HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1988-07-13, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, July 13, 1988
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imes
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1SO
Water, water
It was appalling to read in the Saturday
London Free Press that 50 percent of the
water consumed in the -:average Canadian
home goes toward lawn watering, but it is
characteristic of our blindness.
It is time to stop treating our most pre-
cious resource as an inexhaustible, ex-
pendable commodity; time to stop empty-
our
mptyour toilets into lakes and rivers; time
to stop industry's wholesale murder of
aquatic life.
We are now being treated to a glimpse
of our future. It is a vision of parched
land, air so thick with pollution that it is
healthier to stay indoors, and American
voices clamoring for the diversion of the
Great Lakes.
Take a good long look.
If, as some scientists predict, the Green
House effect turns this area into a desert
over the next 100 years, our lawn water-
ing society will not be judged favourably
by history.
We will be judged obscene, and rightly
so.
Not likely worth it?
Much discussion is taking place these
days regarding the recently proposed
baby bonus plan by the government of
the province of Quebec.
Premier Robert Bourassa has conceived
the plan to pay parents to have children
in an attempt to boost the birth rate in his
province.
The proposal announced in May would
pay $500 to parents on the birth of each
of their first and second children and
$3,000 for each additional child.
The idea is to increase Quebec's birth
rate which is well below the national av-
erage and thus help ensure the stability of
the francaphone population.
A recently completed Gallup poll shows
only residents of Quebec are in favour of
the scheme and in that province the re-
sponse in favour is not overwhelming.
. In Quebec, more than 44 percent of
those polled were against the baby bonus
plan. For Canadians overall in the 1,022
personal interviews held between June 1
and 4 , 66 percent were against.
The biggest opposition was voiced in
Ncxt wcck Alcxandcr will be
going to camp again. It'll he his
second time, and he can hardly
wait. . ' .
But 1 guess nothing syill ever
be Iikc the first time.- Last year
we had a boy with a problem.
,; .et tri w:ttticd In . go„ the
711111111814
• other didn t. He had ncvcr bccn
, away from homc for more than a
• . couple of days. Ile di(tn't know
what to expect. lie was eight,
unsure of himself, and very
apprehensive.
He survived the sorting out and
the packing, under Elizabeth's
close supervision. "No,
Alcxandcr, you shouldn't take
those shoes. -They're not suitable
for camp". "But they're my
favourite shoes". "They'll get.
wracked at camp".
"Don't forget to pack this
swcatcr in case it gets cool". "1
hate this sweater."
"What do you have jammed
into this bag?" "Nothing". "1
thought we dediced that you
weren't going to take your ghctto
blaster". "You decided. I ncvcr
decided that."
"You don't shave enough socks
and underpants", Elizabeth
scolded. "He's only going for a
wcck," 1 intervened. "If he puts on
fresh underwear every day, that
makcs.for seven outfits. He's got
at least twelve of them now, for"
cavcn's sake". "You stay out of
this," Elizabeth said, "you're not
the one that has to drat with his
,laundry when he comes back".
When we got to the camp, i
noticed Alcxandcr growing
awfully quiet. He stuck closer to
By Mark Bisset
British Columbia with 81 percent against
the proposal.
Gallup poll officials say this type of
sample of over 1,000 interviews are con-
sidered accurate within a margin of four
percent points, 19 -out of 20 times.
While the money dangled in front of
prospective parents may be alluring,
there is much more that meets the eye
when one takes a longer look.
Take for example, a couple wishing to
have a family of four children. They will
receive $7,000 from the Quebec provin-
cial government.
That sounds like a lot of money, but
how far will it go?
We haven't heard the latest figures on
how much it costs to raise children until
the age of 18 and through at least secon-
dary school education, but it is in excess
of $100,000 per child.
It appears as if Bourassa and the Quebec
Liberals will have to sweeten the incen-
tive a lot more before they are able to in-
crease their birth rate to where they
would like it.
By Ross ifaugh
Camp
us than he usually docs. All the
other kids seemed to be older, and
they all seemed to know cach
,other. i re, in`"ercd the feeling.
We go 'hc formalities over
with. Wc met the counsellors, the
camp director, and the camp
nurse. We unloaded the car and
PETER'S
POiNT
•
diaggcd everything 'fp thc hill,
through the pines, into the little
cabin that smelled of wood, musk
oil and last year's sweat.
Ile looked with some alarm at
the rickety bunk that would be his
for seven nights. Then we walked
down to the beach where some
kids were playing ball, others
wcrc testing the water. Alcxandcr
stood apart, with a forlorn look in
his eyes. He wouldn't let us thug
him, although I'm sure he wanted
to be hugged. in fact, I think he
wanted to get right back into the
car and drive home•with us. But
hc ncvcr wavtd back as we left
'and waved at him. i felt Iikc the
woodcutter abandoning Hansel in
the deep forest.
Elizabeth had given him five,
pre -addressed, stamped envelopes,
paper, several pcns'and pencils.
He ncvcr wrote us once. Whcn we
picked him up, we found one
scribbled note that rcad: "Dear
Mom and Dad, I'm having ..."
When we asked him why he
hadn't written us, he said, he had
bccn too busy. Elizabeth had prc-
written five lcttcrs and left them
•with the camp director, one to be
delivered cvcry day. (Canada Post
docs not specialize in super -quick
service in remote areas during the
summer holidays.) "Did you get
my Icttcrs cvcry day?" "Yes, but i
didn't have time to read them.
They wcrc too long, and thcrc
wcrc too many of them".
The kid loved camp. He made
new friends. A whole new world
opened for him. The boys played
tricks on the girls, on the
counsellors, and on- the camp
nurse. Alcxandcr looked tanned
and healthy. His clothes stank.
All eighteen pairs of socks were
black. Some of the stuff he came
back with didn't belong to him.
Elizabeth spent many hours •
laundering, drying, sorting,
worrying.
"I wisn I. wcrc back at camp,"
Alexander said .on a particularly
dull Sunday afternoon in August.
"What did you like best?" we
asked Alcxandcr. "The last night."
he said. "And why was that?" "We
wcrc up till two in the morning,
and we put firecrackers in the
counsellor's bed". How can we
compete with. that? With .the
excitement and wonder, the
abandon and -comradeship, the
freedom and independence of
camp.
i hope that this year he'll write
us a couple of "lcttcrs from
camp". if he docs, i'II share them
with you.
Serving South Huron, North Middlesex
& North Lambton Since 1873
Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited
'CAN'T (3E VERY IMPORTANT If YOU'RE NOT PROM 01.11 ANO CA QUEBEC—
TAKE A i,1UMtif.A AHt) 'MIT! "
Skirting sin
Oh, .what a tangled web we
weave, whcn first we practice to
deceive! The purchase of a
lovely skirt and jacket recently
was the start of a strange chain
of events.
Thinking to avoid my bus
band's expected cavil about not
needing any more clothes, I
took the first step on the rocky
road to deception. I decided to
tuck the' suit, safely concealed
inside its shocking pink hag, in
behind the passenger scat in my
little truck until I could get it into
the house unobtrusively. I was
sure that once I had shortened
the skirt and modelled the suit,
Don would commend my good
sense in adding such a Jewel to
my wardrobe.
The dinnertime calm was
broken only by a call from our
ncighbours,inviting us to join
some other guests at nine for
Black Forest cakc and coffcc in
honour of Thca's birthday.
At the appointed hour, we
headed out to die truck. I
opened the door, and got the
shock of my life. There, spread •
over thc driver's scat, was my
new jacket. i quickly confcsscd
that i had bought a suit - what
else could 1 do? - and pulled
back" the scat to retrieve the
matching skirt. It was gone. -
Don and I conducted a thor-
ough search of thc truck, the
arca around it, thc back porch,
everywhere we could. think of.
No bright pink bag. No skirt.
The mystery of the disappear-
ing skirt was the topic of conver-
sation around our 'neighbours'.
table. We discarded the thought
of theft. Who would take a jack-
et, and leave a skirt? And my
camera and flash had not been
touched.
My friends wcrc sure I had lett
the skirt at the office. Thea re-
called the time I couldn't find my
red slip, and put on another one.
Reynold's
Rap
hs
l s rrnne
Res hinds
The. lost was found on a trip to
the washroom - I was wearing
two. (Frankly, i thought that a
most inappmpriate time to remind
me of my forgetfulness!)
Others confcsscd to ahscn_t-
mindedly misplacing items like an
amythest pendant, a cheque, and
$400 in small bills. 1 didn't feel
quite so alone.
i was still wide awake at.2;00
a.m., counting the drops as a
heavy shower of rain fell on the
roof. (This was late May.) I fi-
nally concluded i was acting like
an idiot. here i was, worrying
and fretting over a material pos-
session. You would think 1 had
lost niybest friend, or bccn given
a death sentence by my doctor. I
sent my heavenly Father a plea
for forgiveness, and promptly
fell. asleep.
The next morning, 1 told my
husband of my change of heart,
and that whether the skirt ever
turned up or not, I was just going
to thank God for all I did have,
and leave matters in 1 lis hands.
.-':Why didn't you come to that
-conclusion last night before spoil-
ing my evening?", he grumped
on his way to the harp to do his
chores.
Don was -hack in 10 minutes.
Ile was carrying a bright pink
bag. inside was the missing
.skirt, still neatly folded. And
: dry, I Ic had spotted it behind a
mound of dirt just outside the
barn gate, 50 yards from the
house. "
A close inspection of both jack-
et and skirt showed tooth and
claw marks. Wc' figure one of
our barn cats, who has been
known to sleep in the truck, went
exploring, gotttangled i'n the hag,
dumbed the jacket out on his
frantic t limb up and through the
window, and --did not get rid of
his excess baggage until he was
almostat the ham. Miraculously,
the skirt stayed inside the hag
throughout this lum(ltous trek. -
Don had adopted the accused as
a starving little stray kitten, and
had just spent $50 having him
neutered. i informed my hus-
hand that if i had known what
that cat was going to. put me
through, i would hav, saved Don
the vet hill by doing the job my -
.self! Without anesthetic!
Quietly in charge
We wcrc in a family-stylc re-
staurant a couple of weeks ago
and watched with some interest a
little sccnc being acted out not
too many tables away.
A family came in with a tod-
dler. "Thi head-. -aitcr got the
young fellow a booster chair and
a glass of milk. The mother had
a special glass for infants which
she filled up partially and handcd
to him. Well, hc wanted the 'real
glass' and kickcd up a storm in
order tp get 11 My goodness, he
could howl. Mom todIC him into
the mall arca, got him quit..cd
down and brought him back
again.
ile still d'anted the 'real glass'
and launched another set of tears
and screams. Dad tumed purple.
ile stood up. Mom stood up too
and they had a little struggle with
each other about who would take
by
Syd
Fletcher
him out. Mom 'won' and hcadcd
for the mail. Dad paid for the.
milk. and his untastcd coffcc and
left, his face still slightly purple.
-Compare their style to a lady
another day with three little ones,
the oldest no more than six.
,Granted, she wasn't in quite as
dressy a restaurant but it was ob-
vious that she was prepared for
the situation. Out of the diaper
hag came a rattle for the baby,
crayons and paper. for the two
older ones. They settled down to
colouring for a few minutes an
by the time that wore off Mom
had a little game for each of them
in the bag to work on. Then:Dad
arrived with the 'food and they
wcrc in business for the rest of
the meal.
Above all, there was a distant
awareness on the part of those
three little kids about who was
quietly in charge.
In the.first case, the little guy
also kncw who was boss.
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