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Times-Advocate, 1980-10-01, Page 4Breaking in may become popular Since the days when Harold Ballard was laughing up his sleeve and eating steak on a regular basis, Canada's penal institutions have been called into question for some of their practices. Never one to hide his light under a bushel, the Toronto Maple Leaf owner succeeded in making many Canadians rather envious of the posh treatment he was apparently receiving when he was serving time for his indiscretions against society. While there were those in prison still attempting to break out, the first class treatment and meals, being provided for inmates such as Ballard, almost prompted some of. the less for- tunate in our ranks to want to break into the luxurious prison life. Sincethen.there have been several ex- amplegofirison life that prompts many to question whether crime does in fact pay. There was the escape of manslaughter convict Leslie Beke who fled custody while walking through a shopping mall in Peterborough. He was taken to the, mall,; presumably, to be taught what the real world is like should he ever get the chance to return to it, Beke, jailed for the killing of a Lon- don area farmer. obviously enjoyed what he saw and decided to skip the normal waiting time to return to socie- ty. Red-faced prison officials attempted to calm a jittery public by pointing out that the escapee was not dangerous. Somehow those words appeared a little hollow 'after he kidnapped a woman at gunpoint and forced her to drive him to Ottawa. Now we have the case of convicted murderer Peter Demeter and a buddy serving time for fraud. They were recently let out, of Warkworth prison to attend a pool party thrown by a prison staffer. The two men apparently en- joyed themselves immensely at the party, but ended up being tossed into solitary confinement when it was dis- covered they had taken advantage of the hospitality and had joined other party-goers in the consumption of some ' alcoholic beverages. That taste of the good life on the out- side was not considered in good taste by officials. Drinking on prison time is a no-no! The strange thing is, the two convicts were not under enough super- vision to deter them from , drinking. They just made the mistake of Ilteathing on an official upon their return and he detected the odor of alcohol. It is encouraging to know that there are limitations of the good life in prison. Inmates have not yet reached the point where they, get their favorite wine served with their steak dinners. But, no doubt they're working on it! • * Solicitor-General Robert Kaplan has announced plans to make life in prison more tolerable for some by instituting programs such as the provision of con- jugal visits to federal penitentiaries. Wives, common law spouses and im- mediate family members will be per- mitted to visit the inmates under the program which will bring the convicts and their mates together in trailers for up to two days. Presumably, the taxpayers are footing the bills for the visits and the facilities, although it is unclear whether the spouses will be given the standard prison meal fare or whether they'll have to settle for the less osten- tatious grub served up by nearby restaurants. However, the beleagured taxpayers may have the last laugh when the program gets. rolling. After all, a visit from a nagging wife may well be,among the worst forms of punishment for some inmates, es- pecially if it curtails their attendance at lavish pool parties or their periodic sojourn's to the nearby shopping malls. For that matter, the knowledge that they can be held for up to two days in the limiting confines of a trailer with their wives, may just be the type of deterrent that this countryneeds,to cur- tail criminal activities among some men. Of course, the same thing holds• true for many wives as well. That would be enough to make some of them start campaigning for the return of the death penalty! • While there is much to deplore about the excesses of the past, you can't help feeling that we have lost something by the tendency to passive conformity on the part of today's young people. There are still many 20-year-old job applicants who are primarily interested in the amount of pension they will recieve at age 65. Sad! But there are still individuals in the world as befits a Harold Ballard, as these notes from here andtheretestify: * A lady in Denmark got a divorce because her husband, a butcher, stripped her and chased her through the streets of the town while slapping her on the bottom with a large sausage. She had burned his dinner. * A gentleman in Croydon was arrested in the early hours of the mor- nig while carrying a heavy section of wrought-iron fence. He told police he was building a birdcage. * An 11-year-old boy in London was given a new glass eye by National Health. He had used the old one to play marbles and had broken it. * A hunter in Arizona accidentally shot himself in the leg with a pistol. He fired another shot to attract attention and promptly shot himself in the other leg. * A car driver in Somerset failed his breathalizer test and explained to the court that he was an amateur fire-eater and that prior to his arrest had swallowed paraffin and turpentine in preparation for a performance. ►wn niemorylane 55 years ago Mr. and Mrs. James Sweet celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on Friday last. Both are en- joying fairly good health. Mr. Sweet chopped some wood during the day while Mrs. Sweet was busy about her household duties. Mr. J.M. Harvey, B.A., son of Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Harvey of town has been appointed to a fellowship on the staff of the Toronto University. William Carey Davis, one of Hensall's ' pioneer merchants died early Sunday morning. The West Huron Teachers Association met in Exeter Thursday and Friday of last week and severely critized history arithmetic and speller text books. It also endorsed total prohibition. The Crediton Baseball club installed a radio Monday in the home of William Motz so William could listen in on the world's baseball series. 30 years ago Corner stone of the new Legion building was laid in a ceremony Thursday. Taking part were Vern Heywood in charge of construction, and four men who have presided over the Legion since the war: Len McKnight, Bert. Borland, Bert Ostland and Ted Pooley. Two silos cracked open in the Hensall district following a rainy corn season. Mr. and Mrs. William Moodie, Thames Road, have moved to Exeter to reside with their daughter, Mrs. Margaret Fletcher. Exeter will become in- corporated as a town on New Year's tray. Exeter Cubs netted over $75 from the sale of apples on Saturday, Tickets sold on a Shetland pony donated to the South Huron Hospital fund by Mr. and Mrs. Albert Etherington realized $220.00. 20 years ago Kathy Love of Shipka, a member of SHDHS's Per- .thex champion Cheerleading team was crowned queen of Exeter Kinsmen's Harvest Jamboree, Friday night. Ausable Authority ha's established its new office in the former Ray Frayne home at Riverview Park which ARCA purchased this year in cooperation with the town. Exeter's chief magistrate, R.E. Pooley, came within a whisker of winning the celebrated mayor's class Tuesday at the International Plowing match at Springfield. Over 24,000 persons were given tuberculin tests this summer by the Huron County TB Association. Seventeen were reported to have pulmonary tuber- culosis, of which eight were diagnosed as active. Rev. Bren de Vries, rector of Trivia Memorial Anglican church, will represent the diocese next week at a US conference on town and country churches, 15 years ago Ann Creech, a grade 11 student in the five year Arts and Science course at South Huron District High School will be reporting school activities and events for The Times-Advocate for the 1965- 66 school year, Ernie Chipcase and Helen Burton were the winners in the first annual two-ball foursome golf tournament for the Jack Smith trophy held at the Exeter Golf course recently. The $150,000 expansion of Darling's IGA was officially marked Tuesday morning as Amos Darling, father of the present owner, cut the ribbon at the new entrance way. Members of the staff and friends were on hand for the simple ceremony. The largest family at the Exeter Fall Fair was that of Mr. and Mrs. Ross Skinner of RR 1, Centralia, The family have seven children in- cluding twins born in June. Perspectives ice-cream bars. We made 25 cents for each dozen sold. Three of four dollars pay for ten or twelve hours work. We figured we were right on top of the world. (Offer a kid l that much for one hour's work now and he's liable to turn up his nose at you.) Then again an ice-cream bar only cost a dime at that time. Dry ice in an insulated box was our system to keep 'the ice-cream cold. It worked too. One brick of the frozen carbon dioxide would keep those "Nutty Buddies" as hard as rock even on the hottest days. Unfortunately that was exactly the way I liked ice-cream - hard as rock. Often on those hot days, my take-home pay wasn't that great after paying for my eating binges. You learned to pull your head out of the cooler fast. A whiff of the fumes from that dry ice really gave your lungs a quick bite. One day a kid bet me a quarter that he could hold a small piece of dry ice on his hand for ten seconds. By the time he reached eight, he was holding on to his wrist, in agony, but he hung in there and I paid up quickly, hoping his mother wouldn't question him too closely about the dime size' blister coming up on the palm of his hand before I even left. Oh, those were the days. SWING CANADA'S. BEST FARMLAND 0.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ARC Published by J, W.Sedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — dill Batten Assistant Editor -- Ross Haugh Advertising Manager —Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeYries Busmen Manager-- Dick Jongkind. Published Each Wednesday Morning Phone 235-1331 at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Rogisnation Number ono lanovictoblishodi4Z3- +CNA SUBSCRIPTION RATES: TimdatcOtoer SO h Advocole.Estaalictuat 1 eat tIVOcate Can be done Canada $14.00 Per Year; USA $35.00 Amalgamated 1924 BLUE RIE1B(..."4 1980 prise" ethic when they com- plain about government inter- ference in the private sector, is deafening. That ethic: companies that can't pay their bills should be allowed to fail. Even the bankers who are so quick to act when a small or medium-sized business is in trouble are standing mute, per- haps because one major char- tered bank is also feeling the pinch after extending too much credit to Massey. The simple fact is that Massey doesn't deserve gov- "A beautiful day like this makes you glad to be alive — think I'll go out and kill something." ernment support from hard- pressed Canadian taxpayers. The company's troubles can be traced to gross misman- agement at the highest levels over a Jong, long period of time, To add insult to injury, Massey is a Canadian company in name only. Fewer than 6,000 of the firm's 40,000 or so world em- ployees work in this country. While the big farm machinery manufacturer has been expand- ing internationally, it has done little to produce more jobs in Cancida. Meanwhile, Canadian farm- ers purchase a full 86 0/c of their machinery from other coun- tries, generally at high prices. To re-iterate our position before the Chrysler aid was approved: Ottawa should not be in the business of bailing out ldsers - the enterprise system should be allowed to work. A rising number of inde- pendent firms have been forced to accept the standing rule that only the fittest will sur- vive. It's time big businesses ' such' as Massey and Chrysler called a halt to begging and played by the same rules. With the oil-rich nations of Iran and Iraq engaged in hostilities, the threat of oil shortages had become more of a possibility. However, recent tests con- ducted by the ministry of energy in- dicate that it may be easier than some imagine to reduce their consumption in many ways. Improved gas mileage of 21.3 per- cent was achieved by a group of London-Sarnia news media per- sonalities during a recent three-week test, demonstrating that good driving habits and a properly tuned car subtan- tially reduce gasoline consumptions. During the first week of the test, the participants drove to and from work without changing their normal driving habits and only recorded their mileage and fuel consumption. In the second week, their cars were tuned-up and the drivers tuned-in to gas saving driving habits. In the third week, participants recorded mileage and fuel consumption of their tuned-up vehicles and drove in an energy-efficient manner. The savings, one which was as high as 37.7 percent, were attained by obser- Societal seams are being stretched. Increasing numbers gorge themselves on self-indulgence; moral corsets are abandoned; once-sacred and absolute boundaries are fuzzed. Old ways are not necessarily better, only familiar. Change does not have to be for the worse. Greater flex- ibility and permissiveness is not un- avoidably evil and a sign of decadence. However, the restless, almost driven pursuit of happiness through self-gratification which seems to characterize many in our • society is cause for concern. Those individuals and groups willing to sacrifice some self-interests for the sake of principles and responsibilties are still the life- blood of society. But . alas, their numbers are diminishing. The present seduction of the masses by affluence and consumerism does not foster such as self-sacrifice and restraint. When the only goal is to maximize one's own pleasure, anarchy threatens. When the only purpose is gratification and titillation, moral and spiritual bollowness is inevitable. As the search for the ultimate consump- tive orgasm intensifies and becomes more frantic with each generation, the feeling of a lack of any real meaningto life becomes more frantic with each generation, the feeling of a lack of any real meaning to life becomes more per- vasive. Bitterness, anger and frustra- tion follow in the wake. Objectional behaviors are the most noticeable manifestation of the un- ving speed limits, maintaining proper air pressure in tires, driving smoothly and with anticipation, having vehicles tuned and by using air conditioners sparingly. Perhaps equally as important to the conservation of gasoline, although it wasn't emphasized in the results circulated by the ministry, is the fact that some of the vehicles were getting almost double the miles per gallon as others, not only prior to the test but during. A 1980 Mazda GLC topped the vehicles with a week three rating of 39.33 miles per gallon, followed by a 1980 Pontiac Phoenix at 36.69, a 1973 Toyota Corolla at 32.70 and a 1979 Chev Malibu at 31.18. The lowest perfor- mance was a 10.69 from a 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix. The move to replace some gas guzzlers with more efficient models is obviously an even greater step forward in the move to conserve gasoline and, happily, the North American manufac- turers are finally grasping that point as the 1981 models appear on the market. derlying diseases. Readily apparent is the increase in petty theft, white collar crime, disrespect for authority- of whatever kind, at whatever level, cor- ruption, vandalism and the increasing use of drugs-i liquid or other. The malignancy and its symptoms seems to be spreading. Prescriptions vary. Some favor a hard line- clamp down, spell things out more clearly, repeat the law and order code more forcefully. Such tend to have little sym- pathy with analysis of underlying fac- tors. Those at the other end of the scale dwell heavily on searching for the root cause, tending_ to minimize present behavioral, problems-whether at home, school, in thecommunity-,until they can arrive at the solution. Both positions tend to be impatient with the other. If society- whether focused in the home, school, country of globe- is to survive there need to be some short- term boundaries, transgression of which is unacceptable. Those guidelines- whether officially the, legal system or not will not produce respon- sible or respectful people. They will only minimize the damage that irresponsible and disrespectful people can do to others. However, long-term solutions must not be neglected. The underlying dis- ease must be attended to or else the cy- cle will continue with only cosmetic changes to the unacceptable behaviors. The long term solutions must be implemented very soon. 7,..777 • , Mainstream Canada No more handouts By W, Roger Worth Here we go again. Less than six months after Ottawa ap. proved. $200 million worth of support for ailing Chrysler Corp., 't he federal government is, now considering using tax- payer dollars to prop up farm machinery manufacturer Mas- sey-Ferguson. And the silence from Cana- da's corporate Cake, who so solidly back the "free enter- Roger Worth Is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Withstand more? ti ar and S hspeTised by Smiley She cares not a whit By SYD FLETCHER When I %a , about fourteen years old, we lived in Flint, Michigan. In the summer my brother and I got jobs selling ice-cream. In those days no one seemed to have thought about attaching a bicycle to the cart so we had to push them around by hand. Each mot rung. about a hundred of us set out, after loading up each cart with One of my father's favorite jokes, before the word "corny" had been in- vented, was, "It's a long time to be married to a strange woman." He repeated it once a year, on his wedding anniversary, and I can still remember my mother's eyes rolling up, the way women's eyes roll up when their husband's are telling a story they've heard eleventeen times before. But it pops into my head every time I think of my own wedding anniversary, which is usually about two weeks after the event. This year I remembered about two weeks before the event, but by the time this appears in print, I'll probably have forgotten completely. My wife is no better. She can be so sentimental it's downright disgusting, over such trivia as her children, her father, her house, a particular party twenty 'years ago, a friend who is in trouble, and, very occasionally, about me. But when it comes to really impor- tant things, she cares not a whit. The first indication of this was when I gave her a flower on Mother's Day many years ago. iliShe said, curtly, "I'm not your mother." Birthdays, same deal. She was born on Feb. 28, surely easy enough to remember, with its connotations of Leap Year. I forget. She does too, though I'm not sure hers isn't psy- chological - a year older. This attitude permeated our family. Our kids certainly knew what Christ- mas was, little greedy-guts. And Easter: church with joyous music, hunt for Easter eggs, probably a. visit with grandparents. But I'm quite sure they don't know why the first of July is a holiday, have only the vaguest idea what Remem- brance Day and Thanksgiving are all about, and exactly which day is their birthday, though they know the month they were born in, becouse that ties in with astrology, in which they fairly firmly believe.' But my Dad was right, even though repetitious. "It's a long time married to a strange woman." I met this strange woman at universi- ty, when I came home from the wars. I thought she was demure, beautiful, and shy. And she was. She thought I was brash, swaggering and far too un- heeding of the university's rules, which I was. After many years of togetherness, we've each retained only one of these adjectives. She is totally lacking in demure, she is still beautiful, and she is about as shy as MuhammedAli. I have completely lost my brash, have nothing to swagger-about, but am still far too unheeding of the rules of the establishment, An odd combination, you'll say, to get married. And it was, She thought me boorish and uncouth, especially after I fell sound asleep in the middle of a lec- ture by the late great poet, E. J. Pratt. She didn't realize that I had been at a lunchtime, reunion with some old Air Force pals who'd just arrived back from overseas, and that it was only great gallantry and iron will that had forced me to make the lecture. I thought she was prissy, prudish, and dumb, because she never missed a lec- ture, wouldn't even throw one inviting look at the dashing young ex-fighter pilot in her, class, and ventured nb opinions on anything. Oh, well. Chemistry I guess. I won't go into the details, but a few months later we were exchanging furtive kisses in the library stacks, groping embraces in doorways, and skipping lectures right and left. And a year later, we were married, with no pomp and little circumstance, poor a churchmice, but head over heels. It was better to marry than to burn, as Paul told the Ephesians or somebody. And about ten months later, we had a little stranger in our midst, and were poorer than churchmice, But still head over heels. That little stranger is now thirty-three. Now, I'm not go- ing to tell you which anniversary this is. I don't want a flood of mink coats and gold bars and ten-cent cards com- ing in. Suffice to say that we won't celebrate it together, but we'll be together. There's nothing quite so disgusting as the married couple who can't stand each other's guts, but go out for a big dinner, or throw a big party, on their anniver- sary. Like most couples, we've grieved and wept together, laughed together, helped each other over some rocky roads, loved together, fought with mutual fury, taken great joy and great heart-aches from our children, idolized and spoiled our grandchildren, and managed to muddle along, day to day, in this peculiar life that throws up road-blocks, groans and guffaws, tears and terrors, death and taxes. We still constantly worry about the welfare, state of mind and health, and golf score of the other. We still fight frequently, although I have called and ask- ed that my wife be taken off the list of "Husband-beaters," She hasn't thrown anything bigger than a glass of water at me in months. My dad was right. "It's a long time to be married to a strange woman." And may yours be as long, and as strange. Not your wife; your marriage. f .0 40 . ' •• • 0 • •