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The Brussels Post, 1972-02-23, Page 2To the Editor They Like The Post Sir: Sorry I didn't pay my post sooner but my husband renewed it the last time and I couldn't remember how long and when he paid it last. So thanks for the reminder. Enclosed you will find a cheque for $4.00, until next October. For a small paper I sure enjoy reading the Brussels Post. Mrs. Ruth Hinton 45 Regina Street London, Ontario Sir: Please renew my subscription to the Post for 1972. I am following with int- erest your plans for the centennial this vear. I sincerely hope I can be there. Jack Baeker Wheatley, Ontario Sugar and Spice by Bill In a nostalgic mood today, I've been thinking that, with the onslaught of the Speed Age, many of our fine old Canadian traditions have fallen by the wayside, died on the vine, or simply lain down and curled up their toes. One of the first to go, of course, was the blacksmith. It hurts me to face the truth; that most people to-day under thirty have never known the sensory joys of a blacksmith's shop. At this time of year, small boys used to squeeze through the ranshackle door, and edge as close as they could to the fire, freezing their bums and roasting their cheeks. There was a fine acrid stench of horse manure and scorched hooves. There was the leaping flame as the bellows blew. There was the ringing clang as the smith beat out the white- hot metal between hammer and anvil, and the satisfying hiss when the hot metal was plunged into the cold water. At a certain age, most male kids would have settled happily for the life of a blacksmith, a free soul who spent his days doing the most fascinating work. in the world. The decline of the smithy, of course, was brought about by the gradual phas- ing out of another tradition - the horse- drawn vehicle. I Wonder how many kids of this gener- ation have ever spent a winter Saturday 4 catching bobs". This was our term for jumping on the backs of farmers' sleighs. All day long the farmers came and went to and from town. And all day long we hopped on behind a load of grain, left that for a load of supplies going the other way, picked up a Sleigh piled with logs for the return trip, and shivered with delighted fear as the farmers shouted at us, and even sometimes flourished their whips in our direction. As we grew a little older, about 12, we graduated to catching on the wing a cutter. This was more daring and more dangerous becanse they Could really fly, the runner was Much smaller, and the farmer could turn around and belt you one on the ear. MOst of them, Of course, were pretty decent. I know now that they were more worried about us getting hurt in a fall Smiley than they were about the extra weight their horses had to pull. Then there were the butchers' cutters. These consisted of a sort of box with runners beneath, and a step at the back for the driver to stand on. The horses were not plugs, but real road-runners that went like a bat out of hell. They were every bit as 'exciting as a Roman chariot, and the drivers were the envy of every boy, in fur caps, reins in one hand, whip in the other, as they tore through the town like furies. And I wonder how many boys haVe. played hockey all day on a frozen river, when a hard shot the goalie missed might slide for a quarter of a mile. We never had to worry about ice-time, or changing lines. We could play until we were pooped, then sit by the bonfire until rested, and have another go. And there were always twenty or thirty playing at once, so everybody got a whack at the puck. Some great stick-handlers came out of that era. Think of the depths to which we have sunk. The smithy , with its light and shadows, its reds and blacks, its earthy smells, its sense of life, has been placed by the garage, a sterile thing with its cement floor, its reek of gas and oil, and its unspoken assurance that this-is-. gonna-cost-you-plenty-buddy. The cutter, swife and light as a bird, no longer skims the snow. It has been replaced by a stinking, snarling, skidding beast that only modern man could abide - the snowmobile. No more meat-cutters, careening around the corners on one runner, deliver- ing in any weather. Now, we' plod like zombies through the superMarket, to moronic piped-in music, and pick up the odourless, antiseptic, cellophaned packages the great gods Dominion, Lob- law or Safewa.y have assigned to us, and carry them humbly to our cars, three blocks away. Our kidE have to get up at five a.m. to play hockey, and if they're not real tikillers", get about four minutes ice- time. Ah, those were the days! And I haven't even begun on the most vital of all Winter equipment - the puck consist- ing of a frozen horse-bum, 1.9r isTA0Cm1147! isn russets Post PRUSSELS Wednesday, Feb..23, 197.2 ONTARIO ra. Serving Brussels and the surrounding CPITIMIllnktY published. each Wednesday afternQOP at 13russels, Ontario by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limitod. Evelyn Kennedy - Fditor Tom Haley Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association. and Ontario Weekly Newspaper ,04oclatiOn. Subscriptions advance) Canada $4,00, a year,. others 55,0(), year,. Single Ooples, 1Q cents eaollk Second class mail. Registration. No.. On, Telephone 887-6641. They Listen Perhaps Bill. Elston of Morris Township didn't mince words at last Friday's session of Huron County Council. Reeve Elston rose to his feet dur- ing the discussion about the $100,000 cut in the road subsidy to Huron for 1972 and warned the mem- bers that in hits opinion, it was the first indication of another provincial government plot to push the municipalities of Ontario into doing its will. It is the old cut-back-the-grants- trick, Reeve Elston told council. He advised that the grants for roads in the municipalities were being reduced while the monetary consider- ation for regional government was being increased. Reeve Elston reminded council that the same tactics had been em- ployed to bring about another centralized unit - county school boards. He said grants for the little one-room section schools had dwindled to peanuts while financial incentives appeared and grew for Township School Area Boards, the fore-runners of today's mammoth boards of education which are not totally satisfactory to many citi- zens. but were a dream realized for the government. The same day - and on a different topic entirely - Barry Eastwood, Regional Assessment Commissioner for Huron, appeared before county council urging the members to send a brief to the provincial govern- ment with their recommendations concerning tax reform in Ontario. There was a strange conflict be- tween these two presentations to council which may not have been noted immediately. Upon digestion of the day's happenings, though, it was evident that Reeve Elston and Mr. Eastwood were at odds. In essence, Reeve Elston had complained that the provincial government decided the fate of Ontario and then put its plan into action by whatever means was exped- ient. And Mr. Eastwood had indi- cated that the provincial govern- ment's ear was tuned to the grass roots but heard nary a whisper on many issues. In retrospect, One might assume that what the two men were trying to say was what everyone surely must know by this time - that the provincial government will listen to any idea from the grass roots Which complements Queen's Park plotting. Anything elte may be easily explained away as non-pro- gressive and unthinkable. (Goderich Signal Star )