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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1978-07-05, Page 4Page 4-.-Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, July 5, 1978 The Lucknow Sentinel LUCKNOW, ONTARIO "The Sepoy Town" On the Huron -Bruce Boundary Established 1873 - Published Wednesday Published by Signal -Star Publishing Ltd. Robert G. Shrier - president and publishes Sharon J. Dietz - editor Anthony N. Johnstone - advertising and ` general manager C A Subscription raft, $10 per year in advance Senior Citizens rate, $8.00 per year in advance U.S.A. and Foreign, $14 per year in advance Business and Editorial Office Telephone 528-2822 Mailing Address P.O. Box 400, Lucknow NOG 2H0 Second class mail registration number - 0847 Congratulations, Tommy! Lucknow has its own celebrity in the person of 10 -year-old Tommy Gilmore who won the Canadian Championship in Baton Twirling in Winnipeg on the weekend. Tommy competed against the best from Canada and we are proud he brought home the national trophy. Keep up the good work, Tommy, for as with anything one tries to achieve, being the best in twirling competitions requires hours of -practice and hard work. Congratulations, we are proud of you. Summer The first long weekend of July has heralded the summer. School is out, summer holidays are at hand and the days are long and lazy. It's a carefree time of the year when we all begin to wish we lived in the southern climate where the, Californian sun shone all year long. Toddlers in bathing suits, carrying sand pails, run for the water's edge; teenagers ride in. vans and on motorcycles heading for the beach; there's bar-be-queing in the back yard and families camping in trailers and tents. Gardners spend hours with hoe and tiller to grow vegetables to be canned for winter's table. Farmers are well into their busy season which begins with the planting in the spring through the haying in summer to the harvest in the fall. / Lovers, young and old, go for long walks along the beach at sunset. Boys hitch push lawn mowers , to riding lawn mowers and travel about town cutting Fawns to earn money. Boys on the farm heave bales of hay, scuffle corn and combine grain. Pup tents spring up in the back yard and the kids sleep out at night. Summer theatre flourishes throughout the area like the grain in .the fields; Stratford's Festival and Avon Theatres: Grand Bend's Country •Playhouse and Blyth's Summer Festival. The swimming pool is alive with splashing laughter, a mother's respite from the insanity of kids out of school. The Blue Jays are well into a second great season which has seen them whop the Orioles. The argos_ .and the Ticats are into training camp and Borg and Connors are battling for the Wimbledon cup, while Glen Abbey sighs following the Canadian Open. Summerfest, which started the whole thing for our town, Is a recent memory of fun, and there's a tractor pull, the craft festival and the Lions bar-be-que yet to cornea It's summer. It's the only time you'll have this summer.' Have the summer of your fife-! 1lCUM 0/ Tflemoq,i BY D.A. CAMPBELL I will never forget the day that Jeremy Fraser, the undertaker, came into the "Grunt and Thunder" office to cancel his ad. He was dressed in a black suit, immaculate . as a tailor's dummy, and his face was like those which received his expert attention. His glassy eyes looked through me, and his voice was a monotone, carried on a breath of peppermint - the, camouflage for his secret nips at the bottle. To the Editor: Recently I received a letter from Addison Kerr Laing of 219 4th Avenue, Ottawa K1S 2L7. He had been seeking information on his Kerr an- cestors who came to Canada from Ochiltree in Scotland. They lived first at Ratho, Ontario, near. Plattsville. In 1860's or later, James Kerr moved to Lucknow and went into partnership with his brother, George, who oper- ated a general store. James operated a shoe factory and millinery section. The build- ing is of stone and is almost the same to day. Mr. Laing. took a • picture of it and it closely resembles. an 1867 print. The building houses a law firm and restaurant today. In the 1880s, James Kerr moved to Millbank and then Bright. About 1900 he retired to Hamilton. James' first wife died in 1877 and is buried in South Kinloss Cemetery. In 1879, James married Louisa McLeod. George Kerr was Reeve of Lucknow for a few years. Mr. Laing would be glad of any further information on his grandparents - James and Louisa Kerr or relatives. Gladys Arnold. To the . Editor: THEY ARE STILL LETTING US DOWN I'm sure that the majority of Sentinel readers must have been disturbed by M.P.P. Murray Gaunt's statement in a June issue that junk books were being used as teaching material in the Huron County high schools. Murray further add- ed to his disgust with our Ontario education authorities by stating that while the present situation exists . he will not permit his children to attend Huron County high schools. As far as books are concerned, the Ontario edu- cational authorities really missed the boat when they failed to realize the import- ance of a number of books on world history that became available during the 1950s. These books clearly explain- ed that while there has been recorded history for about six thousand years, it is only during the last two hundred years that the western world has been able to Make remarkable progress in the fields of transportation and. ommunication. After mak- ing gradual progress towards the end of the 18th century the western world picked up speed and by the middle of the 19th century it was a case of full speed ahead. The latter part of the 19th century, from 1870 on, saw the introduction of such 'Marvels as the telephone, the electric light, phonograph, the motion picture industry and the automobile. Then in 1903 there was the first successful airplane flight. Under the pressure of two world wars the progress in transportation and communi- cationshas improved to such an extent that we are now capable of sending astro- nauts to the moon and back in comparative safety. One of the very unfortun- ate results of all this progress is that it made war possible on a world wide scale. The 19th century saw continuing progress in the improvement of weapons of destruction. International rivalry led to a tremendous arms build-up in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, This eventually • led to World War I, 191448. - This was thought to be a war to end war. However it wasn't long before interna- tional rivalry led to another World. War, 1939-45. What is the situation now that we have reached the year 1978? The enormous amount of money that is being spent on weapons of destruction does not give us a good reason to ignore the world peace problem. Every responsible thinking student and adult should ever be conscious that the world is annually spending countless millions and even billions of dollars making weapons of destruction - and for what eventual result? Art Andrew. June 30, 1978. To the Editor:, Madam: 1 don't know Aubrey. I read his observations. He observes that "local people are just quite happy with what they have. They let the world go by while relaxing in their favourite chair," he wrote. Then he added: "Why can't we have a committee of at least five men who believe in their home town to try and to have new business here that would be paying taxes to relieve the strain on the municipality." . Perhaps those who sit and relax in their favourite chair are as smart as some would-be businessmen. Let us see what's going on in our so-called free enterprise sys- CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 Jeremy was like no other undertaker I had ever met. He was not just an odd ball - he was weird! To this day, 1 am not sure if he was a poker-faced comedian, or merely repeated stock phrases which had a double meaning. He held out his hand, and I thought I had grasped a cold, damp fish. When he spoke, his glazed eyes seemed to be analysing my skeleton, as if he were measuring me for a casket! "I deeply regret that I must cancel my weekly advertise- ment. There is no competition in this area and mine is, strictly none repeat business." ,His face was expression- less. "Actually," he droned, "my establishment is an advertisement in itself. It is ideally located on the main street - the 'dead centre of Redtrees, if you know what I mean." I knew precisely both meanings! For a moment, I was about to lose control of myself and burst into laughter, but the loss of eight dollars per month advertising reventue was not exactly funny. A dollar was a dollar in those days! Jeremy Fraser could not have operated his business without assistance. Unfortunately, his continuous binges and alcoholic fogs, did not create, a good employment climate. Hirings and firings were frequent, but I suppose that more assistants quit than were actually fired. One case in point was an apprentice called Willie Simpson. Willie was a bag of nerves with a vivid imagination - hardly a "natural" for the profession. He was goaded into taking the job by a widowed mother, who found it necessary to have her son in very steady employment. Willie was her sole means of support. After a period of preliminary instruction, (which did nothing to improve the lad's neurotic state), he was launched on his first solo mission. Willie was dropped off at an isolated farmhouse to prepare an old bachelor for his last journey. "I'll be back for you in one hour," Jeremy told the boy. "Here's the key. Be sure to lock the door when you've finished." It was almost dusk, and the sky was pregnant with storm, as Willie, case in hand, reluctantly made his way up the driveway to the lonely house. There was a strong warm wind blowing, cutting swaths through the overgrown grassland and turning the blades, of an ancient windmill, causing it to screech in rusting pain. Across the black clouds in the west, a blue streak of lightning snaked to earth and thunder echoed ominously over the rolling land. To a stronger character than Willie, the • scene would have been eerie and foreboding. The lad shivered involuntarily. On this otherwise warm evening, he felt the icy hand of fear clutching at his innards, and his mouth was parched and dry. "A man who sez 'e 'as no fear, is either a liar or a lunatic," his mother had told him, to compensate for his net' usr ss. "You'll git used to it - so yer will - somebody, ' Ater 1o,it. " WiTIT&Aratidered why he had to be the one. There must be someOilier-Way to make a buck - any way but this! He leaned into the wind, eyes half closed against the blowing dust, and griped the brim of his hat with his free hand. When he reacrred the house, he paused to catch his breath and debated whether he should go inside, or return and tell Jeremy what he could do with his job. The recollection of his mother's face, both demanding and appealing, decided the issue. He fished in his pocket for the key and with trembling hand opened the door and groped for a light switch. The late (or present) owner had not advanced with the times. In the fading gloom, he found a dirty oil lamp on the kitchen table and touched a lighted match to the wick. Fighting against his fear, Willie found his way to the staircase. He climbed slowly, carrying his case in one hand, and holding the lamp in front of him with the other, like a protective weapon. Every squeak of the stair treads added to his terror. By the time he reached the landing his nerves were on a razor's edge. He guessed at the room and picked the right one, the yellow glow lighting the silent form which required attention. Placing 'the lamp on a littered dresser, he opened his case and prepared to go to work. Willie never knew what triggered the fiendish noise which instantly r duced him to jelly. It was human (or was it inhuman?), ' e a groan of agonizing pain, drawn out and terrifyingAt the same moment the room was lit to brilliance by a nearby lightning bolt, and the house was rocked on its foundations by a boom of deafening thunder. As far as Willie was concerned, he stood at the very gates of hell! He left everything, his bag, lamp still burning and stumbled down the dark stairway and out into 'the night, sobbing like a child. The house was left open at the mercy of the storm, and the door swing to and fro in the wind. It is said that he ran all the ,way back to Redtrees in a torrential rain and 'little was seen of Willie or his mother again. Perhaps she found him a steady job in another community! Shortly after the incident, Jeremy Fraser placed a "Help Wanted" ad in the "Grunt and Thunder". At that time, he gave me a few more samples of his double talk. "I may not be very popular," he reflected in his usual monotonous tone, "but sooner or later, everybody pays me a visit." As a parting glance, he measured ,me again with his glassy eyes. "I'll be seeing you," he said.