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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1974-12-23, Page 18G ber 1974— Bill Smiley n appeal to parents imimagio0000* rlys•Ath triteth. The British that the P Ieral b'# sot,► 00 the coalmen Whew ant, bee W e► to m i, whIth vides them with oetweleled. and protected pessaseways.. It Is reported that they ale much more difficult to eradt» este inmodern Wangs in old-fashloned ono.. On Dec. 14, 101, Britain mourned the death of Prince Albert, husband of Queen Vic. torte. In the *cared good old days, a great Many Who . are now middle -awed *nen were in the ne . buusine s. That is, they had a paper route and made a bit of spent money, eves in the d+relr>lion 'years. was cloi ely associated with a paper mate myself, although I d't ;exactly have one. My kid brother dad. l wits sort of his buss- mesa manager or financial advis- er. Every Saturday night, after he'd made his weekly collections, 1 Would inveigle him into the bathroom, look the door nobody Could hear, and give hliiti some sound business advice. I'd remind him that he was too fond of candy and pop and other tooth -rotting confections, that he had no willpower, and that he'd only squander his hard-earned fifty cents if he didn't invest at least part of it every week. He didn't know much about in- vestments and wanted to put some of bis money into a piggy bank. I'd tell him severely that that was no way to make his money grow. He should give it to me and watch the interest pile up. He'd bawl a bit, but then he'd come around after a bit of arm - twisting, and see the point. The point was that I was stronger than he was. I'd -always let him keep part of it, maybe twenty cents. I'd take the other thirty cents and invest it. I invested it to the Saturday night movie, a bottle of pop and a chocolate bar. It was a wise in- vestment and paid good dive; dends. The many movies I thus' enjoyed enriched my experience of the human condition, enlarged my vocabulary, and added to my personal pleasure in life: It took him about two years to catch on, two of the best years of my life. There was, of course, a confrontation. He swore I had conned him out of at least sixty doflars. I scoffed at this and told him it was only about fourteen. But the little devil hal been keeping his books. \ Last time I saw . him, in Ger- many last spring, he informed me that with compound interest, f now Owed semi• $44,000 and if I didn't come up withit, he'd be i interested in taking t out of my hide. lam still an inch`taller thap he, but he out -weighs me by forty Pounds - So o ids -So we compromised. I told him that if he paid all my expenses on my trip, I'd 7dig up the money somehow. He did. And thank goodness I haven't seen him since. All this has been brought to mind by a recent development in the delivery of daily newspapers.. Itis just another sign of our afflu- ent age, when even the;.kids have so much money they don't have to work. . For years, I've taken two daily newspapers, morning and even- ing. They take opposite political stands, and both are so warped that if I take a stand in the middle of their polarized points of view, I am right in the temperate zone, which f . prefer. At any rate, it seems that these titans of the press cannot, simply can sot, secure young carrier girls or boys to peddle their papers. The morning paper has simply given up. No delivery. The even- ing paper has hired independent agents "operating their own vehi- cles." This means guys who drive around in their own cars and hurl the paper out the car window in the general direction of your house. In the good old days of about six weeks ago,, I felt a little tingle of warmth when the door -bell rang. "Ah, the paper boy," I would re- mark wittily. And it was. The boy, or sometimes girl, was faithful and loyal, even in the foulest weather. I knew ' the country was going to hell in a hearse, but I felt that this was one hummock of decency and virtue in a morass of miseries. Now I feel a very strong tingle, not of warmth, but of rage, at paper -delivery time. It is my custom when I arrive home after a hard day on the assembly line at the pupil -factory, to take off my jacket and my shoes, and take on a cold beer before pro- ceeding to peruse my paper. This entire routine has been spoiled, not to say desecrated, by the new delivery method. I still go through the first parts of the procedure, but the beer tastes flat as I stew around, waiting for the paper. It arrives any time be- tween four and seven. That means I have put back on my shoes and gone out in my shirt- sleeves in the winter wind to search around in the snow for my paper as many as four times. This is not conducive to lowering a man's blood pressure. At least they put the thing in a plastic bag. But this is covered in three minutes when it's snowing, which it always seems to be when I go out to look for .my paper. To add insult to injury, Ire- ceive a letter from the circulation department of the big, fat, rich, lousy.newspaper telling: ma that the price is going up and that "We feel this is a reasonable price to pay for dependable delivery to your driveway six days a week." Well, let me just say to the cir- culation manager that I don't want the paper delivered to my driveway but to my house. My ear can't read. And let me add that the service is not dependable, in its present condition. And let me further add that if you can't do better than that, 1 will shortly tell you what you can do with your newspaper. Sideways. This is a direct appeal to all parents. Please cut off your chil- dren's allowances, so that at least some of thein will be available to peddle papers in the old way. This is a cry from the heart. Civilization is sinking. Must this last vestige of normalcy go down with it? Cotiy for Crossroads eIsi- fteds must be received by $ pan., Wednesdsiy of week prior to pub- lication. Old dishes shop international tourist business A love for dishes — an interest in old patterns. — concern for the people unable to complete their dinner services because their patterns had become obsolete — these were the elements of the runaway hobby that led into a family business for - Margaret Roe of Highland Creek, Ontario, and four of her five sons. Today, Mrs. Roe's company, Old China Patterns Limited, re- quires an office staff of seven people to handle inquiries, pro- cess orders, locate and buy pat- terns which are no longer in pro- duction. She says there are several rea- sons why people search for obso- lete dish patterns. Some have paid a great deal of money for their dishes. To protect their in- vestment, any broken pieces should be replaced. Other reasons are nostalgia and family pride in dishes handed down from one generation to the next. Old China Patterns also offers to interested individuals and groups pattern displays, ° films, talks,' appearances in china sections of department stores. For Sale GLENDALE MOBILE HOMES and Travel Trailers for sale; also large fully serviced and land- scaped mobile home lots for rent. First sideroad west of Stratford on Highway 8, 2 mile north. Cry- stal Lake Mobile Homes Court Ltd., RR 5, Stratford. Phone 393- 6121. tf BEAUTIFi L massive St. Ber- nard puppies, CKC registered. Phone 291-2763, Listowel. Notice ATTENTION SKIERS Minto Glen open this season Saturday, Sunday and school holidays 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Flood lit for night skiing Satur- days 7:30 to 10;30 p.m. New lodge facilities, rentals and run. Down- hill and cross-country skiing, snowmobiling and tobogganing. Special rates on season's tickets for families or clubs. MINTO GLEN SKI CLUB, HARRISTON, Dial 338-2007 or 338-2722. 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FACTORY ain,�on OUTLET LT In Their Original OLD MILL .� the ,s w.r rnek IN BLYTH WOOL aid LEAiIUJI 11 PIOIIICTS t'�►. Commodore Canada When,you buy a Lak•hurst Mobile Home you "get what you ask for" Also Sem Don for all leisure +164italtirs DON McPHAIL MOTORS , 338-3422 Harriston Servile Director Over 30,000 readers Channel 13 Entertainment LL R.R. 13 HMY. U E USTOWEL FRIDAY, 12 MIDNIGHT—"SOME LIKE IT HOT" starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe. SATURDAY, 12:30 p.m. -"NAKED EDGE" starring Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr. SATURDAY, 8, p.m.—"MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS" starring Van- essa 1tedgi+ave and Glenda Jackson. SATURDAY, 11:50 p.m.—"MacKENNA'S GOLD" starring Gregory Peck and Omar Sharif. SUNDAY, 1:30 p.m.—"CALL ME BWANA" with Bob Hope and Anita Ekberg. WEDNESDAY, 12:45 a.m.='THE BAIT" with Donna Mills and Michael Constantine. Germans gave America the Christmas tree habit By ROALD HAASE "0, Tannenbaum, 0, Tan- nenbaum." Thus rings the opening of the familiar German Christ- mas chant, which in English translates into "0, Christmas Tree, 0, Christmas 'free." Perhaps it's fitting that the most famous song about a Cbristinas tree should be in German. It appears that the Germans and other Northern European peoples were re- sponsible for transferring to America the custom of deco- rating evergreen trees in the Yule season. Where and how this trans- ferral of custom first oc- curred is clouded in a kind of historical haze. It is known that the Puritans who settled in New England in the 17th century did not look wrath fa- vor upon the open celebration of Christmas. Books about the origins of Chriastmas customs in Amer- ica are 8 trifle 'vague about the subject. Moat agree that there is a possibility that the German (Hessian) merce- naries woddng for Britain during the Revolutionary War celebrated Christmas with the Yule trees. James H. Barnett in "The American Chria1Ines" says that Germain. hid settled in P.lrybr,a Wig before the Bevelatieruay War and tiatit • is possible that the custom be- gan there. Barnett quotes an account )31 a Christmas celebration in Bethlehem, Pa., in 1747. The account states that piles of green brushwood had been piled into pyramids and the pyramids were decorated with candles. Barnett sug- gests the possibility that this is where the Christmas tree tradition was spawned. In "The Trees of Christ- mas," compiled by Edna Met- calfe, it is pointed out that Christmas trees began to ap- pear early in the 19th century hi German settlements in Pennsylvania; by 1840, they were commonplace in that part of the country. 'The Metcalfe book also mentions the placing of a tree by a captain in the U.S. Army at a Western fort in 1804. A couple of sources say that the first recorded observation of the use of a Christmas tree occurred in Cambridge, Mass. iA German-born profes- sor at Harvard, Dr. Charles Follen, put up a tree in his Cambridge home in 1832, ac- cording to an akcount in a bi- ography iography written by his widow. The Metcalfe book cites oth- er examples of German lin- migrants putting up the deco- rated conifers during the holi- days in the 19th century. The book says, "Wherever the Christmas -keeping Germans went, there was the tree • Starcraft . J ayeo '. Prowler . Glendale Open 6 days, closed Wed. Satisfaction ales ervice 3 miles east of Listowel on Hwy.86 Ph. 291-1150 AI's Collision Service Phone 351-2206. GUNS, AMMO, REPAIRS AND . ACCESSORIES ABC SPORTING GOODS 350 Minnie St. WINGHAM, ONT. i Conch 2, Morris Twp. Repair and Refinishing Enamel and Laquer Rust Repair Frame& Body Work ON CARS & TRUCKS If Repairable We Do It weekly • HADCO Well Drilling & Digging Ltd. Rotary Drilled Wells Machine Dug Shallow Wells Sulphur Free Wells Deepening & Repairing Caissons-Earthboring Elevator Shafts A WELL A DAY THE HADCO WAY PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT Harriston 338-3422 also!" So much for the historical sources. There exists a strong possi- bility, however, that no one can precisely pinpoint the date and place that the Christ- mas tree custom originated in this country. haven historians can be fallible. Perhaps the event went un- recorded. Maybe it went something like this. Mr. Ebenezer "X," a social dst in his tiny New Eng - village, decided to get back at his neighbors. Since he knew that ostentatious dis- plays at Christmas were for- bidden, what better way to re- taliate than by putting up a Christmas tree. So one dark December night, he crept out into the cold with hatchet in hand; making sure that he was safe- ly on his neighbor's north 40, he proceeded to hack down a luxuriant pine sapling. He then hauled it home. Once inside, he decorated it with candles and trinkets and pieces of candy. Since his fel- low villagers would not asso- ciate with him, no one was the wiser. Unfortunately for old Eb, no one knew about it, so he couldn't be given proper cred- it for his inventive mind. Now, that situation has been rectified. But, please, no questions about the origin of the Yule log. CROSSROADS SERVICE DIRECTORY REACHES 30,000 READERS Supe4!aY 323 tbBO 323-2043 •. •:.FF.. -4 3.* iti'.,.. POWER LAWN MOWER CENTRE 1it - Auger Rental Equipment For Any Job ELMIRA 669-3761 ST. MARYS 2344702 W. D. 'BILL' MAY STATE FARM INSURANCE Auto- Life- Fire WINGHAM 3s7-3280 HARRISTON PACKING CO. Give us a toll Sales and expert repairs to all small engines STEVE MEW HARRISTON Bus. 338-3616 Res. 338-2717 for TRIAN LE TIRE Dis.tr' ut rs Ltd. MEAT FOR YOUR FREEZER -hogs by the half and whole -beef by the side and quarter CUSTOM KILLING TO YOUR NEEDS hogs - Tues. beef - Thurs. 338-3330 ales and Retail 1 PASSENGER - FARM TRUCK On the farm service - Phone 291-2521 LISTOWEL ARCTIC CAT law f.rAtkvittfL, Nothing runs like a cat Box 709, Durham PHONE 369-3203 Located on No. 6 Highway 1/2 Mile South of Varney INSURANCE auto fire life liability -income tax prepared -loans arranged -representative for seven trust compani.I P LAWN It SPORTS EQUIPMENT BUY USED MATERIALS BATHROOM FIXTURES DOORS - WINDOWS LUMBER, ETC. Reasonable Rates CALL NOW LISTOWEL 291.241 Llc.nsed Mechanic W. 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