‘B2

» CASTLEGAR NEWS, June 8, 1980

‘Keep your cools
of Castlegar fire dept. -

By ED LEWIS

(Fire chief for 25
years before retiring in
1977, the author relates
the history of Castlegar's
volunteer fire depart-
ment.)

| first joined the
volunteer fire depar-
tment in August,

1942, At that time, we
had a homemade fire
truck purchased
through a group of
local residents and
the ARP organization
which took the view
that there could be an
invasion or in-
filtration from Japan.

“The old Chassis
1933 Ford was bought
from Speedway Mo-
tors, and backed by
our old friend Nick
Oswald of Oswald
Motors, Ralph West,
Charlie King, and
various others of us
who.contributed from
$5 to $25.

A power takeoff was
purchased, attached to a
Pump and hooded up to a
couple of gasoline tanks
borrowed trom Imperial
Oil Ltd. We made our own
ladders from dry birch
borrowed from the Waldie
Sawmills.

Now we were in
business, with 2,500 feet
of hose supplied ‘by ARP,
also, six First World War
steel helmets (flower
pots), four pairs of size 12

ip boots, and four long
turnout coats,

Later that fall, we
bought a 24-foot exten-
sion ladder (wooden) to
carry on our truck,

In January, 1947,
Castlegar incorporated as
a village, and the assets
of the fire department
were turned over to the
village.

I'm getting a little
ahead of myself when |
speak of assets. In 1941
the school district along
with the fire department
and ARP built a building
on Wood Street opposite
West's Department Store.

The building was built
by volunteer labor and
was big enough to house
the one and only school
‘bus of one side and the
fire truck on the other. A
year or so later, the
School District built a
bigger building on their
own property and so in
1948 a petition was put in
and thus later on became
the village office. (Village
1947, town 1967, city
1974.)

"We had an upstairs,
above the fire hall, that
we used for a club room,
we had a sub-floor (no
finished floor) and we got
@ small grant from the
government agency for
firemen’s comforts. Out of
this we got some fire
helmets “and enough
money was left over to
get enough gyproc and
dry insulation to finish our
club room.

we held our in-

ties. We had‘a
card table, donated to us
from what they called
“The Owl's Club’. The
Owl's Club (poker) didn’t
meet the same night as
the fire department.

We had lots. of
humorous events as well
as tragic ones. One hu-
morous event was when
we were finishing our club
room ceiling. We couldn't
afford sheeting on our

:walls or ceiling, so we
‘nailed the gyproc to the
: rafters and ceiling.

' One of our old
timers, Jack Taylor by
name, was bus
spreading the dry insulux
on the ceiling, (this in-
sulux was from powder to
shreds of asbestos).
Everything was fine until
Jack started back to the
attic “hole”, he was about
center of the ceiling when
he stepped between two
ceiling joists, the gyproc
didn’t seem to hold him,
and he came on through.

What a mess.
Everybody trying to open
windows (we Bad two)
and get the dust out,

“helping Jack get the rest

of the way down, tn the
meantime, my = two
Springer spaniels, one
black and white, the other
liver and. white, both, had
turned white from the
dust... They didn't, ;know
one another, both being

ceiling,

In the summer of
1948, we talked the
Village into buying a 1930
chemical truck from Tada-
nac. This we converted to
a good old fire fighting
unit by taking the chemi-
cal tanks off and putting
ona made to measure 250
gallon water tank, adding
@ pump and power take
otf from the old Ford
Chassis — the Imperial
Gil wanted their tanks
back anyway. in the
meantime, we ad
acquired.a 7.5 h.p, air:raid
siren and. a. Bitkle
Seagrave. trailer ‘pump..
(We had.to build ‘the
trailer) 225"gallon. P.M.
We also installed the siren
that, we ‘still. have, also
bought a 40° foot
aluminum extension lad-
CUTS nH aaieer namic
. Ralph West .was ac-
ting, chief in ‘1947 when
the department: was ab-
sorbed by the village. In
fact, he. was chief from
the time.:| came into .the
department, so -he was
appointed to that post by
council in 1947 and myself
as deputy.

In July 1952 we took
delivery of a.brand new
LaFrance pumper (500
gallons per minute) truck.

ED LEwis

In 1957 we bought a
1952 gravel truck from Vic
Jenks, We took the gravel
box and the hoist off the
truck, this we traded to
John ‘ Negrieff, ' (contrac-
tor) for this. He built us a
drying tower and a spot
fo? the siren which is, still
there and with the chassis
we built a fire truck (No. 2
we called it in those
days).

| have just finished 25.
years as fire chief and 10
years as fireman. 1
wouldn't want anyone to
think | was the best man
over the years but there
was always the case of
being the most available.

We had and still have
men possibly much better,
but away. from town 10
hours a day. A man that is
available is worth a lot
more when he is needed
than one that is not
available when needed.

We bought a 1968
LaFrance umper,
delivered October, 1968,
This truck is rated at 840
imperial gallons per
minute — a very efficient
unit.

Then, in September,
1977, we took delivery of
@ 1977 Superior Truck, this
truck is rated at 1,050
gallons per minute, fully
equipped.

For years we were in.
charge of the district's
only inhalator, We would
always go ona call, with
the doctor, police and

KINNAIRD.

CONTINUOUS GROWTH ha

yword of the

South Volunteer Fire Department over the years. In this

October, 1977,

hoto the latest fire truck purchased for
$53,000, is flanked on elther side by two earlier‘mo

trucks. All were purchased spanking new in their own

ight is the 1952 model which was pur-

jan $16,000
imperial gallons a minut
$31,000 with a 840-Imperial gallon
@ center truck pumps, 1,050 imperial

iP
proxi mately:
capacity. TI

ith a pumping capacity of
The 1968 adel cas one

gallons a minute. Shown here are, left to right, ed
Lewis, Pete Obedkolf, John Lipkovitz, Terry Booth and

Roy Perival.

later the ambulance and
administer oxygen. A lot
of times we responded, in
our own vehicles.

We have brought
people around several
times. One woman I have
in mind we went to
Nelson three times with
and once when her house
was on fire, We took her
out to the back porch and
administered first aid and
exygen while the rest of
the boys put out the fire.

We have used this
Qpparatus in many
locations: Deer Park,
Champion Creek, railroad
right-of-way, in open lots,
beside an open cesspool
or beside a power pole
where a’ lineman was
electrocuted, in a mill
yard or a drowning where
the patient was brought to
us.

Fires are a tragedy
and a findncial loss, big or
small, But life comes first.
In my time as fire chief,
there have been four lives

oxygen therapy kit and
alsa First Aid Kits with us

- atall times,

One thing to try and
remember in the fire ser-
vice is “keep your cool.” It
is a dedicated service and
the second most hazar-

dous — police, they claim,
is the most hazardous.
Try and remember
that’ over 65 per cent of
the fire fighting force of
Canada’ are volunteers,
You are criticized for the
slightest mistake and not

Ann Landers =,

Dear Ann: When | read the letter from “Ex-Wife of a
Mama's Boy,'' | thought I had written it. Word for word,

she told my story.

|, too, learn of our sociat-plans--for ‘the-‘flret: time
when | hear my husband talking to: his mother ‘on the
phone. If my mother-in-law doesn’t like our new sofa or-
the rug | bought, we take it back and find one that

Pleases her.

Divorce is not in my vocabulary but patience and
M

are,
She is in excellent health and
Our children fove their father so I'm

'8 mother married young.
will probably live to be 100.
trapped in. this

no-win situation for a long time to come.
You can’t help me, Ann, but you can help many

young,

lost through i

These are tragedies. You

do your best but people

still carry on their old

style of life until it is too
te.

The tirst tragedy was
an elderly man who made
a habit of lighting his
stove with coal oil. it blew
back and knocked him
against the wall,

The neighbor went
over ‘and looked at the
fire. He went home and
couldn't find his glasses so
by the time he awakened
his daughter to phone the
tire department it was too
late to save the man's life.

The other three tra-
gedies were a co
bination of drinking and
smoking in bed.

in one of the rescues,
\ carried a man out like a
sack of seeds. His pants
were about to fall off so |

icked up up by the waist
Fond and carried him out
on that occasion,

tasked him if ha
ever played baseball. _

“ sometimes,” he

said,

Weil, | told him, he
had better make some
arrangements to live with
his daughter or someone
because he might be out
on the third strike.

Three months later
he was,

We got him out of the
building but heart
massage, oxygen and a
doctor couldn't revive
him,

We take first aid, we
have two industrial men
on the Deportment, 22
men with St. John’s Cer-
tificates, we carry an

ANSFER LTD.

L.A. (Tony) Geronaizo, Manager

Excavating

Gravel Products

Phone 365-7124
UNION SHOP

— Trucking

signals so they can spot the

women
‘Mama's Boys.’* Please say

by printing some warning

something about the males who are overly attentive to
and considerate of their mothers. I'm signing this

— Not So Peachy In Georgia

Dear Georgia: A man who Is considerate of and attentive
to his mother will usually treat’his wife the same way —

so don’t knock It, honey.

: The Mama's Boy Syndrome is quite different,
however. Here are a couple of foolproof tip-offs:

1; When conflicts arise between Mama and
bride-to-be and Mama’s wishes prevall — look out.

2. Does he ask his mother her opinion of situations
that Involve the two of you, and when there f[s
disagreement does he enlist her help to convince you that

he's right?

A word to the wise is sufficient — and 1,000 words
to the foolish counts for'nothing. Enough sald.

Dear Ann Landers: | am ten years old and | am mad at
you. You make a speech In our town and somebody in the

audience asked you about
mentioned hamsters.

Pets that smelied and you

| have five hamsters and they don’t smell at all. My

mother wouldn't stand for it.

Please apologize.
— Robert D. In Indiana

Dear Robert: You are right, | apologize. Hamsters don’t
smell... IF thelr cages are kept clean,

CUT -610'

West Kootenay Radio

too often thanked for a
job well done. ie
Some people don't
realize that most volun-
teer fire departments just
don't have all the latest
equipment. They don't
have snorkles, aerial lad-
ders, pompier tadders and

- Jumping nets, or belts,

We have to learn to

, ¥se whot is available.

Each man is trained to use

CCOURTNEWS

In provincial court May
27 Stephen Handley, 20, of
Trail pleaded guilty to a
charge -of driving with a
blood alcohol count over .08.
He was fined $850 and in
default 20 days in jail.

‘eo oy *

Richard McCreight, 19,
of Castl was fined $75

all the iP we
have. It could be ladder-
have. It could be ladders,
hose, oxygen therapy,
driver pumper operator.
We must practise and try
to remember what to do
in an emergency,

after pleading guilty to being
a minor in possession of
liquor.
* . *
Two separate charges
were ‘transferred to court
here. Both were for, taking a

‘motor vehicle without con- -

sent, Pleading guilty and

fined $200 each or in default

15 days in jail were Tony H.

Malyk and David J. Gardner.
. Ld

Peter Laurie, 19,
pleaded guilty to a charge of
driving without insurance.
He was fined $250,

se 8

Richard Simonen, 18, of
Castlegar pleaded not guilty
but was found guilty to a
charge of common assault
He was fined $200 or in
default 15 days in jail. :

Bonnett’s °°"...

Attention Men & Boys!
For All Seasons

t aeeeteiacerimiene
GENERAL MEETING

‘of the Castlegar

Chamber of Commerce

Thursday, June 12

at 12 Noon
at the High Arrow Arms

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT CHAMBER OFFICE:

It’s

365-6761

Remember 10%
OFF for Cash

PUBLISHER

20 per
year ($28 in communities
where the Post Office has Let-
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‘On newsstands is 35¢€ for each
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editions is only 50¢ o wosk
{collected monthly), Second-
chess mail registration number

The Mid-Week Mirror is a
controlled circulation
Newspaper distributed by
carriers and mail to
households ond businesses
located outside the normal
circulation area’ of ithe
Costlegar News. With some
content changes, the Mirror i
included os a section of the
mid-week Castlegar News.

po! r any
errors in advertisements ofter
one insertion. It is the respon-
sibility of the advertiser to
teod his ad when it is first
published,

item, toget! with

Feasonable allowance tor sig-
nature, will not be charged far
but the balance of the adver.
tisement will be paid for at the
opolicable rate. In the event
of an error, advertising goods
oF services of a wrang price,
the goods or services need no}
be sold, Advartising Is merely
an offer to sell. The offer may
be withdrawn atany time,

NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT

copyright in
ID. THAT PART

Prepared from repro proofs,
engravings, etc., provided by
the advertiser shall remain in
and belong to the advertiser.
—

CASTLEGAR NEWS
Estoblished Aug, 7, 1947
Twice Weekly May 4, 1980
MID-WEEK MIRROR
Estoblished Sept. 12, 1978
Lv. (Les) CAMPBELL
Publisher cee 1947
toFeb, 15, 1973

BURT CAMPBELL °
Publisher
RYON GUEDES, Editor: TIM
MESSENGER, Advartising Man-

ager; LOIS HUGHES, Managi
Editor: PETER HARVEY, lant

Save your marriage : split up |

’ ke
IT'S bewildering Witn yeu
think of the numBérf things «
that can break up a marriage
that began in heaven and
ends up in the other place,

Sexual or emotional in-
compatibility, disparity of
interests, rotten kids, deser-
tion, booze, insanity, to
name just a few of the serl-
Ous ones,

Then you work your way
down to the aspects that seem
trivial on the surface, but can
be just as ‘rending over the
grind as the big ones,

Stuff like halitosis; dan-
druff, body odour, nose-
picking, digging wax from
ears or jam from toes, and si-
milar physical foibles,

And then there are the

+ basic differences in genes

that shatter niany a case of
connubial bliss. | Some
People are yawning until the
tears spurt at 9:20 p.m., and
are wedded to other people
who just begin to hit on all
cylinders about the time the
late movies begin,

That’s bad enough, But
the former are the type who.
leap out of bed at six am.,
carolling: ‘Here hath been
dawning another new day;
think, wilt thou let it slip use-
less away?”’ And the latter
have to be dragged out of bed
at the crack of noon with a
block and tackle. Not much
chance for them.

Then there are the poor
devils who put on a pound
just by reading a menu, and
bitterly resent ther Mates,
who can shovel in the choco-
lates, pastry, whipped cream
and beer, and go around re-
marking blithely, and smug-
ly, “have to eat like a horse
to stay even."' Grounds for a
hatchet murder.

Some‘people, mostly men,

( look “fdeibsflaieh

iy

they are
married, and still took forty
when they‘are sixty. Others,
mostly women, look sixteen
when they’ dre: married, and
sixty when, they are forty.
This’ can‘ ledd to a certain
amount of savagery, Pa
And there is plain old body
temperature. Some like .it

hot; some like It cool.’Thus’°

we. find running battles as
bedroom windows are
thrown wide or slammed
down; as the thermostat is vi-
ciously wrenched up to 80,
and the moment’ the back is
turned, is triumphantly twist-
ed back to 60.

Another of the fractious
items in the constant domes-

"Sugar", or hon" of thirty
years ago will come back like
a tigress with her stress: the
phone rang thirteen times to-
day; she had a fight with the
plumbers; the. new drapes
don't match anything. except
puke; she had to take the new
car tova garage because some
turkey creased her, to the
tune of $300, ‘in a parking
“lot.
Heck, L-could go on for an
hour, listing reasons that
People first begin to get on
cach other's nerves, proceed
to smoldering -dislike, and
end up ina glorious blaze of
pure hatred. And I'm sure
every one of you gentle
teaders could add to the list.

ie Bill Smiley

tic skirmishing is the ques-
tion of who does the mest
work. A man, let’s say a

ite retorts, that
she's been on her knees all
day, and she'll kill him if he
doesn’t get out and mow the
lawn.

In the same vein, an execu-
tive will reel in from’ work,
collapse in a chair after mix-
ing a triple martini, and go
into a recitation about the
Overwhelming stress he's
under: a fight with the boss;
a client ‘lost; inefficient
underlings. ' 3

A

nd his ~~‘darting’’,

Vacations the

There aren't too many incentives. anymore for'a

woman to clean her house.

Spring used to Inapire it.

So did a visit from the local

minister or the parish priest. And what woman didn’t

bring in the excavating

and dirt-removal machinery

months before her mother-in-law dropped In?

But those days are gone. Women on the go, mobile .
families, and a more casual style of living have

TH do a thirty-thoushnd
word thesis on it someday.
But for now I'd like to add
Just one,item to the list that is
seldom mentioned by either

professors or Ann

This cause of fractured
marriage is too much toge-

therness. When a married ,

couple spend too much time
together, they not only begin
looking alike, but talking
alike, thinking alike and all
the other alikes.

As a result, they become
two-headed calfs, Siamese
‘twins, freak vegetables with
two carrots growing from
one seed. Repeating the same
old things, bickering about

. the same trivial things, chew-

ing their cabbage twice, they
lose thelr individuality, and
become both boring and
bored, . Saute

They are nearing the end
when they start calling each
other *‘Mother" and ‘*Dad,””
and can spend half an hour
patiently disagreeing over a
third-rate TV show,

This was no great vision on
the road to Damascus, It
came to me when my wife
went off for a few days in the
city and 1 was alone, all, all,
alone, on a sea of beautiful
privacy, -

Nobody saying, ‘Lights
out, dear, you have to work
tomorow," at midnight just
when I'm getting into the
guts of a novel, I know I
have to work tomorrow. Two
nights she was away, I read
until six a.m.

Nobody telling me what a
day she’d had, when I'd had
a worse one. And vice versa,

She thought I'd eaten the
cooked ham she left me. I fed
itto the squirrels and ate a la-
sagna that almost killed me,
Dill pickles, ice cream, coffee

+ spoon would stand in. Un-

made bed, unwashed dishes,
cigarettes with no filters.
Bloody Mary’s for breakfast.

When she came home, of
course, everything was spic
‘n span. But she loved me so
much she almost strangled
me. It was mutual.

Try it. It cost me about
four hundred. Worth every
cent. About once a year, I do
the same: take off to a con-
vention or into the woods.
She doesn't miss me, loves
the solitude, and I’m delight-
edto be home.

Separate holidays might
make that domestic cage of:
yours bearable. No pun in-
tended.

The death rate still | 100%

By ALAN MORLEY

I'VE BEEN 80 MAD
for two days that I have
overeaten on my diet, spoken
rudely to somebody's secre-
tary on the phone, and ag-
reed to be guest speaker at a
banquet. Quite uncharacter-
istic, I assure you. And all
because The Sun published
an article in which another
damned doctor warned me
not to do or eat something
Tve done or eaten all my life,
for fear it will cut short my
days in the land,

T forget what it was he
said I shouldn’'t.do or eat.
That's what makes me, fur-

ious. We are subjected to“

auch a deluge of warnings

these days that the don’t-

walk-on-the-grass signs hide

the lawn. We are getting so

seared todie we are afraid to
ive,

LOOK. LET ME
soothe your apprehensions
and calm your fears. You are
going to die. It really doesn't
matter what you catch or run
into now; you've been suf-
fering from a fatal disease all
your life. You were born. As
the Spaniards say: “We each
own God one death.”

My dear felléw human,
that's one debt you are going
to pay and pay all by your-
self, You can't borrow from
your bank to ‘cover that. It's
one promissory note you've
signed and it doesn’t even
state when or where it comes
due. :

IT I8 ONLY REASON-
able to take all proper. pre-

last incentive

Erma

- Bombeck

the “‘lemon-scented"’ dream houses to a mere pucker.

. All except one occasion. A woman going on
vacation. Have you ever seen a half-crazed woman with
the family In the car waiting to leave while she gives the

house a last check?

Why do we do it? Maybe It’s the same reason we
wear new underwear. Who wants to be in an accident
and hear them saying, ‘‘I don't think she has tong. Sure,.

she's wearing nice underwear without runs,

but we'll

never know what she's really like until we check her
house to see If the shower curtains have mold, will we?”

Last year my husband actually came In from the car
and sald, ‘‘What In heaven's name are you doing In
here? We're ready to leave."

| said, ‘'Il’m cleaning the fireplace. Do you want
Marge to see Christmas wrappings in the fireplace?”

“*| thought she was only coming in to stack the mall
and the newspapers on the kitchen table.’* .

Galbraith elevates wives as administrators

By JOHANNE LEACH

IT’S OFFICIAL: IT
takes brains to run a house-
hold.

And the authority for
that is economist John Ken-
neth Galbraith.

Consider this scenario:

You spend all day Sat-

* urday preparing for a dinner

party — having spent Friday
afternoon shopping.

Your two-year-old, eager
to help with the chocolate
mousse, barely misses slicing
a finger in the Cuisinart; as

you flick on the Kitchen Aid
— one more load before the
guests come — you remem-
ber you are out of tonic. You
hop into the station wagon
and head to the local grocery.

On return, you wonder if
there's time to soak in a
warm bath with an
scotch before slipping into
your new silk to greet your
guests...

GALBRAITH HAS RE-
vealed this picture for the
hoax it is; in an essay in his
new book, Annals of an

iced.

‘Grow up, Prepple, if there's a-dustbafl under the
freezer, it'll be all over. the nelghborhood when..i get
back. Did you glue that tile down In the hall bath?....,

““1'll put a waste can over it."”

“AND FLUSH AGAIN! Just in case. Oh, and pull
the draperies in the front bedroom. That rug Is Stain

City.’*

After | had removed the fingerprints from. the
a

refrigerator door, fluffed up the pillows and

fe to put off the set-
tling day as long as poasible. I
do myself. When the old gent
with the scythe comes
around to collect he'll have to
drag me out kicking and
screaming, Nevertheless 'm
going to get all the fun out of
life I can in the meantime.

T've been doing so for
some years more than my al-

* lotted three scdre and ten

and I. will continue to do so
even if my own paper con-
tinues to warn me on every
page that I hadn't ought to.
Evenif t

water glass out of my husband's hand, saying, ‘There's
no need to dirty this. Wait until funch!" t surveyed my

domain. The Forbes

magazine that | save for such an

occasion was on top of the coffee table, the new pencil
and pad were by the phone and the note on the

refrigerator read, ‘Out of Perriér.””

sink | grabbed a banana and popped it Into my mouth,

Boy, that was close.

Abiding Liberal, he demon-
strates that the quiche-
chomping dinner or cocktail
party is not for socializing or
inebriation but society's way
of putting on display wifely
talents — much as one would
parade livestock or apply
pies at the PNE.

More than that, these
wifely talents allow the mod-
ern

to -must be i

GALBRAITH ARGUES
that as the modern household
grows — suburban home
with microwave oven, swim-
ming pool, cars, lawns, long
distances to schools and rec-
reation centres — the tasks
become more involved and
require more organization.

For economic growth, as
it is now measured, there
d per capita

expand in its present fashion.
Without “the wife" there

would be a rigid upper limit .

on consumption.

consumption of manpower,
capital and raw materials.
. As we more,

As | walked by tha

greet

me at every turn that the
society for the prevention of
something — eating, breath-
ing, sleeping, or getting ir-

ted — is holding. a
meeting tonight to put the
fear of God and its particular
something into me,

is going to run the summer *

cottage, arrange for house
repairs, redecorating and
garden upkeep? Who will
stock the new freezer, keep
the skis rustless, wash the
new clothes?

You guessed it.

IF CONSUMPTION IS
to continue and expand there
must be an administrative
force. The wife ‘provides it.
“The higher the family in-
come and the greater the

lexity of the

we must manage more. Who

tion, the more nearly indis-
this role,”

ONLY of any cdvertisement | -

coeman: UNDA KOSITSIN,
rculolion Monager: ELAII
LEE, Office Manager. By

By JOE SORNBERGER.

I REMEMBER HOW,
as kids, my brothers, my
sister and I were horrified
when my mother told us
she was going to get a job.

I was-about 11 at the
time. I remember thinking

out to work there had to be
something wrong. I mean,
June Cleaver didn't work
on Leave It To Beaver.

: IREMEMBER FEEL-
ing a bit ashamed, thinking

‘my own mother — who.
really should have been
there ready with sand-
wiches when we came
home from school at lunch
— would have to go out and
actually work for a living.
I figured our family
life was sure to‘ collapse.
AS IT TURNED OUT,
my mother's career lasted
about five years. She
worked in the lunch room

envelopes and other paper
products.

Further shattering of

that if my mother had to go -

that we were so poor that _

of a company that made .

The job turned out to
be one of the best things
that happened to her. She
gained more self-respect
from earning her own
wage. She met all kinds of
people; some of them be-
came very close friends.
She became a much ‘hap-
pier woman.

IE FAMILY DID
not collapse, Mom's money
helped us out of a tight
financial situation (we had

* just built an addition to our
bungalow) and home life
continued on pretty mych
as normal,

Of course my concep-
tion of what constitutes a
happy family (sole-bread-
winning dad, mom at
home, three or four kids
and a dog) was forever
shattered. And maybe that.
was the best result of the
entire experience,

BEING THE
International Year of the
Family the one thing I
hope happens is a further
shattering of that myth.

The notion that only the
traditional nuclear family,
“working husband, stay-at-
home wife, kids and dog, is
best is long out of date.
For economical, intel-
lectual, emotional or what-
ever reasons, plenty of
‘women now work. Accord-

myth

‘WITH THE SAME
shock and relief with which
the woman's movement
began in the 1960s, fem-
inists at the end of the
19703 are moving to an-
other frontier: the family
++. I think in fact that the
women’s has

ing to US. g
statistics, only 17 per cent
‘of ‘American households
include a father who is a
sole wage earner, a stay-
at-home mother and one or
more children. Mc

come just about as far as
we can in terms of women
alone.” . i

Ms. Friedan sees a
shift in focus for the

28 per cent of American
households consist of fam-
ilies in which both parents
earn a wage,

80, THE FAMILY — -

‘and the roles of the people
in it — has changed. What
remains to be changed is
our of what

_ Women’s

away
from issues like equal
rights for women in the
work force and abortion on
demand to things like flex-
ible work hours to allow
men and women to be both
good employees and good
parents, better day-care,
tandardized maternity/

» makes a happy family,

Betty Friedan, femi-.
nist and author of The
Feminine Mystique, re-
cently wrote about this
need for a change in the
New York Times Maga-

paternity leave proce-
dures,

IN SHORT, THE
focus will be on the family,
not the woman. The new
family. 4

writes,

DO YOU KNOW WHAT
the last one was? It wanted
$20 or $60 from me so I could
attend a “seminar on dying.”

‘Look, : dear concerned
brethren and sistern, when it
comes time for me to die I'll
do it without any assistance
from you. Til know how, It's
the only act in our lives — it
is part of our lives — that we

can manage to do without ‘

any possibility of a dress

‘rehearsal. In fact, what can

those $50 seminar promoters,
tell me about it? Have any of
them died yet?

Asa Christian I
have to admit that one, and
only one, Person has been
resurrected, And being ro-

friend in his coffin and say a

last good-bye to him —

wherever he was. In fact it

would have been improper
it.

mas” and assorted horrors
and throw them in the
polluted Fraser. I remember
it well and it has never
haunted me. He was lying in
his coffin with his first blue of
decay around the corner of
his lips, Flowers were
banked around >him ‘in. the
Otten’s front parlor. He had
been washed and laid out and
dressed by women friends of
his family, including my own
mother, °

"We've had some

from ding the p
surrected,. what did He tell
us? Not how to die, but how,

to live. :

WELL, IVE LIVED,
perhaps not always according
to His standards, but at least
not being ‘afraid to live.
That's probably what annoys
me about all the alarm and
despondency nowadays.
When I was young, people
took death in their stride. It
was just a normal part of life,

I saw my first corpse
when, I suppose, I was about
seven years old. It was Cecil
Otten, son of old Mr. Otten
who had a farm on the south-
west corner of what is now
Heather Street and 64th
Avenue,

He had died of appen-
dicitis in the days before
there was a quick and easy
operation for it, We younger
kids liked him. The point is
that it was considered quite
normal and proper that a
child like me should see his

ment of consumption,

“It would be a very large
item in the GNP and one
which would increase as con-
sumption increases,” Gal-
braith writes.

BY KEEPING HOUSE-
work out of the statistics, it
remains in the family, a social
obligation, “a moral‘ thing”
carrying its own reward.
Which is why you feel guilty
when you use a cake mix.

If housework: were a
visible statistic, we might
pause to question our role.
Might we not wonder if we
really want to vse up our

marvellous cures just
tes schodulen™

It would have been a
disgrace to the family and
neighborhood if he had been
abandoned to’ some under-
taker to clean up and pump
full of embalming fluid and
hidden out of sight like so
much garbage until he was
put in the grave. In fact Mr.
Otten and my Dad and Mr.
Lewis next door dug the
grave so, Mr. Otten said,
“We know it is well and
proper done.”

NOT THAT I HAVE
anything’ against King Ed-
ward VII for popularizing
appendectomies. Let us live
as long and healthily as we
can. Let us not worry so
infernally much about dying
that we can't enjoy life.

Doctors get bees in their
bonnets just like other ‘peo-
ple. Scientists are subject to
the same sort of mental
hives. A world-famous ear
specialist once told me I
might not have been deaf.if I

States, the movement back
to the cities out‘of the sub-
urbs — where .consumption
reaches its apex — is in part
due to women awakening to
the fact they are being used.

The biggest advantage
of women understanding
their economic role would be
to liberalize their opportun-
ity for choice. Instead of
feeling morally compelled to
be the marvellous hostess,
chef par excellence and mi-
crowave-operator extraor-
dinnaire, they would realize
they are ‘simply servicing

This y i
is concealed, of course,
“Women's work” does not
show in the gross national
product. To include it would
be to recognize the labor of
housewives in the manage-

energy on elab dinner
parties, car pooling or one-
upping the Honeses with our
newly reupholstered chester-
field? :

GALBRAITH S8UG-
gests that, in the United

NEXT TIME YOU
pass a plate of hors d'oevres,
consider it’s not your neigh-
bor or your husband’s ego
you're feeding, but the GNP.

— Vancouver Sun

hadn't eaten peanuts when I
was young. He was quite
serious. 4 :

Do circus elephants suf-
fer from nerve deafness?

RATS DO GET CAN-
cer, particularly if you stuff
them full of 700 or 800 times
the “normal” intake — what-
ever that is — of some car-
cinogen — whatever that is, -
Then some fool experimenter

*, announces it and we all stop

eating that particular thing.

Medieval torturers knew
that overdoses of quite harm.
less substances could prove
fatal. They did it with salt,
but we still use the stuff. Just
last year a young woman
drank so much perfectly pure
water that she died of it. I
don't propose we abandon all
reasonable restraint, but you
know it would be an awful
come-down if you went
through life all tippytoe and
nervous prostration to be
sure you were never, never,
taking a chance — and then
got struck dead by lightning
on the 17th hole of your
favorite golf course.

FRANELY, SOME-
times I get scared myself, I
read and hear so much about
the awful perils that are
being discovered these days,
perils I through and
survived out of shéer ig-
norance. I once kept track for
three months of all desperate
ills I heard or read of during
that time. The record proved
that thonght Til be 75 years
old in August, Ive already
been dead for 193 years.
Mathematically, that is. ©

It's more or less like the
environment ballyhoo artists
we hear so much from nowa-
days. I'm all for the. en-
vironment, particularly as I
once knew it before it was
submerged under so many
people, most of whom are
just as concerned as I am.

ir IS,. OF COURSE,
people who ruin the environ-
ment. Once a man is born,
provided with a roof over his
head, a large automobile to
transport him where he
wants to go, enough addi-
tional office space to accom-
modate his business, gasoline
to burn and exhaust from his
car, several square miles of
paved road to run it and park |
it on, a good five acres of
cleared land on which to raise
the meat and vegetables he
eats and probably a few more
cleared acres for his golf and *
tennis; then he can afford to
be concerned about the en-
vironment. Except that he is
going to produce a few kids
to use up more of it.

This, of course, is apart
from the popular subject of
death, except that we could

“preserve the environment by

killing off a reasonable prop-
ortion of its inhabitants —
about two-thirds, say.

STILL, IT IS THE
same kind of idiotic illogic
exhibited by those concerned
characters who are so busy
cheering up my last happy
years by rushing around dis-
covering and © s-mnsining
against all lie miserable
ways I just might possibly
die. You can die from worry
too, you know,

Let them stop worrying.
Tl manage to do my own
dying when I have to. I won't

- need how-to seminars, either. -

. "Why, this cake
you baked for
Grannyis
simply dolici

On mature consideration
I think I agree with the old
Zulu hunter. A member of his
party had just been killed
saving another from an en-
raged eleph

One of these
days you're
going to make
some nice
young mana
mighty fine
roommate.”

“So. He is dead,” said the
old man thoughtfully. “But no
matter. He died like a man.”

PERHAPS THAT'S
what enrages me about all
those consternated necrophi-
linc specialists. They forget
death is a perfectly normal
part of life. They want us to
be afraid of dying rather than
determined to live — and die
— well. Like a man.

- Vancouver Sun