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Home My WebLink AboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-12-24, Page 22( g ge ta-Crossraa Thee. 24, til 11, 13i11 Smiley' Christmas past and present Like practically every- thing else,,in the frantic 20th century, Christmas is vastly overdone. A day that was, for our ancestors, a simple observance of the birth of Christ combined with a fam- ily get-together of reason- able jollity, has grown to the proportions of a nightmare in which shopping for gifts, exchange of cards, Christ- mas entertainments, high- powered advertising and a steady and relentless stream of so-called "Christmas" music make up the accumu- lation of horrors. In the good old days, the family rose early, and went to church, where the parson gave them a two-hour appe- tizer. They then went home and took a nip of something to take off the chill. While the servants were sweating in the kitchen, preparing the vast dinner to come, they took a bite of lunch. Then the ladies set off to distribute food parcels to the p or, while the men put their to the fire and went after tha �- chill again. That's your ancestors I'm talking about. Mine were among the people the ladies were taking the food to. I can still see them kicking the pigs under the bed when her ladyship came in, tugging their forelocks, scraping their feet, and saying "f'ank yer, milady, f'ank yer, mum" as she pulled one of the geese that died of di- sease, and one of last year's bottles of blackberry brandy, which had turned vinegary, out of her basket. Today, of course, my an- cestor's descendants will eat turkey on Christmas Day un- til they bear a resemblance to purple pigs, while the de- scendants of milady, who have managed to hang on to the old home only by taking tourists through at a shilling A weekly news commentary from one of Canada's outstanding news personalities BEST�oF PETER a shot, will be dining mea- grely, in the only room of.,the big house they can afford to heat, on a nice bit of brisket and some brussels sprouts. And serves them right. However, that's not what I started out to say, but I can't remember what it was, any- way. Oh, yes, about the old days and today- Well, despite all the wailing and throwing of hands in the air at the paganism and commercial- ism surrounding our Christ- mas today, I wouldn't trade it for the old-fashioned one of a hundred years ago. And don't forget, I said "surrounding" our Christ- mas. Sure our kids believe in Santa Claus. Sure our pre - Christmas preparations are getting more and more hectic and more and more subject to commercialism. But Qttrids grow out of Santa Claus, without any dire effects. And we get over' the pre -Christmas panic and celehrate` the day with just as much reverance and just as much family fun as ever our ancestors did. I'll warrant our youngsters know just as much, and maybe more, about the story of Christmas, and the com- ing of the Christ child, as their counterparts of a hun- dred years ago knew. Kline do, anyway, thanks to their Sunday School teachers. And I'll bet we're not half as smug and selfish, despite our much -touted material- ism, as our Victorian great- grandfathers were, sitting on their fat rumps by the fire on Christmas day, and letting the poor worry about them- selves. On this coming Christmas Day, in our own little town, the Band will be out in the cold, playing for the old people and shut-ins. Groups of ladies and men from a dozen different or- ganizations will be scurrying about with vast baskets of food and treats for the needy. And the needy are pretty few and far between these days, simply because we have a whole lot more social conscience than our an - casters had. Outside that . warm, cosy, jolty Pickwick- ian ickw ckian Christmas o n hundred years ago lay a world of cold and.hunger and degradation. We wouldn't let it exist to- day. So don't let the worry- - warts spoil your Christmas, with their perpetual com- plaining that Christmas is being paganized. Nothing can sully Christmas, be- cause Christmas is in your heart, in the simple story on that day, in the shining eyes of a child, in the loveliness of the carols. Yes, and it is in the Christ- mas tree, and the gay win- dows, and the colored lights against the snow and the perspiring Santa Claus at the Christmas concert, and the card from a friend you haven't seen in years. Just gird up your loins, plunge into your shopping, enjoy the giving of gifts, run yourself away into debt, be happy in the family reunion, go to church on Christmas -Day, stay away from the hard stuff, and don't be a pig with the turkey, and you won't go far wrong. The beef is waiting for you. Don't forget to pick up your lucky number for the Year End Beef Draw Hans Mayer Klaus Bloechinger Wingham, Ont. 519-357-1705 Res. 357-1262 B Line West of Josephine St. Store Hours: Closed on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday Thursday: 10:00-6:00 p.m. Friday: 10:00-8:00 p.m. Saturday: 10:00-4:00 p.m. HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR •HAPPY NEW YEAR • HAPPY NEW YEAR •HAPPY NEW YEAR YEARqv HAPPg UEW � the staff &m anagement�� FROZEN UTILITY GRADE (8-16 LB. AVG► lYp4V TURKEYS 4�� ie gtiao LB. 2.60 t-KG.I • . 1 8 ANOHOi4MAN POR GIMBAL NEWS There has been a row going on in Britain about the BBC's decision to broadcast pictures of the Trade Secre- tary, Norman Tebbit, moan- ing with pain as he was hauled from the wreckage of the Grand Hotel in Brighton. MP's newspaper columnists, and members of the public have criticized the BBC's in- sensitivity in splashing Mr. Tebbit's' moments of agony all over its evening news- cast. The row ended in a rather dramatic fashion when Mr. Tebbit himself wrote a letter to The Times defending the BBC's decision:to use the pictures. The Trade Secre- tary said that although he was opposed to graphic coverage of the suffering off disaster victims, the IRA bomb attack on the Grand Hotel was no accident. "It was murder and attempted murder," he wrote The Times. The logic of Mr. Tebbit's decision to draw the line between an accident and a deliberate act escapes me, since he seems to be suggesting that in this case, there is some kind of lesson to be learned from his suffer- ing. Namely, I suppose, that the IRA is a bad bunch and shouldn't be underestimat- ed. But it seems to me that if you use the same criteria, there are cases when it might also be instructive to depict the suffering of a truck driver pinned in the wreckage of his cab, for example. You would thereby remind the public that trucks and cars are lethal in- struments and that they should be treated with great care and caution. I realize that this argument coming from someone who makes his living in news is suspect. Maybe, but I have believed for years that by and large, the average editor or reporter is much more sensitive to this sort of thing than the general public. And thanks to a column in a recent Ottawa Citizen, by publisher Paddy Sherman, I now have something res- sembling evidence. According to Mr. Sher- man, a newspaper in North Carolina has done an inter- esting study on ethics. In it, the newspaper put some hypothetical cases before readers for decisions on whether or not to publish. Then it put the same cases before its editors, and compared attitudes. I'll cite just one of them to make a point. Suppose the mayor is a hard-liner on crime, especially on drugs. His 19 - year -old son who lives at home, and attends college, is busted for the possession of marijuna. Do you publish the story or don't you? Fully 58 per cent of the editors said that they would not publish it, but only 39 per cent of the readers turned thumbs down on the story. By and large, the treaders were much more open to publishing dubious stories than the editors' were. As I have said before, in a good newsroom, the inhabitants are ferocious worriers. And we're more likely to err on the side of caution than the other way around. RETURN WITH US 10... 811 -Owen /� 2�i,',1„lIt al -6. M-Wg Till VALSE TRISTE'BY THE GREAT FINNISH' COMPOSER JEAN SIBELIUS BECAME ,P34E OF RADIO'S BEST-KNOWN THEME SONGS ON r LOVE A MYSTERY X411 DERRY BOOKER ( ,• ,A (GLORIA \ BLONDELL) ,ti,L \I GERRY BOOKER WRS THE A-1 DETECTIVE AGENCY'S BEAUTIFUL SECRETARY WHO COMBINED SLEUTHING WItH SHORTHAND THE PROGRAM'S LISTENERS WOULD HAVE BEEN DISAPPOINTED IF DOC LONG DIDN'T SAY, HONEST TO MY GRANDMA, '.ON" AT LEAST ONCE PER inkBROAOCAST. JACK PACK ARO (MICHAEL RAFFET TO) DOC LONG (BARTON YARBOROUGH, AFTER WALTER PATERSON'S DEATH, REeeIeu ROLE WAS TAKEN OVER BY TONY RANDALL, WHO LATER STARRED IN TELEVISION'S ODD COUPLE. CARLTON E. MORSE PRODUCED one mavb xamll. IN ADDITION TO I LOVE A MYSTERY. IN FACT, THE ACTORS WHO ORIGINALLY PLAYED PAUL, CLIFF ANO NICHT IN MORSE S.FAM/LY PLAYED JACK, COC AND RESEIE. I LOVE A MYSTERY RELATED THE ADVENTURES OF THREE FREEBOOTERS WHO ROAMED THE WORLD SOLVING CRIMES, EACH HAD A SPECiACK HAD AN ANALYTICAL ERAILC CO N,DOULD PICK COMPLICATED LOCKS AND REGSIE WAS EXTREMELY STRONG. KG. MAPLE LEAF GRADE A DUCKS 1 .39. 3.06. KG. CUT FROM,THE HIP BONELESS RUMP LB. ROAST 1` KG. TIPLOIN ROAST 3.19 7.03 s.jY LB. 1 3.39 KG. 7.47 SANDWICH STEAK SIRLOIN TIP (MEATY) SHANK SOUP BONES (BONELESS) STEWING BEEF LB. 3.99 KG. 8.80 LB. .59 KG. 1.30 LB. 2.19 KG. 4.83 CUBE LB. 3.59 STEAKS KG. 7.91 PILLERS HUNGARIAN SMOKED SAUSAGE LB 3.59 KG 7.91 PILLERS PEPPERONI 3.59 LB 7.91 KG PILLERS MINI BLACK FOREST HAM 399 L' 8.80 PILLERS FINE COARSE FINE W/HERB LIVERWURST & BRAUNSCHWEIGER 1.79 LB. 3.95 KG MAPLE LEAF or" DEVON ,e e' LB. SAUSAGE KG. 1.691 3.73 YORK SHORT CUT PEAMEALes •19 B BACK L ■ 'BACON - KG. 4.83 SWIFTS PREMIUM OR LAZY MAPLE BACON Soot. 2 09 CLIFFSIDE (3 VAR) MEAT PIES 2.19 PILLERS 125G: COOKED HAM MAPLE LEAF 175G HAM STEAKS 1 ■29 1.79 MAPLE LEAF 250G. PARTY STICKS 1.79 MAPLE LEAF BONELESS DINNER /®\ LB. HAMS Lear KG. /� ■4 9 7.69 PRONTO 2 ROLL WHITE, ALMOND PAPER _ TOWELS � g g KRAFT 500G. CANADIAN CHEESE SLICES. 2.99 '00041. BO1T7LE r F PLUS 0 :I?'.. a CA PANTRY SHELF 10 OZ. MANDARIN ORANGES 2/r 1 ■ TROPHY 350G. MIXED NUTS 2.99 LIQUID DETERGENT 1 L. CRYSTAL 1.09 LISTERINE 500ML. MOUTHWASH 2.69 150G. SMELITZER 2.89. Eresh from the Farm PROD. OF ONT. CAN. NO. 1 LARGE HEAD CABBAGE 21.99 PROD. OF U.S.A. CALIFORNIA GOOD SIZE NAVEL ORANGES doz.' 1.69 PROD. OF U.S.A. CAN. FANCY ANJOU PEARS L8..7 KG. 1 .7 4 PROD. OF U.S.A. CAN NO. 1 VINE RIPENED TOMATOES PROD. OF U.S.A. LARGE STALKS CELERY PROD. OF U.S.A. 1 LB. RADISHES LB .59 PROD. OF U.S.A. GREEN ONIONS PROD. OF U.S.A. CAN NO 1 RED EMPERIOR GRAPES LB .8 9 ..1.30 . 79 . 59 3/.79 DELI SPECIALS as oaf . LO:: 1.69. it x.3 8 t.LERS BLACK FOI E'ST• 1./2 OR. WHOLE. HAM 9 140G. ERS HooGA.R'LAN. GEIIR•MAN SAILAMI 8. t S, .1 0G, rR COOKED Liar■99 HtA > tom. .1 2 ... `I DR THAT HEW YEAR'S PA TRY II. & M HOMEMADE P1 Z. .$0444.: MEQ! LARGE i r9w`9. 4.99" ORDER YOUR CHEESE FRIENDLY MARKETS Walton. to L & M Coca SCHNEIDERS 375G. MUFFIN RODS 1.99 SCHNEIDERS 3750. CHUBS SAUSAGE MEAT 1 .1V SCHNEIDERS MINCEMEAT TARTS 2.19 SCHNEIDERS 500G. SAUSAGE, ROLLS2.39 SCHNEIDERS 500G. BOLOGNA 2.49 SCHNEIDERS 175G. POPULAR COOKED MEATS SCHNEIDERS. POP•. COOKED MEAS'4u ; . LOAVES SCI4N:EtDERS; THQRtNGER SUMMER h,>x ADAGE iT.7 SCHNEIDERS1..0 0Iit:IPFY' CHEESE 3.19 LB. 7. IFeS DUTCH LUNCHEON SALAMI BICKS, WHOLE DILL W/GARLIC WHOLE DILLS MIXED, YUM YUM 1 LITRE OGORKI, BABY DILLS, SWEET PICKLES GLAD FOOD 50'S STORAGE BAGS 139 NO GARLIC. POLSKI GLAD 60M. WRAP 1 .9-9 GLAD 24's CATCHERS 1 .69 CLOVER LEAF FLAKED KITCHEN TUNA 1 .99 LIBBY 14 OZ. WITH TOMATO SAUCE, WITH MEATBALLS WITH SMURF-A-GETTI .89 CHICKEN SAUCE LIBBY'S SPAGHETTI WITH TOMATO SAUCE, ZOODLES PASTAS ..'Z./ 1..09 BAKERY WESTONS 12's ROLLS ®C 9 • WESTONS 12's WIENER OR HAMBURG BUNS .99 GROSSING BREAD 1.89 9 ARDMONA FRUIT COCKTAIL. PEACH SLICES OR PEACH HALVES 14 OZ FRUIT .99 CHEFMASTER SMOOTH OR CRUNCHY 500G, PEANUT BUTTER 1.49 MONEY'S PIECES & STEMS 5000 MUSHROOMS .89 CANNED HAM 2.8a CHRISTIE'S 450G. HEG. OR CHEESE CRACKERS PALANDA 454G, 1.99 L&M10's GARBAGE BAGS.89 BICKS OR McLARENS 375ML (PICKLES ONIONS CHERRIES) - PARTY. JARS 1.99 FLx�@E@�IvS..,I�CyHI��MI,'�{y: y yyaw��r Ut rtyrt,/G'tJL TSU'N'FAOWEA. swat e EGG NOG OLD SOUTH 12 OZ ORANGE, GRAPEFRUIT JUICE .99 YORK B OZ. BEEF, .CHICKEN, RKEY MEATPIES.69 ALORO 5" DELUXE 4000 . PIZZA HAPPY NEW YEAR 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR ° HAPPY NEW YEAR ° HAPPY NEW YEAR - HAPPY NEW YEAR