The Rural Voice, 1995-04, Page 18Piltz
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14 THE RURAL VOICE
The World from Mabel's Grill
There's probably a place like
Mabel's Grill in your town. It sits on
the edge of town, a place where town
and country meet.
The big parking lot is filled with
pickup trucks the early part of the
morning, with
cars from town
and a few big
rigs of the
truckers who
stop in for
breakfast, or
later, for
Mabel's pie.
It's not
impressive on
the outside, or
the inside
either, for that
matter — the
last time
Mabel
changed the decor was when she
wallpapered five years ago. But if
you want to hear eloquent debate
don't go to Queen's Park, or
Parliament Hill, buy a coffee at
Mabel's instead. And if some
morning the debate isn't getting
much beyond the weather, somebody
will be sure to stir things up.
Take the morning that story broke
in the paper about the number of
hours Canadians had to work to pay
for a basket with a pound each of
things like steak, pork roast, chicken,
cheese, eggs, fruit and so on. Seems
this American study showed the
average Canadian worker had to
work only two hours and 31 minutes
to buy the food, the least in the
t world. A guy in Washington had to
work four minutes longer while the
poor slob in Brazil had to work
nearly 13 hours to get the same food.
"Just what we've been telling you
guys for years," Dave Winston said
to Wayne Bruce, the shoe store
owner who comes out for a coffee
(and a bit of gossip) before the store
opens. You guys in town keep
getting more for less from us farmers
every year. The way things are going
you soon won't hardly even have to
go to work to earn enough to buy
your food. Instead of working for
eight hours and spending 15 minutes
here, you'll work for 15 minutes and
MABEL'S
The world's
problems are
solved daily
'round the table
at Alabel's
spend the rest of the time here."
"Heaven forbid!" That was Molly
Whiteside, as she passed by taking an
order from a trucker to Mabel in the •
kitchen.
"Not the way you farmers spend
money," Wayne shot back. "When
was the last time you bought new
boots, Dave, 1979? Probably drove
to the city to a Wal -mart when you
did. You guys are so tight with your
money I may have to stick some pigs
and chickens in my garage if I want
to eat at all."
"What I'd like to know," Dave
said loud enough so Mabel could
hear as she waddled out from the
kitchen with his bacon and eggs, "is
how come Harry over there sells his
eggs for less than 10 cents apiece
and I sell my pork for 70 cents a
pound but when we come in here
two strips of bacon and two eggs
costs $3.50."
"The 50 cents is for the food. The
three dollars is for table rent," she said.
"Of course that story on how long
people worked to buy their food was
based on the average industrial
wage," Wayne said, winking at Dave
and nodding toward Hank
VanderPlast at the next table. "Now
if they'd taken in teachers' salaries,
they could probably have made
enough to pay for the food over
recess."
Hank, whose wife is a teacher, is
used to these jibes so doesn't rise to
the bait easily. He's said before the
others are just jealous they weren't
smart enough to marry a teacher
themselves.
"Did you see who gave Wallace
McCain the money to buy Maple
Leaf Foods?" Dave asked to every-
body in earshot. "The teachers'
pension fund! A billion bucks, just
like that! Why not, they've got plenty
more. The paper says they've got $35
billion invested. They even own a
hunk of Maple Leaf Gardens."
"Maybe you farmers better start
being nicer to teachers now," Hank
said slowly. "If I go home and tell
my wife about your insults and the
word gets around in the teachers'
lounges, you might just find the
teachers pushing Canada Packers to
make vegetarian hotdogs."0