Clinton News-Record, 1984-08-01, Page 4P4,944 4 _c iTO T -*ORD, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1,_198_
Tw do0.400.• HIa1Mo l mord Ia-i! ,.. 4.. --
„a*P'Q. PDX "0110#0. 00,1tprlp.
C.011414.14.0.0k.11.44 11.44 Nall4R,t441 .
IPtiel441101
CO.0. 0.W1 74
Ar.. mug." 410.1111111f X*r
11;t.A.'14 *111. F? MAI Par leer
• Post o$ka underthp pi4ro1H nm9mker 17.
ih. f***a.Racord blOorPop.R,od in 1E4 the
Huron liawo-Racor4: frloaiM d `141 WM. soil
The Clinton $ewe Ira. le dal In 11109. Torrid
Preis nolo 3.7V0.
Incorporating
(THE BLYTH STANDARD®
j. HOWARD AITKEN - Publisher
SHELLEY McPHEE - Editor
GARY HAIST . Advertising Manager
MARY ANN HOI LENOECK - Office Manager
. r
A
MEMBER
Mosley .4vertisino rates
available on reyoest. Ask for
I.te Card. Ho. 14 effective
October 1. 1414.
Hove your Aoy
Door Editor
Plea to clown Fathers
From rise of sun to getting dark
The town resounds with doggies' bark.
From sleepless dusk to red -eyed dawn
The barking still goes on and on.
Bark -bark, bark -bark,
Bark -bark, bark -bark,
Bark -bark, bark -bark,
Bark -bark, bark -bark.
Behind each idiot barking dog
There leers a psychopathic jerk
Who does his snarling at the world
By having Fido do the work.
Your Worship, sir, and Councillors -
Let placards on the lawns appear
Of those who harbour barking dogs:
"A RAVING PSYCHOPATH LIVES
HERE".
PUC preparefor the future
Clinton Mayor Chester Archibald says he's prepared to face criticism and com-
plaints regarding the Clinton PUC reserve fund.
The fund, set up a few years ago, is strictly established to retain money to help
finance the replacement of the tawn's water storage tank.
The tank, more than 70 years old, has long outlived its life expectancy and the
PUC board of directors realize that it's replacement is inevitable.
Anticipated replacement cost could loon close to half a million dollars and the
mayor anticipates that some Clinton taxpayers will be telephoning him this
week, to complain about the high cost of replacement and the high cost on their
utility bills. .
In fact, Clinton taxpayers are fortunate to have a water tower that has lasted
so long. The town's financial standing would be in much better shape if the same
thing could be said of many other services and facilities - like the sewage treat-
ment plant or the town hall.
The town hall restoration project and anticipated expenditures to upgrade the
sewage treatment plant will strain the town's bank accounts and empty the tax-
payers' pockets.
At least the estimated $450,000 PUC expenditure for the water storage system
has been anticipated and some concrete action has been taken to help lessen the
financial blow.
"If it (the water storage tank) will hang out for seven to eight years then we'll.
be home free," the mayor said hopefully.
Realistically speaking, the future of the water storage system cannot be
guaranteed and the reserve funding may be depleted bdfwe the $450,000 objec-
tive is reached..
At least our municipal leaders are beginning to show initiative and foresight in
an attempt to help finance the future. -by S. McPhee
Sensationalizing
National and international news is becoming more frightening with each report
of war, murder or kidnapping.
North America was stunned when a lone gunman killed 21 and injured 19 at a
restaurant in California. The deliberate killings took over one hour and in the
end, the killer was shot by police.
in Manitoba, another man took his own life when'cdrnered by police at a land-
fill site. The man killed four.
A London., Ontario man has been charged in the death of his wife. His wife was
gunned down over two weeks ago when the family stopped to help a motorist in
distress. Her husband faces a charge of first degree murdei' and conspiracy to
commit murder.
Other world news is equally distressing. Item -- Raging Tripoli battle threatens
ceasefire ... Indian Parliament erupts over handling of violence ... Demonstrators
in Manila dispersed with tear gas ... and the "news' goes on.
We're living in a world where the daily pace of life continues to increase to the
point where stress levels are being strained. Financial woe is one of the main
forces•that cause's minds and people to snap. Many are reaching the breaking
point.
Unfortunately, the news of the daily press is.n't recilly "news". Much of it is bad
news -- news that the press and public thrive on. The California massacre rated a
full page series of stories in at least one daily paper.
True,the murders happened. But it's time the press stuck to the job of inform-
ing the public. Bad news can instill more violence, especially when sensatibnaliz
ed
We're all faced with problems. And throughout the world, the probrems con-
tinue to mount. Perhaps some good news will boost spirits and brighten the
outlook of today's modern society -- a society that is high strung and stressful.
Let's keep informed, but let's do itwithout sensationalizing. - R.W.
Behincrrhe Scenes
By Keith 'Roulston
Home rules under pressure
Most of us dream of a perfect world where
there will • be no more war, nor more
disputes between neighbors, oply love and
romance in' -marriage and yet the seeds of
the destruction of these'dreams are planted
almost at our birth:
Most of the problems m the world occur
because people are different: they think dif-
ferently, they live differently the speak dif-
ferent languages:- We dream of a world
where people will be tolerant of difference,
but that perfect world is far frcim'arriving.
So in the meantime we are divided by our
differences. and these start very close to,
home.
Remember as a kid how the world seemed
simple. there was one law in the world, your
parents', and even' if you thought it was un-
just or too strict, at least you knew the rules.
Then you were old enough to make friends
and visit those friends home and you
discovered a culture shock that would be the'
equivalent of an adult visiting Asia.
Suddenly all the laws are changed. You
were used to wearing your shoes in the
house, the laws of this foreign territory for-
bid it. Your family said grace before.a meal,
this one didn't. There were too many forks
beside your plate at supper (no,Ithey called
it dinne'r). And the food, the food was dif-
ferent. They called it the same and you
thought you were safe saying you liked that
dish.at home but when it came, it tasted
completely different and you 'had to force
yourself to keep eating it without making
some remark.
I remember rice pudding that way. Rice
pudding -was a favorite meal at our house
but at riy lri-end's, it was a near -liquid Mess
that I could never bring myself to eat.
Things were even stranger when I went to
Future Olympiads
by Rod Hilts
visit at anutticr ileigi11)01i uuu 11011 it: VN 11,11 a
friend whose parents were recent arrivals
from Holland. They said grace in Dutch.
They were nice people and tried hard to
make you feel welcome but you -felt scared •
all the time because you didn't know when
you might be breaking some family law you
didn't know about.
At least as a kid you went home at night
or the next day if you stayed over) to the
comfortable laws of home. The shocker for
most of us, even when we're older and
wiser, comes when we get married. Each
partner tends to bring the rules from his or
her old home to the new one.
The first few months are hell. During the
'70s everybody made it seem that marriages
were made or broken in the marriage bed
but I'll bet the most strain comes in the
other rooms in the house. The old jokes
about, "that's not the way mother used to
make it" are true. So's the one about one
spouse squeezing the toothpaste from the
middle of the tube while the other squeezes
from the end.
Even if both partners are reasonably
neat, they won't be neat in the same way
tnd that will cause friction. And heaven help
hem if one partner is fanatical about
everything in its place and the other is free
and easy.
Eventually, if the Marriage survives that
long, a new set of rules will be forged (I'm
often amazed when I realize just how totally
differently I live today than when I was
growing up) and by the time kids come
along they will have their own comfortable
rules and will discover with a shock that
everyone else doesn't live by them.
And so the world goes. And as long as it
does, people will live in stress when they en-
counter differences.
Sugar and Sp.ice
Education stalemate
In 30 plus years as an editor, a parent, and
a teacher, I have been inundated (though
not quite drowned) by several waves of self-
styled "reform" of our educational system,
especially that of Ontario.
Each wave has washed away some of the
basic values in our system and left behind a
heap of detritus, from which teachers and
students eventually emerge, gasping for a
breath of clean air.
Most of the "massive" reforms in our
system are borrowed from the U.S., after 30
or 40 years .of testing there have proven
them dubious, if not worthless.
We have borrowed from the pragmatist,
John Dewey, an American, .who had some
good ideas, but tried to put them into mass
production, an endearing but not necessari-
ly noble trait . for our cousins below the
border.
We have tried the ridiculous, "See -Jane.
See Spot run. Spot, see Jane vomit," sort of
thing which completely ignores the child's
demand for heroes and witches and shining
maidens', and things that go bump in the
night.
We have tried "teaching the whole child",
a process in which the teacher becomes
father/mother, uncle/aunt, grand-
father/grandma, psychiatrist, buddy ecionfi-
dant, and football to kick around while the
kid does what he/she dam -well -pleases. And
we wonder about teacher "burn -out".
We have tried a , system in which the
children choose from a sort of Pandora's
box what subjects they would like to.take,
and giving thein a credit for each subject to
which they are "exposed", whether or not
they have learned anything in it.
That was a bit of a disaster. Kids, like
adults, chose the things that were "fun'',
that were "easy", that 'didn't have exams,
that allowed them to "express their in-
dividuality."
New courses were introduced with the
By Bill Smiley
rapidity of rabbits breeding. A kid who was
confident that he -would be a great brain
surgeon took everything from basket -
weaving to bird -watching because they
were fun.
And suddenly, at about the age of 17, he
discovered that it was necessary to know
some science, mathematics, Latin, history
and English to become a brain surgeon (or a
novelist, or a playwright, or an engineer.
etc.).
Ther are' very few jobs open in -basket -
weaving and bird -watching or World
Religions or another couple .of dozen I could
name, but won't, for fear of being beaten to
death by a tizzy of teachers the day this col-
umn appears.
The universities, those sacrosanct in-
stitutions, whnef'eethe t, utkshall make you
free, went along with 'the Great Deception.
They • lowered -their` standards, in a
desperate 'scramble for live bodies. They
competed for students with 'all the grace of
merchants in an Armenian bazaar.
Another swing of the pendulum. Parents
discovered that their kids know something
about a lot of things, but not much about
anything. They got mad.
The universities, a little red in the face
suddenly and virtuously announced that
many high school graduates were illiterate,
which was a lot of crap. They were the peo-
ple who 'decided that a second language was
not necessary. They were the people who ac-
cepted students with a mark of 50 in
English, which means the kid actually fail-
ed, but his teacher gave him a credit,
Nobody, in the new system, really failed.
If they mastered just less than half the
work, got a 48 per cent, they were raised to
50. If they flunked every subject they took,
they were transferred to another "level",
where they could succeed, and even excel.
The latest of these politically -inspired,
slovenly -researched reforms in Ontario is
called SERP, and it sounds like. and is just
KciIeidoscopQ
like NERD.
Reading its contents carefully, one comes
to the conclusion that if Serp is accepted, the
result will be a great leveller. Out of one side
of its mouth it suggests that education be
compressed, by abandoning of Grade 13,
and out of the other side, that education be n,�
expanded by adding a lot of new things to L ►l a l tla nd l S alive
the curriculum. How can you compress
who, thwill
tolerated.
p
My doll - I cut her hair, chewed on her
fingers, hauled her around the barnyard and
usually carried her by an arm or a leg. I
loved my doll.
The affection and motherly attention I
gave to my doll was primitive in comparison
to the loving devotion given to this
generation of dolls.
Cabbage Patch mothers are doting. They
lavish their dolls with devoted attention and
motherly care.
1,ittle mothers took their Cabbage
Patchers to a special party put on in Sloman
Park on July 25. Their "children!' were
sweetly dressed in everything from
christening clothes to party dresses.
.Few "mothers" would let their dolls leave
their sight and many worried about sitting
in the hot sun.
Little Kathy Lavis was having a bad
afternoon.
"I want to go home," she cried. "I really
wish I was home."
Her doll, Rebeccah, was eating chocolate
cookies and got dirty fingers. Rebeccah
didn't appear to be distressed, but I wonder
if she'd feel the same way if she was toted
around a barnyard?
+ + +
Hard to believe, but July's over. Another
,month gone, another one begun, which
means that the first Saturday is coming up
and the Londesboro Lions will be visiting
Clinton. They'll be in town on Saturday
morning to make the collection.
The newspapers are sold for insulation
and help the Lions Club raise funds, so be
sure to have your papers out by the curb in
the morning.
Over in Bayfield the local Lions will be
making their monthly collection as well,
By Shelley McPhee
Trivia questions are all the rage this year.
If you'vemastered all others, try these:
1. What organization was formed on April
14, 1944?
2, 'What organization has the motto of "Self
help and Community Betterment?"
The answers are all the same: the Junior
Farmers' Association of Ontario.
All past, present and future Junior
Farriers are invited to attend the 40th
Anniversary. Reunion on Sunday, August 12
at the Ontario Agricultural Museum in
Milton.
+ +
Think about this - Xvxn though my
typxwritxr is an old modxl, it works quitx
wxll xxcxpt for onx of the kxys. 1'vx wishxd
manythimxs that it workxd pxrfxctly. Trux,
thxrx arx forty-two kxys functioning wxll
xnough, but just onx kxynot working makxs
"thece'diffxrmC"x.e.S Yi'iix'tnnxs, it sxxnis to nix
that organizations arx somxwhat likx my
typxwritxr - not all the kxy pxoplx arx
working propxrly. You may say, "Wx11, I'm
only onx pxrson. It won't makx much
diffxrxnce."
But you sxx, an organization, to bx
xfficixnt, nxxds thx activx participation of
xvxry,pxrson. Thx next timx you think your
xfforts arxn't nxxdxd rxmxmbxr my
typxwritxr, and say to yoursxlf, "I am a kxy
pxrson and nxxdxd vxry much."
^ D
1Vlaitland Valley Conservation
Authority celebrates expansion
The Honourable Alan W. Pope, Minister of
Natural Resources, will be in Wroxeter on
August 16 to officially open the recentl;;
expanded Administration Centre for the
Maitland Valley Conservation Authority
MVCA)' The public are invited to attend
the opening commencing at 2 p.m.
The, opening ceremonies will be
highlighted .with a ribbon cutting, planting
of white pine trees and unveiling of a plaque.
The addition to the MVCA office was
funded through a federal/provincial
special employment program.
Tie cost of construction totalling $458,000,
began in August of 1983 and was completed
in March of this year.
-aUnder the make-work. program,
pproximately 25 positions were filled for 33
weeks.
The split level addition will allow all
MVCA staff to work under the same roof.
The old office, a converted, two -room
school, was not large enough for all the
Authority staff and was supplemented by
the use of a rented building in downtown
Wroxeter.
Following the opening ceremony,
everyone will have an opportunity to view
the new building. Staff will be available to
discuss displays concerning land use
planning, water management, conservation
areas and community relations.
The Falls Reserve Conservation Area is
alive with activities for you and your family
on this Civic. Holiday weekend. This is your
special invitation to attend and participate
in the activities!
Thursday, August 2: 9 a.m. Creepy
Crawlers: Join Steve and his guests from
the Ministry of the Environment for an hour
of creepy. cra,wler'investigations. Fitid.out .,
how'earth worms' more, what termites en-
joy for. dinner and-where—snails make their
home! ; 10:15 a.m. Life In A River: Have
you ever wondered if fish sleep or where
frogs go in the winter? Environmental Ex-
plorations will be conducting an aquatic
habitat study of the Maitland River. We'll be
taking a closer look at that wonderful
resource, water, and all its inhabitants;
12:45 p.m. Environmental Games: Fun for
all ages! How does the forest work? Will you
be able to survive the elements? Participate
in an hour of games that will test all your
animal instincts for survival.. Meet at the
Falls Reserve Activity Centre for all the En-
vironmental Exploration Programs.
Friday, August ,,3: 8:30 p.m. Moonlight
Meander: Put on your detective hats and
join Steve on a meander through the
Maitland River Valley. We'll be looking for ,
clues and investigating the mysterious
wildlife that inhabit the Valley. Meet at the
picnic shelter and bring 'along your
flashlight.
Saturday, August 4: 8:45 p.rmi. Family
Film Night: Bring your popcorn, sit back
and relax for an hour of entertainment
featuring the films, "The Living
Wilderness" and "Waterfowl"! The picnic
shelter is the place to meet for a look at our
fascinating furry and feathered fri.-rids.
Sunday, August 5: 11 a.m. Turtit Talk:
Have you ever created your own pet turtle?
What do turtles eat'? Where do they live?
The Activity Centre is the place to be to find
answers you'll need to take good care of the
pet turtle you'll be constructing.
Monday, August 6: 1984 is'the year of On-
tario's Bicentennial. In celebration of this
event, all Provincial Parks • and Con-
servation Areas are offering free day -use •
admission to all visitors. Falls. Reserve Con-
servation Area is an ideal area to spend
your holiday, whether it's' for picnicking,
swimming, hiking or , just relaxing. The
Visitor Services Staff -have sorne great ac-
rtivities planned just for you.
10 a.m. Kite Kapers: "Let's go fly a kite".
Want to be a kitemaker? Well, come out and
make your very own kite, .do your own
decorations and train it to fly high in the
sky! Meet at the Activity Centre; 1 p.m
Steve's Storytime: Your favorite blanket
and picnic lunch are all you need for
storytime. Join Steve and his surprise guest
for an hour of quiet time stories. Meet at the
Activity Centre.'
( All programs are free of charge. Day use
entrance fee to Falls Reserve Conservation
Area: $2 per car.)
Falls Reserve Conservation Area is
located five miles (6.5 km.) east of Goderich
off County Road 31.
Maitland Valley Conservation Authority
welcomes .both day -use visitors and
campers to explore Galbraith Conservation
Area and Wawanosh Conservation Area on
this holiday weekend.
Galbraith Conservation Area is located 13
km. south-east of Listowel on the boundary
road of Elm and Mornington Townships.
Wawanosh Conservation Area : a secluded
piece of The Maitland Valley we've been
saving just for you! With two ponds on site,
this pretty hide -away is a fisherman's
haven. Pitch your tent and stay awhile!
We're looking forward to meeting you!
Why not visit one of our Conservation Areas
soon? For more information on the con-
servation Areas, contact Wendy Ross, Com-
munity Relations Co-ordinator for Maitland
Valley conservation Authority, at 335-3557.J..
)t
•