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The Rural Voice, 2005-09, Page 68Pori Elgin's Award Winning umpkinfest October ist & 2"'' -2 0 0 5 Family,, Fun a Second. -tot None! i f www.pumpkiniest.or For more info 1.800.387.3456 ONTARJO (519) 389.3714 1frieu- avict RAISE MONEY FOR YOUR CLUB OR ORGANIZATION Sell subscriptions to The Rural Voice and earn money for your 4-H Association, Junior Farmers group or other rural organization. Substantial commissions offered. For more information contact Keith Roulston, Publisher 523-4311 64 THE RURAL VOICE Mabel's Grill The world's problems are solved daily 'round the table at Mabel 's. "Nice to know somebody's making money growing crops around here," grumbled George McKenzie the other day when word got around that police had seized $4 million worth of marijuana growing in fields across the area. "Yeh, what are they valuing that stuff at? About $1,000 a plant? I could used a crop like that." said Dave Winston. "Yeh but the cops always give the value of what the stuff would be when you buy it off some drug dealer," said Cliff Murray. "That'd be like somebody paying $25 for a steak in a fancy restaurant and figuripg farmers are getting rich for selling the whole steer for that much." "Hey, are you comparing a restaurant owner to a drug pusher?" wondered Mabel from over at the counter. "Sometimes 1 wish they did treat food like it was something illegal that had to be pushed," said Dave. "1 mean no matter how inflated a price the police put on marijuana, people are still paying a lot more for a marijuana cigarette than they're paying, say, for a hot dog." "Well, one more reason for the Americans to be worried about the open border," said George. "As far as they're concerned we're to blame for their drug problems." "Ah it will give the Minutemen something to do," said Cliff. "What's the Minutemen?" wondered Dave. "They've got this bunch of vigilantes that are recruiting people to patrol the Canadian border come October to catch illegal immigrants, terrorists and drug smugglers," said Cliff. "Hope they're ready for a long walk to patrol that border," said Dave. "They may get recruits from R - Calf," said George. "They'll want to make sure we're not smuggling any BSE -infected, over -age cattle across to infect their herds." "How about trucks smuggling in softwood lumber?" said Dave. "You think they might keep their eyes open and catch any smugglers bringing guns north?" wondered Molly Whiteside as she poured refills all-round. "Ah there's never a problem with the U.S. side of the border, only with problems coming from here," said Dave. "I'd like to see them tangle with some of those cigarette smugglers bringing smokes across the St. Lawrence," said Cliff. "That'd give them a handful." "Since it was high taxes that started this tobacco smuggling thing in the first place, 1 wonder if people will start smuggling in cheap gas from the U.S.?" wondered George. "Well I might be in the market for it," said Dave. "1 mean it costs me more to fill up these days than 1 paid for my first car!" "Yeh. just think if gas had cost as much back then as it does now, you'd have more money tied up in the tank than in the rest of the car," said Cliff. "Boy, that must have been a long time ago," jibed Molly. "Was there a horse attached to that car?" "Yeh well with the price of gas we may see a return of the Hoover wagon," said George. "Did you ever see those pictures from the '30s of horses pulling old cars?" "Well if sure would be a lot less expensive to have my kid ride a horse than watching him burn off a tank of gas on a weekend," said Dave. "Oh 1 don't know about that," said Cliff. "1 was reading this article in Maclean's magazine about these parents paying for their kids' expensive hobbies. They were talking about leasing a show horse at $1,000 a month then paying the stable to keep the horse and paying for lessons at a cost of another $850 a month. Imagine paying $1850 a month!" "They're paying $850 a month to keep a horse?" said George, shaking his head. "What are they feeding that thing, marijuana?"0