Hearing Aids

As most of you know I have had a hearing deficiency since Grade 1. The cause has never been truly known but my mother and rubella during her pregnancy are suspect. I received my first hearing aid in Grade 1thanks to the help of the local Lions club. It was a Beltone body aid (see photo) it cost $115.00 and operated on two fairly large batteries they made quite an an explosion when I put them in the wood annex stove in the kitchen much to my parents chagrin.The one large button type cell contained a fair amount of mercury and used to pry them open and play with the tiny puddle of mercury, didn't know any better then. Today there are no more mercury batteries they are called zinc air. I hated wearing the thing because it was cumbersome I only wore it in school and bumbled my way the rest of the time.As you may remember my hearing aid had a peculiar habit of whistling at the most opportune times. Bit of a brat he was!

As a result of this deficiency my speech suffered as I was not hearing the higher frequencies well enough to hear and reproduce the soft consonantslike s sh t ch. I remember Ms..McLaughlin keeping me in after school totry to help me correct this, bless her heart, but alas I was not a willing or cooperative student.

This had a profound affect on my life and shaped it in many ways I gravitate to singular type activities like swimming, hiking, girls and reading and avoided team sports.i became an avid reader and still get most of my information this way. By the time I got to high school hearing aids were beginning to be downsized and more cosmetically acceptable. I purchased an eyeglass model with the transistors and all in the temples which was a vast improvement. My eyesight was fine so plain glass was used. Later I changed to the behind the ear type and binaural instead of monaural.

By a strange quirk of fate I ended up in the hearing aid business in 196had very satisfying career helping others for over 35 years.One of my greatest accomplishments during that time was that I founded and held the first Ontario Hearing Aid Symposium which has now grown to be one of the largest in North America.

Since I have retired 14 years ago the industry has changed dramatically technology ,acceptance over the vanity issue that was so prevalent when I started and quite troubling is the consolidation of offices and manufacturers with to much control in the hands of to few like many other aspects of our society today.

Bob Mcintyre

Around the Wingham Dam 1952 - 54

Having come from a small village in the province of Friesland in the north of The Netherlands, it was quite a change of surroundings when we came to Wingham. Our world was quite small where I was raised ,and generally was within one square kilometre. Little interaction took place between villages, which might be less than 2 km apart. In Canada there were wide open spaces, and more travel.

The area around the dam was one big playground, especially in the summer months. We swam above and below the dam. Along the north side of the dam or bridge ,there was a cat walk. Access was from the town end and it extended to near the other end. There were no rails for support. It was a great place for swimming and diving. As was mentioned in another story, some people dove off the south side of the bridge to the area below the dam. Sometimes we swam to Hannas Bridge. With the flat areas under the bridge, the lower part of the river was also ideal for more experienced swimmers. We were expected to be careful, and to think for ourselves back then, and were not prevented from doing so, and if we did get into trouble we were only ourselves to blame. Polio was still a concern back then, but it did not stop us from enjoying the water. It was always a challenge to see how early we could be “swimming” in the spring. I think maybe it was April one year.

 On the west side of the river near the bridge were the remnants of the Howson mill that burned down a few years earlier. The remains consisted of cement foundations. Some of it was the loading docks with spaces underneath for hiding etc. There were openings in some places in the floors to spaces below, including where the turbine for the mill used to be. No barriers or fences were needed back then. The railway bridge just south of the dam featured a walkway which was used primarily by the foundry workers. The only thing that stood between it and the water was a double rail!. For some time one section missed the top rail. The pillar on the west end of the bridge could be reached by an iron ladder attached to the dam side of the bridge. Sometimes we stood on the bridge where the other railway passed underneath, when the train passed below us, belching steam and smoke! In the spring on certain days the rainbow turtles would climb to the rail level just west of the bridge to lay their eggs. We did catch and ‘dispose of” the snapping turtles that were living around there., usually in the ruins of the mill. We also discovered a way to get into the big pipe that fed the former electricity generator It was just east of the dam in the small brick building found there. Using a manhole we found the large pipe blocked by a wooden barrier somewhere under the road. I think Bob was part of this caper. Since those days, the “old play ground” has gone where the teeter totters went. These changes have been inevitable. Certainly if things were today as they were in the 50s, the “sue-er lawyers” would have speeded up the placement of “safety measures” to protect us from ourselves.

Dick Roorda