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Don‘t PUSH the public Waterloo‘s urban renewal committee gave all indications Monday night that their year long work had not been in vain. 4 Waterloo Chronicle, Wednesday, October 31, 1973 Members of the committee sat patiently in Waterloo council chambers while the disâ€" cussion of urban renewal got off to a shaky start Lead us! What probably alarmed the members most was hearing a few statements which they had tossed around so frequently and had finally come to a conclusion on. They did not want to see the city hire another person to do a detailed plan or spend any more time on talking about urban renewal rather than taking action. The independent merchants in this area have prospered because they have been comâ€" petent in both their pricing and quality of salesmanship. Those who haven‘t are no longer merchants in Waterloo. When it did not seem that council was headâ€" ing in the direction they wanted and in the direcâ€" tion they should have been going committee members got up and told them so. It should be a reassuring point for the public to note that this group of volunteers known as the urban renewal committee may like to give the onus to someone else at this point but are makâ€" ing sure the burden will be bore. properly beâ€" fore bowing out of the picture. ‘ They have made ‘their recommendation and they as a committee and we as the public do not want to see anymore verbal volleyball games over urban renewal which touch on areas alâ€" ready adequately discussed. There is time for talk of the whole plan when the work for at least part is in progress. We have to agree 100 percent with the stateâ€" ment made by George Stanley of the National Retailers‘ Institute to council Monday night. He said it is not competition which knocks out the independent merchants, it is incompetence. It is unfair for PUSH to submit residents to the inconvenience they are proposing. The pubâ€" lic should be allowed to shop in the evenings if they want to and those stores capable and eager to provide this opportunity should not be prohibited from doing so. The idea of trying to get legislation enforced to close stores on week nights should not be a move instigated by an independent merchants group and passed by provincial government. By doing this the most important voice in the issue has been byâ€"passed...the consumer. The downtown merchants in Waterloo have not seen many in their midst if any driven out of business because of the department stores in the city being allowed to stay open in the evenings. The reason for this is obvious. The three stores are selling a different type and quality of product than that being offered by the indeâ€" pendent merchant. _ Should the public not want such a service, then PUSH would be guaranteed victory in their fight. There is no need for PUSH (push for uniform store hours) to solicit opinion on whether or not there should be restrictions on week day store hours. As the situation stands now they do not warâ€" rant support of their proposal. The fact the public has continued to support those stores and make it profitable for them to stay open should stand as proof of how the pubâ€" lic feels about the issue. The urban renewal committee voiced the view for all of us when they demanded council to give leadership. o It is leadership that is needed. Lengthy disâ€" cussions with no end accomplishment in sight is a cheap substitute. * In a nostalgic mood today. I‘ve been thinking that, with the onslaught of the Speed Age. many of our fine old Canadian â€" traditions have fallen by the wayside, died on the vine, or simply lain down and curled up their One of the first to go, of course, was the blacksmith. It hurts me to face the truth: that most people toâ€" day under thirty have never known the sensory joys of a blacksmith‘s shop. At this time of year. small boys used to squeeze through the â€" ramshackle door, and edge as close as they could to the fire. freezâ€" ing their bums and roasting their cheeks. There was a fine acrid stench of horse manure and scorched hooves. There was the leapâ€" ing flame as the bellows blew. There was the ringing clang as the smith beat out the whiteâ€"hot metal between hammer and anvil, and the satisfying hiss when the hot metal was plunged into the cold water. At one time, the Mennonites and Amish were about the only people living in much of the northern half of Waterloo county, along with a scattered smattering of German and United Kingdom settlers. But through the years the situaâ€" tion has changed appreciably. By Bill Moyer The migratory Mennonites. That could be a good and well deserved name for the people from whom I and many other residents of this area are descendant. While Mennonites settled and founded three of our four county cities, (Kitchener, Waterloo and Preston) they are now a small part of the total population in all of the cities. While they settled all of Waterloo Township and then Wilâ€" mot Township, their numbers in both these townships have steadily declined until, by latest available figures, only 13 percent of the Waterloo Township population is At a certain age. most male kids would have setâ€" tled happily for the life of a blacksmith, a free soul who spent his days doing the most fascinating work in the Mennonites founded area cities Can you help us ? Ub SYNRNATE While on the subject of insurance companies, the North Waterloo Farmer‘s Mutual is in need of some information. The company will soon be celebrating its 100th anâ€" niversary and to commemorate the event they are preparing their history. The first meeting of the company has been registerâ€" ed as being held in the Brandt Hotel in Waterloo in 1873. but unfortunately there is no information as to where this establishment was. Anyone having information as to the location or adâ€" ditional facts about the Brandt Hotel is asked to call the Chronicle at 744â€"6364. WE THOUSUT 1P BE FUN DRESSING UP Ee _ LIKE PARTY LEADERS TO SEE WHICH E:\ _ ONEGETS THE MOST VOTES... C oJ _ J MEAN CANDIES! As we grew a little older. about 12. we graduated to catching on the wing a cutâ€" ter. This was more daring and more dangerous because they could really fly, the runner was much smaller. and the farmer could turn around and belt you one on the ear. The decline of the smithy. of course, was brought about by the gradual phasing out of _ another _ traditionâ€"the horseâ€"drawn vehicle. world. I wonder how many kids of this generation have ever spent a winter Saturday ‘‘*catching bobs~. This was our term for jumping on the backs of farmers® sleighs. All day long the farmers came and went to and from town. And all day long we hopped on behind a load of grain, left that for a load of supplies going the other way, picked up a sleigh pilâ€" ed with logs for the return trip. and shivered with deâ€" lighted fear as the farmers shouted at us, , and even sometimes floupished their whips in our g,'néltion. Most of them, of course. were pretty decent. I know now that they were more worried about us getting A move, a very slow move, slightly northward by Menâ€" nonite farmers began as early as the 1920‘s. It has con‘ tinued through the years and some have now moved out of Waterloo Region together.~. Eventually, Waterloo county may no longer be the centre of Mennonite life, religion and culture in southern Ontario. The way it was for Billy the Kid Mennonite. In Wilmot the figure has dropped from an overâ€"whelming mahority to about 28 percent of the total. _ _ However, the Mennonite and Amish population is still quite large in both Woolwich and Wellesley Townships. Our figures show that Mennonites make up about 49 perâ€" cent of the total population in Woolwich township and about 42 percent of the total in Wellesley. Published every Wednesday by Fairway Press. a division of Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo Record Ltd. 225 Fairway Rd.. S.. Kitâ€" chener. Ontario. Address correspondence to Waterloo Square. Waterloo. Ont. Telephone 744â€"6364 (Bill Moyer is author of "Waterloo County Diary" and ‘"‘This Unique Heritage.") > â€" hurt in a fall than they were about the extra weight their horses had to pull. Then there were the butchers® _ cutters. _ These consisted of a sort of box with runners beneath. and a step at the back for the driver to stand on. The horses were not plugs, but real roadâ€"runners that went like a bat out of hell. They were every bit as exciting as a Roman chariot, and the drivers were the envy of every boy. in fur caps. reins in one hand, whip in the other, as they tore through the town like furies. ‘ And I wonder how many boys have played hockey all day on a frozen river. when a hard shot the goalie missed might slide for a quarter of a mile. We never had to worry about iceâ€"time,. or chan â€"ing lines. We could play until we were pooped. then sit by the bonfire until rested, and have another go. And there were always twenty or thirty playing at once, so everybody got a whack at the puck. Some great stickâ€"handlers came out of that era. Think of the depths to which we have sunk. The smithy, with its light and shadows. its reds and blacks. In Canada: one year $8; in United States and Foreign countries: one year $10 SUBSCRIPTION RATES ESTABLISHED 1854 Wendy Herman, editor its earthy smells, its sense of hife, has been replaced by the garage. a sterile thing with its cement floor, its reek of gas and oil, ahd its unspoken â€" assurance â€" that thisâ€"isâ€"gonnaâ€"costâ€"youâ€"plenty â€"buddy. The cutter, swift and light as a bird, no longer skims the snow. It has been reâ€" placed by a stinking. snarlâ€" ing. skidding beast that only modern man could abideâ€" the snowmobile. No more meatâ€"cutters, careening around the corâ€" ners on one runner. deliverâ€" ing in any weather. Now. we plod like zombies through the supermarket. to moronâ€" ic pipedâ€"in music, and pick up the odourless, antiseptic. cellophaned packages the great gods Dominion. Lobâ€" law or Safeway have assignâ€" ed to us. and carry them humbly to our cars. three blocks away. Our kids have to get up at five a.m. to play hockey. and if they‘re not real "killâ€" ers . get about four minutes iceâ€"time. . Ah, those were the days‘! And 1 haven‘t even begun on the most vital of alt winâ€" ter equipmentâ€"the puck consisting of a _ frozen horseâ€"bun.