Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1982-01-06, Page 4Tlmea-Advocate, Janus 0. 1110: Ames - Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 LORNE EEDY Publisher ' JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager dvocate Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by I.W. Eedy Publications limited BILL BATTEN ROSS HAUGH Editor Assistant Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 235-1331 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $17.00 Per year: U.S.A. $55.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC' Time to be positive It would be encouraging if Canadian could stand on the threshold of this 'new year with the anticipation that things will improve over the record of the past 12 months. However, there is little to suggest that there will be a quick turn -around of the economic problems that touch many lives. The most optimistic forecast in • - dicate that some improvements will show on the horizon as 1982 moves into the later stages, but of course, time alone will be the test. • But it is imperative that people sift through the doom and gloom predictions to realize that the future is in their hands to a great extend. If they think and act negatively, then negative results will probably transpire. A positive approach may not guarantee positive results, due to the contributing elements over which individuals have no direct control, but it at least provides the opportunity for success. Experts predict, for instance, that unemployment will increase this year. Those who view that prediction negatively and. tackle their responsibilities with an at- titude of defeatism will possibly see the prediction come true. Those who see the prediction as a challenge to protest their position with renewed enthusiasm and hard work, may just succeed in protecting their livelihood through the positive results. Most Canadians have enjoyed a high standard' of living in recent years without having had to work par- ticularly hard to achieve it. They've ridden on the coat- tails of others and have come to expect the good times to keep on rolling without a corresponding exertion on their part. Unless they change that attitude and replace it with some hard thinking and hard work, they'll 'find 1982 to be a year of some hardship. Those who put their nose to the grindstone, are prepared to accept a little less in material things arid tackle the job of living with a positive attitude will probably find they'll end up at the end of 1982 relative- ly unscathed. Some resolutions offered The New Year is one of those periods when people tally up their personal score cards, taking a hard look at the past and planning for the future. Here are some suggested New Year's resolutions for a variety of Canadians: • Prime Mi>ister Pierre Trudeau and the provincial premiers: that co-operation, and not confrontation, will play an integral role in all their political activities in 1982. • Finance Minister Allan MacEachen and his ad- visers: that they will change their ways and come to understand the crucial importance of the country's small and medium-sized firms, giving this vital sector of the economy the support it deserves. • Management and employees at the post office: that itQ the mail will indeed be delivered on time in a strike - free year. • Civil servants: that they. will understand the dif- ficulties facing the nation and not seek raises that sur- pass compensation paid in the private sector. Also, that they will become a little more civil. • Bankers: that they will show compassion toward people about to lose their property, as well as troubled business people and farmers who require a sym- pathetic ear rather than edicts to pay . up or sell out. • The public: that people will at least compare the prices and quality of products sold by small and medium-sized retailers, to those of the big chain operations. Happy New Year. Good old days are returning The London board of education has an interesting pioneer -days program that is currently fascinating young children at the Circle R Ranch in Delaware. Associated with the program is a quiz entitled "Have You Ever...?" which lists 64 items such as carried fire wood, shucked corn, used a scythe. talked over a crank telephone. milked a cow quilted, made a slingshot, had your hair cut at home, etc, etc. The quiz was recentlypublished in the Free Press and educaion writer Chris Dennett had it set up so it could be 'answered by children, parents and grandparents, noting that the different totals that would be reached by the various generations in their answers would constitute the "generation gap." I came upwith a total that obviously belies my ender years, findingthat of the 64 items listed in the quiz, thre were only ,six which I have never personally experienced. Included in that six was the fact the writer has never experienced the pleasure of smoking a bit of grapevine, although there should be half points for having tried corn silk and dried leaves. Nor have I had the experience of home- made root beer, although again, there should be some merit in having had to sample a batch of my home-made elderberry wine that made vinegar seem delightful in comparison. There was no remorse in not being able to reply in the positive to having trapped a skunk. That's an experience any generation would be happy to avoid. The difficulty, I suspect, is not in trapping the skunk, nut in getting the animal ou of the trap. • • • One of the interesting aspects of the quiz is that while many are rural oriented and basically from days long gone, there are some experiences which { t are again gaining some popularity, although popularity is used in the context of being practiced as opposed to being enjoyed. Among the list of 64 items are the questions whether you have ever carried fire wood, split stove wood or filled a water reservoir on a stove. Five or ten years ago. that question would have received a no" from a large 1PV7 ANA BATT'N AROUND xk; with the editor percentage of people, but today 'it is once again becoming fashionable in many homes. It will also lead to more positive responses for a couple of the other questions which deal with watching an axe being sharpened on a grindstone or cutting wood with a cross -cut saw. It could also bring some positive answers to yet another of the 64 questions which asks if you have ever been lost in the woods which in turn could give a "yes;' to anotheruestion of whether you've ever slept out of doors overnight without a tent. Another of the questions on whether you've evercleaned and lighted a kerosene lamp is also taking on some modern connotation with the advent of the new kerosene heaters that have flooded the market this year in the battle with the escalating price of fuel oil and other energy supplies. The quiz perhaps highlights the fact that while many of the items have been experienced mainly by many of the older- generation, they are things that are returning to the modern world through necessity and perhaps even more of them will become common pursuits as the economic difficulties of the 1980s mount. In fact, there are a few things that the first and third generations may have in common that have not been experienced by some parents (the secondgeneration1. Carrying fire wood or filling a water reservoir on a stove may he a couple of examples to explain that point. Many young couples are using old-style kitchen stoves to heat and cook, an experience not uncommon for their grandparents, but ones that may have been missed by their parents. The increasing number of ecology buffs who have picked wild greens, churned butter, etc. are other examples of old-fashioned experiences that are gaining some new advocates. Many youngsters are also seeing some of these dying arts performed during school trips to pioneer villages and it may be that some of them can answer more question4 in the affirmative than their parents. Perhaps the generation gap that most would expect isn't quite as great as they may think if they realty cons der some of the old-fashioned crafts that are being rekindled. Some are being rekindled through necessity, while the majority are basically through- eniovment and' a , desire to do something better than sit in front of the idiot box. Today's kids can answer "yes" to hav- ing seen many of the items contained in the quiz, and unlike grandpa who may be able to answer even more, they can also note they can tackle some of the jobs more expediently by planning the work on a computer. • "My mortgageis up for renewal — why isn't the Trudeau government?" Another big meal declined Like many people, we had a . visiting relative in our home for a few days over the Christmas season. Our guest was my great aunt Etoile (yes. that's French for star, but with an anglicized pronounciation) who is. just 93 years young. I can remember a time when Aunt Etoile's age was a well guarded secret. But when she hit 90 she dis- covered that old age is a novelty. and nothing to be ashamed of! Now, when she meets people for the first time she is able to use her age at-a'conversation piece - "Imagine! I'm 93, isn't that something?" she boasts. And it is something - she enjoys remarkably good health for a woman her age. She lives in her own apart- ment in Detroit, where she is completely independent, walking several blocks to buy her groceries. Friends pick her up for church each Sunday. and she hasn't miss- ed a service in several years. She enjoys reading, running through a paperback novel in a couple of days. But while she seems quite self-sufficient, she never ceases lamenting the fact that she no longer has a car. I'm sure she must have had one of the first cars to roll off the assembly line in Detroit in those early years, and she continued to have flashy new cars until she was 89 years old. tearing up the Detroit freeways. But her eyesight was beginning to let her down; she even- tually relented and gave up her car. Her ears have also failed her in recent years, and she now wears two hearing aids. But most of the time they dangle uselessly from her eyeglasses. Amazingly, she seems able to hear what she wants to hear. and shut out what she finds annoying. Her memory has also let her down - to some extent. During the course of a visit you'll hear five or six times over what happened last week at the Senior Citizens Club. But with a little prod- ding her memory will recall 'for her stories of her childhood - most of which are fascinating tales not heard before. This visit we heard about her Christmas when she was seven years old, and she was sure she wasn't going to get any gifts. You see, her father wa's the captain -of a ship on the Great Lakes, and was seldom home. Her mother was raising four lit- tle girls practically on her own when she died. Their father tried to keep the fami- ly together by hiring housekeepers, but it didn't work out. Eventually the girls were all given away to different homes. Aunt Etoile, atseven; was the eldest. and no one wanted her. It was easy to find homes for babies and toddlers apparently, but times were tough and people were unwilling to take in an older sister. Finally she was given to a family where a teen age daughter had died. She arrived there just before Christmas. Because she felt un- wanted. she was sure there wouldn't be any gifts for her at Christmas. But to her sur - Mary's musings Hy Mary Alderson prise her stocking was crammed full. She went on to say that her new home turned out .to be better than any of her three sisters. Aunt Etoile never married. "But I had chances. you know," she in- sists. She was engaged to a young man who went overseas in the first world - war and was killed. His sister became a life long friend of hers, and a second aunt to my family. Aunt Etoile spent all her holidays travelling., She vacationed in Cuba prior to the communist revolution, and once toured all of South America. She' has hopped about` Europe and Asia several times. Last yearshe flew to Florida, and this year she threatens to take off for the Bahamas. While her ears, eyes and memory have failed her from time to time. she has certainly maintained her 'hearty appetite. Perhaps eating three big, square meals a day hasisomething to do with her longevity. In any case. she was shocked and disgusted to learn that breakfast is very seldorti served in our household. At 8:00 each morning over the Christmas holidays she was. rattling around in the kitchen. searching for the in- gredients for a hearty breakfast. . My husband managed to sleep through some of our breakfasts, while Aunt Etoile polished off a half grapefruit. an egg, three strips of bacon, 2,i slices of toast. two cups of coffee, coffee cake and jam. I nibbl- ed on a slice of toast and watched. For lunch we would have soup. sandwiches, fruit and 'a dessert. No meal was com- plete without cake, cookies or ice cream. Dinner, of course. had to be a multi - course affair. And she likes nothing better than to sit down to a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. Her love of food is reflected in the stories she tells of her travels. She may not be able to describe the ruins she saw in Greece, but you will hear all about the unusual salad, or delicious spring lamb she ate. Anyway. we served her a. lull course Sunday noon dinner before driving her back to Detroit. We arrived at her apartment around six o'clock. and she asked us 10 stay for.dinner. But we just couldn't face another big meal. We declined. On tile way home, we stopped at McDonalds and enjoyed some junk food. What a treat after three square meals a day. Kids are so spontaneous Kids at 5 and 6 are at an enchanting age. They are' so spontaneous and honest in their outlook toward life. A couple of them came in. to show me some work recently and one men- tioned that he had a new pair of eyeglasses. "Congratulations", I said. "You know I wear glasses too, but you have to look a little closer to see them." Entranced; they both peered at my eyes, trying to spot the 'contact lenses. At last they did and the one with glasses said, "I see them. So you're cross-eyed too eh?" Another day I was in the kindergarten room when the children were painting. "My, that's a fine piece "I know" she said, and went on with her project. True confidence, eh? Somewhere along the line Perspectives of work," I remarked, looking at one of the works of art being splattered onto the paper. The little girl working in- tently on the easel hardly looked up. By Syd Fletcher a lot of kids lose that con- fidence.pPerhaps too critical people look work of little ones, expecting them to be up to adult standards, immediately if not sooner. Following are a few recipes which the kindergarten children memorized at hon and then brought to school for a "Christmas Recip book". Rice Krispie Squares Sugar, Rice Krispies,. marshmallows, butter, mix it, put it in the oven. Jello Some water in a bowl - some powder - put it in the freezer, then it's done. Potatoes First' you wash your hands wash the potato, peel the potato, put it in the pan put it in boiling water. Eat themt Happy cooking! t",