Village Squire, 1977-07, Page 34P. S.
What do I do?
I go nuts, that's what.
"But what do you ever do for excitement
around here. Don't you get bored?" the
question comes up regularly from
acquaintances from the city. Lord if they
only knew.
The thing I'd look forward to most right
now would be about three weeks of the
boredom that most people from the city
think we have in the country all the time.
Frankly, this leisurely country lifestyle is
killing me.
I grant you, my position isn't quite the
same as that of most small towners. The
business I'm in means that I have to attend
a lot more activities than the average
person but I'll bet a lot of people feel the
same way.
Our town happens to be celebrating its
centennial so things are especially busy
this summer, just as they are in Goderich
at its Sesquicentennial, but then nearly
every town in Western Ontario has
something special going on in the summer.
I happen to like theatre and in summer,
there isn't a better place to enjoy that than
here, with three theatre festivals within 50
miles of my house, but to see everything
offered, you'd have to go to the theatre at
least twice a week for two months.
If you like parades, there's about one a
week somewhere or other. If you like band
concerts, there's a couple a week. If you
like dances, there are hundreds to choose
from. If you like barbecues, you can eat
chicken or beef or pork chops until you
burst, with the dozens of barbecues on.
There arc rummage sales and antique
auctions, and farm auctions where you can
empty your pockets buying all kinds of
interesting things.
There are museums to see the old, and
art galleries to see the latest in art.
And there are hundreds of pretty country
roads to drive down; dozens of quiet
streams to lie beside; hills to climb; woods
to explore. And of course always the beach
beckons as we have some of the finest
beaches in the country at our doorstep.
The problem is, with so much fun to be
had, what time is left for work? In summer,
we all need to have jobs that are like school
teachers, that give us two months off just
to enjoy the living around here. Even then
the agenda you could make up would be
mind boggling. But in an ordinary job, it's
plain frustrating to see so many good
things happening and not be able to share
in them.
And there are so many other activities
that I should be doing. There's the garden,
or at least there was the garden the last
time I looked about two weeks ago. Now
PG. 32. VILLAGE SQUIRE/JULY 1977.
it's doing a masterful job of masquerading
as a weed patch. There are my chickens
that we've got out at our place, Cherry
Lane, this spring and need occasional
looking after. There is the building I'd like
to fix up to be used someday for a small
barn. There's all the cherries to be picked,
and the currants and the plums and
blackberries and hopefully, apples.
And there are all the walks I'd love to
take, and the hours I'd love to have just to
lie on the ground in the shade of our big
maple trees and watch the clouds play Their
magic impersonation tricks across the sky.
Hell, it was a terrible winter. At least we
deserve a few hours of just lazing around
enjoying the heat.
And then there's the bulging library
shelves I'd like to sample. Last winter I was
too busy shovelling snow and trying to get
cars unstuck or just plain started, and
trying to get to work period to take much
time for reading.
I think we've got to come up with a new
system of living in this country. We've got
to find some way of averaging things out. I
mean all winter long we can't do anything
but sit around and look at the snow coming
down then come summer when we'd just
like to sit around, there's so much going on
we feel guilty doing it. We have too much
cold in winter then wish we had some of it
in the heat of July. This is the craziest
country in the world, always having what it
doesn't want, and never having what it
wants. If we could just average out the
temperature over the year, if we could just
average out the activity over the year, we'd
have perfection. But then, who ever heard
of a perfect thing in Canada?
Lifestyle is knowing how to
avoid accidents at work, at
home, at school or in sports.
It's obeying safety rules.
Njgunrn
Antiqutn
34 KINGSTON ST.
GODERICH, ONTARIO
Bill & Lorraine Jones
Home 524-7732
Bus. 524-2238
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