The Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-10-14, Page 4PAGE 4—GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14,1981
dave
sykes
BLUE
RIBBON
AWARD
Second class
mail registration
number -0716.
I have always maintained a certain
measure of respect for people who are able
to create things with their hands.
In fact that respect extends to all talented
and creative people who are able to produce
in an efficacious and effortless manner.
Perhaps it is my own inabilities and lack of
talent that have led to this feeling of
reverence.
Much of that respect has been reserved
for people whose ability with a hanuner,
saw, nails and assorted carpentry tools
transforms lumber into beautiful corner
cabinets, closet space or a dog house and
boring concrete into cozy, relaxing
basement retreats.
While there Is great admiration for such
talent, those with carpentry common sense
also make me ill. Only because I am rather
inept, or inexperienced to be more polite, at
the carpentry game.
To be honest, my handymanning skills are
relatively non-existant, although improving,
and I can still hear mother casually
remarking that her son could screw up the
operation of a wheelbarrow.
But, carpentry was never a part of my
growing and learning process until now and
thousands of homeowners will testify that it
is just one of the many talents required in
themaintenance of the family castle.
For this horrendous handyman, the
learning process in painfully slow and a
throbbing, black and blue finger will offer
conclusive evidence to the pain part. The
little lady and I decided, with much
prompting on my part, that we should spend
money we don't have on transforming
basement concrete into livable quarters.
Now right off the bat we're in trouble since
the transformation required carpentry
skills. The wife wasn't sure what -a 2x4
looked like and I did, consequently the job
fell on my shoulders. So much for liberation.
The necessary materials were purchased,
including a shiny new hammer and tape
measure since I was led to believe they were
necessary tools in the carpentry process.
With the materials on hand the brother-in-
law was called in to provide the necessary
expertise and hopefully impart a fraction of
that wisdom on yours truly.
A major portion of the initial work was
completed after much sweat and toil on a
long weekend as baseball games beckoned
from the television on the upper floor.
I'now realize that my first mistake was
taking the initiative with this porject. Now
that it is started, there is a million hours of
work ahead of{ip. Of all the brainy ideas.
True to foi'in, this callous carpenter
managed to break a few of the basic rules of
carpentry in the process. A few inaccurate
measurements led to some anxious
moments and there is the odd blister on
tender fingers.
Those, however, were the least of my
problems. Just as if the weekend work
session was a boring sit-com with obvious
plots, this neophyte slammed a vital finger
( index) with the brand new, shiny hammer.
There was a bit,of blood that spurted
through a tiny split at the end of the finger,
while the remainder of the digit throbbed
and turned every color imaginable. I was in
much pain.
The throbbing has pretty much subsided
but there is a purple streak under the nail
and a good potion of the end of the finger is
swollen and purple. While the little lady
offered a little sympathy and applied some
pressure to the injured part, the injury has
not earned a reprieve from carpentry duty.
Now maybe if I accidentally nailed a stud
to my knee i could give up this nonsense.
SINCE 1848
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Support canvass
• Now it's upto'you.
The fund-raising campaign for the construction of a new
Intensive Care Unit at Alexandra Marine and General
Hospital will culminate with the door-to-door blitz
Thursday evening and your support is crucial.
As previously detailed, the board of governors is pur-
suing the construction of a 2,400 square foot addition to the
hospital to accommodate a new Intensive Care Unit.
The existing unit is inadequate both in terms of space
and equipment and the board realizes a modern, well
equipped Intensive Care Unit is a basic need in providing.
competent medical treatment. The hospital serves about
15,000 people in Goderich and the surrounding area and
the Intensive Care Unit is a critical phase in the treatment
of many patients who pass through the hospital.
While the existing are woefully inadequate, the Ministry
of Health is unable to offer capital assistance. The
Ministry has offered endorsement of the project but the
community will have to raise the $495,000 needed for the
venture.
The hospital board has committed $245,000 from reserve
.capital and the community will be asked to chip in the
remaining $250,000,, The -task is a formidable one.
The fund-raising committee is a dedicated group of
citizens who are confident of meeting the challenge. They
have diligently explored all possible avenues by
presenting the facts to business, industry, service, church
and social clubs in the hopes of making everyone aware of
the need for theproposed facilities.
So now, on Thursday, an army of volunteer canvassers
will be knocking on your door soliciting support for the
Intensive Care Unit. They will answer your questions,
gratefully accept a pledge or leave a call back card if no-
one is home.
The blitz will be a quick and efficient segment of the
campaign, and yet, it will be vital. Any type of donation
will be appreciated but the committee would also like
people to think in terms of post-dated cheques.
The campaign will officially run until December 1983
and donors could offer a sum in each of those years with
post-dated cheques. It could also help to break up the
payments of a substantial pledge.
Regardless of the manner, the committee is simply
asking that the job be done. Now it's up to you.
With respect to health care, we should demand nothing
but the best. The goal is attainable, it is in sight and it is
worthy of your consideration. D.S. I
Fire prevention
This past week was Fire Prevention Week and the local
volunteer fire department did. a superb job in bringing
displays and demonstrations before the public.
Fire prevention should be an ongoing concern for all
families and preventative measures should be practised
at all times.
The Goderich Fire. Department's efforts this past
weekend were exemplary in that they offered some need-
ed education to a public that may not be cognizant of
potentially dangerous situations. The display gave people
a chance to meet with firefighters and discuss proper
preventative measures to be practised in the home and
business.
Aside from the mall display the firemen also offered a
demonstration on the use of certain equipment and more
specifically, recently acquired extrication equipment.
The equipment, essential in the rescue of car accident
r
I hate ° injus'tice, especially when it is
directed at me. Or: I'm mad as hell and I'm
not going to take it anymore. Or: Life isn't
fair.
In the beginning, there was nothing. Then
the Lord said, "Let there be Mitchell." And
there was still nothing. Nevertheless,
someone started up a community
newspaper there which is now owned by the
same people who bring you this one.
The paper is a one-person show from this
angle, meaning there is an editor and that's
it. The problem is, there seems to be a
revolving door syndrome in Mitchell and
editors are coming and going with the
seasons.
An editor just left. The new one "hasn't
come yet. And the Lord said, "Let C.W. de
it," in the meantime.
Right. And so, at the crack of dawn, ar-
med *TtTi ring riotellboli and coffee money
victims, was purchased through the diligent efforts of the
fire department and the conscientious work of many
service clubs.
Having the equipment is only half the battle and over
the past several months, some firemen have been in-
volved in numerous training sessions, learning the proper
procedures and techniques involved in the use of the
specialized equipment. Their efforts, for your safety,
should not go unnoticed. But providing assistance to the
public through such displays and demonstrations, may
help limit the number of occasions the department is
called on to put out a senseless fire.
People who took the time to stop at the department's
display are helping themselves. But the Goderich fire
department should also be commended for their effort
during fire prevention week. D.S.
trekked to the hub of the universe. Or rather
I lurched. I was using a company car and
the company neglected to warn me that it
has a standard transmission. Oh well, I'm a
fast learner.
I took lots and lots of pictures. There are
14 chapters of the Loyal Order of Water
Buffalo in Mitchell. There is a Junior D
hockey team that wanted pictures of every
player. After I exposed a film accidentally
in the unfamiliar darkroom, I decided to
develop the rest of the films in Goderich.
Except that the rest of the films never got
to Goderich. On Sunday afternoon, I loaded
up my purse with the films, my trusty
notebook and all the other flotsam and
jetsam that handbags are prone to carry,
and lurched back to Goderich.
I made a quick stop in Clinton at a friend's
place. 1 thought the car doors were locked.
Some swine stole me bag. Imagine my
distress.
Home port
By Dave Sykes
D
EAR
BY SHIRLEY J. KELLER
READERS
This is the week.
This is the week the canvassers for the
hospital's new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) will
blitz the community for funds.
This is the week - appropriately right at
Thanksgiving - when each of us can show our
gratitude for the exceptionally good general
hospital that serves you and me 24 hours a day
365 days a year.
This is the week.
We're all the same, I expect. It's easy to be full
of excuses why the construction, of a new ICU is
not a serious concern. It will be a real temptation
to meet the canvasser at the door with two
dollars or five dollars when $25 or $50 would be no
hardship.
There comes a time when each of us has to put
our money where our mouth is. And this may be
just such a time.
There are very few families in this community
that have not been touched by Alexandra Marine
and General Hospital. Whether for a simple
blood test or major surgery, AM&G is there
when we need it with a modern, efficient service
and a dedicated staff.
What's that you say? When you went to the
hospital you sat for two hours in the waiting
room at emergency before your throbbing finger
was xrayed and found to be sprained? You had to
wear that blinking cast for two whole weeks?
And what's that? Your little boy neeaed clean
pyjamas and you had to change him yourself
when you went to visit him in the children's
ward?, That was when he had that awful asthma
attack and you had been afraid he was choking to
death?
Somewhere there is a bozo who is about
thirty bucks richer. In some ditch
somewhere there lies a handbag with an
entire week's worth of newspapering in it,
not to mention a ring of keys, my hairbrush,
a picture of my brother when he was two,
and all my ID.
It is hard to maintain a humorous per-
spective on life during crises such as this.
With the disappearance of my purse, and
with my life crumbling around my toes, I
refused to sanely assess my situation.
Sometimes, one just has to stomp around
and scream.
I phoned a friend and requested the use of
one of his beds to hide under for an indefinite
period of time. "I don't have to deal with this
crud, you know!" I wailed.
"That's right, you don't," he agreed.
"I can go to Moosonee and drive + a taxi for
a living, you know ! " I wailed.
"That's ii i , yeti eg ,"'he agreed.
And you had a bad experience? When you were
in hospital there wasn't a blanket for your bed
and you had to wear a sweater and socks to keep
wa?
-Yourmsay your father-in-law waited in his bed
for four days until the doctor got home from
vacation to release him?
Most of us can recite chapter and verse about
the inefficiency and mismanagement at the
hospital - and at the supermarket and the theatre
and the newspaper and the cleaners and the post
office. It doesn't take any of us long to pick out
the flaws.
But why should that surprise us? As long as
organizations are operated by fallible humans,
there will be slipups and difficulties of all types
at the most inopportune times.
This week, let's think positive. Let's
remember some of the miracles that have been
wrought right in our own AM&G - some of them
maybe even involving you, your family or
someone you know.
How many examples can you give of com-
passionate care for suffering patients and
worried visitors?
How many times that you know of did at 'doctor
leave his own family so that yours could have an
easier night?
How many rules were bent just a little for your
convenience? And how many special favours can
you remember that seemed to be just "part of
the service"?
I think the Keller family is a pretty average
example of citizens who make regular good use
of our hospital facility. We've had our share of
blood tests and xrays, emergency room visits
and in-hospital stays.
We've always • found good, basic care by a
friendly, professional staff.
He was being entirely too easy to get along
with. "Well, I can't go to Moosonee until I.
get this stupid newspaper out," I reasoned
with him. "Which means I have to hang up
this stupid phone and go find stuff to fill the
paper in a big hurry."
Which I did. I have finally put together a
dozen pages of Loyal Water Buffalo news
and pictures of children playing outside on
Thanksgiving Day, and pictures of a turkey
shoot in beautiful downtown Monkton.
It turned out a friend had another set of
keys to my apartment, and I had another set
of keys to my car, and all those ID cards will
be replaced eventually, and I can always
use a paper bag for a purse.
So there you go. Nothing is ever as lousy
as it seems the hour it happens, and my life
isn't crumbling around my toes after all.
But it doesn't mean I'm not going to
Moosonee to become a cab driver. Just not
this week, that's all. I hear it's pretty cold up
There tfirstriiie if year.
Sure, we've cooled our heels in the waiting
room - but only because our "emergency"
wasn't an emergency to anyone but us. When you
get right down to it, a severed artery should take
precedence over our unexplained Sunday -
afternoon rash.
And we've had our anxious moments when
doctors seemed to be taking a little longer than
they should - and when the nurse didn't answer
the bell on the first buzz.
We've sweated when the air conditioner failed
and we've frozen when austerity forced
problems on an overworked, under -equipped
staff.
But always, always the hospital was there for
us. We've never been turned away. There's
always been someone to assess our needs and put
us on a priority list. When it's been a real
emergency, we've had the red carpet treeterient.
Our family like many, many othe§ in
Goderich, has come to rely on AM&G as a health
care centre. If it were not there, we would truly
be poorer for it.
The time has come now when we can
demonstrate in a real and tangible way, just how
much our hospital means to us. -
We've tried to honestly examine our budget,
our commitments and our consciences. We've
put some thought into our pledge - and while it
won't be among this highest, it will be a
meaningful contribution from the Keller
household.
That's all anyone can do. But it is something
everyone should do.
Before the canvasser knocks on your door,
think about your gift. If we all give as AM&G has
given to us, we'll have no trouble at all to go over
the top this week.
cath
wooden