The Rural Voice, 1998-08, Page 14LESLIE HAWKEN
& SON
Custom Manufacturing
LIVESTOCK & FARM EQUIPMENT
• Call' Creeps
• Cattle Panels
• Headgates & Chutes
• Portable Loading Chutes
• Gate -Mounted Grain Feeders
Big Bale Wagons
Round Bale Feeder
For the best quality and service — Call
Jim Hawken
Rural Route Three
Markdale 519-986-2507
TOP QUALITY
EXTERIOR PAINTING
Painting Contractors since 1946
• All types
of exterior painting
• Sand blasting
• Pressure washing
• Repainting pre -finished steel
• Boom trucks
GLEN EATON
PAINTING
R.R. 3, Chesley, ON NOG 1L0
519-363-2595
1-800-667-0138
eaton@sos.ca
10 THE RURAL VOICE
The World from Mabel's Grill
"It's too darned hot!" Molly
Whiteside complained the other
morning in the midst of the latest
heatwave. She was fanning herself
with a menu even while Mabel's air
conditioner above the front door was
working time
and a half.
"That's
because
you're not
dressed for the
heat," said
Cliff Murray.
"Mabel, these
uniforms you
make the girls
wear are too
much for the
summer."
"Yeh," said
Dave Winston,
"how about
The world's
problems are
solved daily
'round the table
at Mabel's
something cooler — say with a bikini
top. "I can see Molly in a bikini top."
"In your dreams," Molly shot
back.
"Oh in my dreams you wouldn't
have the top," Dave said.
"Maybe you should start a topless
restaurant, Mabel," George put in
mischievously.
"Then the customers would be too
hot," Mabel said.
"Well at least with the change in
the law it wouldn't be indecent
exposure anymore," Dave said.
"Yeh, that would only be if you
took your top off," Molly said.
"Ooohoo, gotcha", Cliff goaded
Dave.
"You guys better be mighty care-
ful. This is getting dangerously close
to harassment," said Wayne Bruce.
"What, a little good natured
kidding is harassment these days?"
Dave wondered.
"Good job you're out in the barn
with nobody but the pigs to insult,"
Wayne said. "The rules of the
workplace are changing. It's not
kidding anymore, it's harassment."
"That's not harassment.
Harassment is getting phone three
times a month by three different
telephone companies trying to get
you to switch," said George. "How
come they can't do something about
stopping that harassment."
"Yeh," said Cliff, "and I switched
once just to get them off my back,
and then Bell started phoning trying
to get me back. You can't win."
"I get calls from Bell once a
month to make sure I won't switch,"
said George. "They're making me
mad enough to switch."
"At least you guys don't get the
stockbrokers — now that's
harassment," said Wayne. "I get calls
from about five or six stockbrokers a
month wanting me to invest."
"I guess they know you downtown
businessmen have so much money to
invest," teased Dave.
"Yeh, right!" Wayne griped. "The
other day this guy calls me and says
he has this really great tip for me. I
told him I didn't have any money and
he says it wouldn't take much. He
was recommending 2,000 shares are
$1.83 a share. Hell, he must think I
keep $6,000 in petty cash ."
"The thing is you can't get away
from these people," Mabel said,
rumbling over from the kitchen.
"You don't know when you answer
the phone if it's your kids calling
home or if it's some jerk trying to
sell you something. By the time you
find out, it's too late. They've got
you."
"And they won't let you get
away," Molly said. "You finally have
to get downright rude to get rid of
them."
"Remember the good old days
when you had real people coming to
your door trying to sell you things —
before it got more efficient to do it by
phone?" Cliff asked.
"Oh I don't know that those days
were so good," Mabel said. "Some of
them would get their foot in the door
and you couldn't get it out until you
bought something."
"Yeh, but you could always sick
the dog on them," George
remembered. "And if you had a big
enough dog some of them wouldn't
get out of the car in the first place."
"So there's what you can invent,"
said Dave turning to Cliff, "an
electronic dog to scare off unwanted
salesmen on the phone."
"I can see how you might get
something to bark at them, but to
keep things under control they're got
to bite them ever now and then. Now
that might be the tough part."0