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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2017-04-27, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017. PAGE 5. Other Views Here's a hairy history story As we prepare to celebrate several historic anniversaries, my condolences to all those wives whose husbands are growing beards to mark the occasions. Many wives, no doubt, will be glad when these experiments are over. They complain their husband's facial hair scratches them and generally gets in the way of romance. My wife wasn't among the complainers. I was clean-shaven until Blyth celebrated its centennial in 1977 with a big blowout that included a beard -growing contest. Unlike many wives, mine encouraged me to enter. Maybe hiding as much of my face as possible was worth the whisker -burn. Also unlike the wives of many of the other hairy contestants, mine didn't have the razor handy an hour after the beard judging (which I didn't win). She wanted me to keep it. Maybe she doesn't scratch or tickle easily because my beard didn't seem to get in the way of romance. We had our fourth child a couple of years later. Some people, I suspect, think a man who grows a beard is making a statement, trying to set himself apart from others. For me, it's been a convenience. I've replaced five or 10 minutes a day of shaving with a once -a -week trim. Add that up over 40 years and it means I've gained the equivalent 43 days. (Question to myself — what the heck did I do with the time I gained?) When it comes to time -saving, however, I'm not as efficient as some beard growers, because I do keep mine relatively short. Some people really maximize the advantage of growing a beard by never trimming it at all. According to an internet search, the longest recorded beard was grown by a Norwegian man whose beard was measured 5.33 metres (17 feet, 6 inches) in 1927. He must have had the added advantage developing very strong neck muscles from dragging that around. Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk According to the same website, a typical man's beard grows 5.5 inches a year. Had I not trimmed my beard since 1977, I'd be slowed down by pulling around nearly 20 feet of beard, which would kind of offset the time I've saved by not shaving. Besides, you might strangle yourself in your sleep. On the other hand, having lost a lot of hair on the top of my head over the years while I've been growing it on my face, maybe I could have piled the extra facial hair on top of my head to reduce the glare when the sun shines. (I recently got my first powder -job when making an appearance before a video camera because the reflection from my head was giving the camera operator trouble.) The people I don't understand are the men who like partial beards — goatees, van dykes, etc. This seems to me like the worst of both worlds. You still have to shave the parts of your face where you don't want hair growing, but you also have to carefully trim the beard you do allow to grow, so you probably spend even more time on your face than the guy who shaves. And you don't get the cost savings. I haven't bought a razor (regular or electric), shaving cream or after -shave lotion for four decades. Don't ask me where that money I saved disappeared to. It's strange how fashions evolve, even in the male world that's not as attuned to fashion changes as women's. Back in 1977 growing a beard was almost considered a radical thing to do. People were apt to think you were becoming a hippie. I'd grown up in an era when shaving was so universal that I don't know if I can even remember seeing a man with a beard. Gillette, the razor company, was one of the biggest advertisers of the era, especially for sports programs like the World Series and the weekly boxing broadcasts. But my father's clean-shaven generation would, in turn, have looked like radicals to his grandfather's generation when most men grew beards of one sort or another, many of them big, bushy and full. Maybe they were saving time in those practical pioneer days or maybe they couldn't face the daily task of shaving when hot water didn't flow instantly from a fawcett and you had to manoeuver a dangerous straight razor around your throat. There may have been other practical reasons. Recently reading the book The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit I learned that Christopher Knight, who walked into the woods in 1986 and hid there for nearly 30 years kept himself clean shaven most of the year. He grew a beard, though, during the worst of mosquito and blackfly season to provide a protective barrier on at least part of his body from these voracious pests and in the winter to insulate his face. Maybe he should have left it growing all summer too, because the University of Southern Queensland found facial hair can block up to 95 per cent of the sun's harmful UV rays. (Apparently growing a beard reduces acne and other infections that are spread by the razor while shaving.) So all you guys out there who are growing commemorative beards, good luck and welcome to the club. Yours will probably disappear by the end of summer. Mine will stay. Aside from the other advantages, showing my real face at this stage might be too frightening for the neighbours. Gha-Ghing! The sound of money Cha -Ching! Cha -Ching! Cha -Ching! Can you hear that noise in the middle of some conversations? I certainly do. Sometimes, it's a conversation at home where a matter of some debate could cost the household more money. For example, I've been working, on and off, on fixing a hard -to -find leak in my bathroom for a number of months with some familial help. I've spent some money replacing things that needed to be replaced either due to the leak or due to fixing the leak, but a wholesale rip -down and rebuild of the bathroom was never something I had considered. My wife, on the other hand, has big plans for our bathroom (and some surrounding spaces). Every time she brings it up, however, I can scarcely hear her ideas over the "Cha -Ching! Cha -Ching! Cha -Ching!" noise that accompanies it. It's just a difference of perspective — Whereas my wife would rather spend the money up front and have a job done quickly and (in some cases) with some kind of guarantee, I'd rather call in the aid of my family and tackle the job in a more DIY - fashion (that's do-it-yourself). However, as my wife points out, when I tackle these jobs, be it with or without help, they don't regularly get done quickly. The leaky bathroom is an exception because, after replacing one piece of the floor, I never want to do that again, so I am trying to deal with it as quickly as possible. Some people may say my drive to handle these issues on my own is attributed to my gender as a man; that men are somehow hard - coded to want to do these things ourselves. However I don't think it's a gender thing, I think it's more a chronic addiction. There is a tremendous amount of satisfaction in finishing a job and fixing a problem that Denny Scott Denny's Den existed. Whether it's fixing a website, a computer or finding a pesky leak in a shower, looking back and knowing I accomplished it with my bare hands is a pretty big rush. There's also no cash register noise whenever I look towards my bathroom. During a recent presentation to North Huron Council, Napier Simpson, a representative from Regional Tourism Organization 4, a rather clinical name for the tourism entity responsible for, among other areas, Huron County, said he wasn't asking for money. He was approaching councillors to make sure they knew what opportunities they had closing in with the Blyth Cowbell Brewing Company opening on the south end of Blyth, the renovations at Blyth Memorial Hall, the ongoing work on the Goderich-to-Guelph (G2G) Rail Trail and the Grant and Mildred Spading Centre housing the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity opening up. While I don't dispute anything that Simpson said, I find it funny that he said he wasn't there asking council for a financial commitment. I find it funny, because, when he started talking, I once again heard the tell-tale Cha - Ching! Cha -Ching! Cha -Ching! It's a good thing the meeting was recorded because I had to listen to it a few times to work out all the ideas he presented. Chief among them (in terms of how loud the cash register sound got) was the idea of making the southern entrance of Blyth a little more inviting. Don't get me wrong — growing up I seldom travelled north of the soccer fields and he is right. People could be completely unaware of the great village north of that hill where County Roads 4 and 25 meet. However, coming forward and saying you're not asking for money, then suggesting significant work is kind of misleading. Sure, Simpson's hand wasn't out, but that doesn't mean he wasn't suggesting a significant infrastructure project. While I don't disagree with his assessment of Blyth and how it can benefit, I think he was approaching the wrong people and saying this work needs to get done. These kinds of projects need to be handled by the community. Whether its through the Business Improvement Area, local service groups or just a group of concerned citizens, people want the option to contribute to projects like these and feel some ownership instead of having it forced on to their taxes as another budget line. The people of Blyth have proven that it's ready to support initiatives that benefit the village and that's where we need to look first. It also gives some agency to individuals. If they feel the southern entrance to the village is good the way it is, they can decide not to buy a raffle ticket, but if they feel strongly about it, they can buy a whole book. When it comes to taxes, we should be covering our services and infrastructure, not making donations. Community projects need to come from a dedicated community willing to work for it. Just look to initiatives like the Alexandra and Marine General Hospital Foundation's CT Scanner drive that raised $5 million to purchase the hardware. Let it never be said I don't offer solutions on how to get those taxes under control. Shawn Loughlin AlAkili Shawn's Sense Use it or lose it n reading a book about the importance of soccer in South Africa's notorious Robben Island prison, I found surprising parallels with several treasured institutions throughout The Citizen's communities — believe it or not. The book is called More Than Just A Game, written by Professor Chuck Korr and Marvin Close. It details the prison as a human rights hellhole in the early -to -mid-1960s and the formation of the Makana Football Association (MFA) and all that changed as a result. The book begins under the cloud of apartheid in South Africa, which was enacted in 1948. The system institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination, which in turn spawned freedom fighters battling against the atrocities happening to those of colour. When someone was caught pushing back against the government they were sent to Robben Island. On the island, conditions were horrifying. Whether it be brutal, organized and unprovoked beatings of prisoners by guards or the rancid food or lice -infested clothing provided, political prisoners on Robben Island were not treated like people during that time. In order to find a common ground of humanity and provide the prisoners with some much-needed recreation time apart from their back -breaking work in the island's quarries, several prisoners organized and brought forth the idea of organized soccer on Saturdays. While the road was bumpy and the prisoners were met with resistance, as the title of the book suggests, what happened with the MFA went far deeper and accomplished more than simply the organization of soccer in a prison. The association led to improved conditions within the prison. Guards saw prisoners as people, recognized the importance of soccer on the island and even began to relate to their favourite player or team. After a few years, however, prisoners integral to the formation of the MFA were released and there was an influx of new people to the prison. To them, soccer on the island was taken for granted and then abandoned in favour of other interests (the association had eventually expanded to include rugby and a summer games reminiscent of the Olympics). The problem is that these prisoners had no idea what the MFA meant to life on Robben Island. They knew not of pre -MFA life in the prison. They hadn't been made to eat rancid food or jostle with one another for sandals made from discarded tires. Think of the parallels to a community like Blyth for example. So many things residents now enjoy were not always here. We now take for granted the infusion of tourists every summer thanks to the Blyth Festival or what arrives every week in the form of The Citizen. And those are just two examples. Think of all that area service clubs do for us. They haven't always existed either — and many are now fighting to keep the few members they have. Many reap the benefits of these innovations and projects and don't know what the community was like before them. Think of projects like Cowbell Brewery and the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity, not to mention millions of dollars in renovations to Memorial Hall. Or what about the expansive barn relocation project in Brussels? In 25 years, perhaps new residents too will take these projects for granted and not know the initial importance of them — ignorant of the work, vision and money it took to make them a reality. These things weren't always here and it can be like that again if we don't use and appreciate what we have and respect the work of those who came before us.