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7 | The IFP -H alton H ills | T hursday,S eptem ber 5,2019 theifp.ca LESLEY BARRON Choose forward. WELLINGTON-HALTON HILLS For the most part, I'd say The Sidekick is a fairly even-keel sort of person. If something angers or annoys her, she gets over it pretty quickly. Most days she's quite tol- erant of people from all walks of life - probably more than I am. But everyone has their snapping point, and The Sidekick is no exception. All you need is a handful of pedestrians walking on the wrong side of the road. "What is their problem!!" she'll spout out. "They're supposed to be walking fac- ing traffic, not with their backs to it!" And she's 100 per cent correct - when one is walk- ing on a road without side- walks, the rule of thumb is to walk on the left side of the road so that you are facing traffic, rather than the oth- er side of the road, where you would have your back to the oncoming traffic. I learned that back when I was a little boy at the old Limehouse School. And I knew because El- mer told me so. OK, I may have to ex- plain a bit. Elmer the Safety Ele- phant was a mascot used by schools to educate kids on street safety while out walking on streets and in our case, rural roads. And as I attended the old Limehouse School, there wasn't a sidewalk within 10 miles. Matter of fact - I'm not sure I even knew what a sidewalk was at that age - so it was pretty important to adapt safe walking habits when walking home from school. When we returned to school after summer holi- days, we'd have an OPP po- lice officer visit the school (complete with a cruiser no less!) and he'd bring along Elmer the Safety Elephant to teach us all about safety. It was a pretty special day when Elmer dropped by. The police officer would go over the safety rules and always brought along a new poster with Elmer on it, which he'd leave behind to keep us on our toes. After all, Elmer was watching. We usually received handout colouring sheets as well, to create our own safety artwork while sub- liminally being reminded of the hazards all around us. Elmer didn't limit him- self to traffic safety - he also reminded us that our hous- es were filled with other sources of harm, like elec- trical outlets, fire and wringer washers (when I was little, many a kid got their arm caught between the rollers of a wringer washing machine). And we learned that you never talk to strangers out on the country roads. Elmer's big gig was traf- fic safety. And every day, when the students were dis- missed at 4 p.m. and headed home, well, they all walked, unless a parent picked them up cuz it was raining. And we always walked facing traffic. Today, with the prolif- eration of smartphones and music devices to dis- tract us, it's more and more important that pe- destrians walk on the cor- rect side, facing the driv- ers. That way, if they're playing music too loud to hear an approaching vehi- cle - well, they may not hear it, but they will cer- tainly see it. I'm not sure if Elmer the Safety Elephant is still around, visiting schools. I suspect he's still active since there is an Elmer the Safety Elephant website (el- mer.ca). But I haven't seen any Elmer artwork in a very long time. The Sidekick certainly thinks Elmer should be back on the school beat, ed- ucating kids to walk on the left side of the streets. Whenever she sees an of- fender, she says "Geez, where's Elmer when you need him?" Pedestrians disobeying Elmer and his safety pro- gram is only one of her "pet peeves." There are two more. Just have a driver change lanes in front of her without signalling and she goes ballistic in seconds. And when someone makes an illegal U-turn? Watch out world ... you'll face the wrath of "Super Sidekick." Ted Brown is a freelance journalist for the IFP. He can be contacted at ted- bit@hotmail.com. OPINION WHERE'S ELMER WHEN YOU NEED HIM? PEDESTRIANS WOULD BE SAFER, WRITES TED BROWN TED BROWN Column On left, fire broke out at the Beaver Lumber store on Water Street (now Mill Street) early on the morning of Sept. 6, 1969. The building in the background was Canadian Tire (now Carpet Barn). At right, the new building that occupies the site today. Halton Hills (Esquesing Township) is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year (1819-2019). EHS, Alison Walker photos THEN AND NOW