Skip to content

FRENCH CONNECTION: A trip down memory lane

“It’s bad enough to be chased by a little old lady, but it’s worse getting whacked with the broom.”
25279462_web1_201215-WLT-DianaFrenchColumn
As a former reporter and editor at the Tribune, Diana French carries on sharing her ideas through her weekly column. (Photo submitted)

Another change in downtown Williams Lake with the Ming’s restaurant building gone.

When our family moved to town the place was the Guys and Dolls Arcade, operated by Fred and Peggy Chambers.

There were games (pinball, etc.) and it was popular with the young crowd. One of my boys was among the teenagers who hung out there.

Fred and Peggy were not spring chickens, and I asked him how they coped if the customers got rowdy. Son looked at me with some astonishment and said Mrs. Chambers wouldn’t put up with any rowdies.

The regulars knew better than to start anything, he said, because if they did, she’d warn them once, then go after them with her broom.

“It’s bad enough to be chased by a little old lady, but it’s worse getting whacked with the broom.”

***

Stories that didn’t make the headlines.

• A recent report says that scientists looking for alternates to mechanical ventilators (which use a machine to pump oxygen into a person’s lungs) made a startling discovery. They found that mice, rats and pigs can breathe by using their intestines when oxygen is pumped up their butts. The story I saw on this didn’t say if this discovery will work for humans.

READ MORE: Mixed messages

• While vaccine debates make for heated discussions. the fact is most of us are alive because of vaccines. The COVID batch are the newest in vaccine science. Like some other spinoffs from COVID, the vaccines are a bonanza for investors. The 47 richest Canadians have already added some $78,000,000,000 to their wealth because of the pandemic,

• A U.S. study found the minimum wage would be $44 an hour if it had increased at the same rate as Wall Street incomes. I wonder what our minimum wage would be.

Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian and book author.


 


editor@wltribune.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter