The Brussels Post, 1975-04-09, Page 2I
ESTASLISHED
1572
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 90975
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. •
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros.Publishers, Limited.
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb - Advertising "
'Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association.
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $6.00 a year, Others
CCNA $8.00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each. . .
C. 4./LATION
Our national
ignorance
4Brusseis Post
BRUSSELS
ONTARIO
Amen
By Karl Schuessler
Gee, little-old-ladies-who-quilt-blankets-in-
church-basements, I had you all wrong.
I never did understand why you were going
to all that bother. Of cutting up material into
all sorts of shapes and then turning right
around and sewing them back together again.
Oh, you were making beauties alright. Out
of squares triangles and rectangles and every
other angle.
But all those hours? Those stitches? Those
pricked fingers? To lay one blanket on the
bed? When lamb's wool would do?
But now I know better. Because I attended a
quilt exhibition. I learned not to ask such silly
questions.
The ladies were setting traps for men like
me. They knew what they were doing when
they hung up their quilts on •the wall.
Magnificent quilts in bold colours and steady
rhythms. In sublte hues and strict cadence.
They knew those quilts would catch my eye.
Command attention. And keep and looking up
and up, as the quilts reached the ceiling.
I felt my eyes blur and water. What were
those quilts doing to me? And before I could
bli.nk my eyes clear again, I sensed a woman
standing beside me.
"Men are quite emotional about quilts,"
she said.
I'm sure , she was trying to ease my
embarrassment.
"Yeah," I said, "It must be those colours.
They're really hard on the eyes."
"No," she insisted, "It's not just the
colours.' It's an emotional thing. You're
looking at a quilt. A blanket. There's much
emotion tied up with a bed and bedding."
Well, who was I to doubt that& Now that
she said it. It was sort of obvious.
There's lots of things that do go on in a bed.
Love. Birth. Life. Death. Sickness. Sleep, I've
heard it said that a person spends at least one
third of his life in bed
You can find good times there.Sad times.
Nor times. I knew that "going to your room"
often means shutting the door, flopping down
on the bed arid crying, A bed is a very private
place. A personal place. A lonely place. An
alone place. To let out all kinds of feelings.
"Its no wonder, then" she said, "There's
so Much meaning and ritual Connected with
bed things."
Now that She mentioned it; I had to agree
•with that one too. Bed clothes. Bed slippers.
Bed prayers. Bed stories. Bedtime kisses.
Bedside manners.
"Beds can make you feel so snug and
secure," she went on.
"And keep you cozy and comfortable," I
helped her out, "We all have our security
blankets. In bed and out of bed."
"But that's not all," she said,. "Quilts can
be a historical statement".
That did it! Now I knew she was carrying
this quilt business too far. Did she want me to
believe that every time I drew up my blanket
over my shoulders, I was snuggling up to a
historical statement? Was she trying to put
me into stitches?
Of course not she insisted. Quilts carry a
load of history. She told me about the quilts
made out of the uniforms from the men who
marched in Fenian's Raid. She talked about
the Centennial quilt she made. She pointed
out the maple leaf quilts, the log cabin quilts,
the Job's tears quilt.
She told me to look at those drab and dark
quilts. Depression quilts. She touched a silk
and satin and velvet quilt. The good-times
quilt.
She said quilts tell family history. With bits
and pieces sewed in from ribbons and bows.
From neck ties and sashes. Wedding gowns
and christening robes. Sunday dresses and
Monday's aprons.
Quilts tell a story. They represent life. PIO
are life. ."A quilt is a very special gift .,'` she
said, "It's a gift of love."
See what I mean ladies? I never knew a quill
could say so much. And mean so much.
So I must apologize to all you ladies quiItilig
away in church basements and in your homes.
And to the younger ones too. For quilting's
catching on,
When I see you quilt, no more will I see 0111Y
your patches and needles s your pins and stud
talk.
get the point, The main point. Your needle
teWS--and Sows—life and love.
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Quick now! Name three Canadian prime ministers
who have served since the second World War. You
can't? Well, you're in good company.
A survey of 3,500 senior Canadian high school
students has discovered that 62% of them failed a
test about Canadian geography, government and
culture that asked fairly elementary questions like
the one we just asked you.
The goofs and misinformation that our students
(S.D.H.S. students didn't take the test so they're
absolved from blame - for now) recorded on the
survey included opinions that John Diefenbaker was
our Governor General, that All in the Family was a
.Canadian production and that Toronto or Montreal
was our nation's capital.
Canada must be the only nation in the world that
teaches its own citizens so very little about their own
':::ountry. We seem to be so inundated and
.overshadowed by the culture and concerns of the
'great nation to the south of us that we no longer •
know or. care about our own country.
Perhaps' the Americans have a point when they
carefully indoctrinate their school children with facts
about America before they learn about the rest of the
world. How else can we. explain the fact that most
American school children can name fifty states while
more than 60% of the Canadian high schoolers could
not identify our ten provinces in east to west
.)eographical order?
' Pitiful, isn't it? But there's more.
72% couldn't identify the premier of Quebec.
31 % couldn't name three Canadian authors. Only
41 % knew that the federal voting age had been
'owered 'to 18 and about half had no idea why the
Afar Measures Act was proclaimed in 1970.
Our citizens and voters of tomorrow were almost
ompletely uninformed about two of the issues that
<re most likely to shape Canada's future. More than
'0% couldn't write a few sentences on the
importance of the James Bay hydro electric project or
the McKenzie Valley pipeline.
Horrifying as these results are to anyone who
cares about Canada and its future as an independent
nation, they really aren't all that surprising. We can
remember very little Canadian history and almost no
Canadian literature being taught in our high school
and elementary school days. Most of us watch
American comedies and police shows on TV and read
American news iin Time and even in our Canadian
newspapers.
We have suffered from a nation wide inferiority
complex and into the vacuum left by the lack of
emphasis on our own country, has stepped news,
entertainment and 'school textbooks that are made in
the U.S.A.
We couldn't help but wonder too how many adults
could score much better on the same type of
Canadian facts survey. Where are they to learn about
Canada&.
CBC tries hard to cover our country and the
important Canadian issues, especially on radio, but
TV stations are Waterla*gged with American shows
and people like them.
The daily newspapers try but their function is
more reporting than educational and American news
is of aVid intereat to' Canadian readers.
Our newstands are loaded with American
periodicals and paper backs.
The schools really laCk emphasis' on Canada, both
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