HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1975-01-15, Page 2WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1975
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BRUSSELS
-'ONTARIO
It •
Brussels Post
Moo!
Change for the better
Change in municipal policies does not come easily,
at least two people stressed at the first 1975 meeting
of the new Brussels Council. The new council is fairly
"green" -- only Reeve Jack McCutcheon and
Councillor H.J.Ten Pas have council experience.
But in a small way, members of the new council
voted to make a couple of changes, and Brussels will
probably be the better for them. When the question
of naming new village appointees to the Maitland
Valley Conservation Authority and the Wing ham-and
District Hospital Board came up, the three new
councillors expressed concern that the appointments
were being made a little bit in the dark. "We have no
way of knowing who would be interested in serving
in these positions", was the way Councillor George
Jutzi expressed it.
The Brussels Council decided unanimously, for the
first time in recent memory, to advertise these
unpaid, voluntary appointments so that all interested
citizens could get their names in front of council
before a choice is made. Now it may be, as council
discussed Monday, that no one is interested in
serving the citizens of Brussels in these two jobs, and
that council will have to revert to their old method of
trying to persuade likely individuals to take them.
But at least council has shown that they are
encouraging as much public participation as possible.
by opening up the appointment process. Those who
criticize local government as a closed shop will now
have an opportunity to put their money where their
mouths are. •
The new council is to be congratulated for asking
questions and coming up with new, more open ways
of doing things, even the little things, that ought to
concern Brussels residents.
'They have certainly started 1975 off on the right
foot.
To the Editor
Snowmobiling means
moral responsibility
Dear Sir:
Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner H.H.Graham warns:
"Strict laws alone can not reduce snowmobile mishaps."
A light dusting of snow, a little. nip in the air and out comes
power on skis. Too often little concern is given to the fact that the
lake is not adequately frozen, patches of bare earth still exist, or
that the machine has not been serviced.
Suddenly, a mature, sensible man is reduced to the level of an
irresponsible person. The result can be broken machines, broken
bodies and broken hearts.
Since the 1974-75 snowmobile season began OPP members
have investigated ten fatal snowmobile mishaps in which four
:persons drowned and seven died after their snow machine
collided with a fixed object.
Commissioner Graham reminds stioWmobilers, "The only sure
way to avoid needless suffering and tragedy is for each
snowmobile operator to become aware of his moral responsibility
towards himself, his family and his neighbour.
"Common sense and good habits are infectious. They will
Contribute to the reduction of serious injury and death that are
now WO often associated with the sport of snowrnobiling,"
1„G.Bru ner,
Inspector,
Community Services Branch,
Telephone. 965.4474
This is the time of the. year for "OUT
with the old, in with the new." I honestly
did try to do this. But it was hopeless. I got
bogged down, right up to the navel, in my
first attempt to get rid of the old.
I decided, as my year-end project, to
clean up my writing desk. This may sound
simple, a mere 15 minutes of sorting and
tidying. But you are not acquainted with
my writing desk.
Perhaps you remember the myth about
Hercules cleaning out the Augean stables.
They were filled with cattle, hadn't been
cleaned in decades and there was a
veritable mountain of you-know-what. A
formidable task. He did it without even
using pitch-fork. He diverted the flow of
two rivers through the stables, and lo! they
were cleansed.
That was child's play compared to ►
cleaning off my desk, and also I am no
Hercules.
On each side of my typewriter sits a
teetering stack of papers that reaches
approximately to my head, when I am
sitting at my machine. Huddled between
them, like a sparrow between two huge
tomcats, squats the typewriter.
Occasionally, one of the piles, like. a
glacier, slides majestically to the floor. My
wife picks up 'the mess, and muttering
under her breath, jams it bad( on the desk..
She's forbidden to disturb anything there,
or even to dust it.That's the main reason
the piles are two feet high. I do allow her to
dust the front of the desk, where the
drawers are.
Trouble is, she's -so annoyed she piles
the stuff back in any old order. This causes
a problem •when .1 decide to clear the desk
at year's end.
I pick up the first letter. It is from a
farmer's wife, complimenting me on my
stand for the beef farmer. It is cleated 1962.
That suggests that the last tjtme I cleaned
my desk was in 1961.
It also "Poses qtiestions. What was my
stand on the beef farmer in 1962? I'll bet it
was a little sweeter than my , attitude
toward sirloin steak prices today. Was the
letter ever answered? Who knows? So I put
it in the stack labelled Who Knows. This•
turns 'out to be the biggest of the Many
piles I lay out on the floor.
The other piles bear such esoteric labels
as : To Be Dealt With — Sometime: Needs
Further StudY; Look Into, This: Silly Old
Cranks, To Be Answered Definitely In The
New Year; Complimentary; Over The Hill;
and so on The second largest stack is
called Miscellaneous because I. don't know
where else to put these items,
Under the last item go such bi
ll
a
passport application foi* a from the
Strand Palace, tondotL England; a
theistiti4-tatd .frott my inStitatiCe agentt
Grade 11 an offer to do. the. 'Smiley
family tree foe only SSA (must have 'been
a small family); and a reminder that I am
due at veteran's hospital for a chest X-ray
(which I 'forgot all about).
I have a very definite way of handling
these piles. Miscellaneous I put back on
the desk. Over The Hill, which contains
anything more than six years old, goes into
the wastebasket, as does Silly Old Cranks,
a very slim stack of letters from ridiculous
people who don't agree with me.
Needs Further Study goes back on the
desk, right on top of Miscellaneous. Look
Into This goes back on the desk on top of
Needs Further Study. Next on the growing
pile on the desk goes To Be Dealt With —
Sometime.
Then I lift the whole pile and slide
underneath it, right at the bottom, if you'll
pardon the expression, To Be Answered
Definitely In The New Year.
And then, carefully . and delicately, I
place on top of the pile the stack labelled
Complimentary. This contains the letters I
have received from those splendid,
intelligent people who admire my wife or
kids or column.
Yes, I know they should be thrown out.
But surely you wouldn't deny a chap a little
ointment for his ego, any more than you
would begrudge an old lady a seat in the
chimney corner, where the fire can warm
her. •
The piles beside the typewriter are now
only a foot and a half high, and it has taken
a day and a half to sort them. This may not
seem like progress to you, but Rome
wasn't built in a day, as some idiot, once
remarked.
One good thing came but of this year's
sorting. I remembered that I had received a
letter from Barty Broadfoot, author of Ten
Lost Years, a compelling book about the
depression. I'd written a column about it.
No. I couldn't find his letter. It must
have wandered into the Miscellaneous or
-somewhere. But the memory of his, letter
made me remember that I'd had at least'
ten letters from all over the country, and
the States, asking where a copy might be
obtained. No, 1 couldn't find these letters
either.
But the memory of‘thern reminded me of
What Barry Broadfoot wrote in his letter.
He's writing another book. called The
Pioneer Years, and he wondered if I would
ask In my column for the naMes, of
oidtimos who were spry and interesting,
so that he could interview then
So there yoit at e, evetYbp.aySertd 016
nanieS, of spry., interesting 'oldtimers, of
either sex, to Batty Broadfoot, care of
Doubleday Publishers, 105 Bond
TOteintO, Ont. M5B III Arid the same
people will be happy to provide you with a
copy of Ten Lost Years:
There. My first good deed for 1975, And
that's going to cost you, Brother Broadfoot.
Crown Royal, will do.
Sugar and Spice
By Bill Smiley