Loading...
The Huron Expositor, 1985-11-13, Page 2EAHuron m y xpositOr SINCE 1860, SERVING THE COMMUNITY FIRST +CNA BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1985 Incorporating Brussels Post 10 Main Street 527-0240 Published in SEAFORTH, ONTARIO Every Wednesday morning ED BYRSKI, General Manager HEATHER McILWRAiTH, Editor The Expositor is brought to you each week by the efforts of: Pat Armes, Bessie Broome, Marlene Charters, Joan Guichelaar, Anne Hutt, Joanne Jewitt, Stephanie Levesque, Dianne McGrath, Lois McLlwaln, Bob McMillan, Cathy Melady and Patrick Rattis• Member Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc. Ontario Community Newspaper Association Ontario Press Council Commonwealth Press Union International Press Institute Subscription rates: Canada $20.00 a year (in advance) Outside Canada $60.00 a year (in advance) Single Copies - 50 cents each • SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1985 Second class mail registration Number 0696 Asking for trouble Drunk drivers will lose their licences for at least one year and first ,time offenders could face jail sentences in a provincial government assault on drinking and driving. And in announcing the crackdown, Attorney -General Ian Scott said the Crown should push for jail sentences in cases where an individual is acting entirely wilfully. That means anyone going to a party or somewhere they know liquor will be served, with the intention of taking a drink and then driving home, are asking for trouble. And with the advent of the Christmas season of cheer, a majority of the population may be affected. In keeping with the crackdown the Highway Traffic Act will be amended in order to establish automatic one-year suspensions for first convictions and two -years for second convictions.'These suspensions are . approximately four times longer than the ones currently enforced by the law. And while the threat of increased fine levels and incarceration may seem extreme the crackdown comes as a relief to many who have been battling against the all too common, drinking and driving. In the past people have thought nothing of hopping into a car and driving away despite being in an inebriated state. And the end results have been horrific. Accidents have skyrocketed and innocent lives have been lost. What this new legislation will do is ensure people learn from their mistakes. It will ensure that people learn a bit about responsibility. The old slap -on -the -wrist ideology is fast becoming extinct and it's about time. What Ontario is finally doing is offerring a deterrent to drinking and driving. In the past there has been no reason not to drink and drive. For the first time offenders incarceration might possibly be a harsh punishment, but drinking and driving is a reality that has to be reckoned with. The human carnage that often results from it has to be brought Into control, What the province is essentially trying to do is reteach such principles (Continued on page A3) Striking out OPINION Education boards and teacher's federations with contract talks in progress or pending, should take a long hard look at the situation in Wellington County before making plans to dine at each other's expense at the bargaining table. The natural tendency of both sides to want to come away from the table with a full plate, has already led to a sad state of affairs that could leave lasting repercussions. Strikes by teachers, as proven in Wellington and also in neighboring Grey County, are no-win situations that seem to attract the most inept forms of mismanagement by everyone involved. Everyone who has touched the Wellington strike in particular, has only worsened the situation. The latest example of ineptitude in this debacle can be credited to the provincial mediator for this strike. The mediator's approach to a sensitive issue was to attempt to pound it into shape with a hard line approach, His decision to put a "take it or leave it," contract proposal before the warring factions might have been applauded, had it worked. However, since both groups decided on the "leave it" option, this approach only served to close completely. negotiations that were already faltering. The Ministry of Education meanwhile, sits as usual on the fence on non-interference, refusing to become involved in the strike until it can come to the conclusion that students are in danger of losing their school year. If the students are not now, nine weeks into the strike, in jeopardy of losing the year -- when will they be? Perhaps by spring break the ministry will see fit to interceed on behalf of the students, who have become the forgotten pawns in this game of educational chess. it should be pointed out, that nine weeks equals approximately One-fifth of a school year. If students who learn one-fifth less that they normally would are not disadvantaged for future educational opportunities, who is? The ministry is acting the fool in this tragedy. What meanwhile, is it all for? Namely so rural teachers can have their egos soothed, with ridiculous dreams of wage parity with big city educators. In asking for parity with Toronto teachers, local teachers are ignoring one not -so -unpleasant fact of rural life. The cost of living is cheaper, much cheaper. Rural teachers can buy a home for less that half the cost of a house in an urban centre. Therefore, they can hardly complain about making a few dollars less. industry, when deciding where to locate new plants, must take into account the lower cost of labor in rural areas. Should government -run schools not enjoy that same shopping privilege.. Being one of the highest-paid groups in the rural work force, teachers arguments for larger salaries hold little water with the people they are paid to work for, the rural taxpayers. Seaforth Town Council recently endorsed a resolution from the Town of Durham, which could if adopted, prevent situations such as the one in Wellington from recurring across the province. The resolution calls for teaching to be classified as an essential service, and as such exempt from the right to strike, Teachers, by the abuse of the powers of organized labor, have proven themselves unworthy of strike privileges. It is time the government learned, not only from this latest example, but from the recent college teachers strikes, that the right of students to an education, must over -ride the rights of an already privileged group to withhold their services to back greedy demands. Teachers should bear in mind that they might never have attained their teaching certificates in the first place, if those who once taught them had been on the picket line, instead of in the classroom. — P.R. Frozen beauty by Heather Mcllwraith A.M. radio not improving So, you had hoped and maybe even prayed that A,M. radio would have improved itself with the arrival of the new kids on the block. The video Joneses so to speak. O000, wrong. Radio, sadly, has graduated from the raw, rugged, rip roaring rock of the 60s and 70s into a cacophonic, pallid, dress -me -up mess of puerility. It's dominated by thin waisted, self indulgent, chirping, androgynous advertise- ments for anorexia nervosa who roar up and down the pop schlock charts in a battle of depressing mediocrity. (Sans Boy George on the thin part). Elvis started the whole thing during the 1950s. He must be doing figure eights in his grave right now. Along came the turbulent 60s and we listened to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds and Janis Joplin, to name just a few. With the glitter of the 1970s, the music world offered us Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen, Foghat, The Who, Supertramp, Golden Earring, Lynyrd Skynyrd and much more. Radio of the present decade had rammed Prince, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Michael Jackson, Wham, Motley Crue and Lionel Richie down our throats in a relentless struggle for the copious teeny hopper market. Video, despite its powerful influence on the CORNUCOPIA. by David Broome fashion industry, is far from perfect. It seems the dress code and dance steps have become more important than the music itself. Also, since everything is presented in a visual form you don't have to use your imagination anymore... It astounds me that an overweight, musically dismal, androgynous citizen of Albion can sell a zillion copies of unrepentant drivel when so much better talent goes unnoticed. The male-female look isn't new. Both Mick Jagger and David Bowie did it years ago and the big difference here is that both gents are light years more skilled than the pretender - clones of today. Many of the gifted bands failed commer- cially because they didn't wear dresses, makeup and drug us with a hoard of sappy I love songs. The evidence is in - if you have a quirky gimie end an extensive publicity The alarm clock There are morning people and non -morn- ing people. I am definitely a non -morning person. Morning people never have to set their alarm clocks. They are up and out of bed at the crack of dawn just to see the sun come up. They are the first to get the morning paper and coffee in the local coffee shop. On the other hand the non -morning person sets alarm clocks all over the room, uses the snooze button la million times), and needs wake up calls from friends and neighbors. I love to sleep in. i admit it. Why then do i feel so guilty whenever I indulge in a long, lazy, lie in bed? Why does it have to he pouring or blizzarding to justify sleeping in? However, I know I am not alone in feeling guilty nor am !alone in feeling inferior to the early riser. How many, times have you groped for the phone beside the bed only to croack, "Oh no, I've been up for hours." When you finally do get your eyes to focus on the digital dock you realize it's only 7:02! Come on now, admit it. if you have to get out of bed and run to the phone (I hobble in the morning) your answer is. "In bed'? No I was just hanging out the laundry." This is a particularly good answer because the early riser knows you must have been up for ages just to get the wash done in the first place. Or when caught answering the door in your housecoat you were " just going to take a shower." We could say these little white lies are merely to put the caller at ease and be polite. We know better though, don't we? We don't want the early riser to know our weakness. Yes. although millions might dispute it, our society considers sleeping in a definite weakness. The result is many non -morning people go through life feeling guilty and inferior just because they prefer a few extra hours in cozy comfort. Being in a different time zone should not rgpke us feel guilty or machine behind you, the musak sells despite any talent of lack of it. Jonathan Gross writes a column for Starweek magazine and during one of his ramblings a couple of weeks ago he called the band Supertramp a group of dinosaurs. W hat • Mr. Gross and his ilk fail to admit is these "dinosaurs" and their peers would demolish everyone of today's pot and pan bangers in a talent contest. Many in the know will suggest Led Zeppelins Stairway to Heaven is rockdoms definitive masterpiece. Today W ham chal- lenges with Wake me up when you Go Go and Kool and the Gang whines out Cherish. I'll take the dinosaurs and the meat and taties sound any day. There are gems among the zircons but you won't find many on A.M. radio. As for the others, musically they all dress nice, but I wish they would all beat it. blues HERE'S THE BEEF by. Carolanne Doig inferior, but our society has long admired the early riser. Since our youngest days we have had it drilled into our brain that the early bird Bets the worm, and early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. In our society we tend to hold people in higher esteem when we learn they are morning people. The housewife who does her ironing at two in the morning is considered a bit loony, while the neighbor who does the same chore at 6 a.m. is a "darned hard worker." The commuter who arrives at the office hours earlier than necessary is admired as a dedicated employee while the worker who stays late is suspect He must have an unhappy home life. maybe he's meeting someone later. Yet I know many morning people who rise early and then whittle away the day never getting anything concrete done. Other early risers often get everything done in the morning, fade in the stretch, and need a nap in the afternoon. I also know many late risers who manage to get more done in a day than many do in a week. it's not the same though. Morning people are considered wholesome. The image of the farmer, off to do chores as the morning mist melts in the rising sun, stirs within us a feeling of down-to-earth good- ness. The jogger who pounds the pavement before setting out into the working world is the picture of health and success. Not so for night people. Night people conjure up the antithesis of this very wholesomeness. The seedy side of life is often portrayed through the eyes of the nighthawk There's nothing wholesome about sitting in an all night diner drinking coffee unless you're doing research on a social studies project If you decide to go jogging at 3 a.m. you're liable to be pursued by a suspicious policeman wondering what you're running from. There's really no justice. Many non -morning people spend their entire lives just getting along in a world designed for dawn patrol Saturday morning hockey, Sunday morning golf, and Monday to Friday 6 o'clock subway rides are the order of their lives They would just love to sleep in but peer pressure and the negative images equated with late users forces them to adapt to the majority's time zone Fortunately there are many night people who make a positive contribution to our life style. Many artists. writers, and musicians have their greatest moments of creativity late at night Where would we be without the policeman. security guard. or factory worker on the graveyard shift? Non -morning people are a credit to society, and we needn't feel guilty or inferior to the early bird. There's plenty of room in this world for both early birds and night hawks. Remember the next time a phone call gets you out of bed in the morning you can politely answer that you had to get up In answer the phone anyway P S f would have written about Mr- last week but I slept in Old storms worked best For years or more, we got along fine with ordinary storm windows Oh, i'll admit they caused a certain amount of domestic hassle, chiefly because they were put on too late in the fall, or taken off too early in the spring, according to the old lady. But she was always in a rush to "get things done." i get them done, eventually. Never once did I fail to find someone who would put them on before Christmas. And they were kind of ugly And they did warp. And they did have to be painted. And it was costing more money every year to get someone to do the job. But. ah, what a good feeling I had every fall when I'd conned some guy with a strong back to do the job. I wouldn't touch them with a six-foot pole. it's a big house, and there were 14 of the brutes, weighing about 70 pounds each. I don't mind heights, as long as I'm not attached to the ground. i've been up to 32,000 feet, all by myself, in a Spitfire, and higher than than in passenger jets. But it takes all my nerve to climb a step ladder and change a bulb in the kitchen, with out someone holding the ladder. There was no way i was going to climb 30 feet up a ladder, carrying a 70 pound storm window, and punch and hammer it into place.. I always had a vision of a wind catching the storm broadside when i was halfway up, and taking me off for a hang-gliding trip. That actually happened to one chap who was doing the job one fall. A gust caught him and he sailed off the ladder, landed on his feet like a cat, still clutching the window, and nothing was damaged. He just grinned. That was Jim Fletcher, a young fellow who was completely unafraid of work. Made his living at cleaning floors, windows, etc. and built up a nti;e little business, scrubbing out banks and stores and such at nights. You don't see too many merchants or bank managers in there scrubbing their floors after they've closed, do you? Might do them good. SUGAR AND SPICE by Bill Smiley Jim used to charge $14 to put on the storms, which included washing them, and washing the outside of the regular windows, storing the screens. It took him a coil -pie of hours In the spring, he'd take them off, wash everything again, store them, for $10. The price went up steadily after he went to greener pastures, and the quality of the workmen went steadily downhill. Some of the young guys I hired took twice as long and charged twice as much. Sometimes the windows would stick and they'd leave it with a one -inch gap around half of it. One bird put his fist through a storm and bled all over the place. Another dropped one and glassed half my front lawn. Last year. I had a young fellow, newly started in the cleaning -up of properties, raking leaves, that sort of thing. I gave him the job of doing the estate, provided he'd do the storms. He looked pretty dubious, but agrees. Brought his wife around on her day off to hold the ladder. Well, he got them all, but he was peagreen and his legs were rubber, when he'd finished. He swore he'd never do them again. By this time it was costing me almost $100 a year to get the brutes on and off. Not to mention a great deal of harassment from the distaff side, and a frantic search for a putter-onner. Nobody on unemployment insurance was vaguely interested. All this, combined with the energy crisis propaganda, made me cave in, and we had aluminum storms put on. I could have paid $100 a year for the next 13 years if I'd stuck with the old wooden ones. "But look what you'll save on fuel, you say. Thai's what they all say Probably 50 bucks a year "it will increase the value of your house," someone else says Maybe By a few hundred But it's not the money that bothers me You can't take it with you Seems to me you can't take a house with you either No. it's not the money. it's the stress. Those windows have to he washed spring and fall, and maybe a few times between. According to the brochure. and the dealer, there's nothing to it. You just tear off the wooden inside frame. hoist your inside window, push this, pull that. and the storm comes in. You wash it. Then you get out on the ledge, hanging on by one hand and one foot. 30 feet off the ground, and clean the outside After which, if you get back in, you just zip, whip, slide, lower your inside window, and hammer back on your now splintered wooden frame My wife used to have a girl who would . come in to help her and they wrestled with those things. got them stuck. got them in but not on the rails. and generally found the whole process like roping a steer. I don't blame them. l' ye always had an aluminum door on my back door. and spring and fall I nearly rupture myself, swear like a sailor, threaten to smash the thing with an axe, and take an hour just to slide the screen up and let the storm down, or vice versa ,r i was always expecting to come home and find two women, each clutching an aluminum window, unconscious on my lawn. Or hanging by one foot from an upper window, screaming far help.