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2 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, December 20, 1978 Section Two It's Been Quite a Year Just a few more days and Santa receive and sending their will be doing his rounds led by that love to the mythical chara old standby Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer, Mrs. Santa and th who never seems to tire after all It's interesting to comp these years in the harness. letters over the years. AlwE You'd think he would get a little past, the letters mentionedt weary after flying over so many setting out milk andcoo rooftops or waiting for Santa to maybe some carrots fort complete his rounds while the rein- deer. This year, someo deer are parked beside a chimney. obviously influenced by à But somehow Rudolph manages to commercials or their ho hang in there as he leads the sled for substituted a bottle of beerf Christmas after Christmas. leaving one to wonder if San Santa himself does not appear to be picked up in a spot c have aged since last year. We've impaired flying. We espec taken his picture at least a dozen the one letter that toldS times since early in December. could use their bathroon Last Saturday at the Darlington wished. After drinking all t Sports Complex, he even appeared or beer, he'l proba y n on skates and did a ratfall while facilities. leading young hoc ey players But, there's more to Ci around the ice. Santa seemed none ihan al the gift givi the worse for wear in spite of the receiving. It's the annual mishap. tion of the Birth of the Chris Amazing how nimble that old chap a manger many years ago. tht i 4 Ti. hirt.h haq dni a.rh Enough of this bantering, and into the serious theme. Christmas is a great time of year for children especially. Over the past few weeks, we've reprinted dozens of letters from youngsters who have written to Santa outlning what they'd like to LaL ns vrU las Hau suc influence on the lives of m people in many lands is ix major miracle, especially v consider the changes th taken place in the world s birth in Bethlehem. So, Merry Christmas toE from all of us at the Statesm undying acter, his he elves. pare the ays in the they'd be kies and the rein- of them, television ome life for milk, nta might check for ially like Santa he m if he that milk eed those hristmas ing and celebra- st child in The fact a lasting illions of n itself a when you at have ince that everyone an. Christmas Concerts Sti Alive The Christmas concert, perfor- would be packed with the school med by local schools, is a tradition trustees, the storekeeper, the hired that should not be allowed to die. hands from the farms, older And judging from the many con- brothers and sisters ail the parents certs we have seen so far this season and many grandparents. and the others that are listed in our The lights would be dimmed and notebook for the rest of the week, it the concert would begin. And while appears that the Christmas concert each performance had a style ail its is very much alive. own, you could usually count on Everyone who attended a one- choirs to sing Away in a Manger and room country school remembers the Suent Night and other Christmas annual Christmas performance. It favorites. Wispy students from the was a major event in the life of a fifth or sixth grade would suddenly school and the concert taught turn into bearded old shepherds or students a little acting, a little wise kings and shining angels as the music, a little costume design and a traditional Christmas story was lot about working as a team to put told. There would be other skits, together a project of which everyone recitals of poems, maybe a piano could be proud. solo and finally Santa Claus would It seemed that the concert would arrive with gifts and the concert be practised for weeks in advance as would be over. students, teacher and parents It's good to see that even though helped out with the decorations, the we are able to land a man on the stage performances and the singing. moon and send spaceships to take Finally, a huge stage would be pictures of distant planets, the built across the front of the Christmas concert is almost un- schoolroom and then you knew that changed in this last haif-of the Twen- the important day was approaching. tieth Century. It was then that you might develop Our schools are bigger and butterflies in the stomach and start brighter; they contain more books to work even harder on memorizing and blackboards and audio visual your hnes. equipment and are staffed by On the eve of the concert there teachers who are better trained than would be a cheerful fire glowing in ever. But in spite of these changes the schoolroom's stove and the snow when parent and friends assemble outside would be crisp and squeaky for a Christmas concert, part of a under the many sets of winter boots very old tradition is repeated. that were rushing indoors. Chances May the curtains rise and the are that most of the community tur- footlights shine brightly on many ned out for this event and the school more such performances Surprisingly Agreeab e Choice The choice of Ed Schreyer as Canada's next governor-general was, to say the least, a surprise. The immediate past premier of the Province of Manitoba will become Her Majesty's representative in Canada next month, succeeding Jules Leger. The seléction of Mr. Schreyer, on the advice of Prime Minister Trudeau, provides a complete break with tradition and, hopefully, a token of the new importance of non establishment Canadians. Ed Schreyer has a prairie farm background; he speaks three languages, English, French and German; he is young at 42; he has spent four years as a member of the Canadian House of Commons; he has led his party (the NDP) and was an able premier of his province. In addition he has that invaluable at- tribute, the sort of masculine good looks which leave the impression of strong character. Naturally, since the Queen acts solely on the advice of the prime minister when her representative in Canada is to be named, political op- ponents of Mr. Trudeau have not been hesitant to point to the pre- election advantages afforded by the Schreyer appointment; namely, he is a Westerner and the Trudeau stock is at an all-time low west of Ontario; he is not only bi-lingual, he is multi-lingual, a gesture to the Canadian mosaic background; he is a socialist, not a Liberal and as an up-and-coming young Canadian politician he will be effectively removed from any future ambitions for the prime minister's job. Whether or not the appointment has overtones of political expedien- cy we believe the choice was a good one. Schreyer is a man of demon- strable energy and one who has never been an extremist, despite his socialist party affiliations. He will probably perform his duties in the vice-regal office in such a way that the significance of the governor- general's position will be enhanced and clarified for many Canadians who have forgotten its importance in our system. Wingham Advance Times December is a trying time. For one thing, it's so dang SUDDEN. There you are, tottering along a day at a time, thinking it's still fall and you must get the snow tires and storms on one of these fine Satur- days, and throw some firewood into the cellar, and get some boots and replace the gloves you lost last Mar- ch. Christmas is away off there. And then - bang! - you look out one morning, and theres December, in all it's unglory: a bitter east wind driving snow, and a cold chill settles in the very bones of your soul. Winter wind as sharp as a witch's tooth sneaks in around uncaulked doors and windows. Your wife com- plains of the terrible draught from under the basement door. You in- vestigate and find that one of the basement windows has been blown in and has smashed on the woodpile. You clamber up over the wood, knocking pieces off shins and knuckles, and jam some cardboard in the gap. Creep cautiously outside, and nearly bust your bum. There's ice under that thar snow. Make it to the garage, and find that your car doors are all frozen solid shut. Beat them with your bare fists until the latter are bleeding and your car is full of dents. Finally get them open with a bucket of hot water and a barrel of hotter language. Slither and grease your way to work, arriving in a fouil mood and with bare hands crippled into claws, bootless feet cold as a witch's other appendage. Come out of work to go home and find a half-inch of frozen rain and snow covering your car, and no sign of your scraper, and another deep dent where some idiot slid into your car door on the parking lot. I could go on and on, but it's only rubbing salt in the wounds of the average Canadian. Get home from work and find that the furnace is on the blink, and the repairman is tied up for the next two days. Andyour wife is also fit to be tied up over your dilatoriness. Surely there is some way around this suddeness of December. Is there not some far-seeing politician (if that is not a contradiction in terms), who would introduce a bill to provide for an extra month between, let's say, November 25th and December 5th. I wouldn't care what he called it. It could be Lastember, referring to your fast-dying hope that there wouldn't be a winter this year. Or Last Call, or Final Warning, or She's Acomin! Anything that gave us a good jolt. It would be a good thing for mer- chants. They could have special Lastember sales of gloves and boots and snow tires and ear muffs and caulking guns and weather stripping and antifreeze and nose warmers, before plunging into their pre- Christmas sales, which are prom- ptly replaced by their January sales. It would be great for the Post Of- fice, which could start warning us in June that all Christmas mail must be posted by the first day of Lastem- ber if we wanted it delivered before the following June. It would make a nice talking point for all those deserters and traitors and rich people who go south every year. Instead of smirking, "Oh, we're not going south until Boxing Day. Hate to miss an old-fashioned Canadian Christmas," they could really shove it to us by leering, "Yes, we thought we'd wait this year until the last day of Lastember, you know. Avoid the pushing and vulgarity of the holiday rush. If nothing else, it would give us a break from the massive nauseating volume of pre-Christmas adver- tising, which begins toward the end of October and continues, remor- selessly, right into Christmas Day. Best of all, perhaps it would give dummies like me a chance to avoid looking like such a dummy. Procrastinators, who flourish during a sunny November, such as we had this year, would have no more ex- cuses. All their wives have to do is point to the calendar and say, "Bill, do you realize it's only three days until Lastember. Isn't it time you did your Lastember chores? " In fact, if that fearless politician who is going to introduce the Lastember Bill in the house wants some advice, here is a codicil for him. Somewhere in the Bill should be the warning, in bold type: "Procrastinators will be Prosecuted!" Jeez, why not? They Heavens, it's only 1978 and already Big Brother is upon us. In fact, he's got us coming and going, and that's bad news indeed for those knights of the road who think they can adjust space and time by means of a heavy foot on the gas pedal. Christmas cheer from the Ontario Provincial Police is that they now have a radar system that can measure speed from a moving police car, whether you're ahead of them or behind them, whether you're coming toward them or going in the same direction. All courtesy of some busy-body German engineering firm that wouldn't leave well enough alone. In this age of SIN numbers and No- Name brands, it shouldn't surprise anyone to find the police equipped to prosecute you for everything else. If such a month were added to the calendar - maybe we could start it with Grey Cup Day - people like me wouldn't go on thinking that Christ- mas is weeks away. Instead on the last day of Lastem- ber, with all their winter chores in hand, they'd know that Christmas was practically on top of them, like a big, old horse blanket, and they'd leap into the proper spirit, lining up a Christmas tree, laying in their booze, tuning up their pipes for the carols. As it is now, we know that Christ- mas is like a mirage. It's way off their somewhere, and no need to panic. Then, with that startling Sud- deness, it's December 22nd, all the Christmas trees have been bought, the only remaining turkeys look like vultures, and the liquor store is bedlam. Who's for a Lastember? watch and beset us all to their heart's content on the highways. A man's car is his castle no longer, and it's only a matter of time before our SINs are engraved on our driving licences and licence plates. (By their SINs shall ye know them, and they do). Owners of small cars, we're in formed, may take some comfort from knowing their vehicles present smaller surfaces to the radar eye and therefore won't show up as quickly as their larger brothers. That only goes to prove that small really is beautiful and if one of these days happiness will be to curl up in a small ball in a corner, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves. - Examiner Decbr aond Spice December, Too Soon y Li9n4 All-Seeing Eyes Behold! The Child sleeps at peace among the animals. Let us pray for the comfort and inner joy that comes with love and sharing. A blessed, happy Christmas to ail. From the Management, Staff and Correspondents of 34e tanubtan tateaman and 3it Neuttaztt 31 nbepenbenut