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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1977-06-29, Page 2Amen by Karl Schuessler No pictures to show All you people out there, 1 want you to know I didn't take any slides and pictures when I was in the Holy Land. Well, okay. To be exactly honest and accurate, I did take one roll of film. Twenty pictures. Black and white. And counting out the no-good ones, I have a total of 12 pictures from Israel. 1 wanted you to know this. Because-I've been asked already to give a little talk on our trip. Show all of my slides and pictures and film from the trip. But dear reader, consider yourself lucky. I can't show you in print one holy place we visited. Or 1 won't have to explain that's my wire waaaay-way in the left hand corner of that picture that didn't turn out so hot. And I can't show you me standing in front of some gate the Turks built in 1500. No, dear reader, none of that. You're spared. You won't have to suffer through pictutesthat I imagine most people • really aren't interested in. I have a theory. Picture-taking is for the picture taker and not for all the folks back home. • For a while there„ I wasn't even going to pack my camera. But good sense and my wife prevailed. We carted a camera around for three weeks, just to prove we were tourists. The truth is we didn't take the tourist route at all. When we'd come down to, morning breakfast in our hotel, our fellow travellers would ask, "Have you teen to the Dead Sea yet? You just have to go." Or "You haven't seen Mt. Scopus? How could you ever dare miss that! And for heaven's sake, don't come half way round the world and not stay a few days at the resort town of Elat." We never made those places. We missed about every good tourist site you could think of. Can you imagine? We went to Cairo, Egypt and didn't even see the pyramids. When our plane flew over the pyratithis just before we landed, the pilcit said: ''And on the right side if you look down, you can see the pyramids."' I figured the man was pUtting us on. It was late at night. How could We ever see those triangle mountains of stone? I looked out the window with not Mitch enthusiasm Just as I thetight, NO pyramids. A day later I learned the Egyptians have lit them all up at night. I must have beeri sitting on the left side of the plant, My wife said We could at least buy slides of the places we didn't see. Have something to show where we should have been. Or we could fake. it. Show those prOfessionally turned out slides you can buy in every tourist shop and pass them off as your own. That way we'd have a remembrance of all the places we didn't visit. We could armchair travel along with all the rest of the folks back home we were showing them to. But no. We didn't put out one cent for those slides. I guesS I always keep in the back of my mind a contest the CBC ran a few years back. They wanted the listeners to send in one-liners that would clear the house. Y ou know. Say, you're tired. Ready to fall asleep and the people won't go home. What oan y ou say that will move them out fast? One of the top runners was, "What do you say I bring ou't my slides and pictures from our trip last month?" always keep in mind a fellow I met in Israel, too. H e's Shlomo Shamir, a retired general in the Israeli army. We struck up a fast friendship on the campus of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was waiting for his wife while she was attending several ledlures that „afternoon. He had the time and he was willing to take us on a personal tour of Jerusalem. But .did he really want to? I asked him. Didn't he have better thing's to do? Well, we could just sit in the sun. Relax. Talk. That's what he really Wanted to do. "But", he sighed, "If you want me to run around and show you one more damn rock you shouldn't miss, jast say the word. I'll driye you there in my. car.— We sat in the sun and heard all about Shlomo's soldiering. Now; soldiering in Israel I can tell you all about. And I can tell you about Martha, the Dutch girl who's working among the ruins of the temple and waiting for the return of the Messiah in that place. I can let you heat the sounds of the chants arid prayers from the Wailing Wall. Tell you about the Herod's Gaier the flower gate where the vi rious armies marched in from the No th to a show of flowers the people threw or them from the top of the gate, Soy go ahead. Ask me to talk about Israel. I can talk a lot about Israel. But 1 assure you. I WoWt show you any of Shlomo's damn rocks.. The art it t!ff's!, one I The petrel the( orld all 1c10 '18 rant rho Ube!. ide rgan' Mi and ruin( ach ass. Wild ferns Po nen chid antra undo cal. PIT A ersar r M elgr( ppro lend cafe gmo lien FR au Blak grad fan s at roe nip 11SLI On( WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 1977 BRUSSELS ONTARIO 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 OCNA Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $$.00 a year. Others $14.00 a year. SingleCopies 20 cents each. Marsh World MppCN i4‘k )"*-- A PiN A SENSE OF TIME — It has been found that ducks and 'geese (and most other migratory birds) are sensitive to changes in the length of day and night (and, therefore light and dark) which occurs with the cycle of the seasons. The sensitivity to length of day and night keeps them attuned to the environ- mental changes which occur throughout the year and times their seasonal activities. For example, the spring migration and reproductive cycle of ducks closely follows the increasing hours of daylight in the spring and therefore assures -that the "ducks will return to their nesting grounds and carry out their reproductive activity at the same time each year. Ducky 'Unlimited (Canada)' 1172- Brussels Pos. Take driving seriously Driving a car is a serious matter. The slightest mistake or a moments inattention can result in death or serious injury. The faster one drives the more likely an accident will occur. Unfortunately,, many Ontario residents would rather ignore the fact. According to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications more than three-quarters of a million speeders were convicted in Ontario courts in 1976, an increase of over 100,000 more than in 1975. Out of this number a staggering total of 6,587 drivers were convicted of driving 30 or more miles an hour above the speed limit. And those are only the drivers they caught. Other irresponsible driving habits are also on the increase. Last year 58,377 drivers were caught running stop signs, an increase of 560 over 1975. An additional' 46,555 motorists were convicted of running red lights, a 10 percent increase over 1975. Even worse, 3,123 drivers were found guilty of failing to stop for a standing school bus. Speed limits and other rules of the road are not there just as advice to be followed when it happens to be convenient. They are critical traffic controls which need to be followed if our highways are going to be better than savage rubber and steel jungles. It wouldn't' be so bad if only the irresponsible driver was injured in an accident. However, innocent people are often involved too. Driving carelessly is no less dangerous than playing with a loaded gun in public. It is just a more common occurrence. But because it is more common doesn't mean it should be treated lightly. People who ignore the rules should be rewarded with more than just stiff fines. Their driving privileges should be taken away for a minimum of three months. Then maybe some motorists who now act irresponsibly will start to treat driving seriously.