HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1980-04-23, Page 3Sugar and spice
By Bill Smiley
don7t,...ttos*er.letters
around with the Hutterites to
show them the different hog
operations in. Ontario and
they saw what Bodmin
farms had to offer .last
Thursday.
indow broken
at Brussels Inn
A window at the. Brussels ,
Inn was broken on Friday
'night sometime after 3:15
a.m.
Owner Ken Webster
said he went to check on
some things and found
pieces of stone on the
window sill. The Wingham
O.P.P. are investigating.
THE BRUSSELS POST, APR,Ii. 23, 1980
ciety
elcornes
ew director
IT'S, THAT TIME OF YEAR Ikorkmen were-
Kept busy in. Brussels this week _digging up
some of the new sewers went in, to see , if all
pipes are open and in working order as there
has been flooding in some basements in the
village. Flooding has occurred, because of
'Settling conditions where the sewers were dug
up last year. (Photo by Langlois)
The Brussels Agriculture
Society met in the library on
Monday, April 7. Minutes
were read and. adopted. Pre-
sident Jack Cardiff welcomed
Brian Rultledge as he is. a
new director. The secretary
gave a 'brief 'outline of 'a
Convention in Toronto.
Graeme Craig moved
that the Optimist's have the
fair grounds July 6th- for a
Mini-Tractor Pull and .the
Flier's Club to have the
grounds June 20 or 21st
A $2.00 membership was
collected from all directors.
Judges were decided upon
for fair.
The secretary. is, to contact
Murray Cardiff M.P. to open
the fair. The Agricultural
Society will once again
sponsor 4-H groups.
Remember! It takes but a
moment to place a Brussels
Post Want Ad
Dial •Brussels 887-6641.
sold to :Hutterites
Bodmin Farms, of R.R.5, 'its operation, has sold seven.
Brussels which has a pig purebred Yorkshire boars to
breeding business as part of a .Hutterite group ,from
Manitoba.
'About three weeks ago,
&Amin shipped a couple of
In many ways, I 'am one of the worst
people I have ever met. And one of them" is'
not answering letters..,.
I wish it were not so. I wish I were
meticulous and tidy and had my income tax "
return filed at least two , days before the
deadline, and liked cats, and shined my
shoes at least once a week. But I'm not and
I don't. "
That's just a sample of the things 'I don't
like about myself. An entire list Would fill
this column. But not 'answering letters is
right up there near the head of the list.
It was brought home to me today, end of
March, when I received in the Mail, my
annual card and gift from an old friend and
one-time room-mate at college, Norm
Lightford.
Every Christmas, arriving end of March
this year (great mail service, eh?) he sends
one of those beautifully illustrated
calendars, and a warm card. And I have
never seen him, or written to' him, or
telephoned him, for about thirty-
'
five years.
Of course, the turkey , never sends his
address, but I could find that with a little
effort.
Poor Norm. I shouldn't say that. He's
now a dental surgeon in Ottawa with a
large practice, a happy marriage after a
lousy one, and a family.
But I did him a dirty one time. Away back
in the fall of '41, 1 decided to join the Air
Force. Not because I thought I could bring
Hitler to his knees in short order. Not at all.
Mainly because I was falling badly
behind in my studies because I had fallen
badly in love with a girl from Rio de Janeiro
who had to go home, leaving me bereft.
Enlisting was, a good way out.
Only one problem. I was sports editor of
the Varsity year-book, Torontonensis. Ihad
some scruples, but not many. I didn't want
to leave them without a sport editor
(scruple). So, I suckered my room-mate
Norm, into taking over. Result? He failed
second year dentistry, and had to repeat,
while I was off in the wild blue'yonder. (No
scruples.)
And just herd' on my desk, under the
beer bottle or the goose-neck lamp, is
another example of my non-letter-answer-
ing perfidy that bothers rti, but doesn't
seerii togo away, like a'heanacnd or a'dold.
It's a letter from Tony Frombola, Of
Oakland, Cal. It is dat ed October 4th,
1979. It begins, "Dearest Bill," and ends,
"Well, Bill, old buddy, I sure wish I was
hand-tarrying-this up to you; it sure would
be nice to haVe a few for Old times sake..."
TOny had tracked' me down; • after
thirty-four years. 'Last time I'd seen him
was on a troop-ship home from England.
He was a Typhoon pilot; a prisoner-of-war,
and we had "escaped" together after our
camp was taken over, by the :Russians.
He was also one of the great con artists,
and I'd written a column about this aspect.
Somehow; through the "old buddy"
network, he'd learned about it, and spent
four months trying to find out: where I was.
' He phoned me, one night from California.
And I've never answered his letter,-
Here's another example: Every Valen-
tine's day, I' get a card .from a beautiful
woman, Canadian; who spends the winter
in Florida. She reasserts, annually, that'
she loves me. And I've never answered.
My sisters write long letters occasionally
, and I never answer. My kid brother sends
off an . I affectionate missive every Christ-
mas. do not deign to reply.
Readers write warm, ,intelligent lettes
praising my column, or telling me what a
jackass I am. I maintain a haughty silence.
Certainly, after a while, people stop
writing, and you've lost another friend. Or
enemy. What they don't realize is that I'm
just testing them. Anyone who can go' on
writing letters into a void for thirty-odd
years is a real friend, worth cherishing,
even though you never answer the letters.
Today I had a long-distance call from a
woman, asking if she could reproduce one
of my columns for a meeting of school
trustees. The column was critical of
schools. I said, "Sure." She said, "Thanks
very much." I said "0 K." Communication
instant. If she'd written me, asking, she'd
never have heard, yea or nay.
What really has rubbed into my skin this
major flaw in my character is the number of
letters that pile into our place; from exotic
lands, bearing incredibly beautiful stamps,
for our son Hugh.
After nearly five years in the wilderness,
he gets letters from Iraq, Paraguay,
Argentina, Ireland and so on. There are
two from the United Nations building in
New York,..anotger from Florida, many
from Quebec. He has friends all over the
world. Maybe he 'writes back to them. •
I don't even write letters to the editor, no
matter what inanities appear in print.
But it's all going to change. After all, a
man controls his own destiny. I am defitiely
definitely going to anSwer all` your letters,
Norm, Tony, Winnie, Floss, Norma, Blake,
Uncle Ivan, nephew Paul, cousin Laura,
and all you readcis. The ,minute, I retire.
boars-to Jamaica. These pigs
come from the farm of
Wendell and Sheila Richards
of R.R.3, Brussels who, work
in co-operation with Bodmin
Farms.
These pigs are part of the
S.P.F. or Specific Pathogen
Free concept which, means
that the pigs are free of two
specific disease causing bus.
These are Mycoplasma
Enzotie Pneumonia (MEP)
and Atrophic Rhinitis or
(AR).
A representative from
Ontario has been going
. ROBERT BLACK
(Continued from Page 1)
worse than the beef industry.
"I wanted to diversify the farm but
somehow without stealing from the land. I
still like-the idea of a small farm," he said.
They talked with others who seemed
happy with the set-up, including one man
who was planning to expand hig operation.
The Blacks also made ,a phone call to the•
horticultural specialist at the University of
Guelph.
WORTH A TRY
"From what he told us and what We had
seen in other places, it didn't sound like
overselling. We decided it was worth a
try," Robert said.
The Blacks finally got their greenhouse
built about the middle of last September.
They had had problems with finances
because they couldn't find a banker willing
to go with the idea, mainly Robert said,
A new sort
of farming
because it was something new in the area.
They finally did get enough' to build, not
' enough to operate as well. August' 1, they
had started building and got some plants in
about a week later.
Close to the end of September they got .a."
small part of the.crop off. The plants were'
only in a couple of months before they had
to be pulled out because of lack of heat
needed for their growth and the lack of
financing which was needed to operat e the
greenhouse.
The greenhouse was shut down until last
month when some new plants were
brought in but those also had to be pulled
out as there were problems with sinsects
and they were overdosed a little bit with
spray. The Blacks have had a specialist in
to look at the plants to advise them on what
they were doing wrong.
BUY BACK
Now new plants of tomatoes and lettuce
have been started which is all the Blacks
are going to plant until they've learned
more about the greenhouse operation.
Both use r,oughly the same amounts of
fertilizer and the lettuce can be put
between the rows of tomatoes.
They are &Owing a Jumbo Tomato, a
climbing type, which have to wind around
strings in the greenhouse. In October, th
tomatoes will probably be taken out
because they will be getting less light then
and in November and December the Blacks
will probably just grow lettuce. Robert said
that day-time temperatures should be
around 70-72 degrees for tomatoes while
lettuce will do quite well at 60 'degrees,
"By doing away with tomatoes in
October, November and December, We're
saving a bit of fuel and at the same time
producing a good lettuce crop," Robert.
said.
As for the marketing of their crops, the
Blacks have a One year buy back contract
(Confirmed on Page 16)
_A-