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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1978-08-10, Page 3cse Sugar Spice by Bill Smiley (6' Canadian summers RECEPTiVE, AUDIENCE --..-..Kalen Carroll, 'Stephen —Culeman--arid-Sean- Grant--were , reoeptivetfaudience Pletch, Sherri, puppet show on -safety held at Seaf-Orth School. for last- week's-- (Expositor photo) You're invited The Horticultural- Flower ShOw will be held at the High'School Saturday, August 19 from 2:30 to 5 and 7 to 9. Exhibit tickets , available at Hildebrand's Store. , Opinion We've had a partners,hip for 111 years By Adrian Vos I just received in the Mail a folder from the committee "Canadians , for One Canada". headed by 'the Hon.' James- Richardson.' I don't know whom r they bought the mailing list from, but let, us beware of their, arguments. History *dews not support their assertions. I can fully agree when Mr. Richardson says: "I believe that Canada is One Country and that Canadians are Sane Pe ople." ople." But his interpretation, el this phrase is quite different from mine. He o says in his speech to the "Task Force on Canadian Unity" that this means t1,a t there should be only one national language. To me it means'that there can easily be another official language and we 'be still One People. Regardless of Mr, .Rich ardson 's opinion. and that's all it is, an opinion.- that a partnership of English and French! , speaking•Cannaians is impossible. we have had that partnership for III years now. The turmoil in our relations together stems not so much from the fact of the partnership as front the need to redefine this partnership Itto terms that 'fit better in • today's modern society. When the first confederatitin agreement was written, communications were such. that few Canadian French travelled te other areas where the Canadian English , formea the ma)ofityllence there was little, need for bilirigualism in the country. In the last 30 to 40 years the ear has, become reliable and the nirplane cheap enough to enable us to visit and do business with one another, Now—there more need for the mastery of the two Canadian languages. This doesn't mean that everyone must learn the second language. It means that when I get hauled into and have. a right to be heard in English and when a Canadian French gets hguled in to court, he has 'the same rights in his home language. The implications are that federal officers in many cases must be bilingual. That they be paid more salary for this extra skill shoudl be self-evident. We should not forget that - much ,of the opposition to 'federal bilingualism came from. civil eteeailts Who were 'jealous 'when a more qualified person was promoted because he worked hard to be qualified. The jealous ones wanted the same money and the same promotion, as' if they, are different from other areas of employment. In industry, promotion and salary increases•depend on qualifications. Only when qualifications are equal, seniority begins to count. Mr. Richardson states that French. is just like any minority language. As one, speaking a minority language, I -beg to differ. If my minority group. the Canadian Dutch, want to preserve their language and elture, and oil cannot be preserved without the other. then it is up to us to do that, for we came to this country knowing what the two languages were. If Mr. Richardson is wholly consistent. lie should promote French as the. tingle Canadian language for that was the original language here after the Wien. Mr, Riehardsbn is generous enough to say t hat it would be good if every Canadian spoke the two languages, but he misses the of Ow diymif Wr nitiqt 1141, learn to speak French from the, goodees of our eleart, but because ,the Cana n French have a right. to be heard in 'Fre ch in certain defined pewee. The government is groping for a solution to our problems. Their pro sed solution may not be perfect,but a begi ntng must be made. This beginning was the. bilingual program. Admittedly there were many mistakes made. The main one was the opposition of the Older civil service. It was front there 'that the notorious term of "pushing french down our throat" came from. Yes, some of these mandarins who had many dealings with French speaking people were told that they couldn't get a certain job if they couldn't understand their customers. As such 'it was pushed down their throat, as tt had to be. But not down yours or mine. Mr. Richardson's simplistic answer to national unity is one English language, pushed down the throat of the Canadian French. Why should that be acceptable to them? Ile- says: "It is obvious that op- portunities for Quebecers (sic) are multiplied ninny times when they are to live and work in the majority lenguage in Canada and in the majority language of , North America." Noes he think that" Quebeckers don't know this? But the same reasoning 'that says that it would be unrealistic nensense to force every Canad- ian to speak' French, applies to Quebec vice-versa. • Given time, the language question will work itself out. That the constitution must be brought up into the twentieth century should be obvious. That Canada's con- stitution is an Act of the Governmeht of a foreign country is an insult. It should be brought back to us immediately, even if no changes are made in it at all. It is humiliating that every time the constitution is to be changed or sometimes even interpreted, the consent'of a country, we have been independent of since 1940 is still needed: A • Whatever criticism one may have of the Prime Minister, he is right to keep working to armed the co-ttitution. 'Pie idea of a House of the Federation is a sound one. The title may be awkward, but replacement and strengthening of the present Senate, with its appointments of many party faithful is overdue. Away to give' the provinces a strong voice in its appoint- ments is needed. When we see so few 4neinbers' fromethe west in parliament, it becomes very obvious that the west has.not enough -voice in the capital. The Liberals have been desperate and na 'tied west- terners to the cabinet not because of their- ability but of their location. Take Mr. Richardson or Jack'Horner. Is there a more unlikely liberal than Hornet? Let us all be more positive about the proposals: If Yougaslavia &an exist with five languages, CzechoPle'vakia two, Switzerland with four and Spain with several there is no reason- why Canada moot exist with two official languages. Editor's Note: Mr. Vos is a writer and farmer who lives west of Blyth. There's only one thing wrong with thiss, country - aside from too m,anS, politicians, too much winter, to much inflation, too -little eMployment and that is its summer. A Canadian summer iS snegky, seductive and even sinister. That may sound like e, paradox, when the sky Is as blue as John Turner's eyes, day after day, and the sun is we've slid into the miracle of July ad August, and our, dour national natures are completely fragmented, alienated. We...don't know who we are, where we going. or where we are at. We go to pieces. We forget all 'about our ten-month love affair with •Survival and begin -acting as human and, :normal as , those despised Saturday as our family drove off to the beach' and he got back up on his combine; There's, some truth in that of course, but then there are some days in the winter Anien, by Karl Schuessler A doctor hi my house • should drink lots of it." I nod. "Know why you need plenty of water? Flush the kidneys, that's whyelreu got to keep your kidneys flushed, Karl. You don't want a stagnent pond inside you, do you?" "Of course not," I said. I drank a glass of fresh water she handed me. She pulled out some cod liver oil from her purse. "Always take this along wherever Igo. Heard a man give a lecture only last week. 'Prink a tablespoon of this oil in a glass of milk every morning,' he says. It'll lubricate your insides. It keeps every thing on the move down there, And it just-may help your There's been a doctor in mse house all' • . weekend and I don't know if I feel so good. • You must understand. . This isn't the ordinary • kind Of doctor-cone who's trained and interned, educated ..,end high . priced, 01-UP emended, • floundered and' funded. No. of that. The d tot in my house is Aunt Hazel and she voniee with impressive credentials. For over .75 'years now, she's -devoured _every enieggeof 'medical' material as though it were sweet cakes. , But let's get one : thing straight. Even though she's swamped in medicine, most of her information conies from places like Dr. Lambls newspaper column. Or from the Good Health magazine she's subscribed to for over 20 years. Or the Readers Digest. Or from the circuit of mid-afternoon tea breaks when people have nothing • better to do than' trade off aches and pains. Aunt Hazel likes vitamins so much she L.eys them wholesale. And from the same company she gets her hand cream laced with ° cucumbere and her "tea_ wrung d'ut from rosehips. • She's a believer alright. A true believer in good health, warm baths and fresh' ' vegetables—especially it' they're green. Aunt Hazel no more than Stepped inside our place when she spotted a fly. "Where's the fly wetter?" she said. "There's two things I've vowed in life. Never to give up my own bed to visiting company--and never, never to have a fly in the house." arthritis." 1 todl her I didtet have ,arthritis'-:eet. , And just to help my arthritis that may come in time, she told me about Vitamin E. Of course she said, not all doctors agree on Vitamin E. but Vitamin E has pepped her up taut thinned out her blood. "Take 800 milligrams a ' day," she whispered to me. "The .doctor doesn't know it, but this old girl 'here is her own best doctor. I've lived with me longer than the doctor. I ought to know what's best for me." And when. I finished tee 'chillier and pushed my chair away. from the table, Aunt Hazel said. "Karl. you eat too much. One helping is all a body ever needs. "And cut down on butter. There's too much cholesterol in that Mergerine's better .. for you—and cheaper. From that first minute. she set a death "I don't even put a sugar bowl on my table watch for every fly in our house, She was anymore. But if you have to have sugar. use lucky. This has been a good year' for flies. brown. It's not all that good in coffee, but No, I mean a bad 'mete I mean there leiven't it's better than that white stuff. been all that many flies in our house this "You know Karl. you have to watch your year. health—et your age. Heart attacks you -But to Aunt Hazel. one fly le Rio many. knee„"' "Can you tell me," she asked. "Why on "Bue I. don't put any Sugar at all in my . earth did God ever make a fly:Those no-good ogfee," I said. She didn't hear me. She filthy things. God should have known forged right on ahead. better." • ''You. drink .way too much coffee," she By visit's end, she counted up 27 flies she said. Your coffee bill must by sky high. All exterminated. A good weekend catch she that caffein. It's just .riot good for you; I figured--enough to justify her 100 mile trip wonder how black your insides, must be. over from Port Huron, MiChigan. Ever see the black stains on your coffee "How's your water, Karl?" she said. cup?" "My water's fine," I said. Yes, I've seen black stains on my coffee "I mean the drinking water," she cup. Yes, I'm probably all black on the snapped. Yes, I'm probattlyerighteeettee to the, "That's fine, too. We have a deep well . • bone. And yes, I'll get the screen door fixed 140 feet down. Clear, Mean water." " so the flies won't sneak in . And yes, I'll "Good. That's what I need. I refuse to drink more milk--only 2% of course, and :Leek Lake . Huron water--a stinking, rotten then not all that much. And yes. I'll eat mess. Know what they're doing in brown shelled eggs, if I can find them. And, • Michigan? Dumping raw sewage into our yes, I'll cut down on my eating. lake. Our water stinks when it comes out of Yes, yes, yes. Anything you say, Aunt- the kitchen tap." She shudders when she Hazel. Everything you say is right. Aunt tells it. Hazel. "Igo into the country.Witheitio big.bOttleS There's no use talking back. Aunt Hazel evety Week,. ,Agepiezel went On, "I get my wears alteeting aid. And she turns it on only etippliti 6otit a well that's 1,000 feet down. part of the time. Mid never when I'M "'Thu need good water, Katl ...and you talking, as hot as Rene Levesque tongue, day after Mediterraneans we want to keep out,of the day.But .it's' a fact. Canada's summer \is , countrve eee Elderly• genelemen with legs like grass- hoppers and " guts like a member of the Hell's Angels, go sauntering along the beach in shorts and shades, shameless. Grandmothers, who the rest of the year math probity, purity and good posture, slither into bikinis, grease them- selves allover, and lie around like starlets at the Riviera, . soaking up the sun and any — glances that come their way. Young executives, normally suited, stifled and tied, wander about backyard ' barbecues, corsets abandoned, bare bellies winter. hanging over slovenly shorts, downing gin When the first snow flies in November, we and tonic. as though it were the medicine to' am es, delighted as a. Bible-thumping, end all ailments. soul-saving minister dumped into a com- Male teenagers suddenly emerge with twilit ., of arant sinners. , more macho than a Mexican, chests bared, • We start building fleecier personal library shorts cut right back to the public hair line, of short stories and novels, entitled such as: Swaggering, bare-footed, constantly "Snow" and,"To Build a Fire" and "Lost in bmsing .or combing their other well-shaped - the Barrens" and "Christmas Eve at -Eighty _ hair, saying in effect,' "Herel —am, girls, Below", each designed to make us" chuckle Ain't I gorgeous? Better grab before as we sit there with the oil furnance wafting someone else does." , up the tropic temperatures from below. Young ladies- who would not be caught For the next four or five months, we spin dead in anything but jeans the other ten our wheels on the ice and snufflethrough the months of the year, stroll down main street snow, happy as,pigs in poop, complimenting ' in outfits that •would have been coneidered each other on the facts that "There's a scandalous a couple of decades ago in a terrible lotta 'flu around" and that,"She!s a hootchikootchi show. (If you don't know long ways from over yet", even though it's 'what that is es ask • your dad.) ' the ertd of February and it hasn't snowed for • And tiny 'children are probably the worst, three weeks. because 'they don't know or care anything From the first of March to. the middle of about that Other Ten Months. They go ape, May, regardless of - the mist of green pointing et birds, plucking leaves, chasing spouting everywhere, the ice gone out of , squirrels, sPlashing, running in the sun, an& • the bay, and the thermometer rising to the • tearing off their clothes the moment no one gasping point, the boys in the'coffee shop and is looking. the girls at 'the hair-dresser's keep reminding each other merrily of the year we I guess we're a bit like the Swedes. • had eighteen inches on April 12th, and the They're the most sensual, sun-loving, sexy time we had a killing frost on the 24th of people in the world when ,they get south of May. • e The Straits of Saggerack. The rest of the Suddenly it's June. Lilac scent. Strawber- year, they're too .busy committing suicide. fies. • Flowers popping. Mosquitoes We're not muth for the latter, we humming. Temperatures soaring.'1 13tit yite Canadians. At least, not physically. We do it don't give up. We still know the score. mentally, and emotionally. . "We'll likely have• a cold, wet summer"; or But just the other day, I mitre-Mlle acorns "The dam' grass is growin' too fast. Hadda falling in great quantities. We all know what cur her, twice this week", or "Too many that mean's. All together, now; and let's squirrels. That means along, hard winter," have some harmony. "et's going to be a And then, without our even realizing it, Long, Tough Winter." Meliorating, debilitating and eventually destroying our normally sturdy national character. At least it is mine. ,And as I look about me, I know I'm not alone. During the other seasons, we know were we are - or are not - going. We know where we are at, Through our magnificent autumns, our basic pessimism prevails. We greet with little harsh barks of sardonic laughter, and a knowing wagging of heads, every doomsday prophet, from ancient Indian sages to the Farmers' Almanac, who tells' us that it's going to be a long, tough One of the biggest complaints people.have these days seems to be about the • government, whether it is the federal, the provincial or local. So Expositor Asks this week decided to ask, "Would you ever consider running for local town or township council?" Mrs. David W. Reynolds of 70 Jarvis St.; Seaforth said, '"I don't think I would,mainly because there's so many problems involved. There's always' somebody down your neck.," She added that, whenyou think you're doing something right, you don't have anybody to back you up when you do make a decision. • ' Herb Redden of 82 Brock Street in Hensall said, "No, it's such 'a mess now that there's no point running, It's just like the government. It's just a mess all over. Hew .could you improve' it? Smaller towns are just the same spend crazy." He cited the new arena and new fire hall in Hensall as examples of this. Mr. Hedden said the biggest majority of the• younger generation doesn't appreciate things anyway because they go into places like schools and churches and wreck everything. MrsSern Alderdice of RR 2 Kippen said, "No. There are too many things you have to be involved in .that I would never have dealings with such as fencing and ditches, "While we ,stay home to feed the country", my, • neighbour the farmer said Sorn,ething to say Xpositor asks: by Susan White The match is coining to McKillop Would you run for council? By Debbie Ranney whereas men would have." ) "1 think that I wouldn't be able to satisfy • too many people. To be a good politician one has to be a fence sitter. They don't want people that have a decided opinion'," Mrs. Alderdice said adding that she Would have definite opinions. Mrs. George. Smale of RR 2, Dublin said she felt she didn't have enough education or experience for the job. "I think there's a lot more people, more capable," she said. "Mrs. Laverne Wallace of RR 2, Staffa said, "No, .I wouldn't because I don't feel that I'm qualifted.": She added that in order to be a politician one had to have 'the ability to get up and speak in public and should be able to express , one's self properly, "and I don't feel I'd be capable," she said. Wayne Prest of RR 4, Walton said he respects the men in-their positions on council but he doesn't vote, so he wouldn't run. Briai MacDonald of 91 North Street, Seaforth who works' for Seaforth councillor Gerald Groothius said, "Not right now., I hd/en't got time right now. It seems to take quite a bit of personal time." . He said another reason was'because he's not well versed enough on what local government involves. "In ten years it could lee a lot different," he said.' • when we trudge off to work and he, outside checking •on the cattle twice a day, takes it easy. (I know I'm going to hear about that one, after the paper's out). • Living in the country has been for the better half and me, former city and town dwellers. We appreciate how long and hard Canadian farmers have.to work. We've learned a heck of a lot about how risky, nerve rackingand lust plain exhausting farming .can be. And I think we even understited a little why, in "spite of all the , headaches, most farmers wouldn't want to 'oeinany other business.' Blit, I have just leaitied, the best is yet to come. For, just three short weeks front now, on September 1 and 2, •Huron County Plowing Match will he held' right next door to our place in McKillop. 'The upcoming match 'already has brought benefits to those of us' 'who live on Con. 6 and 7. "Oh yeah, I'm getting that hill „just outside our gate levelled off a bit", joked another neighbour when the dozers and 'the, dump trucks and the gravel and fill moved it a couple of weeks ago,eobviously bent on road. asrious rebuilding of our Ever since, we on the line have assumed it was our good looks, our complaints in the winter, our population . explosion of all those little future vdteis or whatever that made us rate a new road. Now we know, it's the , upcoming plowing match. The Huron Match is no International but 'it does bring many 'hundreds of visitors and contestants to the match site. 4Living right next door to the activities is' going to be a heavy re- psPo°rtnusnibitiy. tilY, and an op- . We haven:t figured out, the precise nature of our con- tribution to (some would say cashing in on) the match next door, but we're thinking about it. • Last year I was among the many people , who enjoyed a look at Allan Walper's solar heating system when the match was at his place near Grand Bend.. - If we hadn't just sold our log 'cabin we could have , Posted discreet signs next door directing Match 'visitors to a real old TaShionedecabitee, raising bee (admission only 32.50) right in our hack yard. - Parking is always at a premium, but the garden and the old house parts limit the number of cars we can pack into our acre. , The drought.wasn't kind of • our garden, so it looks like a stand selling country fresh produce is out. We,could set up a b000th in the driveway to sell freshie and lemonade, but that might be too popular and our well isn't the ever: flowing kind. ' I've got the genii of an idea, though, prompted by my recent acquisition 'of a .,child and some comments from my . neighbour who 'finds the plowing match will be held right ,in front of her , house. . "I wish'it was after- school started," she was saying, "I lust don't ;Yee ill' what I'm going to do Wit I kids."' So, if you're 'at Huron's (Continued on Page 20)