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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1975-02-27, Page 2t c 1 t 1 i t t armee-`des, Thursday, February 27, 19'/5 O.E. LTORS' .Sandra Currie Cecil de Boer Letters to the Editor February 13, 1975. • Dear Editor, In the last two weeks I have read two editorials and a letter to the editor of our school page that downgrade our school, its policies and our teachers. What I would like to de now is downgrade the irresponsible few who feel it their duty to leave the student lounge in a state of permanent disarray. We are one of the few schools to have our own student lounge, a havep of rest where teachers and janitrs alike are banned. Yes it's all ours and you can sure tell. Our student council has spent some- where in the area of $3,000 or more for the improvement and upkeep of the student lounge. The new carpet that was installed last year is now in the process of un- ravelling itself and has been vacuumed exactly two times since the beginning of the school year. Of our new tables and chairs, also bought last year, about ten chairs have now been repaired at least once. The tables have both been welded together again and as a result have a table top angle of twenty degrees. The couches have been ripped apart by warped individuals who are more content pulling at foam rather than chewing their finger- nails. .Curtains have been literally pulled off the rods and now one of the windows is broken. The heating system consists of touching two wires together with the danger of being fried. Of course the lounge is not all bad, after all, the lights work, and uh um• . . . Well back to the bad points, you can't run out. There are three garbage pails but these remain empty while not two feet Caveat Emptor a .k�. .na V' FISH AND CHIPS THE CONVENIENCE FOOD? For those of you who frequently find yourself preparing the so- called convenience foods, here is a look at the ever popular fish and chips. From a study of the frozen, packaged fish and chips dinners, there was found to be approxi- mately four to five ounces of fish in a 24 -oz. container. This con- firmed what anyone who has bought these dinners • has known all along, they -should be labelled chips and fish. Regulations con- cerning labelling for products such as fish and chips state that ingredients be listed in descend- ingorder of quantity. In the case of the products tested,' the potato content of the product ranged from 53 to 59 per cent; fish con- tent from 19 to 28 per cent.; yet four of the six samples tested list- ed fish first in their list of ingred- ients. The nutritional test on the samples, resulted in all coming close to or providing one-third of daily protein requirement for adults .and was more than ade- quate for children. The test was based- on an average serving of two pieces of fish per person. All brands were also evaluated for appearance, aroma, flavor, and texture. Several of the• samples were found to be difficult to cook properly. Half of the samples had stale or dry fish and tarty french fries. One sample had a batter that appeared too thick in places and caused the formation of a soggy layer nextto the fish even after the recommended cooking times. The samples were rated in order of estimated overall quality by the testing panel with the fol- lowing results: Fraser Vale and High Liner, were rated as good quality products while Captain's Choice, Rupert Brand, Sea Fresh and Blue Water were given an ac- ceptable quality rating. CORRECTION — The signature on a letter to the editor last week reading Bruce (FI Camerson should have been Bruce Cameron. Sorry, Bruce. rA glamor girl like me needs italwisOwn • POWDER • OIL • SHAMPOO • SOAP can't trust my delicate skin and hair to anything less than Baby's Own Pure and gentle. Bahy's Own prod- uctsare tender as a mother's touch The soap. oil and shampoo all contain sooth- ing lanolin The soft and silky powder helps prevent diaper rash Baby's ()wn is just made for a glamor girl like me' from them paper scraps and Me caps line the floor. There are six bottle racks but somehow fifty per cent of the bottles re- main on the floor; after all, the pop rack is two steps away. Maybe these few individuals are reliving their home ex- perience I don't know. Per- sonally, I do not grind my gum into the carpet when it loses its taste, nor do I thow my pop bottle at the window when I empty it. Some people have suggested closing the lounge to all but mit+ twelves and thirteens but that seems rather idiotic since we are the only ones with unstructured spares and it seems that during the regular classes is the time when a large amount of the damage is done. I don't think that the manager should be the only one respon- sible for the cleaning of the lounge. Nobody wants the responsibility of cleaning the lounge but everyone likes to com- plain of its condition. If everyone helped a little our problem would be solved. It won't kill you to put your garbage in the garbage pail or your pop bottle in the pop rack so do it. It's our lounge! —Lois McLaughlin 12F madill 1 irflc: Creative Writing '74 LAMENT OF A P.O.W. "Lee," she whispered, "I got another letter from the govern- ment today. They said the first one had been a mistake." When Lee didn't reply, she de - o manded, "Lee, don't you under- stand? When they were checking over the lists of P.O.W.'s to be re- leased from Vietnam, they found Justin's name. He's still alive! He'll be home in two weeks ! " Home. She wondered why she had used that word. Now that she was married to Lee, for Justin there would be no home, justhis country to return to where he would want and probably have to start all over, again. Karrianne remembered the first letter. The sentences had been typed very hard. cold, and crisp upon the formal white pap- er. "We regret to inform you that your husband, Justin Larkin, was killed in action while fighting for the United States of America, in the Vietnam war." All that had been six years ago. She had picked up the broken pieces, found a friend in Lee, and eventually married him. "Then you realize," Lee •finally stammered, "that he is legally your husband. According to law, you'll have to go back to him. "We were only married three months when he was drafted. Editor's Comment This article is my opinion of last week's letter -to -the editor in which I am prepared to defend what I have previously stated in my editorials. From that letter, I got the impression that Jim's view was a very personalized view, compared to what I felt to be the more generalized view in my editorial — generalized be- cause my editorial described a situation that had been revealed to me by a large number of my peers. Many of these people have told me of their agreement with my concepts. Because of this, I don't think you have any reason to say my editorials were mis- leading. The problems, I men- tioned do exist and from what I have observed; they exist among many of the students. ' Anyway, back to that letter. I noticed that suggestions were made that students should take subjects that are interesting to you. That sounds like a fairly rea- sonable suggestion, but many of us are forced to take certain sub- jects because of a regulation in the school program or because the subject is required for en- trance into university. The regulation I am referring to is the one that states you must.earn a certain number of credits from each of the four subject divisions, that is, Applied Sciences; Com- munications, Social,and Environ- mental Studies and Arts. This regulation' frequently. ''forces people into taking Physical Education even though they may have little or no interest in it; they must take it to make sure they get their credits in that division. Now, along that same line, consider the subjects requir- ed for acceptance to a university. Most universities will not accept students unless they have com- pleted a grade 13 English course and along with this, they recom- mend that you complete certain grade 13 subjects, usually Math- ematics and Chemistry are sug- gested. In both cases, the stu- dents are' being forced to take certain subjects whether or nut they have an interest in them. In my opinion, this is a serious in- justice of the school system. Mentioned in the same letter. was a bit of criticism that the edi- torials,gave the impression of the teachers being a gr up of vil- lains. If that is the impression ob- tained from that editorial, then I must say it was not the intended impression. I must admit that my views were rather exaggerated and I sincerely express my apol- ogies to any tgachers that have morally suffered from those statements. I must agree that F. E. Madill is very fortunate to have the skilled and concerned teachers that we have. My form- er accusations, I now feel, were somewhat rash. This entire state- ment may seem contradictory, but it should be looked upon as an error in my judgment. The teach- ers are not to blame be- cause it is now evident to me that the teachers are iocked in the same limiting school system that we, the students, find ourselves in. In that letter -to -the -editor, at another point of attack on my edi- torials, it was mentioned that the enjoyment you get in school is proportional to what you put into it. There are only a few things I would like to say about this. And one of them is that I feel I have put a lot into the school and school activities but the general system still seems very boring to me. But this boredom is not the fault of the teachers only. As I mentioned previously, the teach- ers are restricted in their meth- ods of teaching, _ by higher auth- orities. So, the teachers have lit- =tle control over this and I am sure that many are doing much in an attempt to prevent school from being boring. Again I apologize for the statements made in edito- rials which may have implied that teachers have the sole re- sponsibility in this field. I hope that rather than discouraging. teachers, that now they may be aware that students do respect them for their efforts in trying to make school interesting for the students, even though `their ac- tions are restricted by ministry legislation. To make this long story short, in this next paragraph I have condensed some of mj views on points mentioned in last week's letter -to -the editor. Firstly, the vagueness of that one editorial was due. to the rush to meet a publication deadline, (that is, it was written late Friday after- noon in an attempt to meet the 6 p.m. Friday deadline.) And by the way, if, I was to rewrite that editorial its basic attack would be on the purpose of detentions. Secondly, my view on examina- tions is unchanged and agreed with by many, that compulsory examinations are the basic stim- ula for cheating. That is, exams lead students towards cheating in _order to get the highest possible marks. For this reason, exams should be made optional. Finally, people seem to be wondering why some of the editorials were left unsigned. The reason this was done was because in many cases the editorials were compiled by more than one person. So rather than make out a list of half a dozen people, the editorial was left unsigned to prevent any one of those people being singled out. However, I promise you that all editorials will be signed from now on. In closing, I would like to thank Jim Pattison for his very inter- esting letter, even though his views differed from mine in al- most all respects and even though he wrote a very personal- ized opinion. —Cecil de Hoer 13A Response to Postscript : I will have you know, Jim, that I was told that the window in the student lounge was broken ac- cidentally, not intentionally, as you implied, by a student when he was attempting to open it. Student teacher JOHN PEEBLES Mr. Peebles was a student teacher at F F. Marlin for about two weeks. While he was at the school he taught Data Process- ing. His future plan is to find a job in teaching before September. Mr. Peebles attended the Uni- versity of Western Ontario and the University of Waterloo. He thought that, of the, four schools where he taught, Madill was the best. —Julie Vandenberg and Louise Stamper Maybe when he finds out that I°in married ..." "Yeah, maybe. Sure! Why wouldn't he give you a divorce? It's all any decent guy would do when he found out that his wife was remarried." "Please, Lee, don't be sar- castic. It's hard enough right now. It'll be harder when he gets here. There's also the baby! Maybe when he finds out that I'm pregnant, and am going to have your child in seven months, he'll let me go." Lee then stated what Karri- anne knew, but was desperately trying to hide. "Karrianne, we can't pretend one way or another. We'll just have to wait and see." As the days passed, Karrianne hoped that he would have changed. Perhaps then it would- n't hurt any of them. Strange how she had thought she had forgotten Justin. It now seemed even more strange that she had remembered those mem- ories of their few months together. They.were the same re- collections that had haunted her when she had received the first letter. Karrianne had compared them to wine, bitter, but all the while leaving a pleasing effect. She wouldn't go back to him, not with Lee's child! He wouldn't. want her anyway. Even if she had not been expecting, Karrianne had every intention of staying with Lee. When the day dawned, she knew she would have to meet him at the airport. She would have to explain. As Justin descended from the plane, Karrianne saw with horror that his right leg was gone. She shuddered. "Only half a man," her conscience screamed, "Karri," Justin had uttered it like a sad, soft sigh. Karrianne hadn't meant to, but she found herself in his arms. No. Justin was not half a man as she had labelled him. Nor had he changed. Neither had she. She found herself to be the same child still easily succumbed by him. It took Karrianne three days to thoroughly explain the events, so vivid despite the past six years, to Justin. He listened intently, with the same patience and understanding he had always' possessed, the quality that had never failed to bewilder, and now even frustrate Karri. Each day she also found herself in his arms, with both reliefand reluc- tance. At night, . Lee discovered his Karri., at least what he had once thought to be his Karri, sober, quiet, seemingly calm, yet dis- turbed. "You're going back to him, By Jane Shiell Brenda Johnston Question: Do you think an ex- pensive, well-known band is better than an average, but inex- pensive for F. E. Madill dances? 0-0-0 Ian MacKenzie 13B: Yeh, because if they are well-known, then a large number of people will come from the surrounding areas and it will give publicity for future dances. 0-0-0 Myron McKee 11E:. Yes it would be worthwhile because more people will come and it would give the school a reputa- tion of having good bands. 0-0-0 Debbie Adams 10A: I think it's -worth more because there will be better attendance. 0-0-0 Sandy Orien 13C: I think it is worth more; just 1Qok at the profit : $637.42. 0-0-0 Mark Tiffin 12K: No, if the latter band is well heard of, it will draw just as well as a larger band. For example, Ian Thomas, a relatively average band, drew just as well-, or better, than Foot in Cold Water, an expensive band. 0-0-0. Kitty Hartlieb 9D: Yeah, if they sound good. 0-0-0 Joyce Black 12A: Yes, because more people will come to the dances if a good band is playing. 0-0-0 Nelson Underwood 12K : Yes because it pulls in more money and people. 0-0-0 Donnie Thacker 9M: No, I don't think so because more expensive bands are more expensive. 0-0-0 Lori Parker 11F: Yes, they should because more kids will go to see a better known band and the school would probably have a better profit. aren't you? You hadn't meant to but it's there. You're drifting towards him more every day." "I can't leave you, even though he said he'd adopt the child," Karri quietly expressed. "Karri," Lee formed the word lovingly, "little Karri. I remember a time, shortly after we were married, that you found a bird with a broken wing. You set him free after you nursed him back to health. When you re- leased him, you said, `I believe everything and everyone should be free, if he wants it.' You still believe that, don't you Karri- anne?" As he spoke these words reassuringly to her, Lee cupped Karri's face in his hands, and turned her sad eyes up to meet his. "Look, Karri, go to him." He gently removed the small wed- ding band that he had placed on her graceful finger four years ago. "I can't hold you any more. You are free, Karrianne." —Trudy Holmes HE'D NEVER KNOW . HOW CLOSE Theo cuckoo clock on the wall ticks endlessly. Tick, tick, tick, tick. The chain that runs the hour alarm has fallen off, and only two holes remain where it once was. A wedding picture hangs beside the immortal clock. The groom is in his late fifties or early sixties. His half bald head reflects the flash of the photographer's lights. The bride is in her early thirties \her flowing black hair and full body showing why the groom had fallen in love with this woman and the slight bulge under the waist of the immaculate white gown showing the reason for . marriage. The old clock squeaks from lack of oil as it ticks end- lessly. A desk stands in front of the picture. It is old, very old, for the varnish is beginning to crack. A picture stands ott the desk. It is that of a young man. He could be no more than eighteen or nine- teen. He looks very much like the man in the wedding picture might haueovhen he was younger. Qb- viously, the groom isthe father of thejadi, This is the,..:only other picture in the room. There was onlyone son from the marriage. And the clock echoes through the small room as a reminder that time never stands still. The only other funiture in the room is a bed. It is a three-quart- er size bed. It,,,.too, is old, for in one place where the paint has chipped, three more layers of paint can be seen covering the varnish. On the bed, an old man is. lying, writing. It is night, for the lone window by the bed is dark and a dim electric lamp, over- head, flickers. The lamp shuts off. The old man gropes in the dark for his pants. He finds, them in a pile of clothes on the floor. The clock's noise is' amplified by the enveloping darkness. The old man has found a coin in the pants pocket. He feels around and finally finds the meter by the bed. He drops the coin in the slot. There is a metallic ring as the coin hits the empty box of the meter. The light flickers and then brightens. The old man picks up his pen and continues to write. He is filling in a Will form. It has already been signed by two wit- nesses. In it, the old man has left everything to his son, Wilheim. His executors are his son, and his trusted friend Samuel Fried- mann. The old man, satisfied with the Will, places it on the desk. He then begins to write a letter. It begins "To my son and those whom- it may concern." The old man hesitates, then resumes writing. The clock echoes in the background. "My son Wilheim Kramer, born of the late Erika (Strauss) Kramer, is my only heir. I have bequeathed all my belongings to him. To my son, shall be revealed by vast estates in Austria and Germany, my gold mines in South Africa, and my bank ac- counts in Switzerland. I have lived in poverty with him these last ten years, ever since his mother died. I wanted him to know of the hardships and the suffering the Jews lived through in the war. However, I could never show him how it was to be penned like an animal or how. it was to be tortured for hours on end. I could only tell him he was very lucky because he was not penned and tortured. My son, he inherited my genius and military - mindedness.. Ile figured how to survive when I could not work to buy food. He went to school for only one month in his grade twelve year and placed sixth. He is a lieutenant in the cadets and he works hard at it. Next year, he says he will join the army. To him, 1 say 'Son, forget the Army and" join the Peace Corps.' He only laughs and asks 'Why papa?' I could never answer him before but II can now. Son, look in my desk drawer, there you -will find a combination lock. I guards a ffalse bottom. The drawer cannot be removed from the desk, so it cannot be stolen. Turn io the right the number of years your mother lived after our marriage. Turn left the position you ranked in the ninth grade. Turn right the day of the month you were born. In the drawer bottom you will find my life story, German medals, the Nazi arm- band, German marks and several books written by Adolph Hitler. Wiflheim, read'my story. Read it from front page to back, but remember the last two chapters and never forget what they say. Then you will know why I want you to join the Peace Corps. Remember the picture con- tained in the autobiography, compare it to the one on top of my desk. Now compare it to the picture on the wall. Science can work miracles. My eyes are blue, they replaced my partially blind brown ones. My fingerprints were changed by plastic surgery. My hearing was destroyed but an operation restored this sense. An operation on my vocal chords changed my voice. A cream caused my head to become par- tially bald and my eyebrows to be thinner. My teeth were pulled out and dentures replace them. There I is a slight resemb- lance but not enough for anyone to find me. I know you will be very surprised son. But nobody else has ' to know. You are registered as Wilheim Kramer. It is a good German name. Your uncle has the same surname. He married my sister. Nobody knows I had a sister. She's dead but her husband lives in the great city of Berlin; His name is Leander Sarhuel Kramer. He is the only man in the world who knows I am alive besides you, son. Take good care of my estates. They are under the name Edwin R. Kramer so there will be no legal problems: I have repaid my inhuman deeds many times over. There is :seldom a night that I sleep. The terrible nightmares haunt me forever. But I am going to leave you son. I am going in perfect peace of mind. My last night on earth will be peaceffti." I love you son, *Your father;, Ed Kramer. The old man placed the letter with the will. The light again flickered. As the light faded, the old man was sleeping. There was a contented smile on his lips. The bird in the clock came out of the wooden door, gave one "cuckoo" and went back in, There was a whirr and the ticking stopped. The old man died as darkness overpowered the bulb in the cheap Toronto apartment. . Next day, Life ran a special article on Adolph Hitler. He had been missing for twenty-eight years from yesterday. He had been reported to have last been heard of under an assumed name in Canada. The information was obtained from a Leander Samuel Kramer of Greater Berlin. 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