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Volume 72, Number 39 GST Included $1.25 Wednesday October 14, 2009 Orono Town Hall Publications Mail Registration No. 09301 Agreement No. 40012366 Serving Kendal, Kirby, Leskard, Newcastle, Newtonville, Orono, Starkville and Tyrone since 1937 Tornadoes a record Environment Canada concluded that damage caused by high winds northeast of Kendal on the night of Thursday, August 20, was a tornado. This was the 18th confirmed tornado on that day, which is now the record for the most tornadoes to occur in Ontario and in Canada on one day, according to an Environment Canada news release issued on Wednesday, October 7. The local tornado occurred around 8 p.m. on August 20, and created a damage path of about 3.5 kilometres long and 100 metres at its widest. Some trees were blown down and there was some minor damage done to a home and farm on Thertell Road. Based on this damage, the tornado was rated as a Fujita scale zero (F-0) tornado with peak winds around 115 kilometres per hour. This is the weakest rating on the Fujita wind damage scale which goes from zero to five. The previous record number of tornadoes to occur in one day in Ontario was 17, which occurred on August 2nd, 2006. In an average year, Ontario has 11 tornadoes. The greatest number of tornadic events in one year in Ontario was 29, which occurred in 2006. The total number of tornadoes for this season now stands at 28. The summer severe-weather season normally begins in late April and continues until early October. The August 20th tornadoes began 14 kilometers southwest of Durham, ON in Grey County. The first four tornadoes of the day were the highest rated at F2, and created the most damage. One of those, tornado three, occurred in Woodbridge, where dozens of TORNADO see page 3 Orono Public School students created their own hand-crafted turkeys last week. Pictured from left to right, back row: Megan, grade 2; Emma, grade 1; Danielle, grade 5; Rachel, grade 4. Front row : Jr. Kindergarten classmates Lauren, Damien, Maddison, and Carly. After 56 years, it's hats off & farewell to The Country Four by Sue Weigand All they've ever needed is a pitch pipe and each other. Fifty-six years after they first began, their voices are still strong and their hearts light, as the members of The Country Four barbershop quartet gather around the kitchen table of Glenn Allin and his wife Jean in Newcastle, for a spontaneous rendition of the gospel standard, "He Touched Me." Four separate pitch-perfect voices come together as one, and the choice of song seems appropriate, as they sing with conviction the words, "And oh, the joy that fills my soul." Not only do the four men still have good voices but, perhaps more notable after all these years, they still enjoy each other's company - not just singing, but talking, drinking coffee, sharing a lot of memories and a lot of laughter. The Country Four - Glenn Allin, bass; Don Staples, tenor; Jack Allin, lead; and Merrill Brown, baritone holds the honour of being listed in the Guinness World Records as the world's "most durable barbershop quartet." The group earned that title in 2003 - fifty years after it first started in Orono - for "performing regularly for a total of 50 years in and around Oshawa, Ontario, Canada." "It's very British of them to say we're 'durable,'" says Merrill, at 73 years of age, the quartet's youngest member. Jack is 74, Glenn is 82, and Don is 85. Merrill is laughing, wondering out loud if being called "durable" is really such an honour but, he decides it is more accurate and more flattering than being called the world's oldest quartet. "We never took ourselves too seriously, that's what keeps us going," he says. "We were there to entertain ourselves. It was a bonus that others found us entertaining too." That comment leads Jack to recall when they started: "At our first practice, I can still remember, it was so much fun, I just felt like I never touched the highway [driving] all the way home." That practice was held at the apartment Glenn and Jean were renting over Oscar (Bud) W. Rolph's hardware store on Main St. in Orono. Their first public performance would be at the Orono United Church. "We were all from the country, that's how the name started," notes Glenn. None of the men could have imagined then that FOUR see page 4 What's Inside see page 6