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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1979-05-23, Page 2 wir MTh LS OPITA11.0 WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1979 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community, Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat Langlois - Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association. Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $10.00 a Year. Others $20.00 a Year. Single Copies 25 cents each. ...taM CO. • • Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston It's worth the wait t*n Brussels Post Good work cadets „ Congratulations to the Brussels cadets. On Tuesday night an awards night was held in Brussels with many cadets receiving perfect attendance awards and others receiving promotions in rank. For a group that's only been in operation for a few months the Brussels cadets seem to have things well in hand. Of course credit has to be given to their training officers as well as the cadets themselves because without them the awards wouldn't be possible. And Commanding Officer Rosemaire Vandeberg was presented with award for outstanding achievement by a first year cadet corps. Imagine that. Just starting out and already they're winners. These achievements give both the youth who participate and their parents a sense of satisfaction. They have accomplished something. And it does the village of Brussels good to have another group that can help contribute to the village and put Brussels on the map through their achievements. Congratulations, cadets for a job well done. To the editor: Morris resident wants OHRP $7500.00, depending on your income? Ontario Home Renewal Program. A portion of this loan may be forgiven and interest grant from the Ontario Government for up to systems. rates vary from zero to eight per cent, this program because "There is not enough interest in it," and "for the amount of work sanitary conditions, the upgrading of plumbing, heating insulation or electrical township council refuses to participate in To Morris Township Taxpayers: lepending on your income. You could use his money to correct faulty structural or This money is provided through the There is only one catch, however, our Are you aware that you are eligible for a benefit this year should m .ake it worthwhile, we consider ourselves to be worthwhile, Don't You? suggestion from us about our township. io, Act Nowll opportunity so you can let council know your views. Don't wait till election time to complain about what they did wrong in their term. They are there to serve us, we pay them, surely they should be open to program. The fact that at least a few would Reeve when we tried to apply for this benefit, it is not worth the trouble." These are the answers I received from our. Is there any interest in this program? if We are informing you, the public, of this Sincerely Joe & Joanne Phelan involved, when only a few families would I went outside last night, just as the darkness fell. Breathing the air, sweet with the scent of cherry blossoms and lilacs I realized that waiting through the long hard winter was worth it. I think that only those who live in a climate where there is hardship in winter can really appreciate the spring, just as only those who have been poor can really appreciate wealth, or those who have done without food can really appreciate a good meal. No matter how many times we have gone through the yearly cycle, few of us fail to feel the surprise and pleasure of a new spring. Somehow, in the midst of winter, when the snow is piled up to your adams apple and it's so cold it seems the sun has finally burned out, it seems hard to believe that sprirI can really happen. Logically, we know that time will bring a change but somehow it seems impossible that when it is so cold it can turn around in a short time to be so hot. Likewise, in the heat of July I find it hard to imagine while driving down our country concession, that only a few months ago snowbanks lined the roadside, like canyon walls. I know it will be that way in another few months too but I don't even want to think of that. A Canadian spring is God's gift to us for the long suffering of winter. Oh I know there are people who would tell you that there is no such thing as spring in Ontario. agree it can be an erratic time as it was a couple of weeks ago when some people saw snow in the air on Sunday but by Tuesday it was nearly 90 degrees. We have a few gentle, spring days but in this part of the country more often we alternate between late winter and early summer weather, sometimes in the same day. Just when were getting used to the idea of warm weather, we're plunged back into the miseryof winter, even as late as May. But spring hangs in there and our spirits soar with the temperature. The grass greens and our attitudes, so long soured by the trials of winter living, brighten almost daily. The pleasures of spring come in stages. There comes the day when you first stand in a sheltered place and feel the warmth of the sun through your winter clothes and it renews your faith that spring will come. Then the snow starts to melt and eventually you can get around without heavy winter boots. Then comes the day when the winter coat can be left behind (but not put away because in our fickle springs you never know how long the warm weather will last). And at last comes the day when you can go out without a jacket at all and there's a feeling of freedom like beign let out of jail after serving a long sentence. We watch the trees for the swelling and bursting buds. We watch for the spring flowers to come up and the blossoms to appear. We listen for the hum of the bees hopping from blossom to blossom doing the job that is so necessary for our summer and fall food pleasures. And we watch to for the not-so-pleasant buzz of the first mosquitoes and black flies that can drive us indoors away from the long-awaited pleasures of spring. (Why is it we can remember the pleasures of spring', throughout the long winter but we forget things _like blackflies?) There's another buzz to listen for too for those of us who live in the country. That's the buzz of the powerful diesel engines of the tractors that are out on the land as soon as it dries to cut and chisel and mix the soil and begin another cycle of growth. Even those who aren't farmers get involved in the cycle. The first time a couple of warm days come together, the little backyard garden plots are suddenly busy with people working the land and sewing seed as if one wasted day would be a sin. Everyone seems to rush against time to bring their garden produce onto the dinner table as soon as possible. (On a weekend trip to the city we even saw leaf lettuce plants for sale in those little preplanted boxes). But all these things can't match the pleasures of those first warm evenings when you can sit on the back porch or walk down the street and smell the indes- cribable perfume of spring air. Sounds filter through to add to the experience: the hum of a farway tractor in a field; the muffled sounds of people working in their gardens; the bubbling laughter of children who have escaped an early bed time to enjoy the spring night just 'a little longer; the chorus of creek-creek sounds from the rive or swamp where the frogs, as happy as we are to be out in the warmth of springf again go through their mating rituals. It was worth the wait. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. While every effort will be made to insure they are handled with care, the publishers cannot be responsible for the return of unsolicited 'manuscripts or photos. Sugar and spice By Bill Smiley A harsh land Even though we are into the last quarter of the twentieth century, with the tremendouse technological advances that have been made, this can still be a mighty harsh land to live in. At the time of writing, my heart aches for those poor devils in southern Manitoba, and in northen Ontario, who have been victims of floods. It must be devastating to see your fine farm covered with Muddy water, your house or barn collapsing under the force of a vast, callous element over which you have no control. We can blame ourselves for bad judgement, faulty management, or just plain laziness. But when Nature chooses, with her random, indifferent power, to throw a big one at us, whether it be fire, flood, drought, hail or grasshoppers, there is not much to do but weep, curse, or pray, Modern man can walk on the moon, drift through the sky in luxury at 750 miles an hour, keep himself warm and clean by flicking switches and pressing buttons. He can communicate with his fellows over thousands of miles. But when it comes to a tornado or an earthquake, there is little he can do but cower until its over, and then try to pick up the pieces. We are not much bothered in this country by those two "acts of God." But we have plenty of our own variety: blizzards, floods, forest fires, periods of either drought or rain that make the farmer despair. Perhaps the greatest glory of man is that he refuses to succumb to the desolation that follows these curses of nature that remind him constantly that he is a petty creature, indeed, of little more importance in the scheme of things than an ant or a cockroach, and not nearly as capable of survival, over the long haul If I were a farmer in the Red River Valley today, I'd probably feel like going out behind what was left of my barn and quietly shooting myself. But they won't do it, and that is why man will survive the worst things that Nature can do to hirn,He will' pick up the pieces and re-build, with a stubborn and dauntless spirit that makes him refuse to give in. I've just finished reading The Pioneer Years, by Barry Broadfoot, about the settling of the West. A lot of people failed in their confrontation with the eternal hardships of the prairies, the bitter cold, the vast emptiness, the terrible daily toil, the plagues of insects., hail, drought. But even more of them fought back with Kittle but their human refusal to cave in under almost unbearable conditions, And their ancestors are still there. And they, too, will go on fighting the savagery of this country of ours, and triumph in the end. Today's farmer in the West has equipment his ancestor could not even dream about. He can farm four sections in the time it took his grandfather to extract a meagre crop from quarter-section, with horses, and brutal, dawn-to-dark human labour. With the advent of the telephone and the automobile, the appalling loneliness of life on the prairies, of which Sinclair Ross writes so movingly, has disappeared. Today's ' farmer may even have a small aircraft to flip him into the larger towns, or across the border to the fleshpots of the States. But there still isn't a darn thing he can do about the weather. if there is drought, his crops burn and his catle don't fatten. If there is hail, he can have a year's wotk wiped out in a few hours, and be off to the bank to borrow for next year. He may have modern, technical advice from government. He may depart of one of the great, breadbaskets of the world, providing food for millions. But if it rains all summer, the bank still wants the interest on his loan, even though his crop is a disaster, Sure, grouse just like you, and you, when bread goes up a nickel a loaf, beef prices soar, milk costs more than beer, or nearly as much, and I can't afford a head of lettuce without cutting 'down on cigarettes. But when I think of the gamble a farmer takes, the amount of work he must do, and what he gets for his product at the rail-head, I can only shake my head and mutter "Why do they do it?" I wouldn't." Well, my friend, it's going to get a lot worse. With the millions of acres of junk land in this country on which to build houses, our blinkered politicians continue to allow industry and developers to buy up rich farmland, and turn it into factories that pollute with essences, highways that pollute with gas fumes, and high-rises that pollute with people, Take ti trip abroad. Check the prices of farm products. Ours are still among the cheapest in the world. When you have to pay $5.00 for a pound of meat, 40 cents each for tomatoes, and $2.00 for a loaf of bread, don't cry. Just remember that you read it here first. The farmer in this country has been getting royally screwed for decades, and he knows it. Prime Minister Trudeau chooses to call the farmers' anger "whining." My hat is off to them. Pick up the pieces, boys and rebuild. We need you. Very much.