The Brussels Post, 1973-10-10, Page 2I \
Evelyn Kennedy Editor Tom Haley - Advertising
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ne in and one loss
Sugar and Spice
by Bill Smiley
(Photo by. Haley)
Evining
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1973
-Serving Brussels and the surrounding community
published, each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited.
The old saying you win some and
you lose some seems to apply e's-
p'ecial ly 'to two of the decisions
made by the Huron County Board of
Education at their recent meeting
in Clinton. Their winning decision
was to okay the introduction of a
V.D. education kit, developed jointly
by the Ministry of Education and the
Ministry of Health, into the health
programs of county schools.
V.D. education will begin in a
modified form in Grade7 and,will be
continued in. area high schools.
Huron M.O.H. Frank Mills, who
presented tni kit to a committee of
the board, says it is hard to esti-
mate the incidence of v.d. in the
county pecause physicians do not
always report cases of the disease
to the county health unit. But it's
fair to assume that statistics from
other areas can be applied here and
that v.d. is a growing problem
faced by- younger and younger people
every year.
V.D., like sex, has been around
for many many years , and it is 'only
common sense to recognize- and accept
the fact that some of the kids who
experiment with sex will find them-
selves victims of the disease which
can do a great deal of physical dam-
age if it remains untreated.
Rather than taking the story book
approach, favoured by those who
dislike any kind of sex education
in the schools, that kids won't try
what they don't know about, our
boar& of education i s being real isti
The board's decision whi ch means
loss for the people of Huron. County
and more specifically the students
of Seaforth District High School, is
its refusal to recommend S.D.H.S.
geography teacher John Ball for
assignment with the Department of
Defense as a teacher in Europe for
two years. The board refused Mr.
Ball's request for recommendation
(necess'ary before he can even be
considered in Ottawa) on the grounds
that Huron's declining enrollment
makes it hard to hold a teacher's
job while .he is away in Europe for
two years.
C.
Surely
and unders
gets from
overseas ,
contributi
the educat
hiS return
avoiding
problem in
the increased knowledge
Landing which a teacher.
a two year assignment
and the resulting greater
on that he can make tO
ion of his students on
iS more important than
possible administrative
holding his job Open.
Last week I was talking of the fun of
meeting people when you are travelling.
It's.not that your friends at' home are dull.
They're probably more interesting than
some of the types with whom , you becothe
bosom buddies on short acquaintance. But
the people you meet on holiday are a
refreshing affirmation that the earth con-
tains an infinite variety of creatures of
the human species.
This week , I'd like to' finish these
thoughts by introducing you to three greatly
different peOple we met in. England; a Bob,
a Barmaid, and a Brigadier. ...„
Hurtling from Edinburgh to Chester on
a train, We picked up at the ancient and
bloody old' city of Carlisle near the
Scottish border, an addition to our
compartment.
I didn't mean that Carlisle is bloody
in the sense of bloody awful. But It did
change hands-"several times in the bloody
border wars. And it was there that William
Wallace, the great Scots rebel, was put on
public 'view in a cage, before he was
hanged, drawn and quartered, and his
parts affixed on various pikepoles about
the city, as a lesson to the Scots "rebels".,
in the fourteenth century. ,
Anyway, Bob Mitchell proved an
agreeable travelling companion. He was
interested, interesting, and affable. We'd
been in the. same war, lie on corvettes
in the navy; I in the air force. we
nattered abOtit taxes, housing costs, Coin ,
paratiVe incomes.
As we rattled through • the Lake8
DiStrict, he went to pains to Obit out
things and sights of interest. He suggested`
a good restaurant in London. A veritable'
gentleman:, in this age of beets.
He proVed this when we stopped. to
'change fox CheSter. I started wrestling.
With our luggage and an inCipient COron-
ary. Before I could say, Mitchell",
he had whipped the two big suitcases Oft
the ovethead rack, nipped outandput them .
On the piatfOrina, ' haVe to be a.
basket case for this to happen tO you in
Canada.
During our earlier conversation, lie
told me had a cousin in Neepawa, Man,
told him„,,,my Cothran Wag' in the
Neepawa Press. So lidit"g his message
to his cousin gorAtk if Prod btook temeui-
hoeg his visits to the.' Roman Wall area
ofCumberland and .Notthuithetiand, and,
his walks' kiting the heieh at 8outlibottitie
thete you arei Prod ofoolt,
The Barnaidi I'd been telling mywife
fot years Atka the battaide of
they are NOT the busty, bioweybatmaids
of fiction: But they area bteed of their
owns and their, 0 'weell it be, diititAli",
and Means thanks,
tint itiey Seethed: to be a ViniShiiig
bided, eupplatited by young Whitten' With
too much make-up, wearing slacks and a
bored expression.
was beginning to despair, of finding
a real English barmaid. But we did. She
was Heather. in. the Tudor, Westminster
Hotel, Chester.' She was ,.100 per cent
proof of everything I'd been telling the
Old Lady.
She ran that bar like the ringmaster
of a three-ring circus. 'Excellent service,
a joke or a personal word for all the
regulars. No-play for tips. Peanut8 or
potato chips for anyone who .locikecl,
though he needed it. And all the time
humming a ,song, pirOnetting behind the
bar, actually*"enjoying life. A delight-
ful person.
And nobody,. but nobody, got out Of
line in that pub. it -Was not a matter of
rules , or threats, but of personality.
Then' there was the Brigadier. He.
was another kettle of fish, a horse of a
different colour, or, rather, of a. number
of different colours, like a chameleon.
He was either a ScOttith lord or the
biggest liar in London, and I lean toward
the latter.
We had a casual drink, together, and he
was friendly. I swiftly learned that he
Was 58 (he loOked 42), had been in the
Cameron HighlanderS , was a retired
Brigadier, had been' with BritiSit
gene, 'But' mustn't talk about that,
Of course."
That's when I began to 'suspect. When
he told me he spoke Iltingariati,'Hotitria,
niati and Polish without an accent, my
stispiCiOnS deepened. •
When. I said, in my blunt Canadian.
Way, "HOW coiner' ,he answered airily,
"Part of the job, old boY."
When I asked- his name, he said,
'Just call the Catrierett." It: seemed he
WAS the Lord of LOChiel; and he muttered
about the - Camerons and their feuds with
the McDonalds and OtherS.
He had an Unnerving habit Of drinking.
SiX,Perticidg, while I was worrying 'through
two halfpiritS. Then he'd get .quite stoned
And mumble on and ob i "I'M drunk. , I
say; I'm drunk, I'm: as drunk. es a lotd,
tlitt of course, I at" a lord, it's all
right," •
We parted after several encounters,.
and asked for his addreSS. Ile wrote'
down, '"Catheiiiii" and an address in'
gdinbutglia then he thought bettor',
and above Eidameron" he Witte, ""Lord of
totheil",,,,, then he thought again, and
in front a that Wrote ibuiy•
thiug, detildn't spell Ldchiel.
Later that week, tri Edifibilith, I was
tempted to, check At the addretS he'd given,
but decided against. 'Didn't want to spoil
a „ , beautiful myth.
Well, there you e.tei A Bob, a Bar-
Maid, ands' Brigadier.
The Board surely recognizes that
the,.Witirld i s gettih4 smaller and
that real education charges
means exposure to as much tf that
.ro r l d as poss i b l e .