MAD HATTER PAGE 2

 

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

 

by Sharon Helgensen

Sharon is a receptionist at Douglas Col-
lege Maple Ridge Centre. The following
incident took place at the Maple Ridge
Home Show, where she was staffing a
Douglas College information booth.

I like working with people, which is why
my job in the admissions department of a
local commumity college sometimes seems
more than a job. You meet all kinds of
people. You get to know a few - and you
either like them or you don't. Others
don't really make any kind of impression,
one way or the other. Some you never
forget.

Recently, I was manning the college in-
formation booth at the Home Fair in our
municipality. It was mid-afternoon and
fairly quiet, one or two people stopping
to pick up pamphlets on credit and non-
credit courses, but most hurrying by,
anxious to get their names into all the
boxes for the give-aways offered by the
various businesses.

A large heavy-set man walked up to the
booth and sat down on the chair provided.
It was hard to judge his age - I'd have
guessed late fifties, early sixties. I
asked him if I could help him with any-
thing.

"I want to know about those," he said,
indicating the pamphlets advertising the
adult literacy classes sponsored by the
College.

"T want to know if I can get lessons in
arithmetic. I don't want the fancy stuff,
just adding and subtracting and multi-
plying and dividing." He fixed me with

a steady gaze and went on. "I only got

a Grade two education, you know. My par-
ents weren't too excited about schooling,

Tine Se -

 

 

and on the prairies, there's always
plenty to do. In those days, kids
didn't have to go to school like now.
Than came the dirty thirties and it
didn't matter none if you was educated
or not, you still worked for maybe 25¢
an hour or maybe a dollar a day....may-
be just for a meal a day, and there was
times you was glad to get that. School-
ing didn't seem real important back
then. Maybe the person next to you in
the bread line had more'n you, but he
was there, same as you.

"But I been thinking that it would be
nice to be able to add and subtract and
multiply and divide. Everything is in
such big numbers these days. I guess I
could do my income tax if I could add
and subtract and multiply and divide.

I took my form into one of them tax
places and this young fella did the
form for me. He charged me $50 and
then $10 extra, but I got $175 back
from the government, so that's okay, I
guess."

I asked him what kind of work he had
done.

"IT worked a lot in orchards an' logging
camps and I ran a jackhanmer for a time.
I worked a lot in logging camps....but
the trouble is, when you can't add and
subtract and such, you gotta trust the
company timekeeper not to cheat you. If
you can't add and subtract and multiply
and divide, you don't know how to figure
out what you should be getting. I used
to wonder if I was being cheated...... Tf
you can add and subtract and multiply
and divide, you ain't gonna be any man's
fool..."

He paused a moment, then asked how much
the lessons would be. I asked him how
old he was, thinking he might be a senior
citizen, in which case there would be no
charge.

"Seventy two" he replied, "but you're