The Rural Voice, 1992-01, Page 10Was, Gt .......et, o......a.
For service call your
professional Goulds dealer
for a reliable water system.
CLIFF's PLUMBING
& HEATING
Lucknow
519-528-3913
"Our experience
assures lower cost
water wells"
91 YEARS' EXPERIENCE
Member of Canadian
and Ontario
Water Well Associations
• Farm
• Industrial
• Suburban
• Municipal
Licensed
by the Ministry
of the Environment
DAVIDSON
WELL DRILLING LTD.
WINGHAM
Serving Ontario Since 1900
519-357-1960 WINGHAM
519-886-2761 WATERLOO
6 THE RURAL VOICE
THE COUPLE THAT
CLEANS TOGETHER .. .
Gisele Ireland is from Bruce County.
Her most recent book, Brace Yourself,
is available for $7 from Bumps Books,
Teeswater, Ontario, NOG 2S0.
Lots of couples have little ways and
means of staying married without having
the bonds of matrimony that bind them,
choke them. One of our favourites is that I
don't do inspection tours of Super
Wrench's domain, and he does me the
same courtesy in the house. Every once in
a while he forgets himself, and he pays
and pays and pays.
Super Wrench was doing something
few husbands are successful at. He was
trying to find something in the office.
This is a man who has a problem getting
matching socks in the morning and he
tackles something like that! His reward
for carrying on like a disgruntled badger
was getting hit on the head by a huge boot
box. It rang every bell in his belfry. The
box, of course, split open and showered
him with hundreds upon hundreds of
photographs. Rather than quickly pick
them up, ask me to fmd what he'd been
looking for and slink out quietly, he had to
flaunt a bit of male authority.
"Why," he said in an aggrieved tone,
"don't you make an old year's resolution
and finally get these things put away in all
those empty albums you've got taking up
space in here?" Easier said than done. I
was going to do it sometime, but somehow
27 years have passed and the task is not
begun, let alone completed. Years ago,
when I took these beauties, I must have
assumed I'd never forget a time, face nor
place, because only one photo in a hundred
had a date on the back of it. Gingerly,
with Super Wrench's reluctant assistance,
I thrust them all back into the box and
informed him it would be a nice gesture on
his part if he freed a couple of hours and
helped me with the task. Well, you'd
think I had asked him to wear pantyhose.
Remember our agreement, he informed me
smugly, and left.
It didn't take me long to give in and
call in the experts. Within a few hours I
had all four kids recruited to sort through
the pictures and paste them up. I figured
their memory banks were fresher than
mine, and besides, they were the subject of
90 per cent of the shots.
When Super Wrench joined us, he
must have thought we'd all been on a trip
without ever leaving the farm. We were
all in various stages of side-splitting
laughter. He was the subject of it. We
found a whole roll shot just of the sire of
this laughing brood, and none of us could
figure out when the film was taken.
In a couple of shots, Super Wrench
was on top of a horse, gazing into the
distance. The next few were more
interesting: he was valiantly trying to hold
onto the pommel of the saddle, while the
rest of him was mostly off the horse. The
next pictures were of Super Wrench
resting on his laurel while the horse was
galloping off into the distance. The fun
didn't end there. A couple of pictures
later, Super Wrench was featured standing
in a lush soybean field. He was shirtless,
wearing a ragged pair of cut-offs and the
clincher was that he wore work socks and
boots, with the socks pulled up to his
knees. When we could get our breath
again, we determined from the lack of
frontage on Super Wrench and the
abundance of hair on his head, the photo
had to have been taken some time ago. In
among these gems was a shot of Super
Wrench wearing a pink flowered shirt, a
tie that would scare most people, and he
was holding a burning candle aloft. "Were
you making a sacrifice at the altar, or just
planning on ending it all and setting
yourself on fire?" our son chortled, with
tears streaming down his cheeks. I wasn't
spared, either. We carne across some
where I'd obviously discovered polyester
and bought enough to make matching
outfits for everyone, Super Wrench
included.
By this time, both Super Wrench and I
had lost our taste for a trip down memory
lane. When the kids pulled out a shot of
Super Wrench wearing what appeared to
be a lamp shade, the episode came to a
fast halt. Super Wrench suggested watch-
ing the hockey game, and that the pizza
would be on him, and the photo daters
vanished. I put the pictures back in the
box and juggled them back up on the shelf
where they had been residing for years.
Somehow, I don't think Super Wrench is
going to insist on this job being completed.
Not if he knows what's good for him.
Often the memories are embarrassing
enough without putting a place and a date
on them.
Happy New Year!O