The Brussels Post, 1977-12-07, Page 2The winter sun
[Photo by Dave Robbj
MIME LS
ONTARIO
WEDNESDAY, DEcmEtER, 7 ,, 1977'
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario.
by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited.
Evelyn. Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb - Advertising
4000100
pot AN COmbi uN,
le CNA
*4. , PERs ASSOC
04'
•r iirseApies COMP
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association.
Ontario Weekly Newspaper. Association *CNA
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $8.00 a Year, Others
$14.00 a Year, Single Copies 20 cents each.
and
Brussels Post
An underserving
`whipping boy'
The Church.Councils are beginning to take a very
strong stand on many of the social and economic ills
of our country. We commend them for this as they
speak for a great many people and this form of
leadership is needed.
A resolution from the Saskatchewan conference of
the United Church of Canada to the 27th general
council has taken a "no-holds-barred" approach to
commercial advertising. It would lilke to do away
with almost all of it.
Behind the scenes
By. Keith Roulston
Winter seems different
when you're young
I guess I must be' getting old because I
can never :remember dreading the coming of
winter as much as I have this year.
When I was younger I remember how I
couldn't understand why people hated winter.
Sure it wasn't all fun as it was when we were
kids and winter meant skating and sliding
down hills ,but it wasnt't an icy version of hell
either.
I don't know, maybe it was the' last two
winters that did the trick. One bad winter can
be depressing; two in a row is frightening and
to listen to the prognosticators saying we're in
for a third, is enough to send you to a mental
institution or Jamaica, depending on which is
within your financial reach.
Perhaps the problem is that I've never felt
so unprepared for winter before. Memory
tends to recall only the pleasant things I know,
but as I think back to winter as a kid, I
remember that there was a lot of preparation
NO once that was done, it was sit tight and
wait for spring. Mother spent the late- summer
and fall making jams, jellies and preserves to
have food for winter. Father got the crops in
(if he was lucky and the weather held) and
brought the wood cut back at the bush up to
the house where it was sawed on the buzz •saw
and stacked in the wood shed. You made sure
you had a good supply of flour and sugar in
case of bad storms. You made sure you had
feed in the• barn for the animals. Then you
settled down to the daily routine Of doing
chores, keeping warm around the big box
stove and planning for spring.
It wasn't really that simple of course. Doing
the chores was a, large-sized task with all those
animals in the barn producing all that manure
to be hauled out and all needing water to be
hauled to them and the feed to be •tugged out
of the haymow, so matted it seemed you'd
break the pitch fork before you got enough hay
pulled out:
But you didn't have to worry about putting
antifreeze in the horse or putting snoWtires on
the sleigh in those days, a major advantage
over modern times. I think that's the most"
wearying thing about winter preparations
today. In the old days you had planning and
hard work to get ready for winter: Today you
hive planning and hard work and a heck of a
lot of money to spend. If you're planning to
travel in winter you have , to get the car
repared. Antifreeze and snow tires and a
tuneup to make sure the darned thing will
start, on frosty -mornings. Even if you get the
car in perfect running order you still, know that
there will be many times you won't be able to
get anywhere because the roads- aren't open
or you know that sometime ditring the winter
you're going to get into a situation where
you may go into a slide or'miss a curve and
end up with a crumpled hunk.of metal where
once you had an expensive car.'01:, yoUll get
stuck and have to pay money to, get-towedO, ut.
And if you escape all this, there's still the
depressing certain knowledge thaf-by .spring
your car is going to be Several hundred dollars:
closer to its death bed thanks, ,to:that: sneaky
little enemy .called.rust. -
The ot her big expense in Winter is trying to
keep from freezing to death in :y out hohse. I
reMernber h ating. piling ,wood in . I
remember hating to wakeltp to a cold house in
winter. But at least keeping warm was cheap,
in fact usually free, just the cost of your own
ertergy to cut and store the wood. But now
there ire oil bills to play or hydro bills to gulp
at and there's the constant internal debate
when ymi feel chilled and are tempted. to jack
up the thermostat a few degrees but wince at
the thought' of the next heating bill. Now
we're worried about storm windows and
weather stripping and insulation: worried
about how expensive it is -to install it, but
worried too about how expensiVe it will be if
we don't.
We just can't afford winter yet because
we're still paying for last winter.
That's the nice thing about being a kid in
winter., You don't have to worry about cars.
You don't have to worry about heating bills.
You • don't have to go out in winter except
when you Want to. Y ou know that the worse
the weather the more holidays you'll get from
school. Winter isn't a time of worry kut a time
of fun, of playing-,hocke,,y and Skating and
skiing and snowitebilingi and tobogganing
and an endless' cir de of good times. Isn't it
too bad you have' to grow up?
We cannot agree with many of the points brought
out in the resolution. "Advertising encourages
excess. The Canadian way of life , encouraged by
advertising, results in our being the eternal suckers -
Advertising and the media in Canada portray ajalse
image of an affluent society that Is only really for the
four percent of the top:'We ban hardly*Preterld that
we have freedom of speech when so much of the
revenue for our media comes from advertising."
Advertising is often unfairly the whipping boy for
the financial difficulties in which people find
themselves. Yet there are so many other factors that
have a direct bearing on this - over-buying, kepping
up with the neighbours, the affluent society i4e have
come to expect as our due in the western world, and
credit buying. However, perhaps the greatest factor
rarely cited is the lack of moral, ethical and work
standards we have adopted today,.
We do not think people are "eternal suckers". We
think that many people are very shrewd shoppers.
Realizing that adveritisng keeps prices down they do.
a lot of comparative shopping through the media
before going out to spend their dollars and it has
been proven that advertising does keep prices down.
Also , the Advertising Council has very rigid
standards and keeps a close watch on false
advertising.
As for the inference that freedom of speech is
influenced by advertising is an unwarranted slUr on
the media. There have beeh 'dozens and dozens of,
recorded cases where adveritising dollars have been
refused on moral and ethical grounds by the media.
Many advertisements are . informative and
educational . Should these be banned? Or the church
advertising that is actually selling their particular
brand of religion? Freedom of speech is the right of
all.
(Meaford Express)
More Arena plaque biographies
DR. RUSSEL W. STEPHENS
Dr. Stephens was born in
Wiarton in 1897. He graduated
from the University of TorOntO iri
1922. During the first world War
he served as medical officer On
board a destroyer from 1917-18.
In 1924 he married Glenna
Campbell from Elmwood vvhO was
teaching in Toronto at that time.
There are five children. He
practiced in Elmwood, Chesley
arid at Westminister Hospital in '
London before 'coining to Brussels
hi 1949, and taking over Dr.
Harper's practice. He lived in the
former Leatheidale or Eitirchill
home on the Cornet of William
and Turnberry Sts. where his
widow still resides. Dr, Stephens
died in Dec: 1964: Re was
Anglican in faith and i§ buried in
the Wiarton Cemetery.
HARVEY c. JoHNStoN
Harvey Johnston was born
on the first line of Morris Twp. He
greW up op, the 16th Con of Grey,
He Married Leila Lawson and
there are &Air daughters. He
farmed on What had been his
father-in.laws farm, Lot 28 con 8
Morris, until he moved to Clinton
to become the superintendent of
the County Home "Hurotiview",
He was a councillor and Reeve of
Morris Twp, and Was Warden of
Huron County in 1952. He was
active in Church, fraternal and
service club work. Harvey was a
member of the United Church and
is buried in 'the Brussels
Cemetery.