INSIDE |

, SECTION B
COMMUNITY CRIS LEYKAUF
EVENTS B2

“WHA
CHARLYNN TOEWS

A poetic look at
dirty dishes

O YOU EVER find yourself
wandering simlessly though your
house, unable to focus on clearing
Bp one mess at a time?

It makes me feel like the ghost of a housewife,
drifting about, lifting a scarf then laying it
down, pausing to sigh deeply in a doorway.
‘Whenever this happens to me, one line of a
poem I hated in school will pop unbidden into
my brain, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud.’

This is particularly aggravating to me because
Isuspect this poem was written by Wordsworth.
He’s the guy I disliked the most.

This is the one the instructor and I had a big
fight about. I said to the prof that it wasn’t that I
didn’t understand Wordsworth, I did; it’s just
that I didn’t like him.

The instructor insisted that if I did understand
Wordsworth, I would like him. Because I didn’t
like him, it was obvious I didn’t understand
him. We were at loggerheads.,

So I am reminded, annoyingly, of this un-
resolved argument at least every Garbage Day,
if not more often. Picking up blocks, looking for
the dustpan I just had, emptying bins, I think
about that instructor, so tall and British and
smart, and me, seventeen years ago, so stub-
bom, arguing back and forth. Wiping a counter
or a bum, I recall him saying that to like some-
thing, first you have to.understand it.

Disposing of various animal: droppings, I
think, but what if you like something you don’t
understand? For example, I haven’t got a clue
about what goes on in my twelve-year-old cat’s
head, but I do know I love him to bits. Same
goes for my toddler and my husband. .

So now I’m thinking that maybe to understand
something, you have to love it first. Love fist,
figure it out later, Because if you don’t love it,
you will never understand it

How can you possibly clean up a
house you don’t even like? You
wander around, grumbling, sighing,
then annoyed when that stupid
Wordsworth and his good friend the
professor show up again.

So my prof was wrong after all: he thought
love followed understanding. But I was wrong

too: I thought I could first understand some-
thing, then decide to like it or not. Now I know I
aust first love it, then understanding may fol-
low, or not.

Which brings me, naturally, to home decor. I
must admit to having feclings of hatred for my
poor little house. It’s too small, I think; it’s loo
dark; there is no hardwood floor or Fireplace or
even an upstairs, and itis way too messy.

How can you possibly clean up a house you
don't even like? You wander around, grum-
bling, sighing, then annoyed when that stupid
Wordsworth and his good friend the professor
show up again.

I started to try to understand my house, It is
about as old as me, 37; it is a postwar boom
house supposedly moved later to Terrace, it is
very home-made and do-it-yourselfed, except
for one built-in feature: the kitchen
sink/cupboard unit.

Looking at it closely, I could tell that profes-
sional finishing carpenters built it because it is
still straight and plumb and strong. It is trinumed
up simply but properly, just a half-round
mitered perfectly, nothing fancy or extraneous
or luxurious. You can almost hear the 1950s
real estate agent shout, ‘‘Hurry up in there! We
got a woman in labour out here!”’

Such efficiency and simplicity with care and
regard for detail deserves respect. So I will try
loving my house. Maybe understanding will fol-
low, maybe not, Cursing it just seems to make it
worse, impossible to even begin to spiffy up, sa
dreary.

T finally looked up ‘‘I wandered lonely ai a

| cloud,’’ which is both the tile and Girst line of
that aggravating poem by that irritating

‘ Wordsworth. He lies on his couch in pensive
thought and his heart with pleasure {ills recall-
ing seeing a crowd, a host of daffodils, ‘‘A poet
could not but be gay,’’ be claims, ‘In sich
jocund company.”’

Come to think of It, that is very reminiscent of

“It made the children laugh and play To see-a-

Jamb at school,” and I’ve. always loved that
poem. .

Lighting

AS THE AUDIENCE
settles, the lizghis come up in
the theatre,

A warm flickering glow
comes from the fireplace;
outside a window an am-
bulance light flashes. Inside
the set, the ceiling lights fol-
low an actor as he paces
back and forth.

These are just some of the
effects that will be possible
with a new light board Ter-
tace Little Theatre has just

purchased,

“I's magic,’ says Gra-
ham Maguire, technical
director for TLT.

The theatre group hadn’t
planned on buying a new
lighting board until it built
its new theatre. But when
they went to buy replace-
ment parts for the old light
board, none were available.

“Tt was too obsolete,”
complained Maguire.

The new board is fully
computerized, and will be
used for the first time during
the production of Harvey,
next month.

TERRACE STANDARD:

COMMUNITY

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 23, 1996 - B1

It cost close to $8,000 in “PLUGGED IN — David Neal took abaut 20 people through a course on the new light board that Terrace Little

total, and money for the pur-
chase came out of the equip-

Theatre recently purchased. Getting a hands onlesson is Dave Liscumb.

the capabilities of this new
light board will be fully
realized.

ment replacement budget
and the new building fund.

“We would have had to
buy it at some point,’’ said
Maguire.

There’s another $25,000 going with six effects going
budgeted to spend on more at once,” said David Neal, a
lighting equipment in the .iechnical lighting expert
new building. That's when who came up to Terrace last

Around Town
Terrace — how sweet it is

LESLIE DICKSON’S Oct. 9 column in The Terrace Stan-
dard certainly provoked a response,

The column, entitled ‘‘It ain’t so bad efter all’? compar-
ing Terrace with the big city drew two critical letters, one
handwritten and the other typed. Problem is, they weren’t
signed. We'll be glad to consider them for publication but
we have to know your names. You can call the newsroom
at 638-7283,

In the meantime, here’s a couple of segments from those
letters.

From the handwritten letter comes this:

*{ don't really care about this hole. Why do you think
most people do right after they graduate — get the hell
out of Terrace!”

And from the typewritten letter:

“The after-bar crowd at The Terrace Inn and some-
dimes Hanky Panky’s looks like something out af the last
scene in Reservoir Dogs, and if you don’t agree that at
least half of Terrace’s population is doing some kind of
illegal drug then you're either on the stuff yourself or
have some sort of ‘naive lever’ pudled active in your
brain.”

Let’s set a record

WOMEN ARE heading en masse to sce the hit movie
The First Wives Club, starring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn
and Diane Keaton. And a local woman is hoping to see a
similar turn out here.

The movie is about three older women whose husbands
dump them for younger models. Revenge is definitely on
their minds,

The film has struck a chord with women across the con-
tinent, and they’re showing up in record numbers, includ-
ing 60 women who gathered first fora birthday party, then
headed to the movie theatre.

Here in Terrace Anne Venema is hoping to sect a new
record.

**{ just thought I bet we could do better than that in Ter-
race,’ said Venema. She’s hoping 100 women will show
up to see the late show on Monday, Nov. 4.

The theatre has set aside 100 seats, and Venema has
secured a special deal — $4 a ticket for women.

‘It’s just for fun. We want to have a good time,’’ she
said,

Venema is hoping to sell the tickets in advance. You can
reach her at home in the evening at 638-8116, Or call
Joanne Jones at 638-0302. Women can meet in the Skeena
Mall parking lot that evening at 8:45 p.m.

Dear red pickup driver

ALLYNE SANDBERG of 70 Mile House in the Cariboo
has an apology to make to the female, French-speaking so-
cial worker from Terrace who was driving south of 100
Mile Howse on Oct, 3.

Allyne ran over some metal on the road, flattening the
right front tire of her blue Pontiac Sunbird. When she
pulled over to change it, she found herself next to the
above Terrace driver who was changing her own tire be-
catise of running over some metal.

Allyne incorrectly first thought the metal that punctured
her tire came from the Terrace driver's car.

“She thought we were blaming her car but we now real-
ize we were wrong. I just want to thank her for her help
and to apologize,'* she says. se

‘You can have a scene

weekend to teach TLT of light, to mimic a sunset,
members how to we the can be done far more casily
new board. with the new board, Instead
Lights can be operated of manually tuming down
perfectly in time with the lights slowly, the com-
music, 50 to create a variety. puter will do this, throwing
of moods, ‘ In a touch of an orange
Even effects which look glow.
simple, such as a slow fade = ‘*]t makes it fun,’ says

Neal. And it removes the
element of human error,

That's because up to 192
lighting effects can be pro-
grammed into the board —
more than enough for a
single play.

By opening night every-
thing is already in place.

Rescuing Fred

TWO LOCAL KIDS got a chance to be fire chiefs for a day last week. Here
Ryan Saete of Kit| K’Shan school and Brian Daly of Thomhill Elamentary find
out how hard it Is to drag an unconscious person out of a burning house.
"Dead Fred” as he is affectionately known around the fire department, weighs
about 175ibs, so it was no easy task, The two youngsters also learned how to
put out gasoline of grease fire, and got a tour of the firahall.

638-7283

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