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The Citizen, 2009-09-24, Page 22PAGE 22. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009. It was a great couple of days for the Brussels Fall Fair and the Belgrave School Fair. Sunny skies overhead for the parades and lots of folks on hand to watch. It is always great to see the work of the past year’s planning be successful, which the good weather contributes to. The Brussels fair had a wonderful opening evening with something for everyone to see. They had a chef demonstrating easy cooking, a dog show to show off the many talents of our local dogs and handlers and for the musically inclined, Elvis was in the building. In my opinion, the exhibits at the fair were comparable to last year, with some classes up and some classes down. The canning and baking classes both seemed down to me, a sign that many, have too busy lives, to have the time to participate (myself included). Working full time, busy family activities, school and volunteering leaves precious little time for some things. I can remember when growing up, my mother was always busy, from the early spring, planting the garden, weeding the garden, and then from May through until October, picking and canning something. Rhubarb, strawberries through to pumpkins, there was jam to make, fruit to can, berries to freeze, apples to sauce, pumpkins to puree, vegetables to blanche and freeze. The fruit cellar was full and so was the freezer and my mother worked full time in a factory. Everyone helped from the picking to the shelling, stemming, shucking, chopping or stirring the simmering pot to put food down for the winter meals. The good weather has the farmers with white beans hard at the harvest. In my journey everyday, I see more fields being cleared every day. Most fields are combined straight, but there are still a few farmers that pull the beans first, then combine. Wheatground is being worked as well andsome are spreading manure again.The work never ends. Our hopes and good wishes for afull recovery go out to Gord Haggitt,who suffered serious injuries in awork-related incident. He is inLondon hospital and had surgery forhis injuries. Our thoughts are with Susan and family as they go through this difficult time. A progress report on Mary Dilworth is that she is out of intensive care and is progressing well, but is still in London hospital. We hope she is well enough to be home real soon. A double celebration was held at the home of Mike Dauphin last weekend. The Dauphin Feed and Supply and Dauphins Country Store Christmas party was held at the home of Mike and Michelle Dauphin and a second reason to celebrate was the occasion of Gary Dauphin’s 60th birthday. Congratulations to Gary and with only three months until Christmas, it’s really not so early for Christmas parties to start. Congratulations to Tanner Leslie and Lonie Horst on their engagement last week. They are planning a fall wedding for next year. Congratulations to Cheryl Armstrong and Pat Laffin on their marriage on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and a lovely wedding for all to enjoy. A good crowd was on hand at the buck and doe for Brent Pryce and Catharine Pestell in Seaforth on the weekend. The couple will wed in October. A welcome to Huronlea apartments goes to Velma Stephenson. She has moved there from the Alexander Street apartments and we hope she is happy in her new surroundings. A family gathering to celebrate the engagement of Rob McClure and Amanda VanMiltenburg was held on Sunday. Grandma Mabel Willis took the happy couple, along with Stan and Donna McClure, Tina and Trisha and Scott McLellan, to the Fireside Café for a lovelycelebration brunch. They had awonderful afternoon together. Thehappy couple is planning a Julywedding next year.Matt and Cheryl Lee have had aweek that has included a variety ofevents. It started off with their oldestson Ryder having his first day ofschool. As with most little ones, it‘s scary and exciting to have to get on the bus to go to school, and Ryder had decided “no school for him”. When the bus arrived, and the whole family went out to the bus, it was a good thing that a couple of older boys Ryder knew were already on the bus, so he managed to head off to school. The parents report they were the ones with a few tears. The next event was to aid and assist an accident victim not too far from their home. Matt had gone outside for something and thought he could hear someone calling “help me”. Living in an area that has very little traffic, Matt thought maybe he was hearing things, but thought he heard the call for help again and went to investigate. Heading out to the road, he could see someone on the road. He found a man who had lost control of his motorbike and had hit a tree. He was injured. The Lees called for an ambulance and Matt was surprised to realize he knew the injured person. Terry Thompson from Walton has a severely broken leg and is in London hospital. We wish him a speedy recovery and are glad Matt has such good hearing. The third event in Matt and Cheryl’s week, was the celebration of their fifth wedding anniversary. They celebrated with many of their family and friends at their home and were thoroughly entertained by the entertainment provided by good friend Brian Melady. They had a delicious potluck meal and a great time. It has taken 30 years, but the uninhabited house on the corner of Brussels Line and St. Michael’s Road is gone. We have watched the house, known as the Pollard Farm or the Tom Nolan place, and now the Poortinga farm, deteriorate and crumble for the last 30 years. Bit by bit, a window would sag and bow out, then the door frames, then it started to lean a bit , more windows popped out and finally a wall collapsed, then the roof, and more walls, until it collapsed into itself. It has sat like that for a few years and now the high hoe has buried it and cleaned up the area. Looks good! The Cousins family reunion was held on the weekend at the conservation area park in Brussels. There were about 38 members of the Cousins family attending the yearly reunion. They felt the park was a beautiful place to have the gathering. Betty Cousins reports the relatives attended from London, St. Thomas, Guelph, Kitchener, Bayfield, Barrie and Brussels. They enjoyed a potluck meal and a great time catching up with each other’s lives. The Lee track hosted the Steel City Riders Motocross Club year- end race. They fired up the bikes and were racing by 9:30 a.m. and were still racing at 6 p.m. A long day of racing for the club, but a beautiful day. Judy Emmrich was off to Ottawa for the weekend on business. She is a postal union rep and meetings were held over the weekend. She flew from London, to Toronto and then to Ottawa. She had a nice time but was glad to return home. Judy is still suffering some effects from a fall from her horse that happened over a week ago. Her horse stepped into a beehive and was swarmed by the bees and stung. Judy was thrown and landed on some protruding short tree stumps.She was stung over 20 times. She is feeling much better, and thebruising is fading, as is the itching,but she is still stiff and sore inplaces. A lovely afternoon party was heldin celebration of Doug and FlorenceMachan’s 50th wedding anniversaryat the home of Jim and Linda McDonald. A tent on the lawn held the many guests. A family meal was held following the afternoon open house. Doug and Florence have three children, Linda, Paul and Vicki. Celebrating birthdays this past week include Matt Ryan, Emma Strome, Ben Driscoll, Heather Kelso, Bruce Whitmore, Mike Boven, Lucas Godkin, Tim Nolan, Peggy Sloan and Raymond Wilts. Yippee! John Lowe, president of the Brussels Legion, left, presents a cheque for $1,000 to Brian Prescott of Brussels, winner of the Legion’s elimination draw which was held on Saturday night. (Bonnie Gropp photo) Wednesday, Sept. 9 the UCW had its first meeting since breaking for summer. There was an unusually high attendance to hear guest speaker, former minister at Duff’s Joan Tuchlinsky, and her daughter Laura. Joan is the public education co-ordinator at the Sexual Assault Centre of Waterloo Region located at 201-151 Frederick St., Kitchener. They spoke very passionately about their work and the presentations that they do that include public schools through to universities gearing their topic to the audience they are speaking to. They give talks at churches and other public service groups as well with awareness being the key. It’s been three years since the family have been back as Bethany also joined them. She too does volunteer work with the organization and all were emotional about being at the church and seeing old friends. Work has begun on the church kitchen and Helen thanked everyone who helped with the summer suppers. The next meeting is Wednesday, Oct. 1. The turkey supper is Wednesday, Nov. 4. By Jo-Ann McDonald It was a busy weekend at the Brussels Legion Branch with cards, fish fry, draw and dancing. The Saturday afternoon had seven and a half tables of players hoping to be winners. The first-place team was Joann MacDonald and Dorothy Carter with 73 points. In second were Ed and Marie Stewart with 69 points. There was a tie for third place between Janet Davies and Vi Glanville and Delores Howatt and Dorothy Dalton. The teams each had 67 points. The low players of the day were Willis and Betty. The lucky lone hand prizes went to Ethel and George. Euchre is every two weeks with Comrades Marg Bennett and Leona McDonald. The annual elimination draw was held on Saturday with the tickets sold out by midweek. The big winner of the day was Brian Prescott. The draw was looked after by Comrades Sandra Josling, Eric and Deb Ross and Elaine Nichol and they did an excellent job. Eric selected folks from the audience to pull the vials, so if you didn’t win, it wasn’t his fault. Good thinking Eric. The fish fry had a smaller crowd than normal for the draw, but beautiful weather, weddings, ball tournament, golf tournament and more had folks around the area, quite busy. There was around 130 out to enjoy the dinner and the cooks included Comrades Greg Wilson, Murray Lowe, Barrie Currie, Lawrence Machan, Andy Overholt, Bob and Monica Richardson. Comrades in the kitchen included Judy Lee, Mabel Willis, Sharon Robbins, and Jo-Ann McDonald. There were also four cadets assisting with various duties. The Sunday night dance had a smaller than usual crowd attending. The usual helpers of Howard and Audrey Hackwell, Judy Lee, Mabel Glanville and Jo-Ann McDonald did a fine job. A good job was done by trio Eric Ross, John Lowe and Lawrence Machan repairing the sidewalk at the front of the building. The Friday night suppers resume this week. We hope all our old friends will be back to enjoy roast beef. At the Branch Fish fry, dance, draw at Legion NEWS FROM WALTON By Jo-AnnMcDonaldCall 887-6570PEOPLE AROUNDWALTON UCW back in action Duff’s United Church members were greeted by Kathleen and Helen Williamson. Announcements included that the renovations to the kitchen have started and the kitchen will be out of commission until about Sept. 28. The congregation is looking for a person to assume the responsibilities as secretary for bulletins and announcements. The UCW are also looking for a person to be the treasurer as of Jan. 1, 2010. Please contact Teresa Baan or Helen Craig if interested in either of these positions. Looking ahead to October’s UCW meeting on Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m., the guest speaker will be Jinah Kugba- Nyande speaking on her home country of Sierra Leone. Duff’s United looking for secretary