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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-10-15, Page 5138th year □elgrave supper huge success In the yearly miracle of organiza­ tion and good timing, the 38th annual Belgrave Community Cen­ tre Turkey Supper went off without a hitch last Wednesday , a glowing tribute to the community spirit of the hundreds of people involved. More than 1,000 people sat down to eat at one time in the packed arena, while latecomers lined up along the walls, hoping their turn would come before the food was all gone. Started in 1949, the entire populationof the hamlet of Bel­ grave and adjoining sections of Morris and East Wawanosh town­ ships contribute time and food to make the event a resounding success each year. Figures are not yet available for this year, but in 1985 more than $3,500 was raised, with all proceeds going towards minor sports programs and oper­ ational costs at the Belgrave arena. Clarence Hanna of the village has acted as chairman of the event since its beginning, assisted this year for the first time by Ross Anderson. The women of the community are organized into committees, with each committee taking com­ plete charge of one or more tables for the huge banquet. With the exception of the turkey itself, which is cooked each year in the giant ovens at McIntyre’s Bakery in Wingham, these women cook and serve all the food used at their specific tables. The men, mean­ while, attend to the administration details, collect the food, tend the stoves and boilers, and carve the turkeys. Hundreds of pies are made and brought in, along with steaming cauldrons of potatoes and turnips which arrive moments before the meal begins. After grace is said, the food is rushed to the tables to be served family style in bowls passed the length of the immense tables, arriving piping hot on every diner ’ s plate almost simultaneously. “It is amazing that so many people can be fed so quickly,’’ commented Barbara Anderson of Belgrave, who has been involved with the dinner for many years. “It is such a great event; newcomers to the community are told about the dinner as soon as they arrive, and nearly everyone gets involved in some way.’’ The most awesome happening of the evening occurred when the Reverend Mr. John Roberts, mini­ ster of Knox United Church in Belgrave, andthe village’sonly resident pastor, leaped up on a table and commanded instant silence from the vast crowd seated at the tables before the meal. Mr. Roberts first asked the volunteers who had helped in the recent repairs to the arena roof to THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1986. PAGE 5. THANKSGIVING DINNER - Admanda Workman of RR 2, Brussels attended the 38th annua] Belgrave Community Turkey Supper with her grandparents, Mason and Jean Robinson of Wingham. The trio were part of the crowd of more than 1,000 people who sat down to dinner last Wednesday. stand up and be recognized, then informed the throng that any further cash donations to the repair fund would be welcome, adding that a door-to-door canvass of the community would be organized within the next few weeks to raise necessary funding. Finally, he led a brief grace, and the banquet began. I I /W' WOmbI * ' P ft STAND UP AND BE COUNTED - The Reverend Mr. John Roberts, pastor of Knox United Church in Belgrave, asked volunteers who had donated time and skills to re-roofing the arena to stand up and be recognized. He later said grace before the dinner began. community as chairman of the Annual Turkey Supper for the entire 38 years of its history. Above, he and his wife, Ruby, find time to enjoy the lavish meal. The International Scene Economics more than politics changing roles BY RAYMOND CANON One of the things that econo­ mists throughout the world have been watching with a great deal of interest over the past few years has been the increase in the number of women in the workforce. This has been taking place not only in Canada but in every country in the industrialized west and what is really fascinating about the entire situation is the changes that have come about as a result of it, changes not only in pure economic terms but in the attitudes of men toward women. I think I can safely say that this quiet economic revolution has done far more than any feminist tracts or speeches to bring about changes not only in the way men regard women but in the way that women regard them­ selves. When I was growing up, the girls in my class, at least most of them, did one of four things; they became a nurse or a teacher, they worked in a office or they got married. There were exceptions, of course, but when I checked my graduating class picture, I found that the above statement held good in over 90 per cent of the cases. As far as my own career is concerned, I didn’t get a woman boss until I was in External Affairs. Although personality was never one of her strong points, she had a tough fight competing in a men’s world and she worked on the assumption that she had to shout twice as loudly as anybody else, just to make herself heard. As I recall her, she didn’t summon you into her office by phone, she opened her door and shouted. I used to be beavering away on some knotty diplomatic problem when suddenly I would hear, “Mr. Canon, would you come into my office for a minute. ” I never knew if it were good or bad but I went .... immediately. Since that time I have watched women enter more and more previously closed doors in the labour force, frequently on a part-time basis. However, I got my eyes really opened when I was in the Soviety Union for there, I discovered, no less than 50 per cent of all the doctors were women. However, they were, in effect, working for the state, not for themselves and it is in this area that the next great strides have been made. In the Scandinavian coun­ tries no less than seven out of every 10 public-sector workers are wo­ men. In the private sector, it is in part-time jobs that women are now making their greatest progress. In most industrialized countries, a- bout 80 per cent of all part-time jobs are currently being held by women; in such places as Belgium, Denmark, West Germany and Great Britain, over 90 per cent of such jobs are in the female domain. To take it a step further, in the United States about 75 per cent of the extra jobs that have been created in this decade have gone to women. Some of the reasons for all this progress may surprise you. For one thing, it appears that what married women want from a job co-incides much better with the demands of many employers than do male requirements. They are less likely to join trade unions than are men and, in what must be one of the most surprising bits of information about the whole subject, they are more likely to work for pleasure as well as for financial gain. Their ideas of a life-time job are less ingrained than in men who far too frequently assume that the skills that they acquire at school will last them a life-time. If it is one thing that I emphasize in my economics lectures, it is that this assumption is no longer true; young people coming out of post-secondary institutions had better maintain a high degree of flexibility. In spite of all the advancements thathave been made during the last quarter of a century most thinking people would agree that there is still a long way to go. What is most likely to happen throughout the western world is that more women will emerge as employers, entrepreneurs, bankers and politi­ cians. In this last respect, Margar­ et Thatcher, prime minister of Great Britain, has certainly de­ monstrated to women everywhere that they can operate effectively in a man’s world. As far as the business world is concerned, women in the United States now own a quarter of all businesses; in France the number is 20 per cent. Canada is ahead of both of them since the percentage of female ownership has risen to 33 percent. I have frequently talked about the world going through the second industrial revolution with many types of jobs disappearing com­ pletely. If there is a quiet aspect to this revolution, it is the entry of large numbers of women in the workforce. Those readers who have just entered or who are about to enter the working world had better be prepared for some fascinating and far-reaching changes before they reach retire­ ment age.