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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1978-06-28, Page 11BONNIE 'S Men's & Ladies' HAIR STYLING OPEN Tuesday to Saturday Noon and Wednesday Evenings Turnberry Street next to Texan Grill Phone 887-9237 Festival Theatre, Stratford Festival Stratford, Ontario Monday, July 3rd, 8:30 p.m. Tickets - $7.50 $6.50 $5.50 Good tickets still available at all prices at the Stratford Festival Box Office. Bruce Cockburn in concert Box office lines now open 273-1600 The annual fireman's barbecue was held Wednesday, June 21 at the homes of firemen John Pennington and ,Doc Stephenson. A pork chop supper was enjoyed by the firemen and their families. Winners of the running races: 1-4 years - Lisa Pennington, Christal Hastings, Michelle Machan. 5-7 years - Carla King, Dean Wheeler, Cindy Bernard. 8-over Chris King, Dave Hastings, Darell Hastings.' ' Ball Throw 1-4 years - Lisa Pennington, Michelle Machan. 5-7 years - Mark Pennington, Cindy Bernard; Donald Hastings. 8-over - Chris King, Dean Wheeler. Wheel barrow race - Dave Stephenson and Dean Wheeler, Darrel. Hastings and Vern Bridge, David Hastings and Chris '78 DATSUN B 210 SPECIAL 3595 • 00 Serial no. HLB 210 657935 Local Freight P.D.I. Licence Power Steering Extra SPECIAL FEATURES: ,fta '14.10 • • Gas economy champion: up 'to 80 km/gal for highway driving: Transport Canada approved tests, your mileage will vary. • Low cost 12,000 km service intervals. • Room for 4 plus luggage. Nice Interior' extras. • Tight 34.1' turning circle: light ' touch steering. Rally proven 1.4 litre 80 BHP engine. .1 One of the industry's most advanced anti-corrosion treatments. Meticulous finish. OFFER EXPIRES JUNE 30, 1978 While supplies GERALD'S DATSUN Sedfitorthi. Ontario Tel. .527-1010 MADE BY NISSAN 280 z-52104.10--SPORTRUCK-2. 00 5x-51 0' WHERE ME siwnovErs GOING. .1,1$ .1, .7,10 VP) THE BRUSSELS POST, JUNE 28, 1978 11. Brussels firemen enjoy barbecue Sugar and Spice by Bill Smiley • Ole Annoying my wife There are so many things about me that annoy My wife that I could not list them in this space, not even in point form. But I believe the one thing that abrases her most severely is that, "You always have your nose stuck in a newspaper." Well, I retort, if one must get.one's nose stuck in something, there are a lot more - painful things than a newspaper. ' She's right, or course. I glom through. -two' chilies:. a' welter- of weeklies, a scattering: of news magazines, and a gaggle of other publications, from the ,Anglican to Canadain Literature. 'When I'm not reading news, lm reading books, from fiction to history to biography, from children's. books to spy stories to porn- ography. It must be irritating to her, when she's trying to tell me what a 'scramble she had with her music pupils, or'why the dart she put in her new blouse makes her look like Mae West with one breast shot off. It must be maddening to her, when, after, fifteen minutes of wailing about our daughter's unemployability, groaning about our grandson's powers of des- truction, or worrying about our son's safety, in 'the purlieus of Paraguay, to have me lookup and say, "Hey, sweetie, did you know that Dennis Braithwaite (a columnist) had the gout? Or, "Guess what that turkey Trudeau is going to do next?"' She is, however, Nit without a modicum of realism. If she were a geheral's wife. she'd know that I had.to be off to the wars, or at least to some cosy place within fifty miles of the front. lines. If she were a doctor's wife, she':d knoW that . you can't make $100,000 sitting around watching TV. If she were a Lawyer's wife, she'd knew. that your ears do prick up, like a hound dog"S.'4'en:You heOr Oh • ambulanee sirettr' So, she's the wife of a teacher and a writer. And she knows dark well that this is part of the price. The inan'has got to read. ' At least this is the .picture I draw for her, in many a heated discussion, Sothetimes I manage to convince her, until the next lapse. The truth is something else. I read the news for nefarious and numerous reasons. One is for pure laughs. Often this is at the media themselves, and the seriousness, with Which they take themselves. Did you ever see, since cousin Elmer was left standing'at the .altar, such a disgruntled bunch as the media when the Prime Minister refused to call the election they had got themselves so engorged about? Another reason I peruse the papers is to indulge my taste for irony. In an effort to keep the peace k the Yanks' are selling fighter planes to both Israel and the Arabs. They would prefer to sell only to. Israel. because there is a veritable host of Jewish votes in the U.S. But they need oil, so they.sell to the Arabs. too. Shades of the days when they sold scrap iron to Japan. before .WWII and had it returned with interst in the form of shrapnel. 1 study the media as a sort of ego trip. Doing so makes me aware that I am not as obnoxious as Pierre Berton, not as arrogant as Pierre Trudeau. It works the other way too. I learn that I'm not as fearless as Bode. Salming, not as colorful as Whammed Ali. But then I'm not .as silly as Elwy Yost or ,Howie Meeker, so i really come off fairly well. Studing the news makes me aware of the darkness of the human condition. Two little boys in England, six and four, beat an old lady of 84, bed-ridden, to death because she gave , one of them six-pence, and the other nothing: I wonder about my grandboys. I read a story. and wonder at the lack of a sense of humour among our politicians. Recently a professor hired to do a study of falling enrollment in schOols.. Carrie out With the first part of his report.. With tongue in check, he suggested women should start 'staying home and having babies or 'perhaps test-tube babies should be produced: otherwise. our educational system would fall apart for lack of clients. The pols, fanned by the media, accused him of racism, antifeminism, and every- thing else short of going to the bathroom without having to. I know the feeling. Sometimes I make a joke in this space, and I'm appalled at the reaction of humourless people. 1'.ni attacked as a libertine, an atheist, a monarchist, a war-monger. a peace- :monger c .a perverter. or the young. a denigrator of the elderly, a male chauvinist, a feMale apologist, a rotten husband -and father, a lazy bum, a teacher. who should not be allowed within hailing distance of our young. It doesn't bother me much, because 1 get all this jazz at home. long before the • letterwriters get at me. I'ni not any of those things. I'm just old Bill Smiley, trying to keep his head above water in the stream OF life,.without swallowing any of the sewage that seems to infest it. Finally, I enjoy that old enjoyable -known as "I told you so." I get a real kick out of looking back and realizing that some cause 1 espoused years. ago, to the great indignation of my friends and fOes, is now the in-thing. Thirty yers ago I said we should recognize Red. China, a fact. Horror! Now they're our buddies. They buy wheat..