HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1973-07-04, Page 18Covered bridge
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PTAPOMXID
-rusels Post.
WEDNESDAY, ,JULY 11, 1973
'MUSSELS
ONTARIO
Sugar and Spice
By 13,fi1 Smiley
Did you know that pairs truly was
once a shy little boy? Do you knOW hoW
a lady can sell all-Canadian crossword;,'
puzzles to newspapers? DO you knew
'anyone who, worked at the Milton brick
workS in 1914, before gotng off to war?
Do you feel like writing a book? Do
you , feel like reviewing a book someone
else has written?'
These are soma of the things that
came up as I opened my mail in the last
few weeks.
If a columnist does not have any read- •
ers, he very quickly ceases to be a
`columnist. That's why I'M se grateful to
readers who drop a line and have a ;hat,
tell me their troubles„ or merely wish me
good health.
Just before my birthday. in June, I hal
a long letter from my Grade 1 teacher
reminding me that we Share the same
natal day, June 2nd, She was the kind of
pretty, youlk;, sweet aid kind ,teacher:
who can make that first vital year in
public school a JOY rather than the herror
that it can be.
Gettig through sons, old clippings, she
came across one WhiCh she sent along to
me. The heading on the .news Story' was
FO Smiley Viatiok 1.11%W Hiiri. Treat
The rest was an ettreiriley garbled
account that makes the wincte• with em ,.
bareasnint even today.
Apparently after bdrig beaten half to
death, alter an 'escape attealpt, I was So
weak I. couldn't move for twenty days.
Th!s is pure egaggerat.:011. Ir WAS Only
five days. And when the Russians &er-
ten our damp, I walked 156 Miles across
Germany and stumbled elitO an adVaridad,
air
Poppyeockt. It was only 90,Sorde Mi1e3i
I rode a good part of the Way in Wagena,
RUSSien. staff cars, Weedabitrriing
trucks, and a tWO-4itirSe carriage. And
I didn't Stilitible onto anything. I artiVed
at the advance air 0.54 in a jeep., IlUt.
that'S a long story.
Anyway, my 'Ielalier, Wheril I Still
think of as Laura Walker, Says Of the
clippint nt admitShed Sortie tears
Oyer it, ferall I could see visa a shy
little bray in, gray trousers_ and -a natty,
blue blazer coming to niy desk and
tienriding hia hairiti and birthday, to Which
1 replied; 'Why, guile, we are
There Were so many el you inthe SaMo
elaSS. who Were in the War and my heart
went but to y6ti for you Were still
boys and had no busineta
With itereplatieS.""
tiaYria StaVety., Altai* Who,
aseadi hie in the gooks ,Wanta
*Mee to Syndicated daft.,
tldiail droatword pititie.• the sent hie
tianiples and they*risi eiecilient. Any*?
any ideaS? Her letter ends, 'How soon
do you become a grampa?, Congratulaa
" Every 'letter has, a, nice 'personal
;touch Pike that. 1 .
'Bill Shaker of Shifnal, Saleps, England,
reads me in the Canadian Champion,
Milton. He likes My s•cheery notes" and
writes a very cheer 1 one himSelf, at the
age of '84.. He worked at the Milton
Brick -Co. in 1914, , joined the army,
went to Prance in the R.E4S. Guards
Div: and was at Ypres, the Somme, Arras
and Cambral, names that ring a. bell
.with oldatirmitS.' Lucky guy. But heWlshes
ma best of luck and good health. '
A , Montreal publisher wants Me to
Write a boOk. He doesn't: even seam to
realite, or care, that liaVeri;t got the
clgtheslint fixed and My Wife is rais-
ing hell, day after day. Write a book
indeed!
• Mary Johnson 'of Winnipeg wonders
if I'm the same Bill Smiley,WhO wrote
a series of articles On educaion for the
Salt Lake City :tribune. Sorry, Mary.
'TWas another Bill. nut Mrs. Johnson
ha vN'tteit book called ftprograrotned
Illiteracy in Oti Schools" and Wonders
if - I'd like to teVIeW' .it, Sure 'would.
Send it along, Mary,
On litnit4, of Commons stationery denies
a letter from old friend, ROSS whicher,
M.P., urging me to make that trip to
England, and telling ri0.. that you can
stay at the strand Palate, in 1 London for
lets' that $30.00 a day. He etal$i
a good time, old roan." I will, Ross.
Last tittle 1 WaS at the Strand Palace,
they nearly threw rive etit because I WaS
Sharing -thy -town with the bearded lady
frOM rte arena. The Maid had entered our
kciern before' my bid, buddy Singh Thandi,
a Sikh, trent Indla„, had got his hair tip
and his turban Oil, Ills hair hung to hiS
tailbone and he had a beau Willi curly beard.
The *aid, gave one scream and ran.- 'Singh
was killed in turitin.
Then there are the poets who
do H. bribble of Spoors, 8**,4, sent Toe
al dandy thoitt the beverage room arid the
poverty and inisory tt leads to.
is both funny and true but it's a bit long
PrinL and it 'darn be condensed. Mr.
titabble gets, In Roth -'itittletord
goesSaitxir~ to a longi 'poen _
by Vic Smith, of Itocitwood who„ Insists.
,
When ytikt are driving oti this. way
tteti in,and pat* the time of day'
Voti'll fin the in iffy ,titieki of Weeds",,,
wife and I are ins' nhaysee&e._
thaniatVid. I will if I de, And thanks,,
all you other chaps and -thicitona. your
lettere intake itie realise t ani not 'writing
a heating feeling.
-Serving Brussels and the surrounding community
published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontarie
by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited. '
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Torn Haley - Advertising,
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association.
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $4.00 a year, others
$5.00 a year, Single CopieS 10 cents each.
Second class mail Registra.tion No. 0562.,
Telephone 887-6541.
Using the schools
In a recent weekly column in which
he tells of activity in the Legis-
.lature Huron M.P.P. Jack Riddell re-
ports that the provincial legisla-
ture's Select Committee on the Utili-
zation of Educational Facilities
wants to break down the barriers it
has found growing between schools,'
with their centralized boards 'and
highly paid administrators, and the
communities. they are supposed to
serve. The Committee would have the
responsibility for the use of school
facilities taken away from the boards,
and given to the local community
action councils.
School buildings could be used
for dances and wedding receptions
where liquor is being served, the
committee adds, criticizing the
stuffy" attitudes which isolate
schools from their communities.
We have some doubts'about the
Committee's proposal that the respon-
sibility for decisions on use of
school facilities be given to com-
munity action councils. The elected
school boards should be in closer
touch with the wants and needs of
their Communities than would be
appointed community action councils.
There already is enough bureaucracy
between the schools and the people
and such a'council would provide
another layer.
But the principle of wider com-
munity access to the schools is goOd.
The Committee might also provide us
with information on the long sug-
'gested possibility of year round, or
at least extended, classroom opera-
tion in our schOols, which now con-
tain students fOr only about 190
days a year.
As long as such use doesn't
interfere with classes, access to
expensive school buildings should
be the right of the taxpaying, non-
student majority. And if the aver-
age taxpayer's choice of recreation
is a dance, subject of-course to
restrictions.applying*to other fac-
ilities but including accepted priv-
ileges - why should they not be able
to use the large and comfortable
school auditoriums?
Increasing administrative costs,
combined With the increasing re-
moteness of school boards as they
continue to exclude the public from
even their routine deliberation, too
often using public board Meetings
'only as a 'rubber stamp", are putting
taxpayers and Ontario's burgeon ing
bureaucracy On a collision course.
Opening school facilities to all
sorts of public uses, dotbined with '
an end to the isolation of education
from the mainstream of coriltunity
life, in essence What the Ccottittee
recbtriMeridS, would help head off th e
Conflidt.
(the Huron ExpOsitor i tealot/0