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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1974-12-19, Page 4Here's an appeal to parents • Taking a stand Three cheers for Exeter Councillor Ted Wright in urging council to protest the proposed pay increases for federal MPs as well as the changes in the riding of Huron. boundaries. Too often municipal councils fail to show leadership in questions that appear to be outside their normal area of administra- tion., However, there are many such issues which arise which directly affect the peo- ple whom they represent as members of council and they should make their views Tell Christmas like it is known on those topics. They will gain wide support for their protests this week. The size of the pay in- crease being suggested for MPs is com- pletely unrealistic at this time and some of the changes being made in the area riding boundaries are beyond comprehension. This newspaper adds its voice of protest and at the same time commends the council in Exeter (also in Grand Bend where the MP pay raise is being protested) for their interest in issues which are of im- portance to all their residents. A little town "SO I 5IIIP To FOND Y00 CAN'T Pu51i CANADA AROUND —wru. vo wor WE'RE Tol4 WHEN WE'RE GO MID RM0'.1" There's gotta be a better way man; but for our part, we.cannot help telling all that we've seen and heard.' Many of we Christians fail to tell all we've seen and heard and thus fall short of the plan Christ has for us in the spreading of His kingdom. Writing prophetically, Isaiah said, 'Surely it was our grief he bore, our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment frpm God for his own sins! But he was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was lashed . . , and we were healed! We are the ones who strayed away like sheep! We, who left God's paths to follow our own. Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one of us! This is the love of God at its redeeming best, It was this conception of Christ that started Christianity on its way, And this is the soul-food that many people need to know about. Take the saving grace of Christ out of Christmas and you take away its meaning. The prophets, through their spiritual discernment, were aware of the imminence of the coming of the Christ child. The wise men were also filled with these qualities. The shepherds guarding their flocks, trembled when they beheld the great star. And the Angel appeared to them and said, 'Fear not; for, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.' Only as we give the glory to God, and tell the Christmas message like it is will there be peace on earth and goodwill to men. This is the season for joy, peace and goodwill. But how can we find any of these in a world that's torn by conflicts? We live in a state of unrest,and are perplexed and heartsick as we hear about the starving, the sick and the oppressed. Organizations are busy soliciting our help in the feeding of the poverty stricken and it's right that we should support them, for the poor and hungry can look to us for food to sustain their bodies. But there is an even more important work which we tend to neglect . . the feeding of undernourished lives or souls, our own and those of others. Christmas is a time of reviving old customs, recalling precious memories, reinstating friend- ships, reuniting families and deepening appreciation of things worthwhile. It is also a good time to replace Christ at the centre of our lives. Almost 2000 years ago the tiny infant Christ was born into a dark world. He came for love of man, to save him and to open to him the gates of heaven, At Christmas time Christ should be born again in the hearts of men. We pour out our gratitude to HIM through our e. tributes. We give gifts to others special devotions and other as a similar token of our love. It should also be a time when we spread abroad the light and the good news brought to us by the birth, life and resurrection of Jesus. We should be like Peter and John who though threatened with imprisonment could only say to their oppressors, 'You judge whether we should obey God or We are indebted to a St. Marys resident for these interesting bits of thought about a small town, We are sure our readers will find some appealing thoughts here:- "A little town is where you don't have to guess who your enemies are, Your friends will tell you." "A little town is where everybody knows everybody else's car by sight - and also where and when it goes." "A little town is where few people can get away with lying about the year they were born. Too many other people can remember." "A little town is where people with various ailments can air them properly to sympathetic ears." "A little town is where, when you get the wrong number, you can talk for 15 minutes anyhow." "A little town is where the ratio of good people to bad people is something like 100 to one. That's nice to remember." "A little town is where it is hard for anybody to walk to work for exercise because it takes too long to stop and explain to people in cars who stop, honk, and offer a ride." "A little town is where city folks say there is nothing to do, but those who live there don't have enough nights in the week to make all the meetings and social func- tions." "A little town is where everyone becomes a 'neighbor' in time of need." "A little town is where businessmen struggle for survival against city stores and shopping centers." "A little town is where those same businessmen dig deep many times to help with countless fund-raising projects." "A little town is where it's nice to be when rearing a family." "A little town is where many teenagers say there's nothing to do - and then are sur- prised to learn that their big-city peers are saying the same thing." "A little town, when all is said and done, is a nice place to live," Take a bow Our response to now Those who were speculating there would be a decline in Exeter's Santa Claus parade this year were proven wrong. Very wrong! It was as good, and if not better, than the record parades of the past three or four years and maintains the local event as one of the best in Western Ontario. 'Many people have commented that it is much better than the London parade, and there is probably no community this size that can boast of such a tremendous show- ing. By ELMORE BOOMER Counsellor for Information South Huron For appointment pnone: 235-2715 or 235-2474 The success is certainly not due to any individual in particular — or even a small group of individuals. Starting with parade chairman Tom Arthur right through to the people who assist with the last minute arrangements, there are hundreds of people involved with the organization and the preparation of floats. Hope among the ruins It's" a community endeavour of the highest order and all those who participated this year should take a bow. Don't look now folks, but the calendar indicates that Santa Claus should be in the final count- down for his jaunt from the northern extremities and that it will soon be time for the majority of men to start their Christmas shopping. If you're similar to the writer, you'll no doubt take a few minutes in the upcoming days to wonder how the past year slipped away so quickly. We've hardly had time to wipe the gravy drippings from our beard from the last Christmas feast and here it is almost time to get back into the chow line for this year's delicacies. Actually we shouldn't talk too much about the speed with which times flies, because that type of chatter is supposed to be in- dicative of growing old. At any rate, 1974 has almost zoomed out of existence and there's no period within the year when time flies quite as quickly as this festive season. When it all boils right down to it, most of us are too darn busy to even enjoy the season and prompts us to suggest that some changes are required. + + + It should be broken down into three separate occasions: one for gift giving, one for special dining and another for the celebration of the religious aspects of the season., The benefits of the proposed program are many. First, it would put the true meaning back into Christmas and give equal billing to Santa Claus and the Christ child. It's unfortunate that would allow us all to save con- siderable money as we could take advantage of the January sales to purchase our Christmas gifts. People in some nations now spread the festive season over a longer period and no doubt there are many who would wish to duplicate that practice. By the same token, there are others who would wish to continue with the present situation and get the whole thing out of the way as quickly as possible in one fell swoop. + + + However, we should all be reminded a tthis time of year that we can be masters of our own destiny to a greater extent than some now think. Christmas is, after all, exactly what you make it. If it's a season offrayed nerves a ti your house, that's because you make it that way. If it's a season where you attempt to spread peace and goodwill, that's the type of return you can expect. There's no validity in blaming the other fellow if you don't really enjoy the Christmas season. You alone can put Christ back into Christmas . . . or you can hit the other extreme and get tangled up in the crass commercialism that so many decry. It's what you make it, and we 'hope that you and yours make it a very merry one this year. the latter now has to play second- fiddle to the jolly old chap from the north. It would tend to ease the exhaustive pace with which most of us are now faced and that would pay dividends in soothing shattered nerves. The cooks of the world could concentrate on preparing their feasts without having to work in gift-buying, parcel wrapping, etc. with that chore. Everyone would enjoy the dinner to a much greater extent, The kids would be able to sit down to the table for more than their present 12 seconds, because they wouldn't have new toys demanding their immediate attention, Dad would be less haggered because he wouldn't be worn out breaking up arguments over kids playing with another's toys and mom would be less haggered because she wouldn't be breaking up arguments over dad playing with the kid's toys. Digestion wouldn't be ruined by the-normal situation where half the population become upset because they didn't get Aunt Zelda quite as nice a present as they received, and the other half become upset because they didn't receive as good a present as they gave their Aunt Zelda. The big dividend, of course, would be in having the gift giving portion of the season delayed until January some time. That So we compromised. I told him that if he paid all my expenses on my trip, I'd dig up the money somehow. He did. And thank goodness I haven't seen him since. All this has been brought to mind by a recent development in the delivery of daily newspapers, It is just another sign of our af- fluent age, when even the kids have so much money they don't have to work. For years, I've taken two daily newspapers, morning and evening. They take opposite political stands, and both are so warped that if I take a stand in the middle of their polarized points of view, I am right in the temperate zone, which I prefer. At any rate, it seems that these titans of the press cannot, simply can not, secure young carrier girls or boys to peddle their papers. The morning paper has simply given up. No delivery. The evening paper has hired in- dependent agents "operating their own vehicles." This means guys who drive around in their own cars and hurl the paper out A recent United Church Observer high-lighted the troubles in Northern Ireland with the headline Northern Ireland: Hope Among the Ruins. A cynical shake of the head was the usual response to this journalistic ploy. And of course things are bad. Throughout Belfast the marks of the troubles are universal. Even the sleepiest village feels the weight, Police stations are surrounded with barb wire or the church is massively isolated. Once busy streets are silent. The paradox is simply this that the hopeful aspects of the situation are not apparent until its blackness is felt. Five times one firm has been bombed. Expensive retail outlets are now rubble. The blackness is felt in viewing shattered remains of onetime homes, lace curtains blowing through windowless holes, toys lying nonused and unusable in former yards and playgrounds. One whole street is gone. It was a Protestant area with Catholics moving in. The latter's homes were destroyed by other Catholics who felt strongly about mixing with Protestants. Yet life goes on! And this is the miracle, The Europa Hotel in downtown Belfast has been hit 28 times. It usually takes about half of an hour to get back into business after each bombing. The lady in the gift shop sums up the attitude which is behind the life- going-on phenomenOn. "If you let yourself worry about such things, you couldn't carry on." Anecdotes abound. The crowds are cleared away in the wake of a bomb warning and a mother is heard to say, "No, we can't wait to watch it go off today. I have to fix your father's tea!" 50 Years Ago Fred Cornish has moved into the residence at the rear of the store on the Lake Road, Exeter North, Mr. E. O. Penhale has disposed of his 50 acre farm in Stephen Township to Mr. Ben Makins of the same township. James Foote left Monday morning for Detroit where he has accepted a position as motor mechanic with the city fire department. homes and at many homes where there were shut-ins. 10 Years Ago Robert I. McDowell, Exeter was promoted to the rank of Squadron Leader this week. He now heads the Armament Training Section of Central Officers School replacing Si. R. R, Waters. C. V. Laughton, Q.C., of Bell & Laughton, Exeter has been named one of Lambton County's representatives to the Forest District High School Board and Assistant Crown Attorney for Huron County. The Huron-Perth district of the Ontario Bean Growers Marketing Board elected their directors at the annual meeting in Zurich last week. Those elected were: Robert Allan, Brucefield; Fergus Turnbull, RR 1 Dashwood ; present chairman of the Ontario Board, Charles Rau, RR 2, Zurich; Winston Shapton, RR 1, Exeter; Alice McBeath, Kippen; and Harvey Taylor, RR' 3, Clinton. lllll lllllll I l I llll1111111114111111 llllll I lllllllll 11111101111111111/111t lllll MI11111141 llllll1 llllll HMIlll lllllll 11M11111 lllll tilts In'the so-called good old days, a great many who are now middle- aged men were in the newspaper -business. That is, they had a paper route and made a bit of spending money, even in the depression years. I was closely associated with a paper route myself, although I didn't exactly have one. My kid brother did. I was sort of his business manager or financial adviser. Every Saturday night, after he'd make his weekly collec- tions, I would inveigle him into the bathroom, lock the door so nobody could hear, and give him some sound business advice. I'd remind him that he was too fond of candy and pop and other tooth-rotting confections, that he'd only squander his hard- earned fifty cents if he didn't invest at least part of it every week, He didn't know much about investments and wanted to put some of his money into a piggy bank. I'd tell him severely that that was no way to make his money grow. He should give it to me and watch the interest pile up. He'd bawl a bit, but them he'd come around after a bit of arm- twisting, and see the point. The point was that I was stronger than he was. I'd always let him keep part of it, maybe twenty cents. I'd take the other thirty cents and invest it. I invested it in the Saturday night movie, a bottle of pop and chocolate bar. It was a wise in- vestment and paid good dividends. The many movies I thus enjoyed enriched my ex- perience of the human vocabulary and added to my personal pleasure in life. It took him about two years to catch on, two of the best years of my life. There was, of course, a confrontation. He swore I had conned him out of at least sixty dollars. I scoffed at this and told him it was only about fourteen. But the little devil had been keeping his books. Last time I saw him, in Ger- many last spring, he informed me that with compound interest, I now owed him $44,000 and if I didn't comeup with it, he'd be interested in taking it out of my hide. I am still an inch taller than he, but he out-weighs me by forty pounds. Urged to share Christmas spirit Times Established Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 Irke exeframes-Ainwate 25 Years Ago Reeve A. J. Sweitzer en- tertained the members of the council, the town officials at a turkey banquet at Monetta Menards' following the final meeting of council Thursday evening. The local staff of the Bell Telephone Co. held a Christmas party last Thursday evening starting with a turkey banquet at Monetta Menard's and con- cluding with dancing. The students of journalism at the University of Western Ontario staged their annual Christmas banquet Thursday evening , it was attended by over 125. Don Southcott is president of the Journalism Press Club. 1$ Years Ago Mrs. Gerald Godbolt was elected president of the Women's Federation of James Street United Church. Mrs. Labana If odgins was elected president of Trivitt Memorial Women's Auxiliary. The CGIT of James Street United Church went carol-singing at the hospital, two nursing SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND CANNA., 0.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Editor -- Bill Batten — Advertising Manager Assistant Editor — Rost Haugh Women's Editor — Terri Etherington Phone 235-1331 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 Paid in Advance Circulation March 31, 1974, 5,309 $1.18$CRIPTION Rims! Canada $9.00 Per Year; USA $11.00 the car window in the general direction of your house. In the good old days of about six weeks ago, I felt a little tingle of warmth when the door-bell rang. "Ah the paper boy," I would remark wittily. And it was, The boy, or sometimes girl, was faithful and loyal, even in the foulest weather, I knew the country was going to hell in a hearse, but I felt that this was one hummock of decency and virtue in a morass of miseries. Now I feel a very strong tingle, not of warmth, but of rage, at paper-delivery time. It is my custom when I arrive home after a hard day on the assembly line at the pupil-factory, to take off my shoes, and take on a cold beer before proceeding to peruse my paper. This entire routine has been spoiled not to say desecrated, by the new delivery method. I still go through the first parts of the procedure, butthe beer tastes flat as I stew around, waiting for the paper, It arrives any time bet- ween four and seven, That means I have to put back on my shoes and go out in my shirt-sleeves in the winter wind to search around in the snow for my paper as many as four timeS. This is not conducive to lowering a man's blood pressure, At least they put the thing in a plastic bag. But this is covered in three minutes when it's snowing, which it always seems to be when I go out to look for my paper, To add insult to injury, I receive a letter from the cir- culation department of the big, fat, rich, lousy newspaper telling me that the price is going up and that "We feel this is a reasonable price to pay for dependable delivery to your driveway six days a week." Well, let me just say to the circulation manager that I don't want the paper delivered to my driveway, but to my house, My car can't read, And let me add that the service is not dependable, in its present condition, And let me further add that if you can't do better than that, I will shortly tell you what 7 The Moderator of The United Church of Canada has appealed to members of congregations across the country td "spend a little less on Christmas presents for ourselves so that we may share more of Christ's presence with others," In particular, the Right Reverend Wilbur K. Howard, in his first Christmas message to United Church people since becoming moderator, asks for donations to "put od in the mouths of hungry and starving human beings in Bangladesh. Displaying his well-known sense of humour, Dr. Howard says in a letter to ministers of United Church congregations: "We ask you in otir churches to take an old, used, beat-up en- velope and re-cycle it by marking on it IHunger and put in this envelope your gift to help alleviate hunger pangs and save '-aariatefille you can do with your newspaper. Sideways. This is a direct appeal to all parents. Please cut off your children'S allowances, so .that at least some of them will be available to peddle -papers in the old way. This is a cry front the heart. Civilization is sinking, Must this last vestige of nor- malcy go down with lives in Bangladesh," When this has been done, close the envelope with a bit of Scotch tape and place it on the offering plate next ' time you're in church. "There'll be no more spent on advertising posters, Slick pamphlets or fancy gift en- velopes. Furthermore, when you re-cycle an old envelope, you help somebody else help you do something about world hunger - may be your Aunt Hilda or the oil company. "Be careful about telling your kids about this opportunity to relieve hunger in our world because they'll likely want you to send to Bangladesh most of the money you were going to spend on their Christmas gifts," the moderator's letter cell- cludeS.All monies received for this appeal will be sent directly to the National Council of Churches in \ Bangladesh, Life goes on. Shops are reopened quickly. Factories are built and rebuilt. The unem- ployment rate is going down. Industrial production is up. Foreign investment is still lured to Northern Ireland. All of this is the staff of victory. Extremists would like to take advantage of chaos. Some want a Protestant rule without a nod to the Catholics. Others want a united Gaelic-speaking Catholic Ireland, But chaos has not come. The regimen of doomsday is frustrated. While polarization is very evident and certainly bitterness is present yet the amount of sweet reasonableness and good- will is amazing. A practical ecumenism among the churches is flourishing. Joint Catholic-Protestant efforts are numerous. Joint statements on social issues such as "drugs, violence underdevelopment and unemployment" emphasize this ecumenism even more than relief projects where donors and organizers are lost in the activity. Rows and rows of houses are burned in a night but repair and redevelopment take place under the aegis of interdenominational relief. "We hope we can keep a mixed community here", one churchman remarks. A riot is rioting replete with flying stones, bottles and curses at one location only to be quietened by a human barricade made up of a Presbyterian clergyman, Methodest minister, two curates, the Anglican rector and the parish priest, with arms linked together. Churches which have taken a clear stand against violence have grown in numbers and com- munity support. "The fence- sitters are the losers." Alliance Street is an asphalt division between warring fac- tions. But our author saw soldiers playing games with small boys On that same street, And everywhere reconciliation is attempted, Women Together, Protestant and Catholic Encounter, Good Neighbours, The Fellowship of Reconciliation and Corrymeela are just some groups exercised toward peace by the "troubles," Corryineela means Hill of Harmony in Gaelic. Six thousand Protestants and Catholics have come together for understanding and rest at a hostel so named. Destruttion and loss of life are everywhere but life goes on. "You peg away at the problem because it's there, not because you expect success. We may never make a significant con- tribution, But we'll try because we believe in it." Life goes on, therefore, and therein 18 hope, ry