The Rural Voice, 1998-05, Page 8Spring
FARM
Tire
Sale
The GOODYEAR
Implement Ribs
9.5 L15 8 ply
%Roo
each
11 L15 a ply
$6000
• each
That's for an 8 ply Tire!
The McArthur Tire FAST
On -Farm Service Team is ready
whenever you need their help.
I Farm Acton Seance Team
MINIM SERVICE
I'�l,S,
Get It At
McArthur Tire
HANOVER
364-2661
Toll Free 1-800-299-0436
OWEN SOUND
376-3520
Toll Free 1-800-265-3101
GOODYEAIR
# l c 7c te2!
4 THE RURAL VOICE
Gisele Ireland
Staying together, despite the experts
The reason some marriages last
past the first mortgage burning,
according to some psychologist with
the whole alphabet behind his name,
is the fact that the couple like to do
EVERYTHING
TOGETHER.
The
interviews of
the successful
couples he used
as positive
proof that
followed this
profound
statement were,
in my
estimation,
sappier than the
stuff collected
from the sugar
bush this spring. You know the kind
of thing I mean. He loves to help her
cook, and trots in with bunches of
herbs they tend together in the little
garden tucked away behind the
mortgage -free mansion. He loves to
hunt and she cleans his guns, collects
the game he bagged and prepares it,
with the herbs they grow together.
It's obvious to me that this guy
either didn't run into any "real"
married couples, such as Super
Wrench and myself, or that he did
and deep-sixed these interviews.
They'd have been a lot more
interesting to read.
There are some things Super
Wrench and I have enjoyed doing
together and our grandchildren are
proof of that. Most other things have
been divided to suit the talents we
supposedly possess.
The little herb garden is struggling
for life amidst the burdocks and, after
I cook them in food I shopped for
alone, he eats, I clean up. The eating
part is done together.
The sublime togetherness we
enjoy while cleaning the winter's
debris from the yard is indescribable.
He parks the loader tractor and I rake
and shovel. It's kind of the same
scenario when it comes to the
window washing. I don't suppose it
counts as togetherness in this
psychologist's theory when we have
words together, mostly heated, about
when the lawn mower will run on
something other than prayers? I
thought not.
Super Wrench is in charge of
anything that boasts a motor. I watch,
or give helpful advice. The same goes
for cleaning the chimney. I get to go
outside and watch for imminent signs
of the thing going up in flames as he
is in the bowels of the house
struggling with pipes. It's been this
way since way back when I tried to
start the wood furnace by throwing
gas in it. It was not an interviewable
incident.
We do sit together at the same
table when we dine out, but occupy
separate couches when we are home
alone. I like to watch movies and he's
asleep before the name of the stars
are flashed on the screen. Hockey
games, which I detest, interest him
and keep him awake just long enough
to listen to his idol, Don Cherry. He
then proceeds to the rapid -eye -
movement sleep stage and I continue
reading or just gaze lovingly at his
recumbent form.
He likes golf, I like gardening and
never the twain shall meet. In 33
years he has advanced to the point
where he can tell a tulip from a
hybrid lily, but I still don't know why
you'd rejoice for a hole -in -one.
Tomorrow there's a tractor sale
half a day's drive away, and Super
Wrench is vibrating with anticipation.
I'd sooner stay home and do the
wash. Perhaps we're this way
because, unlike the other couples
interviewed, our mortgage is still
alive and voracious, or is our union
still intact because we spend time
apart? There will be a further update
from our chosen nursing home,
maybe the same one, when the
mortgage is paid.0
Gisele Ireland, from Bruce County, is
an author of several humorous books
on farm life.