The Brussels Post, 1974-07-17, Page 3Doctor to elderly man: "Sure
you can chase women. Just make.
cure you don't catch any."
• • •
They keep saying they're going
to do something about junk mail
—yet every year those income
tax forms show up.
• • •
Two pessimists met at a party.
Instead of shaking hands, thew
shook heads.
• • •
Sandblaster's ad: "Call us If you
have any dirty stories. • • •
Our friend wishes his brother
would learn a trade, so they'd
know what kind of work he's out
of!
• • •
WE WORK HARD
Listowel Florist
198 Main, Phone 291-2040
We are also represented by
Max Watts, Brussels
See Us for Your Bridal Bouquets
and Corsages, It's Our Trade.
immonam. 4.•••moss
Remember! It takes but a
moment to place a Brussels Post
Want Ad and be money in pocket.
To advertise, just Dial Brussels
887-6641.
AREA • WEDDING The
Blooming
THING
By
ED VAN
GEEST
(Photo by Russell Studi6)
THACHER VAN VEEN
Brenda Van Veen and Larry Thacher were married in
the Christian Reform Church, Listowel, June 7. The
bride is the daughter ,of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Van
Veen, Brussels and the groom is the son of Mr. and
MM. Gary Thacher, Bluevale. The couple will reside
in Brussels.
Remembering...
(Photo by Russell Studio)
FENNELL — BEACOM
Hope Beacom and Ronald C. Fennell were married in
Brussels United Church June 29. The bride is the
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Beacom, Brussels
and the groom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Clark
Fennell, Waterloo. The couple will reside in
Waterloo.
W.G. Strong
Another Senior Citizens' Week has come
d gone. Much publicity was given to events
sociated with local celebrations whereby
bate was paid to our indebtedness to these
oneer souls. Programs and outings we're
ganged on their behalf in order to bring
fore the general public the • contributions
ade by this segment of our adult population.
ajor services were provided by various
encies and private organizations, all
quiring much communication and
-ordination. However the pioblems that
me with age, sooner or later, confront most
er people, touch every family and relate to
ery aspect of life-income, health, housing,
ployment, recreation-all of which are
er-related. If every week is to be
.aningful to our senior citizens, units of a
ore or less permanent nature need to be
ablished to provide leadership in all
grams for the aging. Action on a
tinning basis is necessary to co-ordinate
awareness and understanding of the needs
d potentials of older persong,provide a
aring house for current on-going activities,
inulate training for workers engaged in
!wires related to the aging and conduct
acts of a meaningful and satisfying tire.
The individual Canadian lives in a local
i munitY• Many of the problems of the
ed and aging and many of the community
ditions can only be resolvea at the local
vet, Each person must take the
ponsihility for developing and using his or
r own capacities for growth and service. In
dition, a good community must build those sources which enable older people to remain
ependent as long as possible: To centre ,
is activity in the lodal community where the
ividual must live and function, it would
pear that a Committee on Aging shoUld be
4ted through which planning might be
u for the good life that can be achieved by
d for its elder Citizens. This local
mtnittee could plan for the development of
ded services, identify after they occur,
ye as a medium through which
ganizations could exchange information
ordinate programs and serve as a liaison
h
other organizations in Other localities.
hat ate some of the rights of 'Senior
Citizens? Regardless of such factors as race,
colour or creed, each Senior Citizen is entitled
to the following: the right to be useful, the
right to obtain employment based on merit,
the right to freedom from want, the right to a
fair share of the community's recreational and
medical resources, the right to obtain decent
housing suited to his needs, the right to moral
and financial support of one's family
consistent with the best interest of the family,
the right to live independently as one chooses,
the right to live and die with dignity. The
Senior Citizen should endeavour to assume
certain obligations to the best of his ability
such as to prepare himself to become and
resolve to remain active, alert, capable,
self-supporting and useful so long as health
and circumstances permit;to apply sound
, principles of physical and mental health; to
seek and develop potential avenues of service
in the years after retirement; toendeavour to
make himself adaptable to the changes added
years will bring and to attempt to maintain
such relationships with family, neighbours
and friends as will make him a respected and
valued cousellor throughout his later years.
However, it must be emphasized that any
meaningful role is difficult unless sound
health and income sufficient to maintain
reasonable decent living standards are
available. Given health and adequate income,
the older person should be free to adopt new
roles in our society and develop his
potentialities because he is free from physical
compulsions, from the need to conform, from
the need to compete, free to accept or reject
those programs and activities designed for
him.
The basis of Cont.entment is the feeling
that one has done the best one could under the
circumstances. We tend to be content in the
later years in proportion to our having made
'and continue to make the most of our years.
From youth to middle age, the weeks, Months
and years pass slowly, one by one, almost
unnoticed. A lifetime seems almost an
eternity. We plan confidently and resolve to
Make our mark and fully realize all our
ambitions. We are hardly conscious of or
Concerned with the passage of tittle. Most of
us, as we look back over our lives, have reason
to reflect how the years stole up on us and
caught us with many things never getting
done which we were in the habit of putting off.
Even an indication of graying at the temples
fails to warn us. Then, one day, lohg before
most of us have reached our goal, we come
face to face with the fact that we are growing
old at the threshold of retirement. Old age is a
stage of life in the sense that childhood and
adolescence are stages. Just as a child should
be prepared for adulthood, so a mature adult
should prepare himself for the later maturity
we call old age. One can start doing so at any
point but since the later years are the harvest
years, it stands to reason that the sooner you
start sowing, the more you will reap when you
reach them. It is wise to start early but
seldom too late to start at all. Doing on the
side during one's active years what one would
like to do _if circumstances permitted is the
best advice for all of us.' It is the best.
guarantee against frustration and boredom.
History provides us with many examples of
persons who did start something new very late
in life. One may be sure that they were
happier for their spirit of enterprise
regardless of the level of success they
attained. When our prime-of-life trade or
profession becomes impractical for us in the
later years, we should not dismiss as too late
the hope of, developing a new vocation
Whether it be exalted or modest, as long as it
is good for mankind, it will make for a happy
and creative old age. Most of us during our
middle years, when our material and spiritual
investments should be made, too often
and too easily forget the urgency of time. We
delay and postpone things as if the future
stretched long and leisurely before us but the
future that loOks so distant and, timeless at
forty runs on toward seventy, eighty or ninety
not always smoothly yet always swiftly and
inexorably. Like a thief in the night
retirement will seem to have been lurking just
around the corner--with so many hopes
unfulfilled, with so much still to do and only
the later pears to do them--When, perhaps,
with a shock, .We realize that the years are
upon us, then it is especially urgent to remind
ourselves that these are both the last and the
golden opportunities of our life. Like
Tennyson's Ulysses we may exclaina;
`Old age has yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note may yet he dOpe.
'Tis hot too late 'to seek a newer world,'
THE BEIJMEIA POSTi < kr, 1974-4