The Rural Voice, 2001-04, Page 8MORE
REWARDS
FOR
FARMERS
Now you can earn AIR MILES.—
reward miles on your
farm -related spending.
By making your farm
purchases at McArthur Tire
you'll see how your reward
miles can turn into free
rewards faster than ever.
1 reward mile - for every $8
spent on Goodyear brand
passenger or light truck tires.
1 reward mile - for every $20
spent on Goodyear brand farm
tires and commercial truck tires.
1 reward miles - for every $8
spent on mechanical service
1 reward miles - for every $20
spent on Dunlop and Star brand
tires.
ilik AIR MILL
For Buys
GET IT AT
GOOD "•YEAR
THE TIRE PEOPLE
McArthur Tire
Owen Sound 3rd Are. E Hanover loth st.
376-3520 364-2661
www.thetirepeople.com
4 THE RURAL VOICE
Gisele Ireland
Desperate times, desperate solutions
Super Wrench usually has a good
excuse to avoid coming with me to
the spring flower shows. Important
things crop up, such as ingrown
toenails, a sick friend in Angola or a
tooth that needs
a root canal.
This year he
was the one to
ferret these
events out of
the papers and
make plans to
attend them.
The main
reason for this
turnabout has
definitely been
to bolster my
spirits and if
he's honest,
he'll admit to
being sick of stark white, pristine and
frosty. I know I was desperate to see
anything alive and green.
The sponsors at the two shows
we've attended have been surprised
and ecstatic at the huge numbers
attending these events. We were
neither surprised nor ecstatic. These
shows were crawling with desperate
people such as ourselves trying to
find some relief or even hope that
there is another colour in the universe
other than white. There is nothing
ecstatic about elbowing your way
through equally aggressive people, all
with the same purpose in mind: get
close to that yellow daffodil.
Most people just stood around
entranced, sniffing the air. At any
other time I would have hit the exit
running when coming upon such a
group of weirdos, but since I was
worse than any of them, I understood.
There were green things growing
through hoops and through wire and
water trickling out of rocks. There
were flowers of every colour, some
with a delicate fragrance and some
that socked you right between the
eyes. It didn't seem to matter. We
shoved, pushed, stretched and leaned
to get just another inch closer to a
living breathing thing.
Usually the display people have
signs up about controlling your little
1 was desperate
to see anything
green
tykes. They weren't a problem this
year. You needed bamboo canes to
ward off the sticky voracious fingers
of the overgrown tykes. Most of the
booth owners just plain gave up and
offered the mangled, overtouched and
loved posies at half price. Anyone
who bought one carried it like a
banner into battle. They'd been
victorious over white desolation.
For anyone who would have been
happy living in a sod hut
underground in Saskatchewan in the '
1800s for five months of the year,
you'll find this article beyond your
mental borders. Only those suffering
from lack of sunshine, deprived of
warmth and denied green growth
around them will understand.
Super Wrench knew exactly when
I'd reached my borders. I shook him.
awake in the middle of the night and
demanded he come with me and see
the flowers I had discovered by
tunneling through the snow. The
sheets were off the mattress and
pillowcases gone, only mangled
pillows were left and he became
really worried when I attempted to
get him to the flowers I found by
shoving him between the mattress
and the boxspring. This all happened
while I was sound asleep, and I know
he was very apprehensive about what
would happen when I awoke.
The upside was total cheerfulness
and co-operation for the next three
flower shows I want to attend. He
likes a good night's sleep.0
Gisele Ireland, from Bruce County, is
an author of several humorous books
on farm life.
MORRIS SACHS
SILO
CONSTRUCTION
SILO ACCESSORIES
SILOS DISMANTLED,
REBUILT AND REPAIRS
R.R. #1
Elmwood, Ont.
363-3900 NOG 1 SO