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EDITORIAL with Hartley Coles School's out -- Slow down! School is out. Children are carefree and it means motorists should be extra careful around the streets of town. Children, released from the bondage of books and time tables, are more carefree as the hot summer days unfold. They sometimes take chances with traffic they wouldn't dare to during the school year. Everyone in charge of motor vehicles should be more vigilant on the streets and slow down. Children, too, should be aware of the dangers they face on the roads, especially when they are on bicycles, skateboards, or inline skates. When they ride on the sidewalks people walking, especially the elderly, can be hurt when the kids don't observe the safety rules. Let's make this summer a happy, accident-free time. We don't need senseless tragedies that could be avoided by exercising caution. Show consideration for others who share our roads and sidewalks. Have a happy summer. Arena's important It's no contest. The most important public event to take place annually in Acton is the Acton Fall Fair. It attracts 12,000-15,000 people and it's no secret why it is so popular -- it's one of the best fairs in Ontario. One of the reasons it is such an excellent fair is the variety offered in one package in one location. Part of the success lies with the location of the old arena. It is used for entertainment but specifi- cally for all the handiwork, baking, sewing, produce and floral displays, children's art and school work. It's an integral part of the fall fair, one that contributes so much to its success. Well, unless the fair board is able to use the old arena there's no other venue suitable for displaying the com- munity's handiwork in Prospect Park. The only suitable substitute place for displays would be the new arena, effectively splitting the fair in two and losing much of the event's appeal. Other fairs such as Georgetown use buildings in their fairgrounds but they don't have the display attributes the old arena has, or washrooms, another integral part of any event. So losing the old arena to the wrecker's ball not only is.a blow to the community. It is destructive of our biggest public event of the year. That's why The New Tanner supports retention of the old arena. That's why we think it is important to repair it for use. It's an asset we can't afford to lose. (Latest word is that the arena's condition wasn't as bad as first indicated and the fall fair may be able to use it this year. However, it is the years down the road we are also concerned with, not just the here and now.) 59 Willow Street North Acton, Ontario L7J 1Z8 (519) 853-0051 Fax: 853-0052 Tanner Advertising Sales Maggie Petrushevsky Bob Rutter Marie Shadbolt Christine O'Leary Karen Wetmore THE NEW TANNER t panes 4 . q Pee | F | WHO NEEDS THE SPICE GIRLS? School's out and already Acton's own quartet of would-be THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1998 pop stars (The Ginger Snaps?) are hard at it practicing up a storm on Somerville's big front porch. From the left Gillian Brunelle, Amanda Campbell, Leah Somerville and Heather Atkinson work on their routine with a tape on the player as their accompaniment. -- Maggie Petrushevsky photo : Editor' Notebook If you found more than the usual typos, errors in last week's issue then they probably are the result of prob- lems we encountered a day before publication. We were short-staffed because of a family death and then one of the main computers broke down. We depend on it for spell check and corrections and there just wasn't time on the remaining ma- chines to handle the work load. When midnight approaches and you're due for a 5 a.m. call, then the problems start to mount. Thanks to staff home computers we were able to muddle thought and the paper came out on time, but it was a close brush with printing deadlines. toktotok Just a word to those who want The New Tanner to cover an event they are involved with and is approach- ing quickly. Number one, tell us in lots of time and two, request that we attend. If it's a public event then you can be sure a reporter or photogra- pher will be there but we don't go to an event where we haven't been in- vited. And tell us the date and time you want us there. We have limited staff and we just aren't able to be everywhere unless we have advance notice and a definite time. But, above all, tell us you would like our rep there and we'll do our darndest to respond. Last week there was a re- union of high school classmates from 1983 and although we knew about the event the actual time and request for someone to cover it with photos was missing. That's important to us. We don't want to attend private so- cial functions unless we're invited. Apologies, nevertheless, if you ex- pected us to attend. took tok In our graduation issue last week some of the staff were intrigued by Editorial Circulation Composing Publisher Ted Tyler Hartley Coles Frances Niblock Ellen Pieh| Mike O'Leary Angela Tyler the first names of the graduates. Not many of the old standbyes such as Jane, George, Henry, Abigail, etc., but lots of Dereks, Ryans, Jennifers, Kates, Courtneys, Shannons, Am- bers, Peters, Michaels, etc., etc. Back in the 1980s there was a pronounced return to old-fashioned names for girls. After Jennifer the most popular names were Ashley, Amanda, Sarah and Jessica. For boys, it was Biblical names from soap opera characters which were in vogue. Included in the top 10 were Christopher, Mathew, David, Adam, Daniel and Jason with the ever popu- lar Michael holding onto top place. The popularity of Jennifer may have had something to do with its meaning. It's from the Latin and Hebrew and means "graceful bear- ing" or from the Welsh "fair." Christopher, of course, means "Christ bearer," after the St. Christopher who, the story goes, car- ried the child Christ across a stream. Perhaps there is something in the RDO 4 Take celebrate don't start for future siderations. time to Canada, trading con- old bromide about not caring what you are called so long as you're not late for dinner. Or as Eugene Field noted in one of his ballads: ' Father calls me William, Sister calls me Will, Mother calls me Willie, But the fellers call me Bill. tokokokk Acton Library's got 100 candles on its birthday cake this year. This writer has fond memories of the li- brary in the "old days" when it was in the YMCA building and the old town hall. Librarians like Isabel Watson and Madge Chapman were in charge of the shelves full of books with Esther Taylor in the wings. Parents never had to worry about their kids getting books too old or smutty when they oversaw the library cards. I remember Mrs. Watson sug- gesting I select another volume when I blundered out with a weighty tome such as "The History of Civilization" or some other historical topic which piqued my interest. "Too old for you," she'd politely say. You didn't question her decision, just did what she said. It's a lot more technical and com- plicated now with Mrs. Cornwell and her assistants handling the entire Halton Hills library system. took kok The New Tanner received a letter signed only "D.K." this week which can't be published until we have the writer's full name and phone number. It is paper policy so we know someone is not hiding under an assumed name. We don't have to use your name in the paper, we can use a pseudonym but we have to know who wrote the letter. Call us at the office at 853-0051 if you're our mystery letter writer. Distributed to every home in Acton and area as well as adjoining communities. ADVERTISING POLICY Every effort will be made to see advertising copy, neatly presented, is correctly printed. The publisher assumes no financial responsibility for typographical errors or omissions in advertising, but will gladly reprint without charge that part of an advertisement in which an error may occur provided a claim is made within five days of publication.