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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1977-04-06, Page 2Wild swans in Tuckersmith Amen by Karl Schuessler Sprink means auction You may think a sure sign of spring is kids ridipg their bikes. Or girls skipping rope. Boys playing marbles. And father's flying kites. • But I have my own spring forecas• ts. And let me tell you --spring is here. Spring has arrived. It's all those farm auctions coming up. The sales registers in the newspapers bulge and farm goods come busting out all-- over the grass and fields and sheds, And my wife's on the go scrounging out every last bargain after a winter's dearth. "I only paid a dollar for it," my wife announced to me after her first foray out. It's good she started off that way. I figure she couldn't do much damage with a dollar. Then she let me have it. "It's a pump organ." "But we've already got one,"I said. "But it's only a dollar and it's as big as a piano," she gloated. And heavy as one, too, I though t. "But we don't need an organ - like-a-piano," I said, "We've got one of each already." "But it's only a dollar," she insisted, "I was just trying to help F ranklin Buuck out. He kept saying. 'Who will start me off on a bid? $15.00? $10.00?" No one budged. He waited. Time was getting on. "How. about five?" No sound. "Okay," he stomped his 'cane on the shed floor, "Who will give me a dollar?" No one. "Won't anyone give a dollar for this organ?" he pleaded. "Okay," my wife said, I'll give you a dollar." "Sold" snapped Franklin Buuck and the organ was all hers. She's been working a miracle all week on that organ. She's wanted to prove to me that spending that dollar was a good investment . Of course I had to see to it that three men hauled the filthy, peeli ng and broken down thing to our place. They barely managed to push it through the doorway. And there it's sat for a week now right in the hallway, Arid there's where she and Russell Piper went to' work. The real miracle worker was 77 year old Russell Piper, He showed us once again that his 35 years of organ tuning and repair still live inside him. Russell proved he could bring back old organs to life. My wife helped him along. She drove Russell back and forth from Seaforth three days in a row. She rummaged around in his old shed--roof collapsed and all--to find brass reeds and spare orgah stops. She took him into Robinson's LuMber in Mitchell for a piece of cedar. He needed to whittle out six organ pegs. The mice had chewed out the others. H e covered the bellows box in new leatherette, bought from the scrap pile at Lou Heimbuck's upholstery shop. And Russell bought ten inches' of strong 'wire at FaustS--only ten inches, Mind you. I don't think Ken's ever sold such a short piece of wire before. And right 'before his eyes, Russell twist the 'wire round, asked for a hammer, and on the store's vise, clamped to the counter, Russell hammered out a reed hook. He needed one to pull out the brass reeds for cleaning and repair. And while Russell fixed up the inside, my wife took care of the outside. And what a job they did! The quarter-cut oak wood now sparkles. And that Blatchford Organ, Galt, Ontario now puts out a mellow:tone. Those two are gloating over the organ they fixed up. The think they've done me a great favour by bringing another music maker into the house. But I say the real favour is bringing in Russell Pipet. He's the treat who came to . our house for three days. It was like old times -- when. Russell fixed up our other organ a few years back. Now we could listen to Russell once again. Hear how he and his father fixed organs all over Ontario. How on one Sunday he wheeled from Seaforth to Mitchell and back. On a bike, that is. We can hear how this bachelor chuckles when he tells our daughter the first 40 years of marriage are the hardest. This was our treat -- to hear and see Russell Piper again. To watch him eat the barbeque spareribs he said he'd walk a thousand miles for. And to watch him wait until My wife sat down before he started to eat his dessert. And when I noted our family wasn't that polite, Russell just lowered , his head .and':-said; `Yeah, I was brought up right, Wasn't I?" I'd say we had two miracles in our house laS1 week: that dollar organ and Russell 'Piper. A generation of kids who are fluent in both English and French would be a huge boost to the future, of this country. The- large number Of reasonable people' in, Quebec who do not favour separation will be more, not less in favour Of keeping Canada -together When they see English Canadians making honest efforts to learn Canada's Other language. But that's not the Pi•enbh „ Main reason that We should insist our kids learn. The main reason it a selfish one. People Whb speak two languages haVe Wider opportunities than people who Speak only one. Ask a European, ' WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1977 INFIUSSELS ONTAVO 10 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 *CNA Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $8.00 a year. Others $14.00 a year, Single Copies 20 cents each. rrs:710Nop Brussels Post An opportunity It's about time that Ontario put more emphasis on, teaching kids French. There's lots of evidence that someone who speaks two or more languages is more mentally agile than, someone who speaks only one. A person who speaks two languages is twice as employable, and twice as open to experience and more than one culture as a person who speaks only one. Any unilingual Canadian who's been to., Europe comes away a little ashamed and depressed at how easily Europeans speak several languages. Canadians, meanwhile, make a fuss about French on cereal boxes. It's just as easy, to see bilingualism as a fantastic opportunity rather than as a threat and a plot to undermine Canada's "Englishness." Canada has two official languages, as much as some of us hate to admit it, just as our country had to two founding peoples. French Ian guage rights are guaranteed in the BNA Act. That's the reason our government pushes for us- to learn French, rather than Spanish or German which could" be equally enlightening. It's crucial not to et a backlash against the Parti Quebecois' anti-English language policy turn us off from wanting to. learn French. The PQ's discrimnatory policy is wrong .... if they get away with it (and we hope that's unlikely) they 'II be the losers by violating human rights. If 'we react by hardening against French we'd cut off our noses to spite our collective face. Regardless of what Quebec does, EnglishCanada will come out ahead by putting more emphasis on learning. French. We should spend our tax dollars teaching French to kids with their receptive minds rather than middle aged civil servants whose main reason for taking• language classes is to get salary increases. Ontario's throne speech plan to put an additional $67 million into, improving French teaching in elementary schools is an excellent place to start. Locally, we're proud to' see the Huron Perth Roman Catholic Separate School Board voting to extend French instruction in their schools. The province will giv e special grants for French immersion in the schools and there's lots of evidence that this language teaching method really works. In the U.S. a French immersion program, using Canadian ideas and materials (and that's a switch) has been a tremendOus success in a Silver Spring, Maryland elementary school. The principal there says his English speaking students, who are taught all subjects inFrnch, have increased reasoning powers in both languages. The • program is heartily supported by parents who are convinced that fluency in another language can be a huge asset to their kids. Ontario Should also make French compulsory in our high schools once Sgain. There's no sense at all in spending $67 million more in elementary French if kids don't continue to learn the language, French should also be required for entrance to university ,.. another langUage helps all students, be they future dent Sts, engineers or teachers, think better. The feds and Ontario have also announced that they'i,re co-operating on a clastrOoM eXchange for students in Quebec and Ontario. That too can Only help us understand each other. But We have to make a personal effort too. We • must decide how we feel about our kids learning French and let our School boards MP's arid MPS know NM We feel.