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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1975-10-22, Page 2Storm coming BOYAOLIINIFO 11Ra russels Post ORME 0-5 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1975 ONTAFII0 Post office treatment uneven Postal regulations specify newspapers and magazines as second class mail, but for some reason or other some newspapers and some magazines get first class 'treatment, with the balance having to be satisfied with something less, or what could be termed third rate delivery. Why? At the recent Canadian Community Newspapers Ass'n. Convention in Saskatoon, a senior official of the Post Office Department spoke, and while others from' the same department had spoken to national and provincial association conventions previously, this speaker was the best. The biggest problem the Post Office Department has is in hiring conscientious persons. The speaker explained that after the last war the Post Office Department had an influx of veterans who were 'resolute in making the civil service their career, resulting in them doing good jobs. But that was 30 years ago, and now many have retired, and more are doing so, with vacancies being filled by young men who do not take the same attitude toward their job. Making things even worse are the Maoists who distrupt workers and service. No one knows any better than the writer what a boring job sorting letters is, because yours truly worked the night shift at the London post office during the 1946 Christmas rush. Because it is so boring, and with young people looking for -- or demanding -- more meaningful and enjoyable employment, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire people who will do this type of work, thus one reason for the Post Office Department installing mechanical sortation equipment. . In the question and answer •period some startling facts came to light, one of which was the fact that Financial Post and Time Magazine, although second class mail, are handled as first class by the post office. Not likely many publishers realized this previously, but you can almost set your watch by the punctuality of arrivals of the Post and Time, which is not the case concerning the arrivals of weekly newspapers, according to subscribers. Since the convention another postal official has stated the Post Office Department sends a transport truck from Toronto around to Buffalo once a week to pick up The Wall Street Journal. No matter how late it, arrives there the driver has to wait to take it to the Toronto post office from where it is distributed to others across Canada. Such special consideration not likely pays, with the consideration being political. Why politicians cannot give Canadian weekly newspapers better consideration is a question no one seems able to answer. When it takes until Tuesday or Wednesday for a copy of this paper to get to a subscriber 200 Mile$ away that' is ridiculous. And particularly to When it can cross the US in the same time period. (The Rodney Mercury) . I t "Ed heard 3 i% )-n- that you have to talk to plants to keep theist happy'!-" 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 As'sociation and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association -/ Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $6.00 a year. Others $8.00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each. Amen by Karl Schuessler My wife started to take all those TV ads to heart. Give mother a treat. She needs a break from meal making. Take her out to lunch. To dinner. To supper. Take her out to anything. But just take her out. Give the lady in the kitchen a rest. Now if she'd listened closer to those commercials we should have wound up at a hamburg place. Or a finger lickin' good chicken palace. Or a plain old stop and shop for fish and chips --eaten right out of simulated newsprint in the front seat of the car. ' But no--it didn't wind up as simple as all that. Or as inexpensive as all that. She had a place in mind alright. A very posh place in town. She asured mei' d like it. The decor was exciting.l ought to feel right at home. It was a 100 year old church converted into a restaurant. Now I've had supper before in a church basement, but this meal on the main floor was something else again. It was red carpet treatment all the way from the very beginning when we walked under a black canopy stretched at least ten feet in front of the -entrance. The host led us into soft carpets and dim lights. Sweet music. Why, he even took the napkin off the table, shook it open and helped ustuck it in our laps as we sat down. The cousine was as excellent as the service. Then came the inevitable bill at the end. A good stiff one. It wasn't the charge that bothered me. Well okay, maybe it did a little. But I was taking mother out, wasn't I? She deserved every bit and bite of it. But I do feel guilty paying so much for food. If I had spent only a quarter of that amount some place else, I would have come out well nottrished.And at a tithe like this I couldn't dare let myself think about all the starving people in the world. Why was 1 getting so bothered in that restaurant? What's wrong. With m e? Is the old church getting to me? This place is impeccable' in taste arid food and style. Everything iS stylish. Of high order. If anything t underStated hot garish or gaticlY hi tone. The church's stained glass windows spo Ice of more gaiety than the newly painted dark walls and dim lights. What's wrong with me? What am I feeling SO uneasy about? Sortie closed down churches beg to get such stylish treatment. Why,i've seen Other old ehurches reduced to living in weeds on the outside and falling plaster on the inside. I've known about churches turned into OA and garages and beauty shops. And I've walked through churches made into dance halls and gift shops and community halls. And I've lived -- and I am living --in a church right now. None of this ever bothered me. But why-was that posh restaurant getting to me so? I swallowed hard when I looked up at that stained glass ,window given by a family in loving memory of their father. I marvelled at the organ pipes that covered one wall. And when my eye traced- them down from the ceiling to the floor, it came to rest on mirrors and a long bar. Now there's nothing wrong with a bar in a restaurant. Rut where an altar was? And there's nothing wrong with aguest registry. But at the lecturn where the Gospel was read each Sunday? There's nothing wrong with tables and chairs on a carpeted floor? But where pews should have been? How could such a noble and stately building remain so beautiful and still not be a church? No restaurant deserves to h ave walls that soar to heights unspeakable. No restaurant deserves to have beams that arch to peaked gables. No restaurant deserves to spread itself out across that traditional concept of nave and tratiscept that plan that lays out the church in the shape of a cross. Maybe that's what was hurting.The original intent of the building was thwarted. It's no • longer serving the purpose it was made for. In art, it's called kitsch. Something thrown together --especially for popular appeal it's a debased, lesser form of art. Its the kind'of art that takes a tisi turns it into a lampbase. Or angtioldnlIkacantdi made intoa rt. s o nao serve art--something bar gd wo other oenore Ih.ed It' m purposes. at s orsittgbihsstitautitde And what hurts even more is that nioneY Can make the difference. Lack of moneY 011 close a church. A pocket-full can open it up.And turn it into a thriving business, Maybe the Anglicans are right. Maybe they have something. When one of their chorches, has to CiOSO, the traditional way is to burn !t, downs And if not burn' it down, then tear I: down. Not that the policy is always follOwed ofcourse'. I never could understand it if seemed a Waste a Very impractical thing to do. But tiOW, beginning to See why. •L•• LL: • I._