HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1962-08-09, Page 2NEW MISS UNIVERSE Surrounded by et. si.rging mob of photagtopher and; .neW$Men,
Miss Universe 1962 _stands among the 15 semi-finalists for the title, in Mimi. Beach, Fla,
HRONICLES
etlYalaftVitt
but this one developed a 110114
about 20-feet off the ground at
an absolutely true hoi4ontal.
Then was never a bett,OL' swing
tree. The first time you looked
at this tree the fret thing that
would enter your head was,
"What a wonderful place for a
swing:" Our children, and .other
children, :aways admired. this
chance. And. as families drove
along. m buggies and afterwards
in aittomoliihs, lhe first. child .to •
catch sight of the elm would'
shout, "Swing Tree:" in the old
traditions! of "i spy!" and for the
moment of passage all thoughts.
turned on what a waste it was to
have this tree away out there by
itself where no children would.
ever swing from it, aed no rope
would ever be looped over the
limb,
All right. So times advance,
and distance is less a .probreere
and a few homes have been
built in there—not for farms but
for Suburbanites'. In the great
forward surge of improvement
and progress, by whatever rules
this creates, somebody ettrhe`
around about a week ago and cut
this swing tree down.. It was
worked up into cordwood' lengths
and. left piled for a day or so,
and then It was carted off. Fire-
places and cooksteves have de»
ciined—maybe .they hauled the
wood to a dump.
Meditating as kindly as. I call,
I ear think of no reason why this
tree was rereoved. Somebody
must have made the decision;
somebody must have given and.
executed the order. Why?
Never again will anybody,
rounding the turn, come upon
this elm and have his heart leap,
at the prospects of a swing. This
is a tremendous loss to, every-
body, a tragic Toss to ail who,
grew up in these parts, I can
only conclude that we—on .1"--
must be wrong. It must be wrong
to have a sentimental attachment
to shade and symmetry, shape
and grace, growth and loveliness..
It must be wrong because we are
so uniformly outvoted. Some-.
body always cuts down swing
trees. — by John Gould . in the,
,Christian Science Monitor.
INTRIGUING — Red leather
bowler inspired by "secret
agents" is part of fall milli-
nery collection shown by Sally
Victor in New York. The folks we'd like to see a lot
Seldom come to visit.
While others whom we wish
would not
Always do why is it?
So They Cut Down
The 014 Swing Tree!,
sooloymy cut down our swing
tree, And loge-Wog ago I con-
cluded it doe.; no good to lift a
plaintive wail about sorb things,
for men seem not to be guided
thereby. Plenty of people join
in the wail, and lift their heeds
a-e ring, and deplore, but in the
end the crasser motives prevail
and these of US who lament have
had only the exercise of our
lamentations. Why would any-
bo dy wan t t o cut down a swing
tree?
Seems as if all my clays some-
bod,i^ has been coming around to
cut down trees nobody wants
cut down, and although by times
vociferous objections have been
raised and pretty good argu-
meate have been advanced. I
don't seem to recall any parti-
miler tree, public or private, that
got saved,
Don't misunderstand rne—Pere
cut many a tree in my time, and
have a farmer's evaluation of
standing timber. I can even ad-
vance quite an argument that
some of the "ravaging" of forests
that keeps the preservationists
stilled up is not quite so bad as
they think, The woodsman-spare-
that-tree ditty has to be mellow-
ed with a few tree-farm facts.
We've been paying taxes for a
long time on forest land we hope
will some day pay us. People
who write letters to newspapers
urging forest conservation are
too often begging a most pertin-
ent question—that the paper
they preach from was once a
tree. And so on. But I think none
of this applies to our swing tree
discussion,
A. couple of ridges away from
us the state highway people are
laying out an "improvement" on
Route 125. Along the down
grade past the Jones and May-
nard places they have moved the
right-of-way with engineering
finesse, and will remove a long
string of stately elms which were
set out generations ago by fore-
fathers now forgotten. For a Cen-
tury cattle have come to lie in
the shade of these trees and
chew their cuds, At the far end
of the scene alders fringe the
trout holes in the brook, and by
the bridge is the swimming hole
where generations of children
have played, As you turned the
road, topped the rise and beheld
all this, you had a pastoral scene
without peer. So the surveyors
have come along and have driv-
en their little stakes to remove
all this forever from our lives,
Why?
I don't know why. And I'm
sure nobody else, including the
engineers, can say why. These
aren't tree-farm trees, nor were
they set and nurtured for board
footage. They were put there to
adorn the scene. Whole lifetimes
went into watching them flourish
and give the landscape grace,
And all this will vanish in the
swift flourish of a chain-saw
while people on every hand cry
that it must not be done.
Why?
Oh, yes—the swing tree. The
swing tree is on another road,
where a turn-off snakes what we
call a "heater-piece." A heater
was a flatiron, and a flatiron was
triangular. As traffic came out
of the side road, some turning
right and some left, the inter-
section formed so this untrod plot
was left three-cornered, Here an
elm took seed or was planted,
and it grew to be 80 feet tall —
a lofty, monumental height to
please the eye,
Now,elms don't often do this,
• Famou.s....Star Tells Pf .
First Movie Job
Everybody likes to talk about
their firet job. I like UV telk .about
mine.
When I was in High &I WO.' in
Las. Angeles, ees week,
eft .dtir.ng tee as nit s-
sengere. ensese ire s, or wrest.
The girls? Ore girl we fed as a
housekeeper tee wieee esee td'en
during, nee are! see sees p:::); a
fereiesess. She got else leselest
marks in (`f1:-:. D'fl nos calk nits
when .iht? did ?zer seneeol I,erne
work. (,)ti. ': gees were
oat' :5,; of Nees
with the ergs e I seppese, eus.
touters L'I) te;e Caeh:er. It must
have been the same service that
we now de nee ousseeess when
We buy and pee for ens:thing in
the big stews.
'TWO eieters. I knew went as
children's. :mews. The (blighter
Of the hdeeest banker in town
was with to at L.A. High ; Car-
mel Myers and her brother Zion
whose father was a rabbi; also
Another friend of ours who be-
came a lawyer and whose father
was a tailor. In my wildest
dreams I cannot imagine any of
those fathers allowing their
daughters to he Cash Girls in
some store,
We were very poor, Ueneces.
eerily so. And when my mother
read in .the paper about some
film star spending the season in
Florida, that did it. People were
Always saying that I looked like
Mary Pickford. Mr. Griffith
never called me anything else—
always Mary. But I am ahead
of myself, writes Bessie Love in
the Christian Science Monitor.
My father never would have
consented to my seeking work
in films, My .resourceful mother
said, .the Saturday before school
let out one summer, that there
was no reason why I should not
get a job and tell him about it
afterward, We took for granted
that I would get it. It was just.
a matter of settling the trifles—
which studio it would be and
that sort of thing.
I remember thinking that I
should go before school let out
because the best jobs would`.
have been snapped up by the
time the Assembly bell stopped
ringing for the last time. I do
not know quite what I imagin-
ed: that all the girls were going
out to become film stars sud-
denly? Just for the summer? It
must have been some such idea
because I felt that having a
whole week's head start would
give me quite an edge on every-
one. •
My mother worked in a fae-
torys Jantzen's Knitwear (and
Bathing Suits), Later I learned
that she had been up for promo-
tion as forelady at that time.
Well, she could not get away
herself. So? Mrs. Delano, the
wife of a couple renting a room
from us. went with me to Tom
Mix's. It was in Edendale, a sub-
urb of Los Angeles. I had been
there once or. a visit with my
father.
This day. Tom. Mix was away,
or so we were told. We were
sent next door to see the Ward-
robe Lady, I think she was, but
SALLY'S SALUES
ISSUE 31 — 1962
SEA MAIDEN — Tony Kosad-
nor places a flower in her hair
while kneeling in the salt grass
and sea oats on beach at
South Padre Island.
something wrong with the mow-
er and the noise was enough to
burst one's ear-drums. Bob was
looking at it yesterday so we
hope it 'will be better next time
—if not-I ,caresee a new mower
on the books.
Yes, Bob and his family were
here yesterday, so we, took the
boys to see a little Shetland pony
that, is tethered on •a 'lot at the
back of otirestace. The poor little
thing doesn't look too happy. Its
halter rope is tied to an old
truck tyre and barely long
enough for,, the pony to move
around. I 'wonder why people
keep peti they find it too much
trouble to look after them
properly.
Young Ross was in high gear
yesterday — so much to, tell, and
to ebow about .the work, he had
been,. doing at ':sieinrness school"
for the last two weeks. I think
this summer ` Sbliool idea is a
grand things for pre-schoolers. It
gives them a little idea of what
to eexpect when school really
starts, teaches them to mix with
other children and to recognize
a certain amount of discipline.
Dee and her boys haven't the
same needy for summer school.
They are all at the cottage and
enjoying every minute. Dave has
become quite a good swimmer;
takes the punt out by himself
and puts in quite a bit of time
fishing. This week-end one of
the neighbours was in quite a
dither because their boat had got
loose from its moorings. Dave
saw what had happened, jumped
into the water, got into the boat
and paddled it back to shore,
Eddie can now swim without a
life-jacket. Jerry spends most of
his time in the water but with
a life-jacket on all the time.
When they come back to Toronto
they will be moving into a new
apartment so they need this time
at the cottage to get ready for
all the work that lies ahead of
them after the holidays,
'Bye for now — must get busy
and answer some "fan" mail —
which I am always pleased to
get, Thanks, friends, for all the
kind things you say. I appreciate
it very much, "Him blind date couldn't make
it, but he says you can come
aloeg with us."
not elite, What t am, abeoe
in bout is that this.
Woman WOS not play.,
ing a cruel praeticsal joke on us
when she said that, if I wanted
to get into pictures, D. W. Grif-
fith was the man to see.
For tieese who may nit know,
a W. Griffith was the most brit-
Kent end cone ef the most inn
lest 'at filet direottus, pristine-
ens, ehowmen that this in-
ditstsv has yet produced This
lady said that he had made et;
the big f.hn stars at that time
(which ne had e It was the Sett
of naive, direct reasoning that
went on In our own household,
se that is what we did. We took a
streetcar to the Griffith Studio
on Sunset Boulevard and I ask-
ed to see him — a proceeding
which would today be compar-
able to knocking at the gates of
Canavarel and saying, "Please.
I want to be an astronaut," Only
without the Please.
As it happened, Mr, Griffith,
who had that day returned to the
studio from San Francisco, was
on his way to his office and over-
heard me ask for him, saying
that I had an appointment. I
didn't mention I had made it
myself. A. few years later, the
man who bad opened the office
door to me told me what had
happened neat, so that I know it
is true Mr, Griffith had con-
tinued to his office. This gentle-
man, Mr. Woods, head of the
Scenario Department, no less,
had answered my knock.
When I told him that I had
an appointment he did not know
quite what to do. Mr. Griffith
was watching through the slit
in the door and nodded to Ian
to let us come in. The great man
asked all kinds of questions
about my family, my back-
ground; did I have stage exper-
ience, did we have money, and
why did I want to go into pic-
tures? That answer was easy;
I wanted a job for the summer!
Such frankness must have de-
lighted him. Even my nursemaid
classmatea vowed to their em-
ployers that they were taking
the jobs permanently.
But why did I choose acting?
he asked. I think my answer to
that one was what got me in. I
told him that my mother had
said I was not trained to do any-
thiing, so there was nothing left
for me to do but act.
Difficult as it must have been
for him to keep from guffawing,
Mr. Griffith never laughed at me
—ever. He said he would try
me in some scenes and see if I
could act and take direction. In
other words, an audition. Believe
me, that sort of thing was not
done in those days. He told me
to go to lunch and come back,
Mrs. Delano and I left his of-
fice. She was a cautious woman
She said our luck had been too
good to risk leaving the studio
for a sausage. We might never
get in again. She said we would
stay put until they all came
back. We would skip lunch. This
we did.
When everybody else had
eaten, we went onto the open
stage where they were rehears-
ing the Babylonian period of In-
tolerance; where the High Priest
of Bel enthusiastically announc-
es to Prince Belshazzar that he
has just discovered a new planet
— or star — and as an after-
thought tells him that Cyrus
the Barbarian is nearing the
gates of the city. Tully Marshall
was the High Priest-Astrono-
mer; George Sigmund played
Cyrus; Al Paget was Prince Bel-
shazzar and Signe Augne, later
spelled Seena Owen, was his
Princess, called Beloved, She
was magnificent in the' scene
where the palace was attacked.
Remember the tiny wagon
drawn by two doves that Bel-
shazzar sent across the table, I
think it was, to Princess Belov-
ed just before Cyrus with his
hosts—hosts? HORDES! their
horned helmets covered the area
as far as the camera could see
— started pulling the palace to
pieces, stone by gigantic stone?
I do not believe that there has
ever been a film more real or
moving than many places in In-
tolerance, Mr. Griffith never
forgot that it was people he was
talking about. The super-colos-
sal was only secondary.
In the midst of this glorious
confusion and before all those
talented actors I had my audi-
tion I was supposed to be a slave
girl playing with an imaginary
beetle at the feet of Belshazzar,
Shyness or self - consciousness
were non-existent (as far as I
can remember) because I
thought that everyone — but
everyone — had done the same
thing. I did not know that there
was any difference between one
actor and another in the whole
theatrical business, Let me has-
ten to add that I very soon learn-
ed. I was too ignorant to know
that people are usually shy at
such times. Such reasoning
would not have Made sense to
me. If you wanted a job you
went for it and you either got it
or you didn't.
The audition must have been
successful because Mr, Griffith
told me to come back Monday
for a screen test. I said that was
impossible as I would be back
at school then. He asked when
it would be convenient and I
said the following Saturday
would be all right since school
finished Friday. So that was it.
The test was made. I got the
job and I am still at it,
Being as smart as a steel trap
means knowing when to shut up. Modern Etiquette
By Anne Ashley
Q. When does my boy friend
give me my engagement ring —
while we are alone, or in front
of our guests at the engagement
party?
A. Since this is one of your
greatest moments — a strictly
personal affair,— you certainly
should receive your ring in pri-
vate,
Q. Where should the bride-
grodin keep his bride's ring until
the proper moment when he
places it on her finger?
A. The bridegroom always has
best Men take charge of the ring,
and the best Man hands it over
to the geoorn at the proper nio-
Q. IS it reallly obligatory for a
bride to give a gift of seine kind
to her btitlegiietitii oh their wed=
ding day?'
A. While hot exactly obliga=
torYt it is customary,
Q. WheneVer we are iiiv ted to
dine Ina friend's honie, join
our hoStesS, in the, kitchen While
she is finiShirig,her PrePgratiOnS
for the meal. My husband says
this is improper, 'What do' you
A. You' May Pain your hostess
in the kitchen only if the epecifis
tally invites yeti to do to. Others
Wisce remain in the living teen's. l
itOTECTOit It W. gannet' beaught horns a toy bull fat his grandson, Billy. The family
ag thought if weft just too tadlistlit and grovelid ills annoyance,
Pretty soon every family will
have to appoint one of its mem-
bers to be private secretary for
the family as a whole. It might
not be a bad idea at that as there
seems to be more and more bus-
iness to look after all the time
what with hospitalization, medi-
cal insurance, car and fire in-
surance and so on, to say nothing
of taxes, telephone and hydro.
I am going to fix up some kind
of a memo pad to put over my
desk with dates marked, on
which payments are due. It is so
easy to forget and if you let the
date go by under this new medi-
cal plan you've had it! No chance
of paying up back dues — you
just have to start again from
scratch. Just imagine wanting a
specialist in a hurry and then
find you had forgotten to pay
your dues! Our only trouble with
current accounts so far has been
in paying one of them twice.
When I was in the hospital our
license became due and. Partner
paid it, He says he told me —
and I expect he did — but the
other day after the assessor had
been I went off to pay the dog
license in case I might put it on
one side and forget it. I happen-
ed to mention it afterwards and
Partner said "But I paid that
weeks ago." I got out the assess-
ment again and although it
hadn't actually got the word
"paid" on it, the license had been
ticked off, which I suppose meant
the same thing. You can be sure
I was back to the office the next
day for a rebate.
Last week we came in for a
freakish bit of weather around
here. Freakish in quite an un-
usual way, You who read this
column may not live either in
Toronto or Melton but no doubt
you read about the bad storms
that occurred in those two dis-
tricts one day last week. Streets
flooded, trees toppled over,
strong winds, hail and terrific
thunder and lightning, Partner
was outside trimming some of
our shrubs and, believe it or not,
there actually wasn't enough rain
to drive him into the house.
Later, when we heard what bad
storms had occurred such a short
distance away we just couldn't
believe it as we are only twenty
miles west of Toronto and fifteen
south of Melton. And we needed
rain so badly, but that night we
had to go around with the hose
again as usual. So many of the
trees are showing evidence of
drought — leaves turning yellow
and dropping off. The leaf-
strewn ground looks snore like
fall than summer, Ahd tonight
we had a gorgeous sunset, with
all the lovely colours we look for
around. October. Later the full
moon was so bright it disturbed
Taffy so he was whimpering off
and on half the night,
Our tomato plants look kind of
queer. They are loaded with
small tomatoes but the lower
leaves ate curled and withered.
Some kind Of blight maybe, I
stappbSe they should be dusted
or sprayed but we are more
armed to let nature take lie
eourse. We think Most horrid
gardeners are a little tine zealous
in the use of fertilizer and ih-
seclicicles, and they den be dan-
gerous if there ate smell children
around.
It has been a feebly week for,
sitting out in the garden and
have made the Most of it, taking
seth me my mending, knitting,
writing or anything that could
be c'oi'e ccinfortably totitside,
in yell l'ertnes started
time ire our atee lot. Thane is
WAttitteKnoWN VERSION ,..:::.This 15 a "watered= down
Vesior0 :ofXtie once-solerrin uddhistYrite for ashih away
tins Ratigoon,,Burryi‘fire hoses 1:)rKl .wa.ter cans have: turned
it into an annual fun-f'ill'ed Water rnelee,