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