214 Saturday, September 5, 1992 Recalling tales of the water we drink : If all the world were apple pie And all the seas were ink And all the trees were bread and cheese What would we have to drink? Anon (2) My two ladies and I were finishing breakfast the other morning and watching the Co- lumbia River rolling majesti- cally below us while our own reservior is a half-empty gully. After a few brief but pithy comments on the situation, the conversation turned to wa- ter (or lack of it) and I recalled an incident in the beautiful translation of the book ‘Sand, Wind and Stars’ by pioneer, aviator, author and mystic An- toine Saint Exuprey. In it he tells how in the pe- riod between the two great Wars the French government attempted to impress the sheiks and Emirs of France’s North African possessions by giving them a V.LP. tour of France. They visited all the glories and power of France for many days. The sheiks and Emirs were unimpressed. Finally, they were taken to see France’s largest and wildest river, the Garonne. The visitors were immediate- ly fascinated and ignored all hints of moving on. One of the guides asked what the guests were so interested in. “We are waiting for the wa- ter to stop.” was the answer. The chief guide seized the opportunity to say the river had rushed unabated for many years and would do so for many more. “You can now tell your people how mighty are the rivers of France”. The Arabs snorted. They would be denounced as liars, they said, for only in Paradise does so much pure water flow forever. The conversation then turned to the Alberta town of McLennan where the ladies had lived as children and where the murky, weedy wa- ter was hauled from a nearby lake and sold at 25¢ a barrel. Not a drop was wasted. When, after 10 years, the family returned to Vancouver, the girls brought the water- imposed habits of the north with them. Thus, one of them recalled, when at her uncle’s house in preparation for sup- per, she had carefully filled the bathroom wash basin, poorer S Reflections and Recollections John CHARTER Brian L. Brown. CERTIFIED GENERAL ACCOUNTANT 270 Columbia Avenue Castlegar + 365-2151 of this monster was so horrif- ic that she would turn out the light in the bathroom, depress the handle and dash out the door for fear of being caught in the whirl of water. ‘Cool, clear water’ sounds fine in cowboy songs, and Vancouverites at that earlier time could justly brag of puri- ty and softness of their water, but the girls weren’t im- pressed. Having grown accus- tomed to the hard muddy wa- ter of McLennan, they found the coast water ‘lacked body and flavour’. And talking of flavor, when I came to Castlegar in 1947, I found the water the best I ever drank. When the dam went in, our water came out of wells bored in the ground. It was full of dubious suspensions and iron salts and hard enough to drive nails into. Now that we are back with the river all we have to contend with is the occasional whiff of chlorine, but such is ‘progress’. We're lucky though. In many parts of the world water must be carried for miles. One group brings aid to these re- mote parts of the Third World by boring water wells for the people. It is not easy to sell, since many of those people, ac- customed to distinctively coloured and flavoured water, are deeply suspicious of the transparent product from the ground. No one would touch the stuff, he said. Therefore it was necessary to persuade the ruling chief that this water was safe. He was curious but cautious, and ordered one of his wives to drink it. When, af- ter several days of quaffing ‘the colorless stuff, the women was still hale and hearty, the chief then drank a glassful in the presence of his subjects and all was well. It was a ma- jor breakthrough in water use. That breakfast conversa- tion on water also included the subject of biffys, privies or sometimes euphemistically ‘water-closets’ — once common in Castlegar and I had intend- ed to have a literary look at that basic convenience but got sidetracked at ‘water’. Anoth- er time perhaps. Surgenor & Rogers CERTIFIED GENERAL ACCOUNTANTS 1444 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, B.C. NEIL E. SURGENOR, C.G.A. RESIDENT PARTNER Bus. 365-7208 Fax. 365-3908 RENT THIS SPACE! Ph. 365-7266 — CON. RENOVATIONS y ” STEEL A Better Way to Build Pre- eingineered Steel Buildings + COMMERCIAL + INDUSTRIAL + AGRICULTURAL For more information, call your Authorized Garco Builder Midwest Construction Services Ltd. 428-3332 Box 1633, Creston, B.C. — —E)— ~ CASTLEGAR FUNERAL CHAPEL Dedicated to bl Gy lat service. 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FREE ESTIMATES PH. 365-6969 Moving & Storage Ltd. 18 Branches in B.C., Alberts & Sask. 2337-6th Avenue, Castlegar Invite you to call them for a free moving estimate Let our representative tell you about the many services which have made Williams the most respected name in the moving business. Ph. 365-3328 Collect COLEMAN COUNTRY BOY SERVICE Sump & Septic Tank Pumping Phone 365-5013 3400-4th Avenue Castlegar Sore feet? Foot problems? We'll help you solve them at LYON'S SHOE STORE 553 Baker Street, Nelson 352-3034 DeVito Shoe Repair Service Drop off depot at Eremenko Shoes, Castlegar For Info: 365-7353, 352-6261 ~ DEWDNEY TRAIL STAGES "Charter for groups Anytime, Anywhere!” 1355 Bay Ave., Trail 368-5555 OR CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-332-0282 @ Saturday, September 5, 1992 FastLAN Win or lose, it’s in The News. athan Green 365-7266 OOPS In the Castlegar News story, ‘Bashers go in back door to beat Dexter's’ (Sept. 2), Dexter's coach Cam Mcintosh was incorrectly identified as Cam Russell. The News apologizes for the error. AND THE WINNER IS Some lucky person in Castlegar is the winner of the second draw of the B.C. Seniors Games Zone 6 400 club. The winning ticket number is, drum roll please, 108. Give Marg Van Yzerloo a call at 365-7163 to claim your prize. RUN FOR FUN The annual Golden City Grind 10 km Run and Hilly Two Mile Run are set for next Sunday to coincide with Golden City Days in Rossland. Anyone interested in putting their best feet forward should call Kate Wright at 362- 7351. WE HAVE LIFTOFF The Western Hockey League’s Tacoma Rockets will play two exhibition games this weekend at Cominco Arena in Trail, tonight at 8 against Portland and tomorrow at 4 p.m. against LocaSPORTS Cocoons mine Dawson Creek for major medals Photo submitted Kootenay Cocoons’ Gerry Brussels, Bill Van Yzerloo, Bill Deklerk and Dick Moul i i i A | lyn mug for the camera during the B.C. Seniors Games last K i Dawson Creek. The four swimmers had reason to smile, as they-helped contribute to the 83 medals the Smien chit brought back from the Gaines, " NEWS STAFF West Kootenay seniors headed to the B.C. Seniors Games in one plane last week, and almost.needed another to transport their medals back home. Among the 100 participants who headed to Dawson Creek for the annu- al games were 13 members of the Koote- nay Cocoons Swim Club, and leading the charge was Castlegar’s Dorothy Competing in the 60-64 age category, Martini captured a'medal in every event she entered, including five gold, two sil- ver and four bronze. Capping that performance off was a meet record she shared with Rossland’s Barbara Roberts, Winlaw’s Marion Roberts-Young and fellow local Marg Van Yzerloo in the 4X25 medley relay. Van Yzerloo also did the swim club proud, picking up nine medals as well as a meet record in the 200 individual medley. In all, the 13 Cocoons brought 81 medals home from Dawson Creek, an impressive display considering 15 of them picked up 53 last year. KOOTENAY COCOONS RESULTS 1992 B.C. SENIORS GAMES. Ladies 55-59: Barbara Roberts (Rossland) 2nd - 25 free; 3rd - 200 free, 50 free, 400 free, 25 back and 800 free. Marion Roberts-Young (Winlaw) 1st - 25 free (meet record); 2nd - 50 free; 100 back, 25 back; 3rd - 50 back, 25 fly, 100 IM, 50 fly. Ladies 60-64: Dorothy Martini (Castlegar) 1st - 25 free, 50 free, 100 free, 25 back; 2nd - 50 back, 100 back; 3rd - 25 fly, 50 fly. Adele Yule (Castlegar) 2nd - 25 breast, 50 breast, 100 breast; 3rd - 200 free; 4th - 400 free, 100 IM; 6th - 25 fly. Ladies 65-69: Betty Brussels (Grand Forks) 1st - 25 free (novice); 2nd - 25 back; 3rd - 25 breast, 200 breast; 4th - 50 breast; 5th - 100 back. Marg Van Yzerloo (Castlegar) 1st - 200 IM (meet record); 2nd - 25 breast 100 IM, 100 breast, 50 fly; 3rd - 50 free, 50 breast; 5th 25 fly. 4x25 metre free relay: 3rd - Martini, Roberts, Roberts, Young Yule. 4x25 metre mediey relay: 1st - (meet record), Roberts-Young, Van Yzerloo, Martini, Roberts. Men 60-64: Dick Moulyn (Nelson) 2nd - 20 breast, 100 free, 100 breast; 3rd - 25 free; 4th - 50 free, 25 fly. Art Toews (Castlegar) 2nd - 25 free (novice), 25 back (novice); 3rd - 100 back; 4th - 50 back; Sth - 50 breast. Men 65-69: Gerry Brussels (Grand Forks) 3rd - 100 breast; 4th - 25 breast, 25 free; 5th - 50 breast. Bill Deklerk (Castlegar) 1st - 25 breast; 2nd - 100 IM, 100 back, 100 breast; 3rd - 25 fly, 100 IM, 4th - breast. Bill Van Yzerloo (Castlegar) 3rd - 25 breast, 200.IM, 100 back, 50 fly; 4th - 100 breast, 25 back; 5th - 25 fly. Men 75-79: Gus Conacher (Montrose) 1st - 50 back, 25 back; 2nd - 25 free; 3rd - 50 free. Chuck Woolls (Fruitvale) 1st - 200 free, 400 free, 100 IM, 800 free; 2nd - 50 back, 25 fly; 4th 50 breast. 4x25 metre free relay: 3rd - Moulyn, Deklerk, Brussels, Van Yzerloo. Van Yzerloo said with the number of participants in the Seniors Kamloops. ally hard for these games.” Games growing every year, the com- petition is becoming tougher. With that in mind, the number of medals they won was quite a shock. “We would have been happy if we had 53 like last year,” she said, adding that they were close to that after the first day. “We were really surprised after day one. A winner of five medals last year, Van Yzerloo said she didn’t expect to do that well after looking at the heat sheets for her races. _ “I was really nervous because I didn’t think I would have much of a chance,” she said. But doubts quickly disappeared af- ter Van Yzerloo found herself winning seven individual medals and two from relays. With the B.C. Masters Swim Cham- pionships another seven months away, Van Yzerloo said the Cocoons will slow things down for a while, returning to their one-a-week practice schedule. “For right now, we're just going to take it easy,” she said. “We worked re- Need acar loan? Welll make it hay