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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1974-06-19, Page 2rl Sugar and Spice By Bill- Smiley Had a birthday recently. Some people, especially women, are rather daunted by certain birthdays. For a young, attractive woman, having her thirtieth birthday is almost as horrible a prospect as having all her teeth out. After a couple of years in the early thirties, She! realizes, that she is really just coming into her best period, that of a mature woman, still mighty attrctive, and with a new emotional maturity she didn't have in the Gay Twenties. She's in the Flirty Thirties, and . enjoying it thoroughly. But with the fortieth milestone looming, panic sets in anew. She suddenly is convinced that anyone in the forties is over the hump, headed into' a wizened old age. ' Strangely enough, after a couple of years in her early forties, she admits to herself and anyone else who will listen, that she's in the prime of life. She can still draw a whistle when the light is right, get her bum pinched if the party is rowdy enough. She's probably a grandmother, but she's a "young" gramma. With a good dentist and contact lenses, she can disguise the fact that her teeth are still there only through sheer will power, and that she's blind as the proverbial bat. Then that grim reaper, the gaunt visage of Fifty, comes over the horizon like a wolf sweeping doWn on a lamb. This time, there is no panic, Just sheer despair. She knows, with a little mathematics, that anyone in the fifties is away past Middle Age, and has one foot in the -we and the ether on a piece of dog defecation. Ale is OLD, and there's no hiding the fact. Yet five years later, in her mid-Fifties, she's striding about a golf course, or screaming "Sweep!" at the curling club, or lying by a pool in Florida, holding in her gut and convinced she's in the Golden age. Of course, Sixty is IT. The old Man with the scythe is lurking everywhere, There's no longer any way of disguising the wrinkles and the wattles. At 62, She gets a good tail, hides the eyes with shades, and maybe even has the jowls tucked Up beneath the ears. And a good git:die does wonders. At 65, she's collecting the old age pension, her late husband's pension, living in a house with the mortgage paid, and jaunting off to Europe or California, where she picks up her second husband, a well-off widower.' She's never had it so good. At 80, widowed again, she's a swinger in Sunset Haven, playing bingo and the piano, and giving the eye to every fresh octogenarian who enters the place. And that's how women are daunted by birthdays. PersOnally, I am never daunted. I have a lot of dents, but not a single daunt. Things have changed a lot around here. My birthday used to be a small something. Carefully coached by their mother, the kids used to come up with gifts which I . aw, shucks, you shouldn't have done it '- accepted gratefully and gracefully, Nothing great. Maybe a fishing-rod or some golf balls. And the old lady would bake a cake - a ready-mix. When they were older, away from home, they'd call (collect) on the occasion, wish me Happy Birthday, and suggest that they could use a little financial aid. Now, I call them up, and after the usual exchange of amenities, asky coyly, "Know what day this is?" "Yeah. Sunday. Why?" I t ry again. "No, I mean what day of the month?" Not really; Wain] I check the calendar." I try again. "No, I mean what day of what month of what year? How old are you? HoW do you know how old you are? What day 'reminds you?" "Oh, golly, Dad. Why didn't you tell me it was your birthday? I would have sent a card. Or something." No, I am' not daunted. But I never, ever forgot my father's birthday. Let's see. I can still remember it. It was April 3rd. Or was it No'ember 3rd? Anyway, I always sent him a card, even if I didn't remember until a month after the occasion. Anyway, I got one call on my birthday this year. It Was from my big brother, After grumpily asking me what was doing in bed at noon On niy birthday, he revealed the real purpose of his call. He wanted to know if I had my little brother's address iti Germany. I didn't. Some birthday greeting. But I did receive one birthday card which touched me deeply. It was front my insurance agent, He never misses. 00 01 ilia russels Post NVFMNESrmy, Irwin t9, to Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Fittlished each. Wednesday afternoon' at Brussels, Ontario. by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited. Evelyn Kennedy Editor Tom Haley Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association. , Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $6.00 a year, Others $8.00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each„ Second class mail Registration No. 0562. Telephone 887-6641. BRUSSE‘S ONTARIO aCNA ALIO israsu 177 itiko Church attendance Geoff. Dibbs, Editor of the Huron Church News, recently wrote a very down-to-earth article on the problem of church attendance. Although 'beamed' primarily at. Anglicans, the H. C. N. editor's comments will no doubt be of interest to those of every faith. Excerpts from the editorial should prove of interest to many of our readers. "In the States recently I was talking to an elderly business tycoon and the conversation came round to church attendance. `If people get something for nothing, that's the value they place on it - 'NOTHING'. And, he added, "that's what's wrong with the church today - you give everything away - you don't even keep them to your own requirements.' The second is a letter published in this paper (Huron Church News) where the writer asks a very important question - "Who is an adherent?" Attendances are down in the Anglican Church.. The Church has little or no influence on the life of the nation. Why? Simply because these are the days of easy church membership. We make no demands physical, spiritual or financial. You may have trouble getting into the Rotary' Club, the Golf Club, but anyone can join the church - and most people in this country have done so at one time or another and sometime in their life have declared that they will be dedicated followers of Jesus Christ. BUT WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Many rectors take pride in telling you how many families they have on their parish lists - but not the same pride in telling you that only a small percentage of that number can be regarded as regular worshippers. • This is what is worrying our correspondent and many other thinking people in our church. Just who is an adherent? Who is going to vote when big decisions like Church Union come to be voted upon? Everyone over 16 who is on a parish list? This would include all the four wheelers - those who only come to church for baptisms,' weddings and funerals when they're brought on four wheels, be it perambulator, wedding car or hearse. It would include all those who never darken the doors of the church from one Christmas to another. It would include all those who don't contribute one cent to the upkeep of the church and yet expect the minister to be at their call whenever they require his services and who expect the church- building to be there all nice, clean and warm when they need it. Possibly that business tycoon was right - 'if people get something for nothing that's the value they place on it - NOTHING.' The service clubs (which many observers tell us have taken over from the churches) demand a monetary commitment, an attendance commitment and a service commitment. If you can't keep up these commitments - you're out. Can We do this - even in some small way?" (St. Marys Journal-Advocate) _ 110 -"That's a borderlioe ease of atreakilag.'