mrs. Robert Cree was presen-
ted with a life membership in
the Woman's Missionary
Society of the Presbyterian
Church at a gathering held at
the home of Mrs. J,C. Gandier,
The gift was from the Girls'
Club of the Church.
The choirs of Wesley and On-
tario St. Churches have each
enjoyed a fowl supper. This is
an annual treat for each
church,
Misses 'Ferrol Higgins and
Mary R. Stewart assisted at a
concert in Bayfield given under
the auspices of Trinity
Anglican Church,
Clinton Ministerial
Association paid a friendly visit
to Goderich and while there,
Rev. E. Parker gave an ex.
cellent address on "Modern
Evangelism its need, its
method and means,"
Louis A. McKay, la graduate
of Clinton Collegiate Institute,
has been awarded a Rhodes
scholarship, giving him a three-
year course at Oxford as well as
an annual income of L350.
B. Rowcliffe saw a deer
drinking in the water trough on
his farm on the London Road
one morning recently.
Dr. J.W. Shaw and Mr. and
Mrs. N.W. Trewartha represen-
ted Clinton Public Hospital at
a meeting of some committees
of the Ontario Legislature in
Toronto,
75 YEARS AGO
Nov. 30, 1899.
The evaporator closed on
Saturday and the stock is being
shipped this week. The season
was a little shorter than last
year and some three or four
less hands were employed.
11,000 bushels of apples were
peeled. In addition to this
another 1000 bushels of stock
too small to peel and known as
"Chops" were cut up and dried.
Miss Grace Galbraith of the
Goderich Road is in Chicago
taking a course of training for a
nurse. This is a very laudable
and self-denying occupation.
Mr. Dan McLeod, Bayfield,
has moved into Mr, James
Cowan's house, recently
vacated by Mr. Wm. Smith.
Dan formerly occupied the old
rectory by the lakeside.
The beautiful weather, which
we have enjoyed through the
month of November, has given
farmers a good chance to get
their fall work done up. It looks
like spring to see the dan-
delions and other flowers out ih
bloom,
Mr. Ben Reid has sold his
farm to the Flynn Bros, They
get possession on the first of
February,
Mrs, Robert Ferris, Harlock,
returned a few days ago from
Manitoba where she visited
among friends for three mon.
ths, She was accompanied up
and back by her son Bert,
Mr, Robert Elliott is around
buying turkeys again. He
bought fifty from Thomas W,
Hell of the Hayfield Road and
says they were about the finest
he has secured this fall,
100 YEARS AGO
Nov. 1874.
Messrs Jonathan and
Richard Carter have sold their
farm on the Huron Road,
Tuckersmith to Mr. James
Crich. The farm contains 145
acres, a log-house and frame
out-buildings,
On Monday when the wind
was at its highest, a young lady
was going along from the Post
office and had her hat blown
from her head. At the same
time her shawl was blown
around so violently she had to
plod through the mud and
hastily seek shelter from the
elements in a shop close by.
Messrs Wright and Foster,
are about to open a store, lately
occupied by Mr. S.G. Zealand,
opposite the 'market, with a
new set of goods. The above
gentlemen are from Seaforth
and have long been engaged in
business,
The first part of last week
was mild, then we had a slight
fall of snow, which was soon
carried away by a few hours
rain. Then the wind began to
rise till if assumed the propor-
tions of a fearful hurricane,
uprooting trees and throwing
down fences. It ended with a
slight fall of snow which at
present lies upon the ground,
Carefully
The first week in December
has been declared nationally as
Safe Driving Week, the Ontario
Safety League reports, Drive
like you'd like everyone else to
drive—all year around,
Newts-fiord readers gni en•
courigett to express their
°Ohl** In letter. to IA. Witch);
hostloVir, eueh 00IniettO dO not
neceesolly raptlieent the
Opihkine Of the Nenve.140/cofd.
Olothodonyme may be used by
Whir writes, but no letter Will : be eliblielhod unless It ten be
Verified by phone,
Old lady
Dear Editor:
The Grand Old Lady 0
Albert Street has been e
familiar friend and companion
of Clintonians for as long as
any of us can remember,
Now, wouldn't it be a shame,
after all these years of faithful
service, to eliminate her en-
tirely from the main street
scene? It just wouldn't be the
same without her; she is an in-
tegral part of the story of our
town.
This white brick structure,
with her prominent bell tower,
has now reached the respec-
table old age of 94. Wouldn't it
be a pretty nice gesture for her
fellow-citizens to re-dedicate
her on the occasion of her 95th
birthday? This ceremony could
be one of the events planned for
Clinton Centennial July 26 -
August 4, 1975. A suitable
plaque, containing the names of
Town Council members and of-
ficials, would be a way to com-
memorate the event.
In case you didn't realize it,
The Grand Old Lady is referred
to on a special opinion ballot
you will be handed at the
municipal election on Decem-
ber 2. It reads:
"Are you in favour of preser-
ving the existing Town Hall?"
Your correspondent will vote
"yes" and hopes you will.
Yours truly,
R.S."Dick" Atkey,
Clinton.
Protest
Dear Editor:
Re: Old Town Hall
The passage of time has
somewhat dimmed any
recollections I have of the old
Town Hall, but when I was a
young man in 1905, I acted as
time and stockkeeper in the
Organ factory when W.D.
Doherty himself occupied the
chair.
Most of those I knew then
have passed along, but
remember such well-4116;On
;:tietnes:ae• Tisdale, jfB,
Hoover','‘J'alce TaYlOt:'Bi%
Jackson, to name a few.
I am sure that I speak for all
those long gone oldtimers when
I protest vehemently as
possible at what I hear of the
possible demolition of the old
Town Hall,
Surely we must have learned
something from observing what
has happened in Kitchener and
Toronto this last few years.
I speak as a member of the
Architectural Conservancy of
Ontario, and deplore the lack
of imagination evidenced by so
many of our public officials in
these times.
Please consider carefully.
J.H. Pollock
Goderich, Ont.
Never
Dear Editor:
This will be the last News-
Record before the municipal
elections on Dec, 2nd, and
perhaps there is room for fur-
ther comment on the Town
Hall issue,
The open meeting in the
Town Hall on November 13th
was a real Wednesday Night
Comedy Special. Never ,has an
information meeting dispensed
so little information. Persons
asking logical questions were
continually given the run-
around by the architect and
mayor and council members.
No one could tell us within
$100,000 of total cost of im-
proving municipal offices,
renovating library, restoring
Town Hall, etc. Apparently
council wants Clinton to sign a
blank cheque for this project.
The architect has already
made $10,000 by doing a Study
of renovations to convert the
present library to a town hall,
and build a new library-senior
citizens complex. And he
couldn't even tell us the
measurements of the existing
buildings, or the new one, o
the lot it would be placed on.
I cannot condemn council for
spending a mere $10,000 on a
study but a thorough study
should have first been done on
restoration of the old Town
Hall. However, council, by its
own admission, supports
destruction of the old building,
plus defacing the library, and
sticking a new building behirick
Wesley-Willis Church - without
any allowance fo'r parking
space or traffic problems,
Is council afraid Clinton wil
look like an old-fashioned, hic
town if we keep our old To
Mali and restore its origins
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