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Clinton News-Record, 1985-2-27, Page 4Page 4—CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1985 The Clinton News -Record Is published each Wednesday at P.O. 8o5 39, Clinton, Oratorio, Canada. NOM 160. Tel.; 482.3443. Subscription Rotel Canada • 819.73 Sr. Citizen . 514.73 per year U.S.A. foreign • 855,00 per year It Is registered as second class moil by the post office under the permit number 0817. This Nows•Record Incorporated In 1924 the Huron Nows.Rocord, founded In 1881, and The Clinton Nows Era, founded in 1805. Total press runs 3,700. incorporating THE BLYTH STANDARD J. HOWARD AITKEN - Publisher SHELLEY McPHEE - Editor GARY HAIST - Advertising Manager MARY ANN HOLLENRECK - Office Manager C CNA MEMBER A Display advertising rates available on request. Ask for Rate Card No. 15 .effective October 1, 1984. Sports need volunteers If communities were without volunteers, a lot of events would be cancelled and necessary jobs left undone, One job that is carried out by volunteers but is as important as any paid job, is that of a coach or assistant coach. Regardless of the sport, children need to learn the rules right the first time and perhaps get some pointers from someone who has been around the game longer then they have. The old saying, "It's not if you win or lose, it's how you play the game" is important to minor sports. Winning is an added bonus with comradary, learning experiences and exer- cise being, the key points. "The bottom line is, if we don't get the volunteers, the children don't get to play," said Clinton Recreation Director Kevin Duguay. "The system is dependent on volunteers."' Last year some local children were unable to take part in minor sports in Clinton because of a lack of volunteers. Mr. Duguay is hopeful that this is not repeated again this year. "If they play for a year and then find out there is no team for them to play on at the next level, they lose interest. Unfortunately it is the children who suffer," he said. Helping out with minor baseball or soccer would require an average of two nights per week. The organizations are looking for high school.students, mothers or fathers, or anyone else who would like to help out. ^ Anyone interested in assisting with minor baseball is asked to phone Bob "Doc" Miller at 482-7397 and those interested in helping with minor soccer are asked to phone John PrE.stor. at 482-3678 or the recreation office. Kalei Plf/11, IR .1( ,10115,1 11111111110. "Bilingualism, here to stay" Dear Editor: I wish to speak out in support of Alex McAlister in his positive attitude to French language instruction in Huron County schools (letter to the editor, Feb. 13, 1985). To refuse the children of Huron County the right to French Immersion is short-sighted and selfish on the part of those of us who are adult and responsible for the education of these kids. In spite of the few who have a backward, "Plains of Abraham" mind=set, bil- ingualism is here to stay; there is no turning back. Parents all over the country are•stan- dingin line-ups to get their children into French schools - even in Alberta! • We should be doing everything we can to see to it that our children are -prepared for ' the future, with (fluency in English and Fren- ch; and that includes providing the money for French Immersion. • Yours Alice Quick Bayfield Vandalisrn • Dear Editor: Spraypainting buildings with nonsense graffiti, bending, breaking and defacing park signs, beating up on defenseless park trees; knocking over park garbage con- tainers, lighting garbage fires and just plain disrespect for Clinton's municipal parks and recreation fac ilities...why? The residents of Clinton all share this on- going frustration and concern for their parks. The question must ,be asked why would anyone do this...? Perhaps of even greater concern is who would be responsible for these senseless, unforgiveable acts? It is doubtful that a mother with a young toddler would be responsible for damaging the very facilities they always look forward to enjoy and use on a regular basis. One can simply not imagine a local senior prowling around with spray paint in hand enscribing, "'Twisted Sister" on a public building. So, who might be held accountable for these ac- tioris'' 1 say it is a handful of youth who care little for their town and furthermore ,who con- •tinue to frustrate and aggravate the lives of • why`'. then' rleigiruurs, telluw citizens and for that matter probably their families. I mean not to blame our entire youth population for this • unfortunate situation, but rather blame ''those few bad apples in an otherwise healthy orchard for defacing Clinton. To those youth who insist on making life miserable for the Town of .Clinton, I would suggest that you seriously reconsider your actions 'before someone Catches you. The law and townspeople will not be forgiving for your unruly behavior.. I also ask that you bear in mind someday you will be in our position and would like nothing else (but to catch those "no-good for nothings" who engage in acts of vandalism. Please stop now! ! •You are only digging for yourselves and for the many Clinton Youth an ugly and deep hole from which the climb out could be painful and long. Submitted on behalf of the Town of Clinton K.M. Duguay Recreation Director BQhind The Scene's oscopq 111M11,1 Vet WM, 1 nnnnu n nwmwim, In Toronto, "marmalade orange" lights can be seen everywhere. Their strange glow dots the horizon along the Queen Elizabeth Way. For my husband andd, me, visitors to T.O. recently, the endless steams of pinkish - orange lights immediately caught our atten- tion. Seeing those glowing pink orbs brought back to mind the time when similar street lighting was proposed in Clinton and several concerned residents voiced their opposition to Clinton streets, dressed in pink, or "mar- malade orange" as one citizen described them. Toronto politician John Sewell, in the Feb. 12 edition of The Globe and Mail also writes of these lights, in his column - "Hark! What ghastly pinkish pale lies on yonder snow? What foul undercolored mote sits in thine watery eye? •'High-pressure sodium lights, ma'am, nothing more. "And that yellow shade on speeding Donish Valley toll-free zone, that pukish blue on 401? "Sire, 'tis low-pressure sodium and mer- cury vapor soon to be seen no more, so effi- cient is the high-pressure sodium." Seems that not only Clintonians have their share of complaints about high-tech street lighting. The lighting of the '80s, colors and ,all, is. apparently more energy efficient and less costly than its predecessors mercury vapors and low-pressure sodiums. Thus, street upon street in Toronto is now bathed in pinkish -orange hues and. , even ,smaller municipalities like Clinton have a few avenues of the new sodium lights. John Sewell states it simply, "But the col- ors are so yucky." Still, there is hope for color conscious citizens: Toronto Alderman Dorothy Thomas and other people are searching for Hy Shelley McPhee a color -corrected high pressure sodium light, "one that would give out the full range of light without the gaps that produce the shrill oranges, pinks and blues," Sewell wrote. Experiments in this field are becoming highly competitive and within three years a full range of color -corrected high-pressure sodium lights may be available. So, in the meantime, perhaps Clinton shouldn't be, too hasty in the unnecessary replacement of obsolete and expensive mer- cury vapor street lights. Within a short time a more congenial alternative should be available. As Sewell noted, "... until that happy day when technology develops a high-pressure sodium full spectrum light, I think it's worth the money to keep incandescent luminaries. Surely, we deserve to live in a city that casts us in the proper light." STRESS - it's one of the new words of the '80s. Today everybody's under stress, very few of us know how to deal with it and many people are experiencing its ill effects on their emotions and their health. The farmer, the lawyer, the housewife, the secretary, the municipal councillor, the teacher, the teenager all experience stress - and the list goes on. We live in a fast paced, demanding world, where pressures and responsibilities are many and often rewards seem too few. And, with that comes stress. ' The Huron County Health Unit in conjunc- tion with the Heart and Stroke Foundation is hosting a practical stress control workshop in Goderich on March 22. This workshop is the repeat of two highly si.cessful sessions previously held. The stress workshop will be held on Fri- day, March 22 at the Maitland Golf and Country Club. For more information call the Health Unit at 482-3416. Sugar and S-pice Bhizzard dull e Just struggled home through about the tenth, blizzard of this year. You could see your hand before your face, if you had a large hand and good eyesight. - Found my street more by feel than sight turned off with a skid, went through th routine of getting into•the garage. It's rather like launching a small boat in a large surf. It takes a lot of skill and a fair bit of nerve. At the entrance to the driveway' are the boulders. These are huge gobbets of snow thrown up' 'by the' snowplow, which then freezes them bigger than a large man's head. Then there is a flat .space, shovelled, about the length of a car. Then, just at the entrance to the garage itself, there is a sort of reef of ice, built up to a foot orso of frozen snow. You have to hit the driveway, and there is a large maple a foot to one side, at about 24 miles an hour. There is a great rending noise from beneath, just like rocks tearing the bottom out of a boat. . But you don't even slow down. With a judicious touch of brakes here and ac- celerator there, you sashay past the maple, line her up for the middle of the garage, and goose her just a little on the flat ' patch. There is six inches clearance on each side. All being well, you then ride up over the reef of ice, with another rending noise, this time part of your roof peeling away, slam the brakes at the last minute so that you don't go through the end of the garage, switch off, and sit there wiping your brow. I enjoy it. I feel like a skipper whose.ship is sinking, and who has launched a boat, taken her through the surf, over the rocks, through the reef, and beached her on golden sand. • attending this learning workshop. Remember, life's too short and too good to spend it under undue pressure. + ++ And for a bright spot in your day - I've received official word that spring is on its way. Blanche Deeves of Clinton saw a sure sign earlier this week. Her pansies are in bloom. Spring bulbs are, popping out of the ground, snow drops are blossoming and we have one report of tulips in bloom at Janice Gibson's home. • Now, has anyone seen a robin? +++ This better weather should mean an end to the snow problems on our roofs. I've never heard of so many complaints, and problems. Personally, I'm not too happy to have my pots and pans back from leak patrol, now there's no excuse for not cooking supper. + ++ Another sign of better times to come, are plans for the annual Clinton Spring Fair in June. The weekend event will actually be kicked off on Saturday, May 4 at the Clinton Com- munity Centre with a western styled dance. Singer, song writer and country entertainer of the year Terry Sumsion and Stagecoach will be the featured performers. For tickets and more information call 482- 7042, 482-3455 or 482-7600. + ++ The Four County Arts Committee is still looking for bed and breakfast accommoda- tions for artists who will be meeting in Clin- ton on April 12, 13 and 14 to take part in an unique arts workshop. The innovative three day session will br- ing special recognition to Clinton and it is hoped that the local residents will welcome these talented people to town. If you can offer overnight accommoda- tion, please call Kevin Duguay at the Clinton Recreation Office - 482-3398. By Bill Salley gut inevitably, on such occasions, my thoughts turn to the poor devils, our pioneer ancestors, who hadl to cope with the same weather and snow conditions, with a pitance of what we have to work with. When I've shut def my engine, feeling .a bit like Captain Bligh on one of his good days, all I have to do is walk 40 yards to the house. Inside there is warmth from an oil furnace, light, an electric stove to cook dinner, a col- ored television to take me to lotus -land. I can huddle in the cowardly safety of my modern home and' defy the elements Let'er'. snow, let'er blow. No chores to do. No trips to the barn to feed, water, milk the beasts, by the light of a lantern, in sub -zero temperature. No wood to lug in from the woodpile, or ashes to carry out. All I have to do is sit down with a drink, unfold my daily paper, and raid the refrigerator. The refrigerator, is 'one of our modern gods, and one of the most popular. I think it takes precedence even over the ear as a twentieth-century deity. We kneel before it, contemplating its in- nards. We place offerings of food inside it, much as the ancients proffered food to their gods.: And, just like the ancients, we are smart enough to take food back and eat it, after the god has been placated. Not for us the pioneers' meagre fare. We have fresh (frozen) meat to hand. We have fresh vegetables, nothing from the root cellar. We have, cheese and fruit and eggs and orange juice and a myriad other exotics that would make our ancestors blink in awe and fear. On the shelves in the kitchen we have another host of luxuries: -canned fruit and vegetables and soup, coffee and tea and sugar and smoked oysters and sardines and salmon and tuna. In the bread -box, cookies and cakes and bread that cost money but no labor. After a meal that would appear to a pioneer as food for the gods leven though half the stuff in it is going to give us, cancer, according to the quacks), we don't have to sit huddled by the stove trying •to read a week-old newspaper by the light of a kerosene lamp. We can sit in comfort and read a book - from among thousands in a library five minutes away. Or we can listen to music or drama from hundreds of miles away. Or we can watch the same, or the news of the day, from thousands of miles away. By merely twisting a dial. How did they stand it, those sturdy forebears of ours? Wouldn't you think that they'd have gone starkers under the burden of never-ending' toil, never-ending cold and snow, never-ending monotony and loneliness, in winter? Not a bit of it. They thrived and multiplied. ( Maybe the latter was the answer. There's nothing like a bit of Multiplying to pass the time. ) Many of them didn't survive, of course. Children died in infancy. Women were old at 30. But it was a lifelong test course in sur- vival, and the tough ones made it. What a lot of complaining, complacent slobs we are today! - But I'm sure glad I don't have to go out to the barn, put hay down for the horses, milk - the cows, and drag in a quarter -cord of wood to keep the stoves going, tonight. - By Keith Roulston preserving history for the future (;ood Il1('k Canada The .watchward since Briar) Mulroney becaipe prime minister has been irl- operation and consensus and most ('ana- dians are finding the quiet enjoyable. The recent federal -provincial first ministers conference didn't make gond press because everybody was So busy stint- ing at each other they didn't have time to get the knives out. Likewise, Mr. Mulroney has been bending over backwards to put ('arnadian-American relations on a pleasant path. The jury is still out when it comes to federal -provincial relations since one has' the..feclIng that'the premiers may not be so agreeable a little later once they forget it is other Tories in OttaiC'a and just see "feds" again, but it seems in the long terrn Mr. Mulroney still probably has a )letter chance to keep good relations with the provinces than he docf with the U.S. Ronald Reagan too talks cooperation hut he seems to have a very narrow view of it. Canada will continue to get co-operatioh from Mr. Reagan's government just as long as we do what Mr. Reagan wants. If we don't, as New Zealand found out, words of co-operation soon vanish. Mr. Reagan talks of friendship but his term has been full of confrontation. Most famous of course is his confrontation with the Soviet Union. the ''evil empire'. One can't compromise with the devil, he argued and generally„got the support of his own peo- ple and from the growing right-wing public in most of his allies. But things haven't been much better with the countries that are supposed to be Mr. Reagan's friends. The rhetoric may not be as strident and as frequent but Mr. Reagan has told just about every one of his allies off at one point or another in the last four gears. There is an attitude in the U.S. that being a friend means giving the U.S. what it wants. If the interests of your little country are not the interests of the U.S. then you are wrong and it's just plain unfriendly of you not to g,ivc in. Thus when Neu; Zealand rethinks • its policy and refuses to let U.S. nuclear - equipped ships clock, the U.S. says it will come up with trade reprisals. Trade reprisals have been threatened in several areas from hogs to fish in Canada because of internal government policies toward these industries that did not please the Americans. And there is the word that whether Canada wants them or not, they are going to get nuclear weapons in case of a war. There's a certain point to U.S. weapons protests. It is somewhat hypocritical for ninny countries to accept protection from the U.S. nuclear umbrella but not want to dirty their hands by being too near the ac- tual weapons, But it is disturbing to see the new "stand tall" America of Ronald Reagan take on the "I'm the biggest guy on the block and 1 intend to get my own way' stance of some of his movie heroes. I suppose we have made progress. There was a time when the U.S. didn't bother with little things like threats of trade wars to change the minds of governments they didn't like. There was a time when the U.S. simply arranged for a change in govern- ment with the help of either the marines or the CiA. Good luck Mr, Mulroney. Good luck Canada. Dear Editor: In case you missed. it, Monday, February 18th was Heritage Day. This is the holiday that isn't. Heritage Day' has been kicking around since 1073. when the Standing Com- mittee on Justice and Legal Affairs sug- gested that the. third Monday in February be declared a national holiday. A Private Member's Bill was introduced in the House - of Commons in 1974 to establish this new statutory }holiday, but the bill was never passed. So Heritage Day is kept alive from year to year by the hopeful folks at Heritage Canada who send out posters and exhort Canadians to celebrate their heritage. For all this effort, Ileritage Day still remains on- ly dimly in the public consciousness. A ma- jor problem is that the notion is so vague: which heritage, exactly are we talking about? We have in Clinton a i,.A.('.A.C. the let- ters stand for Local Architectural Con- servation Advisory Committee, for which we apologize. but would like to point out that it is not our fault; that title is a standard one issued by the Ministry of Citizenship and Culture, and who among you has ever known the -government to use two words when five will do? This committee is frequently referred to as the "heritage" committee, a title which is usually offered by way of explanation for the other mouthful. What do we mean when we use'the term "heritage" in this way? The shorter Oxford Dictionary of the English Language defines heritage as "that which has beer. or may be inherited; the portion allotted to or reserved for anyone, anything given or received to be a proper possession; an inherited lot or portion". The nature of these lots and portions and possessions varies widely, when' we con- sider the diverse pedigrees and traditions of Canadians. However, in the context of a local "heritage" committee, we interpret "heritage" as all the related bits of history, pioneering, -entrepreneurship, horsetrading, politicking, public-spiritedness, and per- sonal peculiarity, of the founders and builders of our town. All these small details go together to make up that pedigree and tradition which belong to Clinton alone. Although our committee's official title specifies "architectural conservation ad- visory", it soon becomes clear to anyone researching the construction, former uses, and past owners of a building, that a building cannot really be separated from its history. Those who have gotten caught up in doing their family tree will find researching a building's life to be a remarkably similar pursuit. Examining the people and purposes behind common buildings that we all take for granted reveals a rich story of hope, of enterprise, of hard work, and sometimes of foolhardiness. It is the story of people building a community. It is this community and this tradition which comes to each of us: a heritage to understand, appreciate, add to, and hold in- tact to pass on to those who will come after us. Reg Thompson, Clinton, LACAC Secretary Clinton should delay replacing street lights Dear Editor: John Sewell's column in the Globe and Mail of February 12, 1985 reports that the president of a company in Mississauga which manufacturers sodium vapor street lights "expects a full range of color - corrected high-pressure sodium lights to be available within two or three years". This means that if Clinton is willing to put a little delay into the street -light replacement pro- gram, full -spectrum white lights can be had in reasonable time with all the economy of high-pressure sodium vapor. Indeed, the large market there will be for these ideal lights will almost certainly bring the price down from what it is now for the orange - pink lights. When the new lights become dvatleAUte I,nere win undoubtedly be a great deal of public pressure to replace the yellow and orange -pink ones. It is surely good economy, therefore, to wait for the new lights. In describing the present uncorrected sodium lights Sewell uses the terms "ghast- ly pinkish pale", "yellow shade", "orangy- pinkish", "yucky", and "harsh glare casting eerie shadows". A look at Townsend Street at night and a few other Clinton streets as well as the main streets of Exeter, Goderich, and Mitchell wilt tell whether Sewell's description is justified. Sincerely, Gerry Fremlin tr 6