HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1961-10-04, Page 5• WEIDNESDAY,, OCT'. ' 4thx 190'1
QW SENTINEL, I. CKNOW, ONTARIO,
AR
and
PICE
By Bill Smiley
Civilization has taken. majestic
fortyard'S'tridesin •the .past .fifty
• .years or sb. Half a century ago,'
people had 'cellars, below their'
houses. Irf these cool caverns
re found. such things; as; pick-.
lee
les ;and preserves; barrel$, of
apples;. turnips :an d potatoes cov-
ered in .dirt to keep, the frost out
:,. and eggs kept fresh in white stuff
'called water -glass.
Then came the furnace;, and
the . cellar became a basement,
With a plank floor. Now .it con-.
tains bundles of ' newspapers, a
stone crock and bottle capper for
making home' brew, boxes of
limp love letters, old trunks full,
of older clothesto be dragged
out on Hallowe'en, and' the win-
ter's supply' of coal. .
: Not many years passed before
the basement received another
face-lifting, With the advent' of
oil or gas beating, a cement floor
was installed • The basement be -
tame the laundry -room eum.
workshop; The belch of the sump
pump wasreplaced by the swish
of Mom's washer, the hum ,of her
dryer and the whine of Dad's.
handsaw; as she kept the family
,cleanand he happily fashioned
jiggly -legged tables and rickety
trellises.
• *. ..*
Between the second and, third
world: wars, when everyone' was•.
building , those' . inverted straw-
berry boxes' with. attached car-
ports, the .basement was (again
transformed,- During the Forties,,.
the Fifties and right into the
Sixties; apparently . intelligent
people poured. millions of:dollars'
into these curiosities, which' were
known as: "recreation., rooms."
,They installed television sets, in
them. They built. elaborate bars.
.in them.'.They jammed -in ping,=
pong tables and. dart boards and
juke boxes and; fireplaces. and
record, players ;and' pool tables
andpanelled wallsandailed
floors and neon lights, They did.
all this for two. reasons. •
First or all, hey wanted a:
place .where their children could
?lay,happily, and safely. And
where their teenagers could have
friends iri, and' dance, and eat
hot dogs, and have -good whole-
some fun. And Second of all, their
living rooms, were ,so " small that
it looked '1. a poker game in a
Pullman when they , invited
'another couple in., +
For generations, these 'good
people tried to get their children,
and their .guests to go down and
enjoy life in the "recr"eation,
room." The small kidsquite
sensibly, refused; to have any-
thing to. do with them, preferring,
like normal children, to play out
in the mud and on the road. After
one dismal evening of "recrea-
tion",
recreation", with mother or father
•
k <+.»ax.
mwowvrrnNwar..® !'1\tl
Falcon.Fordor Sedan
I'm 62 ways .new 'from transmission: to carburetor
with smoother shifting, quieter ride and even
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the things that have made me the best-selling :corn
pact car in Canada.' I go, as much as 35 miles to the
gallon on regular gas, and I now go up to 6,000
miles between oil changes. There's a new .30,000-
mile or 2 -year radiator coolant. My price is low..,
Mytrade-invalue is highest of any compact in
Canada: And my brand new brother is,here, too .. .
Falcon ` FUTTJRA:. with new interior luxury
appointments, including a smart console cApart-'
Jnent : between the new bucket seats. Now we're
hereYou'd better come see us fast=' +before: the line
`up's too long, And Ford Dealers give a 12 -month;
or' 1Z,000-mile;warran`_y,whichever comes . first.
aICORI n
Canada's best-selling compact
•
Griain' f*aturai illudratod ars optional ot;vitro cost.
'62 FALCON FUTURA... , Co .u?pac ..
t
cousin of the Thunderbird .. with:.
a individually adjustable bucket seats . a
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exciting new approach to compact travel.,
.4
Ford � 1f��narc�r —Falcon .D�aler
Phone'
PAGE FNS
dashing down. the stairs; every
twenty minutes. to make., sure'
they were having a whale: pf a
time, the teenagers avoided them:
with alacrity.,•
And -guests, ' lured to the re-
creation room by the hope Qf a
drink, seized it in one hand,
looked 'around, whistled,; said„
"Boy,- .,this • musta setya bac,
plenny," and headed right back
upstairs,for the kitchen, where;'
the. real ' party inevitably took;
place'•
* #, #
It was riot until 'the 1960's that
the cellar -basement -laundry room.
-:.workshop-recreation oom ,chi=
.
eved'• real dignity, _and attained
its true and'.lasting status in our.
society:
At 'first, it labored under the
rather. 'insipid name Of "fall -out
shelter." In fact; what .. brought
up tis, whole train of :thought
was 'finding'. an .� . old news per .
pap
dated 1961. I came across it when
I was pulling a. thigh -bone off
Aunt '3/label's. skeleton, ; backin
the. . corner there. 1 needed it to
carve a new soup ?spoon.:
Anyway, there was, -this clip-
ping, ten `:.years old. On 'it was;
a .story in which Prime Minister'
Diefenl aker •-- that ' was whit*
there usedto: be what they. cal-•
led a "government". - announced.
=
would go into -'an ordinary fallent
shelter should there be a\ nu-
clear attapk. Apparently that was•
before'. they staged firing:, the'
Salvos' of glafndular .gas.
,/Unc'le.. •'Dud; Who was ''quite .'a.
kidder. before his second head-
Went
eadwent mental; : told me • one time
that Mx Diefenbaker,:,wasn't
led in the first; attack. Ile' died.
of . Y
a oPlex when someone ` in=
apoplexy
advertently ' let. it slip that.; the
c'ontr
ctor who 'had built ' his
c a
shelter'. was what` they used to
call a . Liberal„.
•
•
At anyrate it wasn't long be
fore•:the"fallout shelter"'•,became:,
known' 'as .what .it has been 'cal-
led sinca, the "lvmgrooxan.":
Maybe 'it .was because 'they were,
the only places where anyone
was livingf Unlike the people ., I
mentioned, who 'never recreated
'in their. , recreatibn 'rooms,:.. we
really ,live in our: living: ,rooms:
And I must admit', /it's: • pretty
darn • cosy, when : you ' get it fixed
up: as, nice as 'ours. ,• .
The first .few' 'Months, were •,,
pretty rugged.. We had 'to shoot.,
quite a few people who were tear
lacy pr poor to provide
selves with living rooms, and
tried ' •to horn in on ours. But.
we were able to use'•the corpses.,
ratbai.t, which kept .fresh „neat
'i'.n'; the pot for some •.time.
When Gra;ny died, the :smell; :
wasp.: rather disagreeable :but ..we
solved that by crushing' •every
body's olfactory : nerve. We' mis
sed.:our lights for'. a while, after
•the generators went, back ' in '64, •
but we've got used to it, and 'the
kids : are. blind, anyway,. so 'it
doesn't 'bother. them. `a •bit, .They'-
re as happy as morons: In. fact,
uh; well, never mind. The
main` thin, g is, they're happy.
They're just as cute as' can' be,
sWirnming in the big water hole.
at the north end of the living
room. Of 'course, ' those webbed..
feet' are a big help... They could
swim twice: as 'fast as I could,
when I Was a kid. And they're
as .healthy as• trout.- AS a „natter,
of fact, maybe that's because they' ,
live on • the same .diet; -worms.
Of course, they get lots' of greens .
once a Week, .When ' ..,We 'scrape.
the • niould off the .walls;; •That,
stuff is full of .penicillin, too, if
:I remember aright:'
Ail, in all, we'.re• about as .happy` •
and snug a little family ,as', you'll
find, if you can find one. And
I'm certainly glad we're living in
an, age of progress, not back in
.those' dreary days when a ,"living
room" Was called a cellar;
basement, or 'a `recreation. rodm.
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OUR DISPLAY RACK/of card
boards 'and bristols has all col
ours, ,hand •all prices: 'from 1Oc a`:.
sheet to •the a sheen The` Luck
nbw sentinel; .phone '35;; Luck- '
now,
there are. people who :will go
thundering down in history, like
an extra gallon of water over
Iliageraa �.
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