HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1979-05-23, Page 2
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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.
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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.