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Clinton News-Record, 1984-09-12, Page 4a I �ncorpOra !f. � 18ix STANDARD D Jo HOWARD AITKEN - Publisher A ". MEMBER so SHELLEY McPHEI - Editor MEMBER GARY HAIST - Advertising Manager DIA,kw Advertising rates MARY ANN HOLLENDECI( - Office Manager ��'' Ask kw �°" ''' NeMee91 ®dolor 1, 14t1. Child restraints misused In one lifetime a person has more than a 50-50 chance of being injured in a car accident. Wearing a seat belt every trip can reduce that risk of injury by half. The Ministry of Transportation and Communication accepts the fact it's difficult to have a society where everyone obeys the law, yet if we could reach a goal of 80 per cent restraint use in Ontario it would be a most cost effective road safety measure --- with a minimal cost outlay,'maximum lives saved and injuries reduc- ed. Ontario is one of the few North American jurisdictions to implement man- datory restraint use for all vehicle occupants. Other jurisdictions are interested in our experience. Seat belt usage rates, trends, etc., provide valuable feedback for the police in their education and enforcement programs and for health and child care profes- sionals, providing individual counselling and education programs. They also benefit the approximately 90 volunteer programs in Ontario which rent over 6,000 infant seats'annually. To update.MTC's understanding of the current seat belt usage rate, a province - wide survey was conducted in May. To make it comparable with previous surveys, the same time period was chosen with the same, locations, duplicate questions asked and observation. But to increase survey emphasis on the use of restraint for under, five -year- olds, locations were added where greater numbers of child passengers would be expected. Questions concerning use and problems with child safety seats were added. Surveys conducted by Transport Canada in Ottawa, plus a sampling in Peel Region, indicated 70 to 80 per cent misuse of safety seats. This finding was also evident in 12 American states which used observers to look for errors. Rick Davis, an Experience '84 student who is coding the data with MTC, says this great misuse of seats appears to be due to the fact parents either didn't think they were important to the safety of their children or simply didn't 'know how to use the seat properly. "We also noticed such things as. child restraints being just placed on the seat of • the vehicle, or where a tether strap was needed, there either was none or it had been instarled.improperly," he said. " in some cases, the children were just placed in the child safety seat which was properly secured, but with no harnesses done up." Hopefully the survey provided the public with the opportunity to express their concerns and give an indication of .the effectiveness of the public information campaigns. - And, perhaps, it'll lead to changes for child safety seat manufacturers and Transport Canada which set the standards, with the aim of making seats easier, for people to u"se correctly. Your pennies really do count A canvasser will' call on you in early September. Donations will be displayed at the Anglican Church Parish Hall,Ratten- bury Street from September 20 to draw date and acknowledged in the Clinton • News Record. - Draw date will be September 29. Thank you foryour continued generosity and support. Dear Editor, Fall isfast approaching, and the Aux- iliary to the Clinton Public Hospital is again planning their annual penny sale. The generosity of the business and profes- sional people in the area has helped to make this event very successful in the past. We hope your continued support will help us make this year the best yet. The new wing at the hospital has been finished, but we are still in need of more fur- nishings and equipment. A successful penny sale will help us to supply these needs. Sincerely, Catherine McKnight Publicity Convenor Behind The Scenes By Keith Roulston A lesson well learned All across the continent young people are movinw,;:. ck to schools from kindergarten tp universt \ ' ' une can't help but get the feeling that e cation, as someone once said about love, is , asted on the young. Experts wi i tell you that youngsters have the greates ; capacitsoak up knowledge but once y 1 a get paste initial eagerness to learn, once the'.kids have mastered reading and writing and the fundamentals of arithmetic they seem to want to stop learn- ing and for the next dozen or so years, are educated despite themselves. It doesn't seem to be long before it's not cool to like school. It often seems that the less suc- cessful you are, the better you're accepted . by your classmates. There was, in my day, anyway, a time in Grade 9 and 10 when there were whole classes of students just putting in time until they were old enough to quit school. Even in later high school years and in post secon- dary education, you were somehow looked down on if you extended more than the minimum of effort needed to get through. It's only as you get older that you sudden- ly find out again how exciting it is to learn. Nearly all of us do it in one way or another. Some people who wouldn't read a book for. instance, delight in learning 'about other ways of life through travel. People who were never interested in history in school can sud- denly tell you a detailed, fascinating history of a Scottish castle or a French cathedral as they show you their vacation slides. People never interested in school science can tell you all the bewildering specifications of their particular home computer. People who were bored with psychology can rattle ott the ,latest research on the learning abilities of preschool children and how they're using this information to turn their special child into a genius. In my own home there are several bookcases full of books some of them left over from my school days. Books that I just managed to get through back then (or even managed to bluff teachers into thinking I'd read) now are drawing me back. Books I thought were deadly dull 20 years ago, I now find fascinating. Books I enjoyed back then I now find have much more in them than I ever thought possible. Freed from the feeling of being torced to learn this and that, I now find myself wan- ting to learn more and more. Copies of Na- tional Geographic magazine, which I once thought deadly dull, are now read covereto cover and the well -thumbed back issues are filed away. Now it's likely to be the silly sit- coms that get turned off on television while I watch the documentaries and science shows. Knowing this, many of us would like to go back and' live our lives over again to make use of those,lost yars. Often we try to do it through our children,' getting them excited in the things that we found dull at their age but interesting now. Most often it doesn't work. You can stock their bookshelves with all the classics in the world but kids, just like we did, would rather read the Hardy Boys and watch reruns of Beverly Hillbillies. They, like us, have to make their own mistakes. And when I look on the shelves and see all the books I'll never read, realize all the things I'll never know I think it's sad. Framed Sugar and SpiCQ Poor planning I'm going to give you something light, yet not without weight. This came to me via Jack Ryan, who clip- ped it from someone who had reprinted it from the newsletter of the English equivalent of the Workmen's Compensation Board. Therefore, it's at least fourth hand, but I'm sure it will tickle the risibilities of any person who has ever had to deal with the civil service, whether it be Revenue Canada, the County Weed Commission, or the Sewage Committee of the Town Council. It's a bricklayer's report for compensa- tion for an accident. It might be entitled Poor Planning. Here it goes: "Dear Sir: I am writing in response to your request for additional information in Block 3 of .the accident reporting form. I put "Poor Planning" as the cause of my acci- dent. You said in your letter that I should ex- plain more fully and I trust that the follow- ing details will be sufficient. "I am a bricklayer by trade. On the day of the accident, I was Working alone on the roof of a new six -storey building. When I com- pleted my work, I discovered that I had about 50 pounds of brick left over. Rather than carry them down by hand,, I decided to lower them in a barrel by using a pulley, which, fortunately, was attached to the side of the building at the sixth floor. "Securing the rope at ground level, I went up to the roof, swung the barrel out and load- ed the bricks into it. Then t went back to the ground and untied it slightly to insure the slow descent of the 500 pounds of bricks. You will note in Block 11 of the accident form that my weight is 135 pounds. "Needless to say, I was jerked off my feet By Anne Narejko By Bill Smiley so suddenly that I forgot to let go of the rope. Due to my surprise, I proceeded at a rather rapid rate up the side of the building. "In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the hazard; which was now proceeding in a downward direction at an equally im- pressive rate of speed. This explains the fractured shoulder. "Slowed only slightly, I continued my rapid ascent, not stopping untilthe two fingers of my right hand were knuckled deep. into the pulley which I mentioned in paragraph 2 of this correspondence. . "Fortunately, by this time, I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold tightly to the rope,in spite of the ex- cruciating pain I was.now beginning to ex- perience. "At approximately the same time, however, the barrel,of bricks hit the ground and the bottom fell out of the barrel. Now, devoid of the weight of the bricks,, the barrel weighed approximately 50 pounds. "I refer you again to myweight in block 11. As you might. imagine, I began a rapid descent down the side of the building. . "In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel coming up. This accounts for the two fractured ankles, broken tooth' and severe laceration dilly legs and lower body. "Here my luck began to change slightly.' The encounter seemed to slow me enough to lessen my injuries when I fell into the pile of bricks and, fortunately, only three vertebrae were cracked. "I am sorry to report, however, that as I lay there on the pile of bricks in pain, unable to move, and watching the empty barrel six stories above me, I again lost my mind and KuIQidoscopQ Arthritis society needs support Dear Editor: The Arthritis. Society once again, is begin- ning its campaign for fund raising during the month of September. It's hoped that $1,900. can be raised in Clinton and area, this year. This Year also marks the 36th anniversary of the Arthritis Society which began in 1948. Since that time, over $30 million has been spent on research and the training of ar- thritis specialists. Consider what the Society has accomplished in that time. *The number of, rheumatologists (specialists in the diagnosis and manage- ment of arthritis) has grown from 4 to more than 180; *Specialized care Centres called Rheumatic Disease Units have been established at every medical school and teaching hospital in the country; *Every medical student is now given an op- portunity towork with arthritis patients and learn how to diagnose and treat the disease; *More than 150,000 seriously affected ar- thritis patients a year are given the specialized treatment necessary to keep their lives happy and fulfilling; and *More effective arthritis control Medica- tions have been developed in the past five years than were even under consideration in the past 25. The dollars you contribute will go towards the medical research and manpower pro- grams of the Society. In addition, the educa- tion and communications program will be expanded to assist arthritis patients in learning more about this disease. When the Arthritis Society canvasser knocks on your door, next Tuesday, September 18th, please be generous. More than 3.2 million Canadians, includini many of your relatives and friends, are counting on you. let go of the rope. "Sincerely XYZ." I know that Workmen's Compensation Boards get stories like this, and even more fanciful, but they're a hardnosed lot, and I hope this bricklayer got full compensation, and was out moonlighting on a construction job two weeks later, purely for his imagina- tion. We have a pretty good social assistance system in Canada, one of the best in the world, even though I'm one of the "Middle- class" who get stuck for most of it. There aren't too many people really hungry in this country. There are very few. people who can't get medical attention when they need it. We talk about a "poverty level" in this country that would be riches to most of the people in the so-called Third World. I was talking to my son the other night, swatting mosquitoes in the back yard.LHe's lived in a dictatorship. I've fought against one. We talked about the best place in the. world to live. We don't always, even often, ,agree. But we decided, unanimously,. that Canada, despite its vagaries of politics, economy, and weather, was just about the first choice in the world to be born, recreate, find a decent living, raise a family, and die. Without someone breathing down your neck every minute. I think I'll stick around, as long as The Lord lets me. Where else can you feel moral- ly superior to a vast nation next door to you? At last here's a medical theory that I can relate to. New York cardiologist, Dr. Henry A. Solomon, has determined that exercise will not make you live longer. Dr. Solomon, says that we've been sold a bill of goods on the benefits of strenuous ex- ercise - the promises that exercise pays off in longevity or that it can offer immunity from heart disease. In a study involving 1,200 long-lived Americans, (people 100 -years and older) h found, "The 'common denominator in their lifestyle was absence of stress = not strenuous exercise." In fact, Dr. Solomon says, "The chance of sudden- death during vigorous exerciseis seven to nine times higher than it is among the sedentary." There's little chance that exercise will put me into cardiac arrest. I don't knock exercise. I admire physical- ly fit people, but I'll never be one of them. Exercise is really hard work for me. Some may consider "working out" a hobby, but for me it's depressing, boring, aggravating, defeating, maddening But I do try. I swim a bit, walk when I can, i, By Shelley McPhee. flip on the Jane Fonda record now and then and jump on my rebounder. But exercise will never become a regimented, regular routine for me. I have to be inspired to jog! I hope Dr. Solomon's right. Perhaps it is possible for people like me to survive in an, age of beautiful biceps. + + + If you like to walk, be sure to take in the International Plowing Match being held in Teviotdale on September 25-29. The giant city and competition site covers more than 400 hectares and features a fan- tastic variety of displays and events. The art of plowing is the focus of the mat- ch, but the event also features over 500 ex- hibits, 50 different caterers, bands and parades, historical attractions, a Wintario draw, demonstrations, dances and ban- quets. This unique event is billed as a family event and offers entertainment for people of all ages and interests. Whether you're interested in plowing or ladies' fashions, gardening or. , tillage demonstrations, make up and hair advice or consumer products'; the international Plow- ing Match has something for everyone. Sincerely Yours, Dominic Bradley Bryan Levis Clinton 1984 Campaign Co -Chairman L Genealogy is growing in popularity Dear Editor:. Genealogy is becoming more and more popular of late and during the past few years the number of people searching for their origins has grown tremendously and it has been with pleasure that I have noted let- ters to.the Editor in your paper from people seeking help in locating "lost" families. Manyyof your readers are well aware of the increasing "addiction" to searching for one's roots but there are. so many places to search, so many things to look for. The Huron County Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society is holding their 5th An- nual Genealogical workshop on Saturday, September 22, 1984 at the Canadian Legion Hall in Goderich, Lectures • by guest speakers will cover a variety of topics of in- terest and benefit to all. There will also be sales and display , tables and of course, anyone with problems ome to quiz our members, a numb of 1 m have been doing geneall_•.• 's' arch for forty odd years and '1 of answers. So bring your proble Anyorie wis mg ' ore information may contact m self at 24-2870 ( evenings) or Ruth Ann Clapman • t 524-9972. • Thank you. • Be sure to set aside a full day to attend the event, and wear comfortable shoes you'll be doing lots of walking, and it won't even seem like strenuous exercise! + + + It takes a little bit of extra strength to han- dle a giant tomato grown by John Alilovie of Clinton. Neighbor Raymond Whitmore called to say that John had presented him with a two - pound tomato. With a few of those, chili sauce making would certainly be easier. + + + vea alon Marjorie Williams, the 16 -year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Williams of Wiarton, and granddaughter of Mr. arid Frank William (nee Theda Freeman) of Vanastra, recently returned from Switzerland, where she spent the month of August. 'Marjorie went to Switzerland after winn- ing a trip through the Wiarton Lions Club. She won the trip after being crowned Queen of the Winter Festival in Wiarton. She com- peted against 19 other contestants and her prize was a trip, anywhere in the world. Sincerely, Carole Robinson, Press Secretary and Past Chairman Recreation is working in Clinton To The Clinton Community: It will be most difficult to express my gratitude and appreciation to the residents of Clinton having made my first six months as Recreation Director both a pleasure and professional challenge within the confines of this letter. However it is suffice forme to say without your participation, suggestions and assistance during this period, that all the efforts of a fine Recreation staff (and volunteers) would have been to no avail. The decision to leave my post in Nor- thwestern Ontario was difficult. However it was because of the many impressive com- munity facilities and pleasant community environment (in addition to the job offer) that prompted Denise and I to move to Clin- ton. I am looking forward to a long and pro- sperous future as the Town of Clinton Recreation Director, and of the opportunity to further develop the many "effective" working relationships I have had the pleasure to establish since mid-March 1984. Once again thanks. It is because of you that Recreation within Clinton is working and fulfilling an Important purpose. Yours in , Kevin Duguay, TownRecreationof Clinton, Recreation Director