COVE SHOE | NEWS photo Cindy Goodman DARRYL SCHEELAR (a. k.a. Leo the Lion) of Pemberton Station prepares to make a big sptash in last Sunday's belly flop competition at the North Shore Winter Club. VOLUNTEERS THE FOLLOWING is a selection . of volunteer opportunities available through North Shore Community Services (NSCS): A volunteer letter writer is needed for a 70 year old woman in an extended care facility. If you are a good listener and a good writer you could help her keep in touch with those she loves. A North Shore organization is planning a garden tour fundraising event for the spring of 1995 and needs enthusiastic people to help organize. This is a chance to work with an experienced friendly group. A one-on-one support volunteer is needed for a mentally handi- capped man who is fairly indepen- "KIDS FOLLOW WATER SAFETY RULES ALCOHOL. AND BOATING DWT Ma DO YOU? fs The Canadian Red Cross Society dent but needs assistance with out- ings and activities, especially out- door recreation and physical fit- ness. An organization that helps seniors is looking for volunteers to contact elderly people using spe- cialized response equipment. You will work from an office helping to keep this valuable system running. Shoppers who have cars and are willing to shop for people or to take people shopping who have chronic health problems are needed on the North Shore. This takes only about 2 hours per week. If you are interested in volun- teering, call 985-7138. NSCS is a member agency of the United Way. A $1 415. ural aH i Nting Nes $3,495 On wine Eleanor THE VINTAGE YEARS IT SURE brought me up short, right there on a placard in the supermar- ket. A whole huge pile of it — “One Hundred Per Cent Recycled Toilet Paper.’ Good grief, | thought, have we actual- ly come to that? And then of course I had to laugh, because isn’t that what I was brought up on? Eaton’s catalogue reincarnated? This stuff they were pushing isn’t quite the same, I have to tell you. No pictures, for one thing. The catalogue in the biffy would always still have lots of colored pages left, for private perusal, as they were useless — for the job at hand. Too slick by half. The harness pages and women’s corsets and men’s winter underwear were used up first, being done in black and white on much flimsier stock, and were therefore much more serviceable. We weren't aware of doing the world any favors by eschewing the refinements of the commercial variety. We loved the nice soft rolls we had known briefly in another place. And there were no fancy names for the sacrifice, to romanticize our penny-pinching It was just part of the times and the style of our lives, We wore hand-me-downs and scraped our plates clean and made gocd use of any paper and longed for a little careless indulgence before we got too old to enjoy it. Nothing was simply discard- ed. It was first studied for its 75 eon DAILY FISHING & ¢4 hours ef exciting fishing in sheltered Howe Sound Rate* ‘SEWELL'S MARINA Horseshoe Bay RESERVE NOW 921-FISH (3474) em om see mae sets ; & West Vancouver a / , ’ potential, Everything was cut down, combined with, doc- tored, stretched some how to exact further service. None of us was in danger of the overweening sin of excess consumption, Rivalry was, rather, mostly manifested in innovative ideas for cannibal- ization, My mother’s specialty was recycling dandelions, She made them into wine. It sounds kind of biblical, doesn’t i, but she did indeed alchemize those blossoms into yielding a clear golden liquid which wielded a good deal of authority. All hearsay to me as 1 was too young to drink it, but being conveniently close to the ground I was judged just the right age for gathering the raw material, Present-day medica! pundits now laud dandelion wine as liver tonic, and Caspian gypsies consider it as much an aid to longevity as their well-known apricots and yogurt. In our house it was mother’s hobby, helping to alleviate some of the pressures and denials of those stringent times. The dandelions were free, they could be transformed into an inexpensive gesture of hospital- ity, and they weren’t fattening. : They were also a scourge to farmers, so nipping them before they seeded was a little good deed for the world. Some people used only the yellow petals, we heard, but mother used the whole head, seventy-five hundred millions of which I plucked and‘carried home to her. She needed a gallon of heads for a single batch. Pinching off blooms to fill a gallon pot is like one of those jobs they give to princesses stuck in gloomy towers. They weren’t heavy, so I'd get the pot home all right, then mother would pour a quantity of boiling water over them. (Eh? nine cups if you want to - know.) She transferred the heads to a big crock, of course, and dandelions which she then covered with a tightened cheese cloth and put behind the wood stuve. It would sit there for tive or six days, subject to a daily stir. Any little mould that developed would be carefully skimmed off. Next step was to add the sugar. (You really going to try this? well, six cups, then). It was stirred till all dis- solved, after which yeast was sprinkled over the top. — dry yeast, the crumbly kind, the only kind we had in those days. That too was stirred well and for the next two weeks the pot would “work”, as mother called ab The house smelled rather as though there was bread in the oven, When it stopped “work- ing” it had to be carefully strained and bottled, The moment of truth appar- ently was not fixed. It wasn’t exactly so many days or. hours, one had to consider variables ia heat and yeast power, and I think I recall her laying her ear against the crock. Capping followed. Mother had sterilized all the bottles we. all lugged home to her from the side of the road, then they’d - have to go down to the cellar. I'd pull up the ring in the kitchen floor and back down into its clammy cobwebby con- fines. Someone would hand the bottles down one by one. Six weeks from now was marked | "on the calendar. It would be drinkable. If some was held out for six months it would ensure out- - standing clarity and bouquet plus an alcohol content that would rot your socks, All the bottles wouldn’t make it. Perhaps imperfectly capped, perhaps a bit green when put down, some few would simply blow up. When it happened it was always in the night, and sounded like mortar shells. The Depression sat on us for years like a great obscene wart- hog, but don’t let anyone kid . you it was short on diversions. Qceanfront RV Resort e 5, 35, of 99 year site membership * Fully serviced site up to 2300 sq. ft. * Phone and cabie availability ¢ Tennis & volleyball courts Beachside pool & deck * Fabulous oceanfront clubhouse & recreation centre at Hew RV Lifestyle!