The Brussels Post, 1977-11-16, Page 7Sugar and Spice
by Bill Smiley
We're not dead yet
This has been the age of the young. Rock
music, drugs, dropouts, dirty denim, unisex,
swinging singles, discos, and now punk rock.
You name it and we've been assaulted by it.
It all began with the Beatles, I reckon, this
adulation of youth. And now it's The Fonz, a
portrayal of a young hood, that gets the
headlines.
To be over 40, in the last couple of decades,
has been just this side of being dead, as the
media, the entertainment world, and
business, salivated over youth.
Well, it's kind of nice to see that 'a lot of the
old timers are still in their pitching, despite
thedeluge of juvenilia.
It was a bit of a jolt to hear of the sudden
death of Bing Crosby recently, at age 74. But
the Old Crooner was still giving some class to
the shoddy world of show biz right up to the
end.
Octogenarian John Diefenbaker has
published another book of his memoirs.
Haven't read it yet, but it's said to be as
delightfully malicious and wrong-headed as
the first volumes.
Morley Callaghan, well into his 70s,
recently published a new novel, to critical
acclaim. Callaghan, one of our finest writers,
isn't getting older, he's getting better.
Ignored or sneered at for years by fellow
Canadians, he just kept hacking away at his
vocation of being a first-class writer.
Just finished a novel, The Intruders, by
Hugh Garner, and although parts of it are
bad, when the dialogue becomes polemical,
he still has that sure touch of realism, an ear
for the talk of ordinary people, and the ability
to tell a good story. Garner is no chicken
either. Must be in his 60s, about half way.
Scott Young, another cracking good writer,
has abandoned a daily column of trivia, with
which even he was beComing bored, and has
gone back to writing what he does best-honest
sports storiesqlie's over 60.
Pierre Trndeau is not yet an ancient
combattant, but he had his 58th recently, and
is certainly no pushover for the young
blood-thirsty wolves in the political pack, an
anyone who watched the opening of
Parliament could see.
And how about the Queen. She is no
teenager, and she's beginning to show it, but
when it comes to poise and grace and charm,
very few of the young chicks can hold a candle
to her.
One of my colleagues, a former officer in
the Garman Army, is into his 60s, but could
out-ski, out-swim, and out-walk most of the
staff members 30 years younger.
I have another friend, about 70, who could
out-think, out-drink, and out-swear 98 per
cent of men in their 20s.
My father-in-law was a little disappointed to
learn this year that a by-law had been passed
stating that retirement was compulsory at 65,
and he'd lose one of his jobs,
. He's 85 and is quite bewildered when he
hears talk of young fellas in their early 60s
who can hardly wait to retire;
Played golf with an old, gray-haired geezer
a few weeks ago. He• is retired, but only
because of a heavy heart attack. He plays 18
holes a day and then knocks back a few
whiskies before dinner. His score was 88,
mine was 108. He swims all summer and
bowls twice a week in the winter, as well as
working like a navy around his home.
I don't really know what I'm getting at here.
Maybe I'm just sick of the youth-worship cult
to which we've all been exposed (including the
young) for far too long.
Maybe I'm tired of living on a continent and
in a culture in which the very people who were
the salt of this country's earth are shuffled off,
without honour and without shame, into
places that are called things like Sunset Rest,
Final Heaven-everything but Last Chance
Saloon.
Maybe I'm fed up with the interminable
excuses, sloppy service and half-assed work
we receive from so many young people whose
grandparents and parents gave full measure,
and believed in such hoary adages as "A job
worth doing is worth doing well."
I sometimes wonder why we are so eager, in
this country, to slough off the wealth of
experience and wisdom our elders have to
• offer in our society.
Why aren't the older tradesmen used as
teachers, at a decent remuneration, to pass on
their skills to the half-baked young tradesmen
we so often encounter when we want a job
done?
There is a crying need for more day-care
centres in this country. Why aren't they filled
with volunteer grannies, who could love and
pet and teach the children, as only they do so
well?
Nope. It's easier to sweep them under the
carpet: into lonely rooming houses, nursing
homes, senior citizens apartments, or, in
extreme cases, the Senate.
We don't want to see wrinkles and white
hair and trembling hands or mouths. We want
everything' to be the way it is on TV.
Well, don't try to shuffle this ole boy off,
when the time comes. I intend to go right on
being arbitrary and obnoxious.
Unless I'm offered a seat in the Senate.
Organizations
Present remembrance wreaths
uu
NEW WYATT ART
POTTERY
just arrived
,Chip N Dip * Nases *Ashtrays
"Pitcher & Bowl *Cat,Dog and Owl
JUST IN TIME
FOR CHRISTMAS
Where Personal Service is still Member BBA
Brussels important 887-9000
Henry Exel; Ethel, Cranbrook,
Walton and Brussels Womens
Institutes - Mrs. Eldon WilsL.:i;
Brussels Fire Dept. - Bill
McWhirter; Duff's United Chur
Bill Coutts; Melville
Presbyterian Church - Clarke
Matheson; St. Ambrose Catholic
Church - Mrs. M argaret Kelly ;
St. Johns Anglican Church - John
Alcock; Brussels United Church -
Mrs. Carson Watson; Girl Guides
- Lanser Bradelbank; Brussels
cub Pak = Stephen Marks.
Banni.e's Merlis &•Ladios'
Hair Styling
OPEN
Tuesday to Saturday noon
and Wednesday Evenings
Tumberty Street next to Texan Grill
Phone 8814217
Wreaths were presented at the
Remembrance Day Service in
Brussels on behalf of the
following organizations: Province
of Ontario - Past Pres. Tom
Garniss; Brussels Legion Br. 218
'John l3rewar; Legion Pipe Band
Tom McFarlane; Ladies
Auxiliary Br. 218 Margaret
Brewar; Village of Brussels -
Reeve Calvin Krauter; Township
of Grey - Reeve Roy Williamson;.
Township of Morris - Reeve Bill
Pstohl Brussels Lions Club -
Pres. Clarence McCutcheon; St.
Johns A.F. & A.M. - Max Watts,
Worshipful Master; LO.O.P.:. &
Rebekah Lodge - Noble Grand
RN Moses; Optithist Club Pres.
No McDonald; imperial Bank of
Commerce - Coin. Bill Beacom;
Iliusels Central School Debbie
Prior 8,c. Brian James; Maitland Teleservices Ltd: Mrs. Mary 1?0,1y6;' McDonald M .,
91pali litiether; Cont..Dave
.astings - Mrs. Vera Hastings;
tofu, Peter Joseph Baker - Brtied
cCan; Gerald Exel and Family
Mrs. Hazel Matheson was the .
speaker at the Majestic Institute
meeting when "Saving the family
Farm" was discussed. Mrs.
Matheson told the meeting that
the ideal place was
our conception of a family farm.
Horse powered, wooded heat and
with threshing done by large
machines powered by great steam
engines included were the roomy
warm kitchens which smelled like
a bakery most of the time.
What was truly a family farm
represented cooperation
entertainment and satisfaction
governed by hard work well done.
In this period of change farming
has quickened. Saving the family
farni means changing to
machines to petroleum and to
electrical energy.
Facing a future on the farm
takes courage knowledge and a
strong arm. She said and added
that life on a farm must include
the effort of the farmeilswife and
her place on the team.
"Much of the success of the
whole enterprise depends upon
the aid, the attitude and the
support of the farm wife.
Whether the farmer ends up with
a nest egg or a goose egg depends
entirely on the typ e of chick he
=riles"
Mrs Leona. Connelly and Mrs.
Ida EN).ans were conveners for the
THE BRUSSELS POST, NOVEMBER 16, 1977 —5
Institute discusses
sovingfamilyform
meeting and a film on energy was
shown indicating ways to
conserve energy.
Mrs. Doris McCall opened the
meeting with a poem.
An invitation to a bazaar was
received from Ethel W.I. in Ethel
Community Centre November 26.
The ladies program committee
for the ploughing match asked for
donations for daily draws. fit was
decided to contribute. There is
also a special quilt competition
with prizes of $100 - $75. - $50.
The quilts are to 'be taken to
Seaforth by Sept. 14th next year.
Mrs. Van Vliet sang a solo and
Mrs.Leona Connelly gave a
reading. •
• The motto was taken by Mrs.
Leona Armstrong and. Mrs. Doris
McCall closed the meeting.
Lunch was served by Mrs. J.
Armstrong, Miss Lucy Friebee,
Mrs. M achion and Mrs. Edna
McDonald.
The December meeting will be
a pot luck dinner at 12:30 p.m.
Dec. 14. Branch Directors, Mrs.
Wilma. Hemingway, Mrs. T.
McFarlane. Lunch Mrs. Peggy
Cudmore, Mrs. Dorothy Steffler,
Mrs. Amy Speir.
Donations for Christmas boxes
and a $1.50 gift for each member
will be received.
eorge
MEN'S & VVOMENS
HAIRSTYLING'
Beusseis, Blyth
887-6151 523-45i1
russets
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W.441:1
dill
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GEORGE OF BRUSSELS
have now moved their salon.
We're now on- the Main Street,
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WATCH FOR OUR GRAND :OPENING