LIFESTYLES

If Marion can do it, so can a

WE WHO have boen “put out to pasture™’
“out in left

that the real name tor it is

sometimes feel
field."” We don't

quite grasp a lot o: what’s going on in the world. We feel

as though we were a
we're missing a dot ot signals.

We didn’t get the hang of Viet
Nam before we had focus on
Palestine and drelan cad) Seuth
Africa and now us) Monrovia
which Pod swear was the

Eleanor Godley

apocryphal site of Edwardian
romance novels. Turns out it’s a
lively political hot-bed of a dif-
ferent stripe indeed.

Meech Lake was it. own con-
undrum, and just when we
thought we had it by the short
hairs it slipped out of our fingers.
We'd go back to square one in a
minute, but apparently some-
body's hidden it.

In an attempt to keep up we
read the papers assiduvusly, and
come upon 3 chap writing about
computers. He complains that
“this is a small-footprint unit.’’
Well? so it's for kids. He deplores
that ‘tan internal 9600 baud can-
not be added.’’ Tough beans.
IBM is under fire because it ‘*tin-
tegrated everything from a modem
to the VGA outlet into the
motherboard.’ Eh?

The thing that really destabilizes
us is that children, really little
children, appear to be perfectly at
home with that sort of language,
and matter-of-factly manipulate

Jong way

from the action, and that

complicated electronig games that
make our heads swim. What hap-
pened to crokinole? Parcheesi?
We wistfully offer to read them a
story.

ICs not too good to feel we're
trailing the parade, that we can
sull see the sun glinting off the
bassoon, but we no fonger hear
the music, The world has marched
on without us.

Some of us bravely start runn-
ing to catch up. We singerly insert
our bank cards, keeping our re-
quests to the minimum, just in
case. We force ourselves to try
cooking the cob-corn in the mi-
crowave, and are ecstatic to reap
succulence instead of disiategra-
tion. We always stand well to one
side when we open its door,
though. We learn to stick quarters
in copy machines and plastic cards
into gas pumps and FAX terse
messages all over the world. There
remains the ineradicable nostalgia
for bank-tellers who call you by
name; for real letters written with
thoughtful reference to shared ex-
perience, even for the smell of a
nice fresh sheet of carbon paper.

Mind you, there’s an awful lot
of this stuff we're not sorry to
miss. We've been warned off the
Lambada by our chiropractors on
pain of a slipped disk, and are
happy to be deaf to the lyrics io a
lot of what passes for music. We
are glad at times that we are as
old as we are, because there's
been such a change in fundamen-
tals we'll never truly understand
or be reconciled to current mores.

Certainly { stand at the head of
the line called **Rigidity."" I've got
a coal-oil-lamp mentality in a
laser-beam world. So to tell you
that | compose and print this col-
umn on a word-processor staggers
my conception of my command of
anything at all mechanical. I was
22 when | managed to master a
bicycle, not because they hadn't
yet been invented but because
there’s a total disconnection of
purpose between my extremities.
The roads I travelled were grav-

{ CAN’T SEEM TO GET COMFORTABLE
ON THAT BED OF YOURS?

elled. and | suffered both on shin

and chin.

Peet a hick out of this matching
for Surious reisens, one bem
that its: American and Jo am Ca-
nadian, another being that itis a
lop sounger than Toam and has a
fitte trouble wath ao vintage sa-
eabulary. That its; American) br-
ings out its litte beeping repre
mand wheneser bo type hrolls?
for instanee, oor ‘fibre’ and
‘litre’? — it gets quite shirts. |
just found out it gets quite shirty
with shirty, too.

Bur it’s a magic miutchine that
spaces itself, counts its own pages
and lines up the edges with light-
ning speed. ht harbors a= dic-
lionary, a thesaurus, a spelling
monitor and a grammar text in its
complicated bosom, and if you
want to invent a new language it
will provide storage for that as
well. When I use it properly, that
is, according to its imitations, and
mine, {[ am dazzled.

There was a brief report in the
weekend papers about Mariac
Rice Hart, a famous adventurer
who flew solo across the Atlantic
at age 83 — she had learned to fly
at 54. Some of us are simply
late-bioomers, that’s all — never
say die. If Marion and | can do it,
anyone can,

29 . Sundays, July 15. 1990 - North Shere News

DINNER FOR SIX
CALL: (737- 8737

ant tae

sand dy
Pers sites

ince ee fe |

NOTICE TO MOTORISTS

CASSIAR CONNECTOR PROJECT
CASSIAR STREET CLOSURE AND DETOUR

Ths a we he erection of f'sewars oo
conn ‘structure 6 a Camunape Sirecet.

Yur CoODeration ard uncerstancng regaramng ths mater 1S apnreciated.

George Dean
Construction Manager
Fenco Lavalin Corp.
Project Managers for the Cassiar Connector Proyect

For furtner information, olcase call the Ministry of Transportation and
Highways Road Report Information System 660-9775.

a

Province of British Columbia
Ministry of Transportation and Highways
Honourable Rita M. Johnston, Minister

San ‘Antonio Express News.

7 An energetic, intelligent marathon of ‘song and. dance
‘that turns its audience.aut.into the street

grinning and humming!” —

an Francisco: Bay City News

-“Clearly MacLaine’s best show! A study i Th

miussical comedy thrills! A-lady who can hold a’
stage for as long as she wants and leave them .
beggin for more!” —San, Jose, Mercury News 7”

TRY THIS BED OF OURS.

The Thomasville Powerbed gives you the right angle on comfort Just
press a button and move your head and feet to any position you choose ft sure
beats pounding pillaws and rolling araund trying to get settled But you have
no idea just how wondedul the Thomasville Powerbed is unti you try it here, at
J. Collins, today or anv day this week You'll wonder where it's been all your

life But you'll know where you want it from now on, and that's the most
comionable bedroom anywhere: YOURS! Come see us today

POWERBED

Electrically Adjustable Beds
By Thomasville

Naw Two Big bocatans
CANADAS LARGEST THOMASVILLE GALLERY

Dow atown ° (Hatt a block west of

U
Vancouver, BC THOMASVILLE GALLERY Sheraton Villa Hotch

MONDAY TO SATURDAY 9 AM TO 3 PME SUNDAY NOON TO SPM

601 Smythe Street - :
» Tickets at all TicketMaster loc ons:
cluding'Lower Mainland Eaton’s _
and InfoCentres in major malls.”

(604) 280-4444

Pecial discounts for groups
of twenty or more!
Call (604) 669-4433

435-5566
4240) Manor Siscer
Burnaby, BC

685-8414
1O80 Mainland street
at Helmeken

~ SPONSORED BY

The Prosince