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Home My WebLink AboutThe Brussels Post, 1975-12-24, Page 2To the editor Brussels..should vote on. sewers like Egmondvilie I address this letter to the property owners of Brussels who did not get an Opportunity to vote Whether they were in favour of the sewers or not. Bgtrioridville property owners are having an Opporttinity to ekpreas by voting whether they want Sewers Or not. myself think that we should have ' vote. Canada is a free country and even sewers should not be faced upon US without a vote. Mel ville Jaeldin sTA,ANNio 41072 Brussels Pos *RUSSELS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1975 ONTARIO Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited. Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb Advertising Member" Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association CNA Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $6.00 a year. Others $8.00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each. Christmas a challenge Christmas, 1975, comes to a world that wants "peace on earth, good will to men." But the desires of much of the world, including our own strife-torn and uncertain Canada, stem more from weariness than frOrn love. This world expects more from the flights of Henry Kissinger and the manoeuvres of Pierre Trudeau than from the flights and singing of angels. What then are we to make of Christmas this year? To many it is but a pleasant legend that takes us for a day or two from the daily drudgery of trying to makeencli meet a chance to forget how powerless many of us have become. To others, who treasure the celebration of human experience, Christmas is a bonus -- an extra occasion, even an extra reason for celebration. But Christmas, as Christians understand it, is neither an idle legend nor a happy plus. It is a challenge of our human existence, It is an uplifting of our human existence. 'It calls for celebration, not because we need a party but because Christmas- in reality upsets the life we have designed and changes the reason for Celebrating. Unlike most of the mystic religions that are floviering today in the midst of our disillusion, Christmas faith proves that God does act in human history in unexpected ways and calls on a community to join his action. As realists we know that the home of a friend or relative is bricks and mortar, wood and nails. It is a functional place, ornamented and often filled with comfort, but still a functional place that has no real feeling. But all that is changed and takes on meaning when we realize that a loved one oran old friend lives there. The silent walls speak a language of love. Something like that happens to human history when we remember that Jesus Christ lived here. The cosmos consists of matter and energy, as always. People and communities continue to act with mixed motives. Possibly peace among nations is a little more likely because of Christy but we cannot be certain of that. Yet when we remember that Christ lived here, the walls and ramparts of the world speak a different language. We can say and believe then that we are about to enter` the year of our Lord 1976", (Contributed) Sugar and Spice by Bill Smiley There is something terribly wrong round our house this year, as Christmas looms. I have, a disturbing feeli ng that a catastro- phy is in the offing. What bothers me is that everything is going too well. Two weeks in advance, the turkey was ordered, special, fresh-killed, not one of those frozen, eviscerated, straw- tasting, morgue-like, pallid ,blobs we usually pick up at the last minute. Christmas cards were dispatched on time (after those rotten pasties ended their strike just a little too soon). Christmas gifts were actually bought and wrapped almost a week in advance, instead of that mad, lurch through the stores on Chri.tmas Eve, snatching up broken toys, soiled sweaters and other junk a drunken lumberjack wouldn't buy, and bundling, it into last second wrappings that were too • skimpy. We even knew two weeks in advance who was going to be here for Christmas. Many a time and oft, our kids have come popping in from hundreds of miles away as late as Christmas morning, without warning. This year, it's just Pokey and his mom and dad, the old Battle Axe, and your truly. Grandad is going to. ,sit this one out at home, alone. Son Hugh won't be here. He'll be dining on roast llama in the highlands of Paraguay, if he's not in jail. We even have a plum pudding all ready. You see what I mean? It is not Only all wrong for the Smileys. It is virtually frightening. It has never happened before, It's got to be the calm before the storm: Something eerie is going to happen, Even my wife is becoming convinced we're going to get it in the groin, or some other vulnerable spot. What has convinced me that the roof is going to fall in, the final piece of evidence, is the Christmas tree. Not only was it purchased two weeks in advance, but it's a beauty, a blue Spruce about 10 feet high, that even looks like a Chtisttnas tree. You know, it has branches all around, instead of just one Side. This is 'ridiculous on all counts. My usual tree is bought. the day before C-hristtnas.'It is one of the last four trees on a tot that held 300. It is covered With snow and ice, It is either eight feet tall and one foot wide, Or it is humpbacked, or it is One half of a pair of Christmas tree Siamese totally deVoid of anything, on the' ,side ' you're not looking at. I have had trees as bandy-legged as a cowboy. 1 have had huge White Pines, so vast I had to cut a couple of saw=lOgs off the bottani to get them into the hOuae. One year 1 had a tfee with so few btaritheS an it that I had to drill holes in the trunk, and insert branches front another tree, to make it look less skeletal„ I have had trees crooked that when they were finally raised after much sweat and many maledictions, it was like standing in the presence of a man with two wall eyes, one' pointing west, the other east. My wife used to leave the house when I was putting up the tree. It was better that way. This time, she came home after two hours ready to help me decorate our handsome Spruce. She gave a shriek the moment she entered the house. She thought it was on fire. Clouds of blue smoke were pouring out of the living room. She heard the sound of weeping. Her heart almost stopped. She rushed in, fighting her way through the blue air. In, the corner, the fine,. busy Spruce was lying on it side. There was no sign of me. She started to get sore. "Has he actually had the gall to get into the Christmas spirit already?" Then she heard the choked sobs, mingled with moans of pain and rage. She looked at the tree at one end. And there I was. Under it. Face scratched and bleeding. One thumb mashed flat by the hammer. A chunk torn off the knuckles when the screwdriver slipped. An expression of utter despair on the tattered countenance. That was the year nobody was coming for the holidays until after Christmas. I finally got off the floor, stood the beast up • in the corner, and took a hockey stick to it. That ,was the year the tree never was "put up", Never decorated. When my daughter and family arrived a couple of days after Christmas, it was still leaning there in the corner. - "What happened to the tree, Dad?" she queried in horrified disbelief. "Ah it was too dry; needles were falling off. Decided to take it down, throw it out." Brusquely. left!" Oh well, this year it's going to be different, Usually. we have two trees, one small, and one big: This year, just one, because of Pokey. I figure that if we mount a 24-hour' guard, in shifts,' We just Might be able to prevent him from trying tO climb it. And my Soh-in-law claims to be an artist. SO the tree is ready, and your faithful correspondent is going to sit in a big chair, 'reading the Livea of the Saints, While the artist hot only erects' the free, but decorates it. All is golden, for Once, And yet and yet, I have this sense of unease, Things ate too golden. A lump of lead is `going to Conte out of somewhere and get nit right between the. , And may yotr, 0,you, all . have a Meryrather'than a hairy; Christmas. "Needles? It hasn't even any branches