page 2» May 26, 1976

1 don’t know if my mother
will forgive me for telling this
story, but it happoned a long
time ago

1 was born in Monteeal,
My mother’s malden name
was LeBeau, and as you can
pre robably guess she’s as

rench as they come, We
moved to Weat Vancouvor in
1948 of 1946
about seven ydara old, My
father was Bnglish, and my
alster and 1 were ralsed
bilingually, Alas, thirty yeara
in an Baglish culture has
evaporated my French.

North Shere News

» when I was.

_ Of the country,

| My mother ‘wasn't fluent
in En

llsh. Sho had been
ralsod in a French environ:
ment, and when she came to
Vancouver she found herself
in a totally allen culture
whore people spoke funny
and acted a lot differantly
than they do in Montreal, We

Streot and
maman started the palnful
rocess of acquiring the
pnlehing touches on her

English and learning about
the idlosyneraclos of this end

accents of any doscription

At the time, it was a lot

by Poter Speck

“more WASP: than It ie now,

The Second World War was
jut over, and people with

were, well, aly forelone hoy
wekd Nolgnors and
probably aoe WB Qe

Promber belng harassed a lot '
by my classmates at Pauline
got a house on the waterfront | J
around §637th

ohneéon School, and
dropped my Fronch accont
and mannerisms like a hot
potato.

It's not so easy to drop
our culture, thou h. For
netance, when rought
frlonds home after school
the ‘d hear my mother speak

tn ‘whlepors they'd ask

I've taken the pledge.

No, not that one, Aunt
' Maude, The ICBC one.

- Por years I’ve been amon
the staunchest defenders ¢
individual liberties, when it
came to seat belts. My

democratic hackles used to |

rise at the mere au UB estion
of trussing myself like a
Christmas turkey as a pre:
lude to turning the ignition
ey,

After all, I'd driven happ>
= ily for years before they app.

thought of Installing tho.

wretched things in cars, if
' over I had an accldent, I
wanted to be able to get out
of the vehicle fast (a kind of
tau on-seat syndrome), pat-
roularly if} happened, in | na
t of absence of mind, to
ative off the end of a plor.:

When you hit something, I
knew there was a tendency to

be thrown forward towards
the windshield, Hard luck on
our passenger, admittedly,
ut the driver could always
hang on to the steering h
wheel, provided it remaine
in ite usual place at the time.

Not that 1 wasn't open:
minded in those early seat
belt days. 1 actually exper:
Imented with them on two or
three occasions—usually be:
causo | had happened to alt
on them, which wag uncom:
fortable. I found they creased
my jacket and stopped me
fe ng my cigarettes out of

© pocket of my slacks,

ving given tho things a
trl, bicnided they were bad
for my clothes, and interfered
with my smoking.

The lron really entered my
soul when they invented seat
belts that screeched. at ou
until you buckled u is
was 1984 arriving 1 " yonrs

whead: of schedule, | No

clectronte howler wes
to tell me' what to do whe
climbed into the
my own car, If that could
hap on, we might just as
Invite the Ruaslans to
North. America

i

take ovor
tomorrow,

1 suppose It-was that big

‘rock being dropped onto tho
td PP ihe ICBC

tiny nut in

television commercials that
finally began to get at me,
There wasn't much left of the
nut, you romembor, Also, |
didn't much care for the idea:
that I was the nut,

But the thing that finally
dofoated mo was that pers:

‘uasive gontloman who kopt

asking me at the end of the
commercial what was hold:
Ing mo back, The oftonor |
heard it, the moro it began to
sound iike a challonge to my
manhood, .

1

ws ‘ane Ingenuity, Ws

. ting we don't have the
a

rivacy "of fr

real

she was a
foreigner, It explained about
Quobee and the other end of
Canada, but 1 think in many
cases | might as well have
beon talking about China,

me if

And my mother likes to AN

cook, We camo fro
Fronoh-Canadlan
onment, where money at
times had been none tco
plentiful and my mother was
a cook of considerable talent
We ate things
lve

brains, an soup 4)
ored all day on tho steve
filling the Saal house \ with
deficlous aromas, |
bor a childhood frond ¢ “ng
‘a kidney sandwich an
saying how good it was, H
phoned his mothor and sald
e was having lunch at my

place and boy, these kidnoy .

sandwiches wore real good,

Dammit, Alexander, | sald
one day, Is the fellow sugycs.

sten our seat belt | We

_ feel Ilko it? What right has he

to taunt us that way, Wo'll do
ingho pa we darn well please
In tho privacy of our own car,
That's how, a month of go
ago, | started to buckle up
regularly = thereby protect:
‘ing my Individual liberty and
eodom of cholce In a demo»
cratic society. I'll do it for a
wooek, | thought, simply to
rove my point. And after
hat, of course, I'll go on do-
ing axactly what I'feolllke
doing . : . in the privacy of
my own car,

oddly snough I grew
rather fond of my seat bolt

8..One day whon
datual

oe

Thon, last week, ICBC
sont mo its latest handout
‘about seat belts, The kind of
facts you've read about
beforo—how deaths in Aus:

He was ‘allont ‘on the phone

mother talked,
His face grew white and he

Tt was hatd for my mother,
a now culture and language
‘and custome, My father was
a travelling’ man, home
infrequently, and it
mother who had to
together, Her. English waa

slow In coming, We didn’t |

have a lot of communteation

with our nelghboursandfora ~

long time we spoke French at
home. My mother atill counts

‘tn Pronch, | think, although

she denies that, i was so
anzious to fit Into the West
Vancouver WASP  cuiture

tralta dropped 20 per cont
after seat belt woarlng was
made compulsory: how 168
lives a yoar ould be saved in
B.C. if it were compulsory;
and'go on, But there were
three items I for one hadn't
known bofore,

One wae that at least 17
countries already have a soat
belt law. In addit'
Australia and New Zealand,
they Include virtuatiy all the
western European countries
except Britain, Italy and
Portugal. They also include
the Soviet Union, Crechoslo:
vakia, Israel, Puerto Rico and
our own falr province of
Ontarlo, Moreover, more
than half the estates’ in: the
U.S. aro currently preparing
almilar legislation,

Which means, ‘when you

go tourlng abroad, that your —

rant-acar F opportunities are
oing e increasingly
malted ‘Unless y

got along amicably with your

seat bolt,

Item number two was that
loss than 0.5 por cont of all
accidents causing Injury in-

volve fire or suomersion in ‘Hoaion
water. Woll, so much for the Hoa

argument about driving off
the pler by accident,

to get ‘t

lon to.

finally

that | used to find tt acutely
embarasaln when my

mother would make a min
take with her nh One of,
her grammatiee ailps hes
lived memory for a
long time, t's funny, tow,

She mined her metaphors,
on ocvasion, She was tell ny

of
‘walting in the lurch
‘aft steading at the church

“Your tether,” ake con:
fided, “almost lef me
lurching at. the church,”

1 hope ou. “don't mind,
mother, it's ‘one of my
favourite atorion,

.For «me, however, tho
clincher among the ICBC
statistics is ta fa that two

a tlos an
half of ait. sfaathe gen

0 mph
at, cou soled in with a Swe bh
survey of 6,000 aa aceldents up
60 mph tn, In, which hot a
an pie Ited ‘driver or
parsonger was killed,

So I'll come elean, Free
dom fighter’ George has
Coen lleked. Now: |
buckle up when I move the
ear ten yards down, tho
driveway to wash It. After
all, you have to stay alive if
you want to i on fighting for
ndividual ilbertles—-and be:

' Ing caught without your belt

on ts a Pretty dum way to

a8 4

ou learn to

Soothin words. for those
who enjoy helr oe Henn ulcop,
court

Be vent
1 "early ‘pleors are
onaalted in the ‘morning. and
stupid In the afternoon,”

, ' !
'
‘ :
gf
t \ .
it its ;
t mu .
' ' 7:
‘ ‘ ‘ mi
‘ i
! "
: y
, : , :
= mes | ||
‘ :
‘ my
’ , »
'
1

\ | ‘New Year’

Letters.
to the |

greetings

At the bepinning ‘of ‘buy
new yeor 19

ee na .

 Giroutation) 48,000 °

| Wounded

News le published w

to wy

HH door | on th

in 1000: ap an inde
community ae or

endent,
orth’ Shore
tee

rah minds or. AN
ah a graph tl of: the sino,

4, a

oscunst,

co.

en Bio, mane

“77, we would "Soo

like to take this o opportunity
to thank you for printin
vatlous Information we have
given you this past yoar, It
was greatly appreciated,

We do not have a new slate
ot officers this year, so there

will be no announcements in
that connection. —

Hotty H. Ri

" Reorstary, v Women's
Auxifiary, to the Canadian
E & Rhoumatiem

a) txeck
Petr: ler

Weel Weight

diilswarth Diekeon

’ ty tain

| “Thank

Bouquet to
your |

So much Is weltton today
about the young people In
our society, much of
dlaheartoning but here is
one organts lon who would

ke to oa A very prineere

fs ore,

only at Christmas, we receive
baskets of frult, cookles and
special treats which these
foups have spent’ many

Guide and Brownle Packs
take time out from thelr other
reap onalbiitias to personally

tho elderly and abu “(ne
iii and these

ev these peop! e

Many times we do not

Humber te contact the
Varlous groups who conte Ibe
ute and, we. would therat ‘ove

Throughout the year, not.

pours preparing, ome of the |

sandy its mean #0 witoh

1 att an address or phone

like to do so through the.

hat fr medium on bes

half cf our cllonte and Mobile

shirley M, Ba " as sh
-Ordinator, No
Mobile Meals Bervice ore .

Lottors to the editor are

ef always vary we welcome and we

ike to publish as man
space pormits, This iy ¥ UR

pcommunity newspaper and 7

wo value your contzibutions
on whatever subjects are of
ebnearn to you,

In perder that this column may
refloct ab many communit

view aw poli ay Boualiies it oy
if you oan jisep our |

itn ‘voatonably 5 mort,

Whore necessary, We rene
the tight to edi’ letters dor

“a vlarity, bead and

i

our name or U
rn lonyen if you request My

app reo eae te

however |
1 be.

a ait

" wo gy ge wep aa

vy eet waar
‘ '

Habltet $$$

on bohalf of the Onstown
Lions. Club 1 would ‘like to

. arfisie you wo thanks for the

ing
Thdlh ateo AB te well

the coins ma be de ob
ited in any wm ered pink,
at you may

i
re that
attontlon 0 your rin

1 O'Kette

astowil © _
Vangouver oo

Pie

Ly ¢
‘ iva wae prea
4