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t 10-Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, April 29th, 1987 On view at the School House museum Those attending the official : opening of the Kirby School House '* museum on Saturday had a number of interesting displays to view. Above i is all about time and the one piece in the lower right hand corner had to be the most in teresting as it has some similarities to some of the popular clocks on display in stores today. Below Everett Brown of Orono displays his collection of sleigh bells which is always a popular viewing piece along with some history. Time does not hang heavy on my father's hands, despite the fact that he is 85 and no longer obliged to go to an office each day. He told us at dinner the other night that timp continues to fly. at â period in his life when it might have been expected expected to hang a Tittle heavier than it once did. - I think I know why his days? go by so,rapidly. It's because he has never stopped being interested. He didn't stop working, which in his case meant the teaching of Shakespearian English, until he was 79, and it wasn't his idea to quit. In a sense, I suppose it wasn't work at all, any more thaii eating and breathing are chores. And he didn't shut down his cerebral systems when the people who employed him stopped paying him. He didn't stop studying and learning and thinking. He didn't give up a lifelong appreciation appreciation of excellence. He didn't stop being fascinated by life and how great men have come to grips with it. And so, on a rainy spring evening when the politics of the country and what passes for news makes me wish I'd taken up pig farming," thinking of my father brings me to Samuel Johnson. Dr. Johnson has been dead since 1784, but his words , reverberate in our house almost daily, quoted usually from memory by my father. If Dr. Johnson were still alive, James Boswell; the Scot- Who was his great admirer, friend and biographer, would have to move over. If there had been a Sam JohnsoA fan club, my father would have been able to hold its presidency against all comers, even BosweU. He came across a passage the other day which the great man intended as an observation on literary criticism, but )vhich Dad felt rightly summed up the constant problem of the journalist as well. "It ought to be the first endeavour endeavour of a writer", Sam said, "to distinguish nature from custom, or that which is-established because it is right, from that which is right only because it is established." We retire at 65 not because it is natural, but because it is custom. Capability does not necessarily end at 65. Why should employment? Some people, on the other hand, are burned out at 50. Why should they draw full salaries and keep good young people out of the workforce for 15 years after they've ceased to function effectively? Come to think of it, old Sam's yardstick fo: literary criticism, and now journalism, journalism, might usefully be applied to politics as well. The Federation of Ontario Naturalists FON Conservation Centre, MoatfieldPark 355 Lesmill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, M3B 2W8 Phone: (416) 444-8419 "N GARBAGE It's pleasant lu see the snow shrinking to dirty mounds where drifts have been. Soon there will be the first coltsfoot and then spring beauties. But unfortunately wild flowers are not the only thing uncovered by the departing snow. The edges of favourite paths are filthy with people's leavings - plastic tops, plastic bags, bottles, gloves, tires, rusted bits of metal; the list is endless and bizarre. One can understand the lost mitt and long scarf beside what had been a good toboggan run; but what about the stove door and top elements in the ravine or the shopping carts half way down impossible slopes? No favourite wild haunt is free from such rubbish. Conspicuous among the rubbish will be the plastic ' bag in one of its many forms. People usually do reuse the plastic bags they get in the shops, but I hate to see one there among the spouted leaves of the trout lilies, half-buried in the black muck, because I know it will always be there, undecaying in a world built on decomposing matter. Paper containers are often used wasteful- ly, but at least one knows they will eventually return to the earth. There are usually cans and bottles about; fewer cans now that some are returnable. But although the cans may be returned, the snap-up tops are generally tossed away without a thought. Curious birds often carry the shiny item away to hide. Unfortunately those that end up in lakes and streams sometimes have disastrous consequences. Remember the mallard drake who managed to get one firmly around his bill, and who defied all efforts to catch him and free him from his horrid seal. Other aquatic creatures . are known to have suffered agonies from ingesting the rings. Next time, take that top out of the woods with your other garbage. That old car battery half-buried in the creek mud represents the most disturbing kind of garbage that humans make. Lead and add are leaching into the stream. And there are millions of discarded cell batteries, the kind you use in your radio and flashlight, littering the land, each a chemical stew. Individually we feel powerless to stop the avalanche of chemicals which is entering our water supply. But we can give our support to groups who are trying to bring pressure on politicians to stiffen policing of large polluters and to insist insist on clean-up now, nui wn years when it may be too late. We are caught between a rock and a hard place. The infertile eggs of herring gulls in the Great Lakes and the deformed young of the cormorant cormorant are warnings. We are nr separate from the other species; share a common environment. One tjiin£ we can be directly responsible for, though, is our own garbage. We can take steps to cut our garbage by reusing containers and choosing biodegradable packaging. We can refuse to leave litter in our parks and woods and speak up if we see others doing it. Finally we can educate the next generation to behave a little better than we have. Clean-up starts small; it starts with each of us acting as we would like others to act. I Love You Mom. Nothing could be more natural for Mom than the' Lovely F.T.D. Rattan Sewing Basket filled with an arrangement of fresh flowers and accented with.a travel Sewing Kit. A special way to say I Love,You Mom. Downtown Çrono We deliver locally to Orono, Newcastle, Oshawa, Newtonville, Bowmanville, Kirby, Kendal, Pontypool and Hampton. Or World-Wide with F.T.D. HOURS THIS WEEK - Mon.-Sat. 9-6 Friday 9-8 NEXT 1 WEEK - Mon.-Sat. 9-6, Thurs. 9-8. Fri. 9-9 983-5291 - After Hours 9839656 The Apple Blossom Shop Industrial Lots LEASE I Excellent transportation UlT point Electricity, water, sanitary l£_J and storm drainage Ontario Hydro has three serviced lots ready for,leasa They providë an excellent location as an intermediate transportation terminal point between Windsor, Toronto, Belleville/Kingston and Montreal. The lots are 1.95 hectares, 1.98 hectares and 3.97'hectares. Located about 2.4 km south of Highway 4Q1 on Wesleyville Road for easy access to major centres, these lots are within the Township of Hopa 8 km west of the Town of Port Hope. I-yjr Suitable for light manu- Lâ--J , factoring, storage or offices Avaiiaoie immediately For further information, please call or vkrite: ' Mr. D.L. Lougheed Property Administrator Ontario Hydro ' 5760 Yonge Street North York, Ontario' M2M 3^7 Telephone: 1416) 222-2571. ext. â96