HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1977-06-08, Page 4Sugar and Spice
by Bill Smiley
Great feelings
One of the deepest satisfactions in
writing a column of this kind is the
knowledge that you are getting into print
the angers and frustrations of a lot of other
people, who have no recourse for their
resentments, and consequently ta..0 them
out on the old man or the old lady.
How do you know this? Well, because
people write you letters cheering you on to
further attacks, and othe\r people come up
'to you, perfect strangers, shake hands
warmly, and say "By the Holy Ole/Jumpin!
Bill, you really hit the nail on the head."
This can be a little disconceriting, as
:you are never quite sure which nail they
are referring to. If the congratulator is a
woman, I smile weakly and change the
subject. Because! sure as guns, th ough
she thought you were one of nature's
nobleiten for your assault on male
chauvinism last week, she'll turn on you
like a snake when she reads tomorrow's
paper, with the column exposing female
chauvinism.
Speaking recently to a class of potential
writers in a creative writing course, I tried
to pass along the personal satisfaction one
gets from this type of personal
journalism:
I emphasized the "personal "
satisfaction because there's a lot more of
that involved than there is of the other
kind, financial satisfaction. Columnists and
freelance writers have no union working for
them, nor any professional association, as
have doctors, lawyers, teachers.
They have only their own talent and wit
and perseverance with which to penetrate
the thick heads and thicker skins of editors
and publishers.
But it's a great feeling when you vent
your wrath, say, about the rapaciousness of
mechanics, and you are button-holed six
times in the next three days by people with
horror otories about mechanics you can
scar cely believe.
Trouble is, they all want you to write
another column about mechanics, and put
some real meat into it. This means, in
effect, that they would happily stand in the
wings and applaud when you were sued for
libel.
Some readers would li ke you to be
constantly. attacking whatever it is that
they don't like. Capitalist friends are
aghast when you refuse to launch an
assault on capital gains taxes. Welfarist'
friends think you are a traitor and a fink
when you won't attack the government for
not providing color TV for everyone on the
take.
I am not by nature an attacker, and I
think there is nothing more boring than a
writer of any kind who tries to make a
career of being a "hard hitting" journalist.
Once in a while my gently bubblhng
nature boils over. Throwing caution and
syntax to the winds. I let my spleen have a
field day and try to throw some sand in the
grease with which many aspects of society
are trying to give us a snow job. And that's
one of the finest paragraphs I've ever
written, if mixed metaphors are your bag.
Fair game for the hardhitter are: garage
mechanics, plumbers, postal workers,
supermarkets, civil servants, and
politicians. Most of them can't hit back,
and everybody hates them, except garage
mechanics and their wives, plumbers and
their wives, etc. etc.
Smaller fry are doctors, lawyers,
teachers,, used car salesmen. They all
squeal, like dying rabbits when attacked,
but nobody pays much attention to them
except doctors and their wives, etc. etc.
There are a few areas that even the
hardest-hitters avoid. When have you,
lately, read a savage attack on greedy
farmers, calous nurses, or unloving '
mothers? And yet, there are lots of them
around.
One of these days, perhaps, one of these
hard hitting writers will muster enough
guts, 'after about five brandies, to launch
an all-out attack on the audacity of women,
thinking they're as good as men. Boy, that
fellow will learn what real hard hitting is all
about.
Personally, I can't stay mad at anybody
long enough to be a voice of the people, or
a public watchdog, or any of those
obnoxious creatures who try to tell other
people how they should feel
The only constant in my rage is the
blatant manipulation of self-seeking poli-
ticians who will twist and warp and wriggle
and squirm and bribe for self-perpetuation
in office. Best example at the moment is
the Tory government in Ontario, which has
called a. totally unnecessary election in that
province through sheerhunger for greater
power.
Otherwise, I get a great deal more joy
from touching the individual life than
inflaming the masses. When I get a letter
for an old lady in hospital, crippled with
arthritis, who has managed to get a chuckel
out of my column, it makes me feel good.
Recently, I got a letter from a youngScot
who h as immigrated to Canada. He says:
"I have learned more about Canada and
'Canadians through reading your column
than all the accumulated wisdom from'the
Canadian newsmagazines, novels and TV
programs I have absorbed."
Now there is a man with his head
screwed on right, If I, as a newcomer, tried
to get my impressions of this country from
newsmagazines and TV programs, I'd
catch the first boat or plane home.
S o, I!guess I'll just try to go on talking
to people, getting sore, having some fun,
bragging about my grandboys, looking for
sympathy in the war between the sexes.
That's what life is all about, not plumbers
and politicians and other horrors of that ilk.
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NOTICE
Ronnenberg's
Insurance Office,
Brussels
TRUST CERTIFICATES
Now Paying
for.5 yeatt-
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Brussels -Office. Open Tuesdays
& Fridays Phone 8.87-6-663
-MonlIdon Office Open Monday.
Thru -Saturday Phone 347-2241
Oftwelmlia,"
Wingham Memorial Shop)
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Open Every Weekday
Your Guarantee for Over 35 Years of
CEMETERY LETTERING
Box 158, WINGHAM JOHN MALLICK
3rd ANNUAL
FLEA
MARKET
& Antique Car Meet
Saturday, & Sunday
June 1 1 & 12
At Brussels Fairgrounds
SATURDAY:
Downtown Mainstreet of Brussels will feature a trash
& treasure sale which is sponsored by the & is
Open to all area persons. No vending fee. Just clean up
afterwards.
At fair ground's' - Flea market
1:30p.m. - model airplane demonstration.
Saturday evening - To thru villae at Brussels:
SUNDAY:
Flea market at Fairground
11:30 am. Totir of Raititons Old Mill, Blyth
1!30 p.m: model airplane demonstration
2:00 Presentation of trophies
2:30 Car Games
3:00 Costume Contest
ladreshmefit booth sponsoted by Brussels Girl Guides
& BroWnies,
ININIOMM•mmonn•IN...emor
4—THE BRUSSELS POST, JUNE 8, 1977 MVCA has grant
employs twenty
summer students
Seven
confirmed
at Brussels
Seven young people were
received by confirmation into
membership of Brussels United
Church at the Sunday morning
service. They were June
Bremner, Cathy Cooney, Vicki
Leis, Debbie Prior, Cathy
Sholdice, Trina Watts and
Michael Watson. It was
Communion Sunday and the
young people received their first
communion at this service.
Trina Watts was also presented
with her Guide's Religious Life
Award.
Mrs. Dale Machan was
transferred front Bluevale United
Church to membership in the
Brussels United Church.
The Maitland Valley
Conservation Authority has
received $35,700. to employ 20
local students from May until
September. The grant is part of a
grant in the amount of $2,070,300
which has been 'allotted to
Ontario's 38 Conservation
Authorities, through the Ontario
Youth Secretariate's Experience
'77 Program.
The M. V.C.A. program
includes technical projects and a
field program consisting of
development, management and
maintenance of both conservation
lands and areas designated by
member municipalities.
Approximately 85% of the
summer program budget will be
spent toward student wages,
while the remaining 15% will
finance materials. and the
program administration.
Program 130 administration for
summer '77 will be the
responsibility of Brock McDonald
of Durham.. He will aeso co-
ordinate the municipal projects
undertaken by Program 130 field
staff.
Water resources Technician,
Craig Piper, of Exeter will
complete reports following site
inspections at municipal drains
and building and land fill sites in
floodplain areas. Craig will also
outline new proposals for erosion
control and other assistance and
extension programs.
Biology Technician, Michelle
Salter will be conducting resource
inventories in forested and wet
land areas, as well as drafting a
report concerning problems and
solutions related 'to erosion and
trout stream habitat in the
Belgrave Creek.
Ken Dakin of Kitchener, this
year's, Geographer Technician
will prepare further drainage
mapping and provide analysis
from infra-red photography which
was completed as part , of
Maitland Valley's ground water
study.
Marilyn Grainger of Wroxeter,'
a Recreation Leadership student
at Fanshawe College, will assist
in p tanning and implementation
of the Authority's Information.
Education program this summer,
The Program 130 secretary for
summer '77 is
Alice
Alic
will
Alice of13eeclroftbe
responsible
Belgrave.
for correspondence
and bookkeeping aspects of the
Program, as well as recreation
surveys and other duties related
to the Authority's regular
p r optrvaemi os. p
ment and maintenance
work began on MOnday, May 16
for sub-foreman Jeff Croskill of
Belgrave, Cathy Fines of
Bluevale, Heather Jewell of
Goderich, and Sheila Love of
Atwood.The Sub-foremen also
attended an Experience '77
Training Session held in Hanover
and assisted with the pick-up of 3
new trucks provided for the
Program by Ford Motor Company
Ltd.
Other post-secondary labourers
employed to date are Peter
Karges of Listowel, Diane Kieffer
of Teeswater and Anne Welwood
of Wingham. An additional 7
secondary school labourers will
begin work on June 20.
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