And
more jobs bite the dust - thanks, Sobey's
by
Robert LaFrance
Sobey’s and Perth-Andover, NB were like
two ships that passed each other in the night, weren’t they? So whom do we
blame for the closing of Foodland after its few short years of existence? Or do we blame anybody?
A lot of people lost their jobs, in
Perth-Andover and across Canada and I’m thinking that all these lives were
disrupted because some bean-counter in Toronto, London, or New York looked at a
computer screen and said: let’s close those fifty stores in Canada.
Perth-Andover? Where’s that? Who cares?
Of course it is also clear that a
certain portion of the blame goes to the people who drove by that Foodland
grocery store on Fred Tribe Road on their way to the State of Maine. Some drove
to Fort Fairfield and Presque Isle to buy groceries and gas and I’ll guarantee
that most of them haven’t seen the connection between their shopping across the
border and the employees of Foodland losing their jobs – and they never will,
so there’s no need of nagging them about it.
*****************************
Hurricane Arthur and another
system joined forces early this month to make me miss watching some World Cup
Football (soccer) games and I’m not pleased about it. I am also not pleased
about the fact that my dear wife had to push trees off the road so we could get
our Corolla by. Four trees had fallen across Kintore Road and two across Manse
Hill Road.
That day, Saturday, July 5, we had
been uptown to get many errands done before (Post-tropical storm) Arthur hit and then visited my cousin
in Victoria Glen Manor nursing home. “Which way do you want to drive home?” I
asked, “over Jawbone Mountain or down Highway 105?” She opted for the latter,
so we headed east on Beech Glen Road.
There were no trees down on the road
on either side of the mountain (that includes the top if you are a stickler for
accuracy) but when we got to Kintore Road a D.T.I. (formerly D.O.T.) crew was
just sawing away at one tree; we easily got by there.
The next blowdown was not so easily
dealt with but my wife got out like a trouper and pushed the top aside so I
could drive through. The next tree wasn’t quite so simple. "You had better
get that one," she said.
"But dearest," I
remonstrated, "you know about my sore elbow. I do not want to injure
myself further." Then she had the nerve to ask which elbow I was referring
to. "Why this one of course," I said, indicating my right elbow.
"Wrong," she said.
"It was your left elbow you SAID you hurt lifting that Kleenex." Even
after I explained that I had hurt the right elbow "at a later point in
time" she remained skeptical, but got out to move the top of the tree. She
did move it, but it sprang back and pushed her into a roadside brook, but not
before I was able to drive past.
Back
in the car after I had stopped a ways down the road - I didn't want to risk
scratching the car - she called me a few choice names, but had her speech
interrupted when we came across yet another tree across the road, this one a
medium size poplar. "Better move that and maybe we can get home," I suggested,
and ducked. Rolling pins are portable, I learned.
Eventually we did get home via
Kincardine Road, the one past Burns Hall, and both vowed to stay home until the
windstorm was done. Then I remembered we had not picked up the mail. "You better walk rather than taking the
car," I suggested, and that’s how I ended up in this hospital bed.
**********************************
I mentioned World Cup Soccer whose
championship game was played three days ago. It had been going on for a month
and I watched every game I could - very enjoyable, but like hockey, North
American football, cricket, and curling, you have to know the rules before you
can enjoy it.
Of course there are people who
insult soccer all over the map, but they do not understand the game. They think it should be about getting goals,
but we soccer nuts know it is the play.
My son Kinley and I watch as much
European soccer as we can without be hauled away in a white van, and we agree
on the best game we have ever seen. It was a Champions League game between
Arsenal (London, England) and Real Madrid (Spain). The final score was 0-0, but
it was the best demonstration of passing, goalkeeping, shooting and just plain
great playing that we have ever seen.
I do not think you will ever get a
hockey fan to say that about one of their games.
-end-
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