Clinton News-Record, 1978-12-07, Page 4•
PAGE 4 -- CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THUR,GSSP Y,,,! CE.MBEW7 19:74
We're lucky here
Last week a man in his early
fifties died in a Toronto hospital,
the victim of a stroke which had
occurred seven hours previously.
Death was the result of the victim
being shuffled back and forth
among four city hospitals until it
was too late to save him.
Spokesmen for one or two of
these institutions blamed health
ministry cutbacks for the man's
death, stating that their beds were
all full and he had to be sent
somewhere else. However, in at
least one instance the ambulance
was directed to a second hospital
only to find that it too was.fiIled and
no one had phoned ahead to save
the useless delay.
When you say your prayers
tonight remember that one of the
great blessings of your life in a
rural community is the fact that
such things don't happen in a small
town hospital. Somehow a bed is
always found for an emergency
case. You are never treated like a
number when you -are brought to
your local hospital. You are a
Berson, someone worth caring
about and almost without exception
you are given personal and con-
siderate attention by every em-
ployee at the institution.
When the minister of health
decided to eliminate some of the
small 'hospitals two or three years
ago he totally failed to comprehend
the importance of the local hospital
in the smaller centres. Result, of
course, was that those hospitals
which. refused to submit were
eventually left open and continue to
receive financial backing from the
ministry.
If you have ever been a patient in
a big city hospital you have per-
sonal appreciation of the kind of
service you can get in your own
small hospital...and you are ab-
solutely right in fighting
unrelentingly to make sure that
service is not curtailed or closed
out. (—from the Wingham Ad-
vance -Times)
Support
Journalists and the media get a
good deal .of criticism, much of
which is deserved, but here is one
journalist who deserves credit and
support. Bob. Cramer is starting a
campaign to stop irritating com-
mercials. He is enlisting a network
of television viewers to monitor
and.. evaluate commercials for
decency and good taste.
Cramer, an editorial writer with
The Press of Atlantic City, is trying
to persuade people who object to
certain commercials to boycott
products which use annoying
commercials. We agree with him
that most'people are turned off by
commercials for feminine hygiene
products, hemorrhoid cures, in-
digestion relievers and laxatives.
He is counting the number who
complain about children being used
to sell you corn flakes, and the so-
called hidden camera commercials
which are an insult not only to our
intelligence level but also to that of
those who are supposed to be
unaware of the hidden cameras;
So, if we see a change for the
better in the commercials we can
thank a journalist and the media.
"Ahem,
Christmas pets
Dear Editor:
As the Christmas season nears, the
inevitable ads appear urging the gift of
a pet. -
Certainly kittens and puppies are
cute and cuddly and make an at-
tractive gift...but only if the.recipient is
fond of animals and would welcome one
into the home.
Having been concerned with animal
welfare for many years, I am very
aware of the many dogs and cats, who
after the Christmas novelty has worn
off, are out in the streets cold and
hungry.
These little animals are not to blame,
and may wander the streets looking for
shelter often coming to a sad end.
May I urge anyone thinking of giving
an animal' as a gift to please be sure it
will go to a home where it is wanted and •
cared for? It will make for a happier
Christmas for all concerned.
Thank you.
Audrey Graham,
Bayfield.
Special sale
Dear Editor:
I wonder if I can use your column to
thank every one who helped us with
our rummage sale in Clinton.
.----'' ` ` "�` L(►`1� A special thank -you to the Wesley
back here! You're - - - at!wrong Willis United Church for the use of the
church's basement for our rummage
sale; also to the Seaforth Women's
Institute for their donations, and to the _
Homemakers and everyone who
donated their time and effort towards
it. Thank you
Letters from Kenya.
Two years ago the ladies' group at
church asked me to correspond with
their foster child in Kenya. They
sponsor a child at a Home operated by
an international christian association.
The Home is located about 300 miles
north of Nairobi in semi -desert land
inhabited by nomadic tribes.
•
Distasteful television
Chap•wants--to-do.:a-television•-shortie
about t'ne.. .L: hae me doots about.
agreeing. I, have deepsuspicions about
that particular medium, and a very low
regard for the vast majority engaged in
its machinations.
First of all, TV is one of the most
pernicious influences on the
imaginations and vocabularies of the
young, to whom I am trying to teach
the subtleties and beauties and
clarities of the English language.
There is almost nothing to stretch the
mind, to titillate the senses, to improve
the language. Most television drama is
one-dimensional. It's laid out flatly
before you. The language is brutalized.
Suspense is childish. Acting is in-
sensitive.
And if, once in a blue moon, there is
an intelligent, suspenseful, sensitive
and imaginative piece of work on the
screen, the mood is constantly shat-
tered by noisy beer ads, or distasteful
commercials about ring around the
collar or underarm deodorant.
It's a pity. Television, in the right
hands, could become the most war-
ming, enlightening, enlarging ex-
perience in the lives of many people,
aside from their personal experience
with other human beings,
But 90 per cent of it is garbage,
'aimed at the intelligence of a slow six-
year-old. The tinny, artificial "ap-
plause." The ever-increasing sexual
innuendo. The constant shouting of so-
called comedians. The dull and
derivative dance routines. The blotting
and snarling of rock groups.
And perhaps worst of all, those in-
sane, greedy game shows. It is literal
fact that I can scarce refrain from
throwing up when I come across one of
those, with the bellowing master of
ceremonies, the fawning contestants,
and the idiotic audiences.
You know, when television began, it
had a good many flaws, but most of
them were technical. At the same time
it had a vitality and reality that swept
all before them.
Drama was done live, and we had
such great plays as Paddy Chayefsky's
Marty. Compare that reality and
pathos with the slobbering, sugar -
encrusted stuff like The Waltons.
Compare shouting, leering Laverne
and •.Shirley . or.. the. late unlamented.
Maude withthe, great Csetnics of the
early days: Art Carney and Jackie
Gleason, "Sid Ceasar and Imogene
Coca. You can't. There is no com-
parison.
Perhaps it's because the big poobahs
of television have treated their massive
audiences with more contempt than
any other medium has ever done, in-
cluding the Hollywood of the big
studios;
And those appearing on television
respond like fawning puppets. Hockey
players get into needless fights so that
.they can display the big macho on the
screen. Football players don't just
score a touchdown any more, and leave
it at that. They do a dance, or they
bounce the ball hard off the ground and
run around with their arms. up in self-
congratulation.
Learned and intelligent professors
allow themselves to be made ridiculous
by rhetorical questions from ignorant
interviewers. Politicians allow
themselves. to be chivvied by churlish
reporters, just to get their images on
the boob tube.
Talented people in show business will
appear on the screen with an ape or an
alligator, and 'allow themselves to be
insulted by a late -night -show MC, just
to get in the picture.
Only very occasionally does someone
with great powers of articulation and a
certain inbojn arrogance, someone like
Malcolm Muggeridge, manage to
break - through the banality of the
typical television interviewer. Only
rarely does an interviewer, someone
like Patrick Watson, break through the
carefully guarded porridge of the in-
terviewee.
With very few exceptions does a news
reporter -depart from a delivery as
monotonous as a metronome. The
National, Canada's 11 o'clock news,
11:30 in Newfie, is about as exciting as
a funeral service. We had smarmy
Lloyd Robertson with the oiled tonsils,
reading the news as though it were the
phone book. Then we had con-
temptuous Peter Kent, who gave the
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the Clinton News -Record Is published each
thuridsy of P.O. Boit 3*, Clinton, Ontario,
Crumbs, NO1M t1O.
Mornbsr, Ontario Weeldy
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post office under the perrnit number Afif.
Th. Neivs.Rerard incorporated In 1024 the
Huron NewvtRecord, founded in 11it/, and Th.
Cilnten Hew trey, founded In 1Hf. Total press
run 3,314.
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impression that he was doing us a
favor. These days we have dull old
solid, stolid George MacLean, who
delivers the news as though it were a
warmed-over pot -roast. Which it is, on
most occasions:
In short, TV is dull, dull, dull. I have
great sympathy for two groups in our
society. One is the oldsters and shut-
ins, who have so little left in their lives,
and rely on television for a diversion',
something to take the mind away from
the aches and pains and the loneliness.
What they get is a combination of the
utmost pap and crap that only a sadist
could devise: cheap, ancient, Grade C
movies; soap operas; sickening game
shows.
And the other group that gets my
sympathy is young children. With a few
exceptions, such as Sesame Street, all
they have to watch is pictorial pablum,
great, uplifting epics like The Flint -
stones, or violent and bloody movies.
What a pity, when the medium could
educate their minds, stir their senses
with color and music, and send their
imaginations soaring.
Andy Warhol, a New York pop artist,
said everyone eventually will be a,
celebrity for fifteen minutes.
If that's the case, include me out. The
TV chap told me it would take only two
hours of my time to make a two -minute
epic about me and my column. I have
no particular desire to look like a
turkey for two minutes and spend the
next two days feeling like one.
Many of the children were orphaned
or abandoned because of drought or
war. Other families left their children
at the centre because they were too
poor to give them adequate care.
Some prejudice against education
still exists among the tribes. The
government provides free schooling,
but a home must be available to allow
the children to stay in 'one area long
enough to attend school.
The home cares for boys and girls
between the ages of 6 and 123, and the
school goes to the seventh grade. The
curriculum ' includes history,
geography, science, math and religion.
A football field is located on the
grounds, and the children enjoy
athletics, singing and folk dancing.
They may also participate in drama,
music, wildlife and Christian clubs,
take part in Scouting activities and
compete in the annual school Olympic
gafngs•
,pie 'three -term school years begins:'
in J January, and holidays occur in
April, August and December. An
average day begins at 6:30 a.m.;
morning prayers and chores are
completed by 7:30 when breakfast is
served. School runs from 8 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. with a two-hour lunch break.
Homework and evening chores are
done • before supper at 7:30, and the
children have firee time until lights out
at 9:30.
The first boy I wrote to was about 15.
Records of births are not kept in his
part of the country and the school
estimates the child's age. -
Lkashudu was keen on athletics,
especially track and field, and was
eager to hear about the Olympics held
in Canada. He said he used a map When
our letters came and was learning
about Canada little by little. His
parents were both living; he had two
brothers and two sisters, but he was the
only one in school. In the holidays, he
helped look after his father's five "very
skinny" cows.
When he completed grade seven, he.
left the Home. It is too expensive arid
time-consuming for the agency to
record the forwarding addresses of all
the children. The hardest part for me
remembering
our past
5 YEARS AGO
December 8, 1973
Estimates of jobs lost in the Clinton area
because of the closing of Hall Lamp of
Centralia Cast week run from 20 to 100, the
News -Record has learned.
The company laid off 350 production
employees last week on orders from its
Detroit head office, giving a shortage of
materials as the reason.
Gordon Hill of Varna was re-elected
president of the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture, 'Tuesday, November 27 when
the farm organization held .its annual
convention in Oshawa
This week, Mrs. Clifford Epps picked a
bouquet of fresh tea roses4nd pansies from
. (T
her well tended gardenhe temperature
on December 3 went up%o 56 degrees F.)
Rockledge Properties Limited has,
receivefi a permit,f'rom Goderich Township
Council to build a $3,000,000-sho ping plaza
on the .20 -acre site just east of the Town of
Goderich, across from Sheaffer 'Pen'
Company.
10 YEARS AGO
December 5,1968
Voters in Clinton, Willett, McKillop and.
Clinton elected John Levis of Clinton and
John Henderson of McKillop as members of
the new Huron County Soard of Education,
but the first counting gives Mr. Henderson
only a one -vote lead over Norman Counter of
Clinton and a recount is considered likely.
The Clinton Nurses Residence has been
suggested as a possible administration site
for the new Huron County Board of
Education which holds its first meeting in
Goderich an Monday. .
y The o modern building,
planned when the hospital here was still
ll
ttsedfor' nus se training OW"f nlinO8t nipty,
•tt 'houses one nurse and a housekeeper.
has been losing contact with him and
wondering what he is doing.
In one of his last -letters, he wrote: "I
don't know what I will do when I finish
my primary education, because my
father wants me at home. He does rot
need Me for the work because he is
Dear Editor:
young and htis other children, but he
likes me to stay with him because I am
first born. He does not know what
education is...I do not like to go back to
the hut and have easy life or aimless
life all the primitive did up to now."
Lkashudu's sponsorship was
replaced by a ten -year-old boy named
Saloi, who , proudly informed me he
finished sixth out ' of twenty-four
students in class two. He was excited
about entering grade three. For the
first few weeks, the subjects were
difficult, but he added, "I like them,
and I'mgoing to work hard to improve
my marks." And he did.
• ^ Ile told,me..about aisirx-week holiday
_, in 'which 4ie sited hh j rents ry sisters;
and brothers and helped to fetch water
and firewood. He said he was glad to be
at home because he hadn't seen his Royal treat
family for a long time, but he was also
glad to get back to school with all his
friends.
In my correspondence, I'rn supposed
to help the children learn about their
sponsors and our country, which is so
different from theirs. But in reality,
I'm the one who is learning.
One message comes through
repeatedly from the boys, To them,
learning is a "privilege." They have to
live apart from their families and the
only way of life they have known. Yet
they feel they are the fortunate ones in
their families because they are getting
an education.
They are hungry for knowledge. It
seems a shame that, in many cases, the
door of learning is opened to them only
to be slammed in their faces a short
time later.
In ' Canada, opportunities for
education are varied and easily ac-
cessible to most people. We -take
education for granted and sometimes
even grumble about it. May be we
could learn a lesson from youngsters
thousands of miles away struggling for
a chance to learn.
Mrs. Nelly Gontie-Tak
Development Officer
Town and Country Homemakers.
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Small head
As an out-of-town subscriber, I rely
on the News -Record for the news that
really matters. In that respect, let me
congratulate you for a consistently
enjoyable paper.
I have a small complaint, however.
In recent weeks there has been a
tendency to. put a small logo on the
"Central Huron Chronicle" page. I
respect your consideration of the most
efficient use of space, yet I do feel that
it diminishes the effect of the page
(especially if it is crammed in beside
the classified ads). 1
Cordially,
PhilipStreet,
- - 4 Toronto, Ont.
a look through
the news -record files
Office space is rented to a surgeon and to the
Huron Health Unit.
25 'YEARS AGO
December 17, 1953
Bartliff Bros. have purchased Vodden's
Bakery business in Blyth and on Monday
December 14, took over the local bread
routes. They will serve the local trade
through the grocery outlet there. The firm at
present does not intend to maintain a store
in Blyth but members of the staff at Vod-
den's Bakery will be continuing to work
under the new arrangement.
Secretary of the Clinton and District
Collegiate Institute Board, H.C. Lawson,
announced today that all municipalitiles
within the district have approved the ad-
dition to the CACI building in the proposed
amound of $180,000. Debentures for this
amount are to be issued by the Town of
Clinton.
Jabez Rands,
assistant to"
who has been serving the
Clinton Public
Utilities Commission as
the
superintendent A.E.
Rumball, was appointed this ' week as
superintendent on probation for one year.
His duties will commence at the first of
January, 1954.
50YEARS AdO
December 13,1928
A public meeting was held in the Bayfield
town hall on Tuesday afternoon to discuss
hydro street lighting for the village. Some
time ago a petition was circulated and a
sufficient number of signatures .obtained to
have the streets lighted. There was a good
attendance at the meeting. and it was
decided to install street lights as seen as
poSsib
le.
e' they
mild 'W this e
l a Week e
The has `:l` � $ put
8
...... .. , . ,..�., g...„r . ,�..,..
damper on theepeotations of ea1katln
Mr. Ele, Mather of Bayfield, formerly of
Clinton, has disposed of his store and
restaurant business in Bayfield to Mr. Geo.
Elliott of Goderich Township and has taken
over Mr. Elliott's farm.
The snow fences which the highway men
erected in Kippen will be splendid help
toward keeping our highway open this
winter and we are sure those travelling on
them will greatly appreciate this effort of
the government to help traffic.
A large number of the friends and neigh-
bours gathered at the home of Mr. and Mrs. '
Nelson Keyes one'evenling last week and
presented Mr. and Mrs. Wilber Keyes with a
miscellaneous shower of articles useful to a
young couple just starting housekeeping.
There were over one hundred presents and a
very happy social evening was spent in
music, games etc.
A ten page paper this week and ad-
vertising is heavy. Read those ad-
vertisements, they will save you money.
Mr. and Mrs. W. Allen of Londesboro are
treating themselves to a radio.
75 YEARS AGO
December 17,1903
Jeanie, the seven-year-old daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Alf Barge has been very ill for
the past week. The trouble is in the ankle
and is of Such nature that Drs. Thompson
and Shaw have been compelled to perform
two operations.
Asrthe Rattenbury House clerk was about
to retire on Tuesday night he happened to
look under his bed and: was surprised to find
a man there, a well dressed and total
stranger Who sold that he was only trying to
tOcure free lodging, That a May have been the
case 'though, .it Wa pOssible that he as
waltin for the inmates of the
House to
•, re it
hll
� thateh• ght dsomethieving It
f riaftl that he axiiewexti to the'descrlption of a
Dear Editor;
I want to thank you, your
management and staff for par-
ticipating in the "We Treat You
Royally" program.
With the cooperation and support of
businesses like yours, we have made
excellent initial progress in raising the
awareness of the importance of
tourism, and improving the calibre of
hospitality in Ontario.
Results from a benchmark research
study conducted in August, show that
one person in four had heard about "We
Treat You Royally". Over 60 percent of
respondents correctly identified the
motives of the program, and over 75
percent thought tourism in their area
was "very" or "fairly" important.
These are impressive results for so
early in the program.
But there is more to be done.,
Though the traditional peak months
have passed, tourism is a year-round
business. Each season presents new
opportunities to be friendly to visitors
and residents alike.
Oktoberfests, fairs and festivals have
had people on the go this fall, and soon
winter activities like skiing,
snowmobiling ,and carnivals will be
bringing people together. "We Treat
You Royally" should be there, too, as a
special way of saying 'Welcome' I
This Ministry will continue its
initiatives to tie in with major seasonal
events and special occasions. We look
to you to keep your involvement active
too, by making, "We Treat You
Royally" the sign of hospitality at
special events, meetings and con-
ventions in your area.
Soot', this Ministry will be in-
troducing a staff training program for
the tourism industry, designed to assist
in the development of hospitality skills
among employees. More news about
this program will be forthcoming.
For now, my thanks for your support
and participation. Your cooperation is
very much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Frederick J. Boyer,
Executive Director,
Division of Tourism.
fellow wanted elsewhere by the police.
The Bachelor Maidens of Clinton will give
a ball in the town hall on Christmas night to
which those who have been favoured with
invitations are looking forward to with
anticipation.
Oriring to a sick horse, Rev. Coupland of
Auburn was unable to make the north trip
Sunday last.
Owing to the severe snowstorm the road
from Varna through Goderich Township has
been blocked for the past few days.
Applications for position of caretaker of
Willis' Presbyterian Church, Clinton will be
received up to 21st i3ecetnber, 1903..Salary
�11
# per
annum, payable Ole arterl
y,Schedulea duties. to begin
on plat, Jan, 1904
day
hellieti WI the application to William
Bryclend, chaitinan trustee board.
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