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The Acton Free Press Wednesday Nov Why a holiday Surely its tune to rethink the general holiday given school children banks and government employees for Remembrance Day Now that the services are generally held on the Sunday nearest the date whats the point of having the children on the street no mail delivery or customs and no banking service In the case of mail and banks the public was three days without service this year Certainly none of these people were at the cenotaph on November at 11 a m It was a bleak and lonely place There was a good crowd the Sunday before though People remember Editorial PagM Protection for youngsters Statistics have certainly shown it was a mistake to so speedily lower the legal drinking age The decision was made in conjunction with the lowering of the voting age and with the age for signing authority But the toll of the mistake has been racked up human lives The provincial government faced up to the fact this week and it appears something will be done to change their previous decision Drinking related accidents have horrified the province Although fines and driving suspensions are meted out the drinking drivers still abound on the streets For many young people its still a joke to be drunk Lowering the drinking age will give the police grounds for charging people beneath the legal age Like adults many of them cannot police themselves In the case of young teenagers they can be protected to some extent by the law Were conserving Pilot projects are being set up in three Ontario towns to determine the best ways of encouraging homeowners to conserve energy BrockviUe Lindsay and Stratford will be the location for the homeowner demonstration pro jects Homes will be surveyed to discover in what ways heat is escaping Many of us have become aware of the need for this ourselves This fall is bringing with it many improvements in home heat security It s easy to spot pulled drapes and blinds during the day in unused rooms or homes where everyone is away at work or school Heat pump signs are noticable at a couple of homes solar heating units are seen here and there Insulating is a favorite project for people making home lm The Christian Reformed church for instance has blocked up its large windows for the winter Probably people are getting the message to conserve energy without government studies but the resulting reports will likely be helpful The creeping deserts Man is still killing the land that feeds turn The creeping deserts remain one of the great global ecological problems that seem to defy solution The challenge for mankind is clear either we halt what the scientists call desertifi cation or we risk the prospect of even greater food shortages in future decades Deserts do not just happen The ruins of ancient civilizations in the Middle East prove that poorly managed agriculture and ur bamzation destroyed fertile lands Nomads knew centuries ago that moving people and livestock from an area before its vegetation was totally destroyed would save the land in future years But far too often overgrazing by livestock of forests abusing scarce water resources and proper tillage lolled millions of acres of fertile land A recent conference on the spreading deserts held in Nairobi Kenya was told that already about per cent of this planets land surface is either desert or semi desert Land is being denuded and destroyed at the rate of million acres a year And unless the trend is slowed about a third of the arable land available to us today will be lost by the turn of the century What can mankind do about these mysterious other worldly deserts like the Sahara the Gobi the Australian and the South Asian deserts They may look fascina ting from the air or in color films They have played a romantic part in literature But in fact they are grim symbols of the way men have misused this planet The first need is slow reclamation of deserts through replanting and reafforestation programs The lowering of and more development assistance from richer countries will help So will education since poor people in those countries like we in Canada do not know how to use their land wisely The creeping desert can be halted But it will take a global effort by all nations great and small nations alike Unchurched Editorials Of this and that Crawford Douglas is on television all the time now The former district resident well known to many here is now a Member of Parliament in a very photogenic position He sits right behind Prime Minister Trudeau The Business Improvement Area will not be providing an integrated plan for the renovation of buildings in town Chairman Henry Stachyra told the Public Forum This seems unfortunate since coordinating facades would seem to be an im part of the downtowns attractiveness Could the BIA participants agree among themselves to adhere to a certain style or limited range of materials or colors Its Christmas shopping time The merchants here in town are trying to make shopping at home a satisfying happy and friendly experience Stores are decorated already and theres no doubt about it the Christmas rush has started COVERED BUT NOT FORGOTTEN Even though these wreaths are covered with the first snow of the season their significance is not hidden or forgotten to people who remember those who were lost during military service Sugar and Spice by bill smiley This has been age young Rock music drugs dropouts dirty denim swinging discos and now punk rock You name it and been assaulted by it It all began with the I this adulation of youth And nuw it s The Pom a portrayal of young hood that gets the heidlines To be over in the last couple of decades has been just this side of being dead as the media the world and business salivated over youth Well it s kind of nice to see tint a lot of the old timers ire still in hen pitching despite the deluge of juvenilia It is a bit of a jolt to hear of Ihe sudden death of Ding Crosby recently at age But the Old Crooner was still giving some class to the noddy world of show biz right up to the end Octogenarian John has published mother book of his memoirs Haven rtad it yet but it said to be as delightfully malicious and wrong headed as the first volumes Callaghan well into his 70s recently published a new novel to critical acclaim Callaghan one of our finest writers isnt getting older getting better Ignored or sneered at for years by fellow Canadians he just kepi hacking away at his vocation of being a firstclass writer Just finished a novel The Intruders by Hugh Garner and although parts of it are bad when the dialogue becomes polemical he still has that sure touch of realism an ear for the talk of ordinary people and the ability to tell a good story Garner is no chicken either Must be in his 60s about half way Scott Young another cracking goad writer has abandoned a daily column of trivia with which even he was becoming bored and has gone back to writing what he does besthonest sports stories He over GO Pierre Trudeau is not yet an ancient combatant but he had his recently and is certainly no pushover for the young blood thirsty wolves in the political pack as anyone who watched the opening of Parliament could sec And how about the Queen She is no teenager and she beginning to show it but when it comes to poise and grace and charm very few of the young chicks can hold a candle to her One of my colleagues a former officer in the German Army is into his 60s but could out ski out swim and out walk most of the staff members years younger I have another friend about who could out think outdrink and out swear per cent of men in their My father in law was a little disap pointed to learn this year that a by law had been passed stating that retirement was compulsory at and he lose one of his jobs He and is quite bewildered when he hears talk of young fellas in their early 60s who can hardly wait to retire Played golf with an old gray haired geezer a few weeks ago He is retired but only because of a heavy heart attack He plays IB holes a day and then knocks back a few whiskies before dinner His score was mine was 108 He swims all summer and bowls twice a week in Ihe winter as well as working like a navvy around his home I don really know what I getting at here Maybe I Just sick of the youth worship cult to which we ve all been ex posed including the young for far too long Maybe I tired of living on a continent and in a culture in which the very people who were the salt of this country a earth are shuffled off without honor and without shame into places that are called things like Sunset Rest Final Heaven every thing but Last Chance Saloon Maybe I fed up with the interminable excuses sloppy service and work we received from so many young people whose grandparents and parents gave full measure and believed in such hoary adages as A job worth doing is worth doing well I sometimes wonder why we are so eager in this country to slough off the wealth of experience and wisdom our elders have to offer in our society Why the older tradesmen used as teachers at a decent remuneration to pass on their skills to the half baked young tradesmen we so often encounter when we want a job done There is a crying need for more daycare centres in this country Why aren they filled with volunteer grannies who could love and pet and teach the children as only they do so well Nope It easier to sweep them under the carpet into lonely rooming houses nursing homes senior apart or in extreme cases the Senate We don t want to sec wrinkles and white hair and trembling hands or mouths We want everything to be the way it is on TV Well don try to shuffle this boy off when the time comes I intend to go right on being arbitrary and obnoxious Unless I offered a seat in the Senate Our readers write Band explains position The Editor The Acton Citizens Band will not be playing for the Acton Onus parade this year on November This is not because the Band docs not want to play nor because the Band does not understand its obligations to the Town of Acton We would like to participate in this year parade but we cannot This letter is an explanation of ACTON celebrated July holiday with a variety of gala events during the 1920s Above is Coxs garage decorated with cedars union jacks and the words Canada It is located where the I G A store is now the situation has arisen In other years the Acton parade was ways the second Saturday in December Georgetown parade was the first Satur day and Milton s the last Saturday in November When Georgetown contacted the Band in May for their parade and Milton in August we did not know of any changes in Acton plaits or expect any which would prevent us accepting either of these requests The Band was therefore committed to appear on those dates in Georgetown and Milton It seems the organizers of Acton parade had decided on a date change and asked Council for permission to have the parade on the new date but they did not discuss this with the Band or even notify us before the end of October when they announced the date for the parade The Acton Band has been playing In the Milton parade for about IS years and as well has never defaulted on a commitment to appear The Band s and the Town good name must be preserved and even though we would like to be In Acton we will appear In Milton In future we hope that of the Santa par and other events requiring a Band will consult with the Band well In advance so we can avoid the conflict of engagements we had this year Yours truly Keith Thomas President Acton Citizens Band Haton Hills- peoples choice We just want to go on record as saying that we liked your editorial Quit Your Complaining We also liked Mr Force letter for his positive tone in which he said something good about Halton Hills Acton It was a pleasant change from the destructive we have been reading If as many people as now complain put as much effort into making our Government work Hills Acton could be an en viable place to live laugh and The have three options agree with the system change it by democratic process or relocate where the Government suits them to Regional Government we have lower taxes than many other areas Check out comparable properties In Scarboro Trenton to name a few We have a good Police Department a good Fire department Medical centres and schools second to none Acton was good it still is good but with Hills Acton we have no complaints Identity Is a state of mind and each of us loses no dignity whether the name of our locale be Halton Hills or whatever This thing called between Acton and Georgetown exists only In the minds of a few dfehards For many of us it is a mean ingless attitude which came off the hockey ice and ball fields of the old days Happy The Free Press Back Issues 10 years ago from an bine of Acton Free Press of Thursday November 15 School children had special ceremonies on Friday for Remembrance Day M Z Bennett students observed the event in their own classrooms since they have no auditorium At the Robert LitUe school there was a program in the auditorium for senior grades Acton Legion have been filmed singing Tipperary for a movie depleting various Legion activities coast to- Cathy Hinton grade eight student at the Robert Little school was successful in the contest held last year by the Educational ABC of Canadian Industry booklets sent to all schools Bearing with them a huge wooden cheque a hundred children from the Robert school raided the Men s meeting last Thursday evening in basement Their cheque painted on wood by Ken Marchment measured eight feet by four feet and was sign painted to Indicate the sum of 15 20 years ago Taken from the issue of Free Press of Thursday November Approximately 75 men and women are busy at the high school Monday and Tuesday evenings during Night School classes Phil Caddick Is teaching wood working Mrs Ley land is teaching copper tooling Mrs H B Galloway is teaching typing Mrs E Hartley is teaching tailoring Walter Pope has bookkeeping Mrs L Brown has advanced sewing and Donald has a class of new Canadians ardently learning English About attended the high school commencement in the Robert Little gym Bruce Andrews won the trophy for the student who made the greatest contribution to the school Honor graduation diplomas were presented to Bob Joy Peal and Elizabeth Joy was valedictorian Secondary diplomas were presented to Bralda J Brown Frank Cooper Helen Landsborough McEnery and B Smith Chosen to represent Acton in the North public speaking finals was Mary K Gibbons Other finalists were Carol Eisen Mary Beth Elliott Helen Benton Janet Rognvaldson Susan Heard Carmen Robert Meyers Nell Franklin and Theresa 50 years ago Taken from he issue or the Free Press of Thursday November 17 1927 At last the public has been allowed to see what the new Ford car looks like It comes rather late however in the year for demonstration purposes unless equipped with snow navigating facilities Wednesday was the annua meeting of Acton Citizens Band and the boys were all present Honorary president is J C Hill bandmaster A Mason assistant F Moore past president vice president George Simpson committee G A Dills George Smith Eugene J McGeachie Acton is in a splendid financial position the annual reports indicate Acton Community Glee Club will hold Its first meeting at the town hall 100 years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Press of Thursday November IS 1877 The skating rink is fast becoming a literal Tact The outer walls are completed and the roof will be on in a couple of days Mr John Cameron is the builder and the cost Is The shareholders are Messrs John and Charles Hill Edwin McGarvin John Cameron James Nlcklin and Albert Nlcklin A Winnipeg Free Press special says lodges of Silting Bull band arc encamped miles from here They came north for fear of being turned over to the United States Sitting Bull declares his undying fealty to the Queen A New York wife was driven to suicide by her husband intemperance The new brick store and dwelling on Main St belonging to the McNair estate was sold for BOO to Mr Robert Agnew We understand that Mr James Symon formerly of the firm of C and J Symon intends to open a dry goods establishment in Agnew s new brick store The Sons of Temperance purpose holding a firstclass soiree on New Year evening It has rained six consecutive days and now we have a cold snap THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE 8532010 Business and Editorial Office DM Copyright