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Times-Advocate, 1985-07-10, Page 4Page 4 Tirnes-Advocate, July 10, 1985 Times EstabihKid 1873 - Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 192.1 imes dvocate Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 150 Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519-235-1331 LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY OEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $23.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A..CLASS 'A' Must face reality It should come as no surprise that if that fantasy is as mundane as winn- most teenage girls don rose-colored ing-the lottery - and from the success glasses when viewing their futures. of various lotteries, it's obvious not That they do is the finding of a re- only young people succumb to this cent report by the Canadian Advisory ambition. Council on the Status of Women which But as the report points out, there concluded that: is a darker side to this romanticized • about three-quarters of the girls view of life, and that is the unrealistic expect to go to university despite expectations many young people hold. academic evidence to the contrary for Small business owners, who hire many: most of their workers right out of high • 56 percent expect to have profes- school, say too many young people sional or managerial jobs by age 30, lack a strong work ethic, too many . with flexible hours: need better workplace attitudes. In • that most see themselves mov- short, they could use a healthy dose of ing easily from work force to raising a reality if they are to adapt successful - family and back again, complete with ly in a work where, for most of us, romantic fireside evenings with their there is no free lunch. doctor/lawyer husbands while the kid- Amen to that.' - dies nestle snug in their beds. But consider the hurdles young The study, which looked at the people face. No other generation has aspirations of 122 girls and 28 bo s n .heen� botnba->Gded tttor re t>ii c�'1 ..1._ed1 •to -19; dttttii = • a much of this images of "The Good Life". The sym- optimism was the result of the sub- - bols are everywhere, from the "over- jects' inexperience.. night sensations" of the entertainment But it also blamed society as a - world to the stratospheric wages of whole for not -adequately preparing often mediocre athletes. these young people for realities such - The reality, that only a miniscule as unemployment, poverty and portion of humanity ever attains those divorce, not to mention wet diapers materialistic -heights, does not make and walkup garrets. the dreams' any less compelling. It seem churlish to he critical of What is important for each of us, these hopes. Who among us did not as the report points out, is to address cherish similar dreams as we ex- with the young people we know that plored the cocoon -of high school and delicate balance between fact and home, when the years ahead seemed I fiction. to stretch endlessly, just waiting for It's a tough row to hoe, encourag- us to shape them to our own ends. ing someone to reach for the stars Too. imagine the outcry if our while at the same time preparing him children had no hopes, if their only or her to fall short. thoughts were of an unfruitful future • But if the report tells us anything, which must he endured. That they can it is that this kind of husbandry is dream is a tribute to our society, even essential to all our futures. MILLER SERVICES Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by 1.W. Eedy Publications Limited WITtl1E RATE INCREASE, YOU'D THINK TNEY'P AT LEAST PAiNT 'R�C1NGc S1.RI S OH US? A family, reunion Summer is the time for- famil unions. _ p e - Igfter pilots, newspapermen, Legion- naires, Women's Institutes, Librarians - have them any old time. But in almost every week- ly newspaper across- the land, every week of our two-month summer, you can read that the Jojes family, or the McIntosh family, or whatever, had a,reu- nioh, followed by a list of who was there, who came the farthest, who was the oldest, who was the youngest, who hosted the reu- nion, andeverything down to what was on the menu. Nottoo exciting to the average reader, but important to the family, so dutifully reported. After the reunion, on the way home, there's the usual obituary. "My God, wouldn't you think that Esther would stop, after having seven in 10 yea's." And, "Tina's got turrible fat. She's due for the big slab if she don't stop eating. Seven pieces a pie after a feed a shanty man couldn't handle." Or, "Too bad Wilbur's got so fonda the stuff. They found him out behind the barn at 11 a.m., and hadda use a block 'n' tackle to get him up to the table." And so on. Well, I avoid family reunions like the plague, but one summer I was guilty of attending one. My reasons were three -fold: a sense of responsibility, love, and a chance to spend some time with my only and beloved daughter. The occasion was the 90th bir- thday of my uncle, Ivan Thomp- son, patriarch of the clan, last of a family of eight, and a remarkable man. When you think of a 90 -year- old, you think of an old man. huddled in a shawl, toothless, senile or almost, sitting in a rock- ing chair, eating gruel. You don't think of a bright- eyed, lively, keenminded fellow who could walk people like me up a mountain and leave them. gasping, about halfway up, as he reached the summit. Born in 1892 on the island of Calumet, in the Ottawa River, in the lumbering days, he graduated from the school of Final look at Australia One of our daily trips in to Sydney was to he part of the Sydney Explorer bus tour. We would recommend this trip to ancone wanting to see Sydney. - F or a mere 87 each you can en-, joy the ilt kilometre jaunt and be one of fi'(' million tourists who ;visit Australia's oldest city each year. There are 20 slops on the four and you can step off al any one of thein. explore as much as you like. then climb back aboard when you are ready. There is a bus passing every stop every 25 minutes. - our first stop was at the har- bour and one of the first sights was the bridge and opera house which is becoming familiar to Canadians through the Krona mar'gar'ine' television commercial. The opera house con pplex which is stop number two }s own- ed and operated by We New x South Wales governnnt. it cost 8102 million to build; equip and furnish with most of the money coining from government operated lotteries. The opera house promenade is Open 24 hours a slay and on Sun- days strollers can enjoy free out- door concerts. a disco and numerous attractions. The Royal Botanical Gardens located near the opera house )r5011 the ('onservatorium of Music, The latter is housed in one of Sydney's fine old buildings erected in 1821 under the direc- tion of famous early colonial.ar- chitect Francis Greenway. Al the south-west corner of the gardens is a glass pyramid. In- 0 side it's complete minitropical climate with exotic creepers, ferns and orchids. - Next comes the Parliament House and the Old Mint which is Sydney's first museum of Australian decorative arts. Across the street is St. James Church with the copper -sheathed spire dominating the neighbour- ing cluster of colonial buildings. Around the corner you see St. • by Ross Haugh Mary's Cathedral. It's an im- pressive example of Gothic ar- chitecture and is built with sand- stone arches highlighted by beautiful stained glass windows. Sitting between Parliament House and the mint museum is Sydney hospital which replaces what was known as Rum Hospital. The builders were rewarded for their efforts with the concession to supply rum for the entire Colony. Needless to say they went on to make a fortune. Step five is back at the har- bourside and a look at Mrs. McQuarrie's Chair. This is the spot back in 1810 where the Governor's wife would sit for hours just absorbing the view. Here at the harbo we saw an Australian battleshicoming in to port and talked to a little girl who was waiting for her dad to 1 come back from a tour of duty. Next is the art gallery of New South Wales. Here one will find a definitive collection of Australian art including aboriginal works and a large collection of 19th cen- tury oil paintings and sculpture. One stop at which we didn't stop was King's Cross. Here you will find sex shops, strip shows, bars, nightclubs and pin -ball parlours. This area never closes and the bus driver suggested tourists could come back at night. Ile added, "This place really comes alive after dark." Next came quick looks at Times Square of Sydney, the Elizabeth Bay House, Potts Point, the Australian museum, the central railway and Chinatown. At the Sydney Square stop you can see the town hall and St. An- drews Anglican Cathedral. The church is an outstanding new - Gothic structure which dates from 1837. The Sydney tower is the tallest building in the city at 300 metres. The CN tower stretches some 553 metres into the Toronto skyline. Winding up the tour were stops at Wynyord, the travel centre of New South Wales; the historic rocks; village green, pier one complex and Rocks Vistors Cen- tre which includes Sydney's oldest house. H was inhabited in' 1827 by John Codman, superintendent for government boats. During our stay at Palm Beach which is on the rainy side of the mountains it rained every day. in Please turn to page 5 1 hard k _ _ , er ureas, s iii a master at the Roche Fon- due, a -rapids in theeiiver, where the logs were diverted down a wooden sluice so they would not be smashed to splinters in the rapids. Young Ivan had to work on the -family farm abutting the river. - In his youth he was an athlete, playing hockey for Shawville, which produced NHL star Frank Finnigan. With little formal education, he went into business. Sugar &Spice Dispensed by Smiley did well during many years in Montreal, retired, and bought some land along his beloved Ot- tawa River. where he built, most- ly by hand. a beautiful log cabin which he still visits every summer. in every respect. he is a self- made, self-educated and widely read man. He's my idea of what somebody with guts and initiative could. and still can do, in this great •country. But, beside those virtues. he has charm. wit. and great vitali- ty. And these are why i've loved him since i was a kid, not because he "made good." On my way overseas, i visited him in Montreal, was treated like a son. and slipped a small cash donation. When 1 got hack from overseas. same thing. Elis life has not been all roses. Ile lost a brilliant young son who was in his 20.s. His wife died in an automobile accidenit. But his spirit, though deeply hurl. bound- ed back. At 80. he seemed 00. At 90, he seems about a year older than I. And we look alike. When 1 was a kid. about half the time my mother called me Ivan before she remembered I was Billy. " After serving in World War I. C. ,, L , ,.,.z,, he -worked -hard iil�fortning`the-s___._ Canadian Legion to make sure "you boys" of the second war got a better deal from government than his generation did. He was also active in politics, and is a great environmentalist. He is beloved by his -huge collection of nieces and nephews, daughter and grandchildren, and hundreds of cousins. Dear Uncle Ivan, 1 salute you as a great Canadian, and will be there for your 100th, even if I have to take an ambulance. I had two bonuses in going to Ottawa for my uncle's birthday. I got away from my grand- children for a couple of days, just about the time I was going to crack up, and I had a good visit with my daughter. We ate at an outdoor cafe. We went to a horror movie. We ate a gigantic pizza in Ottawa's burgeoning city centre. We went to hear a rock group in which an old friend of hers, and a former student of mine was playing. My ears are still ringing, but I must admit I enjoyed it. We ate and drank in a swanky cocktail lounge at the Chateau Laurier and heard some excellent jazz. And we talked and talked and talked, without her kids or other interruptions. That was a treat. She was in great spirits, doing well in her university courses. and has found a place to live in a good section (but in a crumby basement apartment►. She told me Ottawa was a beautiful city, as she drove me around. but you couldn't prove it by me. My eyes were shut tight and my fists clenched in my lap. She drives a beat -up old Datsun as though she were in the Grand Prix. Most of us slow down when we see an orange light. She speeds up to beat the red one. And everyone else in the city drives like that. Anyway. that was a big sum- mer adventure. I was shaky frbm that driving for days. but soon recovered enough to start mak- ing peanut butter and honey sandwiches again. Try pigeon pie In a recent news article 1 read about a problem some towns are having with pigeons and the residue that they leave behind them on various public buildings. Somebody was objecting to the way that the birds were being disposed of, by a pellet gun. i believe. it reminded me of one of my cousin's first business adven-, something that actually has led up to his present occupation. Hamilton, Ontario, has had a pigeon problem for many years but thirty years or so ago, my cousin and I put a fairly healthy dent into the pigeon population. We had found out that there was quite a demand for pigeon pie among some of the new Canadian citizens of the city so we decided to catch some of the little critters. Our technique was quite simple. A few handfuls of grain spread By the Way by Syd . Fletcher out on the .street. A cardboard box in hand and bingo. You had -a couple of the strutters. Then we expanded to the barns where the pigeons stayed' at night. My cousin would crawl along the beams, a tricky pro- position e'en in daylight much less in a pitch black barn, grab an unsuspecting bird. criss-cross its wings and throw it down to me (guided by my voice) to put into a burlap bag. By night's end we would often have over a hundred. At three for a dollar we figured we were rich. Then my cousin discovered that there are all kinds of show pigeons available ranging from the 'King' pigeons, as large as a chicken. to hundreds of varieties of homing pigeons. For these he was able to get as much as fifty dollars a pair. He never looked back. Now he has a flock of many hundreds of birds and makes a good living at it. Who -would have thought what Would have come out of somebody wanting a little 'pigeon pie"'