Wingham Advance-Times, 1980-12-23, Page 19•
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,By IGlhma Oke
DUBliN -- Concerned
about the .safety of school
chaldron riding on eight
alta buses ,crossing. the
. ihtersection• of .11gbway 8
and Perth County Road 10 in:
lfialblin, the Huron -Perth
Separate School Board
unanimously endorsed a
resolution lash week calling
for controlled•l ghts to be in-
stalled at the corner.
The resolution was pre-
sented`by the councils of the
Township'of Hibbert and the
Village of Dublin following a
recent fatal accident at the stalled.
intersection. The school board is fpr-
The resolution stated that warding copy of
after each .of four fatal ac- board's endorsemenk. to
cidents which had occurred James Show,. minister; -of
at the corner,,.. representation ' transportation and . cCf1rA-
was made to the Ministry of nunieations, and to•thell
Transportation and. Corn=. municipal councils
munications for, the . in- A resolution from the 'eit :.
stailattti on of lights, but with- of Stratford was endorsed by
Out results. a narrow margin. The
With the fifth fatality last resolution calls for the
month, when a Hibbert minister of education to be
Township farmer lost his life petitioned to make changes
in a collision of two trucks, so that membership of
the councils again are boards of education more
calling for lights to be in- adequately reflect student
population and education
taxes paid.
Board Chairman Ronald
Murray R' said he didn't see
how the resolution could
affect the board and left his
chairman's 'seat to vote
against it.
Christmas stories
a sped feat u re
As special feature this
week The Advance -Tidies is
pleased to bring you the top
entries in its Christmas story
contest.
tt Stories were submitted by
• Students from F. E. Madill
Secondary School as well as
Wingham,, East Wawanosh,
Turnberry and Howick
elementary schools: A grand
prize wanner was selected
from among all the entries;
in addition first, second and
third prizes were awarded to
the best stories by
elementary school students.
We enjoyed reading the
tories and were impressed
e imagination. 'and
ory-telliri ,abilities: of our..`
young Wtrite s as`well as the
ways in which they looked at
Ott trnas, and we predict.
il'titi 0.:•
$„
awarded to Lynne, Nicolson
of Madill for her entry, 'A
Time for Love'. Among the
other prizes, first place went
to Andy Eskerod of
Wingham Public School who
takes a look at the two sides
of Christmas. Second place
went to, Ross Watson of
Turnberry, who introduced a
novel twist and showed a
good feel for dialogue in
`Christmas's Future
Problem', which is written
entirely in dialogue form.
Third prize was, awarded to
Margaret Versteeg of
Howick; a Grade 5 student,
,for a well -told and sensitive,
Story,'The' Littlest Christ-
*IS esi • *ilea
-based . on marked,._
= . i raldmiio2t� fh'ese prizes ` assessn ent forthe fi We Harte selected a number this year and drat .the deter-.
of stories .for; honorable mination of trustee. across.
—*await we. wil'1'lae ngtng,-,;fte tw , ,counties is ",,a
ie tpiyouenext'week municipal responsibility..
The two Stratford trustees,
Ronald Marcy and Jeannette
Eybergen; persisted in dis-
cussing the resolution,' with
Mrs. E'bergen stating it did
affect the board with the
number from Stratford cut
by one in the last election of
trustees. Vincent Young of
Golderich said it was sad that
Stratford started out. with
four trustees, then the
number was cut to three and
at the last election the
number allotted to Stratford
was two trustees.
Business Superintendent
Jack Lane stated that
trustee 'representation was.
lue
COULDN'T SAVE IT—John Norman's barn, oh Highway 86 about three miles
west of Wingham, was destroyed by fire Saturday morning. Unfortunately fire
trucks couldn't get near the barn because the Janeway wasn't plowed.
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Trustees Ted Geoffrey" and
Vincent Young were pained
to an ad hoe coinrni'ttee to
arrange for the st f -lard
banquet for 1981 txi
The four standing c
mittees were milled Witt
chairmen as follows:
building and property
committee, Keith' Mont-
gomery of Wingham; per,
sonnel committee, Ronald
Marcy of Stratford; trans-
portation committee, Tim
McDonnell of Gadshill.;
finance and insurance
commitee, John O'Leary of
Staff a.
Chairmen of the ad hoc
committees are: trustee:
clergy liaison coagmittee; •
Arthur Haid of ' Listowel?
teacher negotiations corn,.'
mittee , Mr. Young;,'
Goderich; early school :.
leaving committee; ' Tiro
McDonnell ; policy and
bylaw committee, William,
Kinahan, Lucknow; assess-
ment. committee, Mr.
O'Leary; program place-
ment t„review committee, s:
Lorraine Devereaux, Sea-,:
forth, for Huron County, and7'
Mrs. Eybergen; Stratford,
for Perth County.
Mr. Kinahan was ap-
pointed to • represent- : the
board on the Huron -Perth
Taberculosits and Respira-
tory Diseasetaonk„
q, December 23, 19811
urn
H Int,
4;S CHEER collected 'bythe Wingham Salvation Army in
)fl with Children's Aid Soelety, Goderich, will bedistribut-
eady this week. Working on the project are Bill Campbell,
enry, Greta Stokes, Isabel Bannerman, Captain Wilson
t41 -
estro e
Spontaneous' comousuaon
in the haymow is blamed for
starting a fire which
destroyed a ' Turnberry
Township, barn .Saturday
morning.
The barn, owned by John
Norman, was, full of hay and
the loss of the structure and
contents is estimated at
$30,000. Ten yearling steers
were rescued from the fire
and no livestock was lost.
Fire Chief Dave Crothers
said the barn was completely
engulfed in flames when
firefighters arrived shortly
after 9 a.m. The Janeway
from the highway to the barn
was plugged with snow and
so the firemen could do little
but watch it burn. For-
tunately there were no other
buildings around the barn.
Mr. Crothers said he
suspects spontaneous
combustion as the cause of
the blaze.
fife.. : '4
.,lured in mise
p
A Wingham area girl was
admitted to Wingham and
District Hospital Saturday
after she was involved in a
snowmobile. accident oaf Con.
5 of Culross Township, west
of Highway 4.
Provincial ,police r at
Walkerton reported that
Kathy Walker of RR 4,
Wingham, was injured when -
she fell off a snowmobile and
was struck by a second
machine. •
The two snowmobiles were
northbound on an unplowed
bush road at about 9:30 p.m.,
with Miss Walker as a
passenger on the first
machine. When she fell off,
the second snowmobile was
unable to stop and ran over
her.
She was admitted to
Wingham hospital where she
was listed in satisfactory
condition. Monday morning.
In' another .. accident
Saturday, Bruce Norman
received minor injuries
when he hit a tree with his
snowmobile which he was
operating on ( , private
property.
The mishap occurred
during a heavy snow squall
shortly 'after the fire which
destroyed a barn on the
Norman farm Saturday
morning, and Mr. Norman
reported he never saw the
tree until he hit it.
He was treated at
Wingham hospital and then
released.
Betty. Lou Stanley of
Lucknow was treated at the
Wingham hospital following
yet another snowmobile
accident Dec. 15. No further .
details on the accident were
available.
Yom,
Graduates from
auction school
Brad Curran, son of Mr.
and Mrs. Lorne. Curran of
RR 2, Wingham, recently re-
turned from Mason City,
Iowa, where he completed a
course at the Reisch World
Wide College of Auc-
tioneering. ,
As part of the training he
participated in real, public
auction sales during the
term, ' where he demon-
strated his ability as' an
auctioneer. He now. is
qualified to conduct auction
sales using the most success-
ful and advanced methods in
the profession.
The Reisch college is the
largest of its kind in the
world and has been
operating for more than 44
years, with over 17,000
graduates.
Perrin. and, Janet Hubbarti(absent),'ICaptain
the gifts. of toys; clothing aind' food were don
churches, service clubs, and private, indiviidiials`F
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fid
00 -ch;
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HUG FOR SANTA --Nellie Veldhorst gave Santa a'hug..
when she was called up to receive her present during:$'
Christmas party held at the Wingham Public Schaoi
last Friday. The party was for children from the Silver
Circle, Golden Circle and trainees from the Reavie
Workshop.
Advance - Times
Christmas
Story
Contest
„1,1 r%IIII Itrlll *10,TI '//ir.
%/ 11I1914 11q!II i'i111i•
A Tim
By Lynne Nicolson, 13B
F. E. Madill Secondary School
Paula leaned on her hand and stared'out the store
window. The snow was falling like soft, fluffy feathers,
gently resting on the pavement and quickly melting. It
all seemed so senseless to her. What was the use of
snow if it didn't stay? What was the use of Christmas
without snow? What was the use of Christmas? She
sighed. She knew all about the baby Jesus and the
Three Kings; it had been drummed into her since she
had been old enough to go to Sunday School.
Shesighed again and turned to straighten the bills on
the counter, rubbing the red mark on her face'that the
pressure of her hand had left. She could not seem to get
into the spirit of the season. She was not looking for-
ward to another Christmas, alone with her Mum and
Dad. She would much rather have been with her own
friends who were away at university. She was, after
all, twenty-one years old. She should have been with
people her own age, instead here she was cooped up in
this old store, eight hours every day forcing herself to
smile and act friendly to the customers. It was dull,
,dull, dull. No, she was definitely not in the mood for
Christmas. ,
Paula looked at her watch and noticed with ,relief
that there were only fifteen minutes left before she
could close up. She went to the back of the store to
clean up. She was just piling the last of the boxes on top
of one another when she heard the bell above the front
door tinkle. She groaned at the thought of a late.
shopper. They were the type, usually men, who didn't
know what to get someone for Christmas and expected
the salesgirl to become an instant magician. To top
things off they took half an hour to decide between two
choices. She kicked the boxes angrily and watched,
exasperated, as they toppled to the floor. She took her
most unamiable stance and went to greet her customer
with the intention of getting the customer out of the
store as quickly as possible.
Her step faltered when she came upon her
prospective victim. The six-foot male had diminished
sufficiently in size 'to a small four feet. The little boy
was standing politely waiting, his tiny hands clasped
together in front of him. There were huge flakes of
snow resting on his curls and on the collar of his coat.
His eyes were a clear blue and a peaceful expression
rested on his lips. It was a totally relaxed expression,
the type children usually had when they were asleep,
all cares to the world lost in pleasant dreams.
"What do you want?” she asked, a bit more unkindly
than she had meant. The boy looked at her flushed
complexion calmly, his eyes penetrating hers as
though reading her thoughts. His gaze made her
nervous and she shifted uncomfortably from one foot to
the other.
"Well?" she said impatiently, but he continued to
stare steadily at her, not seeming to blink at all. She
waited a few moments longer, then moved toward the
door.
"Look, I was just closing up so if you don't want any-
thing I'll have to ask you to leave."
"You're pretty angry, aren't you? His words took
her by surprise. Who did the child think he was
anyway?
"Did you come in her to buy something or analyze
my personality?" she asked.
"To buy something," he said, "but why are you so
angry"
"What would you like lo buy?" she said, avoiding his
question.
ve
The small boy watched her and Paula began to notice
something strange about his eyes. They seemed misty,
almost inhuman, and they continued to watch her face
as though searching for something.
"I know what's wrong," he finally said.
"How Could you?" Paula asked irritably. "If you
knew then why did you ask in the first place? Just who
do you think you are?" she said loudly, but she didn't
stop, "How would you know that t think this is going to
be another boring Christmas with my parents, a tree
and a cat? How would you know? Just tell me how you
would know that."
She stopped, breathing quickly, and realized with a
Sinkf„.:r ?i,a 'vwry-
thing. She looked out of the corner of her eye to see if he
was still watching her. He was. She had a sneaking
suspicion that she had fallen into his trap. She looked a
little closer to make sure that there weren't any grey
whiskers poking out from beneath his scarf. This little
boy was more like a wise man.
"All right,” she said sheepishly, "so you made me
tell you what was wrong. Now will you please tell me
what you want and then get out of here."
"I want a pair of those, only in white." He pointed to
a pair of black mittens on one of the shelves.
"I'll have to go back to the storeroom to get a white
pair," she said, and began to walk away quickly, glad
to leave the pair of searching blue eyes.
"You know," he said, and Paula stopped and turned
around, "you shouldn't be angry just because you have
to spend another Christmas with your Mum and Dad. If
you think about it you probably wouldn't want anything
else, because you don't need anything as long as your
family loves you. You don't need anything," he
repeated, "if you have love."
Paula looked at his little figure, the snow still lying'
on his hair and coat which was still strangely un -
melted, and lastly she noticed the deepness of his eyes,
the eyes that hadn't wavered once since she had first
seen him.
"I'll go to the back of the store and get what you
want," she said slowly.
As she walked she thought about what he had said
and came to the conclusion that he was right. Christ-
mas was a time for love, and as long as you had that.
you were bound to be happy; you wouldn't need any-
thing else. She smiled and gently nodded her head.
Funny, she thought, how children are so perceptive of
the truth. She found the mittens and walked back out to
the front of the store.
"Here you go," she said, but he was gone.
"I've got your mittens," she called, but still received
no answer. She moved to the window and looked doviin'
the street; he wasn't there either. Strange, she
thought, for she hadn't heard the bell tinkle when he
left. She looked at the floor where he had been stand-
ing. There were no puddles or marks from his boots.
She looked at the mittens in her hands. Paula shrugged ,.'
her shoulders and began to close up the shop.
Later, as she was buying a paper on her way home,
she remembered his words: "You don't need anything .
else if someone loves you." I guess I. am lucky, Paula:�
thought to herself. A lot of children and„adults don't
have love the way 1 do. Why right here en the fron
page of the paper was a story of a little boy who had
been abused by his parents. He would never see,
another Christmas again. Poor little guy, she thought,
and began to fold up the paper when the street light
caught something on the front page. It was a photo-
graph,
hoto graph, a photograph which she recognized. A pair Of
blue, deep-set eyes stared at her from the picture, 11 '4444
pair of unmistakable eyes.