6, ENTERTAINMENT, T

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HE HER

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ALD, Wed. Mar. 16, 1977 .
fof oe : oom : ‘

 SKEENA STAGE BAND REHEARSAL

Lets face it.

for you.

virtually without limit.

a summertime.

Hiring.extra help has
most small businessmen. That's why summer
students represent such a good opportunity

Lucia stood on the bidding
platform -with her legs
slightly spread, hands on
her hips and her lovely
white teeth standing out in
the wide spread of her grin.
Old and young, white slave
buyers came up to examine
her. They ran their hands
over her body, checking her
arms and legs for muscles.
They opened her mouth and
peered in to see if her teeth
were good and strong. The
slaves were checked over

become difficult for

Think. There must be some short term
projects around the office, plant or store that
youve been putting off until you could free
someone up. Maybe your warehouse needs
to be reorganized. How about that mess behind
the shipping dock? Perhaps the furnace
room needs repainting. Doesn't the summer
holiday schedule put a bit of a strain on
your clerical capabilities? The possibilities are

And that's what summer students are for.
Your Canada Manpower Centre for Students
is geared upto place capable, eager young men
and women in the workforce for as little as
a day, a week, a month. Or as long as you need,
Do yourself and your staff a favour. Contact
your nearby Canada Manpower Centre for
Students today and tell us what a student can
do for you. It could be your opportunity of

HIRE A STUDENT:
‘THE OPPORTUNITY
OFA

Manpower

and immigration
Bud Cullen
Minister

i+

Main-~-d'oeuvre
et Immigration

Bud Cullen
Ministre

A630 Lazelle Ave.
Phone 635-7134

-|pregnant.

like horses. Lucia felt sick,
of men, of their treatment of
her and the way they kept
her chained and caged like a
zoo specimen. It was
disgusting, the conditions in
which she was kept. All
these bitter thoughts ran
through her mind but did
she show them? Never! To
say or do anything meant a
beating, an inch away from
death, as she learned from a
young age.

Lucia stood looking down
ona short, fat, well-dressed,
bald man, who was quickl

threading his way throug

the crowd towards her.
When he reached her, he
grasped her arm and just
about dragged her off the
platform to an old rather
rickety wagon.

“Dm Mr, Kingston,” said
the large man.

“J'm Lucia, sir,” she said
dubiously at th
who only returned her smile
with a miserable, slightly
irritated glare. He gave her
a shove in the wagon, almost
landing her headfirst, since
they still had her hand-
cuffed. ‘Mean old~ man,
ain’t he,’ her mind silently
chanted.

On the path to the
homestead, Lucia was
bounced and bumped
around on her side, hitting
her already aching head on
the bottom of the wagon.
When they finally reached
Lucia’s new home, she
looked out at an old, run-
down farmhouse.

“Maria,” bellowed Mr.
Kingston.

Immediately a young,
rather frail-looking black
girl came running out of the
house, incredibly quickly
considering she was

“Yas Masta?”

“Show this one around!"

“Yas Sir.” .

“Can yo cook?’’ said
Maria after Mr. Kingston
slowly took his obese body
off to the house. :

“Shore, real good, said
ma last masta.”

‘Then ah guess yo be the
cook. Come with me and
ah’ll show yo where yo

sleep.”’
Maria made the in-
troductions when she

reached the house, ex- too

laining that the tall Janky

y who just came in was
Joe. The old woman was
Bernice and the one stan-
ding in the black dress was
Iness. Maria pushed Iness
aside and escorted Lucia to
a small pile of hay in a
warm corner cf the kitchen,
but not dangerously near the
iron cast stove.

“This is where yo sleep,”
Maria said looking longingly
at the small bundle of hay.

“Where do yo sleep?”

“In the barn with the
horses.” ,

“'Let’s go see it.”

Maria Jed the way to the
barn, her swollen body

moving steadily along. They

enew master.

[Straight from $

A short story

THE SLAVE MARKET
by Karen Melanson

sat in the barn for awhile
and talked. Maria told Lucia
her baby was due in a month
or so. She told her of the
father and how he escaped
wanting to take her with
him, butin her condition she
could’ not. She told Lucia
how she planned to escape
after her baby was born and
go meet the man she loved.
Lucia told Maria to sleep in
the kitchen where it was
warm and she would sleep in
the barn, in the small, cold
corner that was originally
Maria’s. Maria looked at
Lucia with mingled caution,
delight and astonishment.
At a plantation it was
usually fight if you want
something, but seldom
kindness. ;
They had no opposition’
when Maria told the others,
in fact, Lucia’s kindness
brought admiration from
everyone except from Iness.
Iness clearly disliked the
popularity of Lucia and for
the first few weeks.she was
openly hostile. One day
Iness came running up to
Lucia to say, “Masta

Kingston say yo better goto &

town an’ get some flour,
‘cause he want a pie for
supper. Here some money.”

Lucia began down the
path to town at a quick,
mechanical pace. As soon as
she was out of sight, Iness
ran to the master panting,
“Sir, she done run away.”

“Who did?”

“That new one,”’

“Have you
everywhere?”

“Yas sir!”

“Well, don’t just stand
there. Go after her. I'll
teach her a thing or two!”
He walked off cursing.

Iness went running down
the path, shortly catching up
to Lucia. .

“Lueia....Luciaaa! Masta
wants ya back, say to ferget
the pie,”

Lucia turned around,
wondering what was hap-
pening and trotted to catch
up to Iness.

When they reached the
main gate, Iness seized
Lucia’s arm in an iron grip,
running towards the
homestead.

“Masta, Masta, Ah caught
her, got $10 in her hand

qr? .

looked

Mr. Kingston looked Lucia
over, took the money and
silently led her to the barn.

He took down a length of
rope, hooked it
beam in the ceiling and tied
Lucia’s hands rogether, then
her feet. They hitched her
up so she was off the ground,
hanging by her feet, with
her hands tied behind her
helplessly.

“Joe, come here and bring
the horsewhip.” Joe walked
in carrying the whip. As he
came in he looked at Lucia
with wide, sucprised eyes.
He silently handed the whip
to Mr. Kingston, who
handed it back to Joe,

around a-

keena

“One hundred lashes,
hard!” he hissed.

“T can't, Sir.”

Mr. Kingston looked
furiously at Joe who looked

‘at the weeping Maria. He

grabbed the whip, pushed
Joe out of the way and
proceeded to beat Laicia
with long, vicious lashes.

Atlast, bloody, aching and
erving, she was cut loose.
She tried in vain to lift her
stinging body to its feet and
almost did, but fell to the
floor in a dead faint.

When she recovered she] -

found herself in her corner,
bathed, and still with the
killing pain. ;

“J wish I were dead,” she}.

muttered in barely audible
tones.

“I wish yo were too!” said
Iness in low, menacing
tones, while her face bore a
wide triumphant smile.

Iness strode out of the
room after a last look at the
sight that made her feel so

Maria began to cry with

heartfelt sobs.

“S.she s-s-said that ah

was next,” Maria sobbed.
“She don’ mean nolhing,

she just don’ like that, that’s

Mr. Kingston came ‘in,
glared at Lucia and kicked
her saying, “Don’t you have
chores to do? Get goin!”

“Yas Sir.”

Lucia forced her body
onto her unsteady legs and
began to walk to the door
until her legs could hold her
no longer and simply gave
way beneath her. Master
Kingston stood above Lucia
and kicked her viciously.

“To your. feet!” he or-
dered imperiously. .

“She can’t sir, she ain't
faking, she almost dead
now,” pleaded Maria again
in tears.

“T don’t take sass from
slaves, You gonna get a
beatin all right.” .

“No!” interposed Lucia
weakly. ‘‘She pregnant,
she'd loose her child.”

“She gonna get one

anyhow.”
“Pll take it.” .
“You asked for it

remember!”

She was rolled out in the
middle of the room, bound
and strung up. The whip
came down, lashing at her
body harder than it had the
first time. It opened the just
dried wounds and beat all
consciousness out of Lucia.

Later she lay in a coma,
as the dog doctor came to
see if she would live. His trip
had originally been to see if
the master’s hound had
distemper, which it did not.
It came as no surprise when
he calmly announced, “She

Maria lingered behind
after Lucia was buried. She
put the flowers she picked at
the head of the grave where
the stone was absent. She
Jooked down at the small
daughter in her hands,
whispering, ‘For you Lucia,
I named her Lucia, after
you, my friend.”

Meria turned and slowly
walked down the hill. “Bye
Lucia, we're leavin now,”
she softly muttered over her
shoulder,

won't live more than a few
hours.”'

The Skeena Stage Band,
under the direction of Ed
Meier, will be travelling to
New Westminster to
compete in the B.C.
Provincial Stage Band
Finals on March 24 and 25.

During the two days more
than 60 junior and senior
stage bands will be com-
peting. There will also be,
‘or the competitors, special
evening concerts featuring
top name groups. Each
competing group will be

Have - you _ noticed
anything new in the library
‘this year? The “something
new” is the Librarian, Mr.
Walker, who formerly
taught English at Skeena.
Helping him is the new
library secretary, Mrs.
Carol Hiles.

We spent some time with
Mr. Walker and found that
he is one of the busiest
people at Skeena. We found
that, contrary to popular
belief, a teacher-librarian
spends very little time
stamping out books at the,
counter, His job ranges:
from cataloguing every’

iece of material that comes
into the library to irying to
help 60 students and three
teachers all at once.

“My primary duty,” said
Mr. Walker, “is in assisting
students to find material
and in teaching them how to
use the library themselves.
Beyond that I must order
everything we purchase so I
must know what is being
taught in all the courses and
which of the many books
available will best help
teachers in their course
development. The modern
school library does not rely
just on books though and I
must familiarize myself
with film-strips, recordings,
films and other types of
media. We also like to get
lots of books which students
would like to read for fun.
The library is also
responsible for the use and
repair of all the audio-visual
equipment. We also like to
do special jobs for teachers
such as gathering tem-
porary book collections and
making bibliographies.”

required to play three dif-
ferent selections. The first
one must be in a swin
tempo, the second a balla

or slow song and the third a.

“barn-burner”, to really
show your talent. Skeena’s
three selections will be —
first, “Johnny’s Theme”’,
the theme song from The
Tonight Show, starring
Johnny Carson. ‘The ballad
will be a song entitled “‘If’’,
by the Canadian group
called Bread. The ‘barn-

burner will be ‘Rock
Around § The  Clock’’,
featuring several soloists,

Mr. Meier has several
concerts lined up before
they head south for the
finals. They will be giving
concerts at Skeena Jr.,
Thornhill Jr., and Caledonia
Sr. High Schools in the near
future.

. The competition will be
tough but Mr. Meier feels
ihe Skeena Stage Band will

The Skeena Library

Mr. Walker said that he
gets lots of help from the
Library Club. These eight
students help .check out
books, run the photocopying
machine for students, put
away returned books and
lots of other jobs.

Mr, Walker says he is
very happy with his new job.
“Circulation is up. several
hundred percent over last
year, book loss is down, an
in-class library instruction
program has been initiated,
we have a new listening

Refreshments

centre and we have made a
sincere effort to purchase
books that will not only be
useful to students, but will
also be enjoyable to them.

It
has taken a lot of work and
we still have a lat of im-
provements to make, but I
think the library has
become a pleasant place for
students and staff to come to
do homework, work on
projects or just read a good

ook, magazine or
newspaper.”

Friday, March 18th

Thornhill Community Centre

» 9
in
ancing p.m. 2 ae t

ENTERTAINMENT, THE HERALD, Wed. Mar. 16, 1977, 7

- §keena Stage Band competes in finals

definitely give an excellent
showing.

Stage band members
include:

Cathy Beedle, Rick
Braam, Rick Brouwer,
Roger Cook, Cindy Deane,
David Farkvam, Cheryl
Flury, Cindy Geeraert,
Chris Halvorsen, Henry
Harkonen, Sam Malin, Jane’
McKinnon, Scott Spencer,
Val Spencer, Neil Stewart,
Kathy Wesley and Doug
Woodroff, manager.

Skeena Library has 13,000
books plus filmstrips,
records and tapes. They also
subscribe to close to a

‘hundred magazines,

everything from “Skilng
World” to “History Today
and ‘‘Custom Car’’, A
popular area is the
paperback racks where over
500 new paperbacks have
been put out since Sep-
tember, Why net stroll on
down to your library and
find something good to
read? -_

Terrace Centennial Lions Club

Lunch will be served

| TICKETS $5.00 EACH OR $8.00 PER COUPLE
Tickets on sale at Sight & Sound, Kelly’s Stereo Mart, Household Finance,
Avco and the Herald. ,