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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-05-11, Page 31
11 CORDON ;R F4F4 \, You Can't Take a Leek in Gatineau Park! So ran a headline in The Lowdown to Hull and Back News last spring. This lively little weekly with the curious name circulates in that part of La Belle Province which is on the Quebec side of the Ot- tawa River, and the article under the headline revealed the fact that the digging off wild leeks in the Gatineau National Park is now strictly forbidden. Why? Well it seems that the wild leek is so prized by gourmets that in the Gatineau at least, it has be- come an endangered species with a black market value of $4 a pound. And the great people in Parks Canada are now taking drastic steps to halt such plunder. From now on it will cost you a whopping big fine if you should get caught taking a leek in the Gatineau. All of which must bring a wry smile to oldsters who had the good fortune to know the Canadian countryside of 50 or 60 years ago when the wild leek was so common it was often a genuine "nui- sance. Indeed many a mother and many a school teacher must have wondered why in the world the Almighty had ever created it. For in that rugged part of Ontario where I' grew up - without maturing too much - there was a lovely school boy tradition which I have never come across anywhere else. That was the adventure of making at least one hike to the woods each year for the purpose of finding and eating fresh wild leeks. And that was high adventure in every sense of the word. You smelled so -high in fact that you ran the risk of having your mother make you take your supper to the woodshed. For those of your who have never savored the peculiar and unbelievable strength of the Canadian wild leek, no description of that smell is possible. For those of you who have smelled it, even once, and many years ago, no description is necessary. Suffice it to say that for rankness, the leek ranks right on a par` with the pun- gency which a skunk might inflict upon you at medium range, except that m the lat- ter emergency, one can take off his clothes and wash him- self with carbolic soap. But what can you do when the source of the radiation is in the pit of your stomach? For a country school boy of 40 years ago however, the real adventure didn't come on that delightfully idola- trous afternoon that you dawdled in the woods finding this powerful vegetable. It came next morning in class after the school bell rang. Well, the teacher might wait until after you had finished the ever and ever of the Lord's Prayer. Then again, she might not. In any case, the punish- ment was invariably the same. You were sent home for the day. Of course you might get the strap too, but that wasn't a bad price to pay for a day's liberty in the spring landscape. You ate leeks only once a year. Don't ask me why. That was just part of the tra- ful and too warm for study- dition. ` ing inside anyhow. But some of us oldtimersr "Get your books ! " she commanded. "All of you! And boys, you take us to where you found those leeks. If you're willing to endure a smell like that to eat them, they sure must be delicious and 1 want to try some too!" from my school still talk about the schoolmarm who fooled up one year. That was the time that every boy in Senior Third went to the woods a half mile away, and every one ate at least a half dozen. They don't taste too bad either. !anyhow, by the time we had had our fill, we could al- most sit on the smell, and next morning the air of the tight little schoolhouse had the consistency of thin soup. The teacher, a sweet young thing, who didn't really deserve such a fate, sniffed, looked at us sharply, and then looked out through the window. It was a beauti- fully warm day - too beauti- So we had our lessons in the woods that day, eating leeks whenever we wanted, and the teacher ate as many as anyone else. Too bad that teacher didn't stay in the profession for long. She got married a couple of years after to one of our more successful young farmers. I'll bet she made a lovely wife too - if the smell of leeks ever wore off her. . AT HARVEY KROTZ FORD 8L MERCURY n P 2 Door and 4 Door Family Sedans ON DISPLAY IN OUR SHOWROOM FROM FORD TRUCK DIESEL POWER PLANTS The 2.2 litre and 6.9 litre Ford diesel engines will be on display for your in- spection . Jim McColl, Ford Light Truck Specialist will be on hand to answer your questions Friday night and Satur- day about these exciting new engines. Hot Dog and Coke Fi iday, May 13 6 - 7:30 pm. Saturday, May 14 12 - 1:30 pm only 50¢ ZIEBART DEMO Bob Adams of Listowel Ziebart will be presenting Ziebart demonstrations all day Saturday at Harvey Krotz Ford. Come in and see Bob do Z©Glazing (exterior finish) Rustproofing and Scotch Guarding All proceeds will be donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Canada. Classic Cars Be sure to see these classic cars on display at Harvey Krotz Ford. • '55 Ford Convertible • '55 Crown Victoria • '55 Club Sedan . • '56 Victoria Hardtop • '56 Ford Convertible • '29 Baby Lincoln • '65 Mustang Convertible Paul Wainwright Of CKGL®FM will be on location broadcasting live on Saturday. Crossroads --May 11, 1983 --Page 17 Global's Ottawa Bureau Chief, Doug Small, did, a short news story recently on a speech by Allan MacEach- en, the External Affairs Minister, to a Canada-Isreal Committee Conference in Ottawa. The word that Doug Small used to describe the speech, as a reporter playing it straight up the middle, was "cautious" I searched the newspaper later, in vain, for some further report on the speech, but neither the Globe nor the Star, in the editions I checked, saw fit to carry on. That's not surprising. The speech was so -diplomatic that, there wasn't an atom of news in it. If television news could afford wasted effort, we probably wouldn't have carried the story either. It seems to me that both diplo- matic and political fashions have passed Mr. MacEachen by. His soul -mates in the wind business, men. like Don Jamieson and Paul Martin, have been put out to grass. The new wave seems to have less time for saying nothing, and for that we can be grate- ful. The contrast between Mr. MacEachen's humming and hawing on our missile testing agreement with the United States, and U.S. Am- bassador Paul Robinson's bald assessment of it, -are a startling, indication of how the old order is on the way out. Mr. MacEachen, who is a politician, is much less forthcoming than Mr. Robin- son, who is a diplomat. And.: although being mealy- mouthed was never an ex- clusive diplomatic franchise, it Used to be more the pro- vince of diplomacy than poli- tics. Mr. MacEachen never uses a sharp, single syllable word when a dozen of the ten C R 0 5 s w 0 R D 5 ACROSS 1. Satiated and bored 6. Seventh son of Jacob 9. Grid scores: abbr. 12. Prying aid 18. Not cognizant 16. Stradivari'@ teacher 16. Mining air @hafts 17. - Psalms, writer 18. French denial 20. On the ocean 21. Being: Spanish 23. Legal matter 25. Abode 27. South -of -the - border fare 30. Denials 81. Pikelike Ash dollar variety will suffice. Mr. Robinson, on the other hand, calls a twerp a twerp whenever he runs into one, which is not infrequently. Some Canadians may be tender about Mr. Robinson, but I like him. With a man like that as Washington's emissary, we know exactly where we stand. He refuses to take refuge in circumlo- cution, and thus elevates us to the status of adults. For the same reason, I am vastly encouraged by the determin- ation of Canadian MPs of all parties to go to the United States looking loaded for bear on acid rain. There is nothing to be gained by being polite about the losing of our lakes. Wringing our hands and moaning gently about the undefended border and our two great countries won't impress the hard- headed businessmen who have the president's ear on the acid rain question. There's only one way, a rather painful one, to get the attention of that kind of American, and I hope our MPs have some placekickers with them. Truman birthdate Harry S. Truman, 33rd president of the United States, . was born on-. May 1884. S 3 3EN S I N 3 11 3 30S v a O I I1 3l•N 3 a N Elva OPINV .Lda SON 311011 V'l 3 U 3 .I O I dS.3 IIVS.L dila a a ©v N v'i Z 3 -oN n 01V8021 3 1 V I V L Sall 3FN3 n r o In II v V S33V,LN 3 s V mos I I 900 LV11L 3 I1 Sas V u v avo N fl V •3sv'Ita 3 A 3 'I 34. Pressing 36. Exist 37. Wooly beasts 39. Holley - Madieon 41. Sports arbiter, for short 42. Combat necessity: slang 46. Autocrat 48. Sixth sense: abbr. 60 Otologiet's study 51. More luscious 53. African antelope 55. Indigenous 66. Buffalo's habitat 67. Unit of soldiers: abbr. 58. Compass point 59. Penny pincher DOWN 1. Propeller part 2. Vitamin C source 3. Nautical cry 4. Determined 5. Ireland: poet. 6. African region 7. Miss .Sothern 8. Computer "food" 9. Sign with free samples: 2 wde. 10. Cynic'e com- ment to a visionary : 2 wds. 11. Hie: French 14. Lave 19. Imitation gold leaf 22. Greek letter 24. Business declines 26. New York clock zone 28. Tutti 29. Epoch 31. Terrier's prey 32. Deep and resonant, as a voice 38. - manner 86. Juliette Lowe group: abbr. 88. Punish by fine 40. Carplike fish 43. Wherewithal 44. Skin disease 45. Command 47. Hoarfrost 49. Hair wave, for short 51. Nickname for Confederal General Stuart 62. One: German 64. Medieval poem Don Wright is an artist and a hemophiliac. His blood won't clot without Factor VIII, a component of blood plasma. He is alive and healthy today BECAUSE PEOPLE GIVE BLOOD. friends for life R The Canadian Red Cross Sorinty 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ■■■■ 13 ■■ 14 ■.0 15 ■.■ 16 ■ �■■■■ 17 18 19 20 21 ■■22 23 ■24 25 ■■26 27 28 .■. 29 30 ■■ 3132- 33 �■■ _.__... 30.. - _._ 35- ill Id ■. 37 .38 .� 39 ■.40 41 ■■ 42 illilil 46 ■■47 4B ■49 50 ■■ lia ill■■�■ . ill WI NI ■ 56 ■..■ ill i..■■ DOWN 1. Propeller part 2. Vitamin C source 3. Nautical cry 4. Determined 5. Ireland: poet. 6. African region 7. Miss .Sothern 8. Computer "food" 9. Sign with free samples: 2 wde. 10. Cynic'e com- ment to a visionary : 2 wds. 11. Hie: French 14. Lave 19. Imitation gold leaf 22. Greek letter 24. Business declines 26. New York clock zone 28. Tutti 29. Epoch 31. Terrier's prey 32. Deep and resonant, as a voice 38. - manner 86. Juliette Lowe group: abbr. 88. Punish by fine 40. Carplike fish 43. Wherewithal 44. Skin disease 45. Command 47. Hoarfrost 49. Hair wave, for short 51. Nickname for Confederal General Stuart 62. One: German 64. Medieval poem Don Wright is an artist and a hemophiliac. His blood won't clot without Factor VIII, a component of blood plasma. He is alive and healthy today BECAUSE PEOPLE GIVE BLOOD. friends for life R The Canadian Red Cross Sorinty