The Rural Voice, 1998-07, Page 14TOP QUALITY
EXTERIOR PAINTING
Painting Contractors since 1946
• All types
of exterior painting
• Sand blasting
• Pressure washing
• Repainting pre -finished steel
• Boom trucks
R.R. 3, Chesley, ON NOG 1L0
519-363-2595
1-800-667-0138
eaton@sos.ca
•AUTO •TRACTOR •TRUCK
c��I=leN1E6�I��C
TIRES
for every
application
• Road and Farm
Mobile Service
• All tires in stock
• Installation while
you wait
• Farm implement
rims
- Sales -
- Service & Repairs -
4_1 & l'i' k l<L• h I I :147AZ
►k Cal= sc' ►.��1 AT C
DESBORO TIRE SALES
1 mile east of Cty. Rd. 3
2 1/2 miles south of Desboro
519-363-5682
10 THE RURAL VOICE
The World from Mabel's Grill
"Oh to be a kid again," said Dave
Winston after Molly Whiteside
mentioned her kids would soon be
out of school for the summer and
she'd have to find a babysitter so she
could come to work.
"Remember
those days
when you
were young
enough not to
have to help
with all the
chores on the
farm and you
could just lie
around under
a tree on a hot
day?" Dave
asked.
"I think
those days
ended when I
The world's
problems are
solved daily
'round the table
at Mabel's
was about six," said Cliff. "I was the
only son so my dad had me haying
before I could pick up a bale."
"I remember that feeling of
summer leisure," said Wayne Bruce.
"You and a buddy would lie there
when it was too hot to move and you
had the delicious feeling of not
having a care in the world."
"It sure isn't that way these days,"
grumbled George McKenzie.
"You've got to be so efficient these
days that I feel like I'm always
behind, even when I get up in the
morning. Seems to me you never get
a chance to relax a little in the '90s."
"Yeh," said Cliff, "sometimes I
spend so much time sorting out
which chore I should be doing first
that I can't get anything done at all."
"I bought a computer to help me
get organized, but it takes me so long
to remember how to use it I'd waste
less time being inefficient," Mabel
put in from the kitchen.
"Efficiency," said Dave, "seems
to be about me working harder so
somebody else can work less. I mean,
my dad made a living farming 200
acres but now I have to farm 500 so
the guy in the city can work half as
long to pay for his food bill."
"We're just like everybody else,"
George said. "Farming is becoming
high volume and low mark-up."
"The way things are going," said
Cliff, "we'll have one farmer in every
township farming 50,000 acres
because he's only making a dollar an
acre."
"Yeh but what are you supposed
to do when the margins get cut so
thin the more you grow, the more
money you lose," said Dave. "With
the price of hogs in the last year I
figure the only way I could make
money was if I'd produced about
minus -2000 hogs."
"It's not just you farmers that are
feeling the squeeze," said Wayne.
"People think I'm supposed to
survive on high volume and low
mark-up in my shoe store too. You
guys can at least go out and buy
another farm to get the volume. This
town never grows so I where am I
supposed to get more volume?"
"Anybody noticed the speed
everybody's driving at on the roads
lately?" Molly wondered. "If you're
going 10 miles an hour over the
speed limit you feel like you're
dawdling. Some guy's right on your
tail just itching to pass you, even
going up hill."
"And he's likely talking on a cell
phone at the same time," said Dave.
"They're probably on their way
out of town to shop in some mall,"
grumbled Wayne. "They figure if
they drive fast enough they can make
up for the extra time it takes them to
not shop at home."
"We got one neighbour who
drives so fast on his way to town that
he has to eat his own dust when he's
coming home again," said Cliff.
"When you figure cops think it's
their god -given right to be the fastest
drivers on the road, you have to
wonder what speed they're going,"
said Dave.
"And where are they going so fast,
anyway?" Wayne said. "They're sure
not wasting gas to try to catch the
speeders."
"I don't know, they caught me
when I was doing 60 in a 50 -zone,"
grumbled Mabel. "See if I give them
extra fries with their hamburgers
anymore."
"Just take a little longer giving
them service," Dave suggested.
"When they leave at least they'll
have an excuse for driving so fast."0