Loading...
The Lucknow Sentinel, 1985-12-25, Page 6Page 6—Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, December 25, 1985 - ai "The Sepoy Town" BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1985 PAID Thomas' Thompson James Friel Pat Livingston Joan Helm Merle Elliott -Advertising Manager -Editor -General Manager -Compositor •Typesetter Subscription rates in advance; 517 q0 Outside Canada 560,00 S14 00 Outside Canada 558.0° Senior, Citizen Second class mailing reg. no. 0847 1) • Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, the portion of theadvertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid at the applicable rates. J • Keep your licence When this paper is in the hands of subscribers, Christmas day will be looming and last minute shopping will .be the primary concern. After the stores have all closed Tuesday' evening, meals eaten• and preparations completed for the big day, hard- working people across the country are going to sit down across from the treeand watch its winking lights while talking with friends and family and enjoying a drink. Some will enjoy many drinks and then they'll drive. Most of those will make it to their destinations but a few won't. They'll be hauled over by the cops through a RIDE program or worse, will be involved in an accident: It's very difficult to comprehend actually killing some- one. The percentage of drinking drivers and those, killed or injured in an accident caused by a drinking driver is pretty small but, of course, nontheless very important. Most people can relate to events in their lives.' A driver charged under a RIDE program and later convicted, faces a minimum fine of $500 and one year's driver's licence suspension. /• . While it's hard to imagine killing a person, despite the haunting commercial : from. the Attorney Genera of Ontario's office, it's easy to think of what life would be like without a licence, especially in this area. If you work in town, and live in the country, 'you'd have to be chauffered. Driving for groceries; ' cigarettes, hardware, parts, beer, banking orto the post office is ' ended. ,• Driving to a movie in Goderich or Wingham, to visit friends in St. Helens or Ripley,, or to take sons and daughters attending college or university to the Local bus stop after a visit is ended, too. Visiting sick relatives on your own is out, and people who depended on rides from you - elderly friends and relatives, figure skating and hockey playing sons and daughters; or those without•a vehicle - would have to drum up rides elsewhere. The' driving for a trip ' to London, a trip across the country, or the drive to the airport in Toronto to leave the 'continent must be done by someone else.. Basically; the independence we prize so highly in this society, and the convenience allowed by vehicles, would be taken away. And only the upset to personal, life/ has been outlined. A travelling salesman without a licence is a joke. So is a journalist,an ambulance driver or anyone involved in the myriad .of services we require these ' days from pizza • delivery, to cleaning and replacing uniforms, to driving oranges up from Florida: Publictransportation and bicycling mightn pick up •the. slack in an urban center, but in midwestern Ontario, pub- lic transportation is non-existent and a' bicycle ride to town can turn .into an. overnight journey. , Then there's the fact that drinking too much alcohol and getting behind the wheelcan kill• or injure someone you love or someone you don't even know. ' We wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you can share in the joy of ,the season, but spare a thought. for those trusting you as a driver and the way of life you enjoy. 3.F. Merry Christmas! Mother Goose was looking at an ' unhappy . Christmas until the characters in her stories brought' her gifts tocelebrate the special day. Amanda Belec played the storyteller in the production during the Lucknow Central Public School Christmas presentation, [James Friel photo] will return next week/ Christmas schedule meansthis is not Redtrees Well, it finally happened. • I've been toying with the idea of writing a column and I've found several good reasons to put it off, the best of which is that ft would be one more thing that rd have to do in a week. My unique sense of scheduling would make this difficult, I deduced. Sometimes I'd have dozens of, ideas doing word play dances to get my atten- tion, but I successfully. held then' off with the will power needed to read the comics'or"wateh TV until the ideas died from lack of attention. But now I'm forced into it because of the Christmas scheduling devised by the brain trust at Signal .Star Publish- ing, it's unique, too. Today is Thursday, Dec. 19. But for Signal Star employees, this is Monday the 23rd. Friday is Tuesday, the 24th. Now you might think that this creative scheduling, designed to give employees time off at Christmas, would have Saturday as . Wednesday. Wrong. Monday the 23rd is Wednesday. But you say, "Thursday the 19th is Monday the 23rd so if Monday the 23rd is' Wednesday, then it follows that Thurs; day the 19th is also Wednesday, •which happens to be Christmas day." Well, you'd be wrong again:. I was reminded that today, Thursday, is Monday, but I neglected to let anyone , • contributing to the paper, most specific- ally, Redtrees author Don Campbell, know about this upheaval. Just as surprised as 1 q'as that today is really another day, Don will be surprised (on Monday, which is Wed- nesday) that the Redtrees space has been. temporarily usurped by budding and unwillingyoung columnist, James Friel. Now weget to the meat of the matter, at least for this column, and that is establishing pretty loose • parameters that I, in writing this column' will, through the weeks, abide by. Columnists write about their crazy but loveable ,kids, cars,. dog/cat and families. Don't worry, I don't have any of those, Some columnists are serious and con- structive social critics. They have points of view, usually progressive, and argue as persuasive and honestly as they can to ,convince the reader of the value of their opinion. Forget about that too, unless it creeps in while I'm in a state of moral indigna- tion. This usually goes away after a brisk walk from the Sentinel. office to Beckers to pick up the day's papers. And of course, politics and religion are pretty touchy subjects and I don't want to get anyone riled, at least not for any good reason. • , These are reasonable limitations. Avoidance of personallife, • social issues, politics and religion. That leaves me to discuss winners on Bowling for Dollars and Metered Parking: , How Much Time do You Really get for Your Dime? The pessimist side of me originally against th^ extra work this column will cause is feeling pretty optimistic about its lifespan.