The Brussels Post, 1978-04-19, Page 2Signs of spring
Behind the scenes
It's hockey night in Canada
0111VISE LS.
ONTARIO
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1978
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean. Bros.Publishers Limited.
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb -. Advertising
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association eNA
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a Year.
Others $17.00 a Year. Single Copies 20 cents each.
Brussels Post.
Who'd be a farmer?
RED OSIER DOGWOOD (Cornus stolonifeta) — round
across Canada, this attractive shrub' has smooth red
bark. In spring, small white flowers bloom which
fOrm white berries; these tare much sought after
by birds such as robins, thrushes and catbirds. In
fall, the leaves turn dark red, but before reaching
this stage, take on various patterns in greens,
yellows and reds. this shrub likes damp locations
and grows to considerable size, spreading from the
roots to form a maZe of interlocking branches and
Sterns, "B" shows a typical two-color patterned leaf.
Unlimbed (Canada)
t496 Peffibina Hiitty, Winnipeg, Men. i:16't 241 , 98
"Producing food is a mug's game in Canada, 1978.
Canadians who used to spend 25 per cent of their
disposable income on food, now only spend 18 per
cent. The result is that in 1978 the buying power of
farm income will be less than it was in 1966. And you
think you have trouble keeping up with inflation!
Efficient food production* is the foundation of
' Canada's life and economy but people who produce
food, the farmers, are taking an economic beating
which the rest of us do not seem to care about. Farm
costs are rising much more quickly than are farm
receipts. So, Statistics Canada forecasts a. lower
realized farm income for the third consecutive year.
What hope is there then for Canadian farmers in
1978? With-any luck there will be increaased sales of
cheese, yogurt and ice cream and increased sales of
fluid milk. But, these will be balanced by lower sales
of industrial milk. Beef prices are expected to rise,
but hog prices will fall. Cereal and oilseed prices are
not expected to improve. It certainly doesn't inspire
great confidence in farmers who face higher prices
for equipment, fuel, fertilizer, labour and other
production costs.
Farmers; always at the mercy of the weather,
always pressed by consumers pleading for cheaper
food, are worried and angry. From their point of
view, Canadian consumers are expecting the farmers
to subsidize them.- No wonder many farmers 'see
marketing boards with strict powers to control
supplies and prices of farm commodities as agents of
justice. They offer the farmers some stability of
income, some protection against other parts of the
food industry. Canadian farmers in 1978 are facing
terrible uncertainties. Their effortsdeserve our
understanding as well as ,our admiration:
(The United Church)
['BY Keith Roulstonl
Along with head colds and influenza there's
another ailment that seems to catch a major
• portion of the Canadian population about this
time every year: playoff-itis.
Hockey isn't the addiction it once was in
this country. Ten years ago all activity
virtuallylised to halt every Saturday night so
Canadians could gather round the television to
-watch HOckey Night in Canada. Expansion,
dilution of hockey talent, the increasing
Americanization of the league and many other-
factors, large and small have meant that
throughout the long; long regular season,
Canadians seem to yawn a bit at the antics of
their hero's on the ice. They may even, heresy
of heresies, go out on the town on a Saturday
night instead of staying home to watch the
game.
, But in the spring, in playoff time, all that
seems to change. No matter how boring the
game seemed only a week before when ,the
regular schedule was being played out.
suddenly the game has new drama and
millions will give up anything to watch the
game.
I'd become downright disenchanted
watching the Leafs fumble their way through
the last month of the season this year. I hadn't
even watched the last several games. yet here
I was coming home from a meeting at '11 p.m.
suffering froM a head cold that had sapped
every ounce of strength for the past two days
and here I was sitting down to watch a hockey
game from the west coast. You've got to be
crazy. But then that's what hockey can still do
to normally sane (now 1 heard you snicker and
that's not nice) individuals.
There's an electricity in .the air when it
comes to playoff hoekey, and people who've
never watched the game all year long
suddenly become interested. Whereas a win
here or there didn't seem so important a
month ago during the regular schedule; here
even a goal is a major happening because it
could spell the different between going on to
glory: or watching your heros take an early
vacation. Emotion is high in the audience and
in the players. Ordinary players become stars.
The chance of the Cinderella story is always
there.
I guess my own addiction to playoff hockey
goes way back to childhood. Playoffs then
were on the radio because television was an
unheard of luxtii•y in our neighbourhood at the
tittle, something only the decadent town and
city dwellers could afford: So we glued our
tars to the radie and listened to the Montreal
canadiens blast their way through the
Opposition,. My family were fails of anybody
Opt the Canadiens. I was for the Montrealers
so there was a good deal of good-natured
argument; It WAS, the days of the Rocket and
the Pocket Rocket, of Ifeliveau (my hero);
BOOM Boon 6:eoffrion,, Doug liarvey, Bert
Olmstead. Dickie Moore and of course •
Jacques Plante. The Canadiens power play
was so awesome that to take a penaltyAgainst
them was to automatically give up a goal. It
was that power play'that brought about the '
rule change that alloWed the short handed
team to get their man out of the penalty box
once a gOal was scored.. Before that rule if a
team took a pentaly against: the Canadiens in
the first minute of the game, you might as well
kwget the rest of the game. It could be 5-0
before the, penalty expired.
Hockey took on new meaning with the
coming of television. One of my most vivid.
memories as a youngster was being invited
over to the neighbours one Sfuirday night to
watch a game on their new television. Several
years later ).-theti we got our own set I was still
a GMadiens fan and normally it would have
been frustrating because only Leaf gables
were shown.''But there was a strike at C.B.C.
in Toronto that year and the Montreal games
were shown instead.
That, was the year though that the Leafs
began their fairy tale finish and made it into
the playoffs for the first time in years by
-winning the last game of the schedule. They
played well in the playoffs though- not well
enough and the days of glory of the Leafs were
6n the way back. Johnny Bower, Frank
Mahovolich, Bob Pulford, Red Kelly, Tim
Horton, Carl Brewer, Alan Stanley, Dick Duff,
they became heros to us as we played on the
pond ice. In truth, they played a pretty dull
kind of hockey but they won and won. Stanley
Cup celebrations became a habit in Toronto
and some how we all felt part of them.
The decline of the Leafs came about the
same time as the decline in the quality of
hockey in general, .With expansion in the late
'60's when it became obvious that certain
teams would win nearly every game while
other teams would lose nearly every game the
excitement went out of hockey for a while.
Even playoff hockey got a little boring with the
exception of a few outstanding moments like
the upset victory of Canadiens over Boston a
few years back when Ken Dryden became an
overnight hero. The tong wars between
Toronto and Philadelphia the last couple of
yeats brought some new interest but there
was seldom any doubt who Was.going to Mil
the long run,
'This year I think there' g more interest than
in years, at least on my part and I Sense blithe
part of others too. For one thin :the Leafs look
stronger especially after their easy wins over
Los Angeles, But most of all I think the
interest is there because you have the feeling
that any of the top six teams might be able to
pull an upset that a Cinderella story could be
in the making. It probably won't happen but
the possibility is part of the fascination of the'
pine, It's got me hooked anyway,