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The Huron Expositor, 1982-12-08, Page 2lliry ` fxpo.itor Since 1860, Serving the Community first Incorporating rBrussels Post founded 1872 12 Main St. 527-0240 Published at SEAFORTH, ONTARIO every Wednesday afternoon by Signal -Star Publishing Limited Jocelyn A. Shrleie Publisher Susan White, Editor 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 \MIJL' Subscription rates: Canada $17.75 a year (in advance) outside Canada $50. a year (in advance) Single Copies - 50 cents each Second class mail registration number 0696 SEAROffirN, ONTARIO, ECEMRER 8, 1982 LOVE A PARADE—Danny Nash was probably the youngest participant in Seaforth's Sesta Claus parade. And by the time the Lioness float got downtown, he was asleep in the arms of his mother, Mary -Margaret. (Photo by White) Recession - proof Just about every Canadian is feeling 'the effects of current hard times. Many are having to make sacrifices. They range in severity from the loss of a house you can no longer afford to make payments on or not buying , the kids any Christmas presents t� cutting back the vacation in Florida from three weeks to two. Nobody can get too worked up about the vacationers, but it's common decency to expect concern about the plight of those other Canadians, those who face a er of real hardship because they are unemployed. But there's paren ly not much concern from our leaders in Ottawa. The tasteless, thou tless, downright cruel award for bad examples in 1982 has to go to th federal cabinet. Those are the peop e who are apprently so insulated from what reality is like for the 1.4 million Canadians who are unemployed that they spent more than $1.9. million gallivanting around Canada and the world last year. That's a 70 per cent increase over the year before. (Figures include travel costs for the MPs who act as ministers' parliamentary secretaries.) Top price traveller was agriculture's Eugene Whalen, who spent $156,903: Other big spenders, showing big increases, were Herb Grey, Marc Lalonde .and Pierre De Bane. Only two of 36 cabinet ministers, Raymond Perrault and Bennett Campbell, spent less on travel than they or their predecessors did in 1980 -81. This sad, sad story confirms what many of us have thought about Canada's leaders. They are out of touch, living in a boom -bubble from the 70s when expenses and incomes could go up and up because the money to pay for it all would be found, somehow, somewhere. That bubble has burst, everywhere but in Ottawa, where disregard for the plight of ordinary Canadians allows the good times to goon and on. S.W. Communication needed Every Huron County taxpayer will welcome the news from the -Huron board of education that trustees (or at least one of them, chairman Dorothy Wallace) see communication as a priority.. And while Mrs. Wallace in her statement at the old board's final meeting insisted that body has to be more open with the press, we'd like to underline that better communication with the public is the important goal. The press, through its coverage of board meetings, is only representing this county's readers, those absolutely essential people whose taxes pay our education bills: We're absolutely certain Huron taxp4ers will welcome more comprete information on board decisions and how and why they are made. Mrs. Wallace outl ped the dimensions of the problem well. Most of the Ward's decision making and debate takes place in closed committee sessions. Committee decisions in turn.go to a full board meeting, which is open to the' public, once a month. Crucial matters of spending and educational policy are then passed with very little discussion. Anyone who attends, including the press, gets the impression the board is merely rubber stamping decisions. If the board is serious about improving communication with its ratepayers, that impression has to change. Probably, as retiring trustee Marion Zinn suggests, two board meetings a month with full discussion there rather than, or in addition to, committee meetings, is the answer, ti The Huron board must also drop the policy, adopted officially in November, that only the chairman can speak to the media about board issues. That effectively muzzles a local trustee who wants to speak out on local concerns, or any trustee who disagrees with any stand the chairman takes. And it's no way to build trust and communication between trustees and those who elect them. "We have nothing to hide," the board's chairman commented when she brought up the question of communication with the public. That shouid become self-evident if the new board takes Mrs. Wallace's concerns (which are really the concerns of everyone in the county who pays for and is interested in education) seriously at its January meeting. -S.W. Seaforth area man does to jail DECEMItER 1,1 :,•2 A well-known Seaforth area character was sent to Goderich jail for practising dishonest pranks on his neighbours. He recently entered the sheep fold of John Kerr. selected one of his best ewes and slaughtered it. left the skin behind and carried off the carcass. Mr. Kerr and several of his neighbours have for some time been missing numbers of their poultry and it is now supposed the hens went in the same direction as the mutton. Mr. Clarke of Seaforth now has in his 'henery over 350 birds, some of them being from the best strains in America. He has 114 different breeds and is continually receiving orders from all parts of Ontario for birds. Water in many places is very scarce. If the winter now sets in. many farmers will be badly off for water for their stock. Wells that have not been known to fail for years, are now quite dry and useless. The roof of the driving shed at the Queen's Hotel fell in with a crash last week. Michael Heffernan of the Huron Road had a valuable team of horses standing in the shed. Fortunately they were close to the end wall and were protected fr falling boards. If the present her then continues, the rinks will be put in rking order at once, and curling and skati g will be the order of the day. DECIEl1ti>BER 113,11907 A bylaw was passed by Seaforth council, I One of the nicer things about growing older is that we grow steadily more pure. It's astonishing how we shed sin and don morality with each passing year. One night about 50 years ago, for example, D was climbing over a stone wall with my shirt stuffed with grapes, when a stentorian voice bellowed, "Hi! You!" My heart leaped to the ground, the grapes popped out off my shirt, and I took off like a missile, pursued by outraged roars and heavy boots. Later. in the sanctuary off my bed, did 1 regret my wickedness, revile myself for shattering one of the commandments and swear that I'd never do it again? Not exactly. What 1 did was regret losing the grapes, revile myself for being scared half to death. and swear a return visit to the vineyard as soon as the heat was off. That's what 1 mean. Today, 1'd never consider such a thing. Oh, 1 might give my golf ball a very small kick if it was in a particularly bad lie in the rough and nobody was looking. I might tell my wife 1'd paid the hydro bill in time to get the discount when 1 knew perfectly well that it was in my pocket, unpaid. But I'd never dream of doing anything dishonest, like stealing grapes from a millionaire with a huge estate and a huge gardener doubling as night watchman. Other people are the same. The older they get. the better they get. Not long ago. we visited an old acquaintance, a woman in her early 40s. She had a teenage daughter who a� i iL @ )' ©!� ©O assuming the scavenging of the town and assessing the property therefore. The bylaw provides that all dry earth closets be emptied once a month and all water closets and cesspools be disinfected at least once a month and emptied at Beast once a year. For this service, a tax of one dollar is levied pir each residence, store and office in town; non Day was appointed official scavenger and is to receive $600 per year. The well-bred grey hound, belonging to A. Strachan of . russels, was poisoned. A. T. Currie's fon terrier also got a dose that ended his days.' Engineer Rogers has been in theeWaiton vicinity for some days trying to provide ways and means by which the surplus water of the village can be carried down to Lake Huron. Since the recent heavy rains, many cellars have been flooded. The fifth annual fat stock show at the Union Stockyards, Toronto Junction was held recently. The following prizes were won by dealers in this district: James Shea. Dublin, third for D6 export steers; John O'Keefe. Seaforth, third for 118 butcher steers, second for three. year- old fat heifer and first for give away, would leave them at the store in di I 1 my name to help me out, as 1 don't .think Santa will bring yne very much this English bacon lines. DECEMBER 9, 2932 In magistrate's court recently, F.W. Leisemer, who recently opened a butcher shop in Egmondville, pleaded not guilty to a charge of peddling in Seaforth. The charge is the first laid since the new bylaw relating to hawkers and peddlers came into force. The case was adjourned to a later date. Alleged to have smashed into a buggy containing Mr. and Mrs. Peter Deichert and daughter of ,Zurich, at Egmondville bridge, George Gray off Mitchell has been arrested and will appear before the Seafforth Magi- strate charged with criminal negligence. The occupants of the buggy, who had been visiting Mr. and Mrs. Louis Hildebrand, were thrown out but not seriously injured. The buggy was demolished. The Expositor has received a letter from little Doris Venus, which speaks for itself. It said, "As I lost all my dolls in our Tire and Dad is out of work and cannot get me one, 11 would very much like to win one of these in the Rexall Contest: I thought maybe alter readine this, those who would have votes to Of a 6}y ➢BOD kutiUt ty was out to a dance that night. The kid was to be home by one. As the hour neared,•the mother kept breaking off her smonologue about her church activities, her eyes flitting toward the clock. By one -fifteen, we had to restrain her forcibly from calling the police. The kid showed up at one -thirty. You should have heard her mother. You'd have thought the youngster was utterly depraved. Later. as mama served tea and vehemently wondered what was going to become of these undisciplined, irresponsible teenagers, I couldn't help casting my mind back. Twenty-five years earlier, our hostess had been a regular young rip, whose specialties were drinking gin out of the bottle in backseats of cars, and going for mixed midnight swims au nature!. Recently, i spent a weekend with an old college friend. He had distinguished himself at university, not through academic or athletic prowess, but for an incredible memory that could recall the words and tunes of all the bawdy songs ever sung. Saturday night 1 tried to get a few verses of Riley's Daughter, or Cats on the Rooftops out of him, but he was strangely reticent. in the old days you had to bold him down and stuff a sock in his mputh to make him stop singing. Sunday morning. he acted kind of myster- ious. Wanted me to go for a walk with him. 1 decided he was taking me to the bootlegger's, so naturally demurred, but he insisted. Ten minutes later my mouth was still hanging open as 1 sat in the back row of the Sunday School and watched my friend, arms waving, face beaming, leading about eighty small types through the strains of Jesus Loves Me. Last spring 1 bumped into an old Air Force sidekick in the coffee shop of a city hotel. Hadn't seen him since Brussels, 1945. His name was Dick, but we called him The Count in those days, because he was reputedly. and enviedly, living in sin with a beautiful rich Beleian•countess. He was a big, handsome. devil-may-care chap then. Anyway, we chatted. He was pretty fat, Christmas, and any votes would be very much appreciated. Thanking anyone who wpuld help me. 1 remain as ever, Doris Venus." Try our Golden Load Bread. Six cents per load, sweet as a nut. J. M. Cardno, Grocer and raker. DECEMBER 29, 1957 Seaforth Farmers Co-operative has added to the services it provides the farming community with new bulk handling facilities for grain. The new installation located at the east end of the' mill permits dumping truckload lots in a matter of minutes and avoids, bagging and handling. Christmas shopping came to a climax in •Seafforth on Friday afternoon when 11600 children and their parents crowded Main street to welcome Santa Claus during his annual visit. Santa arrived on the fire truck, having to abandon his usual mode of travel when the weatherman failed to co-operate and poured several inches of rain onto the area. • Seals and diplomas were presented to 53 Sunday School scholars at the Northside United Church during the annual White Gift service. Sunday school superintendent S.J. Scott and assistant Alvin Harding made the presentations. Seafforth Gun Club ,held its 'organization, meeting, naming Joe Nigh president. NameN secretary treasurer was Keith Sharp and range officers are Verdun Rau. Bob Snell and Bill Robertson. it we used to call you The Count?", II asked, in an effort to establish some common ground. He mutter d something like "Count me out", and launched rapidly into a spiel on the work a was doing with juvenile delinquents, throw h a church group. He finally ran out off brew , there was an awkward pause, then: "Gu ssYou haven't met the wife," he said, turnip to a large red-faced woman sitting on the stodl beside him, eating a vast sundae. It was not the Countess. And so it goes. You can see them everywhere: people who were once steeped in sin and now pass the collection plate; who were once steeped in gin and whose inflamed noses now light the way for the valiant armies of the temperance movement. Reformed lechers lead the attack on pornography and prostitution. Reformed poachers want the game laws tightened. Ancient golfers will take off as few as five strokes from their actual score. Sex fiends become saintly. It's as plain as the wart on your nose that people improve with age, morally, if not physically. But I'd still like to know why. Is it because they have learned to respect the law and other people's property? Is it because they know the day of judgement is bearing down and they're trying to cover their flaming youth with a nice coat of camouflage grey? Or is it that they, simply don't have the stamina to be sinful any more? Perhaps some of you old sinners could enlighten me. Death ritual compared to Christmas consumers One of the great natural phenomena takes place every few years in the Arctic when a little rodent called a lemming heads in huge numbers toward the sea. jumps in and swims until it meets its death. Sometimes 1 think they act a little like smalltown consumers. It's that time of the year again for many consumers: the ti a of the Christmas shopping trip to t ity. Armed with lists of presents needed uncle Harry and cousin Bertha, people head off with their hard-earn- ed dollars, earned in their own community, and put it into the hands of people who work in a larger community and don t even give a hoot about the little town back home. Some buying outside the old home town of course is understandable. Small towns have, by necessity, small business sections. It's pretty hard to get everything in a small town store because there is less demand, less volume for the small town merchant and he can't afford to stock things that won't move quickly. especially at today's interest rates. But every year. thousands of small-town residents spend millions of dollars buying things in big city stores that they could have bought at home, and brag how much money they saved in doing it. They never seem. to stop and think how much it cost them....1 mean really cost. I'm not just talkingf about the hidden costs of that shopping trip to the city like the gasoline, the parking, the wear and tear on their car. There are costs that arc even more p Wand og@ww b}vf K@Oilb QOMO t©fffl hidden but in the long run will be much more costly. With a limited number of potential customers, thesmall town merchant can seldom compete either In variety of goods on his shelves or on cost. The problem is that every dollar that goes out of town makes the squeeze that much worse. if, say, 10 per cent of the potential Christmas shopping dollars flow out of the community to the city instead of staying in the hometown, then the merchant will have less money next year and will cut back on his stock further. This in turn sends more people out of town to get better selection which leaves the merchant less money to be able to put in stock and so the vicious circle goes until the merchant is out of business. Suddenly, instead of going out of town just for Christmas shopping, the consumer has to go out of town for everything. What's more, when a merchant goes out of business, a small town starts to die. Ju t as a new factory opening can cause a riPp e effect that can mean many more jobs tha just those actually at the factory, so a ripple effect can be felt when a business closes. The merchant and his family and his employees and their families suddenly are no longer consumers in the town. The local market shrinks a little further and the circle becomes even more vicious. When businesses are lost, when people have to move out of town, then the tax base is whittled away. Services we take for granted, our arenas, parks. hospitals, schools, good streets, either become more expensive for those left behind or have to be withdrawn altogether. This same kind of attitude has been very evident in many small towns in recent years in the debate over shopping plazas. in town after town citizens have been pitted against the local businessmen in the battle over. whether or not shopping plazas should be built. In nearly all cases the citizenry have felt the offer by some outside entrepreneur to build a shopping complex on the edge of y their town is a great step forward for their c nity. The merchants, seeing competi- t' n f already scarce shopping dollars, have ba Ied'hopclessly against tide. The problem with those shopping centres is that they are turning towns into the equivalent of the Canadian economy -owned by foreigners. In order to get the financing, the builders of those plazas must have sound businesses with signed leases. The kind of business that qualifies as far as most lending institutions arc concerned is the kind of chain operation one sees in plaza after plaza across the country. So in many ca;es, people are trading locally -owned businesses where their shopp- ing dollars will stay in the community, for businesses owned by large, city -based corporations. the local businessman is involved in his community, serving on boards. running for council, contributing to fund raising drives for hospitals and arenas. he's living in the community so it matters to him that it is the best it can be. Why should a chain store operation care so much? We, all of us, often bemoan the "death" of small towns, We object to the lack of job opportunities for our young people, to the fact we have to send them off to the cities to get employment. Me complain that the government should do something to protect our smalltown way of life. But why should the government do something if we won't? How can govern- ment protect us from ourselves? Aren't we smart enough to sce that if we send our dollars off to the city today we'll have to send our kids off tomorrow? Apparently not. We're just Tike those lemmings, drawn by some mysterious force to our own destruction. Students split on metric question Editor's note: The following editorials were written as a school project by Grade 7 and 8 students at St. Columban School. principal Joe MacDonald thought Expositor readers might be interested in the stude'its' thoughts. There have been many debates for the past while over the metric system. Some want it, and some don't! Although the metric system is legally here as of 1980, there still remains much controversy over it. pfne of the reasons people do not want the metric system are because they feel that this system•is hard to learn and it's such a bother. Maybe people are too lazy to try to learn it. -Jean Ryan Grade eight. In my opinion, 1 feel that the Metric System is a waste of time. Yes, it will save Canada money in the long run, but to learn it is complicated and confusing. It looks simple enough, but once you get going up and down that little scale of ten's (10's), a lot of numbers get involved. Too mapy numbers! My teacher says the new systein is one of the best Ettings happening to Canada. It has to do with importing and exporting. Other countries have• changed from imperial to metric, so we could lose money in trade. The imperial system had too many kinds of weight, measurement... Some of them as you know are inch, foot, yard, where Metric is centimeter, metre, kilometre... So, although i think it is hard to learn, I'm sure the "great country of Canada" wouldn't do it if it wasn't good for us. -Mary Maloney Grade eight Is the Metric System better than Imperial or not? Yes, i think the Metric System is a very good idea. it has its pros and cons. On the pros side ' it all goes by tens. Another good point is that it will save Canada a lot of money. A bad point is that most adults wil have a hard time trying to figure this out. Another bad point is that soon the clock will be changed .4f you learn metric, you will never forget it. -Mike Kelly Grade eight is the metric system worthwhile to learn? The odds on favourite seem to go to the positive side. In the long run this switch will save our country money. When we were on imperial we received shortages on our imports through allthe confusion el converting. The pros of the metric system are: it's easy because every measurement goes up by 10; saves money and it's the system used by other countries. The disadvantages are: it causes trouble for the older people being that they have to change the way they were taught and they might bring in Metric time which is not needed but our system now is good enough. As you know the controversy can be examined from being positive or being negative. Over all I think the Metric --' System is good for Canada. -Mike Schoonderwoerd Grade eight The metric system is useful yet it is very inconvenient for many people. On the news they had a few people voicing their . opinions on the metric system and 1 was, quite interested. Many of the married couples said that they detested the thought of learning it, mainly because it would take up too much of their time. Othereople said that they didn't care, which 1 don't think is a very good attitude because they will be sure to become involved ie some way, some time. As for the people who are all for it, I agree with them. It is most convenient for Canada because they are constantly trading with other countries, and could easily get less than they bar ained for. I must say 1 understand th it different , opinions but I think that it is th best thing ' for Canada to do right now before it is ton late. For me, -learning it wasn't all that fun, but 1 sure am glad that 1 was fortunate enough to learn it. if you have an opportunity to learn it. take advantage of the chance, it could be very useful in the future. The choice is yours! -Angela Duffy Grade eight 1 think the metric system was a good thing for the government to do because it is a lot easier for the little children and much easier for everyone. But there are had points too; some are that it is hard to convert from Imperial to Metric, The Dutch people were used to metric but then they had to go to Imperial and now they have to convert back to metric. Little children may not understand it now but as they get into the higher grades they will learn more about it. -Pat Moylan Grade seven My opinion on the metric system is it is very good. It is all base ten - example 10, . 100, 1000. if is not like quarts, inch, yards and feet. 1"his system is very hard for farmers because they're used to our old system. f Maybe we should help them learn. What do you think? Oh, also let me end with a little joke. Now Gordon Lightfoot shall be changed to "Gordon Lightmetre". -Margie Ryan The Metric SystemGrade eight in my opinion is a good move by Canada. The change was good even though it would cost millions; it would nav off in the long run. The Metric System might have been complicated at the be in nine hut once you get to know it. it is easier than Imperial. In my opinion this . was one of Canada's best ideas. -Mark Swart Grade eight