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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1987, PAGE 5 Last week we bought a house. Not just any house: one with a wood-burning stove. Those who have ever purchased a home will recognize the dilemma: it will be weeks before we move. But right now, no one in our household can now remember what the new place looks like. So we squeeze tight our eyes and visualize. The only feature I can conjure up is the wood-burning stove. Flames licked the room warm through the pitfalls doors; danced in shadows along the hall; peeled the paint off the ceiling two rooms away. Real estate agents have tried to convince us of the romance of fire. But I have deduced that the wood-burner is really a necessity: when you heat a house with elec- tricity, you need auxiliary heat to keep the bailiff at bay. Still, the romance got to me, and took me back forty years. Where I grew up, central heat had yet to be invented. These romantic old space heaters were a necessity; each house contained at least one, usually two and sometimes three. The kitchen range saw duty every day of the year. In addition to heating the house, it also served as the only source of cooking power. Want a roast? Hot water? Toast? The kitchen range burned wood in the summer (heated up fast and cooled down faster) and coal in the winter (slow, even heat would last all night). Sundays after church, making toast became a ritual. Armed with a two-pronged marshmallow fork, my sister and I took turns scorching bread over the coals. Our hot water came from two sources: the tea kettle, ever-present on the stove, and the reservoir, a tank which hung on theend of the stove farthest from the firepot. Bath nights (always Saturday!) the reservoir was filled and refilled, and the galvanized tub between baths was WITH OUR FEET UP by Bill Swan The romance of the wood-burning stove touched up with water from the kettle. Boys always bathed last. Since I was the oldest boy, the bath-water of my childhood was always murky. Drop your submarine and you would never see it to the bottom. Our living room was heated by a black cylinder about eighteen inches in diameter. My first memory of it was at the age of three, when I tossed in wooden blocks, one by one, to watch the miracle of combustion. There are, of course, more practical memories. Signs on properties may have toWHITBY BOWLERS We have openings for Leagues, accompany rezoning applications Teamsand Individuals featuring Signs may have to be posted on Whitby properties proposed for rezoning under a new policy being considered by the Town. The posting of signs would be in addition to the Town's existing poicy to circulate notices toall owners and tenants'within 400 feet of a property to be rezoned. d In a. report to Whitby's. a d- ministration committee last week, planning department estimated the cost of a sign to be $150. The depar- tment suggested that the applicant pay the cost to have the sign made with wording provided by Town planners. But councillor Joe Bugelli recommended that the Town assume responsiblity for the sign and pass the cost on to apphcant. "It would be better for standar- dization and implementation if the Town did it," said Bugelli. his amendment to the report was ap- proved by committee. The policy, which planning direc- tor Bob Short estimated would take at least three months to start up and implement, will mean signs are to be erected within seven days of receipt of an application. More "manpower time" will be required by the department to carry out policy, according to the report. Public meetings will also be held at least five weeks after ap- plications are made because of the policy, rather than the minimum three weeks it now takes. Planning department said the $150 cost of the sign is not a Dining Guide GOLDEN GATE 107 Brock St. S. Whitby 668-2222 CHINESE FOOD BUFFET DAILY (salad bar incuded) ALL YOU CAN EAT LUNCH 5.25 DINNER S8.99 REGULAR MENU ALSO AVAILABLE (Caniadian culislne N & 0-80 plattes) Dundas St E. TAKE.OUTS & DELIVERY arook st.s. "significant sum" for large-scale developers but may be significant for the private individual "on top of the application fee and other related costs." Bugelli, however, said he had "no hesitation" about applying the sarie cost to everyone. "I've yet to see anyone rezone a property to lower the value of it," he stated. If adopted by council, the policy would apply to any new rezoning, subdivision and official Whitby council has endorsed a request from the Canadian Union of Public Employees to proclaim April 28 as an official day. of recognition for workers who have been killed, injured or disabled on the job. The request also asks council to call for a one-minute cessation of work at 11 a.m. that day in recognition of the workers. In moving the motion, regional councillor Tom Edwards asked that council endorse it unanimously, but his request was not answered when Mayor Bob Attersley voted against it. In defence of his stand, the mayor said civic workers, through negotiation, have been given a holiday to attend Remembrance Day services at the cenotaph on 209 DUNDAS ST. E., WHITBY .n..,nmm nnet OffiCe) plan amendmart application. Planning department contacted other municipalities with sign policies to determine procedures as well as problems. Council had previously directed the department to report on the sign policy. "It gives the proper intent of what's happening to the public,". commented councillor Gerry Emm. "To me, it's the modern way to go." NO WIN STOCK Beta and VHS Whitby supports CUPE request for sient minute Nov. 11. "We're lucky if we have seven people down there," he said, adding that many workers also do not respect the two minutes of silence called for on Nov. 11. "I don't know how we are going to get all workers. in town to honor a minute's silence. I think there are better ways to do it," said Attersley who agreed with the intent of the union's request. The mayor also argued that the minute silence won't make "us more safety conscience." "If it serves as a momento then I don't feel it is inappropriate," said councillor Joe Bugelli. The April 28 date coincides with the first Workmen's Compensation Act passed in 1914, Attersley told council. 3 NAIL TECHNICIANS, 12 YRS EXPERIENCE ACRYLIC NAILS, OVERLAY TIPS, GEL COATINGS, FIBREGLASS NAILS NEWNAILS $35.00 NAILFILLS $18.00 WE GUARANTEE OUR WORK!! SLIMTRONICS (EFFORTLESS EXCERCISE) WAXING & PEDICURES SUNTANNING....11 SESSIONS $49.00 NAIL JEWELLERY, NAIL ART NEWNAILSPECIALWITH LISA $25.00 (tilL March 21) 668m7446 For one thing, stoves must be fed. People with oil fur- naces at least know they must sometimes fill the tank. Gas furnaces spoil you, since you never see the connection between filling and heat. Except, of course, when you get the monthly bill. But with coal and wood, automation has not arrived. Kindling must be split, wood chopped, stacked and carried - usually at the most inopportune moments. What goes in must come out, so stoves, like babies, must , also be cleaned. For years now I have been spoiled with gas, in which cleaning is accomplished with an annual phone cali. No more. Wood stoves create ashes, and ashes have to be hauled. As in, 'Time to haul ash, Bill.' Worse, stove pipes have to be cleaned. I would be disappointed, I think, to find that the air-tight woodburning stoves of today burn so clean they leave neither ashes·in the grate nor creosote in the flue. I know that can't be true. In my youth each house had an ash-heap out back providing an unending supply of traction for ice storms. Once a year, in July, we would load the ashes on a truck and lug them to the township dump. As we dug down through the pile, we would be surprised by the snow, layer upon layer, insulated against the July heat by a couple of feet of ashes. I'm not looking forward to moving. I'm not looking for- ward to chopping wood. I'm not looking forward to hauling ashes. But enough of me is still nine years old that I've started to dream about draping my shin pads and insoles and hockey socks around the hearth to dry. And on Saturday nights we'll recall tepid bathwater and Foster Hewitt on the radio as he intones, 'He shoots! He scores! 1 1