HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1974-07-03, Page 2Fun on the Merry =go-round
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Sugar and Spice
By Bill Smiley
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IESTAISUSH!D
11172
Brussels Post
41111111111EARIMP BRUSSELS
ONTARIO
CCNA
WEDNESDAY. JULY 3, 1914
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Palished each Wednesday afternoon- at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean I3ros.Publishers, Limited.
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Toni 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.
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Occasionally, something interesting or
unusual conies along to brighten the daily
routine, just when it seems to be getting
dreary. A couple of these happened to me
recently.
First, the good Samaritans, The story
really began one night last winter.
Ihave an ancient and venerable wooden
garage, which bears on both sides of the
entrance the honorable scars left by my
wife and daughter as they tried at various
times to get the car into the garage or out
of 'it.
MY wife is the only person of my
acquaintance who can try to back a car out
of a garage and get it wedged kitty-corner
across the building. On several occasions I
have almost had to have the garage
demolished to get the car out.
Anyway, on this night last winter my
wife and a friend were trying to close the
garage door.
This door is as old as the garage, which
will probably never see forty again, The
door is not exactly electronically controlled.
It is a massive thing, about six inches
thick, of hardwood. It would cost about a
thousand dollars to build today. The chap
who installed it was quite ingenious.
He installed a couple of rails, some
pulleys, and two huge weights at the end of
some heavy wire. While the door could not
be raised and slid back with a couple of
fingers, like 'those in a modern garage, a
strong man, with a good heave, could get it
up and sliding back along the rails.
I am not a particularly strong man. In
fact, I am a weak one, in more ways than
one, as my wife could tell you.
As a result, I usually left the garage door
Open. I couldn't see the point in all that
heaving and hauling. This annoyed my
wife. In the fall, leaves blew into the
garage. In the winter, snow blew in.
Neither bothered me, but you know what
women are like.
Well on the night in question, the two
ladies decided to close the garage door,
because the snow was blowing in. They
gave a great heave, the wire came off the
pulleys and the door came off the rails.
Fortunately, the car was not in the
garage, or I'd have been looking for' a new
ear. The door weighs about six hundred
pounds.
It did not come crashing right down, but
hung, suspended by the wire, at a
forty-five degree angle in the garage. You
couldn't have driven a kiddy car in there.
I was geing to organize a work party and
get it back on the rails, but it was Stormy,
and then I got the 'flu and tittle went on
and things cropped up, as they seem to.
A conole of tittles I went out and looked
back on the rails, which almost gave me
double hernia.
Well, time went on and my wife nattered_
away about getting that door fixed and the
neighbours dropped a few hints but I
became sort of fond of that crazy thin
g hanging there, as one might get fond of
cross-eyed cat.
One fine evening recently, I was sitting
in the back yard, enjoying my preprandial
aperitif,•when an old truck pulled up and a
sweaty, dirty young man came through th
gat e.
Under the grime I identified Jami
Hunter, whom I taught last year. Grinning
he announced, "Mr. Smiley, I'm going t
do something for Canadian literature".
was baffled. He went on, "When are you
going to get your garage door fixed?"
"Oh, that. Any day now Jamie, as soon
as I can find someone to do it. Why?"
"Well, every time Mike and I drive b
and see that door, it bothers us. We'r
going to fix it for you."
"Great!", enthusiastically. "How
much?", cautiously.
"It's not going to cost you a nickel."
insisted I would pay the going_ rate. He
refused. They'were doing it for Canadian
literature. Jamie said they were pretty
busy, and asked when I wanted it done. I
said whenever they could get at it. I
thought he meant' in a couple or three
weeks.
I went in to dinner, delighted at this
display of gratitude or whatever. After
dinner, I heard a bit of a din out back, and
there they were, four young men, getting
that ridiculous door back on the tracks.
I was almost overcome with something
or other. All four were former students of
mine: Mike Laurin, Mike Dragoman, John
Sachs and Jamie Hunter. At least two of
them had been working since eight o'clock
that morning, and here they were, twelve
hours later, slugging away at a brutal,
awkward job for their old English teacher. I
was touched. They absolutely refused any
payment.
I was just as astonished as I was moved,
Here were four young guys who, instead of
moaning around about no employment, or
living on welfare, had formed a loose
partnership, and were doing construction,
painting, anything they could get.
They were immediately offered the job of
taking off My storm windows and painting
my house. And that's how you get ahead in
the world, which does NOT owe you g
living, young Man:
In addition to this lucky strike, I have
Dan St, Arnand, another student, and the
best cornet player in the whole areA,
cutting my lawn, SO all In all; it looks like 'a
The population problem still is referred to as the
world's biggest time bomb of all. And there is some
justificatic.n in presenting such an image, although
the explosion of population will be gradual rather
than sudden.
Nevertheless, leading statesmen and
demographers around the world, as well as
concerned groups and individuals, keep sounding
various warnings. The United Nations estimates that•
the world's population was 1 billion in 1830, and took
100 years to double. By next year, world population
will have doubled again to 4 billion, and by the end of
the century, an additional 1 billion persons will be
added every five years.
Mankind cannot afford an overcrowded planet. In
Bucharest, Romania, there will be a world population
conference,-,,sponsored by the United Nations, to
discuss problems of overcrowding, as well as
possible remedies. It will be held in • August.
What kind of remedies can humanity seek? tine
main weapons are world-wide population control
programs designed to educate many millions of
people. It simply is not enough to tell a mother she
should not have any more children. The education
process has to be thorough, and preferably gradual,
if there is to be success.
Better world population education programs will
have to be devised. Around the world, and
particularly in poorer ,nations that cannot afford
widespread health care, more maternity and
post-natal centres will have to be built. With careful
planning and cooperation, the population control
programs now under way can be speeded up. And
with imagination, mankind's ticklish population
puzzle can be solved, thus benefitting all of us who
live on this planet.
(Contributed)
Alcohol, lack of driver education and unfamiliarity
with the vehicle have emerged as the principal
causes of accidents in a one-year study by a
University of Manitoba research team of doctors and
engineers.
The group studied in depth 15 accidents, involving
death or serious injuries and concluded that speed is
not the basic cause of most accidents.
`Speed just governs the severity,' said a team
spokesman. 'While speed may be the result of the
basic cause perhaps, or a contributing factor...it is
not the basic cause.'
The study, conducted for the' Ministry of
Transport;. covered all stages- of the accidents,
including 6 thorough examination of the vehicles and
the. drivers,
We think that driver education is going, to be One.
Of the principal deterrents to increasing accidentS in
'future years,. Young drivers Who have received good
training 'CahnOt, help contribute greatly to the
lessening of read accidents.
(St. Marys Journal Arguo),