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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1976-09-29, Page 2As there is some controversy regarding our donation of 5 acres for the site of a new arena, maybe a letter of explanation would be appropriate. Let us• state at the outset that before writing, we have consulted with the Department of National Revenue, appraisers and accountants. Firstly, because there are such things as 'Capital Gains and Gift Tax laws, any transaction must be filed at an acceptable,. figure. In this case the figure seems to be $16,000. The deal would be something like this - We would sell the site for that sum. We would in turn make a donation of the purchase price. Then, since donations are equalled dollar for dollar in grants, the outcome would bp that the committee would end up with a free site and a grant of $16,000., should be available. The same of course should apply to any necessary right-of-ways. Secondly, by locating the Arena at the proposed site, we do not stand to gain one additional future lot. Nor will we gain access to one extra existing, lot. • Thirdly, If the committee agrees that any different site should be chosen, we promise ten thousand dollars towards a new arena. . Fourthly, . We .believe in. the Brussels Community. We thank Brussels Post 'HI ONTARIO E WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1976 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 $8.00 a year, Single Copies ,15 cents each. a Legi end morn Li 'pion Es gain the avail dent Win 0,P To the .editOr Facts- pr,:sented on arena land. donatiom Blyth does well Amen by Karl Schuessler When our grandfathers put things in a cornerstone,, say of a church or some public building, I don't 'imagine they thought too much about the contents. Everyone knew what they'd put in--a local newspaper, a few coins, some photographs, a document--just any sort of officialese--to represent the times. I, don't imagine they thought too 'much about the day when the building would come down, and then some future generation would take a look. They just put in the items and let it go. What our grandfathers didn't know was they were planting time capsules. That's the name this decade gives to these time bombs -- to explode at some later specified date when we're all gone and thp time is ripe. But there's a difference--a big difference-- with these new time capsules. We're putting these things away in a very deliberate and reasoned manner. Why, we're appointing committees to decide what to put in. They spend, hours and hours figuring out *hat objedts represent our age. A beer bottle? A tin can? Bikini? Button? Cigarettes? Car hubcap? They run into other problems, How can you represent the intangibleS? Thing§ stith loVe and loyalty. Or people communicating with each other? All these are important, but how can 'you redude them mto an object?` And to complicate things more. 'AO can define a culture? Much less specify the obje 'cis that represent it? The problems with time capsules have so MitshrooMed that it's intraded the classrooms of universities. I spoke with an anthropology professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Professor Robert Ascher told. in; .e he collected a bunch of items diig out from a garbage dump of a farm house. And his students had a hard time identifying items known 'to everyone fifty years ago. Only one or two students recognized part of a vacuum tube from radio sets and a ',distributor cap from a 1940 car.- See, he said. See how much we 'Change? We change so fast We don't recongize things from a previous generation. And even if we do still use them, like that distribUtor cap, we dont look underneath the hood of our car to know what's inside. Our life--and our cars are that complex and left to speCialists. .Now, youtmay laugh at all this 'and say this is a lot of nonsense. But that's not keeping the Prime Minister from explaining atirne capsule this week on the 18th floor of the C.N. tower in. Toronto. Neither 'does it stop .all the other ca sole plants.There's been arash of them since the American bicentennial, The tithe capsules come in all shapes and forms Long slim ones like tocketS, in Japan at Expo /0 they looked like huge cooking • cauldrons. Or they can be plain Metal boxes or plastic Cylinder's. The time of opening IS set by committee. 100 years, 200. 500 Or into the thousands. When I asked the profess& What he'd put in a time capsule, he said he didn't knoiv. The con Wag complex,, he'd come to the lsio un we couldn't: package ttit "elitire civilization in one capsule. He couldn't peel away all the layers of our western society and get at the Core. 1 stick with the professor on that ,one. After running around for two weeks finding out all about these time capsules for a CBC Ideas programme, Fll stick, with my local dump. NEI let the tftrowavvays of pday become. the time capsriles of tomorrow. There's no contriving there.No deliberating and planning for future my generations.history. No committees to edit and le buyupd with layersol quilts. itWsa. I paper in old ho I like it when the past comes at me -- in surprises. Like the time when I took the back • out of an old mirror in, a dresser. Reading the newspaper' inside, I came across names of Teddy Roosevelt, the Czarist prince of Russia and' th:Spa nish revol uti::Wthalile search 'in theiistorybooks, we dated that dresser lithinatewyear ,liakemyhistoryt hawa.like to rummage and serounge for it. I like to discover it. I'M glad I won't be around in the year 2, Or 000, I Won't have to be served op a time capsule, all too Contrived and packaged. The earthlings will probably, think we were trying too hard for pOsterity. When it comes to posterity, it put roy future on my kids They're the best time 4 capsules I can think of If ever a community in Huron County exemplified the true spirit of working together, comradeship and brotherhood. then Blyth would head ,,the list. For a town of hardly a 1,000 souls, the people of • Blyth have more spunk per capita than any town in this area we are familiar with. One 'example is their newly restored Memorial Hall, which now not 'only rightly serves the community it was intended for, but also lures thousands of tourists from all over Ontario, and the. U.S. to see some excellent performances of Canadian theatre. Another example is Blyth's arena fund raising 'activities, which in conjunction with the neighbouring townships, has gathered more than $100,000 towards the cost of building a new structure to replace the ancient and decaying one torn down just. two short months ago. Even Goderich and Exeter, with populations three to six times as large, can't claim such a feat. Their ' fund raising schemes can't approach Blyth's for enthusiasm. And too, how .about Blyth's Threshers' reunion, which attracted crowds of; near 10,000 for its three-day run recently to the small village? It takes a great deal of co-operation and hard work.- by a few, people to make such an event as the Reunion the • sucOess that it was. Blyth has set an example that the rest of us would do well to emulate. (The Clinton News Record) Time. capsules. .ettitse.. probleths. Big Barns the other parties that have also expressed their confidence' bt promising donations of ten thous and dollars or more. Fifthly, and finally, When w drive in and around Brussels, we are proud of the people who have expressed' their faith in the are; by building good churches, goad homes, good farmsteads and establishing good businesses' Time has proven their dream' well _founded. Some say that economically the time is wrong. The present Arena was built in 1931. Maybe the arena helped during those bad years!. Thank you for your attention,` . $ • Mary and Jack Bryans, had the ing seas with for Octo Ba n m ails rrol, oun sass M antm and Ke Reev actor At Sept Huta from Com at $c Cont for tl from Mole miles Th earl dere, have Th be c Cour apps asph 6,001 shoo lurvi mate Th 19;01 satin TO a end' teVe Novo repo Fiao! tepO It Cott ,wool PrOji TI Corn In treai Oui deti