Clinton News-Record, 1978-11-23, Page 4PAGE 4. CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THI :SUAY%N.pyy.,,,M 3:ER :3, 97$,
A first step?
Clinton council took a step for-
ward at their November meeting
when they looked around their
council chambers at the town hall
and realized that the decorating
there is close to deplorable.
Now that council has brand new
chairs and a table, they will soon
hopefully consider repainting the
large room and refinishing the once
nice hardwood floor.
As Clerk Proctor pointed out, this
re -decorating could be done with
the money saved by paying school
and county Levies within the
deadline.
The light, green wash that
presently adorns the town hall's
inside walls and the scratched,
rough floor does little to credit or
proclaim the town hall and the
county court room.
With a professional paint job in
an attractive and appealing color
and by sanding and refinishing the
floor, this problem could be
resolved.
As well, the attractive paintings
and valuable photographs of for-
mer mayors that are now scattered
about the walls should be
strategically placed in a decorative
setting on one wall to show them
off. At least they should be
straightened.
A couple of years ago, council
carpeted and repanelled two rooms
in the town hall. By renovating the
public washroom and re -painting -
the trim on the library, they are
trying to keep up the town's
building and properties to a
respectable condition.
Now if only the rest of the
library, especially the spacious
upper floor and the town hall,
inside and out could be renovated
to the fine look they once had, then
Clinton would have structures that
they could be more proud of. —SM
Vandals
Although vandalism has been
with us for literally centuries, it is a
hard act to understand, and the
senseless destruction of property in
this area in the last few weeks is no
less difficult to fathom.
Why, for instance would an
imbecile knock over 43 stop and
yield signs in one night? What
possible satisfaction could there ,be
in destroying public property.
Although the most recent acts
are not to break the public purse,
they are very dangerous acts.
Removing signs could result in
serious deathand injury if a car
accident occurred because drivers
had no signs to guide them at.. in-
tersections. -
Would a traffic death placate the
rowdies?
4
L
ti
"This is .your last chance to get rid of that thing."
Silly pop
'Dear Editor,
The latter part of November and the
month of December are exciting times
for most. With Christmas coming,
there's the shopping to do for those
special people; the secrets kept from
the children and the anticipation
caused by them.
Parties are a part of the season also.
At children's parties, soda pop is
served and at adult parties, silly pop is
served and the end result is that you
can't tell the children from the adults
except for size. It's good, psychiatrists
tell us, to act like kids once and a while
- it relieves tension etc.
Driving at this time of the year is a,
little different also. Considering the
number of parties and how they leave
us, it's not too difficult to see why ac-
cidents increase with more people out
for Christmas shopping and partying.
Next comes the unhappy times of the
Christmas -New Years season for those
involved in accidents and their family
members. Picture yourself involved in
an, accident (because it could happen).
You are put in a hospital or a funeral
home. Was the party worth all this?
How would your family feel or end up?
You are arrested for impaired
driving. Your licence is automatically
suspended for a minimum of three
months with a possible $1,000 fine or a
jail term or both.
All of these things are real and
happen every day but more so during
the holiday season.
From the Ontario Provincial Police,
have a good safe holiday.. -Don't mix
alcohol with driving and risk your life
or someone else's. Watch out for the
other guy.
Who's feeding the elephant?
Did you ever think about how much
an elephant eats? According to a friend
of mine who for several years, was
curator at a zoo in England, an
elephant eats approximately 70 bales of
hay and 60 to 70 pounds of vegetables a
day and drinks 60 gallons of water.
Imagine what the,zoo would have to
pay to feed one elephant for one day,..
one month, one year! And we complain
about our food bills .
Some wild animals are adaptable, as
evidenced by wolves that adjust to
semi -urban living in North America.
Stop this whining
I don't think I've ever seen, or heard,
the Canadian people in a more
querulous mood than they are today.
Arid with less reason:
• ,.Even during the Depression, people
weren't so angry and whining. They
were scared and worried and
frustrated, because there was no work
and they sometimes didn't know where
the next meal was coming from. But
they were also lean and tough and
ingenious and independent. They didn't
spend all their time bitching about the
government.
Maybe we've got too fat and too lazy
and too government -dependent during
the last 40 -odd years. During and after
World War II, we sailed happily into
the select few nations that had the
highest living standard in the world,
and we've never recovered.
We thought all we had to do was lie
back like a high-priced prossie and let
the money roll in. Germany and Japan
were licked, the British were bankrupt,
and North America was living high off
the hog.
Everybody was buying new cars and
houses and boats and summer
properties, because the cornucopia of
goodies h'ad no bottom. All we had to do
was keep the Red Menace at bay, and
the Yanks would look after that.
For a decade or so after the war, the
•
pipe -dream lasted, even got more
colors and more shine. Industry and
business were booming. The
Americans were pouring in develop-
ment money.
But a combination of things put the
handwriting on the wall. My salary
quadrupled in a decade. And so did
yours. But it still wasn't enough. We
developed a reputation as a nation that
was completely untrustworthy when it
came to labor relations and strikes.
We took on massive social aid plans
such as medicare, that we really
couldn't afford. We tried to outdo every
other country in the world when it
came to unemployment insurance and
welfare and . pension s. The bills, with
interest, kept piling up in the lending
capitals of the world.
At the same time, Germany, Japan
and other nations with populations only
too eager to work their butts off to get
rid of starvation and cold and housing
r•
shortages, aided by a massive injection
of funds from the U.S. , panicky about
the Cold War, began to rebuild with a
speed and singleness of purpose that
was frightening.
Our trade languished because our
products were too expensive to meet
the competition. Our international
clout diminished rapidly as we welshed
on our NATO commitments, kept our
foreign aid frugal, and waffled when
we should have snarled, in the U.N.
And now it's all coming home to
roost. And we're crying like a bunch of
babies. We've wrestled inflation to the
ground, but who's on top in the fall?
Our dollar is propped up by interest
rates that would make me turn green
with sweat profusely were I a young
husband hoping to buy a house with a
big mortgage. Say $40,000 at 11.5 per
cent. Figure it out, boy. And it (the
dollar) is still worth only 85 cents U.S.,
whose dollar isn't much good either,
beside the yen ' and the mark and the
franc.
A friend of mine, who fought with the
German Army in North Africa gets a
bigger war pension that I do, PLUS a
civilian pension from Germany worth
$150 a month, because the mark is so
healthy. Who the heck won the war,
anyway? -We did, but we lost the peace.
With inimitable resources, we have a
horrendous' unemployment rate. The
country, is going into debt to the tune of
billions a year. Taxes are high and
ever -climbing.
And why? Greed. We all want more
and more of everything: new high-
ways, new airports, bigger pensions,
bigger salaries, two cars in every
garage, and meat at least six times a
week.
But look around you, and see if our
un -Canadian whining is justified. It's
still one of the best countries in the
world to live in, physically.
Take in a supermarket. There's a
power of complaing about prices, but
people, even the relatively poor, are
snapping up luxury items: frozen
foods, oranges, California grapes, hot-
house tomatoes, chicken, lamb chops,
deodorants, bought cakes.
In the old days, the only time I saw an
orange or a grape in the house was at
Christmas. I didn't know what a lamb
chop tasted like -until I came of age. A
chicken, Was something you bought
from a farmer for a dollar, plucked and
eviscerated yourself, and had for a
special Sunday dinner, with relatives.
My mother would have considered
The Clinton Newt -Record Is published each
Thursday at P.O. Sox 31, Clinton, Ontario,
Canada. NOM ILO.
Member, Ontario Weekly
Newspaper Association
If Is registered as second doss mall by the
post office under the permit number 1111.
The Hews-R.cord Incorporated in 1024 the
Huron News -Record, founded in 1111, and The
Clinton New Era, founded in 1111. Total press
run !,'N.
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frozen food an abomination of the devil,
and a temptation for lazy women.
Deodorants consisted of soap.
And yet we never went hungry, and
never stank. Well, maybe a little, by
the end of the week.
Don't misunderstand me. I_ don't
want to go back to, the old days, when
my Dad developed ulcers worrying
about the coal bill, and my Mom
worked until midnight, patching and
sewing to keep us decent.
But I'm getting heartily sick of
Canadians who are worried about
missing the trip to the Caribbean this
winter, or having, to put off the pur-
chase of a new car until next summer.
Quitcherbitchin!
My friend recalls seeing a beautiful
white bird at a railway station in Paris.
The bird seemed out of place in its nest
amid the cinders and soot of an old
building near the tracks. Each day, as
the overland express passed through
from the Mediterranean, the bird
swooped down to pluck the dead flies
from the front of the engine.
Now that's adaptability!
But not all wildlife are as fortunate
and as man advances further into their
natural habitat, many species are
nearing extinction. The protection
given by zoos and wildlife reserves is
becoming more important.
Breeding birds and animals in
captivity is not as easy as it sounds
Because the mates are usually close in
family relationship, their offspring can
develop genetic defects, such as
sterility or weak hearts.
Even if breeding and birth are
successful, raising the young creates
more problems that can last for several.
years. The Scarlet Ivis, for example,
takes six to - seven years to reach
maturity. Native to Venezuela, its
young have feathers of a dirty brown
colour. Each year the colour brightens
until the adult birds obta.ln.... heir.
brilliant scarlet plumage '
Wild birds and animals are more
liable to breed and rear their young
succesfully in a naturalized en-
vironrrient ,rather than a clinical set-
ting. Taking this into account, many
modern zoos '•attempt to provide an
environment resembling the natural
habitats of the birds, animals and fish.
remembering
our past
5 YEARS AGO
November 22, 1973
Clinton's population took a sudden jump of
160 persons last week when the ministry of
transportation and communications put up
new signs on the four entrances to town. The
old signs listed the population at 2,840 souls
and didn't reflect the $1 million building
boom in Clinton this year which has in-
creased the population.
Reports indicate that the immediate
Goderich and Clinton areas were shaken
about noon on Tuesday by a mild ear-
thquake.
Numerous residents, in both com-
munities, say that a tremor shook homes
about 12:15 p.m. in Goderich, Clinton,
Saltford and the outlying districts, enough to
rattle doors and windows and bounce dishes
around in their cupboards. The "quake"
lasted a few seconds and no reports of
serious damage or injury were reported.
Officials at the University of Western
Ontario said that nothing registered on the
seismic equipment and said the impact
could have been caused by a sonic boom.
Residents reporting the tremor say they
heard no sound, just felt the earth shake.
10 YEARS AGO
November 21, 1973
The Clinton Community Credit Union
showed steady progress in the last 12
months and for the second year in a row is
paying dividends to its shareholders at a
rate of 5.25 per cent on the minimum
monthly bnlarice.
R. D. Dallas of Brucefield won the reserve
championship ribbon in the field crop
variety competition at the Royal
Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. His
prize was in the hay category.
Estimates of revenue lost each week the
Clinton Community Centre ice rink is closed
range from $500 to $700.
The delay in icing the rink this fall Stems
from attempts which led to frost heaving
and damage to the arena floor last season.
Don Kay, chairman of the Clinton rec
committee said that the committee is about
to give up on negotiations aimed at getting
the arena builder to do the corrective work.
A number of residents reading a special
feature in the November McLean's
magazine came across an article about Dr.
William Mustard, a Clinton native now chief
of cardiovascular surgery at the Toronto
Hospital for Sick Children where he heads
what is recognized as the world's finest
heart surgery clinic for children.
25 YEARS AGO
December 3, 1953
With official election returns showing 789
people in Clinton actively against the use of
the old public school for municipal offices,
the town hall will be put back in use. Since
decision. was -'made to move the clerk,
assessor and police department offices to
the old School, the fire halls at the rear of this
building has been ooeup'ied and kept heated.
The Metro Toronto Zoo is an ex-
cellent concept that gives the animals
space in which to roam, and, to carry
the human visitors the mono -rail was
installed.
My friend insists that a visit to a zoo
should be a learning experience and
therefore the zoo should not resemble a
sideshow. He deplores facilities that
put animals on displays 'and considers
them only as a means of profit.
Animals in zoos often are victimized
by sadistic and ignorant members of
the public, who tease them just to make
them roar or pelt them with stones just
to make them move or feed them
miscellaneous articles, such as plastic
bags, that can be harmft}1, if not fatal to
the -animal.°
With the ' economic instability in
Canada and other countries, little
money is available to support zoos and
wildlife reserves. Money goes to
people -oriented projects first, such as
)wilding highways and rightfully so.
But the quest of onservationists to
protect certain species of wildlife from
extinction is important too.
Who's going to pay the feed bill for
the hungry elephant? Much of it will be
paid by you and me and anyone else
who visits zoos - anyone who wants the
next generation to be able to see a real
live elephant.
What's your Oinion?
Write a letter to the
editor today and
let us know too.
a look through
the news -record files
Periodically the members of the badminton
club have held their sessions in the
auditorium, but otherwise the building has
been vacant.
"Stage Fever" was the name under which
a variety show was presented by the staff
and trainees of RCAF Station Clinton. Held
at the Station Theatre on Monday, Tuesday
and Wednesday of last week, the production
proved a huge success.
The show was a complete sell-out with
many disappointed would-be patrons turned
away.
Win big money on Big Top, CFPL-Radio, 3
to 4 p.m., daily, with box tops from Canada
Packers, big wash day products Bye and
Quix.
50 YEARS AGO
November 29, 1928
The Bell Canada Company is publishing a
series of advertisements in the News -
Record at the present time which are a little
different from the usual advertisement,
inasmuch as they are frank little talks to the
people about the uses and expansion of the
telephone, which has kept pace with the
growth to an extent which proves the
alertness and foresightedness of those in
charge.
We want your milk and cream. We are
manufacturers of both cheese and butter.
We pay highest market price weekly.
Satisfaction guaranteed. Phone your order
for finest cheese or pasteurized butter in
prints or solids to W. H. Lobb, Clinton, Ont.,
RR No. 3, Phone No. 605r32. The Ho'lmesville
Co-operative Cheese and Butter Company,
Limited.
Five auto loads of Exeter Anglicans came
up Monday evening to pay a little visit to the
County Home, putting on a nice program for
the inmates. After the program a treat of
candies and oranges and, for the men,
tobacco and cigars, was distributed,
Wanted, $300 for short term. Good
security. Inquire at the News -Record office.
The illness of King George V is causing
great anxiety throughout the Empire and
indeed to many outside of it, as Britain's
Sovereign and the Royal F,,amily generally,
have the respectful regard of all nations as
well as the love of their devoted subjects
throughout the Empire. It is sincerly hoped
that the King's health may be restored and
that he may be spared to exercise his wise
and considered judgement in the affairs of
the Empire for many years to come.
75 YEARS AGO
December 3, 1903
The recent disastrous explosions of
acetylene gas plants at Ridgetown and
Kippen is a hard blow to their manufac-
turers, for it is bound to greatly limit, if it
does not cut out their sale altogether.
Mr. W. T. O'Neil, grocer, has lighted his
store with acetylene for s
ever l ears. the
light was o.k. but on viewing the wrecked
'rsda last " r.
church in Kippers on Thursday iVl
O'Neil decided to discontinue its use and had
the electriclight installed.
Those Who were injured in the explosion
last week are recovering rapidly but Pastor
McLennan and Caretaker Moore will be
confined to their homes for some time to
come. It is badly injured as it was first
reported but it is hoped that the former's
sight is not lost.
The Hnuse of Refuge is an economically
run 'institution, the average cost of main-
tenance per capita per day being less than 14
cents. This includes the expenditure on
salaries etc. The actual cost of living is only
about half that amount. The inmates have
been getting butter three times a day this
past year and it may be a surprise to some to
learn that the cost of butter alone is about 20
per cent, of this total expenditure for food
and clothing.
On Saturday afternoon a load of colored
people arrived in Blyth and gave a concert
in the Industry Hall to a slim crowd. It was
rather a poor affair. Not having met with
much success financially, the troupe took
their departure early on Sunday morning for
Walton.
100 YEARS AGO
, November 28, 1878
On Saturday last Mr., Taylor had in-
formation laid against six boys for being
among those who disfigured his building by
throwing mud there, and they were all tried
before the Mayor and J. McGarva JP and
were each fined $1 and costs, amounting to
$3 each.
The upper department of Mr.. G. Shep-
pard's store in Blyth has been selected for
the reading room which is in connection with
the Mechanics Institute and will be open to
the public soon.
The three new stores of Messrs. W. C.
Searle and J.'Biddlecombe, on the site of the
two burnt down about a year ago, are
rapidly approaching completion and will
soon be occupied by the same parties that,
were burnt out.
A subscriber wishes to intimate to the
people of ' Clinton that on Thursday,
November 30 he will commence the selling
of milk in Clinton and will continue to do so
throughout the winter. He will deliver every
morning and evening, Sundays excepted,
and will sell at a very reasonable rate of six
quarts, Imperial measure for 35 cents.
Patronage respectfully solicited. -Wm.
Weir, Goderich Township.
For stealing a fat hog from A. McKay, P.
Raymond, of the 9th concession of
Tuckersmith has been committed to gaol.
Vennnor's prophecy of an early winter
%rtainly had no reference to this section of
the Dominion, for although, a couple of
inches of snow fell this week, there has been
no severe frost or lasting signs of winter,
The farmers feel l ke entering upon the
"Slough of bespo'nd" just now, if they at-
tempt to reach town by roads. They are
really in a sad plight. The soft weather of the
past few weeks has turned them into liquid
mud, and they are cut up fearfully.
R. W. Wilson, P.C.
No. 3629
Community Services Officer
"Nice" town
Dear Editor:
It is felt that Clinton is a "nice" town
- quiet, friendly, just "generally nice."
It is grievous when we hear of van-
dalism, so needless, so thoughtless -
yet, who is to blame? True, we don't
always know the motive, but could it be
the _ teaching and training that are
corrupting the attitudes and motives of
our young people?
The idea of some yourvv person
deliberately breaking 'tlowl 43 sign
posts and then "no -charges" laid!!
Where is the law? Yes, the culprit is
'known, but it is better for the taxpayers
to pay for the damage. I, for one, do not
feel it's a fair deal.
Of course, when some of our high
school teachers - openly in class -
ridicule those who have "good"
training and upbringing at home - what
can we expect? Parental training is
necessary and a definite responsiblility
given by God to every parent. For we
who try to fulfill this responsiblity so
that our children are upright, law-
abiding citizens - and then have them
ridiculed --well, we can anticipate more
disrespect for people, laws and
property.
Let's try to keep Clinton the nice,
quiet, friendly- just "generally nice"
town. If it means a campaign for the
right - let's have it. Or, if it means
investigating into the principles of the
board of education members and our
teachers - let's do it. Or, if it means -
"charging" culprits of vandalism - let's
do that.
A concerned mother,
Clinton
Restructuring
Dear Editor:
The Ausable-Bayfield Conservation
Authority is currently involved in
restructuring its role in conservation -
outdoor education in the schools and is
re -organizing its programs in this area.
One result of this work will be an up-
dating of the Camp Sylvan program.
Dan Kennaley, a recreation student
from the University of Waterloo, under
the guidance of Sue McGregor,
education and information co-
ordinator, is gathering resource
material and assessing other
organizations' programs prior to
creating a format and goals for the
conservation authority's involvement.
The conservation authority will be
seeking input from interested teachers
and individuals concerning their
perception of the role the Authority
should have in providing..conservation -
outdoor education.
Changes in curriculum and teaching
methods have stimulated this
research. The conservation authority
would like its conservation - outdoor
education program to reflect these
changes. Furthermore the con-
servation authority would like this
program to re-inforce as much as
possible its other programs of water
conservation, land • management,
recreation development and pollution
control.
Mr." Kennaley is interested in hearing
from anyone with ideas regarding
conservation • outdoor education and
can be contacted at the conservation
25
-2610
authority's3
f in ,
office
Yours truly,
Susan E. McGregor,
Education & information
co-ordinator.
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