HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1995-06-21, Page 5OP-ED PAGE
Rules were strict in my house
cont. from page four
I don't do any of those things
anymore. The cops I could
handle back then, but I was
afraid of my father. My
teachers kept breaking pointers
on my back. I laughed. But if
you lived in his house you
obeyed his rules. They were
strict.
RUNAWAY
So 1 ran away more times
than you could count, official
searches, the whole bit. One
year 1 skipped Christmas, left
the presents Tying under the
tree, told them I never wanted
to sec them again. Another
time my parents got a phone
call in the middle of the night
and were told by an emergency
room doctor that I had over-
dosed and was going to die.
Two hours later they got
another call saying I was a
tougher nut than originally
thought and was going to live,
but be a vegetable.
Time turned the trick, I
guess, or the three of us mel-
lowed with age. The skin
grows stronger over old scars.
1 went home, at least on
holidays, and my parents and I
became go(xl friends, tenativc
at first, for the last dozen years
of their lives.
My mother got Alzheimer's.
She who gave me the gift of
gab, a sense humour and an
inquisitive nature, was a prac-
tising Christian Scientist who
above all believed in the power
of mind over matter, but lost
hers and disappeared before
our eyes. Shc knew it was
happening and she died Lost
and alone, bereft of God's
mercy. She was a patient, kind
and gentle soul who did not
deserve what she got and was
every bit as tough as my father,
except in another way. She had
to put up with this curious
Celtic clan.
Shc loved flowers and was
named Glad, not Gladys, short
for Gladiolus.
The hardest thing my dad
said he ever had to do was put
his wife in a nursing home. He
had to: She was wandering and
all other alternatives had been
exhausted.
It is far worse than 24-hour
call with this terrible disease,
which I would not wish on my
worst enemy.
BROKEN HEART
It broke my old man's heart.
His stubborn will and deter-
mination meant nothing. All he
could do was wonder why and
rage inside, go back to work
and keep a stiff upper lip. I
liked being with him by now.
Shortly thereafter, at the age of
62 and while dickering for a
new car, he had a big time
aortic aneurism. He was cold in
"Your's truly"
and namesake
the extremities by the 20
minutes it took them to rush
him from Guelph to Hamilton
General. The surgeons figured
odds were "he was a goner",
which was another of my dad's
little turns of speech. He spent
seven hours on the table under
the knife, but picked himself
off the canvas yet once again.
He wouldn't cat and the
hospital was .glad to see the
cantankerous old coot gone
when I wheeled him away, all
flesh over skeleton, like a
survivor from a Japanese death
camp. He said he would get
sick if he ate, he didn't want to
be sick, and he'd eat when he
was "damn good and ready".
Which he did. He lived
another two .years before his
stitched -up insides gave out.
The man was tough as they
come. He could roll with the
punches.
He got himself a stray kitten
and called her "Beauty". They
watched videos together. When
the rapes came on and they
started cutting. people .up with
chainsaws he would turn the
TV off. One day out of the
blue he knocked on the door
and gave us a new car, a done
deal and paid for. He did the
same thing three months later.
He wouldn't take no for an
answer. About 18 months after
the surgery I saw him hit the
flag with a seven iron from
about 150 yards out.
I just shook my head.
Life isn't fair. It is nasty,
brutish and short. We live in a
violent worth where history is
written by the. winners. You
don't back down when you
PUC reaches salary deal
The Seaforth Public Utility
Commission has reached
contract agreement with its
four outside workers, whose
contract expired at the end of
March.
Employees will receive a
zero per cent increase retroac-
tive to April 1, but next April
will get a 2 per cent increase in
their pay packets.
The "Social Contract" also
expires next April.
SUMMER FUN 95
Beginning on Monday, July 3,
1995, the Seaforth Recreation
and Parks Department will
be offering Snoopyschool
Playschool and Playground.
This Fun and Active program
for children ages 4 to 12 years
will be 7 weeks long during
July and August and will be
held at the Agricultural
Exhibition Building inside the
Race Track. The hours of
operation are Monday to
Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00
p.m. with supervised lunches.
Early and late supervision is
available if requested for a lit-
tle extra fee. Registration for
this program has not changed
from last year which is
$180.00 per child for the entire
7 weeks. This is equal to $5.14
per day. The children will enjoy
crafts, songs, swimming,
sports and games. They will
also enjoy trips to African Lion
, Safari, London's Children's
Museum, and a Waterpark.
Our qualified leaders will
ensure that your child has a
safe and happy summer. Drop
into the Recreation Office
located at the Arena to
Register. For more information
please call 527-0882.
SPECIAL TRIPS
* EXTRA COSTS APPLY TO TRIPS
Dungannon Zoo (Snoopyschool and Playschool)
Pioneer Sports World (Playschool and Playground)
Pine Lake . Camping (Playground)
Lions Park Camping (Playschool)
African Lion Safari (All (croups).....
WaUyworid (Playschool and Playground)
Storybook Gardena (Snoopyschool and Playschool)
July 11
July l l
July 18 & 19
July 18 & 19
July 27
Aug. 3
Aug. 3
OTHER ACTIVITIES
• Safety issues and Activities
• Barbeque at Lions Park
• Ball Hockey'Iburnament
• Puppet making
• Magic Shows
•'Treasure Hunt
• Outdoor Fun
• Penny Carnival
• NUtrItlous snacks
• Alrbands
• Paper mach*
• Roller-skating
• Clay modelling
• Mint -Olympics
• Sign language
• Swimming
• Nature Hikes
CALL THE RECREATION OFFICE
FOR MORE INFO
527-0882
know you are right, and
sometimes you just have to
wade in and take the hit. No
surrender.
These are things my father
taught mc.
He never got to smell the
roses. They were gone by the
time he got there.
GREGOR
My father was too poor for a
middle name. In his teens he
legally took my mother's
mother's maiden name to go
between his two given ones, so
became Gordon Gregor
Campbell. That's how I got the
name] go by.
In almost all the pictures he
ever had taken, my old man
had his eyes closed or wasn't
looking at the camera. There
are few pictures of us together.
In the one I like best I am
standing on a fence and he is
behind me, still with a full
head of hair, smiling with his
arms around me.
It was taken just after I was
adopted, • from a foster home
after my first birthday. I looked
like a girl.
But I thank my lucky stars
that they chose me. And I hope
my dad and I broke some kind
of sad chain in our ups and
downs together.
I said I'd come back with his
toothbrush when I visited again
after lunch that day, and
basically told him to let me
worry about my boss and
taking a day off work. That I
would do whatever I w,..ited to
whenever I wanted to do it.
I was browsing in a
bookstore later that morning
when his heart of oak stopped
beating for good. This was
about a week before Father's
Day three years ago.
I cried for days. He would
have been embarrassed for me,
and turned away. But I miss
the old bugger. Words fail me.
There was a wild Welsh poet
called Dylfn Thomas. He was
a hopeless drunk but had the
• same gift for the lilt of our
language many of his
countrymen have also. The last
thing he wrote was an un-
finished elegy to his father. He
says best what I felt then, and
still do now this Father's Day,
about my old man:
" A cold kind man brave in his
narrow pride...
Oh, forever may
He lie lightly at last, on the
last crossed
Hill, under the grass, in love,
and there grow...
An old kind man brave in his
burning pride
Until 1 die he shall not leave
my side."
THE NUMMI IXPO$ITON, .hare 21, 1992-$
HEALTH ON THE HILL
A Review of activities at
SEAFORTH COMMUNITY HQSPITAL
FAST HURON LONG TERM CARE MEETING: Please plan
to attend Thursday, June 22nd when Shirley Jones, Long Term
Care Planner for the District Health Council will be the Guest
Speaker at Seaforth Community Hospital Board Room 10:00 a.m.
- 12:00 noon. Come and bring a friend.
PERINATAL NFQRMATION SESSION:
If you are anticipating the birth of a child and would be interested
in teaming information on
PAIN
ThursdNE 22MANAGEMENT please
6 ld at 7:20 p.mmark your . at Seaforth endar now for
Commgnity Hospital, Conference Room 2. Speakers will
include pi. Heather Percival and a Physiotherapist.
Special (hanks to Chaplain Holly Book for presenting a very
informative Inservice to Staff on the topic,"Spirituality:
Addressing Spiritual & Religious Needs of Patients in the
Hospital Setting."
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I YOU ARE
INVITED.,. 1
IWe are requesting that allarents,
a children, families, coaches, referees, ifans '
�
I etc., plan to attend our...
iURAIN11 OPENINGI
8 of our 1
1 COMMUNITY SOCCER PROJECT 1
� This event will take place
1 SUNDAY,JUNE 25th a$t 12: 30 P.M. I
1 at the ST. COLUMBAN SOCCER
$ FIELDS 1
EVERYONE WELCOME 1
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AND THE
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