Page B10 The Castlegar Sun Wednesday, October 25, 1995 | Pinch An Inch - A youngster has her body fat measured with a caliper device dur- ing Selkirk College's Science and Technology Week. SUN STAFF PHOTO Trent Bancarz rR a rr rr re 4 Subscription Special We're celebrating Castlegar's downtown revitalization with a special subscription offer. 1 year subscription: $32 local $45 out of town This offer available 3 DAYS ONLY Wed., Oct. 25 © Thurs., Oct. 26 © Fri., Oct. 27 for subscriptions purchased in our office upon presentation of this coupon. SORRY - no phone or mail orders accepted. 465 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar VIN 1G8 365-5266 While you're downtown - be sure to take advantage of the revitalization specials offerd by the other merchants and businesses. a ee ee ie ee ee 1 1 i t i] 1 ! 1 ! ! i] 1 I: IN PERSON ONLY. 1 . i] 1 1 1 I 1 | { is |e wo - - 5 - - - - - - - Travel scams It almost makes the junk mail we get in Castlegar worth re ing: a postcard you've ree d in the mail_says you're the lucky winner of a free, dream vacation. But offers like these are more often travel scams than trips of a lifetime Two rules of thumb can help you separate a legitimate con- test from a travel con. First, be cynical, Unless Ed McMahon himself shows up at your door, chances are good the, offer's not legitimate. Above Wil, don’t pay anything or divulge any- thing until you'can satisfy yourself it is. Travel scams make up a bil- lion-dollar industry, vic- timizing thou- PORTS OF CALL of 10 con- vacationers every year. Typically, con artists send postcards or travel certifi- cates to unsus- pecting consumers and follow up with phone calls that describe enticing travel bargains or free trip offers. Vacations certificates will tell you to start packing for a once- in-a-lifetime holiday. If you just buy a travel voucher for a small fee - often hundreds of dollars - you can select up to three future dates for your free vaca- tion. As each date approaches, however, you'll learn it isn’t available. Once you catch on to this time-wasting tactic, there won't be anyone answering your phone calls. Free trip offers also sound wonderful, until you get there Then you find you're booked into the Roach Motel and that upgrading to another hotel will cost more than an entire air/hotel packa purchased independently in Castlegar. Your freebie may also be conditional. You may be requiged to buy something before you can cash in, such as an air ticKet sold by the promoter at twice the going ratc. In this case, the con artist plans to give you the free trip - but will squceze you hard for extra while you're there CONNIE Motz Whatever the travel scams, there are a number of ways you can protect yourself. Check out the offer before you pay any deposits, registration fees, mem- bership fees, port taxes or other charges, Be suspicious if you're told you've won a contest you haven't entered or don't remem- ber. Best of all, deal only with a recognized, legitimate agency. If you're offered a prize by mail, ask for written informa- tion that sets out any costs you will have to bear. Beware-of vague promises, such as “major hotels” or “major air- lines.” If you're still unsure after receiving the material, ask your trav- el agent for etviee. Remember that seven out sumers who responded to a postcard scheme received noth- ing, according to a consumer survey. Be extra careful if you fall into one of the three groups: seniors, youths or anyone who has been victimized in this way before. Seniors and young people are favorite targets for fast talkers. And con artists may try to convince victims of prior scams that their lost money can be recovered - for only a minimal fee. Never give your charge-card number to anyone who calls touting a travel deal. While it’s safe to carry out a charge-card transaction over the phone with a familiar travel agency here in Castlegar, there's no way to assess the honesty of a caller you don’t know. Reject any travel prize where the promoter won't provide written details, or one that requires you to take immediate action. No legiti- mate offer expires if you don’t say “yes” on the spot. Be suspicious of any offer that requires you to bypass a travel agent and book directly with the company. Above all, don't lose sight of this sober second thought. If a travel offer seems too good to be true, it probably is Winter Getaway Now! Fares to Honolulu Starting at $359.°° Miami at #409. Plus taxes Canadian Regional BUILDING A BETTER AIRLINE 365-5625 or Fax: 36 Book your -5949 f } Explore Two of the Best Play 2 Vancouver One of the most vibrant and beautiful cities any where With mountain views, magnificent Stanley Park, unique shops on Robson Street, fine cuisine, exciting professional sports As ltl and exceptional perform- you ing arts. It’s no mystery Vancouver is Canada’s Time To Play. year-round playground NE ee Sh Gwe nels, Price based on double occupancy per Rates subject to availability Some term: ditions apply person, taxes extra. Minimu S stay Fon SHG Tg came UTA WA Pi ates We rete Re AF hpi ume HP hse 17 Victoria Experience a heritage city alive with the romance of an era when tall ships moored alongside the wharf. Where gardening and golf are year-round passions. And tea an unhur- — ried tradition. Visitors easily become believers in the super natural beauty and civilized charm of Victoria. Call your travel agent or Air BC Vacations at 1-800-561-4199 AicBEx& at business days advance purchase required H H % FLT Ne Pee | Se Fokaik Cp OEP 15 Healthy schools program present in area schools The Central Kootenay Union Board of Health received funding from the Ministry of Health to admin- ister grants for Healthy Schools projects. Last year, 30 schools from six districts received grants if students were directly involved in learning and practicing deci- sion making skills that relate to their well-being.,This pro- cess supports New Direc- tions in health to improve education and health by “involving students, staff and parents in decisions affecting the school and community.” Project Coordinator Elaine Chernoff explains “healthy school projects throughout the Kootenays reach far beyond the absence of disease definition of health.” Projects during the 1994/95 school year includ- ed: Peer Medication train- ing; improving work/school/yard environ- ments; drug/alcohol/obacco abuse awareness, increasing self-esteem, reducing con- flict; promoting fitness and social play;organizing Well- ness Days and raising school spirit. These projécts treat the school as a community and involved students, teachers, administrators, community resources, Pub- lic Health nurses and parents in creating healthier school environments. The following quotes from project leaders indi- cate how the Health Schools Process impacted various school communi- ties: the more involvement of the students in the plan- ning, organizing and man- aging of the project, the greater the chances of hav- ing a successful project.” “The process created an environment whereby stu- dents understand that they are able to voice their con- cerns about schools issues.” For further information, please contact your school principal, Public Health Nurse or Project Coordinator, Elaine Chemoff: 342 3923. Hop on the bus for free this week Castlegar folks will be able to hop on the bus for free this week. The Regional District of Cen- tral Kootenay, the City of Castle- gar, Castlegar Transit and local merchants have put together a free ride package to help promote the local public transit system. Promotion packages have been mailed out to area residents and the packages include free ride tickets for Oct. 23-27. Also inside are promotional offers from the participating businesses. So next week, hop on the bus. It's free! SELL IT IN THE CLASSIFIEDS Wednesday, October 25, 1995 The Castlegar Sun Page B11 Remembering past apple times “The woman whom thou gavest tw be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” Genesis 3:12 It is apple time again and | just now heard a radio interview on the fifth apple festival being held at the University of British Columbia. This sparked a St Catheriné’s Wheel spray & apple recollections ranging from the above quotation, about Adam's problems in Eden with the ‘for- bidden fruit’ to my garliest Hal- loween memories, and onwards to the espalliated fruit trees in the walled Victorian gardens on the Islands of Orkney. First, the Halloween memo- ries. My earliest recollections of this ancient fruit go back to the Halloween games that we played as children, including ducking for applics-A damp and demanding kind of entertainment. They also include memories of our trick- and-treat trips around the com- munity, with our loot of donated apples, and particularly the much prized toffee-apples, prepared by our parents. Since at that time we were living on the fringes of Bur- rard Inlet, where the sulphur dioxide fumes from my father's sulphuric acid plant probably inhibited the growth of apple trees. We got our apples by train, in forty pound rectangular, wooden boxes, with the apples all neatly big..yellow, freckled fruit which when first picked was totally impossible to eat, but which when stored in the cool dark recesses of the basement made the most delicious eating after the Christmas season, especially with a good wedge of blue or all ched- dar cheese. Variety was the spice of life in old fashioned gardens, in contrast to the modern thirst for homo- geneity, both in produce and in people, and which carries in my opinion, a heavy price, now and in the future. Vive la di fence. * Today most of these farms are gone, with the exception of small groves of fruit trees, here and there, while the skeletons of the once great orchards of the Doukhobor Community stand for the most part, dead in the subdi- visions, or struggle valiantly and singly along the edges of the roads, still offering their small fragrant harvests. The passing of the apple, in effect, reflects the passing of a gentler, more caring, way of life, and the serpent is well lished in the garden. When we came to Castlegar in OVER MY SHOULDER JOHN CHARTERS _ 1947, it was a time of beginnings and change. The small ranches of Robson, Renata and Deer Park were still supplying the Robson packing house with fruit; the SS Minto still carried full cargoes up and down the Arrow Lakes, and the Doukhobor Communal lands still had many of their original extensive orchards. As well, the Department of Education had just and i ly wrapped in tis- sue paper, The square hot ends displayed flashy labels announc- ing the name of the packer and his location, and since this was almost seventy-five years ago, it is very probable that those apples came from this very community. When we moved closer to Vancouver, into a large old-fash- ioned house with an even larger and old-fashioned garden, I began a life long love affair with the ancient and honourable fruit, the apple. This garden consisted of sever- al expenses of lawn which I had fo mow, numerous hedges which T had to trim, two very large rose trellises, and some sixteen fruit trees. These included two quince trees, low and spreading, with hard, green, astringent apple-like fruit, impossible to bite, but it made marvellous jelly There were also two pear trees, one Bartlett with a yellow fragile, transient offering, and one a win- ter pear, tough and brown, but so welcome in late winter when fruit was scarce in the stores; two huge cherry trees, one bing, and one Queen Anne, neither of which ever entertained a worm. The rest were different kinds of apple trees. The first to bear was the snow apple - a tall, gracefully feminine little tree. Its fruits were small, elongated, bril- liantly red on the outside, but snowy white on the inside, with streaks of pink in the sweet spicy flesh. I often ate the entire apple, core and all, and even now drool at the thought of my good for- tune. Then came the transparent apple - green and yellow - short- lived, but faintly tart and deli- cious when just picked from the tree, though dull and rather pulpy after a few weeks. Mother used the transparents for making apple Sauce, as well as the first apple pies of summer. Again my mouth water when I remember the deli- cious odours and colours and tastes which came out of that cold coal-and-wood stove. The third earliest tree was a Mach It sat in a corner of a ‘Complete Body & Paint Facilities Auto Glass Replacement Towing 2316 - 6th Ave., Castlegar 365-5114 What's Your Name? Watch for details Oct. 25 Castlegar Sun back garden by the lane, screened by a high hedge, and was there- fore, the prime target for all of the neighbouring ‘coon-hunters.’ Next to it stood a Rome Beauty. I never liked Rome Beauties. The third tree in that row was a Deli- cious, with huge, hard, robust fruit which, however, after a few months of seclusion, truly lived up to the name. In the same small garden stood the Red Crab Apple like a brilliant torch in the autumn sunshine and loaded with small red, very tart apples. The ;‘coon-hunters’ left it alone, but it :made the most wonderful jelly sand spiced fruit for winter. + Finally, in the front garden, ‘surrounded by lawn, there were a :;Gravanstein, which I loved; a ‘Russet-brown, and rough, with a ‘special flavour all of its own, and shighly esteemed by my grand- mother who came from Ontario, ‘and my winter favourite, the Winter Banana. This was a very ¢ lidated many of the small school districts so that the Castle- gar High School now had three teachers run by, as Harry Kanigan just reminded me, *C.M.&S,’ (Charters, Magwood, and Shak- warok), and unincorporated Castlegar had just become a Vil- lage. Practically everybody in town had at least one or two fruit trees in their back yard, but all of us went to the local farms to sup- plement our supply of fresh veg- etable and newly picked fruit, particularly apples. To me, at that time, it was a kind of demi-Eden, but already the serpent of urban- ization was looking over the ($50 per adult per week - 1 or 2 week Mexico - Los Cabos ; res Jon. 6 of 13 for 7 Nights Howard Johnson (1 bdrm} Melia Cabo Real Beach & Golf Resort ne rs available Monday Jon. 8 of 15 for 7 Nights Varadero 1 Melia Varadero (Sid. Room E.P.) Sol Palmeras (Sid. Bungalow E.P.) Superclubs - Club Varadero (Svite)* (Super All Inclusive!) ("Reservations made by Dec. 15/95) Jon. 8 or 15 for 14 Nights Melia Varadero (Sid. Room E.P.) Sol Palmeras (Sid. Bungalow E.P.) Superclubs - Club Varadero (Suite) For your local UNIGLOBE office, call: 604-365-7544 Prices are pet person, based on cond do cable And speaking of gardens, that passage in the Book of Genesis, which most people think refers to the apple with which Eve tempt- ed Adam, It isn’t correct. Four hundred years ago, when the Bib- lical scholars translated the King James version of the Bible, the word ‘apple’ was commonly used to describe most kinds of tree fruits. Hence, when the people read of the forbidden ‘fruit’ they visualized the word ‘apple’. It wasn't but sure has hung on for a long time. And so we come back to the Victorian gardens of Orkney with their peach and apple trees spread out on the high, red brick walls. That, however, is a story all on its own, and it too will have to wait for another set of recollections. Baked apple, anyone? 100% B.C. OWNED & OPERATED CAS Evaporated PACIFIC MILK Reg. or 2% 24/385 ml. TOMATO SOUP 12/10. oz. Guest speaker Verlie Halcrow will be the feature speaker at the upcom- ing Women’s Aglow Fellow- ship banquet Nov. 1! at 10 am. She will share how God used the experience of her imprisonment to His glory. For more information or to make a reservation, please call 365-5 180 or 365-6506. Campbell's SOUP Vegetable, Chicken Noodle, Mushroom 12/10. oz. IGA CANNED VEGETABL Selected varieties 12/341 ml to 398 ml. Located Playmor Junction Ph: 359-7770 “Book & Pay in Full by Nov. 30/95 to save up to $200 per couple off the prices below. Holidays) $1019 $1269 $1369 $1309 * Ask about our Christmas Space Still Available orcall 1-800-3-UNIGLOBE INDEPENDENTLY OWNED means better personal service. @™ Licensed trademarks of UNIGLOBE Travel (Intemational, Inc double ot include Purex BATH TISSUE White 24 rolls Ocean's FLAKED LIGHT TU in water Chappoaral DRY DOG FOOD 8 kg. bag Minute Maid Frozen ORANGE JUICE 6/355 ml. Sun Rype Blue Label APPLE JUICE 12/1 Litre Mott's CLAMATO COCKTAIL 6/1.36 Litre Pieces & Sterns MONEY'S MUSHROOMS 12/284 ml. Mamee INSTANT $ NOODLES BC Grown RUSSET POTATOES 15 lb. bag California FRESH AVOCADOES 3 FOR) Canada ‘A’ Grades Fresh Boneless CHICKEN BREASTS Portion 8.80 kg. fo We now accept i Accessible Debit Cards a: -al 2717 COLUMBIA AVE., CASTLEGAR 365-5336 — While Quantities Last — Sale dates: Oct. 25 thru Oct. 28