The Brussels Post, 1974-01-23, Page 2FXTAPLOSO4P
1172
russels Post
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1974
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited.
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Tom Haley - Advertising
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association.
Subscriptions (in advance) Canadal$6.00 a year, Others
$8.00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each.
Second class mail Registration No. 0562.
Telephone 887-6641. '
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The paper bag menace
In light of current paper shortages and increases in
paper prices, and growing world worry about
wasteful use of resources, we have become
concerned about the absurdity of the paper bag
habit.
We use paper bags to carry things (which are, in
many cases already well-wrapped in cellophane or
boxed); a few blocks from the stores to home or a few
steps to our cars. When we get home, we either
throw our paper bags out and feel a litle guilty about
the waste or keep them until we have to devote
practically an entire kitchen cupboard to their
storage.
The bag keeper feels virtuous and thinks
'eventually she'll find a use for her accumulation,
Then she throws out the paper bags of five years in
one grand gesture when she moves. ,
As long as we use paper bags only once and then
throw them out or store them, we'll continue to lose.
We'll lose trees at a faster rate than they can be
replanted. We'll lose money too. Naturally the store
owner has to add the cost of bags onto the prices he
charges you. As paper prices continue to climb,
grocery and other prices will go up proportionately.
"What's a couple of cents a week'?'", the big
spenders among us will say.
Trouble is we are wasting more than a few cents.
One local merchant says large grocery bags cost
him 31/2 cents each, small bags 2 cents. Another
store owner says the amount he pays for paper bags
has climbed astronomically in the past year.
Most families bring home at least 3 large grocery
bags a week. Add bags from other stores and most of
us are throwing away at least a quarter a week:
Take a stand against waste and the throw away
society. North America is the only place we can think
of where every purchase rates a new, never to be
used again paper .bag. Why should we ignorp, costs
and conservation because we are too lazy to carry a
shopping bag?
Fight the paper bag menace. Carry a plastic
shopping bag with you and use it, over and over
again. It's easier to carry than those big brown bags
anyway.
Take paper bags from your collection with you
when you go to the store. Recycle and fill them up at,
the checkout counter rather than bringing home still
More new bags,
Refuse a bag at the store when it's not necessary --
for something that's already in a box for example.
Local merchants can help here by asking their clerks
not to insist on .bagging every purchase.
Store people might be happy not to have to order
and pay for new bags all the time..8cratch one item
of overhead,
Paper manufacturers could divert pulp now used
in bags to newsprint manufacture perhaps:1
And we, the people would° save money and the
frost ration of opening a kitchen cupboard and
having 158 assorted paper bags fall out.
Yes, you may call me Grampa. The kid
arrived three days too late to be any use as
a tax deduction. But we can't all be perfect.
Aside from that, he is. Perfect.
According to the ladies.He's a dandy little
fellow, with rosy cheeks, his mother's
auburn hair, his father's eyes, and his
grandfather's sweet little rosebud mouth.
He's very peaceful and sleeps a lot, so he
doesn't seem to have anything of his
maternal grandmother in him.
There are certain occasions in our lives
that are peaks, even though most of the
time We seem to be down in the valleys.
These are the times when something
special happens. They don't have to be
milestones, like graduations • and
weddings, In fact, these are often so
formalized, they can be excruciatingly dull.
No, I mean those rare events that are
crystal clear, even with the passing of
years.
I don't remember a thing about my birth,
for example, and that was supposed to be
something important.
But I remember vividly the day in public
school when I was sick, sick, sick, was too
proud or too shy to ask to leave, and
vomited on the classroom floor and all 141'
way down the hall to the lavatory, with my
best girl watching the whole sordid thing. I
was nine, and that was My first affair. It
died in the bud.
I remember a baseball game , in my
teens. I was at bat. Bases loaded, two men
out, the count three and two. The next
pitch was obviously low, I dropped my bat
and started to jog to first base, forcing in
the winning run. "Stee-rike three!"
bellowed the Umpire. Game over. i Instant
ignominy. '
I'll never forget my first real job, Arrived
at the docks about Midnight, thrilled
beyond reason. I was going to be a sailor.
Found a bunk. Couldn't sleep, with the
excitement of it all, My heart resembled
drumming partridge, Had a big breakfaSt
and prepared to enter nianlitio& I was
seventeen, My boss took the in tow, gave
the some brass() and a rag, led me into a
men's urinal, pointed at the brass
footplate and said, 'Clean IL"
Another big day was the one on Whiell' I
passed my Wings test, I bad flunked one
two days before becanse the intercom was
almost useless. The instructor would tell
me to do a steep bank to port and I'd do a
slow roll or a loop. He took a dim view. It
looked like washout and back to manning
pool to wash dishes for the duration. But I
got a second chance, flew like Jonathan'
Livingstone Seagull and walked on air for
weeks
Another time that is etched in my mind
is my first visit to London. As the train
neared thegreat city, I was trembling so
violently I couldn't light a cigarette. It was
probably the thought that I, a small-town ,
small-time boy, was actually about to enter
the setting of a thousand stories, the home
of kings and queens, the fertile spawner of
a vast empire. I didn't stop shaking until
I'd downed two pints of bitter.
You'd think a chap's first operational
- flight against the enemy would be 'a
highlight., Mine wasn't. I was .too busy or
ignorant to be even scared. All those red
and green things zipping past the cockpit
might as well have been Christmas tree
lights, instead of tracer bullets.
But I don't suppose I'll ever forget the
day I was shot down. One minute there was
Ike snarl of engines, the whack of carmen
shells, the cramp of flak and the dirty black
spots in the sky, as shells burst. Mates all
around me.
Next Minute there was total silence, No
engine. No mates. No flak. Just the blue
sky above, the dun earth below coming up
swiftly but dreamily and me thinking,
"Well, there goes that date with Tita in
AntWerp tonight.''
There are lots of other peaks. The day I
decided I was in love with a girl, once and
for all, and took the plunge, after deciding
that T wouldn't Marry until I was forty and
had explored every means of esearie.
And the day My SOD was born, Hugging
the knowledge that I WAS a father and had a
son, even though .1 was in hospital a
hundred and fifty riffles away when he Was
birthed.
And the day- Thy daughter was born,
slipping into the world as easily as she has
slipped in and out of equally ridiculous
situations ever sinte.
Anyvvay # the birth of my grandson was
one of the peaks.t I can `tell, You can't fool
at old peak titan like tide,
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