HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1972-08-23, Page 2soWsSELS
ONTARIO
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1972
Serving Brussels and the, surrounding OomMunity
published each Wednesday- afternoon at, Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited.
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Tom Haiey - Advertising
Maniber Canadian. community' Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Associatipn,
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a year, Others.
$0.00 a year, Single CopieS 10 cents each.
Second class mail Registration No. 0562.
Telephone 88'74641.
Expansion for what ?
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r Sugar and Spice
by Bill Smiley
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A writer on the financial page
of a large newspaper has been com
plaining about those Who say we
must cut back on industrial expan-
sion in order to conserve our re-
sources and clean up the environ-
ment. He says it is more important
to rescue a family from poverty
than "to leave a given area for the
quiet contemplation of the few."
But many useless things are now
being manufactured in the process
of keeping industrial society in
orbit. Heads of corporations are
committed to the profit ethic - the
needs of the poor never enter the
picture.
Would a large corporation go
broke if it took the planet and all
its people into consideration when
it planned new products or phased
out old? When its Board of Direc-
tors met to draw up the next year's
program, if environment and con-
servation of natural resources held
priority, and profits became secon-
dary, would it lose?
We don't know because so far as
we know it's never been tried. We
do know however that some companies
thrive despite not changing their
model every year and planning abso-
lescence.
Planned absolescence whether of
cars or clothing is an obscenity
today when we have been repeatedly
warned by scientists that we are
rapidly exhausting our sources of
energy.
If we continue to expand indus-
trially without consideration for
the facts of environment, there
will no longer be a concern about
poverty - we'll all be in the same
boat and equally destitute . .
having turned our planet into a
desert.
-(Contributed in the Exeter
Times Advocate)
"Moss, I want you to take a play in to the huddle. Make sure it's the huddle where they wear the same color uni-
form you wear."
There is a movie called "Suddenly
One Summer", something like that. This
is more or less the way I feel towards
the end of this one.
For one thing, the weather has been
generally rotten. My heart has ached
for the campers, the tenters, as temper-
ature drops, the winds blow, and I turn
up the thermostat on the furnace. As
I write, its more like late October than
August.
But there is nothing much I can do
about that, its happening to everybody.
However, somebody is definitely out to
get me. I 'don't know whether its the
Lord, fate, or the devil. But it's too
obvious to be merely coincidental.
It, or they, started with my car.
Almost six months ago, a gentleman
backed into the front of it. He's a
mechanic and promised to have it
fixed, rather than pay the almost
exhorbitant insurance rate. It is still
not fixed. Not his fault. We made a date
for July 31st and my wife busted her
ankle and in the, confusion, I forgot. But
it's still not fixed.
Next, I was at a public gathering,
where there were a lot of cars parked.
Somebody, and, he was not a gentleman,
snuggled up too close to me. The only
calling card, he left was a deep inden-
tation in my left front door.
Third. And that was my wife's fault,
not mine. She was yakking at full steam,
somewhat like an orga n with all the
stops out. It happened at a highway
motel where we'd had lunch. I backed
up, knowing there were no cars there
and hit a light standard that shouldn't
have been there. It was solid brick. It
made a boomerang of my back bumper.
There went another hundred bucks.
Here's where I'll go along 'with
Ralph Nader and company. The burn-
pers they put on cars today are not
bumpers, but Junkers. A generation
ago, a bumper bumped and didn't give
an inch. The thing that was bumped
gave. Today, they seem to be a com-
bination of plastic and spaghetti. I'M
convinced that if you ran into an adult
male hummingbird at 50 miles per hour
you'd lose your $100 deductible on your
bumper.
Well, to cut a short story long, the
car is pretty much of a disaster area.
Front grill bashed in. Chrome strips
buckled and ripped off. Back bumper a
bummer.
Motor still great, but whole vehicle
now in classified ad Section as "Body,
man's special".
As we all know, accidents come in
three's. Well I had my three and thought
whoever was out to get /me should relax
for a while. Not so.
As I mentioned, my wife broke her
ankle and a week later I broke my toe.
She groans and hobbles around in a walk-
ing cast. I groan and hobble around. I
never realized before just how important
a big toe is in the process of ambulation.
Something like a fish trying to swim with
his tail cut off.
Oh , it's a jolly, lively place around
our house. We should be out at the beach,
doing a fancy crawl stroke, calling cheer-
fully to each other about how terrific the
water is today. Instead, we're stuck in
the house, doing a fancy crawl up and
down stairs and calling balefully about
such cheery things as getting the garbage
out, doing the washing, preparing dinner.
Do you know what happens to a couple
of love birds in a cage who start getting
on each other's nerves? One of them
pecks the other to death. Then eats
him, or her. Well, I'm pretty tender
and my wife is very tough, so I'm keeping
a close eye on her.
I gave her a big hug the other day.
It's her left ankle, my right toe, they
collided, we both yelped and there were
mutual recriminations. Next time,
hug her from behind, or sideways, or
something.
But this is all trivia. I await, cring-
ing, the third accident in the second
series.
And it will probably be on the phone
any minute. I was idiotic enough to
lend my car to daughter Kiin and her
husband. They took off in the poor old
battered brute a couple of hours ago,
for the city, where they have to apply
for student loans, register for college,
find a place to live, and all such. They
both drive like chimpanzees who've had
three lessons.
They might just make it. But if they
do, my oak tree will snap in a storm and
crash on my neighbour's roof. Or, I'll
get a hernia carrying out the empty
beverage bottles. 0 r my wife will slip
on her gimpy leg going downstairs and
break her other one.
It's not that I'm superstitious. It's
just that I have this immutable hunch
that Somebody, up there, or down there,
is trying to punish nie for all my past
sins, all at once.
• And now, if you'll excuse me, I'M
going to soak my toe in ice Water and sit,
shoulders hunched, waiting for the next s .4