The Brussels Post, 1972-03-22, Page 2Otkussds Post
W.dnesday, MOO 22 1972
Serving Brussels and the surrounding eemMunity
published each Wednesday afternoon at. Brussels, Ontario
by Mclean, Bros. Publishers, 1,4iMited.
Evelyn Kennedy Editor Tom - Advertising
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Npwspaper Association.
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $4.00 a year, Others
$5,00 a year, Single CopieS 10 cents each,
Second class mail Registration No. 0562.
Telephone 887-6641.
Youth on the move
Several Brussels and area youths
who now are enjoying a tour of
England and Europe point up the
difference in school programs be-
tween now and even ten years ago.
Built into school curricula to-
day is an awareness of the benefits
derived from first hand knowledge.
No longer is it enough or for that
matter will to-day's youth accept,
what is told them or what appears
in their study books. They have to
be shown.
So it is that a large proportion
of a student's time is spent in
actually seeing or doing the things
about which in the past he was con-
tent to read about. He is en-
couraged to take part in an in-
creasingly heavier athletic program;
he has the opportunity to make field
trips at frequent intervals; he
learns about the democratic process
by discussion with political leaders
who are anxious to meet the students
on their own ground.
The fact that students move about
more than was ever before considered
possible reflects of course the
mobility of their elders. We all are
travelling more and further and
faster than ever before. • • .
While there is cri
some quarters and rema
waste of money' what b
could be devised to to
and instill in them an
of how the other half
take them to where the
Brussels young peop
travelled across Canad
Europe will be better
cause of their experie
ticism in
rks about 'a
etter way ,
ach our youth
appreciation
live than to
action is.
le who have
a and to
citizens be-
nces.
"Wylie, if I catch you studying again, you're going to
lose your scholarship,"
Sugar and Spice
by Bill Smiley
Among attractions which soon will attract tourists in Ottawa is the Changing of the Guard
ceremony held daily during the summer months on Parliament Hill. The traditional pageant
attracts as many as 12,000 visitors a day.
Like most people who have one foot
in the grave and the other foot butting
out the cigarette that's putting them there,
I become increasingly averse to change.
Why can't my wife be the way she was
when I married her: sweet, dumb, inno-
cent and believing that my opinion was
more important than hers? Why can't my
daughter say, "Yes, dad", instead of
"Look, Dad"? Why can't my son do
something besides shake his head in agony
when I expound on the virtues of hard work,
meeting your payments, and all that crud?
It seems that the only people with
whom I am still on the same wave-length
are old friends.
Now, I'm not going to give you an
analogy comparing old friends to old wine.
Although I do think they should be kept
in the same place: a cool, dry spot, to
be brought out at the exact moment.
I have brought out some of my old
friends at the wrong moment. One in
particular, can wreak havoc with my
domestic relations. We're having a lovely
barbecue, for example. His kids are
drifting in and out. And then he says
something like "Smiler, remember the
night we picked' up those.two ...."
And I leap smartly into the breach and
holler, "Oh, yeah, those two unusual
claM-shells at the beach", while his
and my wife exchange looks and make
mental notes and prepare future third-
degrees.
However, as they say when they don't
know any other way of getting back on the
track, some old friends preserve not only
their sanity, but their sense of humour.
Recently had a letter from such. Dave
McIntosh, a toiler in the bleached vine-
yards of journalism. He says he has been
writing politics in. Ottawa for the Canadian
Press for two centuries. This is known as
understatement, or litotes , if you are
taking English from me, and aren't you glad
you aren't?
We went to University together
"fought" (mostly our way into the Regent
Palace in London) together , and he set
me up with the Coldest woman I have
ever met, when he couldn't keep a date
and had me fill in.
Dave was the only non-freak in North
House, which sounds like something out
of Dickens, and was. A "residence".
It sounds like a moderneuphemism mean-
ing someplace you are put away. Many
of the inhabitants of the men's residence
should have been put away then, and
some have been since. Which proves
nothing.
The "jocks" didn't like him, because
he laughed at them. If you are not up
on the latest slang, jocks were the, in
those days, crew-cut boys who knew
that the way to get ahead was to be
on the .team, marry the right girl, and
kick the right people in the face as
you climbed the ladder. They, unfor-
tunately, are still with us. The only
difference is the ferocity of their side-
burns , a s compared with the short-
ness of their crew-cut.
The. aesthetes didn't like him, be-
cause he laughed at them. If you are not
up on aesthetes, they are the people who
chuckle over the latest vicious review of
a play, who parrot anyone who has ever
uttered a bon mot, who are seen at all
the right places, but couldn't write a
paragraph or a scene, or a poem. They
are the flies who buzz around a carcass.
It must be dead. If it shows signs of
life , they shriek with alarm and re-
treat into generalities like, "Well, after
all, he's only doing his own thing." If
his "thing" is vomiting on the carpet,
that's fine.
Sorry, chaps. Didn't mean to get
mean. I have a toothache. Mac and
I became friendly because I was the only
non-freak in Middle House.
We were talking about old friends.
And in his letter, Dave said something
that struck me. He said "Weeklies are
a gold mine." He's right.
And that brings me to another old
friend - my favourite weekly. Naturally
it's the weekly of which I used to be
editor. It was with great delight that
I read recently a letter to the editor
in said weekly. It stated, "The former
editors (that's me) were gentlemen."
I agree.
Latest issue states that Bill Smiley
is "a fine man and a great writer." I
think the writer of the letter thus pro-
claiming has either a drinking or a
mental problem, but I don't even care.
Although I think it might have been a
fine writer and a great man.
Another gem, same issue. Classified
ad: "Notice: Would the person who
got my gloves from my car Thursday
evening and left me two pounds of
butter,please phone . . ."
A local correspondent begins, "Hi,
dears, let's see what's on the old swizzle
stick this week . . . " A lady who has
never even licked a swizzle stick, I
swear. It's gold, all right.
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