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Times-Advocate, 1979-11-21, Page 4 (2)Po9e 4 Times -Advocate, November 21, 1979 itmes Established 1873 sti8111111■81111ots ,6,1.01r-• Advocate Established Iso megaitallINMINERININIE Imes - dvocate . OM,. ,.rr. r, r, SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by J. W. Eedy Publications limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager — Dick Jongkind Published Each Wednesday Morning Phone 235-1331 at hetet, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Amalgamated 1921 THEP►E, OUT )OK f>;Oo) FO MUNE, a 1!) f7 Canada $11.00 Par Year, USA 530.00 Where there's smoke There's a growing concern from area fire chiefs about the increasing use of wood stoves. as people take steps to reduce their heating costs and con- serve energy. While they don't want to discourage people from those worthwhile intents. they point out that there are dangers in- volved with wood stoves that too many appear to be overlooking. Exeter fire chief Gary Middleton recently wrote a column for this newspaper pointing out some of the problems and safeguards regarding wood stoves. Last week, Grand Bend firemen had some first hand evidence of the dangers when they were called out twice to extinguish blazes blamed on over -heated wood stoves. The fact is. many people don't know the limitations of their stoves nor the dangers involved in not following proper installation and operating in- structions. A word to the wise should be suf- ficient. but there is growing concern that it will take a tragedy to really im- press upon people that when used im- properly. wood stoves can be dangerous. For those who fail to adhere to that advice. they should be reminded to check with their insurance agent to make certain they're covered in case of fire. It may surprise some of them to know that failing to take that step could end up in them having their insurance voided. You can help Canada's unemployment figures took a jump last month. for the first time in the current year. and among the latest statistics were about 300 residents of this area. Predictions are that it could be a long. hard winter for some people. Unfortunately. too few people stop to realize they have an opportunity to alleviate the situation to an extent, an opportunity takes on greater dimen- sions as the busy Christmas shopping season is at hand. The first thing Canadians can do to help themselves and their neighbours is to buy Canadian products. It's absurd that people go around shaking their heads about the rising inflation, un- employment and interest rates and at the same time head for the marketplace and buy imported goods. The need for looking at labels and considering the implications of what your dollar can do should be moved one step closer to home to ensure that area products and services are given top consideration when that choice is available. It could shorten and soften the predictions of that long. hard winter for some of your friends and neighbours. Think before you buy' Sensible restraint The new federal government has proposed that payment of the baby bonus be cut back by eliminating the families which really don't need this sort of assistance. The limit they suggest is certainly not likely to create any real hardships. since the cut-off point proposed is families with annual incomes in excess of $35.000 a year. A good many Canadians cannot recall the time when the baby bonus was first established. If they could, they would realize that it was, in fact, a vote -getter for the province of Quebec, at a time when the birth rate in that province was much above the average for the rest of the country. That sort of ploy is no longer viable since Quebec now has the lowest. or nearly the lowest birth rate in the nation. Had the bonus originally been paid only to families in the lower income brackets it would have been laudable. It By STD FLETCHER When she was a young girl her own family called her 'the little hippo'. Not that she was really fat either, just a little plump. Yr s later that name becai more appropriate and one par- ticular brother-in-law took no end of delight in com- menting about that extra piece of pie or even a slice of bread that she took. The teasing wasn't enough to stop her eating though.- Many years later she was still at it, and still gaining. it didn't really slow her 1. i_.AtiYi 1 000( might well have guaranteed a better life for those children whose parents could ill afford even the luxury of adequate education. But it was made a universal benefit. payable to all Cana- dian families. whether paupers or millionaire's. It was also established by a government which apparently believ- ed that Canada could support limitless bounty to all its people. That govern- ment was not going behind by billions of dollars in deficits each year. The Clark government proposes to limit the payments to the families where assistance is actually needed and, if possible. use the savings to give even more realistic assistance to the lower income groups. Obviously the cost of living has mounted. but a family which has an income of $35.000 or more is not yet in the ranks of the under- privileged. Wingham Advance -Times Perspectives down. She was a cook in a big high school cafeteria and could work circles around a lot of thinner people. It was those little nibbles, though. testing food here and there, that added the pounds on. She got to thinking that maybe she was just sup- posed to be fat. Maybe it was that way because her family was inclined to stoutness. Then she decided that enough was enough. No longer was she going to make all the traditional excuses that fat people make like, oh well, I'll start tomorrow, or if people can't like me fat, then they're not worth having as friends anyway, or life is too short to make sacrifices like not eating so much. it took a full year of at- tendance at a weight lues club. During that time she learned that other people, a lot of people, were in the same boat (a well -loaded boat you might say) as she was. She found out that she could eat well, with the right foods, could be full, and still lose weight. it took a full year of carrying her little bag with an apple in it to restaurants and eating it, instead of a fancy dessert. 1 saw a lady doing this at a full roast beef banquet the other night. Takes a little courage. Anyway this lady lost sixty-five whole pounds in the year. That was seven years ago and to date she has only gained back a small percentage of it. She looks better and feels better for the toss. Her family Is more than proud of her. And no longer can the brother-in-law call her baby hippo. BATT'N AROUND with the editor Fur coats from Hay swamp When most area residents think of fur coats produced from native Cana- dian animals they possibly conjur up an image of some recluse heading out on his trap lines in the nation's frozen north or tree -covered hinterlands. But that's not the case. entirely, although the majority of furs do come from remote areas. In fact. though, some of those pelts reach the Canadian fur market headquarters in North Bay from such well-known areas as Hay swamp and the concession fields and streams in Usborne. Stephen and Hay Townships. Each year. a few hardy souls boil up their traps and set them out in this area for muskrat. raccoon. beaver and fox. It's strictly a hobby for most of them. although with some luck it can be a profitable hobby. given the rising prices of wild furs. The area trappers are not easily recognized. They do not have shaggy beards. nor do they live in small, log cabins hidden in forests. Three of them show up clean shaven at South Huron District High School each day in the person of teacher Ken Ottewell and students Jeff Fuller and Doug Raymond. Another teacher engaged in the pursuit is Ex- eter resident Lorne Ridout, who teaches at the Separate School in Zurich. There's Larry Beuerman, a travelling salesman. along with mechanic Rob Dickey. They -re part of 500 trappers in the local ministry district which includes Huron. Perth and part of Bruce. While the increasing value of Cana- dian wild fur does make the hobby more attractive. most of the men engaged, in in would readily admit that it is not the cash that keeps them going. In fact. given the costs of their traps, gasoline, car upkeep. mounting boards. etc., most are happy to break even from a financial standpoint. But when it is considered that they have to brave the elements in the early morning hours before tackling their regular jobs, the financial returns on the hobby are small indeed. What they all share is a common zeal for the outdoors. despite the vagaries and unpleasantness of nature at times. along with the challenge of matching their wits with the four -legged creatures who have a penchant for win- ning the contests more than the humans would care to admit. While trapping has been much maligned in recent years despite vast improvements in the humane aspect of the sport. most of the area trappers are conservationists who recognize the need for keeping the animal population at a level that in fact is in the best in- terests of the surviving members of the population. Last week. the writer invited himself along as Lorne Ridout and Larry Beuerman cleared their traps and it wasn't difficult to come to the conclu- sion that it takes a special breed of man to enjoy the hobby. The phone rang at 6.00 a.m. as Larry announced they would be over to pick me up. They had to make their rounds so Lorne could be home before 8.00 a.m. to get ready for classes. Larry usually follows the same schedule, but had the week off from work to give more time to a hobby which he has en- joyed since he discovered the hunting and trapping as a boy in the Seaforth area. With the sun hardly making a dent in the grey. overcast skies, we headed out for Hay swamp to check some coon traps. That's all we found ... the traps. The two men cursed softly under their breath when they saw fresh tire tracks on a field road leading into their trapping area. It indicated to them some hunters had been out with their hounds the night before. and while they don't begrudge hunters the chance to get game. they knew the coons wouldn't be out feeding as usual with the hounds crashing through the swamp. There were fresh tracks along the river bank at one trap and the bait had been stolen. but the wily masked bandit had made good his daring theft without setting off the steel jaws of the new, humane trap. The two joked as they imagined the coon's thoughts as he made off with their bait. "Wonder what the damn fools will leave for me to eat tonight," they laughingly thought of him saying as he licked his chops. For the uninitiated, traps for coons are left along the river banks where the animals will be looking for clams, frogs or other water delicacies. Other traps are hidden in the "paths" the animals follow on their way from tree dens to the water or nearby corn fields. The writer has walked in area bushes for years and never seen an animal path. When pointed out by the two trap- ping enthusiasts. they were actually quite visible, although it had taken them many hours trudging though the swamp to locate. them. After setting out some sardines for the coons, the two headed off for another part of the swamp to check their muskrat traps. Again, the success Sugar and Spice Dispensed by Smiley Getting the old soft soap Two or three years ago, i swore I'd never write another column about Remembrance Day. I'd milked every emotion. flattened every cliche. and i though perhaps it was time to let if fade away. as old soldiers never do. However. I reckoned without our vice-principal. Each year. for the past three or four. as Remembrance Day approaches. he sidles up and wonders "if I could have a minute of your time?" That means he wants something. If he wanted to bawl me out, he'd probably say. "Mr. Smiley. I'd like to see you in my office at 3.45." When 1 reported at that time. he'd likely give me the blast. in front of witnesses. and I'd tell him to go to hell. or shove it where the sun never shines. or something equally vivacious and vulgar. Vice -principals do not easily upset old fighter pilots. But when Dave gives me the old soft soap and asks if i could do something about a Remembrance Day programme for the school, [ get all soft and gooey and limply agree. When 1 joined the high school staff, there were plenty of veterans of World War II. A bomber pilot or two, a navigator. a radar man. some air force extechnicians, and a rabble of former navy and army types Nowadays. I'm just about the oldest veteran on the staff. so I'm stuck with the Remembrance Day hokum. The oldest veteran is a German, who fought in the North Africa campaign. was wounded, and spent the rest of the war in a prison camp in the States. it would hardly do to have him talk- ing to the students about "our sacrifices in two great world wars." He might get carried away and say something like. "If it hadn't been for that maniac. Hitler. we would have kicked the stuffing out of you." So I'm stuck with it. Fora few years, we had a full period programme, with the students making it up. They were awful. Full of folk songs. like. "Where have all the soldiers gone''" and the local Legion marching around on the stage of the cafetorium getting all tangled up in their flags, and the factor was almost nil. although one animal was caught in an area just north of the Exeter dump. It was about the 70th the two men have taken out this year as the day we chose to accompany them was well below average in the success rate. . After dropping Lorne off at his home, Larry and I headed out to check three fox traps he had set the day before.He had taken almost three hours to set out those three traps, a painstaking and ex- acting art if one is to trap such a crafty creature. The traps are actually buried under leaves and othe nearby material and earth and the area is sprayed with the scent to attract fox. Larry had also buried some well -seasoned bait in the area as an added attraction. He had to add some scent on the day we hiked the fields to inspect the traps, but from then on. he would inspect the traps with field glasses or his gun telescope so he wouldn't leave any human scent in the area. In fact, he rubbed his boot in some cow manure before approaching the traps to take away as much human scent as possible. From there, we headed to Usborne Township and a check of some coon and rat traps. Two more muskrats had met their demise. but the masked bandits had not been as foolish. With the writer using his last ounce of energy we finally got back to the car and headed to the Beuerman's for a feed of bacon and eggs, along with a chat about trapping. . . . Larry showed us last year's fur sales records where the average fee for muskrat pelts had been about 810. The price for raccoon's averagedin at slight- ly over 850 and the wily fox was up around 8100 with some quality colors going over 8200 per pelt. The garage at the Beuerman home is covered with drying boards holding the 70 or so muskrats Larry and Lorne have caught to date. alongwithfourrac- coon. A box nearby contains the skinned carcass of a coon, while most the rats have been returned to the swamp for bait or animal feed. Fortunately. Larry's wife Dee shares some of his enthusiasm for the out- doors world. At least she could be described as being understanding. That isn't too easy when you never know what you may find hanging to dry in the Please turn to page 5 LIV2.ainstream Canada � I Fighting the wrong war? reading of a List of the Fallen. For the kids. it was a period off school, and a sort of bewilderment about what these crazy adults had been up to. in a time of which they knew nothing. So we gradually cut it down. the Last Post was eliminated. i gave such an anti -war talk at one of these sessions that even the students were startled. For the last two years. i've been ask- ed to write a two or three minute "message" about Remembrance Day, full of meaning. poignancy and senti- ment. I'd never give an assignment like that to a student. it would be like asking them to give a summary of the Bible in 200 words. However. I'm going to do it again this year, because I am soft in the head, or something. Let us hope that next year, the thing will be reduced to an an- nouncement: "We will now honor our war dead with one minute's silence. On ll r Jean / ac•hunce he world is changing SO ta,l, it's hard to come to grips s.ith it on a do to da'. basis. Beside,, %hal can %ou and 1 do about inflation, high in- terest rates, and chronic un- cmplo�mcnl? Not ser, much. suppose %e can listen 10 the gosernntenl a hen it tell, u, to "But Canadian" lo help keep jobs tor Canadians. Or %e can listen 10 the Gusernor of the Bank of Canada %hen he sells us that high interest rale, are necessarl to "% rest le inflation to the ground." Jean Lachance i. Public -1 flair.. Officer for the Canadian federation ul Independent Ku'.inets So %e listen. But 5411(1 is the government listening to? 11 here do the mandarins lake their ads ice from to draft our inerail economic policies? lake job creation for in- stance. According to a studs conducted hx the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, small and mediym- sized businesses %ith lesser than 20 emploxees created an as- tounding S90'o of all nevi jobs in This counts belsseen 1971 and 1977. vihile accounting for onl, 30°o of total emplon- ment. In the U.S., a recent dude bx the prestigious Massachu- setts Institute of Technology conforms sin the Canadian experience: 660"o of new jobs created 1►elsseen 1969 and 1976 were generated b> firms with fewer than 20 employees. Japan. the eeonomic and industrial miracle, has released aulhorilalise statistics shim ing Ilial het%een 1970 and 1977 firsts ailh fe%er than 30 enn- ptumees accounted for 51400 of nevi jobs in the counts al- though this sector represented onlx 314°u of all jobs in the counir). 1 et, our governments seem to ding to the basic tenets of neo-classical economic theories of "economies of scale" on the basis that productisit) is a direct function of site. In the light of staggering increases in transportation and energy costs, how long %ill it be before the concentration of business actisilv in larger and larger units becomes counter productive in economic terms? Ilow long before it creates cap- lise markets, restricts compe- tition and consumer choice? There are some fundamen- tal shifts occurring in the ssorld %hich ss esentuall) mean the creation of more comrnunitt and regional enterprises to set -se focal markets. Could it he that the econo- mic wizards our governments are listening to are, like most generals in svar, one theory behind? As far a. our joh-hungry world is concerned, one thing appears certain: Nigger is not necessarilx better. 7CA) .*owi-n memory kine 55 Years Ago On Tuesday evening. a horse driven by Benson Tuckey on Main Street became frightened and started to kick. getting one of its feet between the shafts of the dashboard. The cutter was somewhat broken and the horse's leg cut. The merchants adver- tising. their Christmas merchandise and still doing business in Exeter were Jones and May. Southcott Bros., R.G. Seldon and Harvey's Grocery. Eggs were selling at 60 cents for extras and hogs were $9.00. wheat $1.38. barley 82 cents and oats 45 cents. Usborne Council fixed the rate of wage per hour for snow work for the season at 40 cents for man and team and 20 cents for man. 30 Years Ago According to C.S. MacNaughton. chairman of the property committee. the new District High School building should be complete- ly ready in January. Bert Ostland was named president of the Exeter branch of the Canadian Legion Monday night. The proceeds from the Junior Farmers fall dance amounting to 860 is being donated to the South Huron Hospital Fund. 20 Years Ago Chester Mawhiney. car- ving out his second career in municipal politics, posted a surprisingly large margin in winning Monday's three way contest for town reeve. Charles Kyle. young Tavistock businessman won the 8500 prize in Exeter Kinsmen's Grey Cup football raffle. The winning ticket was sold by Les Parker. Ex- eter. Members of the Ladies Auxiliary to South Huron Hospital were guests of the hospital staff at the December meeting held Tuesday afternoon. Sale of General Coach wilt likely further delay settle- ment of the contract dispute between the company and union which has been under negotiation for nearly six months. 15 Years Ago The three top posts on Ex- eter council were filled by acclamation. Friday along with the five public school board positions. Jack Delbridge took over the mayor's chair and C.E r Derry l Boyle was named reeve. Deputy -reeve Bailey held his seat Huron people may be hosts to the World's plowmen when the International is held at Seaforth in 1966. Dr. and Mrs H.H. Cowen returned Friday after atten- ding the dental convention in Koyoto. Japan. They were away three weeks. The driver education course is slated to start at SHDHS around January 15. due in part to the persistence of board member Rev. John Boyne. To date there have been 36 students sign up to take the course. the sound of the bleep, shut up for one minute. Then go to your regular classes." Here is a sample of what i write. Itis spoken into a mike by a student who doesn't know how to use a microphone and has a bad cold. This is last year's bit: "When you are young, life is forever. When you are old. Death sits grinning and nodding at your elbow. "Hundreds of thousands of young Canadians sneered at that old witch, Death, and offered their most precious possessions. themselves, to the bullets and the shrapnel, the mortars and the cannon. They didn't say to themselves, "I'm going to die so that the students of Blank Secondary School can have gravy on their french fries." "They didn't say much of anything. They just went off to fight against something they thought was evil. "Most of them were just kids. two or three years older than you are. They had the same hang-ups you have: bad marks in math; frustrated love; uncertainty about the future. "Maybe they weren't too bright. Maybe they should have said: "I ain't gonna get killed in some stupid war over in Europe. "Maybe. But they went. And they were killed, in the thousands. So that you can have gravy on your french fries. And a lot of other things you take for granted. "Most of us don't want to leave the world without mak- ing some little mark on it. Every human being is precious thing. Whatever you do, you will leave something of yourself behind, even if itis only dust." "Those young fellows who were killed in France and Holland and Italy didn't have much chance of leaving anything behind. But they left a memory. Once a year, on Remembrance Day, we take a silent moment to think about those laughing boys - and most of them were boys - who went across the ocean so that we could have freedom of speech. open elec- tions, letters to the editor, and gravy on our french fries." What in the world am I going to write this year? • • •