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Clinton News-Record, 1985-1-2, Page 4Page 4—CLINTON NEWSIIICORD, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2,1985 Tho Clinton News -Record is published each Wednesday et P.O. fifes 39, Clinton, Coterie. Canada. NOM 11.0. Tel.: 402.3443. Subscription Rate: Canada - 519.75 Sr. Citizen . 516.75 per your N.S.A. foreign - 559.00 per year It Is registered as second class mail by the post office under the permit number 0019. The blows -Record incorporated in 1924 the Huron News -Record, founded In 1001. and The Clinton News Era, founded in 1065. Total press runs 3.700- Irrcorporatlfg J. HOWARD AITKEN - Publisher SHELLEY McPHEE - Editor GARY HAISf - Advertising Manager MARY ANN HOLLENRECK - Office Manager MEMBER MEMBER " a DIsploy advertising rates available on request. Ask for Rate Card No. 15 eHective October 1. 1984. Museum - a special place Dear Editor: As ' a volunteer group supporting the Huron County Pioneer Museurn we would like to express our hope that the Feasibility Study will be accepted by County Council. A large expense such as the one needed to restore our Museum indeed needs much consideration and study. But, I hope that the costs do not overwhelm the Council members and cause them to forget the great value that we glean as a County from this in- stitution. Our Museum houses the history of this County, with a collection that is far more comprehensive than most County museums. In..this we are fortunate. Strong community support is evidenced by the fact that we have not bought any of a I�idoscope last summer and provide for a greater variety dt programs. This in turn would at- tract more people to the Museum and could increase tourism in this area. This would benefit us all – the schools could make bet- ter use of the Museum tacities, and we all would have the chance for added recreation and education. This Project Director would also be in charge of finding grant monies – money that is now not available to us as it has been stipulated for specific programs that we have not been able to implement as yet. It recommends the implementation of satellite museums around the county; these displays could beset up in schools or stores, or in a permanent place in the various areas Each Christmas 1 send a little mote to our correspondents, to wish them the season's best and thank each of them for their con- tributions to the News -Record. The News -Record has more than 15 men and women in the local communities who contribute regularly to the newspaper. As well, there are numerous clu b se eo UCW, from 4-1-1 to Sorority, b llLions to schools - who help to keep our readers informed. Covering our wide readership area with its immense variety of events and activities, would be an impossible task for our three person news department here at the News,- Record. ewsrRecord. We greatly rely on a network of cor- respondents and support staff to help bring you the news from all parts of our reader- ship area. With their help, we're able to provide a wide range of coverage each week in the paper. We have correspondents in Belgrave, "the artifacts in this large collection, they of our county; they would be administered have ail been donated, by the citizens of this by the. Museum staff and changed County. This is exr! pttonal in museums,. periodically. This would bring the Museurn and makes us the envy of all other closer to each community as the displays museums. could be tailored for specific topics. Our own Volunteer Group is another in- Another recommendation is that the ar- dication of the support the community gives chives be housed at the Museum. This would. ' to our museum. We are newly formed – not greatly facilitate research that is done on yet two years old – but we are growing fast; this area,, and would consolidate our from an original membership of 10 people, historical documents all in one place. we now number 45. The Volunteers help in As I have noted, the arnount of money in-. many different areas – repairs, displays, y 1ved is large, but when we break it down special events, art work, research, and into the different shares for different areas, school tours. We find that the corrununity is we feel it is certainly a very manageable very supportive of our efforts. amount. The Museum has travelled• to schools with Our Museum occupies a very special special exhibits, and has added to many bi- place in Huron County. It truly houses a centennial celebrations with store -front treasure trove of our history, and as such we displays and parade floats in the past years. should do all we can to preserve it. It is a tourist attraction for this area, and We are a relatively young County and our research shows that more people make sometimes are tempted to . discount • the return visits to our musewn than to other value of Some of our Pioneer artifacts. such institutions.,These pieces will be treasured by our If the feasibility study is acepted, we will descendants: Let us not be remembered as be able to serve the community in a much the generation who threw away our' more comprehensive way. The hiring of a heritage. • ' project director would create a whole new aspect for our museum: he/she would be in charge of new displays and special events such as the Pioneer Craft Weekend we had Sincerely, Bonnie Dunn, Chairman of the Volunteers Goderich Twp. History, is an excellent book De.ar Editor: I want to commend the people who worked hard at comprising the Goderich Township History Book. I received one as a gift for Christmas and. it is an excellent written and illustrated edition. A lot of time and effort By Shelley McPhee Walton, Blyth, Auburn, Londesboro, Con- stance, Holmesville, Middleton, Varna, Bayfield, Brucefield, !Klippen and Hensell. The News -Record boasts more cor- respondents and a bigger readership area than any other newspaper in the county. Our correspondents are,the lifeline of the News - Record. They keep us informed of upcoming events, special news stories, current hap- penings. Most importantly, they tell us about the people you know. Correspondents are a special breed. They're dependable, hard workers. Several of our cor- respondents have been writing for the News - Record for more than 10 and 20 years. They don't write to make money. They work because of the pride they feel for the communities they live . in. They work because they're devoted to the betterment and promotion of their communities, its ser- vices and the people who live there. Our correspondents, volunteer photographers and reporters are an essen- has'gone into the researching of this 367 page hard -cover book. . It is a job well done. . Marie Fitzsimons,; Bayfield Thanks from McDonald House Dear Editor, On behalf of everypne working to build the London Ronald a, McDonald House for Southwestern Ontario: we ),could like to thank you for your contributions, ongoing; support, and continued interest. The construction 'cif 'the house is on tib'hedule and the opening. is planned for late spring of 1985. HapPv holidays from everyone involved: John Myles, Chairman of The Konald McDonald House Behind The Scones By Kith Roulston The dreams are gofle• Watching one of my favourite television shows the other night i it's easy to narrow it down to one or two favourites these days with'the lack of quality shows around), I `realized that even• it had been affected by the disease -of the '80's. The trademark of the excellent 'show Hill St. Blues for the first number of years was the smiling, fatherly sergeant who every day halted the police officers as they were heading for their cards after--rol} tall' with the caution: "Hey, hey, hey. let's be careful out there." Well last year the actor who played the sergeant died and there had to be a replace- ment named. The writers were in a bind. The audience had come to expect some little pearl of wisdom at the beginning of each show but it would sound pretty hollow. to have the same words coming from a dif- ferent sergeant, So they carne up with a new line for the new sergeant. "Okay, let's go out and do it to them before they do it to us.' Now this may be making a mountain out of a molehill but it seemed to me to -he sym- bolic of the changed attitude in our society. We are infected today by a massive dose of cynicisrlr. It seems to temper nearly every aspect of our life, from politics to the way people regard their jobs to the way people look at home and marriage. . The massive bulge of the baby boom seems to have upset not only our economics but also the way society regards itself, especially in the mass media. The baby boomers are so dominant that when they go through a mid-life crisis the whole North American continent goes through one. It must 'be' very confusing if you're „73 and you've already gone through at least one tial part of this ,publication. With their assistance the News -Record represents many interests and works to fulfill its man- date to be a community newspaper throughout this area. The Eastern Star recently held a Turkey Draw and three winners were named - Gail Ford of London, Mary Robertson of Seaforth and Laura Slade of Cambridge. Clinton's Mayor Chester Archibald drew the winning tickets. •- + $ + A fund-raising draw for the Huronia • Branch of the Hurnane Society gave Heather Dahmer of Peterborough an extra Christmas present. Heather won a Cabbage Patch Doll in the draw. The Huronia Branch will hold their annual meeting on February 6 at the Clinton Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices, starting at 7:30 p.m. crud -life crisis. I can imagine if Hill St. Blues had been around in the sixties.the writers would have had the sergeant say something idealistic like "Remember, you can make this a bet- ter society" ) If the sixties writers had even dreamed about making a policeman a hero ). The seventies sergeant reflected a "me" generation idea of looking out for oneself first. Today the idealism has died out completely and it's get the other guy before he.gets you. Part of this can be put down to the natural Flisillusionment of aging. We get older, we get to the middle part of our lives and we begin to sell all the dreams we had that will • never come true. It's, particularly shocking to the people of my generation, the genera- tion that (dreamed of so much. But we were - shocked to see that dreamers don't win i John and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King) or if they do, they find out that even in 'the highest office in the land ) Pierre Trudeau), they can't accomplish the "Just Society" they dreamed of. It's tragic to see how the idealistic genera- tion has become the cynical generation. The non materialistic generation now can't hold -ua its head in polite society if there isn't a satellite dish on the lawn and a jacuzzi in the bathroom. The generation that wanted peace threw out peace -loving Jimmie Carter who wanted to have his America act like a civilized neighbour and gave a massive endorsation to Ronald daReagan who who '-brought back the Ugly bullied others into submission. What comes next for the baby boomers' He shovelled enough g money in his pec m. Which way will their whims take the world snow shovelled. She said yes. e Y next, like a little demon for an hour. He knocked He walked on, for another block, very My friend Flossie �.1 by Ross Pennington Sagarand Spice Ameammosommigaalsmaiallae 0366. A Christmas to remember By Bill Smiley ONCE upon a Christmas time, there was a on her door, red in the face, and told her it little boy with a shinny freckled face and big was done. She said: "and'I have something solemn blue eyes, He was old enough to for you, for your trouble." And handed him know that there was something called The a cookie. That soured him on snow shovell- Depression and that he and his family was ing and nice old ladies for some time. right in the middle of it. All his other sources of income: empty The Depression was somehow connected beer bottles, scrap iron and old tires, were with the fact that pea soup and homemade covered by snow. He spent an hour and a bread were very often the staples for sup- half siphoning the money out of his penny per; that he had to wear his big brother's bank with a knife. There was only 13 cents. trousers, cut down; that hisDad came home His kid brother's bank yielded only another so often looking very tired; that on rare and 8 cents. , terrible occasions, he would come in and As the days went on, and the other kids find his mother, who' -was -afraid of nothing la ed hockey on the pond, while he had to on earth, sitting at the sewing machine, with Pretend he didn't want to play, the desire for he her head down on her arms, crying. skates became more and more of an But none. of his bothered him too much. obsession. A hundred wild schemes went Small boys are very tough little characters, through his mind, to raise the money. All for the most part. They can adapt to almost sorts of stories, like the one in which he anything. The only things that really bother sprang out and stopped the runaway horse, (-them are the things that go on in their heads. and the cowering driver, in gratitude, gave And that was this kid's trouble. For two him $5, ran through his head. years , now, he'd been wanting a pair of It was Christmas Eve. He'd delivered on skates. Oh, he had skates, but he'd got so his sleigh a basket of food his mother had sensitive about them he wouldn't even wear sent to a family that was down and out on them any more. They were an old pair his the other side of town. He'd done it, sullenly, mother had worn when she was younger. his inner eye ' seeing nothing but those They had long tops, almost up to his knees. feverishly desired skates. He was walking He had to wear three pairs of socks to fill homedown the • main street, looking in the them. His ankles wobbled badly in them. bright store windows with envy and despair And every "time he showed up at the pond, in his heart, and kicking viciously at chunks sprnebody would yell: "Where'd ja get the F,ir .. skates?" skates'" of frozen snow. ' What he wanted was a pair of real skates, Suddenly his foot struck something that tubes, they called them in those days, clinked. He bent and picked it up. It was a hockey skates, they're called now. He had a change purse. Excitedly he opened it. There hockey stick. At the first game of the year, were two $2 bills and some coins in it. There when the seniors were playing, he'd had a was also a receipt. It bore the name of a real stroke of luck. After climbing in the woman he knew well. She had a useless bum window of the rink, in the middle of the se- Of a husband and a backyard full of kids. • cond period, with some other kids, he'd wig- "Boy/will she ever be glad to get this gled his way right down beside the players' back",mused our, hero, immediately mak- box ing hiself the central figure in a Christmas He was just nicely 'settled, and trying to Eve drama in which he returned the poor peer around a large, violent hockey fan ih woman's moneyas she sat keening with her front of him, when one of the players dashed ragged children in their freezing shack. • up to the bench With both parts of a broke•His spirits lifted, he shoved the purse in Stick, and threw them to the coach: The lat his pocket and was offlike a shot to return it. ter looked around, straight into a pair o He was tearing along, his sleigh banging his beseeching eyes, and, said: "Here, kid,. heels, his whole body tingling with pleasure. here's a stick for you." With the help of his Suddenly he stopped in his tracks. There, in Dad, who' spliced the stick, and some tape, his mind's eye, was a picture of himself he had wound up with a dandy stick. • gliding over the ice on a new pair of tube But nolskates. He'd tried to earn money. skates, with the rest of the kids trying hard, for a pair, by shovelling snow. the first time but unable, to catch him. And in the same out, he'd asked an old lady if she'd like her second carne the realization that he had k ttobu the slowly now. He was sick with temptation. He came in sight of the woman's house. Satan was whispering. He got to the door. Twice he raised his hand to knock and dropped it. Then he tiptoed down the steps and ran like a rabbit back to the hardware store, bought the skates, white-faced and ran all the way home, heart thumping, stomach sick. He sneaked in the back way, and was hiding the skates kin the woodshed. His mother and father were talking in the kit- chen. "That was foolish, Dad," she was say- ing. "You know we owe grocery bills, and there's fuel to . buy, and we all need clothing." His Dad answered: "I don't care if we're all starving by spring. I know what it's like to want something that badly." The boy went around to the front door, ' came in quietly and crept off to bed, after murmuring goodnight to his parents. He didn't get to sleep for a long, long time. In the morning, his kids brother excitedly dragged him out of bed, to go down and look under the tree. He was feeling wretched. He knew there's be nothing under the tree but some nuts and candy, and an apple, and maybe' a new suit of long underwear, wrap- ped in gift paper. That was The Depression. When he saw the new skates sitting there, his insides gave a lurch. He knelt beside them and saw the card: "To Bill,'with love Mother and Dad." When his parents cam down, he was still on his knees, the tears streaming down his face. His Motaheerr thought he was crying for happiness, loved him up. His Dad tried to joke him out of it, talking about the great hockey star ' he'd be. It would be nice to end the story by saying he told them the whole story, the skates he'd bought with the found money were returned, the woman got her money, all was longiven, he never stole anything againas as he lived. But that's not the way it was. He took the skates out of the woodshed that night, ran with them to the river, and threw them over the bridge into the black water. He played hockey every day. When summer came, he stole apples, and grapes, as he always had. He planned to save all his money and give it to the woman whose money he'd stolen. But he never got around to it. He planned to do something wonderful for his parents, and never got around to it. But he'll never forget that Christnilas as long as he lives.