The Brussels Post, 1978-02-01, Page 101977 VOLARE
4 door Sedan
6 cylinder Automatic,Power
Steering, Low Mileage.
1977 CHRYSLER
NEWYORKER
4 ' door Hardtop, Brougham
Loaded.
1976 CHRYSLER
NEWPORT
2 door Hardtop Fully Equipped.
1976 DODGE
CHARGER .S.E.
2 door Hardtop
1.975 PLYMOUTH
FURY SPORT
2 door Hardtop
1975 PLYMOUTH'
FURY SALON
4 Door Sedan
1975 CHEVROLET
BISCAYNE
4 Door Sedan
1975 OLDSMOBILE
CUTLASS
2 Door Coupe
1975 DODGE
MONACO
4 Door Sedan
1974 PONTIAC
LAURENTIAN
4 Door Sedan
2 - 1974 FORD
TORINO
2 Door Hardtop
1974 D-ATSUN
B210
1973OLDSMOBILE
OMEGA
2Door' Sedan 6 Cylinder
Automatic.
1973 PLYMOUTH
FURY
2 Door Hardtop
1972 PLYMOUTH
FURY
2 Door Hardtop
1972 DODGE
MONACO
2 Door Hardtop
44* C RAWFORD tal MOTORS
WINGHAM ,ONTARIO
357-3862
OPP at Wingham
Detachment, conducted twenty
three investigations during the
past week,
One charge was laid under the
Highway Traffic Act and Thirteen
warnings were issued.
One charge was laid under the
Liquor Licence Act.
During the week, there were
six motor vehicle collisions which
caused an estimated $3710.00 in
property damage. No injuries
were reported as a result of these
accidents.
There were two motorized snow
vehicle accidents. On January 23,
Michael W. Chapman was driving
a Yamaha on private property in
Bluevale when he struck a post.
He received minor injuries as a
result.
On Saturday, January 28 John
C. Hoonaard of RR#3 Walton was
southbound on Sideroad 5-6,
Morris Township when his Polaris
struck a snowbank. He received
minor injuries as a result.
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2nd ANNIVERSARY SALE
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IN STOCK
For 'The Month
of
February
10---THE ,BRUSSELS POST, FEBRUARY 1, 1978
OPP Report
Sugar and Spice
by Bill Smiley
Winter blues
W.O.Mitchell, well-known and
respected Canadian writer came out with
something on a national TV interview with
which I wholeheartedly concur.
He suggested, more or less, that
everything that is wrong'With the Canadian
'character can be blamed on our Canadian
winters.
After a couple of months of winter, we
feel harassed, . persecuted, and vaguely
wronged. We Become insular, grumpy,
gloomy and generally unfit, to live with.
When it has snowed and blowed for a
couple- of weeks on end, or a couple of
months on end, as it has around our place,
you are ready to kick the cat, complain
,about the cooking, snarl at your children,
or quietly climb into the bathtub and open
your wrists.
I' haven't any figures, but I'll bet our
suicide rate soars after the holiday 'season,
'when we face three months of being cold
and being broke. (I wouldn't insult
anybody by making this bet in Canadian
dollars. M ake it yen or marks or francs.)
I would like to expand on this and make
the bet on divorces and deaths. People get
to the point, about the end of January,
where they can't stand themselves, let
alone thier spouses; so they split up. Old
people and sick people, huddled at home or
in hospital, get so sick of living that they
just up and die.
you will retort that a lot of affairs begin in -
mid-winter. This is true. But it's not love.
Most of them are among the apres-ski
crowd, and it's sex or a desperate measure
to keep warm.
I can't imagine anyone falling in love
while whizzing through farmers' fences on
a snowmobile or shoving a car out of a
snow-bank.
What I can imagine is a sober, decent
citizen, perhaps a kindly• ,retired
clergyman, committing murder with a
Shovel after the town plow has refilled his.
driveway for the fourth time in 24 hours.
can comtemplate, with some sympathy,
the ordinarily happy housewife and loving
mother' being hauled into court for child
-batterindjust after her kids, with friends,
have tropped in with half a ton of snow and
slush on their boots and' marched across
the kitchen flOor she has scrubbed three
days in a row.
. You may think I exaggerate. I do not. I,
one of the mildest, sweetest chaps you'd
ever encourter, have seriously considered
mayhem when some turkey with bald tires
starts up, an icy hill ahead of me, skids
sideways across the road and leaves me
there with my wheels spinning and smoke
coming out my ears.
I'm not against winte in principle. I'ni
just against winter in Canada. They can
have all the winter they like in principle.
Nor am I unaware that there is a tiny,
benighted portion of our populace that
thoroughly enjoys winter.
Children on the whole, love it. Instead of
going through red lights on their bicycles
and being killed by' cars, they can dart out
from between two snow banks into the path
of a car that is sashaying along on glare ice.
Teenagers, another notoriously unstable
group, also seem to like winter. Instead of
breaking their legs riding motorbikes, or
their necks in speedboats, they can break
their legs 'riding snowmobiles and their
necks on a ski hill. At any given time in
any given winter, half a dozen ski bums are
clumping around in the average high
school with casts on their legs.
Curlers, too, don't seem to mind the
winter. They drive in a heated car to a
heated and 'often luxurious curling club,
where they can run up and down the ice for
two hours in their beautiful tight pants,
and then sit around drinking and
'discussing every rock thrown ad nauseam.
The only thing more boring is a golf
foursome going over every shot in the bar.
But at least they have the sense to do it in
summer.
One other segment that professes to love
winter is the swinging singles. Every
weekend they pile out of the city in their
thousands, heading 'for the ski hills. And
the chalets. And the big thinking sessions.
.And the chance of meeting Mr. Big or Ms.
Boobs. And on Sunday night, after
spending perhaps two hours skiing, often
none, they pile back in their fast cars and
head for home, a menace to everything on
• the road.
They're in the same category as the
same singles ,who do the same !thing in
summer, except that the ski mob, the city
slickers, don't know how to drive in snow.
But ask anybody sensible .if he loves
winter. Ask a hydro lineman. Ask a
snowplow operator who has to work a
double' shift. Ask a. cop. It's not necessary,
I believe, to ask a guy who has a fuel oil
franchise.
Aside from the sights of winter — red,
runny noses, slush and salt all over your
front lawn, 800 pounds of icicles from your
eaves — there are the sounds.'
Hacking coughs on every side. The clunk
and rattle and slam of the snow-plow under
your window at 4 a.ni. The sweet howl of
the wind about your windows. The crash of
'falling ice. The thump and gulp of the
furnace sucking its life blood.
M y solution? Either give it back to the
Indians, poor devils, or send everybody
over 40 south for six months, and let the
other Idiots revel in it. And pay the bills.