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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1995-04-12, Page 5Arthur Black The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Starting to feel like Russian roulette THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 1995. PAGE 5. Name 1 song in the Top 10 A little music quiz just to find out where we stand popular-music wise: can you name one song that's currently in the Top 10? No? The top 20, maybe? How about the Top 100? Alright then...how about naming one song from the past year that made it to the top of the charts? Still drawing a blank? Don't feel bad. I got exactly the same score. It just means you're "of an age", as they say. And probably it isn't that venerable an age either. We all have at least one era of popular music that we identify with. Tunes that we sing in the shower, singers that we remember with fondness. And chances are if you're old enough to drink, drive and die for your country, your favourite era is already on the scrap heap of musical history. Then too, there's the leavening process of simply growing up. Somebody once observed "when you're 35, something awful always happens to the music." Too true. I can still remember my father's uncomprehending sneer the first time he heard Elvis singing That's Alright Mama. It's THE EDITOR, This is an invitation to any interested people to attend the Blyth Public School, Tuesday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m. to organize a "Homecoming". We welcome you. Hurrah! We are ready to announce that there is going to be an organizational meeting regarding the proposed 100 Year Homecoming to the six room, white brick Public and Continuation School in Blyth. As we all know, the old school does not exist anymore. It is not a tangible things that you can reach out and touch, or set up a camera and record on film. We only have THE EDITOR, As we all know, most of the land use in Huron County is agricultural. However, small pockets of forest lands still remain. Some of these lands are privately owned and 14 tracts are owned by the people of Huron County. Huron County council, all elected officials, representing all the people of Huron County, including minorities, are accountable to the people of Huron County for their decisions. Sometimes their decisions are in conflict with their constituents' opinions. One such decision is the approval to THE EDITOR, With this letter, we want to introduce a project that we hope may be of interest to your readers. We arc compiling material for a coffee table style of book to be entitled "Quiet Places, Quiet Thoughts". It will include poems, brief story experiences, or songs - the fruit of reflective thought or inspiration or motivation while in one's own special "quiet place". When you have a chance to gain a quiet moment in your busy lift, do you reflect on family or friends in far away places, remember times of sadness or humour, or recall days gone by with nostalgia? Do you reflect on the events of today and the meaning they may have for you or do you- sometimes reflect on ancestral stories and find fresh contemporary meaning? And have you recorded some of your thoughts and feel that what you have recorded may be of the very same uncomprehending sneer I wear when my teenage son plays his 2 Live Crew CDs. (Except of course I'm convinced my father was mistaken, while I am absolutely right. Elvis was a musical giant. Today's pop stars couldn't tune Sylvia Tyson's autoharp.) 'Twas ever thus. My father had musical dogfights with his father about jazz, which Granddad thought was pure trash. No if I could trace it back far enough I'd find one of my ancestors whacking his offspring over the head for listening to that gypsy tramp Vivaldi. It's a little more complicated nowadays because the 20th century has been a regular hothouse for popular music. I grew up in an era when the radio waves vibrated to the strains of Frank Sinatra and Little Richard; Ella Fitzgerald and Brenda Lee. Were they all good? Of course not. We had lame, saccharin songs like How Much Is That Doggy In the Window? We had no- talent pretty boy crooners like Fabian and Frankie Avalon. But they were strictly second-stringers. They never achieved the popularity of a Sarah Vaughan, a Peggy Lee, a Bing Crosby or a Nat King Cole. This of course, was before Big Business discovered popular music. Once the moguls memories of the old school. As Winston Churchill once said of memories, "How long does a memory remain a memory, before it becomes History." As this is the first meeting and we will hopefully see a good turn out of representatives from all the service organizations, the village council and individuals who wish to support this proposal. Out of this gathering should emerge a structure committee, that will have the energy, mobility and authority, to bring together and co-ordinate the future plans and direction, that this proposal deserves. Along with this invitation goes this harvest so called "mature" trees from Huron County forests. They know full well as forest managers, that there is very little difference between clear cutting (removing all growth) and harvesting only mature trees since, in inaccessible areas, whatever stands in the road of the mature tree gets destroyed in the removal process. It takes a forest a human lifetime, it not longer, to recover, if ever, from such destruction. What we as an organization are asking is, that one tract, the Morris tract, a measly 140 acres, be left as is. This area features some rare species of plant life, it is has some beautiful old trees, has a rolling terrain, is a interest to others? Story has it that Isaac Newton twigged to the theory of gravity when he was struck on the head by an apple while he was relaxing under an apple tree. Have you surprised yourself with moments of inspiration or insight? You may not have discovered gravity or Granny Smith apples but your story, anecdote, song or poem would carry some significance that might be humorous, nostalgic, sad, heartwarming, insightful, forlorn, spiritual, or mythical; the result of quiet, reflective thought in a quiet place. We want to learn more about "quiet places". So, along with any materials that are submitted, please include a description of the place that you enjoy the most for "quiet thought". To augment each story or poem that is chosen for publication, photographs or artwork may be commissioned to provide ambiance and affiliation. realized actual talent was the least important factor in creating pop stars, the floodgates were open. And we got the likes of Michael Jackson and Madonna. Michael Jackson has made millions from music — not bad for a falsetto fraud. And Madonna? Somebody once deftly summed her up as "a thimbleful of talent adrift upon an ocean of ambition." The somebody who said that was Mick Jagger, who himself looks pretty pale (in more ways than one) alongside, say, Taj Mahal or Tina Turner. All of which is, alas, musically irrevelant. How many kids today have a clue what a Duke Ellington arrangement sounds like? Or a piano keyboard under the fingers of Oscar Peterson? Or a Chet Atkins guitar solo, come to that. But they know Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Weezer and Nine Inch Nails. No, those are not nags at Woodbine, or the names of street gangs in South Central L.A. They are the names of five musical groups currently sitting at the top of the charts. I haven't heard them, but I betcha one scratchy recording of Billie Holiday singing God Bless The Child would blow them all away. message from the writer: I will work diligently with undivided attention and energy towards the complete success of this "Homecoming" - but I just do not have enough healthy mobility to be anything other than what I have been so far; to provide motivation to start the machinery moving towards holding of a creditable "Homecoming". I would like to see a sizeable turnout for the meeting at Blyth school on Tuesday night April 18 at 7:30 p.m. With kind regards, William A. Manning. habitat to many species of animals, because it is remote and has limited access. Have we degraded ourselves to a Third World country (county) mentality, that destroys its inheritance of nature, for the sake of money? Or do we still have the wisdom to leave a small piece of nature undisturbed, for our future generations? Huron County Council the decision is yours. Yours truly, George E. Vander Glas President Huron Fringe Field Naturalists Goderich, Ontario N7A 4B6 We hope that you have an item of interest that you may wish to send to us. We are looking for original works by individuals who may never have had the opporti4ty to be published before. It is acceptable if you choose to remain anonymous or to submit your story under a pen-name. If you know of someone else who has a story to tell, please make this invitational letter available to them. We welcome all submissions. We hope for a wide variety of artistic submissions from Canadians across this great nation, suitably illustrating our rich diversity, and invite your early response by June of 1995. Please address your submissions or enquiries to: Q.P.Q.T., Box 456, Linden, Alberta. TOM 1J0 or Fax it to (403) 443- 5032. Sincerely yours, Les Fetterly, Project Leader On behalf of Q.P.Q.T. Project Members. Is it just me, or is it starting to feel a little like Russian roulette? By it, I'm referring to travelling on public roadways. Last week people, through much of the province, were stunned by television footage and newspaper shots showing the carnage on Hwy 400 after 70 cars and trucks, two of which were loaded with lumber, collided during a spring blizzard. The morass of metal, wood and shattered glass, created a maze of confusion and a calamitous situation that took hours to sort out. And when the tangle was unravelled, when the victims were accounted for and tended to, when the stories were told and the final pieces of the puzzle in place, the ordeal for many had little to do with anything but being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A few seconds further back in the lane could have meant an injury rather than a life. A few seconds ahead and they might have only known about the accident from the evening news. Each week the police report to us the accidents that have occurred in this area, and I often contemplate whether good driving or good judgement could have saved the situation. Or was the wheel never in the driver's hands to begin with? When I was 16 I took the customary driver's training course, so I would hopefully be a better prepared, smarter driver. However, since then I have experienced that a split second can mean a lifetime and there was little I could have done to change the situation. Saturday, I went to visit family in Barrie and travelled over that very spot where last week four lives had tragically ended and over 30 more people had been injured. Where just a few days before there had been mayhem, that day there was not a sign, not a glint of glass, skid mark or bent rail as testament of what had happened. It was surreal, yet, as the other automobiles flew by and around me, all too real. The fact that there are more vehicles travelling our major highways these days is an overwhelmingly obvious fact when you find yourself on one of these freeways-for- all. Projected forward in a world where truck tires can fly and cars move as if on automatic pilot, you really only think you're in control. Driving home Sunday, felt like leading a car race; I got out of the gate with the rest of them, then left them all behind as I got closer and closer to home. What became evident, however, was that while the obstacles are less, a defensive driver can be no less wary on quieter county roads. The numbers are not the only thing to change, the rules do as well. Where refusal to go with the flow can tangle you in heavy traffic, complacency is the enemy here as people pull out in front of you, ride your bumper and don't bother with turning signals. It is not good enough to be a good driver, you have to second guess all the others. Yet, I'll bet that many of us would agree that still may not be enough. How many times have you heard the survivor of a car accident say that someone must have been watching over them? Most of us have likely been in the position where we have said "if'. "If another car had been coming." "If I had just been five minutes later." No, knowing how to drive and being alert may not be enough, but on the road it's the best defense we've got. Writer announces Blyth reunion Naturalist explains stand on Tract Writer wants input on quiet places