Village Squire, 1975-01, Page 22of privacy that city life gives like the feeling that you can ride for a
half hour on the subway and not say a word to the guy sitting next
to you if you don't want to. They enjoy the feeling of being where
it's at. They like being in a place that is constantly talked and
written about, even if they are only a small part of it.
They may never see the Toronto Maple Leafs play a game, but
they enjoy just knowing they're playing there inside the hallowed
walls on Carlton Street. It's the same way about live theatre or
opera or ballet. They may never take time to go and see it, but
they'll list it as one of the good things about living in the city and
wouldn't want to be without the chance to see theatre or opera or
ballet.
They like the fine (and expensive) restaurants and the huge
variety of stores to shop in. When you really think of it isn't it a
little ridiculous that any city needs all those shopping plazas and
downtown shopping centres which offer over and over again the
same items? -
On the other hand, these city people couldn't care if they ever
felt earth between their fingers or heard the wind whistle through
tree branches. Snow, for them is something to be avoided at all
costs (including the cost of a trip to Mexico when the weather
closes in.)
To the country persons, however, these things are important.
It's important to the country person to have his neighbour say
hello in the morning and to know that in time of trouble there are
always people who'll pitch in to help. It's important to be able to
get into the country and see the farms and the forests without
making a major outing out of it. This is the kind of person for
whom the scent of wildflowers or the sight of clean, unbroken
snow in a field are important. This is the kind of person for
whom it's more important to get a friendly hello when they go
into the corner store than it is to have 500 shoe stores to choose
from.
This is also the kind of person who feels it is important to have
a voice in the events that go on around him. That's why the fight
has been so long and hard in Western Ontario against regional
government. People may not go to meetings of their local council,
but they want to be able to and known they'll lose this local
involvement if they move to regional government. If something is
wrong with the way the government is being run, they want to be
able to call up their local councillor and know his name. (And
maybe a juicy tidbit of gossip that they can use to help win their
point). They don't want a faceless wonder like most big city
aldermen.
One of the great things about small town living is that a single
person with the intelligence and perseverance can bring real
changes to his community, and not necessarily by running for
public office either. Take a look at what citizens groups have done
in our area recently like saving city hall in Stratford, like saving
the Huron county jail in Goderich, like the kind of fight that's
going on in Clinton to save the old hall. All these movements
were based on the work of "little people", not big -shot
politicians.
To simplify it to the utmost, maybe a city person is a
non-involvement person, a spectator who wants other people to
do things for him while he sits back, works nine to five and
spends the rest of the time enjoying life. The country person is an
involvement person, who sees a thing that needs to be done for
the community and does it.
That of course is making it too simple, because there an
people in the city who get involved and others in small towns who
are content to be spectators, but still, it has a good deal of truth.
In the country, you have to be involved in some degree. You have
to know your neighbours and get involved in their hopes and
dreams and their problems. They're involved in nature because
they have to, especially living in the snowbelt as we do where
Nature tends to come up around our ears about this time of year.
I know there are some people living in the country who would
be happy with the predictions that soon most people will be living
in the city, because deep down they're really city people. The
thing that bothers me is that few people seem to have any choice.
Many people have to live in the larger cities in order to find work.
Wouldn't it be great if the city people could live in the city strictly
because they wanted to and the country people in the country
because they wanted to and there was no tough job versus
location choice? Ah yes, but I guess that's just the idealistic
country boy speaking. 0
For over forty years
Welcome Wagon hostesses
have been making calls
on newcomers - whether they
be within our own nation or
in a foreign country.
If you are a newcomer,
know of one, or are a businessman
desiring representation
in the newcomer's home, call
your local representative listed below
for WELCOME WAGON LIMITED.
��annre�a�on.
LID
Call your Welcome
Wagon Hostess now.
Wingham 357-3275,
Exeter 235-2870
Mitchell 348-8925
Clinton 482-7069
(:o,lcri.-li 5244)6,
S',ilorris 5'"-092.;
VILLAGE SQUIRE/JANUARY 1975, 21