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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1964-01-30, Page 9Games Aroused Keen Interest The big crowd at the arena on Sat- urday evening was reminiscent of the "good old days" of ten or eleven years ago, when the rink was filled to the rafters for every game. Nor were the • fans the least bit disappointed in the brand of hockey they saw. Both the Wingham teams, Midgets and Juveniles, acquitted themselves well in their games with the two Detroit teams. In fact one veteran hockey supporter expressed the opinion that he had never enjoyed any hockey game more, even the ones he had seen in the Maple Leaf Gardens. These two games highlighted the opening days of Minor Hockey Week in Wingham, and it is to be hoped they will spark enthusiasm among fans which will last throughout the winter at least. Today's keen competition for time, with six or eight clubs and organizations demanding support every evening, has certainly created a revolution in sports interest. As a result, some of the small- er centres, where there are fewer group activities, are beginning to show up the larger towns when it comes to hockey support. After seeing the two games on Satur- day night there are several hundred Wingham and district people who know personally that the local boys play in- teresting hockey. Let's hope the lads get more encouragement from now on. They Have A Valid Point • We believe that Didace Grise of Honey Harbour made a good point when he spoke on behalf of Ontario's resort own- ers and protested that section of the Human Rights code which makes it illegal to demand job applicants to furnish a picture of themselves. Object of the regulation is to make sure that no applicant is turned down in any line of work merely because of his or her color. However, this is carrying a fine objective much too far. We have reviewed hundreds of job applications • in one capacity or another over the years, and there is no doubt whatever, in our opinion, that pictures of the ap- plicants are vital. Would you believe for one minute that even a government official, selecting applicants personally for his own staff would not be influenced by their ap- pearance? Any intelligent employer is naturally looking for the applicant with the best physical appearance provided his other qualifications are acceptable. Even in a picture applicants betray, at times, sloppiness of attire or grooming which are indications of the person's mental attitudes and provide some guide about the sort of work they might be expected to do. This no -picture regulation is not sound legislation. If it is enforced it will simply add to the delays and costs of selecting employees. Those who are selecting em- ployees will simply pick out the most likely ones from letters, allow for a few extras and pass on to the stage of per- sonal interviews, at which time, of course, personal appearance will be one of the factors influencing the final decision. We do agree that this may give a colored person a slightly better chance to demonstrate that he has other quali- ties not dependent on the shade of his skin. However, it is only sensible to admit at the outset that a law which at- tempts to force an employer to disregard color in his selection of applicants is unenforceable. If he does not want col- ored persons on his staff he will find plenty of other reasons to decide in favor of whites, There is only one law which will ever be effective where problems of this sort are concerned, and that is the state of the human heart. If an employer is suf- ficiently courageous and sufficiently con- vinced that colored people are in truth his brothers, the problem will then, and only then be solved. Closer Ties Are Needed We have suggested before and we do • so again—that there is a distinct need today for a parent -teachers' association. Not the sort of group which allies itself with a national association and goes all out on a program of bazaars and pink teas to raise money for new recreation equipment, but rather an association for • the teachers and the parents of students in each school to provide a forum in which mutual problems might be dis- cussed. We have heard educationists state many times that the school can never succeed in its task without the full co- operation of the home. With rapidly changing curricula, new teaching tech- niques and the fast -developing central school system, the parents have been left a mile behind. Their children are com- ing home with new worries and problems • and the mothers and fathers simply don't know what sort of co-operation the school needs. The association we are suggesting • might be one which would meet once a month, preferably at the school. Here there would be time for parents to ask • questions about the work the students are taking and about how the home can best further those studies. The teachers, • • in their turn, would become personally acquainted with the parents and would so gain a better understanding of the children under their supervision. Hope- fully, there would also be an opportunity for person-to-person conversations be- tween individual parents and the teach- ers, where the more difficult problems could be studied mutually. Yes, it is true that the teachers would have to put up with some foolish and petulant complaints from the small- minded type of mother and father, but it is safe to assume that most teachers are sufficiently well educated and oriented to their work to handle such cases. It is also true that in all probability the par- ents who could gain the most from such meetings would not attend. At the present time contacts between teachers and parents are pretty well limited to the very brief "How do you do?" "You must be Johnny's mother." "He's a fine boy."—which characterizes the annual open house, usually about an hour in duration. Our schools are becoming too Targe, too mechanical and too impersonal. There is a crying need for new avenues of approach between the two groups most vitally interested in the child—his par- ents and his teacher. THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros. Limited W. Barry Wenger, President - Robert O. Wenger, Secretary -Treasurer Member Audit Bureau of Circulation; Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Associ- ation; Member Canadian Community Newspapers Representatives Authorized by the Post Office Department as Second Class Mail and for payment of postage in cash Subscription Rate: One Year, $4.00; Six Months, $2.25, in advance U.S.A., $5.00 per year; Foreign rate, $5.00 per year Advertising Rates on application LAW OFFICE RENOVATED—Another im- provement to Wingham's main street came to light last week when workmen took the wraps off the reconstructed front of the Crawford & Hetherington law office. Work is still continuing inside the office as al- terations take shape. The new front re- placed an old-style front which contained a large plate window with a set -back doorway.—A-T Photo. AbbanctaZinte Wingham, Ontario, Thursday, Jan. 30, 1964 SECOND SECTION SUGAR AND SPICE Red -Eyed ook Fiends By BILL SMILEY This week I'm supposed to speak to ours honor stu- dents and their parents, at a banquet. Dull topic: "Good Reading Habits," Choice of speaker was a hilarious piece of mis- cast ing.I think I can state, not proudly, but with little fear of con- t r ad iction, that my per- sonal read- ing habits are the most atrocious in Canada, maybe the world. Thirty-five years ago, my mother was saying anxious- ly, `Billy Smiley, you'll be blind before you're 15 if you don't stop reading in dark corners!" Well, I ain't blind yet, and I'm still reading in dark corners. Not to mention bright corners, on trains, planes and ships, in bath- rooms, libraries and res- taurants, before breakfast and after going to bed, walking to work or watch- ing television. By the time I was ten, I had barreled through the Rover Boys, the Tom Swift series, the Horatio Alger pap, and was gnawing on the massive historical novels of G. A. Henty. By 15, I had gobbled Zane Grey and Max Brand, along with most of the detective stories avail- able. At about 16, I was de- vouring books, historical, political, travel and bio- graphical, with wild, swing- ing excursions into the fic- tion of Dickens and Defoe, Poe and Proust, at the rate of about one -and -a -half vol- umes a day. Then came the acquaint- ance with Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe and Evelyn Waugh, with heroes haunt- ed, wild, and sophisticated. Heady stuff for a teen-ager. Then came the war. While the other pilots played cards, or talked Bill Smiley about the girl they met in the pub last night, I read. The real book fiend, lost beyond recall, never reads anything remotely connected with real life, as it's being lived. He's a pure escapist. If he lives on the prai- ries, he reads about the sea, or mountain climbing. If he lives in a fishing vil- lage, he reads westerns. If he's a shy boy, he reads about bold men. If he's a detective, he reads love stories. If he's a politician, he reads about detectives. If he's making history, he reads romance. If he's in the middle of a love affair, he reads war novels. The alcoholic and the drug addict will sink pretty low, when money runs out. They will lie and cheat and steal to get the goods. The alcy will drink shaving Iotion, rubby-dub, or put a tin of canned heat through a loaf of bread to get a smash. The dope addict will resort to prostitution or armed robbery to obtain a fix. This is kid stuff. A book fiend, when cut off from sources, will sink to un- speakable degradation. It begins when he picks up discarded newspapers. Next thing you know he's avidly perusing public signs, match books, and empty toothpaste tubes. But that's only the begin- ning. One day in Algiers, just after the war, I met an old air force friend, a Sikh, from India. He was a book fiend, as I knew. One look at his red -rimmed, vacant eyes announced it. He was leading an old lady by the hand. Asked him where he was going, who she was. Turned out she was his aged mother. He was on his way to the slave market. "I know what you think," he slavered, "but I can't help it. I gotta getta book." I heard later he got $19 for her. Or, to put it in realistic terms -38 pocket novels. One Moment, Please By Rev. A. M. Johnston, Brussels, Ontario. "LOOK UP AND LIVE" Hugh O'Brian, the popular star on TV's "Wyatt Earpp" pro- gram, was being interviewed in 1960 by a Toronto writer. Near the end of the interview O'- Brian was asked "Are you hap- py?" "Happy?" he said. He was caught off guard. Then; "Yeah, I guess I'm happy. I have a big house in Hollywood with two acres of land where I live with a white Germanshep- herd and two cats. I enjoy my work. I lead an active social life. But I'll never be com- pletely happy. If I had one wish it would be for peace. Peace for everybody. Peace for Hugh O'Brian." Then he dis- appeared to the next appoint- ment. I guess he speaks for all of us --we do want peace. Few have found it. Why? Perhaps we've been looking in the wrong places. I am reminded of a Power Commission sign I once saw out west. Located near a transformer it read "Look Up and Live". This warning that made us aware of the po- tential danger in the power lines above could also serve as a warning for our spiritual lives as well. Look up and live — there's power "up there" wait- ing to be transformed into your life just as surely as the power lines bring light and heat to your homes. All of us -have periods of de- pression and irritability. We have low moods when every- thing appears a mess: The world is on the edge of disaster; the government is doing too much with our money and is extravagant or not enough and is stifling industry; the neigh- bors are boring; our work lacks interest. It may be that, un- known to us, we have a disease or illness so a medical is in order. It may be that we are too busy; a revision of our timr-table is in order. It may he that we have been thinking about ourselves too much; a serious attempt to become oc- cupied with other people and their needs is in order. But having; said all that — a recovery of the sense of the pre- sence rysence of God will do far more towards righting our lives than REMINISCING JANUARY 1914 Miss Henderson, who has had charge of the C. P, R. Tele- graph office with Mr. Willis for some months, left on Saturday for her home in Lucknow. Mr. Saml. Fry, of Regina, was visiting for a few days with his brother, Mr. Norman Fry. Mr, Fry left here 111 1883 for the West and this is his first visit to Wingham since 1883. The Loyal True Blue Lodge held their regular meeting on Friday evening last when the installation of officers took place. The following are the officers for 1914: W.M., Mrs. D. Hamilton; D. M. , Mrs. Beckwith; Rec. and Cor. Sec., W. T. Miller; Treas. , Mrs. R. D. Mason; Chap., Mrs. Joynt; Dir. of Cer., Mrs. W. B. El- liott; Con., Miss Annie Cun- ningham; Tyler, C. Shackle- ton. Committee: Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Mason, Mrs. Elliott, Mrs. Haines, Mrs. Fuller. Refresh- ments were served at the close of the meeting. JANUARY 1928 William M. Doig who taught in U.S.S. No. 16, Howick and Gray, 50 years ago, but now a successful lawyer, visited the old school at the beginning of the year and had for a class some of his old pupils. Only a dozen responded to the roll -call of a hundred names, but these included Peter F. Doig, who was sent to the blackboard to work out a "sum" in arithmetic. Mr. Gus Boyle, who with his partner, Mr. Charlie Robinson, went to Walkerton from Wing - ham last spring and leased Let- nert's garage, which they car- ried on under the firm name of Robinson & Boyle, has, not only taken over Mr. Robinson's in- terest in the affair, but has pur- chased from Mr. Geo. S. Lett- ner, the entire establishment, which includes building, tools and equipment, and will hence- forth conduct the business under the title of Boyle's Garage. JANUARY 1939 Mr. H. C. MacLean has opened a general insurance agency, with his office located in the Hydro Building. Billie Scott, son of Mr. and Mrs. James Scott, formerly of town, played goal for Listowel Intermediates, here, and against Palmerston Friday. This was a big assignment for this 14 -year-old lad but for his age and experience he gave a good account of himself. He did a good job here Tuesday. JANUARY 1949 Supposing 65o of Wingham's adult voting population turned out to the annual nomination meeting, wouldn't it be as- tounding? Yet that percentage turned out to the annual Teen Town meeting held in the Town Hall last Wednesday. It was an enthusiastic meeting and it is evident that Teen Town will remain a going con- cern. The Candidates; For Mayor, Raymond Bennett, Floyd Jenkins. Reeve, Arnold McIntyre (acclamation). Coun- cil, Bill Bain, Patsy Brophy, Jean Irwin, Barbara MacKay, John Hanna, LaVerne Newman, Maurice Stainton, Connie Mc- Intyre, Jean Hobden, Raymond Merkley, Eleanor Wightman. The Wingham Utilities Com- mission held its inaugural meet- ing last week, when Mr. Thom- as Fells was appointed chair- man for 1949. anything prescribed elsewhere. We must stop living life on a purely horizontal level and re- cognize the vertical. Someone has said "Look within and you'll be discouraged. Look around and you'll he distracted. Look up to God and you'll be at peace." Look up -- there's power there, capable of putting the song back into your life, a sense of completion where be- fore there was futility. Like the Psalmist make a solemn vow now that you will follow his example when he said; "My voice shalt Tltou hear in the :Horning, 0 Lord; in the morn- ing will I direct my prayer un- to Thee, and will LOOK UP."