HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1974-09-11, Page 2Log cabin coming down
Sugar and Spice
By Bill Smiley
OBrussels Post
BRUSSELS
ONTARIO
WEDNESDAY,$EPTEMBER 11, 1974
Serving )brussels and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at 13russeis, Ontario
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 56.00 a year, Others
cZNA $8.00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each. 6/`
VeillF4C1
Second class mail Registration No. 0562.
PUCULATION Telephone 887-6641.
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Ducks Unlimited (Canada)
WILSON'S PHALAROPE (Steganopus tricolor)
interesting and attractive addition to the life of
prairie ponds, the spritely phalarope, seems
equally at home spinning about in circles on the
water or dasi.ing about on shore, Well-liberated,
the females o'f this species wear the more color-,
ful plumage, take the initiative in courting, and
leave the trial6 to raise the familyl
138 - 74
Marsh World
End of summer notes: back to work;
babies; the speed limit; and anything else
that crops up.
It's good' to get hack to work. For a
month. At first there's a general feeling of
-excitement as the fall term begins at school
Bonhomie among the staff as summer
experiences are exchanged and tans are
compared. The challenge of facing a
hundred and some new faces in the
classroom. The fine September weather.
Even the students are happy to get back.
For a month. They, too, exchange summer
anecdotes, greet old friends, and begin
making new ones. There is a feeling of
liveliness in the air.
One of the Favourite pastimes for the
students as school re-opens is sizing up the
teachers.
"Yeah, he's not a bad guy, but you can
walk all over him. His classes are a mob
scene."
"She's a good teacher, knows her stuff,
but she's so dull, no sensa humour, it
makes your teeth ache."
"He's a real mean (deleted). Makes ya
work like a dog."
And so on. They're usually pretty
shrewd in their assessments. What they
don't realize is that their teachers are
doing the same. "There's a bad little devil;
have to keep an eye on him. Oh; no, not Joe
repeating his year. Why did they put him
in my class again? There's a bright girl;
good -looking too." And so on:
Utterly bewildered for a month are the
new kids in Grade 9. They come in all sizes,
from tiny shrimps to hulking giants. Some
of them come from small country schools.
To be dumped in a huge, complex building
housing daily about 1700 people, including
staff is rather frightening for them,
They get lost. That's reasonable; even
some of the teachers get lost. But the kids
lose their books, forget where their lockers
are or if they frid them, have forgotten the
combination for the lock. They have to
unravel all the do's and don'ts of a huge
and baffling new system,
But they get sorted out and after a
month, they're old hands, just as cocky as
all the others.
Now for babies,Thank goodness I'm not
a young mother. We've been having a visit
from our grandbabby, and when it was
over, I felt tett years older,
He's a beautiful' child and a healthy one.
But he's as active and agile and slippery as
an eel,
'thafortnnately, his gran had cracked
ribs, Was in considerable pain and could
scarcely hold him or lift him, As a result,
she wasn't much good, as an over-sized
toy. That's all grandparents are, when
you're eight months old. They're far better
than a rattle. They're softer (in more ways
than one), they make the appropriate
noises, they pick you up and kiss you when.
you fall down, they sing to you and joggle
you on their knees , and so on.
Well, Nicov Chen "took a shine", as
they say, to me as his new toy, "Ah, look.
He loves his grandad", the women would
coo, when he'd crawl straig. t to me, look
up imploringly and begin to ascend me as
though I were Mount Everest.
His technique was impressive. I was
wearing nothing' but shorts most of the
time. He would reach up from the floor,
grab me by the hair on my legs with a grip
like an orangutan, pull himself to his feet,
grinning with triumph and swaying
around, ready to fall, bump his head and
start yelling.
Another beseeching look, and I'd hoise
him onto my knee. Then he'd turn around,
grab me by the hair on my chest, and pull
himself up for a little jump, jump, jump,
facing me. When he got tired of that, he'd
start grabbing my nose and trying to pull it
out, or poking at my eyeys, or tearing at an
ear.
Suddenly, he'd squirm around and want
down. On the floor, he'd head, at startling
speed and with a demonic grin, straight for
a st anding floor lamp. He loved it because
when you shook it. from ground level, it
made a nice jingling sound. It is also heavy
enough to brain a baby.
So grandad leaps across the room and
grabs the lamp iri the nick of time, points
the kid in another direction and sinks
wearily into his chair. Sixty seconds later,
he feels a painful twisting of the hair on his
legs, and off We go again. One of us never
got tired of this little routine.
He's a happy babby, but, on the
occasions when he isn't you could hear him
two blocks away, Whenever his Muni went
shopping, I baby-sat and enjoyed it
thoroughly, but did my sitting in a constant
state of fear that he'd get unhappy,
glad, once again, that I'm not a young
mother, but an old grandad.
Vinally, the speed limit, There is a
proposal that it be reduced from 70 on the
big highways to 55 m.p.h. This was done in
the U.S. and Germany, among others,
during the oil 'crisis. There is quite a lot of
opposition here, rni all for it. it's been
proved' that it cuts the carnage on' the
highways. Saves lives, saves money, stoll
energy. How Can anyorio be against it.
And what's the big rush anyway? It 'S
time we slowed dowii.
An end to hoeing
Farmers of every era have, some cause for
complaint. If it isn't the weather it may be the prices;
or it may be some immediate reason such as the
breakdown of a machine in the midst of a busy
season.
Modern farmers, for all their troubles, don't know
how lucky they are, that is, compared to their Ontario
ancestors. Many back-breaking jobs of the past are
gone forever. Gone too are many of the pesky tasks
of the yesteryears.
The reminder comes with the information that
sugar beets now can be grown from 'mono-germ'
seeds. That is, there is just one plant per seed, which
,eliminates the need for pulling most of them out.
No sugar beets now are grown in Ontario, the last
plant producing sugar from beets having been closed
down in Kent County some years back. And there are
very few, if any of their kindred mangolds.Time was
when most Ontario farmers had an acre or two of
these to provide tasty, juicy food for milch cows or
brood sows. They also offered a treat for horses, or
for the hens.
Those were the days of 'hoe crops' and the
hoeing of mangolds was the worst of all. First they
had to be thinned out, almost impossible to do with
the hoe, as the stems were intertwined. The hoer
would have to stoop, up one row and down the next,
pulling them apart with his fingers.That was a
tedious pernickety job, as hard on the nerves as on
the back.
Our grandfathers would have shouted with joy at
sews that there were mangolds which needed no
such thinning. But then there are many modern
practices in agriculture which would have been
beyond the fondest dreams of our rural ancestors.
(St. Marus Journal-Argus)