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Home My WebLink AboutThe Brussels Post, 1977-05-25, Page 3212 THE BRUSSELS POST JUNE 1, 1977 • DECORATION SUNDAY Decoration Sunday was held at the Brussels Cemetery this week. The Legion men and women, Masons took part. the Pipe Band, Rebeccas and (Photo by Langlois) Sugar and Spice by _Bill Smiley A gripe a week? One of my colleages remarked jovially the other day that I was beefing again in my column.Another bystander chipped in: "Yeak! A gripe a week; that's. Smiley." Recently a lady wrote from Alberta and suggested she'd noticed a note of cyniCism creeping into this weekly epistle. Party of the first part had some justification. For about three weeks in a row I was bitching about my sore back, my dire rear, and my rotten car. Party of the second part was reading things that were not there. I am not, n ever have been, and hope I will never by a cynic. A skeptic, yes. I am about as deeply skeptical as can be any man who has been through a depression, 'a,war, a marriage, a and several decades of` political bullrolar. But I love life and people and my native land too much ever to turn . into' that creepiest of humans, a cynic. Perhaps there was a sharper edge to my bleating there for a few weeks. But despite the flailing blows of life, I am not downcast, dejected, or depressed, which I'll prove by giving you a lot of good news this week. I don't have either cancer or tuberculosis in my back. All I have is a little problem. called "disintegrating discs". It's not at all serious. It merely means you are falling apart in the transmission system, like an old car that looks pretty good but will crumble into a heap of rust if you give it a good kick. Anyway, I think my d.d's began quite a few years ago, on a deer-hunting trip, when I carried for a half a mile a huge hound that some idiot in another hunting party had shot and badly wounded. The dog was almost as big as I was and was twisting and yelping in pain. I had a sore back for a couple of years after that. Whatever, I've got the d.d.'s (better than having the d.t's) and it's not without its advantages. I'm not suppoted to lift anything too heavy. The Old Lady has been putting out the garbage since I learned about it, something I've been trying to engineer for years. When she decides to mol4 the furniture around, I give a little groan and point to my back. It makes her furious, and she's thinking of trading me in on a later year's model. As for my dire rear, it's completely ended, no pun intended, Some service station people weren't radiant after reading my remarks about Mechanics. But a number of friends and readers who have suffered seVerely at the hands of the modern-day highwaymen assured the I was right on. Some other good things have happened. I got my income tax return into the post office three hOtirS before the deadline, a new record. It cleaned me out of every spare nickel I had, but t that'S an annual occasion. So we eat bread and beans for a month. They're good for you. By the time this appears, I'll have been through the annual agony of going through a hundred eager applications for one English teacher's job, and the nauseating busines's of playing God with young people's lives will be over again. I've practically caught up on my marking, 'by igndring the hockey playoffs and sitting at the kitchen counter with a pencil in one hand and coffee in the other. I counted today, and there are only a hlundred and twelve essays, short stories and bits of drama to mark. That's almost home free. But perhaps the best thing that's happened to me in a coon's age occurred last Friday. I had foolishly made an appointment with a nose specialist in a neighboring city. I don't know shy. I must be getting dotey. That's a perfectly good nose, It's rather badly bent here and there, and I can't smell anything. But if I ever have to resort to spectacles, it will be an excellent nose on which to rest them. Well, as soon as the word ,got around, the horror stories began coming at me. One, guy swore they used an electric drill to bore through the bone and gristle of noses like mine. Another, who'd had a nose job for sinus trouble, contributed, "Worst pain I've ever gone through in my life. He (the butcher) didn't go up the nose from outside. He slashed through my cheeks, inside my mouth, and went up from there. Dreadful!" Two other birds who'd had nose jobs just shook their heads gravely and winced, when I pressed ,them for details.. Needless to say, I was a bit white and skittery when the old girl and I got in the car and headed off last Friday. I was hoping the car would break down, as usual. Dom' thing ran like a top. X-rays under my arm, I crept up to the reception desk and announced myself, so faintly the young lady made me repeat it. "Oh, Mr. Smily, the doctor's out of town for the day. You were supposed to be here yesterday." Seems that the local doctor's office, when my wife called to check on the appointment time, made a beautiful boo-boo. We stood there in front of the nose man's receptionist with vastly different visages. My Wife was futiouS, Mouthing at me silently,"Yoti coward, I'll bet you're glad." I don't know why she'd think that, unless Child it Was because I was grinning like an idiot We made another appointment, but it's not for a month. I'll think of something. 0 Le8 NEW: Scented Geraniums • Hanging Baskets of Geraniums 0 and assorted flowers for indoors or out Vine Geraniums e's Boutique 887-638 et it 44*, *fr* 401t Ostanek Ban d to Seaforth An increasingly popular Jute event in recent years jthe Seal Lions Beef Bar-B-QUe and dance this .year is set for June 17 and again will feature Canadian Poll2 King Walter Ostanek and During the nearly twenty yeas since the band played its fl engagement at the German' village in Niagara Falls it h attracted increasingly larger crowds Ross Ribey, who heads the Lions Club committee coin, pleting . arrangements for t4 Ostanek appearance here said ttio title "Canada's Polka King", is not just a name. It means dedication, a promise to his many' , many followers, that whenever and wherever the Watler Ostanek Band appears in public they4 always do their best to please and keep their audience happy, Tickets for the event: are available at a number of Seaforth business places and from Lions Club members, rur Br' wol till foc occ HO car f mu fu sel If dol Ca dill Weeklies worried about access to information Deepening concern over a trend towards more public business being carried out in private prompted, a meeting Thursday of members of the Blue Water Regional NeWspaper Network. ,The meeting at the Huron Expositor in Seaforth was organized following incidents in the Blue Water region in which reporters have had , difficulty gaining access to public information. The seminar was planned to help reporters who cover meetings of elected bodies. better serve their •readers. Reporters and editors at the meeting from The Mitchell Advocate, The Clinton News-Record, The Exeter Times- Advocate, The Huron Expositor, The BrusSels Post, The Wirigham Advance-Time, The Goderich Signal-Star and freelancers were told they had the same right to public information as the ordinary citizen. Under the Ontario Municipal Act all regular meetings of council are open to the public, and no person can, be excluded except for improper conduct. The only exception is meetings of committee-of-the-whole; 'However, all decisions of such a committee meeting have to be reported in open council. No vote can be taken by ballot or by any other method of secret voting or the decision has no' legal effect. Each councillo! must „ 44. et • . * " announce his vote openly all individually. Reporters were told the head of council could call a special meeting of council upon receipt of a petition of the majority Of councillors stating the purpose the meeting and the time it willb held. Special meetings may Ii either open pr.. closed if mod feels it is required by the public interest. This has to be expresied by a: resolution in writing. Any person also has the right under the Municipal Act to inspect any records, booki, 'accounts and documents in the possession of or under the control of the clerk. Only interdepasV mental correspondence' id reports of officials of any department or of solicitors maylP kept secret. Several reporters at Iii meeting felt difficulties had arisen between municipalillei and the press because of ) misunderstanding of the reporter's role. Some ouncils may view the press strictly as 80 adversary while.,Vhers, think of them as a publicity secretary, they, said. It was suggested •the presd should explain that a reporter's job was to sift through all the information in a meeting decidial what is most important to th most people and use that as their main story. Few people would, read a story which listed all tlit &tails '`of a meeting in chrona logical order without regard 0, what was significant, it was of me, ne(, pol kite the cul' prc erK 11, oth car fall mo I. 11111 fut to ecd del