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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1978-01-12, Page 3, la 041,01.. .1...1.1d1 Odds n' ends by Elaine To shend Childho fantasies - Remember the childhood game of trying to catch , snowflakes on your• tongue? Remember the delightful taste? Snowflakes were fascinating things..' They came in a million different, shapes, sizes and designs, and it seemed as though no two snowflakes looked exactly alike. Some had needle-like points, while others fanned out more- delicately. Some were . large enough that we could faintly discern .the minute, fragile patterns ; others were mere specks. Some stung our faces a little when they hit us. Others felt we t and sticky, and they clung to our hair and melted on our glasses. Some danced to the ground one at a time; others fell in bunches so dense that they seemed to draw a curtain around us. They seemed to disappear as soon as they hit the ground, but gradually a white film covered the grass. Before long, a mound of snowflakes glittered in the sunlight. When enough snow had accumulated, we built forts' and used snowballs for ammunition. Our creativity ran wild as we sculptured snowmen and other figures, When we got tired, we;just flopped onto the soft snow, and then scrambled..to out feet to see the shape we had left on the,- ground. — . . What fantasies we children could weave as we watched.inore snowflakes fall! • As 'we grew older, scientists gave us logical explanations for the mysteries of snowflakes. They consisted of water vapour in the air that had crystallized into geometrical forms. 'Common sense tells us it is true, but sometimes even we adults revert to our 'childhood fantasies as We watch snowflakes drift past our Windows, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem entitled "Snowflakes": . "Out of the bosom of the Air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, Over the woodlands brown and bare, Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent and soft, and slow Descends the snow. Even as our cloud fancies take Suddenly shape in some divine expression, EVen as the troubled heart ,doth make In the white' countenance confession, The troubled, sky reveals The grief it feels. "This is the poem „of the air, Slowly in silent syllables recorded; This is the secret of despair, Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded, Now whispered and revealed To wood and field." Francis Thompscin described a snowflake thiS way: "What heart could have thought you? Past our deviial • (0 filigree petal!). Fashioned so purely, Fragilely, surely, • from what Faradisil- Imagineless metal, Too costly for cost? Whd hammered you, wrought y ou, From argentine vapour? 'God was my shaper. PaSsing surmiial, .He hammered, He wrought me, Prom curled sillier vapour, To lust of His mind: - Thou ,;coulds't riot, ay ,thought me! So purely, so palely, tinily, Surely, Mightily, frailly, -InScuiped and embossed, With His hammer of wind. a • CARDIFF and MULVEY REAL ESTATE and INSURANCE LTD. Real Estate Broker and General Insurance Box 69, Brussels, " Ontario NOG 1H0 •Telephone 887-6100 '- ANNOUNCEMENT fr?, Effective January 1, 1 8 the Real Estate and Insurance Agency operated by Jim Cardif I& the past nine 'years will be taken over by Cardiff and Mulvey eai Estate and Insurance Ltd. The dOmpany will 'be 'operated b m Cardiff arid Kleth Mulvey. ••__Kipth has been employed in the agency for the past two years and as previously employed as an Insurance Inspector for 3 years. • Both J• im and Ki'eth are licensed heal Estate brokerpand Licensed -Thtifan-ce Agents. Members of Huron MLS Board Ontario Insurance Agents'andirakers Association r . . - (lt) PIONEER Model SA-6500 11 Arr l.Mer MUSIC'S PRICE $209. RETAIL $219.95 Pioneer Continues To Offer The Best Value In Amplifiers. The SA-6500 11 Deliver -s Lots Of Clear -Crean Sound: " Consider. Pioneer For The Heart Of Your System. We Recommend It. • Power Output— 30 Watts RMS Per Channel • Distortion-0.1% -- • Warranty-2 'haat. .A1111'8114 -.Ontario Strut, Stratford 2.11.2960 S. r,Firrt ,.; .1131.111111 Jra 4-• Shop Stratford's City Centre r.% olot.g faces. restraint progra ms Upon her return for a second term. as 'chairman of the ...Berth County Board of Equcation, Milverton's Barbara Herman, 44, predicts 1978 as a tou h economic year in w c to, run an educational. systeta. She saitL. "As one of the lowest 4pending bhards in the prOvinbe we're definitely going to experience serious-problems with our budgeting in a year whep costs have increased about 8 per cent and provincial grant increases have' been cut back to 4.8 per cent." She •.continued, "Most boards now have estimated that just to maintain the statis quo that there will likely he' a 10 per cent increase in the 'mill rates." Ms. Hernrian sayf the serious- ness nf this is conatf6unded by the fact that mill-ratesliave climbed considerably hithe pAt few years .f ACcoriling to the chairman the LOADED DOWN — Trees in front of many Seaforth Perth Beard is in support (Ate and area homes were heavily laden` with snow Provincial Government's strict restraint program' pui does not ree ith the way the Ministry ucation has gone abaft ba cing its books. The teacher • super-annuation fund is going to require a signifiCant injection of .:=7"• dollars this year, so to stay under the line the Ministry has subtracted this from the grants normally released to the Boards in •the province. "Last year 'our increase in grant was 9.6 per cent, this year its less than 4.B-per cent: That-'s pretty slim pickings:" she said. As .a low spender caught in _this situation, the Perth Board.. may find itself forced, to pierce the ceilings on their secondary panel for the• first time. If backed into this corner the local tax payer will be the One to suffer. "We're wing to have to sharpen our pencils if we're goin to avoid that,P the ckairman said'" Her words came- after her acclamation as chairman at the January 3 inaugural meeting. Also re-elected•tor a second term, • " was vice-chailinan, Rev. Michael Griffin, minister of St. James Anglican Church in Stratford Wednesday in the,aftermath of the first storm of the ne* year. (Exnaltor Photo)• Tho annual meeting of .the Sea orticultural Society . which w f6•have been held in the Masonic Hall on Wed. Jan. .,11th was postponed and now will ",-.ibe held on, January 18.. weather permitting. 'A pen luck supper at • 6:30 p.m: will precede the meeting. Please bring dishes and cutlery. • ou're i hour is being held, each Saturday 7' t. 1 p.m. in the Seaforth Public ry. Children .ages 3-8 are welco e. A General .Morns dt was. cancelled Van Egmond Fo is week because of the storm. held in Seafo , S Wednesday Jan 18th at 8 u ' s A children's Story and Play chedule any meetings until Mar. meeting of- undation will be . th rth) Town hall uary irice the weather is so th npredictable at this time of year, e executive have decided not to I • What you're' reading 'isn't the vOliiinit that ' Was supposed tu4ppear here. The' eel ti,mn that I, had ready 40 bring _into town Monday. morning won.'t see. the light of day this week. It's long and a little bit complicated see, and I don't want to tie up the party line for 'hours while I read it over, the phone to Carol- at the office. So thrs-Simpl_e short up to the minute report frdm the wildt0MT(illop will have to' - ,do instead. - • As you may -have gathered I'm snowed-in, snow-bound; storm-stayed and stuck out here; with the baby, the dog and the better half. Of the four of us; the baby likes' it best. It's all new to her for one thing while! know fora fact after a quick look at my diary 'that the rest of us were stuck here for a couple of days this' time last "year. The power went off shortly after one last night and now after lunch she is sitting in her lounger in a.shair in front of the fireplace with a hat on,' waving her feet 'in 'her Cpwichan ' Indian slippers. She hasn't. seen a good - roaring fire either and gazing at the flames 'ought to keep, her amused for a•half hour or so. After that hope for sleep. • She's warm, we all are as we've closed .off everYthing but the' big kitchen where the 'fire It's 55 in here and we know people who keep their house at that. temperature • normally. • We stayed in bed the three of us, with the , • dog under the dust ruffle, as long,as we could . ju,, this morning. That -caused 'a laugh when the neighbodra phoned and we told them we were conserving energy. Our behrotkm was 45 YOUR coNTRibuTioN.' CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE , rat .BOX 18,000 • TORONTO - HALIFAX OTTAWA ST. JOHN'S enefgy . ' degrees when we finally crawled out and I know it was likely much, colder than that when the original owners of., this house got up on winter mornings,, much earlier ' and about eighty years ago. We're getting ajpng here fine thanks, with% ' freezer full of foodand camping gas stave to cook on. Our next door n eighbours who have a generator, kindly offered to come and get us in the tractor but for One day anyhow we are enjoying the pioneering. Did you see the, Newcomers episode. on T.V. Sunday night about the Irish who came to Canada about' 1847? What were their winters • like, while they huddled in cabins Or shanties? half dead from cholera-that infested the shins that brought them over and half starved from .the potato famine in their _1411d? Compared to that, we've gcit nothing to complain about in our insulated,' stain- windowed, snug little house.. Well, maybe 'one thing. "Isn't it nice to have the house so quiet?" said an .equally power-less friend on the telephone this morning. I had to tell' her that it's not all that-quiet here thanks'to our dog Tuck. His friend the St. Bernard across the road is in heat and he is trying to tell us with groans and howls that can be heard even when he is on 'the porch outside that he could .get over there through snow banks and swirling drifts if only we'd turn him loose: Little does he know that if we're all couped up here together Much longer, 'that'; we just might. - arou'Vhe bourgeois bums, aod• natter E ore, obnoxious are those. Who sit about the great winter helidays they've had, each trying to out-do the other. , ' 'Yeah, Barbados-is all right, I guess, if you like getting, your foot pierced by a sea urchin. Not trinch to. do but lie around' 'in -the sun and drink cheap rum." "Jack and 'I took a cruise last year in the West Indies. Stopped at 10 different islands. Fantastic!" "But aren't there a lot of ugly Canadians on those cruises. you know, hairdressers and salesmen and school teachers? We like Mexico ourselves." ; We, ..,th,oLoght put„ oleo .we dischv,ered Hawaii,- • . • May they 'all get triple arthritis, have *CLOSES BUSINESSES — Most Seaforth businesses were closed Tuegday and the streets were largely -empty as snow, wind, and cold tenhperaturei -7 combined to keep most people inside. (Expositor Photo) • " (Continued from Page 2') .• and give her the gun.She either stalls and- we end like a stranded whale, belly on the snowdrift or she'bomks right through and- I hit the telephone pole on the other side of the street with iffy rear bumper. • Even worse than the driving in winter is the attitude of a good portion of the populace, I totter in to work wheezing, one boot unzippered, relieved and yet furious, and some pink-cheeked young colleague chirps: "Wasn't it a terrific weeketic? All that snow. I skied all day Saturday and Sunday: It was' just • beantifuto_ut in the OXFAM HELPING' TO 'A BETTER,WbRLD Canada's winter bush,.. on the trails." I f , , . !,':. , ' ' , :, .ire , 'l At these times, I would like to trail that young pink-cheek out to the bush, pOint out 'how beautiful if is, manacle him or her to a , their pensions cut off, and have to spend all Christmas tree, come home and- sit down their, winters in Canada. by the fire with a good shot of anti-freeze, Our idea of a great winter trip is to take ... smiling broadly as the temperature the ill-considered Christmas presents back dropped and the wind rose. • to the store and get, a credit, if We're lucky .'"