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The Brussels Post, 1979-01-17, Page 2MUSK LS ONTARIO WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 17 , 1979 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited Evelyn Kennedy• Editor Pat Langlois - Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a Year. Others $17.00 a Year. Single Copies 20 cents each. ed. hristina 4Brussels Post Sugar and spice By Bill Smiley My plan for the year ISTA/LIONIP Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston Living with winter With a whole new year extending itself lubriciously before us, perhaps it's time to wonder what we are going to do with the next 10 or 12 months. My plan for the next 12 months. My plan for the next 12 months is to become an eccentric. This may not seem much of an ambition, but I've always admired eccentrics, and secretly desired to be one. My wife and other close friends have already suggested that I am a bit weird, but that's their problem. After almost 20 yeers as a teacher of English, I'm gona spell 'er like she is, the way my students do. That's only one of my eccentricities. I am also going to grow hair in my nostrils, not to mention my ears. No more of this to the barber, "Yas, give the ears a liddle trini, and the eyebrows." I want hairy ears and eyebrows. I want to look like an ancient Jewish profit. If that isn't enough, I'll grow flurd in my belly-button. You know what flurd is, I hope. It's that cottony stuff that grows in your belly-button. Flurd was the real cause of the American civil war. The Northerners were growing more flurd in their belly-buttons than the Southerners were on their plantations. But enough of flurd. And who ever heard of a "civil" war? A war may be full of fiendish cruelty or dreadful atrocities or monumental indignities but there is nothing civil about it. A civil war occurs when you sue your neighbour to tear down the fence that is bowing over your begonias. Back to my eccentricities. Every summer, until now, I have eschewed the wearing of a tie. And I know my dignity has suffered. I've heard people say it. They say, "Look at his dignity. Did you ever see such suffering?" Next summer, come what may, I'm going to chew a tie. Every day. It may be a little rough, a tie a day, but with the price of lettuce what can you lose? Another thing I plan to do next year is dribble, No, no, not dribble a "'sotball about the backyard. Any ineccentric can do that. 1 mean dribble at the nose and mouth, constantly. And I will wipe it with my sleeve. This is only slightly less eccentric than picking one's nose in public and eating it, which a rell eccentric will do every time. Do I begin t r' diSi44110 you? Don't worry. It gets worse. I have- dell-formulated plans to wear white wool sox with black patent- leather shoes, brown shoes with a blue blazer, and white sho..3 with an orange tuxedo. I will wear my hair long, but always in a discreet bun to go with my granny glasses. I am planning a big party for the Twelfth of July. So far, only the Pope and a few cardinals have accepted. But I'm expecting a few other rare birds. Like King Billy the Eleventeenth. It promises to be quite a conflagration. Another thing I'm going to do in the new year is Not Go South For the Winter. This is becoming one of the more eccentric things to do. And I'm going to change my whole attitude toward my grandboys. No more love' and attention. That's not eccentric, That's bourgeois. This year it's going to be, "Get off my clavicle, you little monster, or I'll give you a good scelpt in the lurch." That'll teach them that it doesn't pay to fool around with a relic. I have some eccentricities in store for my old lady, too. Instead of sitting there reading the paper, I'm going to look up, smile brightly and say, "Darling, that's the most fascinating account I've ever heard of how you made the bed and did last night's dishes and vacuumed the living room." She'll probably go into a state of total oblivion. There are a few other bad habits I'll have to discard if I want to become the complete 20th century eccentric. (Don't try to say that one unless you have your partial plate in.) I'm going to stop semi-supporting my kids. No more handouts. Perhaps this seems excessively eccentric (see paragraph above), but at the respective ages of 30 and 26 they are no longer my business. In fact, I wish I had a business, so I could disown them. A nice hardware business, for example, with a net profit of about $50,000. I'd just love to say, "I disown you, and I'm leaving the business to your cousin Elwood, who smokes pot, hangs around the pool-hall, goes out with fallen women, and doesn't know whether his arm is glued or tatooed." I'd love to see the look on their faces. Or would 1? This eccentric business is not as simple as it seems. And you'd better have your dentures in for that one. To the editor: It has been very encouraging and heart warming over the holiday season to have such a large number of people show interest in our residents. We ate encouraged by the government to have more people in the community participate in our work with our senior citizens. Back when we were contemplating the purchase of the home we now call. Muddy Lane Manor, we took one look at the 900 foot laneway and said to ourselves: "Well, it certainly should be private." Ah but the times have overtaken us. One recent sunny Sunday . afternoon we had about half the population of Huron County troupe past our back door. We are victims of the return to enjoyment of winter. MacLean's magazine recently dealt with the growing trend of people to get back to the land in mid-winter. That trend has become very evident here too, particularly just in the past year. Oh the trend started a dozen years or so ago I guess. That was when the snow- mobile first arrived on the scene and people began to buy it. There are generally two kinds of people when it comes to snowmobiles: those for them and those against. On the plus side, they started the trend to get people outside in winter, particularly in this neck of the woods where the populairty of downhill skiing had never been large. They came in handy in times of emergencies. I remember the big blow of '71 when people were ferried to hospitals on them and food was taken to school children and teachers marooned at country schools. On the other hand, they're expensive to buy, expensive to operate and they shattered the calm of rural areas. They also gave another way for an irresponsible minority to get in trouble, running over newly planted trees, running down wild animals, cutting fences etc. But the legacy that will perhaps be most appreciated by mothers is the change in emphasis they brought for winter clothing. I remember as a kid rebelling against any kind of proper winter clothing. There were snowsuits in those days but they were heavy and uncomfortable and very unfashionable with anybody but the youngest of children. We also wore jeans with a plaid lining but since these were considered to be something only the hicks from the country wore (ours was one of the first schools where town and country pupils were mixed) we quickly rebelled against those too. Our last line of protention was long winter underwear, the one-piece kind with the trap door. But when we were old enough to discover that the town kids who set the trend didn't wear those either, we ended up walking to catch the bus with only the scanty protection of one Pair of pants. It's a wonder we didn't freeze for our stubborness. But when the snowmobile came into fashion so did the snowmobile suit and kids wanted to wear one to look like dad and mom. Finally we had warm kids again. The snowmobile trend only got part of Time is long for them, and if anyone finds they have even a little time to spare to visit with them, or read, or play cards or games. You maybe greatly rewarded to fnd how much happiness you have spread. You may even spark interest in some small way where before there was no interest. The reward is doubled, because the population however. We've had snowmobiles buzzing past our place since we moved here. We quickly discovered then that we were on the snowmobile equivalent of highway 401, the high speed freeway leading from town to the favourite country haunts of the snowmobilers. Actually although the numbers were 'heavy, the machines and their owners bothered us less than when we lived in town. Here they whizzed through at high speed. There they were apt to sit and talk outside the livingroom window, obliterating all programming on television for the evening. The big chance that became evident that Sunday afternoon, however was the new swing to cross-country skiing. The sport has been growing at a very rapid rate. Our family and a good many of Our friends all took it up last year. It appears, from the parade that went by that Sunday that a good deal of the rest of the population is taking it up too. Though the privacy of our rural retreat has perhaps suffered a bit because of the rediscovery of the fact that winter can be fun, I think the upsurge in winter sports is perhaps the best thing to happen to the country in a long time. Canadians obsession with getting away from winter weather has grown to the point of the ridiculous in recent years. Our country is in horrible financial shape, a good deal because of the flood of people heading to southern climes each winter. It seems winter vacations are now as prominent as summer vacations. When we can't go south, people seem to want to get away from the weather by becoming moles in underground warrens. In Toronto and Montreal you can walk and ride through half the downtown area without ever seeing daylight. But people who continue to resist their environment rather than learning to live with it can never be a very contented people. Strangely, our rebellion against winter came at a time when we had more things to make ourselves comfortable in the cold than ever before. People of an earlier era had reason to hate winter when homes were draftier and wood fires died overnight and pipes frozen, if indeed there was water in the house at all. Trips were in cold sleighs with buffalo rugs trying, often unsuccessfully, to keep the body heat in. Yes, people of that generation had reason to hate winter but they made their piece with it, preparing to live with it in summer and fall by putting away foo'd and fuel, wearing proper clothing and managing to enjoy it with skating parties, and other outdoor activities. Perhaps finally we're again ready to live with winter, not run away from it. not only have you cheered a lonely person, but you may find your own spirit lifted, and a warm feeling permeates your whole being. What better way to feel on these cold whiter days? Nursing home visits liftspirits Margaret Krauter Director of Nursing Callander Nursing Home