B2 CASTLEGAR NEWS, June 4, 1980

Your Turn 7

One of the important functions of any newspaper is
to provide readers with a means of indicating their stand
on Important Issues of the day. That's what Your Turn is
all jut — a chance for you not only to take a stand on
an Issue but to find out how many other people fee! the
same way.

Crime statistics for 1979, as reported in
this week's News/Mirror, reflect varying
trends in the policing problems of three
West Koot icipalities. But isti

66 per cent in favor

“Each contributor has 6.5 per cent of his salary deposited

Good health road.to good looks

Happiness is feeling
good, and feeling good means
ing you look your best.

to the fund monthly. This amount is hed by the employ
but this matching is a cost item in salary negotiations so the
net effect is that the employee is in reality
cent of salary into the fund.

13 per

“There are roughly 38,000 members contributing. If the

average monthly salary is $1,200 then the monthly credit to
the fund is $5,928,000. This is $71,196,000 per annum.

“If managed properly, not providing low-cost loans (5.5 to

6.0 per cent) to B.C. Rail and B.C. Hydro, then there should be
no problem with widening pension payments. The input to
. this fund is eff

y P
totals and averages cast little light on how
residents of communities in the region per-
ceive the role and degree of effectiveness
of their local police forces. What are your
perceptions?

Is your community well served by its
local police?

YeSL] NOL]

Mail to: YOUR TURN,
BOX 3007, CASTLEGAR, B.C.
VIN 3H4
Please check the box of your choice and in-

clude any written comments with your clip-
out coupon,

The deadline for this week's ballots Is 5 p.m.
Tuesday, June 10. The deadline for last week's vote on
the use of seatbelts wos 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 3,

MAY 27 RESULTS: In the vote on whether cost-of-living
increases for public service pensioners should be based on
open-ended indexing, more than 66 per cent of votes cast were
in favor while about 33 per cent were opposed.

“Cr the B.C. ip! Union
component of the public service sector .pension fund
contributers there should be no problem with open-ended
indexing of pensions,” one reader wrote. ;

\ \ 7 a 5 pee ee

> \. . Here’s
Ne

card...’

ea

— <<

Kootenay Pest Conttod

ly. indexed since contributions increase

with each employees’ increase in salary as opposed to the
Canada Pension Plan contributions which are fined beyond a
certain salary level.”

In short, good health and
good looks go hand in hand.

It’s not a new message of
course, but as we enter a new
decade Canadians are turn-

pollution, economic restraint
and hectic work schedules
are all beginning to take their
toll, there is a nenewed
emphais on keeping the body
healthy. iz

If such adult habits as

ing back to a philosophy of
clean living with a revived
interest in positive thinking,
sound nutrition and outdoor
recreation. It’s a trend em-

hhaticall 4 the

— es-
pecially of food with high
stareh and sugar content,
drinking too much alcohol
and coffee, and staying up
late night after night are

b:
Canadian Diabetes Associ-
ation. |
Because the stressful ef-
fects of air pollution, noise

hing up with you, don't
despair! It is possible to re-
gain the energy level of your
teens.

It takes self-discipline

and hard work but the ben-
efits are worth it. Summer is
a great time to trade in your
old habits for some’ new,
positive habits that can not
only last a lifetime, but even
extend it.

To help relieve the sym-
ptoms of too much stress the
experts ‘advice people to
include pleasure, relaxation,
exercise and proper nutrition
in ‘their daily schedule. This
way of living is second nature
for those with diabetes, how-
ever, who must keep their

regular exercise in order to.)
keep their condition in check. ;
And these are the best tools,
ineidentally, for fighting the
onset of diabetes, a condition
which affects some one mil-
lion Canadians and can lead
to such serious complications
as blindness, heart disease
and kidney failure.

* Go no matter what you
do or what age you are, the
Canadian Diabetes Associ-
ation urges you to be an
active participant in life.
Don't let summer pass you

weight under control through
belanced food intake and

by. Get out and keep busy.
Your life could depend on it.

UMMER KNIT

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you - and great looking gifts for him! Our reg. 9.99.

SALE

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Determination was the mark of the early pioneer

Reflections &
Recollections

On Pioneers

“Shall I tell you who he
is, this key figure in the arch
of our enterprise? This slen-
der, dauntless, plodding fig-
ure is the pioneer,”

—Lane

Whenever one thinks
about the history of this area
one comes to realize that it
was ited by two different
waves of pioneering people.
The first wave, mainly of
British or French origin,
were usually farmers or
traders, who hacked out a
toehold in this rugged land
and left the record of their
efforts in the form of now-
Testored stockaded forts,
crumbling log cabins, tiny
windowless churches with
weed-grown graveyards
standing lonely in the middle
of nowhere.

The second-wave pi-
oneers came from many parts
of the earth drawn in by the
new railway and the mush-
rooming, mining industry
which was so much in evi-
dence at the turn of the cen-
tury. These pioneers too, had
little but a determination to
create a better life for their
families and a willingness to
make great sacrifices to
achieve it.

And thus it was what
many an Italian i

ding anniversary. In honor of
the occasion, and’ in, recog-

nition of all similar key fig-.
ures in our community, I
would like to offer. a brief,
story of their lives.here.
Alex was born in Udine
province in Northern Italy

go fishing, but now.they goin

and came to Canada to join
his father and brother. He
worked in the Nordic Mines

The following day steady
in Alberta from 1923 to 1927

day, workers did better —

and then, after a brief, time
with the CNR, started work-
ing for the Consolidated Min-
ing and Smelting Sompany
(Cominco) in the lead smel-
ter. In the same year he
joined the Colombo Lodge.
He stayed with the com-
pany for 43 years, and is now

a 53-year member of the.

co, who was also born in
northern Italy (Venice) and
had come with her mother
and older brother, Joe, as a
young girl to join her father,
a miner in the Britannia
Beach copper mine, north of
Vancouver.

Mr. Franco had worked
for a number of years in a
variety of B.C. mines before
this, including the Anyox and
Phoenix mines, but when the

encouraged by enthusiastic
reports from a ‘Paesano’ of
good jobs in the diggings and
tines of California, Montana
and the Kootenays, immi-
grated to the area, leaving
his family behind him until he
had made a stake, and bring-
ing with him a rich legacy of
Mediterranean customs’ and
colors, a strong sense of
community, and a firm belief
in the work ethic.

One such family who
might well typify these Ital-
ian pioneers is that of our
longtime friends and neigh-
bors, Alex and Mina Smecher
who, this June, are ‘cel-
ebrating their golden wed-

id down by
a strike in 1927, the family
moved to Trail,

The work day at that
time, the Smechers recalled,
was the same length as it is
today, eight hours, but the
pay was $3.35 per day for
laborers,

$4.25 for lead smel.-,

ter men. The work year (in
those pre-union days) was,
however a little different. In
fact, for the shift workers,
every day was a work day —
all 865 of them. Thus, on a
‘short change’ a man

they got off Christmas Day,
New. Year's Day and July 1.

Discipline was strict,
too. ‘Alex recalls missing one
shift after three years of
perfect attendance — and

* being sent home for two days
as punishment.

«When the pinch of the
Depression began to: make
itself felt in 1931, single men
were cut back to 15 days on
and 15 days off, while mar-
ried men had 20 days on and
10 days off. They were more
fortunate, however, than
many others in the nation —
some were wotking on the
highway at 40 cents per day
and board — with Stanley
Humphries as road foreman.

“Those were hard
times,” mused Mina, “but
they taught me a lot — to
value and appreciate what
you had, to value good
friends. We were close, for
we were all in the same boat
together.”-

“And we lived on what
we made,” added Alex.

In spite of their diffi-
culties, however, the Smech-
ers started building their
first house — buying material

, as they could afford it and
getting the work done, ac-
éording to custom, with help
from friends in the Italian
community.

They also had two chil-
dren — Hugo and Anita, and
according to custom, “one

‘punched out’ at 7 a.m. afd helluva garden.”

‘punched in’ again at 3 p.m.,
his only ‘holiday’ was a ‘long
change’ — out at 3 p.in. and in
at 11 p.m.

After working for some
time in the smelter, Alex was
‘leaded’ (lead poisoning is a
painful and debilitating con-

dition) and was transferred
to the zinc plant where he
worked first as a zinc caster,
and later as a repairman. He
worked hard in the new plant
and one day (still in the
Depression) three different
supervisors approached him
in different times and told
him that in recognition af his
good work, they had obtained
for him a 15cent (per day)
raise in pay. $

“The only difficulty,”
chuckled Alex, “it was all the
same 16 cents, but I was. now
a big shot earning $3.50 per
day.” Zag)

There was little time or
money for recreation in those
days, but Hugo AM

of 100 old apple trees using
only axe and shovel, and re-
placing them with young
cherry, peach, apricot, and
apple trees.

> When he started, Alex,
though a good gardener,
knew very little about or-
chards. When he left the
farm 30 years later, he had,
thanks to good neighbors, the
Farmer's Institute (of which
he is a past chairman), the
agents from the Department
of Agriculture, but-most of
all, from his and Mina’s love
of growing things and hard
work, one of the finest or-
chards in the valley.
In the meanwhile, life

nostalgically, when as a small
boy he would walk across the
Tadanac trestle to fish in
Stony Creek and then ride
back across the trestle on his
father's shoulders — “scared
silly (he now admits) that a
train might come along.”

In 1941 the Smechers
bought an old farm in Rosbon

and contin-
ued. Buildings were repaired,
enlarged or moved — as
finances became available;
pigs were converted into
sausages (with nothing
wasted but the squeal) and
the while leghorn hens pro-
duced eggs, even when on
one occasion the oil heater
developed a malfunction-and

— part of the di re-
mains of an earlier and flour-
ishing apple industry which
had had a rich trade with
Britain until it was lost to the
war and the Okanagan. Here
the same energy, determin-

ation and adherence to cus- .

tom which had marked the
family’s earlier years was
brought into play on the
farm.

Mine and Anita took
care of the household duties,
and the farm animals (cow,
chickens and two pigs), and
garden, while Hugo and Alex
took care of the orchard work
— starting with the removal

the smok them all
into temporary gray and
black barred rocks.

All this activity, of
course, with the exception of
Mina, was extra-curricular
activity, since the children
were still attending school

‘and Alex was peddling on his
old bicycle each day to the old
Transportation garage to go
to work at Cominco — which
alone took 12 hours of his
waking day.

The children are grown
up now and have families of
their own — there are even
a couple of great grand-
children. The farm is sold and
Alex and Mina have a re-

Hugo's t

. When the Smechers go
on vacation their interests
still center on the animals
they see and the argricul-
tural activities across the
line, and when they talk of
‘home,’ Mina admits, it.is of
Robson they are thinking,
and of old friends and good
times. “It was a fine place for
bringing up children.”

Finally, both Alex and
Mina are proud Canadians,
and Alex's answer to a loud-
mouth who was hasselling
him about being an immi-
grant is the best that I have
ever heard:

“You were born in Can-
ada and Canada is stuck with
you. IT am a Canadian by
choice.”

Of such stuff are pi-

-oneers and the best citizens
made, or to quote from the
poem.‘A Man's a Man for a’

- That’ by Robert Burns:

“A prince can make a belted

knight,

A marquis, duke, en's’ that;
But am honest Man's (above)

his might,

Guid faith (he may not obtain
that),

For a’ that, an‘a’ that’

Their dignities, an’ a’ that,

The pith o' sense, an’ pride o’

worth,

Are higher ranks than a’

that. ;

CASTLEGAR NEWS, June 4, 1960

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