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The Brussels Post, 1981-02-11, Page 2 nag 4Brussels Post BR USSELS \ Established 1872 519-887-6641 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community Box 50, Brussels, Ontario NOG 1H0 Published at BRUSSELS, ONTARIO every Wednesday morning by McLean Bros, Publishers Limited A Andrew Y. McLean, Publisher Evelyn Kennedy, Editor Pat Langlols, Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and The Audit Bureau of Circulation. Subscription rates: Canada $12 a year (in advance) outside Canada $25 a year (in advance) Single copies - 30 cents each WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1981 41111111 1111111r,,,,,opo. Why don't we call Petunia? More volunteers needed One of the reasons the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre runs so well is because of the tremendous amount of voluntary labor. One of those volunteer groups is known as the Brussels, Morris and Grey Catering group which since beginning two years ago has been able to turn over a profit of $14,000 to the arena's recreation committee to help out with expeses at the arena. The group has been extremely busy this year with the addition of new hockey players, skaters and curlers so in spite of the fact that there are 70 women helping out with meals, they're still looking for voluteers. If you've ever been at the Community Centre and thought what a wonderful building it was to have in the community, then think abo.uf how you could help with its upkeep. If you feel you can volunteer something in the food line for some of these suppers, then sign your name to the list at the arena or call one of the leaders, Marg Dillow, Rose Marie Bishop, Isabel Pearson, Isabelle Bremner, Audrey Cardiff or Bessie Johnston .and let them know. Grey appoints to committees Grey Township Council made its commit- tee appointments for 1981 when it met in regular council session last Monday. The following appointments were made: Fenceviewers- Harry Gillis. Nelson Sleight- horn and Gerald Miller; Livestock Valuer- Clarence Clark; Brussels Morris and Grey Parks and Community Centre Board- Dave Wheeler and Rose Marie Bishop; Ethel CommunityCentre Board- Leona Armstrong, Ben Terpstra- Cranbrook Community Centre Board- Charlie Thomas, Roy Williamson; Moncrieff Community Centre Board- Lyle Pettapiece, Charlie Thomas; Board of ' Trustees, Seaforth Community Hospital- Roy Williamson; Grey Township Recreation Committee- Leona Armstrong, Ben Terp- stra; Brussels, Morris and Grey Parks and Community Centre Board- Leona Arm- strong, Charlie Thomas; Cranbrook Ceme- tery Board and Mount Pleasant Cemetery Board- Lyle Pettapiece; Huron County Farm Safety Association - Lyle Pettapiece with Royal Williamson as the alternate; Maitland Valley Conservation Authority- Roy William- son; Brussels Morris and Grey Medical- Dental Centre Board- Kathy Workman and Cliff Dunbar. Grey council is going to request that the minute books and records of the police village of Ethel be turned over to the township for historical puposes. Council authorized the clerk to make inquiries regarding a suitable sign or plaque setting out the names of the reeves and clerks since 1956. A building permit was approved for Larry Bray for an implement storage shed and council made a motion that the insurance review be adopted as amended. Sugar and • spice By Bill Smiley, For some reason, and I've no idea what it is, this column is going to be about girls' names. There are several possible reasons, any of which might be the right one.. First, it might be just an unconscious reaction to the , worst cold spell I can remember, The names of girls, exotic or otherwise, seem to . help fight those Jan./Feb. winter blueS or blahs. Secondly, I might simply be getting senile. This was my wife's suggestion when I told her my subject. Who knows? A couple of years from now at playgrounds with nothing on but a raincoat. And thirdly, the more I thought about it, the more I thought about it. I don't know whether this happens to you, but every so often I get some silly old song in my head, and I whistle and sing it, inaudibly, of course, because I don't want to be put away, for perhaps fifteen hours. It could be Colonel Bogey, and I play it, with variations, through my head all day. No other tune interferes. Just a few days, ago, I got one into my skull that must date back to the twenties, and it went on all day, through teaching, conversation, eating, shaving. It was: You can bring Rose, with the turned-up nose, But don't bring Lula. You can bring Kate with the partial plate, But don't bring Lula. Some old-timers might remember it. I'm sure it goes back to the days of vaudeville, or the gramophone, as we used to call it. But I've no idea where it came from, where I heard it, why I remembered the tune, or what was wrong with Lula. Anyway, I began to' contemplate the names of girls, and whence they derived. We chose the name Kim for our daughter, because we didn't know whether she was going to be a daughter or another son, and the name fitted either sex. There wasn't a Kim on the horizon then. Now you can find one on every street corner. In my home form, I have two Kims, two Karens, and a Carol, and until I knew which was which, I'd ask a question and start sounding like the old song "K-k-k-Katie.',' Girls' names seem to go in cycles. One year I had five Debbies in one class. Hardly ever hear a Debbie anymore. Aside from the fads, when every third gal has the same name, there seem to be some basic roots from which beleaguered mothers and fathers label their offspring. (I've known a Robin Bird and a Pete Moss, but those were exceptions). Some girls, are named after jewels, but, there aren't many Pearls, Rubies, Opals, Sapphires and such around these days. They're as old-fashioned as Elmer and Gordon for boys. Strangely, I've never heard a girl called Diamond, though I've met a few hard enough to live up to such a sobriquet. Girls are named after some months, but not others. We can label a girl May, April or June, but you don't hear too many Februaries or Novembers floating around. I think Febbie would be kinda cute for a short girl born in that short month. Then there is the practice of naming girls after flowers. We have Iris and Ivy and Pansy and Daisy and Marigold. and Rose, and even, on the occasional farout encount- er, Tulip or Virginia (if her last name happens to be Creeper). But they, too, have pretty well gone by the board. I don't know why. A girl is just as pretty as a flower, and often smells even nicer. Why don't we go back to that and call girls Petunia, Begonia, Phlox, Crocus, Daffodil? Think of the sweet little abbrevia- tions they'd acquire. Pet, Beggie, Flocky, Crockey and Daffy. Once in a while there is a flare-up of old-fashioned or foreign names. Then we have a rash of Samanth as, Marthas, Ingrids, Fleurs, Leslies. The trouble is, with our fondness for nicknames, even these august names become Sam, Marty, Ingy the dingy, Flour and Les. Thank goodness there is a solid element of parents' in our society who stick with the good old Biblical and fundamentally Anglo- Saxon tags: Ruth, Mary, Rebecca, Marga- ret, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Susan, Jane, Sophia and such. Not for them the exotic and subtly suggestive stuff like Syliva, Sonya, Roberta, Giselle, Juanita. Those are the sort of names that can get a girl into trouble. How about Carlotta? Or Vivien? Trouble, trouble. Personally, if I had six daughters, Loid forbid, I'd try to get one into each category, Emeralda for jewellery. September for a ' month. How does September Smiley sound? Sweet-pea for flowers. Sweet-pea Smiley? Ursula for an old-timer. Once had a slight fling with a. girl by that name. Mary for the solid virtues and, the religious connotations. And Diana, gooddess of love, for the dangerous group. If I suddenly and unexpectedly had a seventh,. I'd name her for one of the great women in myth or literature. Perhaps Circe, or Cordelia. Everybody happy with those? Thank goodness my daughter has two boys, one Nikov, after a character in a Russian novel, the other Balind, a name she made up. She'd drive us crazy if she had a batch of girls. Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston Just what we needed, an election in March Just what we needed eh? A March election? Perhaps It's the government's idea of giving a boost to the economy to have a winter election. Maybe Mr.'Davis' planners figure we might have a raging blizzard here in the snow belt on March 19 and nobody will be able to get to the polls. Since the government picks its own party members to man the polls it might then be able to win back the western Ontario ridings since only the party workers would get out to vote. Kidding aside it does seem like a strange time for an election. Normally politicians don't like to have winter elections, Voters don't like wading through snow to get to the polls and can sometimes take it out on the government that calls the election, Voters have been turning against governments quite regularly in recent years voting out Jimmy Carter to get Ronald Reagan, voting' out Pierre Trudeau to get Joe Clark, then voting. Clark out again to get Trudeau. It would seem that. Mr. Davis is taking a big chance but then politicians will believe polls more than gut reactions anymore. Mt. Davis is probably tight. I have this feeling that we're never going to see the end of the reign of the Conservatives in Ontario. Federally we can talk about how horrible it is o have one party in power for 11 years but iobody seems to bat an eyelash at nearly 40 years in Ontario. There could be an upset but upsets seem to be things that happen elsewhere, not in Ontario. One of the issues in the election will tndoubtedly be the economy. The Opposition parties will be pointing to all the plant closings and the industry moving westward and the talking about government mismanagement. As one who, has a rather sceptical view of the ability of government (particularly provincial governments) to manage the economy in these days of global economics. I would normally have a certain sympathy for Mr. Davis in this bout. But he. who lives by the sword, dies by the 'sword and it would be ironic justice if Mr. Davis got in electoral trouble this time because of the supposed ill-health of the provincial economy and his governinent's "Mismanagement". Mr. Davis and John Robarts and Leslie Frost before him, claimed all the good things in Ontario came from their government, net from the abundant natural resources we just happened to have in the north, nor from the farm belt that had most of Canada's top farmland or from the that put the industrial belt of Ontario on a peninsula jutting down into the U.S. making it close toAmerican markets and thus giving Ontario a natural industrial advantage to the rest of Canada. No, it wasn't these natural, ungovernment factors that made Ontario so prosperous but the magic of the Conservative government. So if you take credit for the good times that you don't deserve, Mr. Davis, don't ask me to feel sorry for you when you get blame for the bad times that you don't deserve. Aside from the irony that the Liberal party environment critic announced he would not be running for re-election on the same day as the Environment Minister Harry Parrott, the big city press took little notice of the retirement of Murray Gaunt last week. Murray wasn't the kind of politician who becomes a hero with the urban press, He's not a firebrand in the House or than who gives the press great lines it can quote, There are two kinds of politicians: leaders of the people, and servants of the people. Murray Gaunt was a prime example of the latter. I knew him both as a constituent and later as a man encountered many times as a iournalist to a politician. As a constituent' he did for me once, back in my school day., the kind of quick cutting-through of red tape . that he did for so many of his constituents Over the long years he served. Often he Was too busy helping people to make the kind of dynamic impact that attracts attention from the big-city press. Probably he also was unlikely to become a big-time politician because he was just too darned nice: He never sounded convincing if he railed against the government, which he did surprisingly seldom over the years: There is a certain knack to being able to sound outraged over the most trivial thing that successful politicians have. Murray Gaunt wasn't an actor. He only sounded convincing when he really cared about something. He fought a lot of battles for farmers, for the environinent over the years, battles he truely believed in. ,He generally only spoke on the issues he believed in. He may not have been a great big-time politicians but he won the respect of just about everyone he met, including government members. And he won the overwhelming respect of the thousands of people he helped back home as witnessed by the incredible support he received at the polls. If there were more Murray taunts ,and fewer attention getting,• political-actors in politics, 1 'think politicians would have a better name.