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The Huron Expositor, 1982-07-21, Page 2I /itiron fxpositor 981 Since 1860, Serving the Community first Incorporating .4: Br!.loditelS Post founded 1872 12 Main St. 527-0240 Published at SEAFORTH, ONTARIO every Wednesday afternoon by Signal -Star Publishing Limited Jocelyn A. Shrier, Publisher Susan White, Editor Arzw;:ttint,:s:50, H.W. (Herb) Turkhelm, Advertising Manager Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Community Newspaper Association and Audit Bureau of Circulation A member of the Ontario Press Council Subscription rates: Canada $17 a year (In advance) outside Canada $50. a year (In advance) Single Copies - 50 cents each Second class mail registration number 0696 SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, JULY 21, 1982 Public park at b ttom A group of Seaforth people were discussing what they'd like to see on that nice corner lot the town owns at the corner of High and Market Sts. It's an empty lot that was created after Huron Canadian Fabricators moved its industry out of a residential neighbourhood to the town's industrial park. Scoring a solid last on the list of preferred alternatives was a public park. That seemed curious, because there are senior citizens in the neighbourhood who might like a quiet place to relax with flowers, trees and benches. The corner is on the route many kids take daily to and from - SPS and they could conceivably enjoy a park with a swing and a teeter-totter or two. 'The lot is just a short block from downtown and a park could also be an attraction to weary shoppers or to people who work on Main St. who'd like a quiet outdoor place to eat a leisurely lunch. All in all, the opposition to the idea of a park for the vacant lot seemed hard to understand. That Is until we talked to residents who live near Seaforth's other downtown area park, Victoria. While they value Victoria Park for its band shell and its memorial for those who fought and died in the wars, some of them say thepark is a definite liability to the neighbourhood at night. ' Daytime users are quiet, and treat the place with respect; It's a noontime oasis in a busy town. But all that changes after dark, we hear, when partiers gather, beer bottles are smashed and picnic tables vandalized. The noise•goes on until the wee hours and thetgeople who make it ignore the fact that neighbours may be trying to sleep. It's that sort of mis-use of a park, not the park itself, that makes opposition to another park on the town -owned lot understandable. But things in a small Ontario town have come to a sad pass when parks are looked on as neighbourhood blights Instead of as assets. When the damage thaf's.dene after dark outweighs the benefits public open space can bring to a edmmunity. Increased police surveillance, and It appears we're going to get it, could be one answer. Putting up a fence and making our parks off-limits at night, as the Public Gardens In Halifax are, could be another. But the ultimate solution is a change in attitude, to one of co-operation, common sense and consideration for others, on the part of those who, -,2- abuse Victoria Park. Failing that we suggest a big park, outside town, far from any neighbours, full of wide open spaces and reserved for those who like to whoop, holler and generally raise Cain Into the night. Maybe it could serve as a combination gravel pit and dump during the day. Garbage disposal "It's funny," a member of the audience commented after the meeting on-Seaforth's dump site this week. "We can raise over half a million to build an arena, but we can't get a site for a dump." And while there's no site yet for.a new dump, or even a decision that a new site is the route to take, everyone at the meeting likely agreed a new community centre, as complicated and involved as its planning and fund raising has been, is relatively simple compared to finding a solution everyone likes about what to do about stinky, potentially polluting garbage. It's the NIMBY or Not In My Back Yard problem that engineer Burns Ross talked about in a recent Expositor interview. Faced with environment n1inistry studies, engineer's St ud i es arid even just a quick look at the present site, most reasonable people will agree that Seaforth needs a new way to handle its garbage. And fairly quickly. But mention a modern landfill site at a potential neighbour and everyone throws up their hands in horror. A dump is far less popular than a gravel pit, and those have been under fire in this area lately too. While there's plenty of expense and time involved, we think it's good that Seaforth's search for a garbage solution will come under the eagle eye of the Environmental Assessment Act. For that act is fUll of safeguards, for neighbours, for the future, to make sure any site that's chosen has the least possible impact on the environment and that includes our health and our pocketbooks. We've got no solution to the NIMBY effect. It's a natural human reaction to want the good things the twentieth century has to offer and then reject responsibility for the refuse those things leave behind. At least immediate responsibility. At least (let's hear a chorus now( "not in my back yard." But we urge everyone who's concerned about garbage disposal (and that should include everyone of us who contributes a weekly plastic bag or two to the community pile) to follow the dump issue closely, to come out to the meetings that will be held later this year With questions, and answers, for these who are looking for a solution. The town could after all, as the engineer said at the first meeting Monday, just close down the dump and leave residents to solve their own garbage problems. Council, to its credit, is not going to do that. The least the rest of us can do is support the district landfill site committee in their search. @Ocv Disappointed in coverage I was Very disappointed in the interest your paper showed in our Junior tournament last week. The photographer that arrived was an hour late since she had not received any message that the news was happening faster than we had anticipated. She had absolutely no interest in what she was to take a picturt of and could not wait to get the job done and get away, We had a tournament with sortie of the best Junior golfers in Canada entered and there was a super exciting playoff finish whit. h the reporter was not the least bit interested in W a lk in g a few yards to get some shots. Not only that but with six youngsters coming all the way from Bermuda to play the pictures would have been sent to the Royal Gazette in Bermuda for inter -national exposure. It seems unfortunate that fires and class pictures are the most popular pictures taken by local photographers. Hopefully the next, time a photographer heads in our direction she or he will show some interest in the subject. Sincerely. Carolanne Doig OpOnbn Good woodland on Huron farms JULY 14, 142 The public schools were dismissed for their summer holidays last Monday. - Wm. Murray of Harpurhey is entitled to the credit of being the champion rhubarb grower of America. He displayed a stalk at the Expositor office measuring two feet, seven inches in length with a circumference of five inches. The leaf was three feet, two inches across and two feet. seven inches in length. The new gravel now being laid on North Main Street is not as good as it should be for a thoroughfare on which there is so much travel. Like most other crops this year. flax is , likely td produce an unusually good yield. Thos. D. Ryan of the Seaforth flax mill said the mill has 310 acres under flax. George Sproat receintly purchased the farm of Calvin Campbell of Tuckersmith. The price paid for the 100 acre farm was 56.000. Mr. Sprbat now owns 500 acres of land in a block. His eldest son will assume responsibility of the additional land. JULY 19,1907 Howard Hartry has quite a curiousity in his garden. it being a cherry tree bearing both ripe fruit and blossoms at the same time. The sewers being constructed on Goderich street are about completed. The work has been carried out under the direction of George Murdie, chairman of the sheet committee. C.O. Fuce. a civil engineer and land surveyor intends coming to Seaforth from Galt to open an office and locate here permanently. A graduate of the Ontario School of Practical Science. he was connected with the well known firm of Davidson and Johnson of Berlin for several years. Hayforks and Stings, wood and steel tracks, the latest and best. For sale by Thomas Brown, Seaforth. R.H. Peck & Co.. the well known musical instrument dealers of Seaforth have made several important piano saleS. They sold a high grade Bell piano to Robert Winter of Seaforth who purchased it for his daughter Hazel. She is delighted with the tone of the instrument. JULY 8, 1932 The Seaforth Lions club have erected two signs at the east and west approaches to the town on Highway 8. In addition to saying "Welcome to Seaforth", the signS show the dx;1 @am ©gcm@ Lions insignia. Lettering was done by James. A. Stewart and signs built by N. Cluff and Sons. Following a survey of Huron timber, The Ontario Forestry Branch said there are more farms with woodlots in Huron than in other Western Ontario counties. Some farms have good woodland and much seeding is done in Huron. John Broderick, caretaker of the Seaforth Lawn Bowling club. recently had a number of boys down on their hands and knees. pulling weeds front the greens. As a result, the greens are in much better condition. Workmen have been engaged building a number of eatchbasins on the streets in Seaforth. One has been installed in front of the Preibyterian Church and one on John Street. JULY 26, 1957 Knocked over by waves. Joyce Margaret Dow, aged 11. of Cromarty Was unconscious when pulled from Lake Hue -on. She was knocked over by a wave and dragged 150 feet off shore by an undertow in rough water. She was revived through artificial respiration. Serving 50 customers, a new water system for Egmondville was brought into use following, negotiations by-Tuckersmith coun- cil. Designed by engineer G.W. Archibald, cost of the project was about 510,000. Plans to organize a midget baseball club were advanced further when a tentative executive took steps to provide necessary' financing. Midget ball will include players in the 14-16 age range and who are too old for Bantams. After 53 years, two brothers. Fred C. Kennings of Henson and William S. Ken- nings of Oregon were reunited. The brothers were born and raised in Hay township on one of John.CaMpbell's farms. William had not seen his brother Fred since he left Ontarid in 1904. When they met at the station, William failed to recognize his brother, but Fred recognized him. SOCCER TEAM IN 1936—In the alley behind the Expositor for a photo are a top soccer team. Owner of the photo, Frank Sillpoints out that five team members became Seaforth mayors, one became PUC chairman and one was killed in WW2. Team members from right rear are: Tom Sills, Der Sills, John Flannery, Don Dale, Bev Christie, Dr. E.A. McMaster, Cyril Flannery, Frank Sills, George Kruse, Van Egmond Bell, Glen Smith, Jack Dixon, Angus McLean. Doom not darkened by robots It was interesting to look at an article in Today magazine on the weekend and see again those utopian promises of what technology would bring us in the future: the prorniscs that still seem impossibly far in the future. If you grew up in the fifties those predictions were a part of every day life. Just about every magazine you could , pick up would one time or another have an article. complete with futuristic drawings. about how technology would change our lives in the future. First and foremost there was rocket travel but there were also predictions that we would all go back and forth to work, not in cars, but in personal helicopters. There would be robots to make living a breeze around the house and people wouldn't have to even take time to eat anymore. 'They'd just swallow a few pills with all the nutrients needed to keep thern perfectly healthy. Funny how none of those things have come true. We're spending more time buying and enjoying food than every before and the robot still hasn't darkened the door of any household (in fact many men have lost the one labour-saving device they had in their houses in the 1950s: the stay-at-home housewife). Funny how in these turbulent times in the 1980s we tend to look back at the 1950s 13cArind h® 0•C@MO by KG4A R©uOgIgn through a golden haze of nostalgia. The fifties were a time when the future was ours. There were no doubts about tomorrow in those days if you could ignore the threat of nuclear war that hung over our heads every day aS the Cold War went on. The technology that had won the Second World War. that had created that atomic bomb, was going to lead us to the promised land. Mankind. as far as you can go back in history had dreamed of an easier life. a life where there would be less struggle and more leisure and luxury. The caveman dreamt of it when he invented the wheel, the pioneers when they undertook the arduous journey to the new land across the sea. In the 1950s, thanks to technology and our bound- less optimism, the fantasy land had arrived. LOOKING BACK Looking back now. you can see that many of the roots of our current problems came from those fantasies of the good life portrayed in the 1950s, We took to technology like a new religion. but religion, as we know. can be as dangerous taken to extremes. as it is good in moderation. We were so sure of the wonders to be ours at the hands of scientists that we didn't looka at the price, Indeed, we were being told that the idea that there had to be a price was an ancient Victtirian myth. We were being urged to break away from Victorianism. from the idea of the work ethic. The story of the ant and the grasshopper, the tortoise and the hare. were remnants of an older. more primitive time. And we gladly embraced it all. Why not look forward to the promised life when the problern wouldn't be how to get all the work done with what to do with all our leisure time? LOVE PLASTICS Thus we fell in love with plastics that could be formed into any shiny object we wanted at a ridiculously low price and we never thought of the problem of what to do with the by-products of the process of making plastic. We fell in love with weed sprays and bug sprays and fungicides because they saved us work. without looking at what those chemi- cals could do to the environment we depend on for life itself. We build bigger automobi- les, never wondering what we might do when oil ran out. We took the shorter work week, the ever-increasing standard of living as a right as promised to us by the creed of our new religion. But we found out in the later years that there is a price to be paid. We found out about pollution in the 1960s and about inflation and unemployment in the 1970s and '80s. Utopia has not yet been invented. even by technology. There's another price to be paid even if technology did have the answers for the problems it created. Technology. is a trap. There are some gadgets that give us freedom but for every gadget that frees us, hundreds of them tie us down. So many of the products of technology that now crowd our homes have been paid for at the cost of another kind of freedom. In order to keep up with the latest fashion in gadgetry many of us are stuck in jobs we don •t like because we need the money to niake our leisure life more enjoyable. So we keep the jobs so we can buy the gadgets to keep our minds off the jobs that we don't like. We're in a trap. Technology is supposed to • bring us freedom. We must. however. look the • gifthorse in the mouth and sec just how much freedom were getting and just what price we have to pay. Borrowers have their backs to the wall Wg©63 @nd ofk* by Dt110 5,68dby There•s a lot of doom and gloom floating around in Canada these days. And not without reason. The Three Ugly Sisters: high interest 'rates. high unemployment. and steady Inflation have produced a general alarm and despair that this country has not seen since the Thirties. Farmers and small businesses. traditional borrowers frOm the banks, have their backs to the wall. and no hole'to squeeze through. Executives in the 550.000 a year bracket. who have served their companies with servility for 10 or 15 years. are being turfed into the unemployment insurance line-ups. I feel sorry for them. Gone are the dinner parties. the theatre parties. the perks such as trips abroad and signing the check for a three -martini luncheon. and the big steak barbequeS for business reasons. and the golf and country club fees tax deductible. They have not ground the poor under their heels. Indeed. they have occasionally relt a s ague pity for the guy With four kids Who makes S15.000 a year. They have shaken their heads adrhiringly. and thought, ' ' Don't know how he does U. -- Aside from these turfed -out types. wander• ing around nibbling their fingers and wondering what hit them. my heart bleeds fOr others: the doctors who work 300 hours a week dispensing pills; the lawyers who have no pension fund and charge you 5100 to have their secretaries type something out in an hour: the accountants who grow fat as leeches on other people's attempts to beat the system — in fact all the people who have been educated at great public expense (including teachers) to that fay could carve a fine financial niche in our society. They are suffering deeply. I know a politician right now who is laughing. He served several terms in the provincial legislature. a couple in the federal. sold a thriving business. and is sitting in Florida. He chuckles 50 much that his wife wants him to see a psychiatrict specialist in chuckles. She thinks it 's like hiccoughs. He's chuckling because he gets two (indexed) pensions and the returns from his business. Now. before my store of pity runs out. I want you to consider the Canadian banks. There is where my deepest sympathy lies. They are in Desperate Straits. which are just across the channel from Dire Straits. After logging anywhere up to 60 per cent profit last year. they are whimpering with fear. Their shares have gone down. Their profits have gone down disastrously. Woe is the land! The Canadians being beaten by the Russians is a blow to our national pride. But the idea of our banks not making lots and lots of money will drive many of us to suicide. I have little doubt. The managers have invariably been ill -educated. clueless. pawns who always have to call up the Queen in Montreal or Toronto or Vancouver to decide on anything more important than how many rolls of toilet paper to order. Nice fellows. but clueless. unless you wanted to borrow money without putting up your grandmother as security. And she had to have $15,000 in Canada Savings Bonds. To heck with the poor. Pity the poor banks. Right? Telephone has come long way Ocido, ing Endo, by EllaktO ir©unoh@nd Someone mentioned recently how far the telephone system has come. In some large Canadian centres, a caller can dial a wrong number to 57 countries. This latest development hasn't reached us, yet. in the small towns and rural areas, but it will - the same way direct dialing. under- ground cable and private lines Came. An advance. that has gained a lot of attention in recent years. is the convention call. A number of business executives in several cities across the country can hold a conference without leaving their offices. In some ways. it seems like an extension of the old-fashioned party line. 20 or more neighbours could get together to plan a community party or a quilting bee or just to compare their woes. The party line must have been a gossip's paradise! And when an emergency struck. such as a fire. one long ring on the phone brought neighbours running to help. The old-fashioned party line had its advantages and disadvantages. - Nowadays many of us have become accustomed to having private lines. We call friends, who also have party lines, and we fmeeldsescu. re saying anything that pops into our in Occasionally, though, we call a friend who doesn't have a private line. Something slips out that we wouldn't ordinarily say in mixed company, and its only after we heard the click that we think. "Oops. I shouldn't have said that!" It's hard to imagine, that one man's desire to help the deaf, could -pave the way to tremendous opportunities for communication for all of us. Now we can talk across town. across the country and across the sea. We can talk to moving vehicles on land and water. , We can speak privately or link several connections for a conference call. and, of cOurse. we e5n have the conven- ience of a phone in every roomif we wish. Today•s phones arc not only convenient but decorative A well. I wonder if Mr. Bell dreamed that one day callers would be out on hold". Better yet. could he have imagined that one day deat people would be able to "talk"' to each other via computorized telephones. The system certainly has come a long way from the string with the tin can on each end.