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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1957-09-11, Page 4set a water pall, and., voice clams a dishpan, I should like to mterpelato that recently I staged a sort et old-time replica of this gastre- apectazilar for tho benefit of a big New York .mag, mine photographer, and he wee disappointed that the people as.. ambled seemed. so lacking M. joie de, vivre and, hilarity.. body was Smiling, latighing, ele- joling, or expressing merriment, Everybody was blank of expres- sion, hard at work, serious and. busy, (I tried to explain to him flit Maine people approach a lobster with a Maine attitude, and defer all other moods for the time be- ing; Summer people, in toy. shirts and holiday gayety, may laugh and frolic and eat at. the same time-amt not Maine folks at:a lobster feed. I think I failed to get the entire Idea. acros.s to him, because lee kept focusing onpeople and saying, "Smile') Who.paid for the lobster bake? Well, if the merchants hadn't donated the lobsters and clams as a gesture of gratitude for the year's patronage, you might have to drop ten cents in a pail for your- lobster: Clams were •for the digging ;and a volunteer- group. could get enough on one tide io fill the steamer. Some- times the local fishermen would decide to donate a day's catch and spare anybody tine expense. Maybe the old Board of Trade would put on a minstrel set:w- and acquire funds enough- in• eluding fifty dollars and taint fare for a big league pitcher rn cense on his day off and. pitch. for the Town Team, wearing a uniform . that said "Ma ,,:wrq ,'w, Witteic stere"• on the back We hid the best left bander in the American League -vase enear. and lost anyway. Those weren't mercenary dope and it didn't matter too noitie We never had a town-meof tag appropriation - that's 'for sure, Fun was fun, and taxes ‘7‘..0.. taxes. Some years Sam would. "pass a paper around," and those who wanted to would do- nate a quarter .or a half, until.. Sam bad enough to meet ex- penees-including the fireworks which • went oil after dark against the backdrop of the At-_ lactic Ocean and concluded the celebration. I was down on Indian Point a couple of Sundays ago in a re- trospective mood, The field has been divided into cottage lots and is fitted with clipped: pines ' and petunia tabs, The road has been streighttmed, widened, and bonded. There is a sign midway of the development which reedit, and I quote: • NOTICE Private Property Dead End: Road -By John Gould in The Chrh:••• tiara Science. Monitor. The years a woman subtracts from her age are not lost-e-they are added to the age of other women. ""."-tr.LTUIVI$ t ;1, sTARTED:tel, RED-CHIRA, "NO DATA: AVAILABLE, 3. FORMOSA 6, INDIA 1,500,000, HEle/ILet IN- 4, FECTED. 1,45 FIGURES 2, 600,,000,„ AVAILABLE.51-101N000G RO.NO 5 PHILIPPINES . CANADA JAPAN 7. JAPAN 100,000. B. MALAYA 500,000, 12. NEWPORT; R.I. 1 500. 1, SAN DIEGO, CALIF. 900. 14. NORFOLK, VA. SEVERAL CASES. AUSTRALIA . AUSTRALIA SEVERAL CASES. 11 PAKISTAN ,000. NENeae1e11.: , • ,oftgFI1141 4174',.77,-,WAlalggii-tie * T:44;;Ati '0 How Mein Are C i1 r ling the Mkt heWSHROOM ON THE RI5E-The mushroom from an atomic device larger than the one dropped an Hiroshima, rises progressively over the Nevada Test Site during a seven-minute 'period cuter the fifth detonation of the current eeriee, 'rho device via* set off under a balloon anchoied 700 feet over the desert, These photos were taken from a mountain 40 m.11 owoy from ground zero, Mi€11-tilme raolilday /AM: This was where the town held, .its Fourth of jury celebration, Lots of times an afternoon thunder shower would help out on the .noise„ but I can't rememe bet a Fourth that was rainy all day, Usually the sun broke clear- and bright and hot to find the committee already hard at work -for the lobsters had, to be ar- vengele tip fires started, and the barteIt of .dlaincs washed, Sam Lamont was chief cook and bottle-washer, Sam ran the show, When he gave orders, ev- erybody jumped, And. during the forenotin he saw that .the embers ,were raked so the rocks would be uniformly hot, and. that each. helper understood what he was to do when the fun started. Then the people- would start coming, Many of us walked the six miles, and by my time there. were a few automobiles, But The road to Indian Point, in the time I speak of, was wine- proved. for all, its-six dusty miles. It humped. •ovv ledges and had. plank -bridges, Indian point had. Spain as • its. nearest easterly neighbor, and you could. stand there and gaze down. the long corridors of the seas where big ships. came and went, Whenever grandfather had brought his Vessel hems to the glens- wheti... the timbers had grown and. men had shaped them, ho came up past Indian Point into the tidal river and on to the landing by the village, Indian Point!, was itself a vast shollheap, unadorned with. cot- tages and lawn furniture, and. you 'could browse in the mid- dens for relics of Ave thousand years ago. The big open field, running back from the ledget of the shore, was ringed with hardwood growth.. anil.feces skipping gaily from wave crest to wave crest, the teem, rubber suit reduces the shock of impact and retaine more of the hide intact. The majorite of Canadian elan divers, meter warm water - or, ill; least water that isn't threatened with immediate • solidification, 171:27.1ee, there are rather' more enthusiasts. oil the pesttime in the vicinity Of Van- coulter than on the Beet Coast. The ocean waters surrounding the Maritinies.• daunt most bath• ere, though loyal Nova Set:diens have. been tweed to- .describe. them as "jar:wire, The gallant Quebecois triad bearable tempera.nres in the St, Lawrence and in their lakes south of Ungava. Of the Great Lakes, Huron and Erie get most of the Canadian trade. Superior is. de- cidedly chilly; Ontario is both • chilly and, In too many areas,' dirty. The Muskoka, Haliberton and. Rideau lakes attract snorkelers; many of the Northern, Ontario lakes are quite warm enough in summer to be attractive. One of Ontario'e best-organized clubs is the IVIarmore Underwater A.se secretion. which does most of it dunking in the Crow River. The Dar/writes are believed to be the first group to develop • ewirrtrer-te-ehore telephony, T:',Tiar.ipagirs prowl the depths of le-el Winnipeg and Winnipegosis.. r.dmenton. his a vegormis club .Acrees the coun- try, the Y.Tel,C.,A, offers instruc- tion in the genre, starting with non-swimmers ani turning eat an accomplished skin • diver e the finished. product. Next to pollution, the great drawback of iirderel .aquelu:iging is -the lack of submarine ecens cry. The Underwater Club of Canada has ita summer eplesha mg ground in Georgian Bay, where it hopes to esteetlish a summer bass, Some of its operations are conducted near Penetanautshene, snipe around. Tobermory, at the tip • of the l3ruee Peninsula. The Bay is sufficiently shendvs to warm up under the midsum- mer sun, It does not, however, become sufficiently warm for the luxuriant growth of. sub- marine flora, nor for the evolu tion of greatly varied marine fauna, There are no streaming beds • of kelp, no lacy seaweeds. The, inland waterweeds grow only in areas too shallow for skin div- ing. The fish are friendly enough, but they are all utility models, by ao means as colorful as the weird, rainbow-hued denizens of tropical waters. In Canadian inland waters there are no corals, no brilliant.- ly-coloured shellfish, The Cana- dian freshetater clam is a dull, unsociable fellow - not et sub- stitute for the gaudy crusta- ceans of warmer seas, However, Mr, Fairlie hastens to add, the Canadian paddling about within his home waters need not concern himself with such unpleasant nuisances as spiky sea urchints, poisonous jellyfish and voracious morays, There is a veseue legend to the • effect that an Ontario muskie once bit a skin diver, but the skin divers are the first admit that - their fellow-in-flippers probably, took the first bite. Or that the muskie knew his On- tario statutes and refinement statues and retaliated against the illegal use of a speargun, "The chief danger to• the . elder, diver," Mr, Rutherfoord •rathet solemnly explains, "Is the skin. diver himself." To guard: against this peril, the- adepts of the Underwater Club spend their winter months• dreaming up hypothetical enter- .genies and practical methods of Meeting those emergencies. In many of the .clubs, great steel's. is placed en te "buddy system". The members are paired, and must stay together while they're under the surface. Not all the safety rules apply to ariderwatwr procedures, either. Mr. Rutherfoord raises hob with anyone who stands a charged air tank on end. (Ieleeer tory "oxye,en tank" to a nzin. diver. He'll snub you, frialsteitelly, Navy frogmen wear oxygen-exchange outfits which learn no tell-tale trails of hub- bleg, The only skin divers who go in for oxygen are those who try Tar depth records. They may use a mixture of oxygen and hello:17 to avoid, the "bencri'.•The rank aird file use plain, ordinar air, without so much as a whiff of Chanel No, 5..) Air tanks should be laid on their sides: because their contents ore compressed to 2,400 pounds per square inch. If one of them toppled over and Its valve was knocked off, somebody. would get a nasty eurprise. Rutherfoord and Co. recommend care, cau- tion and common senseein. the handling of air tanks, and in all other aspects of the .sport. The basic items of an outfit's .-mask, snorkel and flippers.- m.ay be assembled for as little as $10. If the enthusiast intends to go in for aqualtinging hew- ever, he would be well advised to pay twice that amount and get equipment that will be use- ful when he pushes from. $120 to $200 across the counter for his compressed air apparatus,. And. ite .sensible See vont try aqualunging. until ho has had some9 instruction front experts. Mr. Fairlie outlined some of the possibilities inherent in. popping to the surface too abruptly from, say, the 30-foot mark, These in- clude the "berid.s"-bubbling of nitrogen in the bleed. stream- and ruptured lungs. "Tire main thing is 'to keep breathing," he explained. It was suggested that this wag an almost universal objective. Mr. Fairie amplified: "I mean, you have to breathe in. Such a way as to equalize the pressure as you change your level. The apparatus automatically feeds you air at the proper pressure for the depth you've reached, "If you've been paddling about at 30 feet, you have to come up a stage at a time and breathe steadily for a minute Or so at each stage to equalize the pressure in your lungs with the pressure in your apparatus," He mentioned, however, that even inland, waters are apt to be a bit chilly below the 20-foot mark, So there would seem to be little incentive to browse around at greater depths, The Canadian repth record, unoffi- cial, Ia sometivhere around 100 feet. Last year a Minneapolis Woman claimed she reached 27'0 feet in California waters, Well, if frogmen, suitably 'clad, bhotos and wagons were the mainstay, mitt the horses would be tied to trees in the grove, hay pulled out of bags for thenir and the buggies pushed into the shade along the field. Buggies were grandstand seats for the ball game, and supply, depots for family needs, Babies' bottles would be an ice in pails, bath- ing suits and towels in baskets -and the dinners and suppers .,tor everybody under the seats or la back. Down over the bank, by the high.-.tide mark,Sam would have everything under control. His lobster bake wasn't one of these inclusive things fondly remem- bered by people, who weren't there-he didn't go in for hot dogs, which hadn't been invent- ed; steamed corn, which would riot be ready by the Fourth; eggs, which were for breakfast; arid other latter-day addenda. He built his fire and cooked lob- sters. It took an hour for the cook- ing, and when the time came everything had to be done, quickly and with precision. The hardwood embers had to be raked from the hot rooks, and then baskets of lobsters were dumped. on by men who ringed the spot. Steam hissed. into the sky, and as the last lobster dropped on top the rock-weed was pitched on, This smothered some steam, but made more, and it wafted a magnificent aroma in all directions. Then they hauled a sailcloth, to stifle the steam and keep it at work among the• lobsters, over all This took scarcely more than seconds, as the whole town stood by and watched and the pile was big enough to feed the whole town, The clams (and I am speaking good Maine long-neckers, not the indestructible quahog which is called a clam by too many people) were cooked in a special contraption Sane had. invented_. indeed, had made. It was a sheet-Metal tank on mowing- machine wheels, with a tbngue out front. It had a tight cover, and a faucet fOr drawing off the liquor, Loaded with clams, it was pulled over the elongated fire provided, and after the clams were cooked it was pulled ahead again away from the heat, Sam's invention was freely copied all up and down the coast, and was a great improve- ment on the original clambake- in which the delectable juice was lost in the rocks. This com- pleted the e community cooking -everything else to he eaten had been brought by the eaters. Sam timed things to the min- ' ute-his factors being constant, When his second hand drew on the mark, he would say, "Now!" and the helpers would yank off the sailcloth to send a great ex- plosion of fragrant steam into the sky, Lunches would have been laid out all over the point and in the grove, and each pie-'' nicking group would send. a dela-, gate for lobsters • and clams, for all. You'd get your lobsters in Xt a rough guess, around 500,- 000 Canadians will spend. strive. port of their summer leieure errorting into snorkels, flappiug. flippers and peering strepreious ly through watertight masks at puzzled and inoffensive fish. At an .even reeeher guess, be- tveeell 70',000 :and 80,000 of the above mentioned citizene are sufficiently adept at their skin game to leunge about in the eribmarine depths for an hour et a 'time, carefully breathing compressed air. Of these, per- Wipe a theusand aqualungere can't stay away from .the sport even in witeter. The roughness. of 'these estim- ates results from the lack of a national association of Canadian ekin divers, The estimates were made by Torn Retherfoord of Toronto, Ontario. Rutherfoorcl is a former Royal Navy frogman, and one of the first instructors appointed by the Royal Canadian Navy to Instil the principles of batree ohianism in its waterpaeof rec- ruits. He is a man of .avarage height and much more than av- erage chest and muscular Cie- veloprnent. He is also the fouee der and moving spirit of tha Underwater Club of Canada. This title is something of e reienornee. The club's member ship is almost exc:u3iviab' (though not intentionally) . Tore erre-mien. Arnonget them era a. handful of determined spirits who practice skin diving all winter, indoors and out. 11flost of their insercises are conducted in and. around indoor pools, But a few of the more fanatical devotees potter thoughfully about under the ice of puede and .lakes,. either to prove they can,. or Looking for something. Mir. Ruthertoord and Freaer t"airlie, who specializes iu sub- marine photography, ,explain that this rather odd behaviour is quite reasonable if you wear nothing suitable to the occasion. Depending cm the vitality of the wearer, a wet or dry suet is acceptable. The wet suit - it can he whipped together out of • a foam rubber material for a paltry $40, - lets' the water conic in arid snuggle. The wet Suit, obviously, can be worn in winter only by hot-blooded, ath- ietic types - the sort who would jump into a hole in the. ice sans suit if their mettle was „iuestioned. More cautious characters choose the dry suit, which ex- eludes the water, The cosy gar- ments cost from $70 a copy up, and entitle the wearer 'to one hour or less in any body of via- tar that is still liquid. Foam• rubber suits, incidental- ly, are excellent garb for wa- ter skiing. If the skier happens. to turn a corner that isn't there, WRONG FOOT - Kobus the Orangutan appears a mile un- sociable after he was wakened by visitors to the Antwerp, Bel- f ium, Zoo. He has a reputation or continually starting off the day on the wrong foot. RUSSIAN ROCKIN' -- The Russians may never claim Rock 're' Roll as their own invention, but they have dances lust as lively These Soviet teen-agers "rock" in gay folk dance at a youth festival in Krasnodar near the Black Sea. can withstand the low tempera- tures of a Canadian waters, why employ the "hard hat" bays the men in. helmets and. inflated suits-at airt For two reassenet (A) Skin diving apparatue is weighed to displace its own weight of water, and no move, The skin. diver has no weight in the water. His sen- sations are about the nearest possible approach to those of a man in. "free fall"-coasting through apace in a rocket ship after the power has been cut, Consequently the skin diver has difficulty in getting a toe- hold. if he wants to do some -pushing or hammering, Mr, 1! girlie finds one of the great difficulties of submarine photo- graphy is to stay put long enough to click the shutter, The hard- hatters tramp around. in heavily- weighed boots. Reason. (B): Despite his rube bee suit, the skin diver chills off more quickly than the men in the $2,500 pneumatic suit. The helmet diver can Work with moderate comfort for three or four hours sea stretch. He hes the weight to do heavier work. I-lie chief disadvantage is his dependence on the attendant who mane his pump and lime, The skin diver can get to the water faster, get into it faster, and is far more mobile When he is under the Surface. Which is one of the reasons Civil Defence authorities have joyfully ae- °opted Offers of assistance from the Underwater Clubs, this mobility is One of the reasons thin diving is so popular ite the inland waters, despite the lack of scenery. Water tempera- lure was not the only factor. that WHERE FI.0 SWEEPS - The mysterious influenza=-dabbed "Astaire flu"-rog rig through the belent has the health agencies speeding preparations for tiny forge-scale outbreak In 'this; dountry. Rush tests are being mode of new sewn)?• which Is not a dike bat a preVtitiVe,. The serum can 66 developed wicks in a culture of fertile' hen e' S, how in ample eripply, COMpileationa ifitairtieicierying the worldwide "Spanish- fit? pandemic of 1918-10 accounted for the 26 Million dead. 1ha current Virui comparatively and not expected to' be ,a great killer. Otity brig of per Oeht eiffilefeet. Mg) teetreillike-havei tiled' so far, •Newstricip thews areas affected and tiUniber of eatee repOrted, brought the Underwater Club of Canada, to Georgian Bay, Its waters are rife with historic wreckage and opportunities to make an honest dollar. Penetang was made a naval base when British officers were compelled, to cede Drummond Is- land, near Sault Ste. Marie, to the United States after the war of 1812, Sundry of the- naval vessels sank in the bay, and the skin divers have engaged he submarine archeology. Or per- haps "salvage of antiquities" is a better phrase. When 0. C. Vail of 'Toberraory claimed he had found the wreck- age of La Salle's "Griffon" in 1955, 'frogmen prodded about in the depths in search of the pieces. Freneh marine author- ities later cast grave doubts on. the authenticity - of the wreck, but skin divers had fun, anyway, They assisted Wilfrid Jury in raising the ruins of several ships at Penetang. Much of their sum- mer time is spent peering about s for hitherto undigcovered relics. Similarly, submarine experts have explored the wreckage of , ships sunk ih the approaches to what was once Upper Canada's most important military leacher and shipyard, at Kingston. But the monetary returns don't come front the past, They're produced. by the re- covery of modern marine equip- ment, One young man has esta- blished himself as ' a specialist In. the salvage of outboard motors. He charges the not par- ticularly modest fees of $25 pet Search and $50 per recovery. Legs .specialized individuals make an occasional buck re- covering fishing tackle that has accidently gone overboard, Harold Smythe of. Toronto will spend his entire summer under Georgian Bay and parts of Lake Huron and Superior, counting fish and observing the frustroe time of lampreys when they bang their ugly heads against electeie fled weirs. He has been retained by the Canadian section Of the international cotrunieeicire study- ing the lamprey and its effects • Upon marine life of the upper lakes. Moat romantic skin diVera of Canada, probably, are "the Ad- venturers, a Toronto group. Members, in rellya, Will spend their holidays this Slimmer peYi- ing into -netlike and crannies beneath the Caribbean, looking for (an estimated)' 850,000,000 worth of treasure, 'rise elute does net, of course, guarantee that its Merl-there will get to Aare any nett of the gold hi the Sunken Spanish galleons they seek But it does promise, quite reasonably, that they'll have' a darned good there and Meet some Very interesting ichthyological specimens: by Let schregAii Arno vial it1i1VieJ•00 tAT, Mr3LISF AND CANARY CAGV-Jusf one big hobby fatnilyt these traditional enemies share the smile to he the barber- shop of Grant Skuse, eight. Despite his sour look, the feline, rimmed "Peter Cat," doesn't harm the blitifi mite, +Sind evoii allows Ovid Mouse to perch on hie back.