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page 26 NORTH LEEDS LANTERN PAM IN PORTLAND By the end of October I shall have been in Portland a full six months. A sobering thought - eSpecially since it seems more like six weeks. Where did all the summer go? (Where have all our summers gone, for that matter?) Falls, too. Not that I am complaining. There were all those visits from delighted â€" and often envious â€" friends. There was the realization that I was slowly beginning to remember names as well as faces on the village streets. There was the making of new friends in Portland itself; learning to play bridge again; more recently, taking lessons in Japanese flower-arranging from Doris Graham - a very good discipline for me, since my previous approach to fIOWers tended to reflect too much of my natural exhuberance; and then, of course, my beginning explorations of the countryside and the lake. There was also the afternoon to overcrowding, unemployment and bad housing for the poor and not-so-poor. Not to overlook the continuing erosion of those good-old-fashioned virtues of kindness, consideration, and loveâ€"thy-neighbour. What neighbour? Of course, Tom Wolfe was thinking about New York, and our Canadian cities, thank God, are still a long way from the kind of horrendous problems the Big Apple. Nevertheless, in the two-andâ€"aâ€"half years I spent in Toronto before I escaped down here, there were quiteafew times when I, too, felt like a beleagured rat - or perhaps, accurately - beleagured mouse! m ore Mind you, I was never mugged or robbed, but that was because I took precautions.lf l was out late at night I was either with someone else or I took a taxi. But there were daytime problems to cope with as well. For example, Toronto has one of the best, if not the best, transit systems on the continent. In comparison to be found in with the filthy and graffiti-covered trains of New York its subways are squeaky~clean. But just try getting caught in the rush-hour when you are carrying two, heavily-laden shopping bags, and the platforms are so crowded that your only prayer is (a) you won't get pushed onto the rails (b) you can get 2 the train, and (c) you can get o_ff. Try the equally famous buses and streetcars, where you will find yourself closer to more of the human race than you could ever possibly desire. And all of it talking at the top of its voice in about six different languages. Meanwhile, as you find yourself trapped between two gigantic ladies (built, apparently, of cement blocks!) the conductor is yelling his continuous refrain: "Now then, don't block the entrance, pu-leeze!....move down the car, pu-leeze!....and leave by the MIDDLE DOOR! Thenk m!" He has to be joking! Again, for shopping convenience, try that vast and glittering emporium, the _, A.L.‘~»:._.. - .. a, no» ”coo-4 __ ‘ when, suddenly hearing an enormous outburst of fireâ€"sirens I stood frozen continued on page 27 in horror: "My God, I've just moved here, and it's all going to burn down!" I had, of course, forgotten that it was the day of the annual Fireman's Parade. There was the chicken barbecue - practically in my backyard, which I greatly enjoyed. Also the corn-roast, which I foolishly chickened out of because, the weather looked dubious. But now the warm and lovely days are almost over. The winter will soon set in, with lots of time for contemplation and also, I hope, lots of work at my typewriter. Contemplation, in fact, has already begun. I have been reviewing all my reasons for deciding to move to the country. Mostly, as I said in previous columns, it was to escape from the noise, pollution, and congestion of city life. A question - above all - of SPACE. While brooding over this I came across an article I had read several years ago in Tom Wolfe's The Pump House Gang. Its last article is called "Sliding Down the Behavioural Sink," the phrase "behavioural sink" having been coined by the anthropologist, Edward T. Hall. In common with a lot of other people in his own field, as well as biologists Vote JANE MONAGHAN COUNCILLOR I ='.“mmmmmmmmmmmmm‘m‘mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmw ‘ .\ ‘ (X cafveth care centre 375 James Street, Gananoque, Ontario K7G 223 â€"â€"- (613) 382 4752 6““) Membe': Ontario Nmsiug HomeAsscciatior SOUTH CROSBY Curveth Lodge I ( Can‘eth Nursing Home Ltd. 1978: ' ' and ethnologists, Hall has proven beyond a doubt that 31.1. creatures - human and animals, as well as birds - must have a specific amount of space around them. Otherwise, they either die, or go mad, or both. - A PRIVATE SENIOR CITIZEN RESIDENCE WHOSE REPUTATION HAS BEEN EARNED BY ITS COMMITMENT TO QUALITY CARE. - THE ONLY PRIVATE RESIDENCE FOR SENIORS IN THE COUNTY WHICH CAN, IF SO REQUIRED, PROVIDE FOR YOUR FUTURE LONG-TERM HEALTH CARE NEEDS WITH There have been a series of astonishing , LICENSED NURSING HOME ON THE PREMISES. experiments with a variety of animals. One of the most hair-raising was conducted by the ethnologist, John Calhoun, which involved forty white domesticated Norway rats. They were put into a pen divided into four sections, connected by ramps. It left them with all the space they needed as well as everything in the way of material necessities. Calhoun kept them there until the population doubled, after which the pen slowly turned into a madhouse. Its ends were taken over by two male supebrats, who each collected a harem of eight to ten wives, and then drove the remainder of the population into the middle sections. Here, mayhem broke loose. All the normal forms of ratâ€"behaviour and rat-courtship A - A MODERN ONEâ€"STOREY CENTRE WHICH HAS A PHYSIOTHERAPY CLINIC ASSOCIATED WITH THE KINGSTON GENERAL HOSPITAL ON THE PREMISES. - ALL ROOMS ARE EQUIPPED WITH EMERGENCY CALL SYSTEM, ENSUITE BATHROOMS, FULLY CARPETED, TELEVISION 8: TELEPHONE OUTLETS. I - SERVICES OF A DIETICIAN: ALL MEALS PREPARED AND SERVED BY TRAINED AND COURTEOUS STAFF. â€" FAMILY OWNED 8: OPERATED WITH EIGHTEEN YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN SERVING SENIOR CITIZENS. ______ ___ CARVETH LODGE IS THE RESIDENCE PREFERRED broke down. Family life disappeared BY SENIOR CITIZENS CONCERNED WITH TOMORROW'S and ratâ€"babies were either neglected LO UIR I or abandoned. There were ratâ€"gangs, NGâ€"TERM HEALTH CARE REQ EMENTS _ - ratâ€"violence, and a great deal of very odd sexual behaviour. Occasionally, some abandoned rat-lady from the elite sections of the pen would decide to go slumming in the middle sections, after which she was never allowed back into her upper-class haven. This alarming little experiment certainly suggests some uncomfortable parallels with contemporary big-city life. Surely the increasing incidence of crime and meaningless violence is directly related mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm‘mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm‘mmm‘t xmmmmmmmm‘mmmmmm‘mmmm \â€" FOR INFORMATION CALL OR WRITE to: It) CARVETH CARE CENTRE 375 JAMES STREET GANANOQUE, ONTARIO. K7G 221 TELEPHONE 1-613â€"382-4752 I Owners: The Gibson Family WIN? WWW