Times-Advocate, 1980-07-09, Page 4School authorities throughout the
province should be watching with much
interest the intention of officials in Lon-
don to crack down. hard on drug and
alcohol abuses by students.
Deaths on the road and disruptions in
the schools moved London principals to
present a scheme whereby offenders
would face disciplinary action to the
point of lengthy suspensions.
The intent, of course, is to act as a
deterrent and that it is needed is back-
ed up by some very sobering statistics
which outline the deadly combination of
motor vehicles and mind-bending
chemicals or alcohol.
The problem is not confined to Lon-
don. It is evident everywhere to vary-
ing degrees and it will not go away by
itself. Unfortunately, the peer pressure
to which young people are subjected
makes it mandatory to take stiff action
against those who cannot abide by the
rules of society, not only for their own
protection, but more importantly for
the protection of others.
The London scheme is one that other
school authorities should watch closely
and consider implementing if it helps
curb the problem.
Served us well
Ask any area resident to name one of.
Canada's most prominent women and
chalices are the winner would be
Pauline McGibbon.
Mrs. McGibbon retires at the end of
September after serving as the queen's
representative in Ontartio for the past
seven years.
During that time, she became the
most visible lieutenant-governor in
provincial history, delivering countless
speeches, attending hundreds of 'func-
tions and generally turning the vice-
regal office from a position of sym-
bolism into something personal 'with
which each resident of the province
could associate.
In the past month, she has visited this
area on two occasions, sharing her
warm smile with people of all ages.
Her enthusiasm and energy appear
boundless, as is her love for her God
and country.
She has served us very well indeed.
By W. Roger Worth
Across the country, Cana-
dians are complaining about,
high unemployment and the
need to create more jobs, which
is perhaps natural when 900,000
or so people are out of work.
Yet, at the same time, Ca-
nadians operating small and
medium-sized enterprises in-
dicate that shortages of skilled
labour are among the most
important problems.
- In Alberta, for example,
almost 370/o of the members
of the Canadian Federation of
Independent Business say it's
their top problem.
It is important to note that
big business is suffering the
same difficulties.
The key issue is shortages
of "skilled" labour. For years,
Roger Worth is Director,
Public Affairs,
Canadian Federation of
Independent Business.
Canada's governments have
been funneling billions of dol-
lars into education but there
has been little planning to cor-
rect expenditure on training
with the kind of jobs that are
now becoming available.
We've been spending money
to train people Jri the arts and
humanities rather than blue-
collars trades where high-
paying employment is now
available. And the skilled trade
shortages arc going to become
even more se4r2te.
Canada's Manpower De-
partment, for instance, fore-
casts that more than 500,000
skilled workers will be needed
in the next decade. Without
these trained employees,
Canada 'cannot become self-
sufficient in energy or meet
the challenges of a rapidly
changing world.
What should we do about
the situation?
Already there is pressure
on Ottawa to turn on the im-
migration tap, importing more
and more skilled people from
foreign countries.
It has even been suggested
that Canada should copy the
West German system of allow-
ing "guest" workers into Zhe
country on a temporary basis.
The real solution, though,
is a crash program by the prov.
inces, the federal government,
labour and business, to train
Canadians for the jobs now'
becoming available. •
Without co-operation
from all these groups, high
unemployment will continue
to plague the Canadian sys-
tem:And business peop)e will
not expand because they can't
find qualified' workers. '
Times are changing
The times they are a `changin.'
We all know that and our reactions
range from amusement to disgust and
disbelief.
Recent statistics from Ontario's
registry of marriages and births may
help us get a handle on some of that
change and act accordingly.
Province wide, according to the
Registrar-General, Ontario's birth-rate
continues to decine. In 1961 it was 157,-
663 and in 1978 it had dropped to 120,964.
We all think we know why... the
availability of birth control, the high
cost of raising children, and the deci-
sion of many to remain childless.
Marriage too is on the decline. From
a peak of 72,716 couples who were join-
ed in wedded bliss in 1975, we've seen a
drop off to 67,491 marriages in 1978. We
think we know why too...marriage is no
longer seen as the ultimate goal of
everyone in our society.
That's born out by the divorce
statistics. They're up in'Ontario, to 21,-
640 in 1978, up 900 from 1977.
'Those of us who are in favour of
equality of the sexes can note with
pleasure that combined or hyphenated
surnames for children were twice as
popular in 1979 will struggle through
life with somewhat unwieldy, but
liberated, surnames. •
There you are folks, social trends in
Ontario as we head into the eighties.
We hope those of you making business
and marketing, schooling and social
servicing decisions will take note.
S ea for th Exposi ter
Helping neighbors
Parts of the Prairie provinces are
suffering what has been termed the
worst drought in the area since the
1930's. A bit of rain this past weekend
will help to alleviate the problems to a
certain extent, but grain yields in the
worst-hit areas are expected to be, at
best, about half of normal.
Lack of rain this year. preceded by a
dry fall and sparse snowcover during
the winter, have combined to hit the
Prairie farmers hard.
A "haylift" has been organized to
help provide Manitoba livestock with
Ontario hay, which is currently in good
supply. The Manitoba government, has
organized shipments of 195,000 tonnes
of hay from Ontario using whatever
transportation means available.
While Manitoba will pick up one-third
of the transportation costs, CNand CP
railways are expected to ,pick up
another third while the federal govern-
ment will hopefully pick up the rest.
The provincial plan is that Manitoba
farmers will pay only the cost of the
hay itself, not the excessive transporta-
tion costs involved in getting it there.
And throughout all this, the Ontario
government has refrained from rushing
in and declaring Ontario hay a provin-
cial resource, setting up a "Hay
Heritage" fund or trying to get world
prices for the stuff.
Mr. Lougheed, take note.
Mitchell Advocate
By VD FLETCHER
A few weeks ago there was
quite a scandal at one of the
local racetracks. It seemed
that a man of 80 odd years
had sneaked into a race as a
sulky drive. Not only did he
go in the race but he had
nerve and skill enough to win
it.
Some of the other drivers.
half his age or even less,
were insulted when it was
learned that he no longer
held his card permitting him
to legally drive in such
competitions.
Before the authorities had
the chance to rap his
knuckles he up and died on
them. thus giving them the
horse laugh doubly. A
beautiful twist for him.
As retirement ages get
lower and lower (many un-
ions are pushing for 30 years
and out) it would seem that
more and more mentally
alert and physically capable
people are going to be
around the province, people
who are going to he tremen-
dously bored and 'depressed
Miless the governments,
both municipal and provin-
cial begin to actively plan
for them.
I don't mean just finan-
cially. Pensions are getting
better and better so people
aren't hurting quite as much
in that area.
However, better use will
have to be made of people,
perhaps in advisory
capacities. A man who has
been president of a big com-
pany must surely he an asset
to a beginning small com-
pany in setting up policies. A
retired architect might be
used to help plan traffic flow
in a municipal building.
Maybe some younger
horse-racing drivers even,
could take a few lessons
from an old geezer in the
perseverance and spirit
needed to win a few races,
.t5;51%.
Perspectives
55 Years Ago
A number of young ladies
from town are camping at
Grand Bend for a couple of
weeks having rented Mr.
S.M. Sander's cottage. They
are being chaperoned by
Miss A. Sanders and Mrs. E.
Howard. Among them are
Ruby Creech, Tina McCur-
dy, Irene Stewart', Dorothy
Smith, Florence Walter,
Ruby Davis, Thelma Taylor
and Muriel Howard,
Of bill the mean types of
humanity there is probably
none worse than the wilful
dog poisoner. We have one at
work in Exeter and two
valuable canines have
fallen victim to his dastrdly
work.
Miss Marie Bell and Miss
Bertha Corbett of Hensall
have received word from
Hay township to attend the
council meeting at Zurich
where they will receive the
scholarship they won at the
recent Entrance ex-
aminations.
30 Years Ago
The Exeter Band played
two engagements during
Clinton Old Boys'.
Jim Bowey toured the coal
mines of Pennsylvania
recently.
Rev,. J. Wesley Down, a
former resident of Exeter
died in Belleville Hospital
Friday.
Very Worshipful W.E,
Middleton was appointed
Grand Steward of the Grand
Lodge of Ontario at Grand
Lodge in Toronto,
They newly formed Lions
Club at Grand Bend netted
$900 in 'its first money rais-
ing venture Sunday night by
sponsoring a concert and
raffle.
Petty Officer Jim White,
son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold
White, and Ordinary Seaman
W.C. Brownlee. R,R. 3
Lucan are seeing action in
the Korean zone.
20 Years Ago
Speed limit on No, 4
highway was raised to 60
mph Tuesday when the
Department of Highways
erected signs between Ex-
eter and Clinton.
An attempt by a middle-
aged couple to steal $170.00
from a register at Darling's
IGA was foiled by cashier
Louise Blommaert who
caught the woman taking
bills out of the cash drawer.
When she accused them the
couple dropped the money
and fled.
Over 500 took advantage of
the free TB clinic when it set
up Exeter Tuesday and•
another large crowd invaded
the clinic Wednesday. '
Miss Kay Hay, town acorn-
panied by 'her -niece, Miss
Margaret Ann Prance,
Winchelsea, are visiting the
former's sister and her
family. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon
McDonald. Winnipeg.
Four farms in Ushorne
Township. were hit by a tor-
nado which swept north to
south along the seventh con-
cession. About 6:00 p.m, last
Wednesday. There were no
injuries but damage was
done to buildings on the
farms of Laverne Skinner,
Emmerson Penhale, Wesley
Heywood and Nelson
Coultis.
15 Years Ago
Area. farmer Russell King
is reported in satisfactory
condition in South Huron
Hospital after suffering
severe scalp lacerations
when his car ran into a
bridge on Highway 83 early
Saturday morning.
The price of men's hair-
cuts took a 25 percent jump
this week following the un-
animous decision of the On-
tario Barbers Association to
increase their fee to $1.25
per head.
Warden Glenn Webb,
Clerk John Berry and about
25 members of the Huron
County Council were
honorary bearers, at the
funeral of Ralph Bailey,
deputy reeve of Exeter, who
died in South Huron Hospital
following a heart condition
and whose funeral took place
from the R.C. Dinney
Funeral Home, Tuesday
afternoon.
A.D. Stafford. RCAF Cen-
tralia, was the winner of the
large patio umbrella set in
the draw staged by the
Canadian Tire Store to mark
their recent expansion. The
draw was made Monday by
J.M. Southcott
one columnist in Canada, think I am an utter cretin.
My syndicate manager wants me to put a book together
this summer, when I have trout to catch, golf to play,
swimming to enjoy. grandboys to entertain, and a pile of
rocks outside out French windows to transform into a
patio.
As has been my wont, I'll probably just let the letters
moulder on my desk. I find that if you don't answer
things, they eventually just go away.
I dread going to the Air Force Reunion in September. I
know I will be cornered by various aged airmen who will
tell me they read the article, then bore me to death with
every single incident that has occurred to them since they
got their discharge.
There's been only one - count it, one- tangible benefit
from the article. Today I met the guy who sold me the
typewriter with the lazy A. After ten years, he reckons he
can fix it. He didn't say for free, Probably charge me dou-
ble because it got national exposure.
Arnoigomotecl 1924
*'"Advocated, July 9, 1980.
vocal.* Establishect1 1881
NEWS T! M: COMPUTE ERROR PUTS U. EFENCE ON ALERT Pow 4
Ti
Mainstream, Canada
Imes dvocate
SERVINO CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND
0.W.N.A. CLASS `A' and ABC
Published by. J, W. Esidy Publications Limited
LORNE MY, PUBLISHER
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Editor —4 Bill Batten
Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh
Advettising Manager — Jim Beckett
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Phone 235.1331 at Exeter, Ontario.
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Worth watching
• • •\,,V `TM
CF.!
BLUE
RIBBON
AvvARD
The scene is still changing
The "fall-out" from Exeter's rapid
commercial growth over the past three
of four years is still evident, with at
least four area businesses closing their
doors in the past month or so.
They were preceded by a number of
other store closings, particularly small
grocery stores throughout the district,
who just couldn't attract customers
with the opening of several major com-
petitors.
There's• obviously nothing unusual
about the situation. Similar to nature's
example of maintaining a proper
.balance through the survival of the
fittest, the market' place has always
been subject to the same dictates,
The situation only becomes
dangerous for the consumer when com-
petition is eliminated entirely, and that
is extremely rare these days as en-
trepreneurs keep a constant sur-
veillance on various markets and jump
in quickly whenever they feel there is a
suitable opening.
There is, however, every indication
that the small, family business is un-
dergoing severe strains during these
economically troubled times, but they
are perhaps no more severe than those
being experienced by some large
retailers as well as the competition
heats up for the declining dollars which
most shoppers have at their disposal.
*
Speaking of things heating 4, it is
difficult for most of us to imagine the
intense heat wave that is covering
much of the southern United States
summer's work cut out for me. Instead
of loafing around the backyard with the
birds and a beer, I'll be up to my ears in
joining things or refusing to, putting
together a book, judging a humor com-
petition, and answering a few hundred
letters from complete strangers. Some
prospect.
I'd much perfer to be left alone to
rot, in my own way, into the senility
that my wife suggests is creeping upon
me apace.
I'm in only my second week of
celebritydom, or whatever they call it,
and it's a fair strain.
My mouth is stiff from smiling while
people congratulate me on that fine ar-
ticle in today magazine, I don't know
why the congratulations. I didn't write
it. My smile is much less stiff when
someone says. "I liked that there
colyum about how tough the farmers
have it. That was a real cat'sass."
My ears are ringing from long-
distance calls from people I've never
heard from or of before, and who had
liever heard of me until they read a
minor article in the Saturday supple-
ment of a magazine that is second-rate
compared to its predecessors.
I'm certainly glad I turned down that
offer from Metro-GoldWyn-Mayer forty
years ago, to play Tarzan, after Johnny
Weissmuller got too fat to do it, The
adulation would have turned my head
so badly I'd have been able to see Death
catching up with me, but not to
observe that k was about to step into
a fresh cow-flap.
these days, particularly when the
temperatures in this area are slightly
below normal.
Pictures of the 130-degree heat rising
from asphalt gives ample indication
that it is entirely possible to fry an egg
on your street or certainly to suffer an
instant hot-foot should one be foolish
enough to walk about without ,sturdy
shoes,
While area residents may think that
their frequent battles withbpne-
chililing temperatures is' comparable,
there is little • doubt that combating
heat is'more of a problem.
When a cold snap hits, it is possible to
turn up the thermostat and put on a
couple of extra sweaters to guard
against suffering. However, when a
heat wave exists. there are only so
many clothes a person can take off and
the continual hot air soon renders air
conditioners almost useless at such
high temperatures.
There's little question that weather
patterns have gone a little crazy and
one can only wonder what lies ahead as
scientists predict we'll encounter more
intensity in atmospheric conditions as
unusual weather will be more prolong-
ed when it hits. Cold , snaps will be
colder and longer as will droughts,
heat, rainfall and lack of rainfall in
their corresponding figures.
Things could be worse• of course, and
that is one of the lone salvations
available to keep your mind off the
problems that exist around you.
centre-fold in Playgirl. Instead of love-
ly old ladies writing to tell me they
have arthritis too, the mail would be
crammed with mash letters containing
naked photographs and lewd
suggestions.
As it is, my wife, whose head is'com-
pletely unturned by the article, is get-
ting powerfully peeved at answering
the phone to half-stoned ,old fighter
pilots, coy ladies who won't give their
name, and total strangers who want six
autographed copies. prepaid.
To her, I am just the guy who puts out-
the garbage sometimes after the truck
has gone by, wears light-blue socks
with a green tie, makes an ass of
himself with "jokes" nobody gets at
parties, has no interest in her
decorating schemes, can't find Middle
C on the piano, will never talk to
mechanics and tradesmen, has taken
four months to sweep the basement, in
ten-minute stints every second Satur-
day, and, generally, doesn't know his
arm from a hole in the ground. To skim
the surface.
To the guys on our staff, the article
was a godsend. Now. when I'm lining
up a difficult shot on the shuffleboard,
instead of the tired old, "Don't miss
it," they've found new ammunition.
"Here's the old fighter pilot, nerves of
steel," chorus the heckling watchers.
And when I miss about thrice out of
three, the chant is. ."No wonder we
nearly lost the war."
To those of my students who had to
write their final exams, it was also a
Pit. 511.Att4E-
_MODE?
For instance, the people of 'the
sweltering south or drought-stricken
Canadian west still probably wouldn't
change residences with the people liv-
ing in the Three Mile Island area as
nuclear gases are being expelled into
the atmosphere.
When the nuclear horror at Three
Mile Island occurred, the papers called
it a "disaster". As soon as the in-
dustry's public relations staff came out
of shock, this was changed to "ac-
cident." Before long it was reduced to
"incident" which seems soothing
enough, but a recent bulletin from the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission talks
ofthe "Three Mile Island experience",
What comes next - blessing?
Even some members of the animal
kingdom are having 'their problems
with another of today's woes, that be-
ing inflation.
Marine World at San Francisco has
run into problems stemming from that
situation. Throughout the grounds
there are vending machines selling
small packets of fish for spectators to
feed to the seals.
However, people have now taken to
buying the fish and taking it home to
cook and eat for their own meals'. The
marine director says it is probably the
best food buy in-the locality.
'Meanwhile, the seals are looking a "
little gaunt.
bonanza. "ure like 'the article, sir.
Would you autograph my copy. Hope
you write a book, and I'll buy the first'
copy. 'Sure hope you have a wonderful
summer." Those who didn't have to
write looked at me with amused dis-
dain.
To those who never thought I'd
amount to anything — all my friends,
all my colleagues.most of my family - it
was a chance to say, "Well, never
thought you'd amount to much. Ain't it•
a corker the trash the media will print
these days?"
Along with all the garbage that's
been coming in, of course, are some
warm and welcome letters from old
friends, former students, and regular
readers of the column, those in-
telligentsia as in The People's Smiley,
or whatever that inane heading was.
But, smi the other hand, I'm dismayed
at the number of letters from people
who want something, The Fighter
Pilot's Association wants me to pay my
fees, five years in arrears. The
Prisoner-of-War Association wants me
to pay up my fees, eighteen years
behind.
Something called Author's Awards
(sic) wants me to judge a Magazines-
Humor competition. This iS a very
rewarding pastime. I was a judge, for
some years. in the Leacock Award for
Humor. I was a judge, for one year, of
the Outstanding Canadian Columnist
Award for community newspapers. A's
a result. every humorist, and all but
Su ar and Sp
Dispe sed by Smiley
like to rot into senility
Well, it looks as though I have my It's just a good thing that it wasn't a