The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, October 27, 1987 One Woman's View by Chris Carlisle Halloween is one of the most disappointing events in modern history--its chocolate bars and potato chips aside. Every year Halloween promises to be an eerily special night-- the night we make contact with the dead. And every year, it's the same old spookless disappointment. No communication. No messages from The Beyond. No peeps. No howls. No shrieks. Yet there's always the teasing build up all day long with special radio and television shows on ghosts, goblins and Halloween tradi- tions, but come nightfall, all that ever goes bump in the night are the little kids falling against the front door because their little plastic pumpkins full of goodies are weighing them down and they've trip- ped over their white sheets. Halloween has always been one of my favorite nights because I'm into scares and frights and spirits and visits from dead--oh for the thrill of a late-night apparition! So every Halloween I drag out the Ouija board, light the candles and turn off the lights and every Halloween, it's the same sad story. Aching back from hunching over the board. Aching fingers from try- ing to keep the pressure light on the little pointer. And aching heart because no great spirits have ever come to haunt. Harry Houdini promised he'd come back. And every year the faithful gather at Niagara Falls for the big seance. Obviously Harry hasn't escaped thespiritual chains that keep him bound and locked away in The Beyond. And if Harry can't, who can" Sure we hear stories about poltergeists and visions, but do you personally know anyone who has ever seen a ghost? Sure, sure, | do too. But have you ever seen a ghost? I'd give at least fifty cents to see one. Even a kind, goodlooking one would do. It doesn't have to be horribly deformed and terrifying and wicked. So here I am, open-minded, eager and frustrated. I've been receptive. I've been ready. I've been a believer. But no, not once has anyone come tap tap tapping. The only boo's are my own boohoo's of disappointment. Okay, when I was a kid, there was the Red Man--a vision that appeared early one Sunday morning and disappeared after shutting the bedroom door--but I still don't know for sure if he was a ghost. He hasn't been back to clarify the matter. And he didn't scare me. I figure if there were such things as ghosts and wandering spirits, they'd be dying to haunt and they'd come terrorizing anyone who welcomed them--someone like me who sends anxious invitations. But they never arrive to raise a few hairs or blood-curdling screams. In this day and age with all our scientific equipment, we're still unable to prove the existence of spirits. None have ever been recorded or captured. Therefore, I've decided they simply do not exist. Shirley MacLaine would no doubt disagree what with her belief - in reincarnation and all, but if there are so many spirits out there hungry for bodies, how come none have ever visited me? Sadly, | must conclude that there are no ghosts. Because I want to see one so badly and have tried so hard to find one, I can only con- clude that there aren't any. - Mind you, maybe they're just not interested in appearing to me. Maybe they figure we've got nothing to talk about. Or maybe I'm (Turn to page 8) Letters Closing of the Flamingo plant (From page 5) weekend with, and have such a great time with all of them We have the annual golf tourna- ment, and a party afterwards, and enjoy each other's company. The annual Christmas party gave us a chance to see everybody at their best. Some people we could hardly recognize, they looked so different. We've seen some people do some crazy things in this place. We've seen tarts fly, we've seen lard fly, pastry fly, and we've even seen peo- ple fly. I've seen tarts drip off people's faces, like Karen's, when it hit her in the eye and Lynn's, when it land- ed on the lens of her glasses. We've laughed so hard at some things, that we could hardly keep the line going. Other times we couldn't keep the line going, because machinery wouldn't work, and we'd curse this place, and say we'll be glad when we find better employment and get the hell out of this hole. We've worked with some crazy people like Dora, Ruthie, Bridgit, Trish, Cathy Dingman, John Bradley, Heather, Tom, Sandy, Sylvester (who is no longer with us), Karen, Kevein, our own "Super Dave," Brian Dickson, Neil and so many more. We've pulled so many tricks on management, especially Dolly, who's had to be the "'brunt" of many jokes. We've seen a lot of changes in this place, some not so readily accepted. We've seen sanitation change from all male to almost female, and we've seen girls try their hands at mixing, something even the floor ladies said, couldn't be done, and we've seen more guys work on the line. We've put in a lot of years with people like Charlie, who definitely kept the girls hopping. We've put up with Cathy and her reptiles. And some of us have even put up with 'those midnight girls." Mid- nights have been the most enjoyable shift for some of us to work on. Maybe it is a bunch of inexperienc- Anne de Bellevue, Quebec. Rose. Yesterday's Memories (From Page 5) Four park benches were presented to the village of Port Perry by the Honeydale Women's Institute last Monday. Receiving the generous gift was J.J. Gibson, Reeve of the Village. Winners of the Centennial Costume Contest at the Centennial Ball held recently at Club Annrene were Mrs. Marie Snooks and Rev. R.C. The corner stone for the new addition to the Port Perry High School was laid last week by Mr. Cy Richardson, chairman of Cen- tral Ontario District High School Board. 10 YEARS AGO Wednesday, October 26, 1977 Sue Gribben of Port Perry captured the silver medal at the British Women's Open judo championships in London last week. Sue was the winner of the gold medal a year earlier in this meet. Residents of Seagrave are concerned about fast-moving traffic on Regional Road 2, and have requested a flashing amber light at the intersection at the north entrance to the village. Jesse Robertson, Majorie McDermott and Mary Cannon were just three of the women present at the 25th anniversary of the Port Perry Hospital Auxiliary, held at the Latcham Centre. ed girls, but working with them makes the night sure go by fast Working on Dolly's shift is an ex. perience. It seems the "crazier" people ended up on that shift, and when you work with them, you always had to be on guard. Maria's shift was the most serene of all shifts. Sometimes it was 3 blessing. It seemed everytime Foil Bake was cancelled and the girls came out to Pan Bake to work, none of the machinery would work properly, and you'd hear the girls say, "It's those foil girls again," but it was _even funnier when Pan Bake was cancelled and those girls would have to go out to foil, then nothing would work. We've had people like Vern who would go around all day and sing some crazy songs, and Dave would whistle along with him. -We have definitely gone through some wild times, and it will be sad when it's all over. It has nothing to do with working in Flamingo, it's working with the people that we've had to work with. How many days have we had to really push ourselves to walk through those doors, and hated every minute of it? But sometimes, the people that we've had to work with have made it a little easier. They haven't made it any easier for us to walk through that door, just easier to get through those eight hours. We haven't had it too bad. Where else could you work and get away with some of the things that we've gotten away with? We've laughed with the people, and we've cried for and with the people. And when it's all over, the only thing we're going to have is memories. I have no faith in this company, and don't believe that they're going to be giving us anything except letters of thanks and good-luck. For some of us, it's going to be a hell of a way into a new future, for others, it's expected, so we'll just go on from there. We've heard of many people mak- ing their plans on what they're go- ing to do when it's all over. A lot are planning to go back to school and do better for themselves. Some are go- (Turn to page 8) Random Jottings by J. Peter Hvidsten TWO YEAR BLUES I promised myself some time ago that I would not use this column to bore its readers about happen- ings within our household, but believe me, things have not been boring lately. : I had forgotten what it is like to have a two year old running around the house after so many years, and come to think of it, I have never experienced anything like what Nancy and I are going through now. My two older daughters now in their teenage years (that's another problem) were angels in com- parison to Matt the "monster." Our days usually start out not too badly, although a little earlier than I'd like, with Matt crawling into bed with us saying things like: 'love ya mom," 'you're the best dad,' *'I slept good, did you dad?" "let's go downstairs and feed Dolly" (our Pug), etc. etc. There's lots of hugs and kisses while all of this is going on, but as soon as his feet hit the lower floor, something triggers the little demon in him and the trials and tribulations of the day begin. Nancy continues to read all types of books about children who have reached the "terrible 2's," trying to figure out if we are the problem. Are we bad parents or is this a common occurance with all youngsters"? There are very few adjectives that do not describe Matt at this critical time in his life. He is loveable one minute, then turns to defiant, cruel, rough, stubborn, persistent, obstinate and then back to loving again. There is no set pattern to follow, no logic and ab- solutely no sense to his behaviour. He can change from a loving kid who gives you a big hug and kiss when he wakes up, to a monster with flailing arms and kicking feet when you try and get him dressed. One minute he will be petting our dog or cat, and giving them gentle kisses on the head; the next minute he will be trying to jump on them, pull their legs or smother them. Punishment for this usually ranges from trying to reason with him that he is hurting the animals, but when this doesn't succeed (which is most of the time), a good swat across the diaper-padded bottom sometimes gets the message across. If this doesn't work, we'll put him in a designated chair and tell him to stay there until he apologizes to the dog for being mean. Amazingly enough, this usually works! We're not sure why he stays in the chair, but he most often does until he decides that it is better to apologize than to sit in the chair sulking for any length of time. Lately, he has become a bit of a TV addict. He'll lay in front of a television set with his programs go- ing and there is absolutely nothing that takes his at- tention away. This we find is a great time to get him dressed, brush his hair or do anything to him that we would normally have trouble achieving. I don't want anyone to think that he is allowed to sit all day in front of a TV because that is far from the truth. He gets out for walks (after a tantrum try- ing to get him dressed), he goes to nursery school (where I am told he behaves himself), he goes to "Storytime" at the library, he colours, plays with his toys, makes messes with Playdough, plays in the park and just loves having books read to him. But when things really get out of control, there seems to be nothing like a dose of 'Sesame Street," Polka Dot Door" or any number of other educa- tional children's shows to get him calmed down. After visiting with my mother one day, she said 'he really is a busy little fellow, isn't he?"' But she also told me that when I was his age, | used to lay on my back on the floor and pull myself (Turn to page 8) i