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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-04-29, Page 19Jean Murdock of Goderich will supervise the, sale of carnations.hi town on Saturday, May 9. Proceeds from the sales will go to the Multiple Sclerosis Society headquarters hi Toronto for research. Mrs. Murdock is a Victorian Order Nurse for Huron County and was diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis four years ago. (Photo by Joanne Buchanan) Deltiology is becoming popular May is MS month Buy a carnation and help research BY JOANNE BUCHANAN Just as. the daffodil has become the flower of hope for people with cancer, the carnation has become the flower of hope for people with multiple sclerosis (MS). On Saturday, May 9 carnations will be sold throughout town and the money will be sent to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada headquarters in Toronto to be used for research. Jean Murdock of Goderich is organizing the town's first carnation` sales campaign and hopes that it will become an annual event as it has in other cities and towns. Jean, a Victorian Order Nurse for Huron County, has a special interest in the campaign because shewas diagnosed four years ago as having MS herself. MS is the most common central nervous system disease of young adults in Canada. In fact, more than 35,000 Canadians have MS. Because it strikes during the career and family building years; even more people are affected: families, employers, employees... For some reason, MS is more common if you live further away from the equator. Therefore, Canada is a high risk area for MS and it costs the Canadian economy hundreds of millions of dollars a year in the A .. ue lost jobs, medical bills, unemployment insurance and social service payments. As of yet, researchers do not know what causes MS, how to cure it or how to prevent it. In the healthy nervous system a message from the brain telling the arm and hand to pick up a book or pencil travels in split seconds. But if the central nervous system is damaged by MS, the message may be slowed or not even get through. The nervous .. system is similar to an electrical cord. If the insulation of an electrical cord is frayed or worn through, electrical currents may be short-circuited. MS attacks the myelin insulatin,g, covering of the central'nervous system.' The myelin becomes inflamed and may be replaced by scar tissue. Messages are slowed or blocked. This causes symptoms of MS which include problems in seeing or speaking, extreme weakness, shaking of hands, loss of balance, numbness or ibss of coordination. Mysteriously, the symptoms come and go over a period of time. Before Jean was diagnosed, she found herself extremely weak and tired. At first she thought it could be bad nerves from the pressures of nursing school and exams. However, other symptoms began to ap- rich pear. The side of her face went numb; she lost sight for awhile in one eye; and then part of her body became numb. Her co- ordination was poor. Jean says that anyone can get MS (but it is not contagious) and everyone who gets it has different symptoms. These can range from very minimal symptoms to paralysis and she feels very fortunate to be on the minimal end of the scale right now. Treatment includes medication if necessary, plenty of rest and moderation in all things. Jean graduated as a nurse from St. Joseph's Hospital in London and com- pleted her degree in nursing at the University of Western Ontario in May of 1979. She started working as a VON a year ago and has also worked in hospitals in Windsor and Toronto. Her MS diagnosis was made at University Hospital, London, an excellent research facility which has an international MS symposium planned for this year from May 3 to 5 (May is MS month). Researchers will gather from around the world at the symposium to discuss their latest MS findings. After moving to Goderich four years ago with her husband Miles who teaches at. G.D.C.I., Jean and five other people, three of whom also have MS, started meeting to discuss forming an MS chapter for Huron County. MS chapters provide a number of services including recreation, educational sessions, home visiting, counselling and self-help sessions, equipment loans and public awareness. Right now, Jean's group is concentrating on the later and they feel the carnation campaign will be a big step in this area. Regular meetings could begin in the fall. Jean is hoping the carnation campaign will be a success. She feelsthe timing–the day before Mother's Day–is certainly right. She has recruited numerous volunteers and the carnations will be sold in various forms. Plastic carnations will be sold from different, business outlets in town. Real and cloth carnations will- be sold by members of the G.D.C.I. midget basketball team (which her husband coaches) and members of Beth Wark's church group. They will be stationed ori different corners of The Square and in the Suncoast Mall in morning and afternoon shifts. One dollar for a single, fresh carnation can go a long way in helping MS Research Clinics provide diagnosis, assessment and a variety of therapies to help people better cope with the disease. And, maybe some day, like cancer and all other dreaded diseases, with enough money and research, MS can be beaten. 133 YEAR -17 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29,1981 SECOND SECTION( Postcard collector has many "memories .0..: BY GLEN L GARDINER While attending an auction sale in the Stouffville area several years ago I happened to browse through an old .. shoebox hill of early postcards. My initial reaction was one of amazement – who could possibly be interested in that kind of junk? My reaction changed dramatically, though when 'I spotted a card which showed a recognizable view near and dear to my heart, that of the. Goderich harbour. Further examination revealed cards depicting Central Park, Goderich •and the early excursion steamer Greyhound leaving the local harpour. From the moment I acquired those. particular postcards, I was .hooked. Getting to auction sales whenever I could, looking through, numerous second-hand - shopsand countless flea. markets, I con- tinued to search for early picture .post- cards postcards of my old hometown. Besides acquiring the cards, I was also interested in attempting to learn the early history associated with them. Con- versations with townsfolk and the book issued to commemorate Jubilee 3, "Memories of Goderich", have served as valuableresources. Joining the Toronto Postcard Club has also helped to expand my collection. The club has a membership of almost 300, with members from every Canadian province, 12 different states and even Great Britian. Collecting early . postcards is fast becoming very popular. The collecting of cards is called deltiology; an individual who collects cards is called a deltiologist. After the "invention" of the picture postcard in Austria in 1869, three factors contributed to its widespread acceptance. 1) - in 1892, Germany developed remarkable photo -litho printing techniques. This meant that beautifully designed picture postcards could be mass produced. 2) - in 1899, Mr: Adolph Tuck convinced the British Postal Authority to accept the standard size of •51" by :31/4" for its postcards. 3) - in 1902, the British Post Office allowed postcards with divided backs to be distributed. Only then, beside the name and address, could a message\ actually be included on the carditself. In his book, "Greetings From. Canada", Quilting comes natural BY JOANNE BUCHANAN Dorothy Fowler of R.R. 5 Goderich has been quilting as long as she can remember and estimates that she has probably made 50 or more quilts over the years. Mrs. Fowler learned the art from her mother who "was a good sewer" and started going to quilting bees when she was in her teens. Quilting, she says, was just something that came naturally to her and whenever she finishes one .quilt, she feels lost until she starts another. Mrs. Fowler does most of her quilting during the long winter nights. In spring - and summer she finds that gardening takes up most of her time. Up until last year, she nivl her late husband, Worthy, operated a market garden, selling vegetables, strawberries and flowers. This year she plans to keep a small garden for herself. "I like the outdoors in the warm weather but as soon as the days get shorter and the evenings longer, I start quilting," she says. And what does Mrs. Fowler do with all her quilts? Well, her relatives usually become the lucky recipients. She has given many away to nieces and nephews as wedding presents. She has kept a few quilts for herself patterns from magazines and also makes up some of her own. But she especially likes working from kits. However, she explains that in the last few years, kits have nearly doubled in price and now cost about $60. The kits simply include the pieces for the top or the pattern which goes on the quilt. The quilt lining costs another $10 and the batt or stuffing costs $5. Even quilting thread has gone up in price. Hours of work go into each quilt. Mrs. Fowler starts by setting up her homemade nine foot by eight foot frame in her living room. She sews the bottom lining into the frame, puts the batting on and then pins the top lining down to the bottom one, all around the frame. The hand stitching or quilting then begins and takes ap- proximately three weeks to complete. It takes another two or three days to bind the edges and the end result is a plain quilt. Next, the pattern is sewn on and Mrs. Fowler says she doesn't keep track of the time it takes her to do this. However, she does remember one particularly difficult pattern with many pieces that took her a' whole winter to complete. Mrs. Fowler is modest about her work. . She doesn't display her quilts but is happy to show them to anyone who is interested. She is also willing to teach the art to anyone who is interested. though. One in particular which she hopes At one point, she says, quilting had --,_–will"remairr-insher-fast-died-out-as• smart hut -now -it seems -- the centennial pattern which she made in to be coming back into style again. 1967. Turn to page 3A Mrs. Fowler copies some of her quilt author Allan Anderson writes, "As early -- Captain C.E. "-Eddy" Robinson of as 1900, Canadians posted over 27,000 ; Goderich. cards. In 1908, 41,000 Cards were mailed ' For the deltiologist, there are cards to and in 1913; well over 60,000,000! suit eery different interest: - street Remember, the population of Canada in scenes, railway stations, ships, public 1901 was just. over five million and in 1911, just overseven million". The postcard enjoyed the greatest period of popularity from 1900'to 1914. Some of my Goderich cards were produced by J'.V. Valentine and Sons of Dundee, Scotland; Warwick Brothers and Rutter of Toronto; Pugh. Manufacturing Company of Toronto; and- Stedman Brothers of Brantford. Others, although produced in Great Britian, were "published by George' W. Thomson, and Son, Goderich", "James F. - Thomson, Goderich", "Smith's Art Store, Goderich" or "made expressly for E.R. ' Wigle, druggist, Goderich, Ontario". A few have the name . R.R. Sallows, noted local photographer at the turn of the century. Others show the "largest freighter on the Great Lakes, the Lemoyne", skippered by buildings, sport scenes, the aftermath of disasters, 'Patriotics and signed artists. Christmas;. New Year's, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter and even Thanksgiving and Hallowe'en were also represented. From Fishing off the coast of the Maritimes to lumbering in .British Columbia, . every aspect of Canadian history has been depicted in the early picture postcard: • . As is the case though with everything in this time of high prices and rapidly escalating costs, the early postcard is no . exception. The same card which several years ago could be purchased for a mere 50 or 75 cents is now selling in the $5 range, if it can be found at. all. here's no end in sight; as long as more and more people • continue to search for fewer'add-fewer 'cards, prices will continue to rise. Goderich Harbor r Central Park, Goderich Goderich" Hotel Goderich Goderich Marine Hospital Freighter "Lemoyne"