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2 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, November 15, 1978 Section Two F Editorial Comment It's Parade Time Again There's something about the San- ta Claus parade that puts you in a perfect mood for Christmas. October drags by and there are several weeks in November when it doesn't really seem like the festive season. But then in the middle of November, along cornes Santa with all his cohorts. Hard-working people weave magical Christmas floats out of paint and wood and tin foil and color- ful costumes. Bands blare Christ- mas carols in the street and then you know that even if it isn't quite December 25 it's close enough to feel the good old Christmas spirit again. And even when parade day is as cold as the North Pole, the mood of joy and festivity in the street is enough to melt the heart of Ebenezer Scrooge himself. It seems as though there is something deep inside us that makes us long for festivals and parades and holidays. Whoever said "everybody loves a parade" knew a lot about human nature. Special festivals give spice to our lives whether these special days are privately- celebrated birthdays or weddings or publicly-celebrated events such as Christmas, New Year's and Easter. AIl that we can say about Bowmanville's Santa Claus parade is that it is one of the biggest, most successful, best-organized and longest-running parades in the area. There is probably very little that we need to say here to encourage you to watch this year's event. The parade has a reputation that speaks for itself. We're certain that if you have watched the parade just once, wild reindeer wouldn't be able to drag you away from this year's edition. We know that if it is at all possible you will be on the curb this Saturday morning straining for that first glimpse of a band or a flag or a float coming down the street. We'ii see you there. The Problem with Pituitaries You probably haven't heard of the pituitary gland. In fact, there's a pretty good chance that you don't even know you have one. This gland can be used to help dwarfs achieve normal size and it must be donated by people for use after death. Apparently a growth hormone can be extracted from the pituitary gland and used on dwarfs with excellent results. But there is a problem with pituitaries. This little gland located at the base of the brain is not being donated in large enough numbers. The demand is lagging behind the supply. It seems as though medical scien- ce needs 10,000 of the glands per year to provide growth hormones for everyone who needs them in On- tario. About half the number was donated in the province last year. So, a suggestion has been made that the glands be removed by doc- tors performing routine autopsies. There are 18,000 to 20,000 autopsies per year in Ontario and pituitaries from these would provide an ample supply of growth hormones. This municipal election will probably go down in history as the battle of the signs. It seems as though every crossroad road from Courtice to Kendal is crowded with election posters that present can- didates' names in duplicate, triplicate or even large numbers. As these lines are being written, it is Monday afternoon so the outcome of the election is still unknown. But we suspect that it would be a worth- while project for some keen political science student to investigate the value of signs in an election cam- paign. Newcastle would be an ideal place to conduct such a study. Did the candidates with the largest number of votes also have the largest number of signs? Do big, bold signs make candidates more successful or are the smaller, more discreet signs most effective? What are the best colors? We've seen black signs, green signs, red signs, blue signs and signs in almost every shade of the rainbow except shocking pink. We are also reminded of the history of candidates signs in the However, it would require changes in legislation to allow doc- tors the right to remove the glands. Under the present Human Tissue Gift Act, the pituitary gland, like a kidney or heart or eyes, can only be removed by consent of the donor or next of kin. We think this is precisely the way the situation should remain. Any mandatory removal of the gland seems to us to be infringing on per- sonal rights. Surely one of the rights that a person has is the right to decide how his body will be used af- ter death. Rather than giving more power to authorities to take organs for donation, we think efforts should continue along the lines of promoting the donation of human organs. In this way there will be no tam- pering with basic rights and those who want to donate can be en- couraged to do so. The best way to make your wishes known on the subject of donating organs is to fill out the form on the back of your driver's licence. past. For example, back in 1926, federal candidate Vincent Massey seemed to have every tree and fence post bearing his name and yet the voters elected Fred Bowen. And in the municipal elections two years ago, many candidates were enthusiastic about signs. We suspect that there may still be an occasional faded sign for mayoralty candidate Ken Lyall decorating an obscure tree or fence post somewhere or laying a ditch. Perhaps some poor voter will be looking for Ken Lyall's name on the ballot this year. And speaking of the aftermath of an election, we hope that the people who were so zealous about installing the signs will be equally enthusiastic about taking them down once the fateful day is over. Many candidates with different names will contest the next election so there's no sense in keeping up this year's signs to get a head start on the ballots of 1980. That would be very confusing to the voters in two years time and polities shouldn't be made any more confusing than it often is. s Tr andtoee bee If this column appears in your favorite community newspaper two days or two weeks or two months after Remembrance Day, don't blame me. Blame the post office. As I write, the most arrogant, obnox- ious union in Canada is at it again. In fairness, the posties have their grievances. But they are so intransi- gent that they have lost any vestige they might have retained, of public support, after so many strikes in so few years. And their erstwhile leader, Monsieur Parrott, was full of crap when he declared there was union solidarity. Even as he said it, hundreds of small-town post office staffs had either not gone out at all, or were back to work, obeying the law. However, that has little to do with Remembrance Day, 1978. Unless it happens to strike a responsive chord in all those veterans who went to war thinking they were fighting for freedom not anarchy. A couple of years ago, I thought I had foresworn writing columns about Remembrance Day. I thought I'd said everything I could about it: the memories, the lump in the throat as The Last Post was played in the chill November air; the swapping or enormous lies at the Legion Hall after the parade. But this year, I was a bit miffed when a zealous Zone Commander down in the Brockville area accused me in the press of "knocking" the Canadian Legion, just because I did not genuflect every time the name came up. I retorted, also in the press, that it was rather odd that a chap who was invited on an average of twice a year to address Legion branches, s hould be so accused. Well, it all caught up with me. This year, in a weak moment and harassed by two old buddies who were well into the grape, I agreed to guest speak at the first Legion branch I ever joined, on Remem- brance Day. My wife wasn't that hilarious about the idea. She recalled a few instances when I had been up to no articular good with that particular ranch. Like the night I got home at 4 a.m. after a turkey raffle, tottered up the stairs, called, "Look what I brought you, sweetie," and flang a thirty-pound turkey, neck, legs and all onto the bed beside her. Which promptly collapsed, leaving her on the floor in the embrace of a very cold, very dead turk. As I recall, we dined not on hot turkey, but hot tongue and cold shoulder, next day. Or the time I brought home four Indian guys, good legionnaires all, insisted that they'd made me an honorary chief, and tried to explain to her why we had to put them up for the night. Or the time I went off to a one-day zone rally with a neighbour, a Great War vet, a charter member of the Legion, and a respectable citizen. And we arrived home two days later looking like skeletons and acting like a couple of veterans from the Boer War. But that's not, of course, the kind of thing I can use in my speech. No. Ill have to talk about comradeship, the flag, the Queen, the fallen, throwing the torch, the many scholarships the Legion provides, the lovely dinner prepared by the Ladies Auxiliary, and all that jazz. Lest we forget. What I'd really like to do is discuss topics closer to the hearts of the average legionnaire: what you could get for a pack of smokes in Antwerp in 1944; how come a colleague of mine who fought with Rommel in North Africa, gets a bigger war pension from the German govern- ment than I do from the Canadian; how many girls there were to the square yard in Picadilly Circus on a summer evening; how anybody who believed in democracy and equality could volunteer to serve in such a fascist outfit as the military. But no. That would never do. Not with the Ladies Auxiliary hanging ed my 80th birthday in mid-August "old boy" was not wide of the mark. It was prior to this set-back with phlebitis that I had queen over my daily visit to school, the same having been taken over by Rebecca Hewitt's mother, who by then had Becky's sister Liz to escort to the seat of learning as well. Upon reading the age of seven as Becky had done, the children are faced with the prospect of exchanging the ultra-modern infant school for the older and less attractive junior school which was originally associated with the Parish Church of "All Saints" here in the village. With a measure of misgiving on the part of the mother. Becky was accomnanied to the Junior School on the morning after summer vacation, when, as if from nowhere, her close friend Claire Sauvage appear- ed, and the two girls set off hand in hand without as much as 'by your leave for Mrs. Hewitt', who, although reliev- ed was also a bit saddened in the knowledge that her elder daughter had just taken one small step away from mother's environment and influence and one step closer to that of her peers. For my own part, Becky will always have a place in my affection, as I continue to think of her as "my little girl". Some excite- ment, publicity and anxiety came our way, too, by reason of the Hewitts. Mr. Hewitt is interested in around, drinking in every word. And making sure their spouses drank in nothing except words. L'il probably have to drop in a few heroic and imaginary personal experiences, stress the importance to the boys in arms of Those At Home, toss off an anecdote or two about Churchill, speak in hushed and reverent tones of those who got the chop, and belabor the government for not giving veterans a pension that would put them within a stone's throw of civil service pensioners. It's going to be tough. I am not a reverent person. I still think it will be a great day for Canada when there are only five legionnaires left in this country, all of them in their nineties, and they get together and sell the 28 million dollars of assets of the Canadian Legion, and squander the whole works on a three-week trip to Gay Paree. It will mean we haven't been in a war for fifty odd years. And it will probably mean that, after three weeks, there are no more Canadian legionnaires on the face of the earth. But I'il do my best. I can always give the Germans a verbal thump- ing, and bewail the fact that after being thoroughly licked, they could buy the whole of Canada tomorrow, if they wished. That should go over. mountain climbing, and engages in this pursuit when possible as a change from the demands of his important everyday work. Recently, on a climbing stint, a projecting piece of rock broke away allowing our neighbour to fall 15 feet and sustain painful back and leg injuries. To complete a rescue and provide transport to hospital, it was necessary to call in a heli- copter with a suspended sling. Thankfully, the worst now appears to be over. that the mountain continues its challenge is evidenced by the fact that Mr. Hewitt has gone climbing again. We have had Canadian visitors since mid summer. In July and August Henry and Dorothy Wood were here in England for four weeks. much of their visit was spent in Norfolk at the home of Rev. and Mrs. Frank Trundley. Mrs. Trundley being Henry's sister, and my own sister-in- law. By making a cross country motor journey of almost 250 miles Mr. Trundley was able to bring Henry and Dorothy to spend a week with us, and to take us for day visits into Wales as well. Our other Canadians were in the persons of Le Roy Brown and his wife Aili from Lindsay, Ontario and LeRoy's sister, Marion, from Oshawa. Incidentally Henry and Dorothy Wood are also of Oshawa. Having spent time here in England with the Canadian Airforce. Le Roy Brown recalled the country as it was in the "forties". Landing in Prestwick, Scotland, the visitors spent some time in Scotland before proceeding this way, into Yorkshire, Cheshire, Chester, Wales, and many other places including Oxford and London. They had a rented car, and the entire visit and journey was between the 8th and 30th of September. I must not forget *to mention "Out of the Mists", a most interesting and complete survey of Clarke Township history from early times until fairly recent times. Sidney Rutherford and Helen Lewis Smidt have done an immensely complete and absorbing piece of work in reconstructing events right there at home. Dr. W. H. Brown, my foster brother made me acquainted with "Our of the Mists" and very kindly presented me with a copy. Not long ago, the 'Statesman' carried pictures and accounts of the old Kirby School. As some of my education was derived there under the tutelidge of two or three different teachers, must not let the opportunity pass without expressing a word of good-will for the old school and its teachers. In the winter time, our noon lunch would be bolted and we would rush off to the hills of a nearby farm and sleigh ride for every moment of the noon hour. One of our teachers was Turn toPna n'1 November 8,1978 Dear Sir: In conflict to the letter written Nov. 1, 1978 by a concerned citizen, one tends to arrive at the thought that this person would like to start a little war against trucks and truck drivers. Statements the writer made, like "overloaded monsters" (against the law so they are weighed before they go on the road), "reckless flight" (I can't seem to remembef the number of times reckless, careless and thoughtless drivers of cars have taken the lives of innocent people compared to trucks) and "money mad drivers behind the wheels of of those dangerous vehicles" (seems to me we are all trying to make a fast buck but that doesn't make us animals, and because your car is not as big as a truck doesn't make them 21 Hermitage Rd. Saughall, Chester, CHI6BE England Oct. 15, 1978 Dear Statesman Staff Friends: With the "Statesman" coming to me fifty-two times in a year, my own rather puny attempt at an annual letter of dangerous) obviously were made in haste. The writer definitely has a point about that intersection but cars use it also and there has been a fair share of them going through it. So, before the writer starts this little war, he or she should take a closer look at trucks. If it wasn't for trucks we wouldn't have the things we do have today. In ending this letter, I would just like to point out, that truck drivers must go through very tough written and road tests before they can drive a truck. Also, some are trained for first aid treatment and you will see a lot more truck drivers stop at an accident to help someone, than drivers of cars because they are usually in to much of a HURRY. L. W. Eldridge Concerned Truck Driver "National Health" service. I can only speak in the highest terms of the efficient young doctor allocated to us, and of the almost daily care by the district nurses. One of these was a fype all her own. She came bustling in the other day saying "I have come to fix up the old boy." Havinè celebrat- repîy will seem inadequate indeed. However, with a small list of titles and topics in front of me. I will go on from there. Some three weeks ago I became incapacitated with what the doctor says is "phlebitis", and through this, has come my first contact with British Signs of the Times Truck Driver Replies Letter to the Editor