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PAGE S, WHITBY FREE PR ESS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 29,1987 Brooklin Profile ROXANNE REVELER News & Features Edtor Phone 655-3637 Trucks give me the creeps. Oh, I don't mean the little, mission, including the strong recommendation that in- piddling trucks, or even the larger delivery-type trucks creased truck length not be permitted. that frequent our highways and byways. I mean those V IE VP O II TIThe Uffen Commission carried out a comprehensive huge tractor-trailer trucks, many of which are larger than truck-safety study, and concluded that truck-trains failed my house. They scare me, particularly when I have to all three tests. pass them, or they pass me, on the highway. In Ontario, trucks represent 28.4 per cent of the total It is for this reason that I was shocked to read lately that vehicles involved in fatal accidents even though they the trucking industry's Transpo Coalition is exhausting all represent only 17.5 per cent of the number of vehicles efforts to have overlength trucks made legal in Ontario. by ROXA N N E R EV E LE R registered throughout the province. Those are The light at the end of the tunnel, at least for people such remarkable statistics which prove the average car has lit- as myself who think trucks are big enough as it is, comes te if no chance when going up against a truck in an ac- from the Canadian Automobile Association which believes cident. overlength trucks are a hazard. I couldn't agree more. My negative comments concerning these extra-large Have you ever had one of those suckers pass you during a In fear Of trucks should in no way be interpreted as a slam against rainstorm? I mean, we're talking driving blind. those who drive them. The majority of professional truck Let's begin with the stats. At the present time, a single 1 drivers are exactly that...professionals. There are, unit truck (such as most delivery people such as 1OnSter truCkS however, certain things that are obvious. Because of their Schneider's) is about two and a half times the length of an off-tracking characteristics, large trucks encroach into average car. A tractor trailer is four and a half times the question still haunts the mind that this could be the thin other lanes during turning manoeuvres. In many instan- length of an average car. What the Transpo Coalition is edge of the wedge. If allowed to traverse these highways, ces, present road channelizations and intersection design proposing is to legalize overlength trucks which can go up how long before they are rumbling along the minor would have to be modified to accommodate them. It would to 115 feet, or somewhat over six times the length of said byways and through smaller towns such as we live in? also take much longer for a truck-train to pass a car, and car. Now, can you imagine how long it would take to pass, According tô the CAA, these type of trucks started vice-versa. Every split second counts when passing and if or be passed by that destruction on wheels? rolling in Albert in 1970 and are now in other provinces. you are losing some of those valuable seconds because the AI Oakie, chairman of the CAA, has gone on record as Ontario has said they would never tolerate them, but it truck is extra long, it could cost you your life. saying: "The trucks allowed on the road right now often should not come as a big surprise about the recent lob- I feel it fair that car drivers should be concerned about have serious shortcomings. If truck trains are allowed, bying effort by the truck industrialists as this follows their the types of vehicles they share the road with. Not only safety would be further compromised." usual pattern. does the private motorist bear the bulk of the high cost of The Transpo Coalition wants these trucks that haul up Oakie concluded the most interesting aspect of the sub- construction and maintenance for our road system, there to three trailers (115 feet) allowed on the four-lane high- mission made to transportation minister Ed Fulton are more of us out there. And speaking for myself, getting ways: the Queen Elizabeth Way and the 400-series high- requesting truck-trains was its failure to. even squished by an oversized truck is not the way I would ways in eastern, western and southern Ontario. But the acknowledge any recommendations of the Uffen. Com- choose to end my day's driving. A NEWFANGLED secret weapon? Not at all. Simply the largest lens in Willi Bruckmann's collection of camera equipment. It is one of the reasons his wildlife photographs project the realism of their subjects. See story for details. Wildlife photo hobby became job for Willi Bruckman Reflections of a Golden Age By MABEL M. McCABE A couple of weeks ago a son of mine had a birthday. I'm sitting tr- ying to figure out where the years have gone. I can't get the picture of holding him in my arms out of my head. To think that he is coming perilously close to the half century mark is frightening. he was one of the most beautiful babies I ever saw. Boy, you should see him now. Time has taken its toll on me but to realize that he is a grown man with children who are well into their own growing up is distracting. This boy was my good right arm during days when his father was travelling and in any emergency I could always depend upon him. He would do my shopping when I was pregnant and getting close to term. h He looked after his younger siblings with great care and took them on trips to High Park and the zoo at Riverdale. Without him I really do not know how I would have managed. Over the years we tend to forget the little things that we so ap- preciated and maybe I did not let him know how much he was loved and cherished back then. The loving still goes on even though I do not see him or even hear from him as often as I'd like. He has his job and must provide for his own delightful group, so I do under- stand. I'm sure each of you who had children go through this same dwakening now and then. I've spent the days coming up to his natal day thinking back. I remember that no lullaby would ever do for him. To soothe him I sang 'Sioux City Sue.' Maybe his preference for popular music was a sign of things to come because he was a musician for many years and played in almost every hotel and tavern in Toronto before he went into sales. That, too, was a bit of predestination, for his dad had been a musician first and then turned to selling. I guess the old saying is true that the acorn never falls far from the~tree. These musings bring back thoughts of the differences in children today. For instance the clothes they wear and the games they play. We lived in an apartment in Toronto on Dundas St. It was a main streetcar line. I will never forget the day this son came home white as a sheet to try to tell me that his little brother had fallen. He could not get the words out and when the younger boy came into view he was covered in blood. My first reaction was that he'd been hit by a streetcar. I'll remember with great affection the dear old soul who lived in another apartment. She was a grandmother already and in my.panic she was a tower of strength. Soon, she found the wound on his head. Although he needed 12 stitches he was okay. The older boy and I took much longer to recover. That was only the beginning of the younger son's many trips to hospital for stitching. In fact he was known to all the doctors at Sick Children's Hospital by his first name. He would be getting stitches in while there to have previous ones removed. Did any of you have one child who always seemed to have accidents? I swear that if it was this day and age I would have been investigated for child abuse. This hospital was, of course, the old one on College St. This same second son had a mastoid operation there and of course all the ton- sils were removed there. It was a very good hospital and the staff were the best. They even took time to talk with worried parents and reassure them. The new building is great but I missed the personal contact after it became so big. It's still one of the best in the world and we should all be thankful that we have this institution in our near environs. After all children are the most important com- modity we have and taking care of them should be the highest priority. hooked. It was time to get serious with what had formerly been just a hobby. "No matter what you learn in college, or wherever, you have to pay your dues," said Bruckmann, speaking of his own learning process. "Apart from getting the right mood in a photograph, you have to bé so concerned about light...light can make or break a composition." One look at the artistry of Bruckmann through his works shows his professionalism, even though he refuses to classify him- self as such. The detail of the rac- coon caught stealing eggs from a duck's nest behind Brooklin Flour Mill, a blue jay huddled amid snow- covered branches, the vibrant yet delicate colors of an iris in its glory- these are the moods of Bruck- mann's photographs. He.readily admits to his demand for 'perfection, maybe using only one picture from a roll of 36. But patience and persistence pays off in the end result and the realism in the print. "If you can't see the gleam in their eye, forget it," he says with a laugh. Sometimes to the chagrin of wife Linda and sons Chris and Justin, Bruckmann is up, and out of his George St home by 5 a.m. most weekends in order to catch the wildlife of the area in its best set- ting. SEE PAGE 9 By ROXANNE REVELER Shooting is for the birds, except when the shooting of birds is done with a camera. And judging by the exceptional photographs Willi Bruckmann of Brooklin has shot locally of birds and other wildlife, it is the only way to go. Bruckmann, a cabinetmaker and carpenter by profession, started 'fooling around' with a camera about 10 years ago. Soon tiring of the usual family photographs, he started experimenting with wildlife shots. As years passed, his equip- ment was gradually upgraded until about a year and a half ago, he took his first 1000-millimeter snaps. They were just what he had been seeking and he knew he was