Zurich Citizens News, 1972-12-07, Page 4PA G'E 4
ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7
mission fee of 500.
And I thought of occasions
when I had got into a doh -se -
doh with a particularly enthus-
iastic and buxom farm wench,
and, because I couldn't foot it
like the farm boys, been swung
around in circles with both
feet three inches off the floor.
A couple of belts or raw gin,
and a couple of dances like
that, and you were ready and
willing to go out into the snow
and gaze, palely and greenly
at the moon for a half hour or
so.
Inside the hall, with a wood
stove almost red hot, and a
hundred or so bodies steaming,
it was always about 130 degrees.
And this was in the days before
ultra -dry deodorants, But I
don't remember anybody smell-
ing anything except hot and
perfumey.
Eventually, there'd be a fight,
or lunch would be served, then
it was into the Model A and
shiver home through the winter
night. No heater.
But, oh, what a night we'd
had, and oh, what stories re
regaled our less venturesome
school -mates with, when we
fore -gathered at the pool room
on Saturday afternoon.
Poor modern kids, Do they
have any fun?
The wounds of Christmas
We're into the Christmas season again,
with its joy and its frenzy and the trick to
prevent the frenzy from inundating the joy.
Jean Vanier, son of the late Governor-
General, startled many last fall when he spoke
of "the terrible things Christmas does to our
children." He believes we wound them by a
surfeit of expensive and un -needed things,
which are greedily accepted but little cher-
ished. Witness the way so many toys are
broken or abandoned before December is over.
Vanier thinks our lavish ---and often deficit
gift -spending breeds distorted values that act-
ually cripple our young.
Another peril of this Christmas over -ind-
ulgence is what it does to those who are out-
side it --the children of an unemployed father
or a single mother on welfare. To see the
tempting things displayed in stores, to hear
the constant pitch for luxuries via television
and yet be denied them; surely such wounds go
deep.
Vanier, who spent some of his time in
Canada visiting Kingston Penitentiary, says
that his talks with prisoners revealed that
this disparity between what they saw and what
they could have, was often the motive for their
criminal behaviour, "£'
The solution? Even the most concerned
among us will shake our heads. Gifts are part
of Christmas; they can be emotionally enrich-
ing to both giver and receiver. Perhaps, if
we keep them fewer and simpler and listen to
the carols whose happy sounds point us back to
the source of the celebration, and listen also
to the silent cry of the deprived, then DO
something constructive to assuage it, we may
manage to strike a balance that will make the
festival genuine.
The star we follow
News these days, whether reaching us
through the daily paper or via the airwaves,
seems to consist of one calamity after another --
more deaths in Ireland, more repression in
South Africa, more examples of injustice and
man's inhumanity to man. When we reflect on
all this woe, it is easy to despair of both ind-
ividuals and society. But not at Christmas.
As we prepare for this 'festival of the
heart' another and happier aspect of mankind
is revealed, Human beings can be unselfish and
tender too, and the heartening message of this
season is that we can trust these qualities. We
are as capable of love as of hate, of idealism
as of cynicism, and on them the world makes
its slow but not always insubstantial gains.
Despair always fetters; it is love that inspires.
History is studded with the names of the
ruthless from Caesar's legions to Hitler and
Stalin, but their stars flashed briefly and then
vanished, It is another star we follow with hope
and yearning each December, and it takes us
to a Bethlehem stable and a Babe whom man
cannot forget. In his name and in his spirit
the Cardinal Leger's the Dr. Robert McClures,
the Jean Vaniers and the Dag Hamme.rskjolds
live, or have lived among us.
At this season we dare believe the best and
final word is with them;
"Where charity stands watching
And faith holds wide the door
The dark night wakes, the glory
breaks and Christmas comes once
more,,."
-Phillips Brooks
MAY IT SO COME TO US ALL,
ZURICH Citizens NEWS
PRINTED BY SOUTH HURON PUBLISHERS LIMITED, ZURICH
HERB TURKHEIM, Publisher
Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385
41614A
Member: s
Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association 04od*
Sub.eription Rates: $.00 per year in advance in Canada;
*00 In United Slates and Foreign; single copies 10 cents.
Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association 00WOR
EVERYBODY NEEDS IT
AT LEAST ONCE
It seems to me that kids don't
have muchfun anymore. To-
day I was reading a short story
with a group of eighteen -year-
olds, It was about a shy, flutt-
ery spinster out on her first
public date with a widower who
was courting her. They went to
a dance. She tripped and fell
and her man came tumbling
down on top of her.
It was funny, but pathetic,
and the kids, who are sensitive
to humiliation, exuded symp-
athy, especially the girls. We
talked for a bit about the things
that make people shy or awk-
ward or self-conscious; acne,
obesity, a colostomy. Fine.
A good discussion.
But then I asked if any of
them had had the same exper-
ience --falling flat on the dance
floor. Horrors, no!
Of course, the way they dance
nowadays, it's almost impossible
to measure your length on the
_hardwood. Mos of them dance b1
themselves, and it's pretty hard
to topple unless you're blind,
stoned. On slow pieces, those
rare occasions, they are clutch-
ed so tightly that it would
take a bulldozer to knock them
down.
Most of the time, in fact,
they don't even dance, just
listen to the clangour and
thump. And it's pretty hard to
fall down on a dance floor when
you're not dancing. I mean,
it's the sort of thing you have
to work at,
Anyway, I just sat back,
looked them over, and shook
my head. "You kids haven't
lived. Nobody has really lived
who hasn't gone sprawling on a
dance floor, preferably bringing
down his or her partner in the
process."
There's nothing like it to
pare the ego down to size. And
it helps if you do it before a
large and appreciative audience
I can recall at least two oc-
casions on which it happened
to me. Once was at the Cascade
of fond memory. The second
was at the Legion Hall in Tob-
ermory. And I have living wit-
nesses. My wife doesn't know
about the second one, so keep
it quiet,
But I can well recall the
sensation. One moment you
are gliding about, leaping and
pirouetting, a veritable Rud-
olph Nureyev in Swan Lake.
The next, your pas des deux
somehow turns into a pas des
trois, you discover that your
partner is not Margot Fonteyn,
and you're flat on your back,
head spinning from the thump
on the floor, and a broad who
a moment ago was light as
thistledown, sprawled across
you like Strangler Lewis winn-
ing the deciding fall.
There's only one thing to do.
Leap to your feet, laughing
hollowly, and so quickly that
the spectators might think it
was all part of the performance.
They never do, of course. And
it's pretty lonely out there in
the middle of the floor when
your partner, who has been
shamed for life, gives you a
look like a cold shower, and
stalks away forever.
"What? Don't you people
ever go to a country dance and
get hurled about?" I badgered
my students, Nope.
So I had to tell them what it
was like. When I was their age,
we used to strike off many a
Friday night. Usually for Wernys
where they had the prettiest
girls (Jo and Vera Dewitt, Urs-
ula Brady), and the best music
(Lorne Consitt on the piano and
Mr. Dewitt on the fiddle.)
There was no question of tak-
ing girls. We couldn't afford it.
But there was always the hope
that you'd get to take one home.
However, they always seemed
to have several huge brothers or
cousins lurking about.
It was about $1, 00 for the
evening. Fifty cents for the
dance, eighty-five cents for a
mickey of gin, split four ways,
and the rest for gas for somebody
old man's car.
"Have you never got into a
square dance and been literally
swept off your feet?" I quest-
ioned nay girl students. Nope.
But some of them looked as
though they rather liked the
idea.
And I thought of those burly
farm boys, getting into the
spirit of things and whirling the
girls around until the latter
were actually flying. Occasion-
ally, sweaty hands spelled dis-
aster, and one of the girls
would go glying off into the
lunch the ladies were organizin€
The lunch was part of the ad -
1972
NORM WHITING
LICENSED AUCTIONEER
& APPRAISER
Prompt, Courteous, Efficient
ANY TYPE, ANY SIZE,
ANYWHERE
We give complete sale service.
PROFIT BY EXPERIENCE
Phone Collect
235-1%4 EXETER
Business and Professional Directory
OPTOMETRISTS
J. E; a.ongstaff
OPTOMETRIST
SEAFORTH MEDICAL CENTRE
527-1240
Ts esday, Thursday, Friday, Sat-
urday a.m., Thursday evening
CLINTON OFFICE
10 Issac Street 482-7010
Monday and Wednesday
Call either office for
appointment.
Norman Martin
QPTOMETRIST
0Iffice Hours:
9-12 A,M. — 1:30-6 P.M,
Closed all day Saturday
Phone 235.2433 Exeter
INSU_RANCE_S.
Robert F. Westlake
Insurance
"Specialising In
General Insurance"
Phone 236-4391 --- Zurich
For Safety
. . .
EVERY FARMER NEEDS
Liability Insurance
For Information About All
Insurance — CaII
BERT KLOPP
DIAL 236-4988 — ZURICH
Representing
CO-OPERATORS INSURANCE
ASSOCIATION
AUCTIONEERS
PERCY WRIGHT
LICENSED AUCTIONEER
Kippen, Ont.
Auction Sale Service that is
most efficient and courteous.
CALL
THE WRIGHT AUCTIONEER
Telephone Hensel) (519)262-5515
D & J RIDDE:LL
AUCTION SERVICES
* Licensed Auctioneers
and Appraisers
* Complete Auction Service
* Sales, large or small, any
type, anywhere
* Reasonable — Two for the
price of one
Let our experience be your
reward.
Phone Collect
'Doug' 'Jack'
237-3576 237-3431
Hugh Tom
FILSON and. ROBSON
AUCTIONEERS
20 years' experience
of complete sale service
Provincially licensed.
Conduct sales of. any Jdnd,
any place.
To insure success of your sale.
orappraisal
Phone Collect
'666-0633 666-1967
Guaranteed Trust
Certificates
lyr 6 25
2 yrs 6 75
3-4 yrs...7.50
5 yrs 7 75
J. W. CAMBER
ZURICH PHONE 236-4346