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Page THE HERALD OUTLOOK December a 1M0 I Editorial O Christmas Tree The Holiday Season More precisely the Christmas Holiday Season A time for Peace and Goodwill to all men Unfortunate ly this year as in recent years past there Is very little peace in the world and what goodwill we can collectively offer our fellow man might best be summed up in the phrase Hope you can make it through until this time next year Im not old enough or cynical enough yet to start referring to The good old days but my boyhood years spent in Northern Ontario Cochrane to be specific seem in retrospect to have been a lot more idyllic than the troubled times the youth of today is being forced to endure There was always something to do in the summer up North even spending days wandering through and camping out in the bush Winter would sometimes arrive in the third week of September and on many occasions last through the third week of May But no sweat winter activities abounded for youngsters The Christmas seasons spent in Northern Ontario have always evoked special memories Possibly because we were so close to Santa and the North Pole The closelyknit community of Cochrane seemed to become even more like a large extended fami ly during the Christmas season and doors never locked anyway were always open to wellwishers and Christmas frolickers My fondest memories of Nor thern Christmases centre around my midtolate teen years and the annual Great Christmas Tree Hunt With all due respect and em pathy to environmentalists there are few experiences in my life that can compare favorably with the sheer enjoyment exhilara tion and just good clean fun that was associated with the annual trek into the bush to find that one magical Christmas tree One Christmas season in par ticular stands out above the others I was about and as in years past me and my buddies can vassed the neighborhood to find out who needed Christmas trees and what sizes they desired My father being an old soldier was always in charge of the Christmas tree campaign at tended by his trusty aidede camp the family dog Glen Glen was a story by himself Part German Shepherd and part Saint Bernard he weighed at least pounds and could make an empty room look crowded just by laying down Glen went everywhere with my father and sat in the front seat of the car with my dad on trips around town The pair were a familiar sight in Cochrane with kids always waving and yelling out hello to Glen I think they assumed my father was just Glens chauffeur The day of the Great Christmas Tree Hunt arrived and me and my buddies assembl ed in the kitchen A friend of my father had given us a loan of his pickup truck so we were all set But not before some final instruc tions from my dad on the seriousness of our venture No one was to be disappointed with their Christmas tree He gave each of us about a quarterinch drink of Drambuie while he toasted to the success of our mission with a glass of Scotch washed down with a nip of Drambuie and we were off me my buddies my dad and Glen When we got to the hunt area with permission already having been received from a friendly farmer my dad and Glen would take up positions in the back of the pickup to better reconnoitre the area With his Christmas tree list in band he would scan the bush every now and then il STOP and pointing to our in tended prize It didnt matter whether the tree was five feet off the edge of the road or more than 50 feet into the bush on command we piled out of the pickup and took to the task at hand Finally it was time for our family tree and my dad bellowed STOP He pointed into the bush There about 20 feet frtm the road stood the most gorgeous Christmas tree any of us had ever seen but it was obviously too large for our Well make it fit stated my father in a tone that brooked no argument as he took a celebratory sip from his flask of signalling the end of yet another successful Christmas tree campaign The pickup was overflowing The trees were tied down as were my buddies and Glen rode sat in the back to keep everyone warm We parcelled out the other Christmas trees to the neighbors and it was time to get our family tree into the house But it wouldnt fit Our house had a long glass- enclosed porch running along the side so we removed some panels cut off some of the tree and got it into the porch No way was the tree going to go through the door So we removed the french doors leading into the dining room to get the monster into the house By this time the neighbors and their children had caught wind of tie commotion at our place and the street in front of our house was rapidly filling up We had inadvertently broken other panes of glass in the porch the family cat had escaped and was being chased madly down the road by my sister and here sat this monster tree in our dining room halfway over the dining room table That was when my mother showed up Needless to say she was not impressed The dining room set had to be taken apart to make room for the tree but we still couldnt get it to stand upright this despite the fact the dining room had an unusually high ceiling My dad peered at the ceiling and it hit me what he was think ing No way Dad thats my bedroom above there I shriek ed Thats what I was thinking he replied in a malevolent way Leave it to me Ill make it fit How Ill never know but within the hour the tree was stan ding It took up a good third of the dining room but it was beautiful Even my mother admitted that as she viewed the wreckage of what used to be a wellkept house Water from melted snow flow ed throughout Pine needles carpeted the floor The french doors were leaning up against the dining room wall there were still pieces of glass on the porch from broken windows My sister was trying to calm a terrified cat and Glen was looking for a place to hide because in his excitement he had trampled about four of our neighbors That night we had a house par ty and invited the whole neighborhood to help decorate the tree Even today as I view decorated Christmas trees even artificial ones I have to smile as I think back to that special tree and the special times I had enjoying Nor- thern The Haiton Hills Home Newspaper of Haiton Hills Esta Established 1866 A Division of Canadian Newspaper Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario L7G 3Z6 K ROBERT MALCOLMSON Publisher and General Manager 8772201 CLASSIFIED Joan Man nail CIRCULATION Marie Stud bolt ACCOUNTING Account SUBSCRIPTION HATES year three yeer three The Herald claim copyright on material created by III employee a pub III had In thla newapapar National Quaan SI Toronto Ontario 2MB or Calhcart SI Monliail Quebec Tba thai lha not ba I lab I a lor demagea atlalng in advert I tna amount pak for lha apace actually occupied by portion lha In which lha error occurred whether error li due to lha negligence lit aarvanta or otherwise and there be no liability tor of any beyond lha a mount paid tor advertisement The saga of Francis the Pig In a country thats sadly lack ing in heroes theres something singularly poignant in the saga of Francis the Pig You all know about Francis of course ib the porker who escaped from a Red Deer slaughterhouse last month and resolutely foiled all attempts to capture him The media chronicled his ex ploits with increasing culminating in the report that he was utterly un- despite being shot with a tranquilizer dart containing a dosage which would according to the chap who shot him have killed an ordinary guy Then he promptly dropped dead Hmmm Theres something about this story thats as quintessential ly Canadian as mountains moose and budget cutbacks At a time of such national soul- searching I hesitate to pose a question that might cause still more Still it begs to be asked what does it say about a nation that our foremost folk hero of the new decade is a renegade Let me hasten to say that I found just as heroic as anyone else Heck it would be impossible not to feel a thrill of excitement while reading the Canadian Press description of Francis flight from the slaughterhouse After scramling over a metre- high fence and tiptoeing through a sausagemaking room he nos ed open a back door and turned his curly tail oh local butcher Fred Hulling forever Ian Weir Weirs View Htm Admit it This is great stuff Add a stirring soundtrack and youve got all the ingredients of a thrilling suspense film Where Piggies Dare perhaps The unfolding saga grew all the more exciting as the paper chronicled Francis single- handed struggle to remain free if singlehanded is a term that can be applied to a pig There were reports that he had been seen fighting off coyotes And Doug Smith a Red Deer ran cher who was trying to capture and tame that he had grown positively dangerous Hes like an alligator Mr Smith was quoted as saying If you walk past him hell tear your leg off This of course cries out for a further allusion to movies But dont worry I wont stoop to making reference to Revenge And no mention of The Scarlet Porkernell will pass my lips Indeed Francis surely attained legendary status when a civic of ficial referred to Francis as the nest thing in Deer that caught the nations attention for sometime This speaks volumes about Francis stature as a pig It also says something about Red Deer But well let that pass Still theres something vague ly disquieting in the fact that Francis should emerge as a kind of national symbol Granted he beats all heck out of the beaver Ive always had problems with our choice of the beaver as an image of the nation In a country full of grizzly bears mountain lions and wolverines we pick a woodland rodent But I digress The fact is well lets draw a comparison with the US A couple of years ago the Americans had a heroic animal saga of their own As youll recall this involved a Montana moose who fell in love with a herd of cows and resisted all attempts to drive him off I think you see what Im getting at This American hero was a mighty forest creature And his saga was such boxoffice material that it might as well have been scripted in Hollywood a poignant love story liberally spiced with sex and violence And what do we A pig with anattitude Who drops dead Rest in peace Francis You gave it a good try You reminded us of some enduring Canadian virtues you even Inspired us before keeling over unexpectedly in the middle of the night We should erect a plaque to this pig On the shores of take- perhaps