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Page 4, Terrace Bay-Schreiber News, Wednesday, November 19, 1986 " Terrace Bay Message clear ty The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News is Co. Ltd., Box 579, Terrace Bay, published every Wednesday by: Laurentian Publishing Ontario, POT 2W0. Telephone: (807) 825-3747. Single copies 35 cents Subscription rates per year Member of Ontario Community Newspapers Association and The Canadian Community Newspapers Asscciation. Second Class Mailing Permit Number 0867 ee BOIIOR es ae Conrad Felber 2v¥!-of town ADVERTISING. =) 5 es eS Betty St. Amand OFFICE Pas cap eee SS ee ie : Gayle Fournier $14.00 ~ $18.00 © & | AS AS It wasn't evident at the Billy Can concert that only a week ago or so, ticket sales were poor. Judging by the reaction of the audience, | found it hard to believe that there was a lack of support. It seems that an editorial by a now departed Mr. Felber had something to do with the rise in ticket sales. Perhaps his message hit home and made people realize that without a lot of community support, there cannot be shows like this. The $10 ticket price at the door isn't really that high, considering prices for concerts like Liona Boyd and Honeymoon Suite are close to the $20 range in Sudbury. | wouldn't doubt that that would be the case for Bil- ly Can. | would have to think twice about paying that price. Billy Can told the audience that he usually does a 70-minute show, but because of the delay he played for just under two hours. That's great for the price. If we can continue to get good acts like this one at that price, we should consider ourselves lucky. Persona -- new Editor Hello readers. I am taking this op- portunity to introduce myself as Con- rad's replacement as the editor of the News. By the time this issue hits the streets I will have been here for over a week and will already have met many of you. Conrad had to head out soon after my arrival so we didn't have very much time to collaborate. We quick- .ly ran through most of the operations in a couple of days. I moved into his apartment so I had to wait until he left before moving in. It was a hectic two days. The last time I moved was in 1979 and it wasn't easy then. But the older I get the easier moving is. My philosophy is that for every friend I've left behind, there's another waiting where I'm going. Everyone has surely become very comfortable with Conrad by this time but change is very constant these " Are we flag looney By Arthur Black One thing our country has never been is a nation of flag wavers, and that's perfectly all right with me. The Americans of course hold quite a different viewpoint. Most Americans are flag loony -- have been for many moons, thanks mainly to a jingoistic poem penned by a 19th century poetaster by the name of John Greenleaf Whittier. He invented a silver-haired Civil War heroine by the name of Barbara Frietchie, dreamed up an encounter between her and Con- federate General Stonewall Jackson and immortalized the whole thing in verse. In the central incident of the poem, frail 96-year-old Ms. Frietchie throws herself in front of Old Glory, faces down the might of Stonewall's troops and croaks: "Shoot if you must, this old gray head But spare your country's flag."' General Jackson, ever the Southern gentleman, barks: "Who touches a hair on yon gray head Dies like a dog."' Nice story -- totally fictitious but a heartstring plucker, nonetheless. Heck, days. Besides, he's really not very far away. I'm sure his visits will be fairly frequent. Good luck in Thunder Bay Conrad. I arrived in Terrace Bay a week ago last Sunday from Capreol, a small railway- community approx- imately 35 kilometres north of Sud- bury. Coincidentally, Conrad is originally from Sudbury. My life began in Capreol and from there it was on to Brampton, Mon- treal, and Hornepayne before retur- ning to Capreol seven years ago. I was fairly young when in Mon- treal so I wasn't living in the fast lane or experiencing the night life. Moving from Montreal to Horne- payne was quite a change. The population difference really shocked me. I remember standing on the main street and taking in the whole town in one glance. Hornepayne was the size of the old neighborhood. Hornepayne gave to me puppy love taught in Canadian schools when I was growing up. I'm no expert on American folklore, but I'd be willing to wager a couple of shinplasters that America's tendency to wave flags on the flimiest of pretexts stems from that very poem. Canadians, on the other hand, have never made much of a big deal about bunting. Oh, there was a modest guf- fuffle back in 1965 when the Maple Leaf replaced the Canadian ensign, but that was about it for flaps over flags here in Canada. Down in the States, the 200-year-old love affair with Old Glory burns on unabated. They fly her on "their buildings, they fly her on their homes. They stick her on their mailboxes and car no-drafts and Going- Out-of-Business-Fire-Sales. Flag frenzy shows perfectly the American tendency to trivialize that which they hold most dear: you can go to jail for 25 years in Texas for "'desecrating the flag", and yet it's considered patriotic to have the Stars and Stripes tattooed on your bicep. If there's a middle ground between fof" 4 w Ken Lusk and snowmobiling. I was quite im- pressed with ski-dooing. Never before was it so clear that snow had such a beneficial use. In Montreal it was for shovelling and.in Hornepayne it was for playing. Then it was back to Capreol. I received my Journalism Diploma from Cambrian College in Sudbury last May. For my college placement I work- ed on the Georgian Bay Beacon (now merged with the Parry Sound North Star'as the Beacon Star) and the Sud- bury Star. Since graduation I have worked as a desk clerk and a vacuum cleaner salesman. You can imagine my happiness when I learned of my posting to Ter- race Bay. Escorting drunken bodies to the exit and demonstrating high- apathy, I think you'll find it's occupied by Whitney Smith. Mr. Smith lives in Winchester, Massachusetts, and he is a vexillologist -- which is to say, an ex- pert on flags. As a matter of fact, Whitney Smith is the only full-time vexillologist in North America. He is also executive director of the Flag Research Center and publisher of The Flag Bulletin, which goes out every two months to some 800 flag fanciers around the world. So what's a full-time vexillologist do from nine to five? Mr. Smith doesn't seem to have any trouble filling in the hours. Something flagworthy seems to be happening somewhere on the planet on any given day. Sometimes it's very subtle. Not too long ago for instance, the Philippines decided that the shade of blue in their national flag needed brightening. Fine for the Filipinos, but who gets the word out to other govern- ments, the United Nations and various encyclopedia publishers around the world? Whitney Smith picked up the fallen standard. "I put the information in their hands as fast as I can,"' he says. tech vacuum cleaners to' potential buyers are not easy jobs but I prefer to toil with a pen. This is my first time away from home so I'm still going through a period of adjustment and I'm sure I will for some time yet. Never before have I been in con- trol of every aspect of my life. What were once necessities of life are now luxuries. I got a good deal on my first car back home. It's a 78 with only 30,000 miles and it's a Chrysler. A lot of people I know don't like Chryslers but beggars can't be chosers. The price was right. BE ii 9 id IceELANDIC ARMS CONTROL I used to have a few hobbies but _ so far I haven't been channelling any energies in that direction. I'm a drummer and I pretend to play acoustic guitar but I left all that Some folks are interested in flags. Some folks like them a lot. Whitney Smith loves the things. He works at his vocation nine hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. Not surpris- ingly, he keeps an impressive collec- tion of flags -- more than 1300 of them -- spread out in a special, humidity- controlled storage room connected to his house. He has the flags of nations past, nations present and nations never destined to be -- everything from the Maltese Cross to the Nazi Swastika. There are two things I especially like about Whitney Smith. First, despite the fact that he's a passionate lover of flags, he's not blind to the abuses caus- ed by excessive patriotism. He once ap- peared. as a defense witness for a kid who was arrested for sewing a flag to the seat of his pants. Smith, bless him, didn't think that was such a big deal... certainly nothing worth going to jail for -- and he said so in court. j The other thing I like about Whitney Smith is what you'll find flying from the flagpole in his backyard, should you happen to drive past his place in Winchester, Mass. at home because there wasn't any room in the car. Someday if there's a need I'll bring them up. Can't jam at my place though. Back home I was told that Terrace Bay is a pleasant place to live and work and it's true. Conrad also mentioned that he wasn't informed about newsworthy events. Do not be shy. Drop by or call the office if anything comes up. We can also chit the chat and in- troduce ourselves. I'm going to do the best job that Ican to keep you informed. Don't be hesitant to do the same. (Note: Per- sona will not be a regular column. Cook of the Week will be appearing again, just in time for Christmas, as well as letters to the editor and any helpful hints you may want to share). Nothing. Whitney Smith doesn't have a flagpole in his backyard. Or his front yard. Or anywhere else. "T just never got around to it,"? says Whitney, "but if I did have a flagpole I'd fly a different flag every day." Reminds me of the story about Mort Sahl, the acerbic comedian. Once, in pre-Maple Leaf days, when he was playing Toronto, Sahl asked for com- ments from the audience. One fervent nationalist stood up and asked him what he thought of the chickenbleep coun- try he was appearing in. "Do you realize," whined the na- tionalist, "that Canada hasn't even got a flag of it's own?"' "'Well," retorted Sahl, "that's a start."