HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1981-11-25, Page 2 ;;T:N\
1872
4Brussels Post BRussEis
Bstablished 1872
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community
Box 50,
Brussels, Ontario
NOG 1 HO
Published at BRUSSELS, ONTARIO
every Wednesday morning
by McLean Bros, Publishers Limited
Andrew Y. McLean, Publisher
Evelyn Kennedy, Editor
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1981
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario
Weekly Newspaper Association and The Audit Bureau of
Circulation.
$13 a year
40 cents a single copy
Authorized as second class mail by Canada
Post Office. Registration Number 0562.
A
Behind the scenes
by Keith Roulston
For years or more, we got along fine with
ordinary storm windows.
Oh, I'll admit they caused a certain amount
of domestic hassle, chiefly because they were
put on too late in the fall, or taken off too early
in the spring, according to the old lady.
But she's always in a rush to "get things
done." I get them done, eventually. Never
once did I fail to find someone who would put
them on before Christmas.
And they were kind of ugly. And they did
warp. And they did have to be painted. And it
was costing more money every year to get
someone to do the job.
But, ah, what a good feeling I had every fall
when I'd conned some guy with a strong back
to do the job. I wouldn't touch them with a
six-foot pole.
It's a big house, and there were 14 of the
brutes, weighing about 70 pounds each. I
don't mind heights, as long as I'm not
attached to the ground. I've been up to 32,000
feet, all by myself, in a Spitfire, and higher
than that in passenger jets. ,L
But it takes all my nerve to climb a step
ladder and change a bulb in the kitchen, with
my wife holding the ladder.
There was no way I was going to climb 30
feet up a ladder, carrying a 70 pound storm
window, and punch and hammer it into place.
I always had a vision of a wind catching the
storm broadside when I was halfway up, and
taking me off for a hang-gliding trip.
That actually happened to one chap who
was doing the job one fall. A gust caught him
and he sailed off the ladder, landed on his feet
like a cat, still clutching the window, and
nothing was damaged. He just grinned.
That was Jim Fletcher, a young fellow who
To the editor:
The Wingham and District Hospital
Auxiliary canvass concluded on October 31.
The goal set was a piece of X-ray equipment
for children, costing $1000. The community
response was overwhelming and the total
funds received were $4,802.06.
Our Hospital Auxiliary will be having its
next meeting on November 23 and it will be
decided how to best use the extra funds.
Notice of this will be in the paper following,
As this canvass replaced Hospital Tag
day, which last occured in 1978, there were a
few things done differently this year. It was
scheduled to coincide with the Auxiliary
Rummage sale as had been the custom a
number of years ago. Tags formerly were
distributed ereplaced this year by flyers with
a two-fold purpose...to describe the equip-
ment sought through the canvass and also to
provide the community with a progress
report on the present renovation and
building project. Total funding for this
project was promised prior to the acutal
building beginnings
The purchase of hospital equipment is not
furiddd by the government. The Hospital
Auxiliary and numerous service grotips
faithfully worked to raise the funds to
purchase much needed equipment. The
community'g support for these projects is
always appreciated.
To the hardworking canvassers and the
community which responded so generouslyo
please accept our sincere gratitude.
Mary Vair
Auxiliary Canvass Committee
X-ray bought
Sugar and spice
By Bill Smiley
was completely unafraid of work. Made his
living at cleaning floors, windows, etc. and
built up a nice little business, scrubbing out
banks and stores and such at nights.
You don't see too many merchants or bank
managers in there scrubbing their floors after
they've closed, do you? Might do them goad.
Jim used to charge $14 to put on the
storms, which included washing them ana
washing the outside of the regular windows,
storing the screens. It took him a couple of
hours. In the spring, he'd take them off, wash
everything, store them for $10.
The price went up steadily after he went to
greener pastures, and the quality of the
workmen went steadily downhill. Some of the
young guys. I hired took twice as long and
charged twice as much. Sometimes the
windows would stick and they'd leave it with
a one-inch gap around half of it. One bird put
his fist through a storm and bled all over the
place. Another dropped one and glassed half
my front lawn.
Last year, I had a young fellow, newly
started in the cleaning-up .of properties,
raking leaves, that sort of thing. I gave him
the job of doing the esate, provided He'd do.
the storms.
He looked pretty dubious, but agreed.
Brought his wife around on her day off to hold
the ladder. Well, he got them all, but he was
peagreen and his legs were rubber. when
he'd finished. He swore he'd never do them
again.
By this time it was costing me almost $100 a
year to get the brutes on and off. Not to
mention a great deal of harassment from the
distaff side, and a frantic search for a
putter-onner. Nobody on unemployment
insurance was vaguely interested.
All this, combined with the energy crisis
propaganda, made me cave in, and we had
aluminum storms put on. I could have paid
$100 a year for the next 13 years if I'd stuck
with the old wooden ones.
"But look what you'll save on fuel", you
way. That's what they all say. Probably 50
bucks a year. "It will increase the value of
Canada is either a haven for the poor and
downtrodden of all races and creeds or a sick
racist society depending on who you listen to.
Somewhere probably in the middle is the real
truth.
Canadians have always liked to see their
country as one of those places where the
persecuted of the world could find refuge. We
have taken in the victims of famine in
Ireland-, of greedy landlords in Scotland, of
imperial whims in the Ukraine, of the class
system of England, of the devastation of the
Second World War across western Europe, of
Soviet totalitarianism in Eastern Europe and
of famine and war in southeast Asia. Yet
many of the people who have been taken in
today are turning around and saying Canada
is a racist land, that people of different skin
tones are discriminated against. •
AMPLE EVIDENCE
There is no doubt that they have ample
evidence to back them up. Periodically the
grim stories come out about elderly Pakistani
or Asian gentlemen being beaten up on
Toronto subway trains by young punks.
Closer to home, I recall when one popular
business was sold to an East Indian family
and almost half the customers, most claiming
to be good Christains, never darkened the
door again. While some Canadians were
performing an act of great love and
generosity in rescuing "boat people" from
the horrors of their lives in the far east, others
were first of all saying that we should be
looking after our own poor instead, then later
spreading rumours about the "boat people"
being dirty or being ungrateful or being lazy
or expecting their sponsors to do everything
for them.
There is no doubt that there are racists and
bigots in Canada.
For those of us who detest this there is
often the dilemma of what we can do about it.
I recall several years ago attending a dinner
and sitting across from a loud, loutish boor
who insisted on telling stories about blacks
using such terms as "this big buck."
Everyone at the table was embarassed but
what were we to do. Human decency seemed
to call for someone to tell him off but this
would only cause a disturbance and wasn't
likely, to, change the man anyway in the long
run. So we all ignored the bigot, hoping he
would go away but the feeling of guilt for not
doing something remained long after the
boor had gone home.
your house", someone else says. Maybe. By
a few hundred.
My wife and a girl who conies to help her
have wrestled with those things, got them
stuck, got them in but not on the rails,. and
generally found the whole procesS like roping
a steer.
I don't blame them. lye always had an
aluminum door on my back door, and spring
and fall I nearly rupture myself, swear like a
sailor, threaten to smash the thing with an
axe, and take an hour just to slide the screen
up and let the storm down, or vice versa.
One of these days I expect to come home
and find two women. each clutching an
aluminum window, unconscious on my lawn.
Or hanging by one foot from an upper
window, screaming for help.
And yet, while we must always strive for
the perfection of a land where people of all
races, religions and beliefs can live together
in perfect harmony, those who characterize
Canada as having major problems are going
a little overboard. There are two categories of
people who do this: the immigrants them-
selves and Canadian liberal thinkers.
A CROSS-SECTION
A television forum recently gave a good
cross-section of people who had come to
Canada from other parts of the world and had
their chance to sound off on their grievances
in their adopted land. Many used as evidence
of the racist Canadian society that they had
never felt out of place. They had never felt
their colour, they said, until they had come to
Canada. Why should they be so surprised? I
never felt very "Canadian" until I went to the
U.S. I never felt white until I was in places in
American cities where whites were a
minority. I never felt anything special about
speaking English until 1 went to Quebec and
was surrounded by people speaking French.
(I had the same feeling, in a Toronto
restaurant in the Greek section where
everyone spoke Greek).
Most people coming to Canada come from
places where they are the ethnic majority to a
land where they are a minority. Given such a
change in culture, people are bound to feel
uncomfortable.
A Canadian going to Pakistan or China
feels equally isolated.
White Canadian liberals are ready to listen
to any cry of racism or discrimination because
they seem to have a new kind of "white man's
burden," carrying on their shoulders the
guilt of what whites have done to . others
anywhere in the world. A recent show on CBC
told of the horrible treatment of the Chinese
of Canada from the 1800's up until the end of
World War II. There was certainly nothing to
be proud of but the Chinese.weren't the only
ones who were met with signs in parks that
said "No dogs or Chinese allowed." Similar
signs met the Irish and many other white
skinned immigrants. We can't go on carrying
the guilt for the sins of bigotted forefathers
anymore than we can forever feel guilty about
slavery in the U.S. or the misdeeds of South
Africans when there is nothing we can do
about it.
TENSION
And liberals should remember that racism
is not a sin solely of the whites against other
races. Wherever people of different races,
colours and customs have come together,
tension and munderstanding have arisen.
Ther are few places in the world where there
is such a mixture of people from all over the
world as in North American cities. Jamaicans
came from a country with a fairly large ethnic
mix, but nothing compared to Toronto with its
Chinese, East Indians, Japanese, Greeks,
Hungarians, Ukarainians and many other
groups. Pakistanis and Indians came from a
much more racially homogenious land. To
expect Canada with such diversity to be as
simple a place to live as their former homes is
ridiculous.
Canada is far from perfect and we must
strive for perfection. On the other hand, let's
not get too carried away with out deficiencies
either.
DAVIDSON WELL DRILLERS 1909
Davidson Well Drillers of Wingham were busy
drilling even in 1909 and here they were busy at
the Payn home` on Con. 2, Lot 4 Of Grey
ToWriship. From left are Theresa Mason, a
cOUtin of the Payht Gertrude Payn, Beehide!
Payn, Pearl Payn, Cecil Payh. and Mrs. Beehioe.
Payn.
(Photo courtesy Gertrude Bolger)