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time of glad tidings,

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that’s the way it
years ago. If wire

services had existed at the time, the reports filed
from Bethlehem that first Christmas Day by CP,
AP, UPI and Reuters correspondents would still

rank as the

. It’s sad to report, there-

7 e
fore, that the media seem ta

asn ww

be making even less effort

than usual in the ‘“‘good .
‘news’’ department this
Christmas. Things © may

change for the better by
Saturday, but as. far as the

“headlines of the past week

go, Christmas might still be
three months away instead of
three days.

While we prepare for the
tree, the gifts and the turkey, |
our daily newspapers, radio
and TV continue to feed us
their solid, year-round diet of
inflation, | unemployment, -
Rene Levesque, the sagging
economy and the Middle
East powder-keg -- seasoned
with as many assorted
disasters, man-made and

natural, as they can dig up.

Almost the only Christmas”
cheer they’ve brought us so
far has come in the ads.

,

Almost.... but not entirely.
By dint of perusing every last
inch of our two local dailies
for the past seven days, I
eventually managed to un-

‘earth at least a handful of

‘‘glad tidings’’ amid the
mayhem and gloom -- most
of them buried back around

‘page 31, but none the less

welcome for that. Here are

*

top “‘good news” story in the history of

In Charlottetown, P.E.I.,
Judge B. R. Plamondon gave ~
a man convicted of common

assault a suspended —sen-

tence and ordered him to buy
a Christmas gift worth $25 or
more for some needy child.”
He gave a similar Santa

Claus’ order’ to a woman

just four you might like to .

share as the countdown to
Yuletide continues.

XMAS BEGAN IN JULY

First, there was the story
of the Burnaby lady who has
taken six months to buy and
wrap the 70 Christmas
parcels she’s giving away to
other people’s children --
including gifts of crayons,
paint books and small toys |
for a_ retarded . children’s
ward at Woodlands School.

She's artistic herself. One
of her hobbies is fashioning
scrapbooks from
cards and photographs, and
sending them to the child-
ren’s wards of hospitals.
Every major hospital in
Canada has one.

If you’re curious to know
why Mabel § Harrison’s
shopping and
wrapping. spree began in
July, I should explain that
she’s 82, when one’s fingers
sometimes aren’t quite as
nimble with paper and string
as in younger years. Her only
income is the old age pension
and supplement. Her 70 gifts
cost her $47.50 -- much of it
her own money, with some
extra dollars donated by
family and friends.

She signs her gift cards:
‘‘From someone’s granny
who loves children."

yy . . a
‘
4%

* REVERSE THRUST

From the Maritimes came
a Christmas cheer story with
a kind of reverse thrust,
involving two judges.

greeting .

_perhaps makes his

shoplifter before sentencing
her. 7

~Meanwhile, in Saint John,
N.B., Chief Judge Andrew
Harrigan told a middle-aged
male shoplifter to donate $75

‘to the United Church Christ-

mas Fund -- again after’
delivering a suspended sen-
tence. .

Nice Christmasy ways of
making the punishment fit
the crime. |

Back here on the North
Shore. you may recall the taxi.
driver who limped into Judge
Nancy Morrison’s North Van

- court the other week -- as a
_ witness. . |
“FINE, FINE MAN”

Last February his cab was.
hit by a 17-year-old youth
who had driven through a
stop sign at.50 to 70 mph.
The taxi driver spent the next
two months in hospital while
they fixed his broken leg,
broken pelvis, broken collar
bone, smashed ribs and
punctured bladder. He’s still
unable to work. ee

His name is Rudy Pusch-
mann and English isn’t yet
his strongest point -- which
little
speech to the court all the
more impressive.

wv.

‘*Could I make a recom-
mendation to the judge,
please,’’ he said. ‘Would it
be possible, according to the
forthcoming season, Merry
Christmas and Happy New
Year coming up. He made a
booboo, the young man. Be a
little lenient to the fellow.
This could destroy the future
for him. In my opinion he
was too young to drive a car.
at all. He has not maturity
reached yet.”’

Obviously moved, Judge
Morrison gave the youth a
suspended sentence, barred
him from driving for a year
and ordered him to do 25
hours of, community work.

. Speaking of Puschmann, she

said: ‘‘He is a fine, fine
man.’’

Finally, glad tidings from a
most unlikely source -
Statistics Canada.

Year.

FAMILIES FLOURISH

The family -- another thing
Christmas is supposed to be
all about -- has been taking
something of a..beating in
recent years, what with a
soaring divorce rate, the Pill
and side-effects -from. such:
doubtless - well-meaning
movements as Women’s Lib
and the Gay Alliance. So
guess what. -~ | -

Statcan’s computers have

discovered that nine out of:

ten families still involve a

“husband and wife; - that
marriage is still popular and.

on the increase -- up from
seven to 8.9 new marriages
per 1,000 persons between

1961- and 1971; and. that
couples are marrying
younger. .

The high divorce rate, says
Statcan, doesn’t mean a
rejection of marriage in itself
but ‘merely rejection of

marriage to a_ particular

person -- since many remarry
within a few years of a
divorce. And the report also

finds that Women’s Lib has.

after all, had little impact-on
the structure of marriage.
family life. a

“Couples continue to ob-_

serve the mating gradient,’’
it comments, ‘‘and to sort
themselves out so that the
husband is older and more
educated than is his wife
and, if she is employed,
earns a higher income.”’

The only thing wrong with
these, and stories like them,

‘is that they never made a

Page One banner headline
during the week before.
Christmas. But then maybe

that ‘“‘Christ Child Born in

Bethlehem’’ story 200 de-
cades ago wouldn’t : have
made it either. —

‘

May you fiave the happiest
Christmas ever, followed by
a bright and prosperous New

|] '
vs ,

Vs

’

nd-

,

“DONT LOOK NOW;
‘ but I think there’s a train | -
coming,’’ says ‘‘Sey-
mour’’ to his master Mike
-Doodson of the North
' Shore News photographic
department. Photograph-
er colleague Larry Gold-
stein pressed the button
just in time while the
couple were on a photo
assignment last week at
the BCR railyards at the

foot of Pemberton.

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_ NEW YEAR’S EVE

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